FILM REVIEW OF ''HACKSAW RIDGE" (2016)

Although over twenty years have elapsed since he directed the Oscar-winning, Best Picture “Braveheart” in 1995, Mel Gibson hasn’t lost his touch as a topnotch director.  The pugnacious, bloodthirsty, fact-based, World War II spectacle “Hacksaw Ridge” (**** OUT OF ****) ranks as the first memorable battlefront epic of the 21^st century.  Hollywood hasn’t marched out a significant WW 2 film for inspection since 1998 when Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” landed on the silver screen.   Mind you, after the Allied soldiers stormed the Normandy beaches in France, the Spielberg saga degenerated into a soggy sandbag of a movie.  I grew up in the 1960s when Hollywood produced patriotic movies and TV shows about World War II by the dozens.  As far as I am concerned, “The Longest Day” (1962) still tops “Saving Private Ryan.”  While it didn’t wallow in the savagery of “Saving Private Ryan,” “The Longest Day” constituted a far more meaningful movie because it covered all sides of the combat.  Comparatively, “Hacksaw Ridge” takes place in the Pacific rather than Europe and depicts the bloody battle of Okinawa, where U.S. troops encountered suicidal Japanese soldiers entrenched in caves that eventually became their tombs.  Feisty filmgoers may complain that Gibson didn’t detail the entire sordid story.  For example, those flame-thrower wielding G.I.s not only incinerated Japanese troops, but also roasted the natives who had been forced to fight alongside with the Japanese.  Some island women committed suicide out of fear of getting raped, while others resorted to spears to defend themselves against the invading troops.  The ferocious, R-rated blood, gore, and aggression--visceral in every respect as it should be—that Gibson has staged serves to remind moviegoers that this 82-day battle constituted the bloodiest military campaign in the Pacific.  While “Hacksaw Ridge” shows us that “war is hell,” this wholesale carnage celebrates the heroism of a unique WW 2 hero.  Former “Amazing Spiderman” actor Andrew Garfield does a slam-bang job of playing real-life American Army Medic Private First Class Desmond T. Doss who made history as the first conscientious objector to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.  The irony of “Hacksaw Ridge” is that it commemorates the exploits of a Seventh-Day Adventist who sought to save lives rather than destroy them.

Now, you’d think a movie about a conscientious objector would be very dull, but “Hacksaw Ridge” is far from dreary.  Robert Schenkkan, who wrote four episodes of the World War II mini-series “The Pacific,” and “Efficiency Expert” scribe Andrew Knight follow our protagonist, Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield of “The Amazing Spider-man”) from boot camp to his baptism under fire at Okinawa.  They also deal with his reckless youth when he almost killed his younger brother and later disarmed his drunken father after the latter had abused his mother.  The bulk of the action concerns the trials and tribulations that occurred after he enlisted.  Desmond informed his Army superiors that he had no use for guns, and he refused to drill with, much less discharge a rifle on the firing range. Desmond suffered the wrath of not only his military superiors but also soldiers that he trained with, and both went to extraordinary lengths to oust him from the Army.  Indeed, the Army tried to court-marshal him and his barracks buddies battered and ridiculed him because they figured that he was a yellow-livered coward.  Smitty Ryker (Luke Bracey of “Point Break”) was one of the barracks ringleaders who did everything possible to make life unbearable for Desmond.  Captain Glover (Sam Worthington of “Avatar”) and Drill Sergeant Howell (Vince Vaughn of “The Wedding Crashers”) were just as despicable, too.  Nevertheless, neither Desmond’s fellow soldiers nor his superiors had any luck in running him off.  He sticks out the worse of everything and goes into action as a medic.  When the troops get to Okinawa, they experience combat at its most tragic.  The Japanese never know when to stop and they live for the opportunity to kill Americans, even trotting out to ostensibly surrender but then pulling out guns and grenades to kill, kill, kill.  Just about every appendage of the human body is either blasted off or blown off.  Desmond watches grimly as rats gnaw on the decomposing bodies of American and Japanese soldiers.  Nothing about combat in “Hacksaw Ridge” is glamorous.  Everybody is shocked and surprised when Desmond ascends a cliffhanger escarpment, draped with a heavy-duty cargo net, and rescues one-by-one, 75 wounded soldiers during the night who had made his life a miserable hell in boot camp.  Suddenly, they reassessed this gawky looking lad and worshiped him like a saint.

In an interview with “Deadline Hollywood,” Mel Gibson explained what impressed him about Desmond Doss. “The guy didn’t carry a weapon, never fired a bullet, was a conscientious objector who thought it was wrong to kill under any circumstances. But he had the guts to go into the worst place you can imagine and stick to his convictions, armed with nothing else but sheer faith. Walk in and just do the impossible, which is courage under fire unparalleled because he didn’t do it in a split second or decision or moment. He did it again and again and again.”  Indeed, Gibson and his scenarists faced a gargantuan task in adapting Desmond Doss’s life. Usually, Hollywood embroiders facts to heighten the melodrama. Had the filmmakers adhered to actual events, “Hacksaw Ridge” would have seemed just ‘too good to be true.’  Lack of space prohibits me from going into detail about Doss’s life and the values that shaped him.  Most of those details seem wholly incredible.  Squeamish spectators may have difficulty sitting through the last half of “Hacksaw Ridge” when body parts start flying.  Meanwhile, bloodthirsty moviegoers may find themselves champing at the bit as Gibson fills the first half of with Desmond’s sudsy romance with his future wife, Dorothy Schutte (Teresa Palmer of “Lights Out”), particularly when he sneaks his first kiss and she slaps him. Altogether, “Hacksaw Ridge” qualifies as unforgettable from fade-in to fade-out.

FILM REVIEW OF “G.I. JOE: THE RETALIATION” (2013)

The sequel “G.I. Joe: The Retaliation” (**1/2 out of ****) scraps half of everything in “G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra.”  Basically, if you missed the first “Joe,” then this splendid looking sequel may not make a whole lot of sense, particularly the Presidential hostage scenes.  Unless you’ve seen “G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra,” you won’t know Zartan had been tweaking his impersonation of the U.S. President. Despite a sturdy cast and stupendous production values, this futuristic actioneer could have retained several elements that made its predecessor entertaining.  The first mistake Paramount and Hasbro made was eliminating everybody but Zartan, the President, and Storm Shadow.  Ripcord, General Hawk, Scarlett, Ana, and Destro are A.W.O.L.  Well, Destro has a cameo, but we never get a glimpse of him or Christopher Eccleston.  Arnold Voslow appears briefly as Zartan, but you could miss him if you blinked your eyes.   When the sequel isn’t sacrificing top tier cast members, it is rewriting the first film and rehabilitating a villain.  Not only is Storm Shadow no longer wicked, but we also learn he had been framed in the first film.

Meantime, “Step Up 3-D” director Jon M. Chu and “Zombieland” scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick introduce several new characters, including Dwayne Johnson as a massive sergeant major, Adrianne Palicki as sexy Lady Jaye, D.J. Cotrona, and Bruce Willis as General Joe Colton.  Presumably, the producers brought Bruce Willis on board to beef up things, but he shows up for only a handful of scenes.  When he enters combat, he doesn't even have to duck bullets.  Bruce takes our heroes on a tour of his armory-like residence, rides in the back of an El Camino with an assault rifle, and later passes out medals. As a character nicknamed ‘Roadblock,’ Dwayne Johnson saves the day after Channing Tatum makes an early departure about a half-hour into the melee.  Chu and his scenarists must have seen “The Expendables 2” because “G.I. Joe: The Retaliation” strikes me more about revenge rather than retaliation.  Other things missing are the outlandish Delta 6 accelerator suits that our heroes donned for the Paris sequence of “G.I. Joe” and those nasty nanomites that gnaw through armor as if it were candy.  As comely as both Adrianne Palicki and Elodie Yung are, they’re no match for Sienna Miller and Rachel Nichols.  The second “Joe” comes up light on villains, too.  Nobody here can compete with either Christopher Eccleston or Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

“G.I. Joe: The Retaliation” picks up where the first film concluded.  The villainous Zartan has completed his masquerade as the President and has managed to fool everybody.  Next, he sets out to locate Cobra Commander.  As it turns out, Cobra Commander and Destro are imprisoned in a European poky at the bottom of an old East German mine shaft.  Warden Nigel James (Walton Goggins) provides Storm Shadow with an expository laden tour of his maximum security facility when he arrives with an escort.  Meantime, the President dispatches Captain Duke Hauser (Channing Tatum of “Magic Mike”) and the G.I. Joes on a secret mission to Pakistan to retrieve some nukes.  Initially, our heroes encounter little difficulty and wind up in the Hindus Valley waiting for an extraction team.  Suddenly, the worse thing imaginable happens.  They are blown to smithereens by their own people.  The President (Jonathan Pryce) orders their deaths because he is in reality Zartan.  Meantime, Zartan appears on national television and reveals that the G.I. Joes tried to appropriate the atomic bomb for their own use.  Fortunately, Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson of “Snitch”), Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki of “Red Dawn”), and Flint (D. J. Controna of “Dear John”) survive the sneak attack.  Actually, Duke saved Flint but died in the process.  The three hide in a convenient well when the mop-up crew arrive.  As usual, the villains are too lazy to mop up well enough.  They check out the well and fire a couple of shots into it that miss all three crouching just below the surface.  A hand grenade would have done nicely, but the heroes have to survive.  This is the first mistake that Reese and Wernick made when they let the heroes off too easily.  The trio make it back to America and establish a secret base with the help of one of Roadblock’s old ghetto friends.  

Eventually, our discredited heroes contact retired U.S. General Joe Colton (Bruce Willis of “Die Hard”) who was one of the original Joes.  Colton furnishes them with an incredible arsenal and agrees to join them.  You can tell this scene was lensed before the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting because it made the final cut.  Colton leads our heroes on a tour of his residence.  Every drawer and cabinet conceals automatic pistols and assault weapons.  While Roadblock and company are acquiring weapons, Snake Eyes (Ray Park of “X-Men”) and Jinx (Elodie Yung of “District 13: Ultimatum”) are on the other side of the world.  They are scaling the Himalayas mountain to nab Storm Shadow where he is recuperating in a temple.  Storm suffered horrible burns on the back when an ex-Joe (Ray Stevenson of “Punisher: War Zone”) rescued both Cobra Commander and he from the prison.  Chu stages the mountain side scene with ninjas tangling on the slopes with some finesse.   

Paramount Pictures shelved “G.I. Joe: The Retaliation” for a year to add 3-D.  I’ve seen both versions, and the 2-D surpasses the 3-D.  Furthermore, the 3-D contributes nothing to the action because—like most 3-D movies now-- nothing flies at you.  Polished production values, top-notch cinematography, and first-class CGI work, except in Bruce Willis’ El Camino scene, distinguish this complicated combat caper with too many characters.  The finale with our heroes struggling to prevent the Zeus satellites from destroying Earth generates a palatable amount of suspense.  Of course, Cobra Commander eludes everybody, and General Joe hands Roadblock one of General Patton’s pistols to bring him back.

FILM REVIEW OF "THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN" (1957)

Size obsessed science fiction filmmakers during the 1950s. They measured everything by bulk. Aliens, animals, humans, and robots either increased or decreased in mass. Actually, the first sci-fi film to explore the possibilities of people reduced in stature was Todd Browning’s “The Devil Doll” (1936) about a vengeful scientist who used humans that he had reduced in size to do his dirty work. Gordon Douglas' "Them!" (1954)qualified as the first major movie about small things being enlarged by radiation. “Them!” concerned huge irradiated ants. Inevitably, just as Hollywood had shrunk humans, they would also endeavor to enlarge them. Indeed, director Bert I. Gordon tried out this concept in 1957 with “The Cyclops” about a mutated 25-foot tall human in South America, anticipating Gordon’s own 1958 outing “War of the Colossal Beast.” When you compare the release dates of “The Amazing Colossal Man” (** OUT OF ****) with “The Incredible Shrinking Man,” it looks as if American International Pictures must have rushed former into release to exploit the latter film about a diminutive dude. The problem with director Gordon’s film is that it never generates either the suspense and/or tension that Jack Arnold’s seminal sci-fi classic mustered. Once our hero looms to 60 feet in height in “The Amazing Colossal Man,” nothing can challenge him in the same way that a house cat or a spider did the protagonist of “The Incredible Shrinking Man.”

“The Amazing Colossal Man” opens with a convoy of military vehicles—crossing the screen from left to right—traveling along an asphalt road through the desert as a narrator establishes the setting. “The time is two forty-five A.M., two hours and fifteen minutes before time zero. At time zero, a new type of atomic explosion--a plutonium bomb--will be detonated at Desert Rock, Nevada. These soldiers are to experience the plutonium explosion under simulated combat conditions.” The next sight that we see is several soldiers crouched in a trench in combat gear with helmets and special goggles as the bomb site officer at a distant command post (William Hughes of “Geronimo”) keeps the troops posted about the impending detonation. “Attention! Attention! All personnel. The time is zero minus thirty seconds. The plutonium explosion will take place at time zero. I repeat, the plutonium explosion will take place at time zero.” Dramatically, the officer commences the countdown. When he finishes it, the technician at the command center—a staff sergeant—clicks the mechanism to trigger the detonation. However, nothing happens. The command post officer cautions the troops: “Do not leave your positions. I repeat, do not leave your positions. The plutonium bomb has been triggered and will explode at any moment. The chain reaction did not complete its cycle as calculated. Keep your dark glasses on and stay where you are.” One of the troops asks Colonel Manning (Glenn Langan of “The Snake Pit”) what will happen. He warns them that the bomb could explode at any minute, but he allows them to smoke cigarettes to calm their nerves. About this time, they hear the sound of an engine and Manning spots a light civilian propeller-driven aircraft descend through the clouds. The command post orders the unseen pilot to alter his course, but the plane crashes. The plutonium bomb has still not detonated so a heroic Colonel Manning sheds his helmet and goggles and charges out into the open towards the plane to rescue the pilot. The command post orders him to stop. The plutonium bomb detonates and it catches Manning in a torrential blast that shreds the clothes off his body. Later, the Army doctors have little hope for him since third degree burns cover most of his body.

Manning’s fiancee, Carol Forrest (Cathy Downs of “My Darling Clementine”), visits him at the hospital. Later, the Army spirits Manning away to a secret military facility and forbids to give Carol any information. Obstinately, Carol refuses to be kept away from Manning. The doctors relent and allow Carol to spend time with him. During this interval, Gordon gives us a glimpse of their life together before he participated in the Desert Rock maneuver. Miraculously, despite the third degree burns, Manning survives the ordeal, and a new layer of skin grows to replaces the charred dermis. One tragic side effect is that the Army colonel grows eight to ten feet a day and eventually has to be housed in a circus tent. He has to drink out of a barrel and he eats an entire turkey. Dr. Paul Linstrom (William Hudson of “Mister Roberts”) and Major Eric Coulter, MD (Larry Thor of “Machine Gun Kelly”) both struggle without success to find a cure for his condition. Nevertheless, Manning continues to grow until he towers 60 feet tall. Carol spends time with Manning, but he grows even more depressed about his acute condition and sees no hope for a bright future.

Some forty-five minutes into the action, Manning decides to leave the army base and vanishes into the desert. How does a 60 foot gent avoid detection from the military in the desert? Before long the Army receives reports about slaughtered cattle and two guys in a car with a bottle of liquor encounter Manning at night on the highway. “I’ll never drink again,” the passenger (Hank Patterson of “Green Acres”) assures his companion. Colonel Halleck (James Seay of “Vera Cruz”) warns Linstrom and Coulter that he is prepared to take action against Manning if Manning becomes dangerous. When they finally locate Manning, Manning has wandered into Las Vegas wearing only a sarong. He uproots a palm tree and hurls it at the Las Vegas police after they take rifle shots at it. Manning tromps off to Hoover Dam. Before he gets there, Linstrom and Coulter fly in a huge syringe in a helicopter and administer an injection of a drug which they had succeeded in reducing the size of circus animals. The injection fails and and Manning grabs Carol like King Kong did Fay Wray and walks off with her. Only after he sets Carol down does the military cut loose with a barrage of fire, and Manning topples into the spillway waters and vanishes into the Colorado River.

The only genuinely violent moment occurs near the end when the enraged Manning skewers Coulter with the giant needle and kills him. The scene when he thumbs through the Holy Bible is about as heavy as this fish-out-of-water yarn gets. The ultimate irony that set the first half apart is the idea that Manning sacrificed him in an act of good citizenship to help the pilot who crashed. Gordon, who doubled as the special effects coordinator, does a credible job of developing the unfortunate plight that Manning suffers. While he is under the supervision of the military, Manning emerges as a sympathetic character, but later “The Amazing Colossal Man” turns into a shallow side show freak, as the film apes "King Kong." Gordon's inferior sequel "War of the Colossal Beast" (1958) recycles "Mr. Cyclops. The Disney movie "Honey I Blew Up the Kid" (1992) and "Monsters vs Aliens" (2009) pay tribute to "The Amazing Colossal Man." Gordon revisited the theme of giant humans in "Village of the Giants" (1965).