FILM REVIEW OF ''SECRET IN THEIR EYES'' (2015)

“Pretty Woman” superstar Julia Roberts shatters her glamorous image in the grim but surprising police procedural thriller “Secret in Their Eyes” (*** OUT OF ****), co-starring Academy Award winning actress Nicole Kidman, Oscar nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Emmy-nominated actor Alfred Molina.  This occasionally gripping but often conventional film is a remake of the superb 2009 Argentinean opus “The Secret in Their Eyes.”  Scripted originally with a man in mind, Roberts’ steps into the rewritten supporting role as a grieving single-mom who happens to be a veteran detective determined not only to take the law into her own hands but also exact vengeance on the suspected murderer of her daughter.  Furthermore, the man in the Argentinean movie was not a pistol-packing policeman, but a statistics-minded bank clerk!  Reportedly, “Shattered Glass” writer & director Billy Ray rewrote the role specifically for Julia Roberts.  Incidentally, Ray is best known for scripting movies such as “Flightplan,” “Captain Phillips,” and “The Hunger Games.”  Of course, it remains to be seen whether Julia Roberts’ loyal fans will accept the “Erin Brockovich” actress as a plain-Jane, tomboy with a sadistic streak.  In contrast, murder mystery aficionados who thrive on grisly melodramas may have a tough time imagining Roberts as such a demented soul.  Mind you, entertaining as this formulaic American crime saga is, it isn’t as imaginative as its distinguished predecessor that took home the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2010.  Appropriately enough, the director who helmed the inspired original film, Juan José Campanella, served as the executive director for “Secret in Their Eyes.”  Presumably, Campanella must have conferred his blessing on the Hollywood adaptation by supervising it as an executive director.  

FBI agent Ray Kasten (Chiwetel Ejiofor of “American Gangster”) has been reassigned to Los Angeles.  He has been dispatched to assist a special anti-terrorist task force in the aftermath of New York City’s 9/11 catastrophe.  Ray has grown chummy with two investigators, Jess Cobb (Julia Roberts) and Bumpy Willis (Dean Norris of “Lethal Weapon 2”), but District Attorney Martin Morales (Alfred Molina of “Spider-Man 2”) and gimlet-eyed Detective Reg Siefert (Michael Kelly of “Man of Steel”) infuriate him.  Morales has just recruited a new deputy D.A., Claire Sloan (Nicole Kidman of “Australia”), who is an statuesque blonde.  Everybody, particularly Jess, soon realizes Ray is infatuated with Claire.  Claire remains as cool as a glacier as she moves around Ray.  Nevertheless, she is doesn’t entirely ignore him.  Meantime, Ray has been conducting surveillance on a mosque when a report reaches him about a Jane Doe corpse in a nearby dumpster.  Everybody assembles at the mosque where the police have set-up a crime scene.  Ray is the first detective to gaze into the dumpster.  Horror overwhelms him when he recognizes the corpse; the dead girl, Carolyn Cobb (Zoe Graham of “Boyhood”), is none other than Jess’s daughter.  Distraught beyond description, Jess climbs into the dumpster and cradles her dead daughter in her arms.  

Eventually, Ray ferrets out an enigmatic suspect, Marzin (Joe Cole of “Offender”), on the basis of a company picnic photo.  The villain is shown staring at Carolyn in the picture.  Later, Ray discovers that Marzin had been hanging around the mosque.  Inevitably, Ray clashes with an abrasive Morales about his conduct.  Ray is an defiant FBI agent who ignores boundaries when they interfere with his objectives.  Launching his own investigation, Ray refuses to share either evidence or leads with the detectives assigned to the case.  Ray provokes Morales’ wrath because the loose cannon FBI agent has been neglecting his prime directive. He is supposed to monitor potential terrorist threats to Los Angeles.  Morales threatens to notify the FBI about Ray’s insubordination and have him recalled.  Nothing Morales does, however, derails Ray’s obstinate search for Carolyn’s murderer.  At one point, Claire finds herself drawn into his investigation.  Together, they expose Marzin as the killer, but events beyond their control prevent them from prosecuting this dastard.

“Secret in Their Eyes” inherited its flashback-riddled narrative structure from the original.  The remake unfolds 13 years after Carolyn’s unsolved murder as Ray shows up Los Angeles to convince Claire—now the District Attorney— that she must reopen the case because he has new evidence about the identity of the suspect.  Comparatively, in the original, the hero revisited his old stomping ground 25 years afterward because he is using Carolyn’s homicide as the subject for a novel.  The two films switch back and forth between past and present with nimble abandon.  This hopscotch technique could confuse audiences accustomed to straightforward chronological yarns. In this respect, the American version takes advantage of these incessant shifts in time to accentuate the suspense and the surprises.  Whereas the Argentinean cop was not personally acquainted with the murder victim, the FBI agent worked closely with the daughter’s mother as a colleague. 

The American remake suffers primarily from the changes that Billy Ray has made with certain characters.  First, the incendiary FBI agent explodes like a powder keg and emerges as his own worst enemy.  The investigator in the original rarely lost his temper.  Second, the hero’s partner in the Spanish film mustered greater charisma than the hero’s crippled counterpart in the remake.  Third, the hero’s antagonist boss is neither as eloquent nor as profane as the hero’s superior in the original.  Fourth, the motive for the hero to return in the remake is more contrived than the hero’s reappearance in the first film. Fifth, a “Gone in 60 Seconds” stolen car chop-shop scene qualifies as hopelessly gratuitous with its standard-issue shootout.  Despite the flawed characters and the uneven scenes, the remake successfully duplicates more scenes from the original than it wrecks.  The best example occurs when Kidman and Ejiofor collaborate to dupe the villain into confessing his crime.  Unfortunately, Kidman and Ejiofor generate little chemistry as a couple supposedly attracted to each other. Altogether, “Secret in Their Eyes” doesn’t surpass its infinitely superior predecessor “The Secret in Their Eyes.” Nevertheless, Julia Roberts manages to broaden her acting repertoire.

A FILM REVIEW OF ''GANGSTER SQUAD" (2013)

Most movies give you a chance to get comfortable with their narratives before they hit you with the hard stuff.  “Zombieland” director Rueben Fleischer’s profane, bullet-riddled, urban crime thriller “Gangster Squad” (*** OUT OF ****) cherishes no such illusions.  Early into the action, the arch villain of Angel City—real-life hoodlum legend Mickey Cohen—threads chains around the rear bumpers of two automobiles with an angry out-of-town mobster entangled in a hammock of chains between the cars.  Native Americans saved this ghastly fate for only the most repugnant whites in old movie westerns, except with horses rather than cars.  After a brief conversation, Cohen orders the cars to careen off in different directions.  An aerial long shot depicts the poor dastard as his body bursts apart in the middle.  Indeed, “Gangster Squad” isn’t for everybody.  This suspenseful, often violent, but thoroughly melodramatic law and order epic recounts how an undercover unit of Los Angeles cops fought fire with fire in their war on crime.  They destroyed Cohen’s dreams of turning California into his own private criminal empire.  Movies like “Gangster Squad” used to be the bread and butter for Warner Brothers.  The landmark Burbank studio produced the earliest and most controversial gangster thrillers in the 1930s with the three most memorable stars: James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and Humphrey Bogart.

Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Parker (a beefy Nick Nolte of “48 HRS”) summons World War II veteran, Sergeant John O’Mara (Josh Brolin of “Jonah Hex”), because he needs somebody fearless enough to tackle a special assignment.  Lately, Jewish crime figure Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn of “Bad Boys”) has been creating chaos in the City of Angels.  Not only does he own a respected judge, but he has also been cheating on his mobster cronies both in Chicago as well as Los Angeles.  The Chicago mob isn’t happy with Mickey’s behavior.  The King of the Sunset Strip refuses to bow and scrape to the Windy City hoodlums.  He has nothing but contempt for local crime boss Jack Dragna (Jon Polito of “The Big Lebowski”) and orders hits on his life.  At one point, a shoeshine kid dies in an attempt on Dragna’s life.  Cohen has established himself as a warlord, and he refuses to share and share alike with the mob.  Incidentally, for the sake of armchair movie historians, “Gangster Squad” takes place after the demise of Benjamin Siegel, a.k.a. “Bugsy” (1991) with Warren Beatty as the notorious gangster who forged Las Vegas into the gambling capital of America.  At one time, Mickey Cohen worked for Siegel as a henchman.  Two bullets to the head scrapped Siegel’s criminal career in 1947.  “Gangster Squad” opens in 1949 during the rising tensions of the Cold War between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.  

Essentially, Chief Parker asks O’Mara to assemble a unit to harass Cohen.  "Don't make arrests," Parker grumbles. "This is occupied territory. Wage guerrilla warfare." O’Mara forms a rainbow-colored “A-Team” consisting of African-American Officer Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie of “Real Steel”), older white cop, Officer Max Kennard (Robert Patrick of “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”), his Hispanic partner, Officer Navidad Ramirez (Michael Peña of “End of Watch”), Officer Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi of “Ted”), and eventually Sergeant Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling of “Drive”).  One of the first things that they do is plant a bug in Cohen’s house so they can monitor him.  Methodically, these guys shoot up Cohen’s bars, casinos, and disrupt his narcotics traffic.  Wooters takes an interest in Cohen’s girlfriend, Grace Faraday (Emma Stone of “Easy A”), who is supposed to be teaching Mickey etiquette.  True events "inspired" “Gangster Squad,” and this means that Hollywood has taken dramatic license with history.  Actually, the movie is based loosely on Paul Lieberman’s book.  As far as I know, our tall, rugged hero didn’t go toe-to-toe with the considerably shorter Cohen in a public place and beat him to a bloody pulp.  Of course, movies have to be both heroic and confrontational, and "Gangster Squad" possesses both of these attributes. 

This obstreperous, 110-minute, R-rated, shoot’em up doesn’t flinch when it comes to episodes of violence.  Despite the recent bloodbaths both in movie theaters and elementary schools, this standard-issue, old school Warner Brothers release embraces wholesale violence with relish.  Fleischer features fashionable thugs armed with machine guns strafing anybody in sight, including poor white shoeshine boys.  Fleischer stages the action with considerable finesse, and he relies on a charismatic cast to deliver a synthesis of “The Untouchables” with Kevin Costner and “L.A. Confidential” with Russell Crowe.  Despite a plethora of action, largely frontal assault firefights on gritty city streets with .45 caliber Thompson submachine guns, “Gangster Squad” suffers from halfheartedly etched characters, a contrived screenplay by former LAPD homicide investigator and novelist Will Beall, and a numbing sense of predictability.  You can guess what is going to happen before it does, but everybody looks good doing it.  Nevertheless, genre fans should appreciate the studious lengths that the filmmakers have taken to recreate Los Angeles in the late 1940s.  Some of the action was lensed on genuine L.A. locations and enhances the authenticity of the action. Flinty-eyed Josh Brolin makes a sturdy hero, while Ryan Gosling channels Humphrey Bogart.  Sadly, Emma Stone lingerfs on the periphery as the love interest who eventually figures in the demise of Sean Penn’s Mickey Cohen. Penn chews the scenery as Cohen.  No doubt he watched both "Scarface" and "The Untouchables." Altogether, “Gangster Squad” qualifies as a good actioneer, with good performances, and good cinematography.

FILM REVIEW OF ''ESCAPE FROM L.A." (1996)

If Snake Plissken had an attitude problem in "Escape from New York," wait until you behold the havoc he wrecks in the long-awaited, slam-bang sequel "Escape from Los Angeles,"(***1/2 OUT OF ****)  a memorable apocalyptic science fiction satire that more than compensates for many of the shortcomings in the original.

In August 2000, an earthquake separates Los Angeles from the California mainland. An ultra-conservative Jerry Falwell-type politician (Cliff Robertson of "PT-109"), who predicted the earthquake, has managed to exploit his good fortune to win the presidency in the next election. The term of his presidency, however, is lifetime. He rewrites the laws so that he can hang on to the post for life then relocates the nation's capital to Lynchburg, Virginia. A new morally white-washed America has emerged by the year 2013. Cursing, smoking, pre-marital as well as extra-marital sex, and eating red meat now constitutes crimes. The government deports anybody who doesn't conform to this new order and sends them to the gang-infested cesspool of Los Angeles. The U.S. Police Force maintains a chain of forts along the coastline to repel the efforts of a South American revolutionary, Cuervo Jones (George Corraface of "Christopher Columbus"), who plans to spearhead a Third World invasion to reclaim America. 

Things take a turn for the worse when the President's naïve daughter Utopia (A.J. Langer) steals a black box. The black box contains the remote control to activate a necklace of lethal satellites designated 'the Sword of Damocles.' These satellites encircle Earth, and they can fire a magnetic pulse beam with pinpoint accuracy that can disable any kind of electric engine. Utopia hijacks Air Force 3 and the jetliner crashes in L.A. She allies herself with Cuervo Jones who threatens to use the weapon against America. The U.S. Police Force dispatches a rescue team, but they all die. Enter 'war hero' Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell of "Tombstone"), unshaven, sporting a black patch over his left eye, his typically surly attitude toward authority in general, in handcuffs with a police escort. The only thing Snake seems to be interested in is where he can get his next cigarette. The police infect Snake with a deadly virus that gives him less than ten hours to retrieve the black box.  Snake remembers being infected by a scratch from a person who walks past him but he puts down this brief episode as nothing until he realizes the enormityof what has happened.  Reluctantly, Snake agrees to take the mission and rides a nuclear mini-sub into Los Angeles.

Snake shares the sentiments of Marlon Brando's motorcycle maverick from "The Wild One." When asked what he rebels against, Brando's black-leather clad biker replies: "What have you got?" Whatever it is, Snake is against it. Snake thumbs his nose at the rules as well as the rule makers. He is the ultimate anti-hero, sent to save a civilization that he abhors. Former Disney star Kurt Russell reprises the tough guy tongue-in-cheek role he created in "Escape from New York." No, you don't have to have seen the original to appreciate "Escape from Los Angeles." His fastidious performance boasts equal amounts of put-on and posturing. Russell delivers his dialogue in a low, rasping monotone that parodies Clint Eastwood's 'Man with No Name" bounty hunter character. Snake resembles a fashionably rode-hard but put-up-wet Marvel Comic super hero clad in skin-tight, black garb, with matching automatic pistols. Nevertheless, Snake hardly qualifies as a super hero. The filmmakers have a great time poking fun at their one-eyed protagonist. Instead of calling him 'blue eyes,' they refer to him as 'blue eye.' Everybody who comes into contact with Snake for the first time expresses surprise that Snake isn't taller. Snake acts rather gullible on occasions when he has to depend on characters who double-cross him.

While the first "Escape" represented a triumph of style over substance, the "Escape" sequel triumphs both in style and substance. "Escape from New York" attained classic cult status as a darkly comic, industrial-strength escapade where Snake rescued a U.S. President from a grim maximum security prison on Manhattan Island. The story generated at least a modicum of tension because Snake had to contend with the severe time restriction. He had been injected with a poison that would kill him if he failed to accomplish his mission by its deadline. In the first "Escape," Snake sought to retrieve a cassette tape to bring about world peace. Strictly a follow-the-numbers formula melodrama, "Escape" benefited from its gritty looks, Carpenter's fantastic orchestral score, and the eerie atmosphere between the time that Snake landed his glider on New York City's World Trade Center and the violent shoot'em up finale on a bridge. The first "Escape" suffered because the scene between the inventive opening and concluding set pieces were synthetic and forgettable. The beauty of "Escape from Los Angeles" lies in the producer's refusal to stray from its formulaic origins. Moreover, the filmmakers have beefed up the budget, broadened the scope, and pumped up the story. Once again Snake battles the clock in his strenuous efforts to recover a device that can trigger world-wide destruction. There is a far greater sense of urgency in this "Escape" as we see Snake cutting corners and blowing away the opposition at every turn to save time. The sequence where he first tires to kill Cuervo Jones has a frenetic Indiana Jones quality.  Snake commandeers motorcycles and leaps from one vehicle to the next, swapping lead with a horde of unsavory villains.  Perhaps the strangest scene involves the deranged cosmetic surgeon (Bruce Campbell of "Evil Dead") who carves his victims up to get their useful body parts.

Director John Carpenter never lets the story slow down so we can catch our breath. Just when you think that you have it all figured out, he pulls a fast one with a clever surprise or two that enlivens this "Escape." "Escape from Los Angeles" pushes the envelope further in all directions. Carpenter penned the script with producer Debra Hill and Kurt Russell. Snake's mission is no picnic. The filmmakers plunge Snake headlong into one rigorous, hair-raising adventure after another. Snake spends the nine and a half hours of the literal storyline jumping through one flaming hoop after another in his quest for the black box. Of course, Carpenter and company have wisely compressed the time and super-charged the action so that the movie hurdles along at a breakneck pace.  Several familiar faces pad out the cast. Stacy Keach of "Mike Hammer" fame plays the same role Lee Van Cleef had in the original. Keach ranks as the top cop who coordinates between Snake and Cliff Robertson's scene-chewing president. "Rain Man" co-star Valerie Golino and "Pulp Fiction's" Steve Buscemi help Snake navigate through the rubble of Los Angeles. The only thing "Escape from L. A." doesn't do better is repeat the same orchestral score. John Carpenter received credit for the music, but Shirley Walker of "Batman") puts a spin on the theme that doesn't compare favorably to the original. If you thought the first "Escape" remotely entertaining, "Escape from L.A." should blow your mind. Watch out for all that R-rated violence and profanity.

FILM REVIEW OF ''BATTLE: LOS ANGELES'' (2011)

If the tenacious enemy the U.S. Marines tangle with in director Jonathan Liebesman’s “Battle: Los Angeles” (*** out of ****) didn’t come from another planet, then this above-average PG-13 rated Columbia Pictures’ release wouldn’t qualify as a science fiction shoot‘em up. As it is, “Battle: Los Angeles” amounts to marginal sci-fi. The guys who wrote and directed this suspenseful but straightforward 116-minute saga strive for adrenaline-laced realism. They aren’t out to imitate the outlandish audacity of “Skyline” with its “Cloverfield” style monsters trashing a coastal metropolis. Ostensibly, “Battle: Los Angeles” seems like a Marine recruiting video. The scarcity of memorable characters and scene-stealing aliens are offset by its splendid computer generated special effects and Aaron Eckhart’s bravura performance.

Like last year’s “Skyline” and many sci-fi films dating to 1951’s “The Thing From Another World,” “Battle: Los Angeles” shows aliens plunging into the Earth in meteors that turn out to be spacecraft. Unlike “Skyline,” Liebesman’s movie boasts aliens that lack reptilian features with tentacles galore. Instead, the enemy look like the “Star Wars” storm troopers. Herein lies the chief problem that “Battle: Los Angeles” faces. Since it doesn’t look like your typical sci-fi tale and the filmmakers give the extraterrestrials the short shrift, many moviegoers and critics are maligning it without mercy No, “Battle: Los Angeles” neither wallows in political allegories like “District 9” nor does it assemble a speculative arsenal of weapons to destroy the enemy as in “Independence Day.” “Battle: Los Angeles” looks more like “Black Hawk Down.” You wind up caring more about the human characters. Nevertheless, you develop considerable respect for the pugnacious aliens. They track down and kill both civilians and military alike by targeting mobile radio and telephone communication. Unlike “Skyline,” “Battle: Los Angeles” concludes with greater optimism. Basically, this movie celebrates male camaraderie as well as the indomitable human spirit of survival.

After a false start that depicts the devastation the aliens have wrought around the globe, the action flashes back to the hours before the catastrophic invasion. During this prologue, Liebesman and "The General's Daughter" scenarist Christopher Bertolini introduce a number of young Marines and their leaders. Except for a few high-ranking officers, the Marines here are grunts on the ground. Aside from their platoon commander, these Marines are the followers who wind up leading the way. As the protagonist, veteran Marine Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart of "The Dark Knight") has served 20 years in the Corps. Nantz wants to retire because his last campaign in Iraq turned bittersweet when he lost several leathernecks but received a Silver Star for valor. Not surprisingly, Nantz doesn't care about the commendation. Moreover, the memories of the men that died under his command haunt him. Naturally, when the meteors start falling, the Pentagon deploys the Marines from Camp Pendleton, and Nantz finds himself reassigned to Echo Company, 2nd battalion, 5th Marine regiment. Predictably, there is a rumble in the ranks about Nantz's gung-ho attitude, and the young Marines believe that he will treat them like cannon fodder. Indeed, Nantz behaves like 'John Wayne' in one scene, and his company commander, 2nd Lieutenant William Martinez (Ramón Rodríguez of "Pride and Glory"), orders him to knock off the heroics.

Meanwhile, Liebesman and Bertolini parcel out only piecemeal information about the aliens. They crave water and exploit it as a source of energy. Their blitzkrieg blankets the globe, and they are aggressively trouncing mankind. Indeed, Los Angeles resembles Beirut. Television news bulletins provide the modicum of information that mankind knows about these pugnacious intruders. None of it is useful to the Marines who must eradicate these miscreants. Initially, Nantz and his platoon are dispatched to an abandoned Santa Monica police station to rescue a group of civilians and then escort them to a forward operating base to await evacuation. Martinez's superiors warn him he has 3 hours to complete his mission before the Air Force obliterates everything in sight. In some way, "Battle: Los Angeles" is like "Aliens" as these smug Marines lock and load for action. The attitude change that comes over them after their first encounter with the enemy is dramatic. Initially, they desperately lack cohesion. Only after they acquire cohesion do they come together as a unit and experience success.

“Battle: Los Angeles” differs from “Independence Day” and the “Transformers” movies because it shuns the multiple levels of characters that those films contain. Typically, sci-fi movies have scientists struggling to figure out how to kill the alien invaders while the politicians scramble to placate the public that everything is being done to accomplish this goal. Eventually, when the politicians and the scientists get a clue, they pass it along to the military and the killing commences. “Battle: Los Angeles” confines its action to the Marines on the ground. Since the Marines can only see what is around them, the film resembles a first-person shooter videogame. The aliens never get up close and personal as in a “Predator” movie. “Battle: Los Angeles” isn’t a horror movie. Occasionally, a soldier is dragged by the feet into foliage and killed. Primarily, these aliens are like marauding Apaches that rely on stealth to strike. Moreover, they can be killed. Eventually, when the Marines run into greater numbers of aliens, “Battle: Los Angeles” settles down to conventional close-quarters combat. Incredibly enough, most of "Battle: Los Angeles" was lensed on location in Louisiana!

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE GREEN HORNET'' (2011)

“The Green Hornet” (***1/2 out of ****) isn't just another jaded crime fighter movie. Those dreadful movies include “The Shadow” (1994), “The Phantom” (1996), and “The Spirit” (2008). Actually, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” director Michel Gondry and co-scenarists Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have done a commendable job with their revival of this long dormant franchise. This cinematic reboot remains largely faithful to “The Green Hornet” radio series of the 1930s. Nevertheless, Rogen and Goldberg have taken marginal liberties with their adaptation. Our misunderstood protagonist endures an abusive father and fritters away his life as a party animal until he awakens to his true potential. The cars that our heroes cruise around in pay tribute to the 1966 ABC-TV series more than the two 1940s era cliffhanger serials, "The Green Hornet" (1940) with Gordon Jones and "The Green Hornet Strikes Again" (1940) with Warren Hull. Although the radio series occurred in Chicago, the film takes place in Los Angeles where the Reid family owned newspaper "The Daily Sentinel" is published. Meantime, the people who made the new “Green Hornet” ridicule the clichés and conventions of the crime fighter film genre and refrain from making the action appear hopelessly outlandish. Not only does the film examine the essence of villainy, but it also insists that wardrobe does not a villain make. Basically, “The Green Hornet” unfolds as an origins epic. Gondry and his writers ensure that the protagonists make a realistic transition from ordinary to extraordinary. Our heroes spend at least half of the action battling each other over their respective roles as hero and sidekick when they aren’t clashing with a lethal villain who will stop at nothing to ice them. 

“The Green Hornet” opens as young Brett Reid is escorted to his father’s newspaper office at “The Daily Sentinel.” James Reid (Tom Wilkinson of “Rush Hour”) berates his elementary school age son for being expelled for fighting. Sure, Brett’s father understands life is tough for his son. After all, Brett has no mother. Brett argues he was trying to thwart some bullies. James tears the head off his son’s superhero action figure and trashes it. Brett never forgives him for this act of cruelty. Twenty years elapse, and Brett turns into a no-holds-barred, thrill-seeking party animal until his father drops dead from an allergic reaction to a bee sting. Of course, there is more here than meets the eye. Anyway, public officials flock to James’ funeral and erect a statue in his honor. 

Meanwhile, Brett still smolders with resentment toward his father. Along the way, Brett has grown accustomed to his morning coffee. When he discovers his coffee doesn’t taste as delicious anymore, he starts screaming and learns that he fired the man who made it. Brett is surprised when he meets Kato (Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou) and the two guys bond. Kato is a chauffeur/inventor. He maintained James Reid's fleet of automobiles. Moreover, he rebuilt James’ cars and incorporated bullet-proof glass in the windshields and armored plated the vehicles against gunfire. Neither really liked Reid. Brett convinces Kato to join him for a late night prank. Brett decapitates his father’s statue. As he is lugging the head away, our protagonist tries to intervene when thugs attack an innocent couple. Kato arrives in the nick of time to save Brett and demonstrate his superb martial arts skills. A surveillance camera captures Brett stealing the statue head, and he appropriates this opportunity to introduce Los Angeles to its newest nemesis.

Chudnofsky (Oscar winner Christopher Waltz of “Inglourious Basterds”) is the most dangerous criminal in Los Angeles. You either join Chudnofsky or die. An ambitious crystal meth dealer, Danny Cleere (James Franco of “Spider-Man”), berates Chudnofsky for his old-school apparel and advises him to retire. Not surprisingly, Chudnofsky wipes out Cleere and company with a devastating double-barreled automatic pistol. Meantime, Brett uses “The Daily Sentinel” to propel his mysterious alter-ego to heights of notoriety. Unfortunately, Brett realizes almost too late that he doesn’t have a clue about fighting crime. He relies on his savvy newspaper secretary, Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz of “Knight and Day”), who has a college degree in journalism and criminology. As he watches the Green Hornet’s ascent to prominence, Chudnofsky calls for a meeting. The first encounter between Chudnofsky and the Hornet is pretty spectacular. Meantime, when Brett isn’t matching wits with Chudnofsky, he tangles with District Attorney Scanlon ( David Harbour of “Quantum of Solace”) who wants him to halt his news coverage about escalating crime. Scanlon is campaigning for re-election, and “The Daily Sentinel” is undermining his claims that Los Angeles crime is under control.

As a crime fighter, “The Green Hornet” resembles "Batman" and Bruce Wayne. James Reid was a newspaper tycoon, and Brett appropriates his father’s millions to pay for his exotic Green Hornet regalia and hardware. At the same time, Brett is like Zorro because he dons his emerald mask when he isn’t at the office. Of course, the chief difference between “The Green Hornet” and most crime fighters is that he behaves like a villain so criminals cannot take advantage of his virtue. In a sense, the Green Hornet emerges as an anti-heroic hero who fights for justice. Rogen and Goldberg never miss a moment to mock the crime fighter formula. What makes “The Green Hornet” doubly entertaining is that our heroes must learn the ropes of crime fighting as they are dodging lead. As they learn from their stupid mistakes, they acquire greater polish. Half of their success comes from ‘the Black Beauty.' Kato has tricked out a jet-black Chrysler Imperial so it amounts to a rolling arsenal with hood-mounted machine guns, a flame thrower, and rockets.

For the record, George W. Trendle and Fran Striker created “The Green Hornet” on January 31, 1936, at Detroit radio station WXYZ-AM. Comparatively, artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger created “Batman” about three years later in 1939. Seth Rogen makes a sympathetic hero and Christopher Waltz is a terrific villain. Altogether, “The Green Hornet” qualifies as an above-average reboot of a classic crime fighter with a stimulating car chase and some memorable confrontations.

FILM REVIEW OF ''SKYLINE" (2010)

“Skyline,” the latest entry in “The War of the Worlds”/ “Independence Day” science fiction genre about aliens invading Earth, qualifies as an above-average opus with spectacular-looking alien spaceships as well as exotic airborne creatures with twitching tentacles galore. The first forty-five minutes of the Brothers Strause epic draws you into its enigmatic storyline with its vast horde of aliens and their way of mesmerizing their victims with blinding lights before they gobble them like snacks. Unfortunately, the second half of “Skyline” doesn’t provide any exposition and we are left watching helpless humans playing cat and mouse games with these ugly “Cloverfield” style predators. Meanwhile, the human characters in “Skyline” (**1/2 out of ****) are neither compelling nor sympathetic. First, they consist of clueless civilians confined to a high-rise apartment complex. Indeed, unlike the original “War of the Worlds” (1953) and “Independence Day,” “Skyline” doesn’t trot out the usual array of high ranking military leaders plotting strategy from secluded bunkers while bespectacled scientists scramble to invent technology capable of exterminating the aliens. Second, the cast consists of actors who are virtually unknown and lack even a modicum of charisma. It doesn’t help matters that nobody seems to know anything about these intergalactic predators. Indeed, you can either stun them if you smash a car into them or blast them to smithereens with anything from a high-powered assault rifle to explosive missiles. Nevertheless, these foes outnumber the heroes, and they give no quarter. Mind you, the aliens themselves never let us in on why they have decided to devastate the planet. Instead, they pig out on humans as if mankind were a seafood buffet, and the prime human delicacy for these entities is the human brain. They suck off the heads and eat the brains. Okay, a mind is a terrible thing to waste in “Skyline,” but there is something unusual about these aliens that distinguish them from most aliens. When they shine their blinding lights on these poor humans, the light turns humans into slightly grilled zombies. Sometimes the light enables our heroes to muster enough energy to fight back. Worst of all, “Skyline” doesn’t so much end as it screeches to a halt on a cliffhanger, leaving the hero and heroine in a beauty and the beast situation.

Elaine (Scottie Thompson of “Star Trek”) and Jarrod (Eric Balfour of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) are recuperating for a birthday party in Los Angeles thrown for Jarrod's best friend Terry (Donald Faison of “Next Day Air”) when blinding lights penetrate the shutters of Terry’s penthouse. Elaine awakens with a case of morning sickness and stumbles into the shower. Afterward, she rouses Jarrod who checks out the light. Suddenly, his skin crinkles into a veil of lines. At this point, sophomore co-directors Colin and Greg Strause, who helmed “AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem,” and freshmen scenarists Joshua Cordes and Liam O'Donnell abruptly back up the action by fifteen hours. We see Elaine and Jarrod deplaning at Los Angeles International Airport. Jarrod is surprised to find a uniformed chauffeur waiting for them at the curb with a limo. The chauffeur takes them to a scenic Marina del Rey luxury penthouse apartment with giant windows where they meet Terry and the celebration begins. This is about the time that we learn Elaine is sick and Terry wants Jarrod to relocate from New York to Los Angeles to work for him. Later, after everybody has passed out from too much liquor, a shower of incandescent meteors scintillate the night skies over L.A. One of Terry’s friends who sacked out in the living room opens the shutters, and the dazzling lights lure him onto the balcony. Veins appear like burn wounds on his face, and protoplasm-like extraterrestrial invaders suck him and thousands of others into their mouths. Eventually, Jarrod and Terry investigate, principally through a telescope that they had used the evening before to spy on other residents. They are overwhelmed at the flotilla of bizarre-looking alien spacecraft filling the skyline. They figure out that they must not look into the light and close the shutters. Before long the alien creatures, flying around like inquisitive squid, send their tentacles into the apartments to feed on the residents. Naturally, our heroes learn nothing from television news sources and they venture outside for a better look. Initially, the military respond with marauder jets and snipers armed with .50 caliber rifles. Jarrod notices that nothing appears to be happening over the marina. Terry and he pile into cars with their girlfriends and c0-workers and head for the marina. They don’t get far before a humongous “Godzilla” like predator stomps Terry’s car. This gigantic beast chases them around the high-rise about the same time that a new character, Oliver (David Zayas of “The Expendables”), joins them. Earlier, during Terry’s birthday part, Oliver had warned them to tone down the racket. He has keys to everything in the high-rise, and the survivors regroup in Terry’s apartment. Helplessly, they stand by and watch the ensuing battle between mankind and these aliens.

Basically, if you’ve seen one alien invasion epic or television mini-series, you’ve seen them all. Only the aliens change. “Skyline” boasts some terrific looking aliens and these elaborate predators steal the show. Meantime, the humans are a dull, dreary lot waiting to be eaten. After the novelty of the aliens wears off and the Strause brothers show that these invades are vulnerable to conventional weapons, “Skyline” loses its grip on us. We still don’t know anything about these predators, except that they love to feed on brains. Undoubtedly, the Strause brothers were trying to figure out ways to avoid formula, but leaving out crucial scenes—such as the military and the scientists grappling with this alien threat—means that the suspense and tension evaporate. The last thing that the Strauses do is take us within the belly of these beasties where our heroes wind up with little hope for them and then “Skyline” ends with a whimper. Clearly, a sequel is in the works from this cliffhanger ending, but you walk out of this movie feeling like you have been cheated despite the film’s trim 92 minute running time. The only thing worse than a bad movie is a half of a bad movie!

FILM REVIEW OF ''RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE" (2010)

Spectacular 3-D visual effects, larger-than-life action situations, and audacious characters make the fifth entry in the “Resident Evil” franchise a lot of fun. Virtually everybody is referring to “Resident Evil: Afterlife” (*** out of ****) as the fourth entry. Basically, with some justification, each is ignoring director Makoto Kamiya’s “Resident Evil: Degeneration.” Mind you, “Resident Evil: Degeneration” was an animated epic without Alice as the chief protagonist, and it went straight-to-video when Sony released it back in 2008. As far as I’m considered, Sony scraped the bottom of the biohazard barrel with “Resident Evil: Degeneration.” Nothing about it was remotely memorable. Meanwhile, “Death Race” director Paul W.S. Anderson returns to the helm with the latest entry “Resident Evil: Afterlife.” For the record, Anderson directed the original “Resident Evil” (2002) and has penned all four of the live-action features as well as served as producer. “Resident Evil: Afterlife” qualifies as a crisp, invigorating, 97-minute actioneer never wears out its welcome. The digital 3-D prints are scintillating to see. When the butt-kicking heroic babe charges the camera and hurls those ninja throwing stars, you want to dodge them. Meaning, Sony Pictures produced the movie in 3-D. Lately, some studios have simply converted a 2-D movie into 3-D, and the movie looks terrible. This is not the case with “Resident Evil: Afterlife.”

This action-packed post-apocalyptic zombie flick unfolds in Tokyo. An outbreak of the T-virus devastates the capital city of Japan. By the time that practically everybody is dead, the Umbrella Corporation posts snipers to pick off wandering zombies. Without warning, the Umbrella snipers begin to die. Of course, Alice with her samurai sword is at work, and she brings multiple clones of herself armed with Heckler and Koch MP-5 submachine guns. Initially, she kills close to 500 soldiers at the Umbrella Corporation’s underground headquarters and targets the evil Umbrella Corporation Chairman Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts of “Edge of Darkness”) who manages to escape in a twin-engine helicopter with wings. The real Alice sneaks aboard to kill him and he drains her of the mutant resources that the T-virus instilled in her. Basically, Alice goes back to being a mortal. Wesker, who has been infected by the virus, is struggling to control the effects of the T-virus, and he needs what has been rolling around in Alice’s system. Suddenly, the hover chopper jet that Wesker escaped in from the Tokyo Headquarters crashes on a mountainside. Miraculously, Alice survives. She sets off to find her friends, Claire Redfield (Ali Larter of “Final Destination”) and K-Mart (Spencer Locke of “Spanglish”), who flew off in helicopters to Alaska to find safety at a place called Arcadia. The catch is that Arcadia is a super tanker operated by the Umbrella Corporation. and they capture everybody who left the desert in the previous film “Resident Evil: Extinction.” The Umbrella henchmen slap a ruby red spider-like contraption onto their chests that robs them of their memory. Claire managed to escape, but K-Mart and over two thousand others were imprisoned to be used in more Umbrella experiments. Alice commandeers a propeller-driven plane, flies to Alaska and finds Claire. The ruby red spider like device on Claire’s chest has wiped out her memory, and Claire tries to kill Alice when they first met.

Together Alice and Claire wind up flying to Los Angeles. The city of Angels stands in cinders and only seven people have survived. They are holed up in a skyscraper prison, and zombies have laid siege to the building. Alice wings her way in and makes a cliffhanger landing on the prison roof. She almost overshoots the roof. By now, Claire has regained her memory. They meet a sleazy movie producer Bennett (Kim Coates of “Waterworld”), Bennett’s intern Kim Yong (newcomer Norman Yeung), basketball superstar Luther West (Boris Kodjoe of “Surrogates”), Angel Ortiz (Sergio Peris-Mencheta of “Love Ranch”), aspiring actress Crystal (Kacey Barnfield of “Popcorn”), and Wendell (Fulvio Cecere of “Watchmen”). Initially, they believe Alice and Claire have come to fly them to the nearby supertanker Arcadia. The supertanker is visible from the top of the prison, and they’ve heard the radio station about safety and food. Of course, Alice has to disappoint them. Nevertheless, Alice is intrigued about the ship. Claire meets her older brother Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller of ABC-TV’s “Prison Break”) who has been mistaken for a killer and locked by Bennett and his people. Chris has a way that they can escape from the prison and make it to the coast where they can get transportation to the Arcadia. Eventually, the zombies break into the prison after a Goliath dragging a gigantic hammer smashes his way through the locked gates and comes after Alice. As our heroes struggle to escape from the zombies, they are whittled down by the opposition.

Ultimately, the flaw that afflicts “Resident Evil: Afterlife” and all the “Resident Evil” sequels is story. In the original "Resident Evil," the Umbrella Corporation manufactured viral weapons and an industrial spy broke into the corporation’s Raccoon City complex and unleashed it. Everybody died, but they did not remain dead. They came back from the dead as ravenous flesh eating zombies. Not only did the men and women come back as zombies, but also the laboratory animals and mutant laboratory experiments. Since “Resident Evil,” Alice (Milla Jovovich) has been destroying zombies as well as Umbrella executives who want to carry on business as usual. Anderson hasn’t altered that serviceable narrative very much. You can only do so much with zombies unless you are cult filmmaker George Romeo, and Romeo changed zombies in “Land of the Dead.” Nevertheless, aside from the deadly familiarity that the franchise suffers from, everything else in “Resident Evil: Afterlife” looks fantastic. Jovovich’s gravity-defying antics, the exotic settings, a variety of new zombies: burrowing zombies, zombies octopus-like mandibles, water zombies, and a gigantic zombie with a gargantuan axe, as well as glossy production values, George Washington quarters as Alice’s shotgun ammo, a high body count, and the thumping tomandandy soundtrack make this adaptation of the Capcom survival horror videogame a blast to watch.

FILM REVIEW OF "THE KEEPER" (2009)

“Sweepers” director Keoni Waxman keeps the serviceable Steven Seagal thriller “The Keeper” (**1/2 OUT OF ****) from bogging down in “Con Express” scenarist Paul A. Birkett’s formulaic but entertaining yarn. An honest L.A.P.D. detective, who has been put-out-to-pasture, serves as a bodyguard for one of his oldest friends in Texas after an attempt is made to kidnap his friend’s adult daughter. Obviously, Waxman and Birkett must have seen Seagal’s second theatrical release “Hard to Kill” about a cop who gets shot, winds up in a coma for seven years, and then makes a miraculous recovery to take down the dudes that did him dirty. The rest of the story concerns our hero’s efforts a la “The Bodyguard” to protect a woman from evil kidnappers who want to use her to extort millions from her father.

Twenty-five year veteran police officer Roland Salinger (Steven Seagal) and his partner Trevor (Brian Keith Gamble of "Felon") stumble onto about $20-million of illicit drug money after they blast a room full of villains to death. Trevor wants to appropriate the dough. He claims that nobody will care. Appropriately, Roland is surprised by his partner’s attitude. He is more surprised when Trevor puts two slugs through his chest. Unfortunately for Trevor, he doesn’t finish the job. Nevertheless, Trevor is so certain that Roland is kaput that he calls in a 911 “an officer down” alert. Imagine Trevor's considerable shock when he learns later from a uniformed cop on the scene that Roland has a pulse. Trevor decides to finish off Roland at the hospital. Before Trevor walks into Roland's room, Roland's niece enters and inquires about her uncle's condition. Roland steals a revolver from his niece's purse while she is looking the other way and talking to a nurse. At this point, nobody knows for sure that Roland will recover from his wounds. Roland conceals the firearm under his hospital gown. After his niece leaves, Trevor slips into the room and tries to suffocate Roland with a pillow Imagine Trevor's surprise when the indestructible Roland plugs him twice. The way that Waxman and Birkett set up and pay off this scene is as adequate as Roland’s stamina is remarkable.

Gradually, Roland recovers his lethal skills. Waxman turns Roland's recovery into a montage of our hero slinging knives into a board. Naturally, as Roland recuperates, the knives hit the board and stick in it instead of bouncing off it or other knives. Although Roland makes a miraculous recovery, the L.A.P.D. mandates that he take early retirement. Not long afterward one of Roland’s best friends who he calls "a stand-up guy,” Conner Wells (Stephen DuVall of “Driven to Kill”), asks him to act as a bodyguard for Nikita Wells (Liezl Carstens of “Jordan”) his party-hardy daughter. Earlier, Nikita and her obnoxious boyfriend, Mason "The Storm" Silver (Arron Shiver of "Swing Vote"), were leaving a party when a group of assailants posing as paparazzi surrounded Nikita’s limo and opened fire on her bodyguard, Jorge (Tomas Sanchez of “MacGruber”), killing him in a brief firefight in an underground garage. One of the first clues that Mason is a villain occurs when he gets out of the limo to talk to the paparazzi and then flees to hide in a corner of the garage as they try to kidnap Nikita. Of course, Nikita doesn’t realize what an obnoxious jerk that Mason is or that he is a part of a conspiracy to abduct her. What nobody knows is that Mason is tied in with Conner’s old nemesis, career criminal Jason Cross (Luce Rains of “Appaloosa”), who wants to steal the deeds to all of Wells’ real estate holdings. Indeed, Mason has been trying to arrange things so that Conner’s men can kidnap her Nikita. Eventually, we learn that uranium has been discovered on Connor’s depleted oil well lands and the avaricious Cross wants the property. During this second quarter of the film, Waxman cross-cuts between Roland’s recovery and Nikita’s botched abduction. Indeed, Waxman does an adequate job of pacing the action and preparing us for what inevitably lies ahead.

No sooner does Roland land in a private charter jet in San Antonio than he finds himself chatting with an irate local lawman, Detective Simon Pacheco (Kevin Wiggins of “Terminator Salvation”), who notices the arsenal of firearms that Roland has brought in as part of his bodyguard job. Pacheco informs Roland that he doesn’t need back-up from a retired cop. “This is my town,” he points out. “So I hope there’s no problem. You just remember while you’re here, I’ll be watching you.” Roland knows that he is stepping on toes, so he steps lightly. “Well, it’s nice to have somebody at my back.” Throughout “The Keeper,” Pacheco keeps close tabs on our hero. Indeed, Pacheco seems to interfere more with Roland than Cross and his men. Later, Mason takes Nikita with him for a ride without giving her a chance to tell Roland and Cross sends his men to kidnap. Roland gun downs a couple of guys and kills another with a knife in the biggest action scene in this low-body count yarn. Nevertheless, he cannot thwart the kidnapping. Predictably, when Pacheco and his ten-gallon hatted deputies arrive at the scene, they arrest Roland who was clearly within his rights. Roland and Pacheco have a love/hate relationship. Pacheco warns Conner about Roland’s trigger-happy, knife-slinging behavior. Conner fixes it so that Roland is released. Roland tracks down Mason, snaps the neck of one Cross henchman and shoots two others and finds Mason holed up with a prostitute. Mason confesses to Roland that he helped set up Nikita for Cross to kidnap. Meantime, Cross wants to exchange Nikita for $5-million in cash and diamonds along with the property deeds to all of Conner’s oil field properties that have "the richest deposits of uranium in the United States." Anyway, Cross and Connor met at a rendezvous to exchange the loot for Nikita and Roland calls in Pacheco for back-up. A brief firefight erupts and the bad guys are either killed or in the case of Cross arrested. Connor has to exercise great restraint from killing Cross when he has him at gunpoint.

Nothing incredibly surprising occurs in “The Keeper,” but it is always fun to watch Seagal decimate the opposition with his aikido martial arts skills. The shoot-outs are sufficiently bloody and brutal, and Liezl Carstens qualifies as a sympathetic by flighty heroine. The villains are appropriately scummy, but they lack the quality that make them larger-than-life and worthy of their comeuppance. Waxman plays everything pretty straightforward, and Seagal doesn’t utter any ironic one-liners. Seagal's varies his dialogue delivery between urban funkiness to a whispered business-like rasp. This doesn't necessarily mean that Seagal gives a flawed performance. There are times when he speaks the lingo of those around him as in the case of his corrupt African-American partner. Later, when he ends up in Texas, he doesn't make with the funky dialect. The close-quarters combat scenes are edited so that everything occurs so rapidly that you may miss a punch or two if you aren't looking. The sequence in the hospital when the nurses are rushing Roland into surgery is rather well-done in terms of angles and coverage. “The Keeper” is not as much fun as “Urban Justice,” but it surpasses many of the martial arts star’s earlier straight-to-video releases where his voice was dubbed in by other actors.

FILM REVIEW OF ''CRISS CROSS'' (1949)

Yvonne De Carlo smolders as a sultry femme fatale who juggles both fall guy Burt Lancaster and bad guy Dan Duryea in “Son of Dracula” director Robert Siodmak’s “Criss Cross,” (*** out of ****) an above-average but predictable exercise in film noir that boasts gloomy atmosphere, a gritty urban environment, and solid performances. Burt Lancaster gives an exceptional performance as the vulnerable protagonist who cannot conceal his sentiments about the De Carlo character from anybody, even the supporting characters. Speaking of supporting characters, “Criss Cross” boasts its share and they take an active part in the proceedings. Percy Helton as a bartender, Alan Napier as a crime planner, Joan Minor as the lush, Griff Barrett as Pop, Isabel Randolph as the hospital nurse and Tom Pedi as Dundee’s accomplice all contribute memorably to the action. Tony Curtis appears briefly without credit as a gigolo dancing with De Carlo and Raymond Burr puts in a similarly momentary appearance as a gangster.

Although the film noir elements aren’t as oppressive as in Siodmak’s earlier and superior collaboration with Lancaster on “The Killers,” “Criss Cross” is unmistakably noir. For example, a larger number of scenes in “Criss Cross” take place during the day rather than at night. Siodmak never wears out his welcome here and the use of an extended flashback 14 minutes into the action that takes us back for important exposition is expertly integrated into the narrative. Siodmak stages the action nimbly without lingering unduly on anybody or anything. A Dresden-born German, Siodmak is a highly underrated helmer who has never received the well-deserved recognition accorded Fritz Lang. Mind you, Siodmak doesn’t have Lang’s cinematic flair with staging scenes, but his films are nevertheless robust.

Scenarist Daniel Fuchs, who later won an Oscar for “Love Me or Leave Me” (1955), based his screenplay on Don Tracy’s crime novel with tough guy dialogue and continuity supplemented by William Bowers that emphasizes the theme of fatalism so essential to film noir. Moreover, Fuchs received an Edgar nomination for his “Criss Cross” script. Everybody in “Criss Cross” is destined to lose in some way or another. Lancaster’s doomed character, however, suffers the greatest anguish by comparison. De Carlo’s siren is second in line. Surprisingly, Fuchs and Siodmak generate more tension among their scheming principals in the first half of the action than they do with the gripping armored truck heist in broad daylight during the second half of the movie. Interestingly, the police don’t figure prominently in “Criss Cross, though they hover on the periphery in the form of Lieutenant Frank Ramirez. The heist is still pretty engrossing material from its carefully planned stages to its skillful execution.

The production values of “Criss Cross” look first-rate. Universal doesn’t appear to have confined either Siodmak or the film--despite its B-movie subject matter—to claustrophobic studio sets. The armored truck set looks terrific, particularly when they load the truck up and leave with a tilting high angle shot that shows them exiting the building. “Champion” cinematographer Frank (later Franz) Planer’s evocative black & white photography is a considerable asset. Planer’s location lensing is top-notch in several scenes, especially the multi-layered Round Up Bar and later at the factory where the heist occurs. Planer does an exceptional job of photographing the Lancaster character after he winds up in the hospital with his arm in traction. An interesting slice-of-life moment occurs early in the movie during a conversation between two employees at the armored truck firm when they discuss about the competitive price of two grocery stores and how one store undercuts the other with their prices o soap and tomato juice that enhances the 1949 setting.

“Criss Cross” starts out suspensefully as we learn that Anna (Yvonne De Carlo of “Brute Force”) and Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster of “Elmer Gantry”) are hiding in the parking lot of the nightclub called The Round Up where they are necking. The story unfolds chronologically to begin with because Anna is married to notorious gangster Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea of “Black Bart”) who is looking for her at that very moment inside the Round Up. Dundee gives Anna the third degree later when she comes back inside about what she was doing. Steve cautions her earlier that they must be discreet or they could blow the entire set-up. Later, Steve enters the Round Up to gate crash on Dundee’s party. You see, Dundee and company plan to relocate to Detroit and he is giving a farewell party. Los Angeles Police Detective Lieutenant Pete Ramirez (Stephen McNally of “Winchester ‘73”) tries to dissuade Steve from butting in where he hasn’t been invited. Steve blows him off and moments later Ramirez gate crashes the party himself after Dundee has pulled a knife on Steve. Ramirez is Steve’s friend, though we never know the basis of their back and forth relationship. Whenever Steve calls Ramirez ‘lieutenant,’ Ramirez has him call him ‘Pete.’ When Ramirez is all business because Steve has crossed the line, he makes Steve call him ‘lieutenant.’

Steve drives an armored truck and Dundee and his henchmen plan to rob the armored track company that employs Steve. Sure, “Criss Cross” has the stock-in-trade message that ‘crime doesn’t pay’ and it is emphasized by everybody but the optimistic Steve. Initially, an armored truck official brags, “Nobody ever got away with the heist on an armored truck in 28-years. Matter of fact, they don’t even try any more.” Later, Finchley (Alan Napier, who played Alfred the Butler on TV’s “Batman”) objects to the robbery because they always end in failure until he listens to Steve’s inside idea. Vincent (Tom Pedi of “The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three”) raves about the interjection from another henchman that everybody on that robbery wound up dead or in the chair. Later, in the hospital, Ramiez reiterates the same message to Steve that you cannot rob an armored car and get away with it.

Initially, the armored truck robbery seems to be a spur-of-the-moment scheme by Steve to prevent Dundee and his henchmen from take reprisals against Anna for sneaking out to see Steve. The subplot about Steve and Anna is very interesting. They were married, but they divorced after two years. Steve leaves Los Angeles to get Anna out of his blood and knocks around the country performing odd jobs as a blue-collar laborer. Nevertheless, Steve is still smitten by Anna and she still has something for him. Eventually, Steve feels himself drawn back to Los Angeles and everybody from Ramirez, the bartender, the lush, Steve’s mom, and Steve’s brother’s girlfriend know that he has feelings for her. They rekindle some of their love but also their drama. As much as they rub each other the wrong way, they also rub each other enough that they get together. As it turns out, Anna has been dating a crime figure and she marries him, probably to keep herself in jewelry. Steve is as hopelessly drawn to Anna as she is to money. Anna mistakenly believes that she can manipulate Slim for his money as she can Steve for his love. Before long Anna realizes that Slim is a force to contend with and worries about Slim learning about how she is two-timing her. These two characters are puppets to their own mistaken notions of love and money. Nothing that they can do will save them from their mutual obsessions. Ironically enough, it isn’t the law that brings Steve and Anna to their demise but the jealous Slim.

Siodmak and Planer do a good job staging the heist. The criminals set off smoke bombs so that everything takes place in a kind of limbo with Steve trying to thwart the robbery after shooting breaks out that he didn’t want. The paranoia in the hospital scenes where Steve feels trapped is gripping as is the ill-fated ending that Anna and Steve meet at Dundee’s hands. Siodmak stages this final scene much the same way that he did the scene at the beginning of “The Killers” when the two hitmen knocked off the Swede. We see Slim enter the house where Steve and Anna are hiding and he fires his gun repeatedly at them off-camera. We don’t see the muzzle of Slim’s revolver belching smoke, we only see the smoke and his irate face as he watches them die in each other’s arms.

FILM REVIEW OF "UNDISCOVERED" (2005)

“Far From Home” director Meiert Avis’ romantic musical comedy “Undiscovered” (*** out of ****)is a sweetly sentimental fairy tale saga about the obstacle course that young lovers run in their relationships. Lurking within this deceptively lightweight movie is a message about fame versus creativity. People sell their souls for fame, but fame is only the foam, whereas creativity is the bedrock for everything in life. A confused but sympathetic model suffering from love trouble with her cheating rock star boyfriend and an aspiring songwriter collide entirely by accident when a New York subway train disgorges its passengers. She catches one of his gloves on the way onto the train while he stands transfixed on the platform watching her slip away on the departing train. Later, each winds up moving to glittering Los Angeles. He wants to break into the musical scene, while she wants to get into acting. Ostensibly, newcomer John Galt has penned a screenplay that consists of 98 minutes of PG-13 rated soap opera galore not only about the perils of love but also the mercurial music business. Initially, I thought “Undiscovered” little more than a potboiler about twentysomething love (which it is to a certain degree) until I caught it the second time around and discovered its deeper ‘undiscovered’ values. The cast is first-rate with Pell James and Steven Strait making this love story entirely tolerable because of their sincere, soft-spoken performance. Avis displays the right balance that keeps “Undiscovered” from curdling into syrupy sap.

Slinky model Brier Tucket (Pell James of “Broken Flowers”) is boarding the subway when she runs into two brothers, the younger one Luke Falcon (Steven Strait of “Covenant”) and the older one Euan Falcon (Kip Pardue of “Driven”) and she accidentally snags Luke’s glove as they pass. Immediately, Luke realizes that he has allowed the best thing in his life get away from him. Luke gushes to Euan about her as the prettiest girl that he has ever seen, while Euan complains about his brother losing the gloves that he borrowed from him. Brier ponders if it was destiny that Luke and she met or was it simply random chance. She carries on endless conversations with Carrie (Carrie Fisher of “Star Wars”) on the phone about Luke. Eventually, a couple of years afterward, Brier decides that she would like to take a stab at acting. Out in Los Angeles, Brier meets up with another aspiring actress/singer Clea (Ashlee Simpson) in her acting class who treats Luke like a brother and sometimes accompanies him on a song. Luke barely makes ends meet for a while, working at the local humane shelter and later at a yogurt shop. He enjoys himself the most singing and playing music at nightspots around L.A. and has a trained bulldog that rides a skateboard. Actually, the bulldog is the funniest things about this movie.

The screenplay is all about girl meets guy, girl wants guy, but girl has been screwed over by a previous guy and she cannot handle getting screwed over again. Mind you, Luke is obsessed by Brier. Brier and her rock star boyfriend Mick (Stephen Moyer of HBO’s “True Blood”) conclude their long-distance love affair because he loves to cheat on her. Sadly, Brier is the worst for the wear and tear on the soul that she has been exposed to by the horny British rocker. When she meets Luke, she likes him, but she fears their fling will turn into another bittersweet bust. She need not have worried because Luke really doesn’t want to be a rocker. Luke reminds Brier constantly about his aspirations and informs her at one point that he is a one-gal guy. Mick, however, has made Brier skeptical about men in general. Nevertheless, Luke intrigues her enough so that well-intentioned Clea and she, with Carrie’s help, bolster his career. They turn Luke into him a sudden, overnight sensation that brings out the worst in the music business. Namely, Tantra records honcho Garrett Schweck (Fisher Stevens of “Reversal of Fortune”) signs Luke to a contract. Actually, all the hoopla on the Internet that Clea and Brier generated along with their acting friends posing as music executives fooled the opportunistic Garrett into signing Luke. When Garrett discovers that he has been duped, he drops Luke like a hot potato and cancels his contract.

Girls just want to have it their way is what this movie is about. The message is don’t be a flash-in-the-pan rock star; go into publishing and survive for the long haul. Peter Weller gives “Undiscovered” its final quarter-hour boost in a walk-on part he plays Wick Treadway, as a high-profile record company owner, while Fisher Stevens excels as an unsavory album producer. This movie is light as a soap bubble but glistens with substance. Girls attending an all-night pajama party with their stuffed bears would love this semi-music video, while older individuals may find themselves trying to wipe the tears out of their eyes before anybody else catches them. I bought it at a cheap sale at Movie Gallery and couldn’t believe how endearing—yes—endearing that it was. The last minute dash to LAX by Luke in his brother Euan’s colorful retro-Volkswagen bus is surprisingly suspenseful, even though you know Brier and he will solve their problems and live happily ever after.

Indeed, the atmospheric cinematography of Danny Hiele of “Shades” gives Avis’ movie more depth than you’d imagine. The complications in this kind of chick flick drives guys crazy and that only a teenage girl without a boyfriend would enjoy since it has no grasp on reality. Kuma, Luke's Runyon Canyon Dog, steals every scene that he is in with his real ‘live’ skateboarding antics. Dyed-in-the-wool romantics should stock up on Kleenex.