Tastes and times have changed drastically since 1961 when Fred MacMurray originally introduced the super-elastic stuff called ‘flubber’ to film audiences in Walt Disney’s “The Absent Minded Professor.” In the high-tech, 1990’s Disney remake “Flubber” (*** out of ****) reinvents itself as an animated, gooey-green, silly putty blob of flying rubber that talks and dances. Actually, flubber resembles a combination of the Pillsbury Doughboy crossed with the shape-shifting water creature in James Cameron’s 1989 fantasy thriller “The Abyss.” Inventive, excessive, but tolerably entertaining, director Les Mayfield’s remake of “The Absent Minded Professor” will captivate both young and absent-minded audiences. Happily, “Flubber” succeeds as a resilient special effects laden tour-de-farce. Sadly, the remake lacks the wit, warmth, subtlety, and comedic irony that distinguished its black & white predecessor. The spectacular morphing effects of George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic Company and the visual wizardry of Peter Crosman, Tom Bertino, and Douglas Hans Smith cannot offset the film’s hopelessly befuddled plot.
The John Hughes screenplay based in part on Bill Walsh’s script for “The Absent Minded Professor as well as the Samuel W. Taylor short story “A Situation of Gravity” follows the zany efforts of a scatterbrained university chemistry professor. Dr. Philip Brainard (Robin Williams of “Popeye”) accidentally cooks up a gravity defying concoction called ‘flubber.’ Generating its own perpetual motion, ‘flubber’ has uses limited only by the imagination. Unlike the limp lump of ‘flubber’ in “The Absent-Minded Professor,” the ‘flubber’ “Flubber” radiates a mischievous personality, but the filmmakers never solidify its amorphous character. Not only will Brainard ‘flubber’ rescue Medfield College from bankruptcy and closure, but ‘flubber’ will also redeem him in the eyes of the long-suffering sweetheart that he wants to wed: Medfield College President Sara Jean Reynolds (Marcia Gay Harden.)
Brainard heads up Sara Jean’s you-know-what list. Three times in a row he has left her stranded at the altar! If things aren’t bad enough, Brainard’s old academic nemesis Wilson Croft (Christopher MacDonald of “Thelma & Louise”) lurks in the background. Oil and conniving, Croft plans to pilfer Brainard’s fiancée as well as take credit for his ‘flubber’ formula and the millions of dollars that it is sure to reap. The professor’s next bigger enemy is perhaps his worst: corrupt businessman Chester Hoenicker (Raymond J. Barry of “Mad City”). Hoenicker’s bratty son Bennett (Will Wheaton of TV’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) flunked Brainard’s class. Consequently, Bennett got suspended from the basketball team. Initially, all that Hoenicker sought was a simple change of grade so Bennett, the top hoopster on the Medfield basketball team, could resume playing. When Hoenicker senior learns more about ‘flubber,’ he joins forces with the equally avaricious Croft to rip-off Braniard’s discovery.
Women have come a long way since the 1961 original. Disney has promoted the fiancée from being the college president’s secretary to the college president! Although Sara Jean presides over Medfield, she cannot keep it out of the red without the help of a good man. “Flubber” implies that women indeed have come a long way, but not far enough to get by on their own wits. Moreover, Sara Jean’s romance with Brainard appears to occupy her every waking minute instead of the financial crisis that threatens her small, private college. Her priorities appear demeaningly misplaced. WEEBO, Brainard’s flying female computer, serves as a sort of bad girl here who gets her just comeuppance for tampering with Brainard’s social life. At one point, WEEBO creates a cyber-Siren image for herself to detract Brainard from Sara Jean.
“Flubber” boasts brilliant, state-of-the-art special effects. Brainard has a marvelously nifty gizmo called WEEBO, a multi-media computer housed in a flying saucer that serves as his secretary. Fred MacMurray had to settle for an antiquated housekeeper and a mutt with flying ears. Anyway, WEEBO figures vitally in the plot. As splendid comic relief, WEEBO makes a great foil in the best Disney tradition. Added humor is derived from the anthology of familiar Disney symbols that appear as short-hand on her video screen. WEEBO dotes on a film clip from the 1958 Frank Sinatra potboiler “Some Came Running” featuring Shirley MacLaine. Jodi Benson of “The Little Mermaid” provides WEEBO’s voice.
Interestingly enough, WEEBO has a crush on her creator and deliberately refuses to remind him about his wedding because she is jealous. Here’s an incredibly portable computer that can travel great distances and perform any number of tasks. At one point, WEEBO visits Sara Jean and explains her jealous behavior. Actually, WEEBO resembles gizmos from the 1987 movie “Batteries Not Included.” The professor could have licensed the manufacture of WEEBOs and used the profits to part the river of red ink engulfing Medfield College. The answer to their problems was right under their noses long before Brainard created flubber. That is why “Flubber” is uneven. WEEBO is so much more rational than its creator that the flying computer could easily have replaced flubber!
“Flubber” sounds like a can’t-miss-hit from this description. If anything, “Flubber” proves that absent-minded audiences appreciate movies with an absence of drama. The original movie contained a richer plot with a variety of nuances that heightened its hilarity. “Flubber” smears on obvious slapstick to churn up laughs. John Hughes’ script relies on his tried and true “Home Alone” routines. Hughes deserves the blame for this half-baked farce. For example, Hoenicker’s henchman, Smith (Clancy Brown of “Starship Troopers”) and Wesson (Ted Levine of “Silence of the Lambs”) are clearly stand-ins for the Joe Pesci & Daniel Stern duo from the “Home Alone” comedies. Brainard’s flubber clobbers them literally in the form of a golf ball and a bowling ball. Smith gets nailed by a non-stop golf ball, while a hard flying bowling ball wallops Wesson. When either object strikes them, these goons hit the deck like pole-axed ten pins.
Another previously Hughesed plot device is the little boy who’s frightened of flubber. Every time the little boy’s father assures him that he has nothing to worry about, the little guy gets flabbergasted. Hughes apparently tried to replace as much of the original as possible with his own kiddie antics. Flubber itself might even qualify here as a Macaulay Culkin clone. The entire military-industrial Cold War subplot is gone, along with the prom dance sequence, the warehouse ruckus, and the bouncing villain scene. Compared to the original villain, the scheming insurance magnate Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn of “Dr. Strangelove”), Hoenicker lacks notoriety. Certainly, Hoenicker neither humiliates nor embarrasses poor Professor Brainard as Hawk successfully managed in “The Absent-Minded Professor.”
Not that “The Absent-Minded Professor” was immune to criticism. When Fred MacMurray’s professor mutates into a man of action in the last half hour of the original, there was nothing empty-headed about his dealings with either the villainous Alonzo Hawk or the Pentagon. Unbelievably, director Les Mayfield and Hughes have left out the scene where Brainard tricks Hawk into jumping up and down with flubberized shoes. Wisely, however, the filmmakers have kept in the basketball scene and the flying car. A red 1963 Ford Thunderbird replaces the vintage Model T.
Although Robin Williams captures the essence of this addle-pated protagonist, the role stretches his character beyond the limits of reasonable behavior. “Flubber’s” professor acts more acid-minded than absent-minded. When Williams’ professor explains his foggy memory, he justifies it as his consuming love for Sarah Jean. How all consuming his love be if the guy keeps leaving the girl standing at the altar? Granted, the jealous WEEBO throws a cyber wrench of sorts into Brainard’s calendar. The happy ending pulls a slick variation on Brainard’s incorrigible absence, but tarnishes the luster of his self-professed love for Sara Jean. Williams seems relatively sedate throughout “Flubber.” He delivers a straight-faced, in-character kind of performance. Obviously, he bottled up his madcap improvisional talents so as to underplay his looney professor in a way that offsets flubber’s scene-stealing special effects. Brainard demonstrates a chemical dependency astronomically off the scale. He’d rather labor in his lab than confront the realities of life. Arrayed with many computer-driven robots and novel gimmicks, the house where Brainard lives recalls Pee Wee’s domicile in “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.” Inexplicably, the filmmakers have changed the professor’s name from Ned to Philip. Why such an insignificant change? Presumably, Disney assigned flubber top marquee value because audiences might have confused its original title “The Absent-Minded Professor” with the Eddie Murphy comedy “The Nutty Professor.”
Director Les Mayfield of “Encino Man” and “Miracle on 34th Street”) and scenarist John Hughes cannot make up their own minds about flubber. Flubber has endless possibilities, and its embryonic personality can be playful but occasionally snappish, too. WEEBO accuses Brainard of giving flubber “too much free will.” Flubber never seems to live up to its potential unless it is exploding, flying through rooms, and cronking noggins. Most of the humor comes from how flubber reacts to different situations more than how Brainard applies it. Because they never define the nature of flubber, its wide open character lacks dramatic clarity. For example, the filmmakers don’t set any limits to what flubber can do. Perhaps Mayfield and company chose green as flubber’s lime-green color because the special effects were so expensive.
Flubber seems like a mild mannered gremlin, and the filmmakers spend the better part of “Flubber” devising its myriad applications. Wesson’s squirt gun antics with Brainard are probably the most relentlessly unfunny example of a movie that overdoes itself. Every time Hoenicker orders Wesson to hand over Brainard’s water pistol, Wesson appropriates the mob land meaning of Hoenicker’s commands. When Hoenicker tells Wesson “to let him have it,” Wesson drenches Brainard in flubber water. This joke goes on far beyond what the scene required. The gratuitous, kaleidoscopic Busby Berkeley dance sequences that interrupt the story are gorgeous, but how to do they relate to the story? Why didn’t the filmmakers use the opening credits as a stage for this elaborate terpsichorean masterpiece? Ultimately, flubber’s potential seems half-formed.
Credit goes to director Les Mayfield for the get-up-and-goo pace of dizzy Disney film. He does a find job of seamlessly integrating the over-the-top special effects with live action, too. “Flubber” is aimless but predictable fun. The villains seem less villainous this time around, and Christopher MacDonald’s bad guy appears simply to give flubber something through which to fly. The bowel humor here and there adds little to the humor and seems out of place in a juvenile movie. Parents may find themselves in a curious moral dilemma trying to explain to their kids why Brainard’s cheating tactics should be condoned. He applies flubber to the basketball team’s sneakers to help them beat their tall, merciless opponents on the court. Danny Elfman’s lively music emphasizes the fast, bouncy pace of “Flubber” and helps the film scoot right along to its inevitable happy ending.
CINEMATIC REVELATIONS allows me the luxury of writing, editing and archiving my film and television reviews. Some reviews appeared initially in "The Commercial Dispatch" and "The Planet Weekly" and then later in the comment archives at the Internet Movie Database. IMDB.COM, however, imposes a limit on both the number of words and the number of times that an author may revise their comments. I hope that anybody who peruses these expanded reviews will find them useful.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
FILM REVIEW OF ''AIR FORCE ONE'' (1997)
Any resemblance between President Clinton and the president portrayed by Harrison Ford in “Das Boot” director Wolfgang Petersen’s far-fetched, entertaining, but woefully predictable skyjacking saga “Air Force One” (*** out of ****) ends when Ford’s fantastic First Guy starts knocking off villains. Nevertheless, the parallels between President Clinton and President James Marshall appear clearly obvious. Harrison Ford’s President Marshall has a tenacious, headstrong wife in the Hilary mode, and they have a 12-year old daughter. (So did Bill Pullman’s president in “Independence Day.”) Unlike Clinton, President Marshall flew helicopter rescue missions in Vietnam and received a Medal of Honor. No, the filmmakers refuse to identify President James Marshall’s party affiliation, which make “Air Force One” impartially political, while it trumpets America’s anti-terrorist stance. Andrew W. Marlowe’s melodramatic screenplay shows more agility than innovation. While his characters emerge as largely one-dimensional stick figures, the dimensions of their predicaments assume nothing less than cataclysmic proportions. Marlowe’s script keeps Ford leaping through enough flaming hoops to fill three movies. Like several other summer blockbusters, Marlowe’s script does not know when to throw in the towel. Just about everything that can happen aboard “Air Force One” occurs. Presumably, with the recent spate of skyjacking movies, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood appropriated both Air Force One and the President as the pulp of their fictional escapade.
The movie opens in slam-bang style with an elite American commando team parachuting into Kazakhstan at night. Using the latest hi-tech gear, they kill the palace guards and abduct an adversarial Russian leader, General Radek (Jurgen Prochnow of “Das Boot”), who is promptly incarcerated in a Soviet hoosegow. Three weeks later in Moscow, President Marshall stipulates that the U.S. refuses to negotiate with terrorists. Meanwhile, a ruthless ultra-nationalist Radek zealot, Ivan Korshunov (Gary Oldman of “True Romance”), succeeds in smuggling his bogus TV news crew aboard the most secure plane in the world. A disgruntled Secret Service agent, Gibbs (Xander Berkeley of “L.A. Takedown”), as we later learn, helped these guys obtain their security clearance. Once the plane is airborne, Korshunov and his men commandeer it, kill the pilots, and watch helplessly s the president ejects in his escape pod. (Does anybody remember “Escape from New York?”) Ivan contacts the Vice President (Glenn Close) and vows to kill a hostage every half-hour until Radek walks away from prison. According to Defense Secretary Walter Dean (Dean Stockwell), Radek’s release would bring down the pro-American regime in the Kremlin and bring back the Cold War, so the Russians are reluctant to set him free unless President Marshall makes the request personally for Radek’s release.
The filmmakers cannibalize in typical Hollywood fashion every neat idea from all the other skyjacking thrillers. Generally, “Air Force One” follows the formula of the Kurt Russell hit “Executive Decision.” Both movies start with a commando raid and then shift to terrorists hijacking a jetliner before an unconventional hero makes his entry. You can tell that Marlow evidently watch the Wesley Snipes thriller “Passenger 57” for one scene. Another scene features a stunt that appeared in both “Airport 75” and “Cliffhanger.” The president here imitates the action heroes from the Bruce Willis “Die Hard” franchise and the Steven Seagal “Under Siege” movies. Finally, the “Air Force One” ending should come as no surprise to any “Star Trek” movie veterans. Anybody who thrives on movies like an insomniac will spot these plot elements. Although “Air Force One” borrows heavily from other epics, the staging of the action and some new scenes in the skyjacking formula boost this opus over the rough spots.
Anybody familiar with German director Wolfgang Petersen will recognize the affinity between “Air Force One” and his earlier classic U-boat thriller “Das Boot”/“The Boat” (1981). The casting of “Das Boot” star Jurgen Prochnow as the heinous General Radek aids in this comparison. Moreover, Petersen sends his highly mobile and energetic cameras plunging about the corridors of “Air Force One” with the same dexterity that they swept through the hull of the sub in “Das Boot.” Despite a connect-the-dots plot, Petersen makes every dot a fire storm of intensity. The scene where the President’s jet careens wildly across the airfield in Germany and nearly crashes is pretty harrowing.
Ford’s presidential protagonist is basically Indiana Jones in a suit and tie. The filmmakers rely on Ford’s action hero charisma to compensate for the lack of depth in his inadequately sketched head of state. Shrewdly, they shift gears to the parental side of the chief executive. Ford’s best scenes occur before take-off when he asks about his favorite football game. Although Marshall emerges as a cardboard politician, it’s his “Die Hard” courage that wreathes him with laurels. Unlike those wimpy Jack Ryan movies “Patriot Games” and “A Clear and Present Danger,” Harrison Ford’s hero here kills the villains. The bad guys don’t slip out of Marshall’s clutches and conveniently impale themselves on sharp objects. (Remember the way the “Patriot Games” villain died?) Marshall runs up a body count, kills with a machine gun, snaps necks, and slugs it out with rough and tumble adversaries. Ford is one of the few male box office stars who can shed tears (when Ivan threatens to pull the trigger on his daughter) and not make it look schmaltzy. Ford manages to maintain a stiff upper lip throughout “Air Force One” and his scenes with bad guy Gary Oldman crackle with electricity. Ultimately, however, Ford’s performance qualifies as serviceable, nothing truly special like the cop the played in “The Devil’s Own” (1997).
Good action movies require savage villains, and the best action movies boast implacably evil fiends. Gary Oldman is one of the most underrated actors working in movies. As Ivan, Oldman registers a ten on the skullduggery scale. Earlier, he menacing Bruce Willis in the operatically chic Luc Besson science fiction saga “The Fifth Element,” but his bad guy was more farcical than fiendish. Nothing funny characterizes Oldman’s irredeemable Russian fanatic in “Air Force One.” He kills two hostages at point blank range, and then tries to soft soak the president’s impressionable daughter into believing that he deserves sympathy. Like Harrison Ford’s James Marshall, Gary Oldman’s Ivan Korshunov is physically powerful but theatrically hollow. Nevertheless, Oldman mixes malevolence with sagacity and a great deal of deception to make one of the summer’s more frightening villains.
Glenn Close as Vice President Kathryn Bennett is the real casting coup in “Air Force One.” Close manages to hold her own in a room packed with veteran male character actors like Dean Stockwell who constantly bullies her to usurp presidential authority. Moreover, Close’s Vice President conducts herself with dignity rather than hysterics, a rare treat in a male-oriented action movie. If any performer or character in “Air Force One” may be said to shoulder the burden of the suspense, Glenn Close does as the Vice President. The moment when she could assume the presidency is explosive stuff. Former “Miami Vice” regular Xander Berkeley makes an effectively treacherous Secret Service agent. One major plot loophole in “Air Force One” is that the filmmakers never explain why Agent Gibbs aided Korshunov. Furthermore, Petersen and Marlowe drop the ball on Berkeley’s villain because he passes up so many great chances to kill the President and assure Ivan of success. Poor writing is to blame here along with the gratitude’s need to create yet another one of those post-ending showdowns. Wendy Crewson is persuasively stalwart yet credibly vulnerable as the president’s gracefully aging wife, and Dean Stockwell’s terrier-like Defense Secretary enlivens the chaos on the ground for the Vice President.
No summer action movie would cut the mustard without digital special effects. The computer generated graphics in “Air Force One” are top-notch. When the movie roams outside of the pressurized cabins and conference rooms, the filmmakers put us in a nether world that resembles “Star Wars.” The night skies above Moscow are cluttered with thick clouds and the skies that far up have a creepy quality that enhances the tragic nature of “Air Force One.” The F-15s swoop into place alongside the President’s jet like star fighters and later peel off to intercept enemy Russian MIGs. The introduction of a heavy fuel tanker recalls the initial appearance from overhead of Darth Vader’s space ship in the preliminary moments from George Lucas’ “Star Wars.”
Big screen action movies fans that prefer for their heroes and villains to battle to the death will enjoy “Air Force One,” but they are bound to complain when the movie shifts away from the presidential jet. Moviegoers who keep abreast of all the plot twists and turns in similar movies may grow impatient at times in “Air Force One.” You’ll know what Harrison Ford has up his sleeve so to speak when he stares at a leaky carton of milk. If you’ve not seen any of the recent skyjacking movies, like the director Stuart Baird’s “Executive Decision,” you may find yourself overrating a simply good movie as a great epic. “Planet of the Apes” composer Jerry Goldsmith’s majestic music enriches the film’s atmosphere, and lenser Michael Ballhaus’ widescreen Technicolor photography captures just about every scene from the right perspective. Sadly, a huge film flub occurs in “Air Force One” when the bad guys shoot holes through a certain door, then moments later those holes vanish when the skyjackers throw those doors open to confront the hostages.
Although certainly not the most original skyjacking melodrama, “Air Force One” manages to add elements to the formula and boasts enough visceral R-rated violence to keep you distracted throughout its 124-minute running time.
The movie opens in slam-bang style with an elite American commando team parachuting into Kazakhstan at night. Using the latest hi-tech gear, they kill the palace guards and abduct an adversarial Russian leader, General Radek (Jurgen Prochnow of “Das Boot”), who is promptly incarcerated in a Soviet hoosegow. Three weeks later in Moscow, President Marshall stipulates that the U.S. refuses to negotiate with terrorists. Meanwhile, a ruthless ultra-nationalist Radek zealot, Ivan Korshunov (Gary Oldman of “True Romance”), succeeds in smuggling his bogus TV news crew aboard the most secure plane in the world. A disgruntled Secret Service agent, Gibbs (Xander Berkeley of “L.A. Takedown”), as we later learn, helped these guys obtain their security clearance. Once the plane is airborne, Korshunov and his men commandeer it, kill the pilots, and watch helplessly s the president ejects in his escape pod. (Does anybody remember “Escape from New York?”) Ivan contacts the Vice President (Glenn Close) and vows to kill a hostage every half-hour until Radek walks away from prison. According to Defense Secretary Walter Dean (Dean Stockwell), Radek’s release would bring down the pro-American regime in the Kremlin and bring back the Cold War, so the Russians are reluctant to set him free unless President Marshall makes the request personally for Radek’s release.
The filmmakers cannibalize in typical Hollywood fashion every neat idea from all the other skyjacking thrillers. Generally, “Air Force One” follows the formula of the Kurt Russell hit “Executive Decision.” Both movies start with a commando raid and then shift to terrorists hijacking a jetliner before an unconventional hero makes his entry. You can tell that Marlow evidently watch the Wesley Snipes thriller “Passenger 57” for one scene. Another scene features a stunt that appeared in both “Airport 75” and “Cliffhanger.” The president here imitates the action heroes from the Bruce Willis “Die Hard” franchise and the Steven Seagal “Under Siege” movies. Finally, the “Air Force One” ending should come as no surprise to any “Star Trek” movie veterans. Anybody who thrives on movies like an insomniac will spot these plot elements. Although “Air Force One” borrows heavily from other epics, the staging of the action and some new scenes in the skyjacking formula boost this opus over the rough spots.
Anybody familiar with German director Wolfgang Petersen will recognize the affinity between “Air Force One” and his earlier classic U-boat thriller “Das Boot”/“The Boat” (1981). The casting of “Das Boot” star Jurgen Prochnow as the heinous General Radek aids in this comparison. Moreover, Petersen sends his highly mobile and energetic cameras plunging about the corridors of “Air Force One” with the same dexterity that they swept through the hull of the sub in “Das Boot.” Despite a connect-the-dots plot, Petersen makes every dot a fire storm of intensity. The scene where the President’s jet careens wildly across the airfield in Germany and nearly crashes is pretty harrowing.
Ford’s presidential protagonist is basically Indiana Jones in a suit and tie. The filmmakers rely on Ford’s action hero charisma to compensate for the lack of depth in his inadequately sketched head of state. Shrewdly, they shift gears to the parental side of the chief executive. Ford’s best scenes occur before take-off when he asks about his favorite football game. Although Marshall emerges as a cardboard politician, it’s his “Die Hard” courage that wreathes him with laurels. Unlike those wimpy Jack Ryan movies “Patriot Games” and “A Clear and Present Danger,” Harrison Ford’s hero here kills the villains. The bad guys don’t slip out of Marshall’s clutches and conveniently impale themselves on sharp objects. (Remember the way the “Patriot Games” villain died?) Marshall runs up a body count, kills with a machine gun, snaps necks, and slugs it out with rough and tumble adversaries. Ford is one of the few male box office stars who can shed tears (when Ivan threatens to pull the trigger on his daughter) and not make it look schmaltzy. Ford manages to maintain a stiff upper lip throughout “Air Force One” and his scenes with bad guy Gary Oldman crackle with electricity. Ultimately, however, Ford’s performance qualifies as serviceable, nothing truly special like the cop the played in “The Devil’s Own” (1997).
Good action movies require savage villains, and the best action movies boast implacably evil fiends. Gary Oldman is one of the most underrated actors working in movies. As Ivan, Oldman registers a ten on the skullduggery scale. Earlier, he menacing Bruce Willis in the operatically chic Luc Besson science fiction saga “The Fifth Element,” but his bad guy was more farcical than fiendish. Nothing funny characterizes Oldman’s irredeemable Russian fanatic in “Air Force One.” He kills two hostages at point blank range, and then tries to soft soak the president’s impressionable daughter into believing that he deserves sympathy. Like Harrison Ford’s James Marshall, Gary Oldman’s Ivan Korshunov is physically powerful but theatrically hollow. Nevertheless, Oldman mixes malevolence with sagacity and a great deal of deception to make one of the summer’s more frightening villains.
Glenn Close as Vice President Kathryn Bennett is the real casting coup in “Air Force One.” Close manages to hold her own in a room packed with veteran male character actors like Dean Stockwell who constantly bullies her to usurp presidential authority. Moreover, Close’s Vice President conducts herself with dignity rather than hysterics, a rare treat in a male-oriented action movie. If any performer or character in “Air Force One” may be said to shoulder the burden of the suspense, Glenn Close does as the Vice President. The moment when she could assume the presidency is explosive stuff. Former “Miami Vice” regular Xander Berkeley makes an effectively treacherous Secret Service agent. One major plot loophole in “Air Force One” is that the filmmakers never explain why Agent Gibbs aided Korshunov. Furthermore, Petersen and Marlowe drop the ball on Berkeley’s villain because he passes up so many great chances to kill the President and assure Ivan of success. Poor writing is to blame here along with the gratitude’s need to create yet another one of those post-ending showdowns. Wendy Crewson is persuasively stalwart yet credibly vulnerable as the president’s gracefully aging wife, and Dean Stockwell’s terrier-like Defense Secretary enlivens the chaos on the ground for the Vice President.
No summer action movie would cut the mustard without digital special effects. The computer generated graphics in “Air Force One” are top-notch. When the movie roams outside of the pressurized cabins and conference rooms, the filmmakers put us in a nether world that resembles “Star Wars.” The night skies above Moscow are cluttered with thick clouds and the skies that far up have a creepy quality that enhances the tragic nature of “Air Force One.” The F-15s swoop into place alongside the President’s jet like star fighters and later peel off to intercept enemy Russian MIGs. The introduction of a heavy fuel tanker recalls the initial appearance from overhead of Darth Vader’s space ship in the preliminary moments from George Lucas’ “Star Wars.”
Big screen action movies fans that prefer for their heroes and villains to battle to the death will enjoy “Air Force One,” but they are bound to complain when the movie shifts away from the presidential jet. Moviegoers who keep abreast of all the plot twists and turns in similar movies may grow impatient at times in “Air Force One.” You’ll know what Harrison Ford has up his sleeve so to speak when he stares at a leaky carton of milk. If you’ve not seen any of the recent skyjacking movies, like the director Stuart Baird’s “Executive Decision,” you may find yourself overrating a simply good movie as a great epic. “Planet of the Apes” composer Jerry Goldsmith’s majestic music enriches the film’s atmosphere, and lenser Michael Ballhaus’ widescreen Technicolor photography captures just about every scene from the right perspective. Sadly, a huge film flub occurs in “Air Force One” when the bad guys shoot holes through a certain door, then moments later those holes vanish when the skyjackers throw those doors open to confront the hostages.
Although certainly not the most original skyjacking melodrama, “Air Force One” manages to add elements to the formula and boasts enough visceral R-rated violence to keep you distracted throughout its 124-minute running time.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
FILM REVIEW OF ''ANGEL EYES" (2001)
“Angel Eyes” (*** out of ****) differs from the usual mindless summer film fare. Audiences under age 30 may classify this brooding, lethargic, romantic mystery with Jennifer Lopez and Jim Caviezel as downbeat, impersonal, and tiresome. Neither “Message in a Bottle” director Luis Mandoki and “Sharkey’s Machine” scenarist Gerald DiPego cater to neatly tying up all the loose narrative threads at fade-out nor pander to erratic attention-deficit style editing to ingratiate audiences with their lachrymose cops & lovers yarn. Instead, every scene in “Angel Eyes” portrays life as an experience where people sometimes cannot resolve conflicts. Mandoki and DiPego dole out plot details like bread crumbs to string us along, and this piecemeal strategy maintained my attention.
“Angel Eyes” will either intrigue you or will infuriate you entirely with the way they draw out the inevitable. They give their characters room enough to develop, and a gifted, first-class cast exploits every opportunity. Admirably, much of this provocative, above-average, but uneven ‘chick flick’ springs from the characters and their reactions to the obstacles thwarting their desires. Unwisely, Mandoki and DiPego rely on some plot contrivances that undercut credibility but deepen dramatic impact.
“Angel Eyes” opens in Chicago at the scene of a tragic traffic accident. Windy City cop Sharon Pogue (Jennifer Lopez of “Maid in Manhattan”) comforts an accident victim until the paramedics arrive. Mandoki and DiPego create an intriguing aura of mystery early on in the story, because the victim remains anonymous. Cleverly but effectively, they capture the action from the perspective of the injured passenger. A year elapses, and the main plot gradually begins to unfold. “Angel Eyes” depicts Sharon Pogue as a tough, resourceful, fearless police woman who can handle anything that the criminal element can dish out. She tackles one big hoodlum, body slams the dastard against the hood of her police cruiser, and the cuffs and stuffs him. Later, at the precinct house, the thug gives her lip and grabs her. Pogue roughs him up without a second thought, only to have her partner Robby (Terrence Howard of “Iron Man”) reprimand her. “Don’t bust my balls,” Pogue complains irritably as if she were a guy.
Indeed, shunning her glamorous pop diva persona, Lopez delivers a persuasive, rock-solid performance as a dedicated but lonely, insomniac cop with a woebegone past who prefers the graveyard shift. Basically, Sharon jailed her abusive father Carl (Victor Argo of “The Yards”) ten years ago for beating up her mother Josephine (Brazilian actress Sonia Braga of “The Rookie”), and bad blood has existed ever since between them. Essentially, her father disowned her after his arrest. Surprisingly, her mother invites her to attend a ceremony where they plan to renew their marriage vows. Sharon’s working class brother Larry (Jeremy Sisto of “The Suicide Kings”) isn’t overjoyed about seeing his hard-nosed sister. Eventually, Larry batters his own wife Kathy (Monet Mazur of “Mystery Men”) in a fit of rage. Arriving at the scene, Sharon slugs Larry in the mouth in front of her own brothers-in-blue! The cops refuse to arrest Sharon when Larry cries police brutality.
Later, Sharon is hanging out with fellow cops at a diner when black gunmen in a car wheel up and unload a fusillade of bullet at them. The fleeing gangstas wreck their car, and the cops chase them. Sharon pursues a lone gunman, and the suspect ambushes her. Shooting her twice in the chest, he takes aim at her face when a mysterious stranger intervenes. This unshaven Samaritan knocks the assailant off Sharon and saves her life! When Sharon recovers, she learns that her dark-haired hero in a trench coat calls himself Catch (Jim Caviezel of “Frequency”) and just happened to be across the street when the gunfight erupted. An awkward relationship blossoms from their chance encounter. Catch behaves as if he were suffering from amnesia. Despite Sharon’s attempts to draw him out in conversation, he refuses to talk about himself. Aimlessly, he wanders the streets at night and performs good deeds at random. For example, Catch spots a car with its headlamps burning. Opening the door, he reaches inside to switch them off. Just as he does, the angry owner accuses him of stealing. Catch decks himself out in a wardrobe like the Nicholas Cage character from director Brad Silverling’s “City of Angels,” but he is a flesh-and-blood entity, not an angel.
Eventually, Sharon and Catch date. At a state park on a picnic, they frolick in the lake, then get intimate on the beach. Unlike most citizens who ask Sharon how many people she has shot in the line of duty, Catch praises her for her unselfish sacrifices. Their oddball but believable relationship endures its share of ups and down like most real relationships. Specifically, Sharon comes clean about herself with Catch, but he retreats into silence or anger about himself as if he were playing hard to get. When Sharon’s suspicious partner Robbie can find nothing about Catch in the computers, she chews him out for snooping into her affairs. All too often police dramas feature cop partners who like each other so much that they are just too good to be true. Robby and Sharon tangle, and she isn’t afraid to tell him off. Their professional relationship sets “Angel Eyes” apart from the typical police saga.
Mandoki and DiPego use the gritty realism of a police story as ballast for their gauzy love story about two troubled souls. They establish everything that we need to know about Sharon, and then gradually peel away the layers of mystery from Catch’s taciturn character. No, “Angel Eyes” is not a romantic supernatural thriller like “The Sixth Sense” with ghosts and a surprise ending. Not only is it a straightforward, down-to-earth story with no automobile chases or noisy gunfights, but also the filmmakers juggle gender characteristics. They cast Lopez as an aggressive but sympathetic cop, while Caviezel plays a sensitive guy who refuses to confront his enigmatic past. At times, Catch appears to be playing hard-to-get, a trait more feminine than masculine. Sharon takes the lead in their unpredictable relationship and struggles to get reticent Catch to open up. Twenty years ago, Hollywood would have reversed the roles, with Catch trying to draw out Sharon. Sharon is active here while Catch is passive. The plot largely concerns the mystery surrounding Catch’s character. When Sharon finally solves the mystery about Catch, “Angel Eyes” rolls credits.
“Angel Eyes” rarely strays from the issues at hand. This character driven drama deals with sudden death, dysfunctional families, and spousal abuse, but it offers no facile answers. Like Mandoki’s earlier effort “Message in a Bottle,” “Angel Eyes” shows that life gives those a second chance at love that wants to take it. Like his even earlier movie “When a Man Loves a Woman,” “Angel Eyes” shows that some of life’s problems lay beyond our reach to resolve them. Wow, how many movies seize life by the horns anymore? The romance between Sharon and Catch has depth with occasional interludes of comedy. Lopez and Caviezel share a chemistry that makes their affair seem not only credible but also interesting, too. They don’t behave like brainless, sugar-coated, naïve lovers. Pop tunes don’t blare on the soundtrack while the principals ride around in product placement sports convertibles. Indeed, “Angel Eyes” takes itself seriously and gets away with this sober attitude more often than not. Only when the coincidences seem really contrived, such as when Catch jumps Sharon’s assailant, does “Angel Eyes” blink.
“Angel Eyes” will either intrigue you or will infuriate you entirely with the way they draw out the inevitable. They give their characters room enough to develop, and a gifted, first-class cast exploits every opportunity. Admirably, much of this provocative, above-average, but uneven ‘chick flick’ springs from the characters and their reactions to the obstacles thwarting their desires. Unwisely, Mandoki and DiPego rely on some plot contrivances that undercut credibility but deepen dramatic impact.
“Angel Eyes” opens in Chicago at the scene of a tragic traffic accident. Windy City cop Sharon Pogue (Jennifer Lopez of “Maid in Manhattan”) comforts an accident victim until the paramedics arrive. Mandoki and DiPego create an intriguing aura of mystery early on in the story, because the victim remains anonymous. Cleverly but effectively, they capture the action from the perspective of the injured passenger. A year elapses, and the main plot gradually begins to unfold. “Angel Eyes” depicts Sharon Pogue as a tough, resourceful, fearless police woman who can handle anything that the criminal element can dish out. She tackles one big hoodlum, body slams the dastard against the hood of her police cruiser, and the cuffs and stuffs him. Later, at the precinct house, the thug gives her lip and grabs her. Pogue roughs him up without a second thought, only to have her partner Robby (Terrence Howard of “Iron Man”) reprimand her. “Don’t bust my balls,” Pogue complains irritably as if she were a guy.
Indeed, shunning her glamorous pop diva persona, Lopez delivers a persuasive, rock-solid performance as a dedicated but lonely, insomniac cop with a woebegone past who prefers the graveyard shift. Basically, Sharon jailed her abusive father Carl (Victor Argo of “The Yards”) ten years ago for beating up her mother Josephine (Brazilian actress Sonia Braga of “The Rookie”), and bad blood has existed ever since between them. Essentially, her father disowned her after his arrest. Surprisingly, her mother invites her to attend a ceremony where they plan to renew their marriage vows. Sharon’s working class brother Larry (Jeremy Sisto of “The Suicide Kings”) isn’t overjoyed about seeing his hard-nosed sister. Eventually, Larry batters his own wife Kathy (Monet Mazur of “Mystery Men”) in a fit of rage. Arriving at the scene, Sharon slugs Larry in the mouth in front of her own brothers-in-blue! The cops refuse to arrest Sharon when Larry cries police brutality.
Later, Sharon is hanging out with fellow cops at a diner when black gunmen in a car wheel up and unload a fusillade of bullet at them. The fleeing gangstas wreck their car, and the cops chase them. Sharon pursues a lone gunman, and the suspect ambushes her. Shooting her twice in the chest, he takes aim at her face when a mysterious stranger intervenes. This unshaven Samaritan knocks the assailant off Sharon and saves her life! When Sharon recovers, she learns that her dark-haired hero in a trench coat calls himself Catch (Jim Caviezel of “Frequency”) and just happened to be across the street when the gunfight erupted. An awkward relationship blossoms from their chance encounter. Catch behaves as if he were suffering from amnesia. Despite Sharon’s attempts to draw him out in conversation, he refuses to talk about himself. Aimlessly, he wanders the streets at night and performs good deeds at random. For example, Catch spots a car with its headlamps burning. Opening the door, he reaches inside to switch them off. Just as he does, the angry owner accuses him of stealing. Catch decks himself out in a wardrobe like the Nicholas Cage character from director Brad Silverling’s “City of Angels,” but he is a flesh-and-blood entity, not an angel.
Eventually, Sharon and Catch date. At a state park on a picnic, they frolick in the lake, then get intimate on the beach. Unlike most citizens who ask Sharon how many people she has shot in the line of duty, Catch praises her for her unselfish sacrifices. Their oddball but believable relationship endures its share of ups and down like most real relationships. Specifically, Sharon comes clean about herself with Catch, but he retreats into silence or anger about himself as if he were playing hard to get. When Sharon’s suspicious partner Robbie can find nothing about Catch in the computers, she chews him out for snooping into her affairs. All too often police dramas feature cop partners who like each other so much that they are just too good to be true. Robby and Sharon tangle, and she isn’t afraid to tell him off. Their professional relationship sets “Angel Eyes” apart from the typical police saga.
Mandoki and DiPego use the gritty realism of a police story as ballast for their gauzy love story about two troubled souls. They establish everything that we need to know about Sharon, and then gradually peel away the layers of mystery from Catch’s taciturn character. No, “Angel Eyes” is not a romantic supernatural thriller like “The Sixth Sense” with ghosts and a surprise ending. Not only is it a straightforward, down-to-earth story with no automobile chases or noisy gunfights, but also the filmmakers juggle gender characteristics. They cast Lopez as an aggressive but sympathetic cop, while Caviezel plays a sensitive guy who refuses to confront his enigmatic past. At times, Catch appears to be playing hard-to-get, a trait more feminine than masculine. Sharon takes the lead in their unpredictable relationship and struggles to get reticent Catch to open up. Twenty years ago, Hollywood would have reversed the roles, with Catch trying to draw out Sharon. Sharon is active here while Catch is passive. The plot largely concerns the mystery surrounding Catch’s character. When Sharon finally solves the mystery about Catch, “Angel Eyes” rolls credits.
“Angel Eyes” rarely strays from the issues at hand. This character driven drama deals with sudden death, dysfunctional families, and spousal abuse, but it offers no facile answers. Like Mandoki’s earlier effort “Message in a Bottle,” “Angel Eyes” shows that life gives those a second chance at love that wants to take it. Like his even earlier movie “When a Man Loves a Woman,” “Angel Eyes” shows that some of life’s problems lay beyond our reach to resolve them. Wow, how many movies seize life by the horns anymore? The romance between Sharon and Catch has depth with occasional interludes of comedy. Lopez and Caviezel share a chemistry that makes their affair seem not only credible but also interesting, too. They don’t behave like brainless, sugar-coated, naïve lovers. Pop tunes don’t blare on the soundtrack while the principals ride around in product placement sports convertibles. Indeed, “Angel Eyes” takes itself seriously and gets away with this sober attitude more often than not. Only when the coincidences seem really contrived, such as when Catch jumps Sharon’s assailant, does “Angel Eyes” blink.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
FILM REVIEW OF ''BATMAN & ROBIN" (1997)
Watching “Batman & Robin,” (** 1/2 out of ****) the fourth cinematic outing in the Warner Brothers’ franchise, is like sitting through a Broadway musical staged as a series of wrestling matches. Batman (George Clooney of “From Dusk Till Dawn”) and Robin (Chris O’Donnell of “Batman Forever) are poised in one corner of the ring on the side of justice. The time around the Boy Wonder chafes at his second banana status. He wants a super hero car and his own signal light! Batman grimaces: “That’s why Superman works alone.” Batgirl (Alicia Silverstone of “Clueless”) is the latest recruit to the Caped Crusader’s clan. Uncle Alfred’s bodacious niece, she loves to race motorcycles. Opposite our heroes and heroines in the other corner are Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger of “True Lies”), a human stalagmite dressed like a bug lamp, and the venomous botanical Botticelli-like Venus dubbed Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman of “Pulp Fiction”) whose lips carry a toxic kiss. Audiences get to ogle these overdressed fiends as they battle Batman and Robin amid several fabled settings for two hours in far-fetched situations. The combat scenes suffer from a choreographed look that detracts from the spontaneity of the fighting. Indeed, everything about “Batman & Robin” is as staged and predictable as a wrestling match.
Nevertheless, “Batman & Robin” qualifies as ideal summer fare. This surefire formula has been served up once again with a high quota of action but relatively little violence. Nobody should leave this movie warped enough to imitate any of the stunts. While surpassing “Batman Forever,” “Batman & Robin” sports few of the vicious vibes of the mean-spirited Tim Burton & Michael Keaton originals. The lively Akiva Goldsman screenplay plumbs the depths of a DC comic book. After all, who watches a Batman movies for its fine, subtle, literary features? The screenplay exists as an excuse to catapult Batman into a string of battles with his larger-than-life adversaries. Like some earlier Batman fiends, these new villains are zombies that have defied death.
Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger) stomps around in a subzero cryogenic suit that resembles the RoboCop rig minus the helmet. Freeze survives on diamonds to fuel his cold suit. Meanwhile, he is cooking up a formula to cure his frozen wife of a terminal disease called McGregor’s Syndrome. Goldsman must have watched some of those British Peter Cushing movies about mad scientists and their dead wives. Interestingly, Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler Alfred (Michael Gough of “Horror Hospital”) falls victim to the same illness. If one villain were not enough, Goldsman whistles up a second, the felonious flora known as Poison Ivy who deploys her sire charms to incite rivalry between the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder. Again, the wrestling image of tag teams comes to mind for “Batman & Robin.”
Mind you, the villains are annoying but not odious. Although bald-headed, gimlet-eyed, and blue from head to toe, Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn’t seem very dangerous. His dialogue mixes puns about frigidity with synonyms for the word ‘cold.’ “Chill!” roars Mr. Freeze as he wields an ice gun that turns the police into icicles. Despite his insane laughter and hideous plans, Mr. Freeze never really harms anybody. The heroes manage to thaw out Freeze’s victims before they die so his villainy is strictly cosmetic.
And Poison Ivy’s is essentially no different.
“Batman & Robin” emerges more as a triumph of set design, costuming, and elaborate visual effects over narrative storytelling. The breath-taking, computer-generated baroque sets of Gotham City radiate a surreal quality that is enhanced by the cotton-candy colored fluorescence of the cinematography. Each shot in the movie resembles a panel out of a Batman comic book. Scores of Dutch-tilted MTV-style camera angles punctuate the action to heighten the tension and suspense. The special effects are so dazzling that you will find yourself overwhelmed by them.
Director Joel Schumacher succeeds admirably in keeping the plot from getting in the way of either the special efforts or the action. “Batman & Robin” is as calculated a summer commodity as brand name triple-decker hamburgers with all the fixings. That’s the kind of hamburger that people want so they keep putting the same things in them. The same applies to the “Batman” franchise. Entertaining, clever, and shrewd at every turn, “Batman & Robin” succeeds for the same reasons that other “Batman” movies faltered. The Dynamic Duo are bulletproof! Suspense doesn’t exist in this lavishly produced epic. No matter how closely death hovers over our heroes, they escape without a scratch.
Making the death-defying obstacles bigger each time helps but only prolongs the certainty that they will survive. Basically, the heroes are getting out of tight spots far too easily. Batman’s suit conceals more gadgets than James Bond’s tuxedo. Every gadget has been ingeniously contrived to get Batman out of his predicaments. Each device works without fail every time. Our heroes don’t even break a sweat, so why should we? The best way to watch “Batman & Robin” is to let the absurdities flow over you. Nevertheless, the filmmakers are shrewd. Between the high octane action sequences, a dozen allusions are made about ‘family values.’ Bruce Wayne shares a tearful moment, for example, with his bed-ridden butler Alfred. Despite its knockabout tactics, “Batman & Robin” endorses the family. ‘Family values’ play a crucial part in the narrative. Batman & Robin quarrel and compete with each other in the film. Eventually, Alfred intervenes and resolves the tensions between our heroes. When the Dynamic Duo reciprocate the trust that solidifies them as a family, they defeat their adversaries.
The best part of “Batman & Robin” is the subplot that has Alfred ailing. Aside from paunchy Pat Hingle’s Commissioner Gordon, English actor Michael Gough is the only holdover from the original Keaton “Batman.” Equipped with George Burns’ eyeglasses, Alfred furnishes the only genuine warmth in the film. Although the main plot concerns saving the world from Mr. Freeze’s ice-capades, Alfred’s imminent death weaves the path of hero and villain into a neat, slushy outcome.
George Clooney of NBC-TV’s “ER” appears well suited to wear the cape and cowl. His chin and jaw are square enough to accommodate the role. Clooney plays Bruce Wayne/Batman straight. He delivers each line of dialogue with persuasive conviction. While his Batman is neither as ruthless as Keaton’s or as suave as Kilmer’s, Clooney brings a compelling, no-nonsense virility to the role.
Schumacher provides more than enough style to get “Batman & Robin” over its alarming lack of substance. Schumacher inherited the franchise from Tim Burton who bailed after “Batman Returns.” As Hollywood movie directors rank, Schumacher boasts an impressive string of successes. He helmed “Batman Forever,” “A Time to Kill,” “Flatliners,” “The Lost Boys,” “D.C. Cab,” and “St. Elmo’s Fire.” Schumacher keeps “Batman & Robin” moving at a whirlwind pace. At two and a half hours in length, this “Batman” entry flies. He has ushered Batman away from the dark side and into the light. The worse thing that you can say about “Batman & Robin” is that it is a rough and tumble fashion show masquerading as an action movie. Nobody really gets hurt who doesn’t deserve their punishment. Although Schumacher generates a certain amount of adrenalin here and there, it is primarily about showing what the heroes and villains do rather than the consequences of their actions. Juveniles should be efficiently distracted by these antics, the obstreperous soundtrack and the heady visuals. Discriminating adults should be able to tolerate “Batman & Robin” for what it is a summer movie joyride.
Nevertheless, “Batman & Robin” qualifies as ideal summer fare. This surefire formula has been served up once again with a high quota of action but relatively little violence. Nobody should leave this movie warped enough to imitate any of the stunts. While surpassing “Batman Forever,” “Batman & Robin” sports few of the vicious vibes of the mean-spirited Tim Burton & Michael Keaton originals. The lively Akiva Goldsman screenplay plumbs the depths of a DC comic book. After all, who watches a Batman movies for its fine, subtle, literary features? The screenplay exists as an excuse to catapult Batman into a string of battles with his larger-than-life adversaries. Like some earlier Batman fiends, these new villains are zombies that have defied death.
Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger) stomps around in a subzero cryogenic suit that resembles the RoboCop rig minus the helmet. Freeze survives on diamonds to fuel his cold suit. Meanwhile, he is cooking up a formula to cure his frozen wife of a terminal disease called McGregor’s Syndrome. Goldsman must have watched some of those British Peter Cushing movies about mad scientists and their dead wives. Interestingly, Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler Alfred (Michael Gough of “Horror Hospital”) falls victim to the same illness. If one villain were not enough, Goldsman whistles up a second, the felonious flora known as Poison Ivy who deploys her sire charms to incite rivalry between the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder. Again, the wrestling image of tag teams comes to mind for “Batman & Robin.”
Mind you, the villains are annoying but not odious. Although bald-headed, gimlet-eyed, and blue from head to toe, Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn’t seem very dangerous. His dialogue mixes puns about frigidity with synonyms for the word ‘cold.’ “Chill!” roars Mr. Freeze as he wields an ice gun that turns the police into icicles. Despite his insane laughter and hideous plans, Mr. Freeze never really harms anybody. The heroes manage to thaw out Freeze’s victims before they die so his villainy is strictly cosmetic.
And Poison Ivy’s is essentially no different.
“Batman & Robin” emerges more as a triumph of set design, costuming, and elaborate visual effects over narrative storytelling. The breath-taking, computer-generated baroque sets of Gotham City radiate a surreal quality that is enhanced by the cotton-candy colored fluorescence of the cinematography. Each shot in the movie resembles a panel out of a Batman comic book. Scores of Dutch-tilted MTV-style camera angles punctuate the action to heighten the tension and suspense. The special effects are so dazzling that you will find yourself overwhelmed by them.
Director Joel Schumacher succeeds admirably in keeping the plot from getting in the way of either the special efforts or the action. “Batman & Robin” is as calculated a summer commodity as brand name triple-decker hamburgers with all the fixings. That’s the kind of hamburger that people want so they keep putting the same things in them. The same applies to the “Batman” franchise. Entertaining, clever, and shrewd at every turn, “Batman & Robin” succeeds for the same reasons that other “Batman” movies faltered. The Dynamic Duo are bulletproof! Suspense doesn’t exist in this lavishly produced epic. No matter how closely death hovers over our heroes, they escape without a scratch.
Making the death-defying obstacles bigger each time helps but only prolongs the certainty that they will survive. Basically, the heroes are getting out of tight spots far too easily. Batman’s suit conceals more gadgets than James Bond’s tuxedo. Every gadget has been ingeniously contrived to get Batman out of his predicaments. Each device works without fail every time. Our heroes don’t even break a sweat, so why should we? The best way to watch “Batman & Robin” is to let the absurdities flow over you. Nevertheless, the filmmakers are shrewd. Between the high octane action sequences, a dozen allusions are made about ‘family values.’ Bruce Wayne shares a tearful moment, for example, with his bed-ridden butler Alfred. Despite its knockabout tactics, “Batman & Robin” endorses the family. ‘Family values’ play a crucial part in the narrative. Batman & Robin quarrel and compete with each other in the film. Eventually, Alfred intervenes and resolves the tensions between our heroes. When the Dynamic Duo reciprocate the trust that solidifies them as a family, they defeat their adversaries.
The best part of “Batman & Robin” is the subplot that has Alfred ailing. Aside from paunchy Pat Hingle’s Commissioner Gordon, English actor Michael Gough is the only holdover from the original Keaton “Batman.” Equipped with George Burns’ eyeglasses, Alfred furnishes the only genuine warmth in the film. Although the main plot concerns saving the world from Mr. Freeze’s ice-capades, Alfred’s imminent death weaves the path of hero and villain into a neat, slushy outcome.
George Clooney of NBC-TV’s “ER” appears well suited to wear the cape and cowl. His chin and jaw are square enough to accommodate the role. Clooney plays Bruce Wayne/Batman straight. He delivers each line of dialogue with persuasive conviction. While his Batman is neither as ruthless as Keaton’s or as suave as Kilmer’s, Clooney brings a compelling, no-nonsense virility to the role.
Schumacher provides more than enough style to get “Batman & Robin” over its alarming lack of substance. Schumacher inherited the franchise from Tim Burton who bailed after “Batman Returns.” As Hollywood movie directors rank, Schumacher boasts an impressive string of successes. He helmed “Batman Forever,” “A Time to Kill,” “Flatliners,” “The Lost Boys,” “D.C. Cab,” and “St. Elmo’s Fire.” Schumacher keeps “Batman & Robin” moving at a whirlwind pace. At two and a half hours in length, this “Batman” entry flies. He has ushered Batman away from the dark side and into the light. The worse thing that you can say about “Batman & Robin” is that it is a rough and tumble fashion show masquerading as an action movie. Nobody really gets hurt who doesn’t deserve their punishment. Although Schumacher generates a certain amount of adrenalin here and there, it is primarily about showing what the heroes and villains do rather than the consequences of their actions. Juveniles should be efficiently distracted by these antics, the obstreperous soundtrack and the heady visuals. Discriminating adults should be able to tolerate “Batman & Robin” for what it is a summer movie joyride.
Monday, August 3, 2009
FILM REVIEW OF ''CON-AIR" (1997)
Summer action movies for adult males celebrate those macho virtues that red-blooded, he-men cherish. British director Simon West’s “Con-Air” (*** out of ****), teaming Nicolas Cage with John Cusack, sizzles as a high flying take-off on all those vintage “Airport” movies, but the passengers here are convicts who skyjack their transport for a rendezvous in the desert with Colombian drug smugglers. At the heart of this superficial but stimulating action movie lies a less than subtle Hollywood commentary on what a macho man must do to conform to society.
In “Con-Air,” Cage plays Cameron Poe, a former U.S. Army Ranger who pulls a stretch in prison for killing a knife-wielding drunkard in a brawl over his wife. Before Poe can recover, the villain’s pals scoop up the knife, scram, and leave our hero to take the rap. Because Poe’s Ranger training qualifies him as a lethal weapon, the court sentences him to eight years in a federal lock-up. While he is incarnated, Poe’s pretty young wife Tricia (Monica Potter) has given birth to an adorable baby girl. In the second quarter-hour of “Con-Air,” Poe and his cut little daughter exchange amusing letters. During this interval, Poe matures enough so that his exemplary behavior wins him a parole.
A short plane ride is the last obstacle between Poe and his freedom. Prison officials pile him onto a cargo plane with an all-star line-up of psychopathic murderers, among them Cyrus ‘the Virus’ Grissom (John Malkovich of “Dangerous Liaisons”) and Diamond Dog (Ving Rhames of “Pulp Fiction”), a vicious black militant. A clean-cut, sandal-shod U.S. Marshal named Vince Larkin (John Cusack of “Grosse Point Blank”) officiates the transfer. The plot thickens when abrasive D.E.A. agent Duncan Molloy (Colm Meaney of “TV’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) wins permission to smuggle a trigger-happy undercover agent on board to cajole information out of a Colombian drug lord’s son. Once they’re airborne, the convicts stage an ingenious jail break; ice the D.E.A. agent, and commander the plane. Sally Bishop (Rachel Ticotin of “Total Recall”), then acts as an insider for Larkin. Meanwhile, Larkin clashes with Molloy who aims to avenge his dead agent by blowing the plane to smithereens!
“Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead” scenarist Scott Rosenberg has contrived this hard-fisted hokum that excites and entertains even though it is hopeless predictable from fade-in to fade-out. “Con-Air” spends most of its two-hour running time in the air instead of behind bars. The early prison scenes establish Poe’s friendship with a diabetic black prisoner named Mike Baby-O’ O’Dell (Mykelti Williamson of “Waiting to Exhale”). The filmmakers have carefully balanced good African-Americans with bad African-Americans so as to avoid charges of racism. Rosenberg has penned some catchy dialogue that serves the dual purpose of foreshadowing the action and sounding quite quotable. Nothing happens in “Con-Air” that is not set up far in advance, so the movie never pulls any unfair tricks on its audience. Moreover, the characters spout dialogue about their predicaments that never leave any doubt for the audience about the destination of the action.
Freshman director Simon West and Rosenberg endow Poe with such heroic qualities that it is difficult to believe that any court could have sent a man of his caliber up the river. After all, he is a Gulf War veteran who has just come home to his gorgeous young wife pregnant with a baby girl. Furthermore, the filmmakers hammer home Poe’s Ranger’s credo: no matter what the dangers, U.S. Rangers never abandon their comrades. When Poe has a chance to leave the plane, he sticks around instead to save the day. What “Con-Air” lacks in credibility, it compensates for with its diversity of colorful characters and its pyrotechnics.
Wearing scruffy shoulder length hair and flexing sculpted biceps, Nicolas Cage resembles Sylvester Stallone’s “Rambo” as he thwarts his opponents. Cage’s syrupy Alabama accent gets a little thick on occasion, but he registers as a respectable enough hero. John Cusack excels in his first dramatic action role. Before “Con-Air” crashes to a halt, Cusack’s U.S. Marshal Larkin has been scorched, slugged unconscious, and nearly killed. As a sneering, egotistical D.E.A. agent, Colm Meaney is so convincing that you want to shoot him yourself.
The filmmakers have assembled some really grisly looking actors as the convicts. These bad guys emerge as a truly venomous bunch that richly deserve their inevitable comeuppance. John Malkovich impersonates a character here who is just as despicable and cunning as the assassin that he played in the Clint Eastwood thriller “In the Line of Fire.” Malkovich’s predatory, bald villain boasts that he has slain more men than cancer. As his henchman, Ving Rhames is equally as nefarious. Danny Trejo of “Desperado” fame creates a chilling portrait of lust run amok as a rapist named Johnny 23 with twenty-three hearts tattooed on his beefy forearm to represent his unfortunate rape victims.
West keeps the action stirred up to such a whirlwind pace that its far-fetched elements don’t detract from the excitement. “Con-Air” is West’s big-screen movie debut and he displays a lot of promise as an action director. His action scenes ripple with adrenaline, especially the plane hijacking, an ambush in a derelict airplane scrap heap, and a rousing finale in Las Vegas. The explosive music of Mark Mancina and former “Yes” musician Trevor Rabin considerably enhances each of these slam-bang scenes. “Yes” rock music fans will recognize those distinctive, throbbing Rabin chords that punctuate the action.
Nobody should imitate “Con-Air” or take its woefully exaggerated carnival of snap, crackle, pop violence seriously. Characters get shot, stabled, and dismembered beyond anything an ordinary individual cold take, but then this clever, slickly-packaged fantasy pokes as much fun at itself as at its audiences. One amusing scene involves the destruction of a classic sports car. Another features Cage battling with another convict because he refuses to head Poe’s warning to “leave the bunny alone.’
In “Con-Air,” Cage plays Cameron Poe, a former U.S. Army Ranger who pulls a stretch in prison for killing a knife-wielding drunkard in a brawl over his wife. Before Poe can recover, the villain’s pals scoop up the knife, scram, and leave our hero to take the rap. Because Poe’s Ranger training qualifies him as a lethal weapon, the court sentences him to eight years in a federal lock-up. While he is incarnated, Poe’s pretty young wife Tricia (Monica Potter) has given birth to an adorable baby girl. In the second quarter-hour of “Con-Air,” Poe and his cut little daughter exchange amusing letters. During this interval, Poe matures enough so that his exemplary behavior wins him a parole.
A short plane ride is the last obstacle between Poe and his freedom. Prison officials pile him onto a cargo plane with an all-star line-up of psychopathic murderers, among them Cyrus ‘the Virus’ Grissom (John Malkovich of “Dangerous Liaisons”) and Diamond Dog (Ving Rhames of “Pulp Fiction”), a vicious black militant. A clean-cut, sandal-shod U.S. Marshal named Vince Larkin (John Cusack of “Grosse Point Blank”) officiates the transfer. The plot thickens when abrasive D.E.A. agent Duncan Molloy (Colm Meaney of “TV’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) wins permission to smuggle a trigger-happy undercover agent on board to cajole information out of a Colombian drug lord’s son. Once they’re airborne, the convicts stage an ingenious jail break; ice the D.E.A. agent, and commander the plane. Sally Bishop (Rachel Ticotin of “Total Recall”), then acts as an insider for Larkin. Meanwhile, Larkin clashes with Molloy who aims to avenge his dead agent by blowing the plane to smithereens!
“Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead” scenarist Scott Rosenberg has contrived this hard-fisted hokum that excites and entertains even though it is hopeless predictable from fade-in to fade-out. “Con-Air” spends most of its two-hour running time in the air instead of behind bars. The early prison scenes establish Poe’s friendship with a diabetic black prisoner named Mike Baby-O’ O’Dell (Mykelti Williamson of “Waiting to Exhale”). The filmmakers have carefully balanced good African-Americans with bad African-Americans so as to avoid charges of racism. Rosenberg has penned some catchy dialogue that serves the dual purpose of foreshadowing the action and sounding quite quotable. Nothing happens in “Con-Air” that is not set up far in advance, so the movie never pulls any unfair tricks on its audience. Moreover, the characters spout dialogue about their predicaments that never leave any doubt for the audience about the destination of the action.
Freshman director Simon West and Rosenberg endow Poe with such heroic qualities that it is difficult to believe that any court could have sent a man of his caliber up the river. After all, he is a Gulf War veteran who has just come home to his gorgeous young wife pregnant with a baby girl. Furthermore, the filmmakers hammer home Poe’s Ranger’s credo: no matter what the dangers, U.S. Rangers never abandon their comrades. When Poe has a chance to leave the plane, he sticks around instead to save the day. What “Con-Air” lacks in credibility, it compensates for with its diversity of colorful characters and its pyrotechnics.
Wearing scruffy shoulder length hair and flexing sculpted biceps, Nicolas Cage resembles Sylvester Stallone’s “Rambo” as he thwarts his opponents. Cage’s syrupy Alabama accent gets a little thick on occasion, but he registers as a respectable enough hero. John Cusack excels in his first dramatic action role. Before “Con-Air” crashes to a halt, Cusack’s U.S. Marshal Larkin has been scorched, slugged unconscious, and nearly killed. As a sneering, egotistical D.E.A. agent, Colm Meaney is so convincing that you want to shoot him yourself.
The filmmakers have assembled some really grisly looking actors as the convicts. These bad guys emerge as a truly venomous bunch that richly deserve their inevitable comeuppance. John Malkovich impersonates a character here who is just as despicable and cunning as the assassin that he played in the Clint Eastwood thriller “In the Line of Fire.” Malkovich’s predatory, bald villain boasts that he has slain more men than cancer. As his henchman, Ving Rhames is equally as nefarious. Danny Trejo of “Desperado” fame creates a chilling portrait of lust run amok as a rapist named Johnny 23 with twenty-three hearts tattooed on his beefy forearm to represent his unfortunate rape victims.
West keeps the action stirred up to such a whirlwind pace that its far-fetched elements don’t detract from the excitement. “Con-Air” is West’s big-screen movie debut and he displays a lot of promise as an action director. His action scenes ripple with adrenaline, especially the plane hijacking, an ambush in a derelict airplane scrap heap, and a rousing finale in Las Vegas. The explosive music of Mark Mancina and former “Yes” musician Trevor Rabin considerably enhances each of these slam-bang scenes. “Yes” rock music fans will recognize those distinctive, throbbing Rabin chords that punctuate the action.
Nobody should imitate “Con-Air” or take its woefully exaggerated carnival of snap, crackle, pop violence seriously. Characters get shot, stabled, and dismembered beyond anything an ordinary individual cold take, but then this clever, slickly-packaged fantasy pokes as much fun at itself as at its audiences. One amusing scene involves the destruction of a classic sports car. Another features Cage battling with another convict because he refuses to head Poe’s warning to “leave the bunny alone.’
Saturday, August 1, 2009
FILM REVIEW OF "THE KILLERS'' (1946)
“Son of Dracula” director Robert Siodmak, who emigrated from Germany after Joseph Goebbels drove him out of the Fatherland, made a specialty of what French film theorist Nino Frank called ‘film noir.’ These gritty, black & white melodramas usually occurred in an urban setting and involved unsavory criminal types as well as cops. Women—designated as femme fatales--often lured gullible men to their doom like the sirens did to sailors in ancient Greek myths. Although some scenes take place during daylight hours, most film noir thrillers unfold after dark. Metaphorically, film noir involve flawed protagonists suffering from some psychological neuroses. Siodmak’s “The Killers” (**** out of ****)epitomizes vintage film noir. “Black Friday” lenser Woody Bredell captures the fatalistic look of film noir, and Siodmark incorporates several mirror image scenes as they depict the solution to a mysterious robbery and the demise of all the conspirators. Basically, nobody winds up with what they set out to get in "The Killers" starting with the eponymous villains when they order supper at a lunch wagon.
“The Stranger” scenarist Anthony Veiller, along with John Huston and Richard Brooks (neither received credit for their contributions), adapted Ernest Hemingway’s famous short story that Scribner’s Magazine had published in its March 1927 issue. Siodmak and his scribes kept most of the short story intact. The short story dealt with two tough-guy gunmen who occupied a Midwestern dinner in a small town and waited to kill a prizefighter named ‘Swede’ Anderson. Undoubtedly influenced by the narrative flashbacks in “Citizen Kane,” the filmmakers forge the remainder of this concise 103 minute film with flashbacks galore as various individuals discuss their relationship with a curious lone wolf insurance investigator who cannot get over the fact that the Swede accepted his inevitable death at the hands of the gunmen without trying to defend himself. The puzzled investigator exhausts every single clue in the case and winds up solving a 6 year old hat factory robbery and recovers a portion of the loot.
“The Killers” opens after dark as two gunsels in fedoras and trench coats, Max (William Conrad) and Al (Charles McGraw of "The Narrow Margin"), cruise into the cozy hamlet of Brentwood, New Jersey, check out the Tri-States Gas Station and then step over to Henry’s lunch counter a little before 6 PM when supper is served and set up an ambush to kill ‘Swede’ Anderson. The diner owner warns them that if the ‘Swede’ doesn’t show at 6 PM then he isn’t going to show. The gunmen leave Henry’s dinner and he unties his black cook and a customer, Nick Adams. Adams (Phil Brown) works with the Swede at the gas station. Henry sends Nick off to warn the Swede (Burt Lancaster in his film debut) before the gunmen can find him. Nick warns the Swede, but the Swede refuses to flee. “I once did something bad,” he explains to Nick. Later, Max and Al barge into his room and shoot the Swede eight times. All we see is the flash of their firearms barking off-camera as they perforate the Swede.
Riordan (Edmond O’Brien of “DOA”) investigates claims for an insurance company. He learns that the Swede left $2,500 to a beneficiary. Riordan questions Nick about the Swede. The flashbacks begin with Nick’s story about the Swede meeting an out-of-town motorist who makes him so queasy that he takes a day off of work and lies in the darkness of his boarding house. Initially, Riordan’s boss, R.S. Kenyon (Donald MacBride of “Room Service”), considers it a nickel and dime case and wants Riordan on another case. Riordan convinces Kenyon to give him more time. Riordan calls on Philadelphia Police Detective Lieutenant Sam Lubinsky (Sam Levene of “Golden Boy”) who not only grew up with the Swede but later arrested him for theft and sent him to prison for three years. Lubinsky tells Riordan about the Swede's ill-fated boxing days and later how he fell into bad company. Lubinsky arrested his own childhood friend on a theft charge because the Swede refused to let him arrest his flame Kitty on a shoplifting charge. Riordan attends the Swede’s funeral that Lubinsky and his wife, Lilly Harmon Lubinsky (Virginia Christine of the Folgers Coffee commercials), have arranged and asks about another funeral guest.
Charleston (Vince Barrett of “Scarface”) shared a prison cell with the Swede for two years. He tells Riordan his side of the story. In the flashback, Charleston contacts the Swede as soon as he got out of prison about a job. The Swede joins the ring of criminals led by ‘Big’ Jim Colfax (Albert Dekker of “The Wild Bunch”), a trigger-happy goon, Dum Dum Clarke (Jack Lambert of “Vera Cruz”), and Blinky Franklin (Jeff Corey of “True Grit”). Charleston refuses to participate in the robbery caper because he thinks that it is too big and will end in failure. He explains that he will never go back to prison and lives only for 'easy pickings.'
Riordan learns that Colfax, Clarke, Franklin and the Swede robbed the Prentiss Hat factory from a single lead, a green silk bandana with an Irish harp on it. An incredulous Kenyon reads about the robbery.
While Kenyon reads about the robbery on the soundtrack, Siodmak presents the robbery in a single take with a crane shot. Clearly, Siodmak knew his craft to pull off this complicated camera movement. This scene exemplifies Siodmak’s finesse with the mise-en-scene. Touches like this one elevate “The Killers” and make it look better than it convoluted story. Indeed, Veiller, Huston, and Brooks expand the scope of the action, going back seven years to depict the Swede’s victories and successes. Usually, the Swede lost. He goes soft on a dame, Kitty (Ava Gardner of “Whistle Stop”) and takes a fall for her so that she won’t land in prison. The remainder of “The Killers” deals with caper that Big Jim cooks up. When the Swede joins them, he is surprised to see Kitty as Big Jim’s squeeze. Later, Big Jim and the Swede fight over a card game. Big Jim hates the Swede and tries to cut him out of the robbery. The Swede trumps him because Kitty tells him about the new rendezvous and he swipes the $250-thousand from Colfax, Clarke, and Blinky.
“The Killers” qualifies as a top-notch film noir caper. Burt Lancaster became a star as did his co-star Ava Gardner. The irony is the Swede never had a chance with Kitty. He took a dive for her and she still tricked him. The theme of fate pervades “The Killers.” The Swede knows he’ll never escape either fate or the gunsels. Siodmak coaxes solid performances from a talented cast. Lancaster is simply dazzling as the thick headed Swede who goes dizzy over Kitty and is destroyed by her treachery. Ava Gardner looks spectacular as the cunning Kitty, while Albert Dekker is appropriately perfidious as Colfax. He uses Kitty to trick not only the Swede into thinking that he has robbed Colfax and his pals, but also he eliminates his conspirators—Dum Dum and Blinky—by letting the Swede take the loot. The plot twists and the ending when Kitty finds her neck finally caught in the noose of fate is outstanding. Film noir not only cheats the villains but it also cheats Riordan. Initially, Riordan is elated because he solved the six-year old robbery, but Kenyon points out:"Owing to your splendid efforts, the basic rate of the Atlantic Casualty Company as of 1947 will probably drop one-tenth of a cent." “The Killers” is powerful stuff.
“The Stranger” scenarist Anthony Veiller, along with John Huston and Richard Brooks (neither received credit for their contributions), adapted Ernest Hemingway’s famous short story that Scribner’s Magazine had published in its March 1927 issue. Siodmak and his scribes kept most of the short story intact. The short story dealt with two tough-guy gunmen who occupied a Midwestern dinner in a small town and waited to kill a prizefighter named ‘Swede’ Anderson. Undoubtedly influenced by the narrative flashbacks in “Citizen Kane,” the filmmakers forge the remainder of this concise 103 minute film with flashbacks galore as various individuals discuss their relationship with a curious lone wolf insurance investigator who cannot get over the fact that the Swede accepted his inevitable death at the hands of the gunmen without trying to defend himself. The puzzled investigator exhausts every single clue in the case and winds up solving a 6 year old hat factory robbery and recovers a portion of the loot.
“The Killers” opens after dark as two gunsels in fedoras and trench coats, Max (William Conrad) and Al (Charles McGraw of "The Narrow Margin"), cruise into the cozy hamlet of Brentwood, New Jersey, check out the Tri-States Gas Station and then step over to Henry’s lunch counter a little before 6 PM when supper is served and set up an ambush to kill ‘Swede’ Anderson. The diner owner warns them that if the ‘Swede’ doesn’t show at 6 PM then he isn’t going to show. The gunmen leave Henry’s dinner and he unties his black cook and a customer, Nick Adams. Adams (Phil Brown) works with the Swede at the gas station. Henry sends Nick off to warn the Swede (Burt Lancaster in his film debut) before the gunmen can find him. Nick warns the Swede, but the Swede refuses to flee. “I once did something bad,” he explains to Nick. Later, Max and Al barge into his room and shoot the Swede eight times. All we see is the flash of their firearms barking off-camera as they perforate the Swede.
Riordan (Edmond O’Brien of “DOA”) investigates claims for an insurance company. He learns that the Swede left $2,500 to a beneficiary. Riordan questions Nick about the Swede. The flashbacks begin with Nick’s story about the Swede meeting an out-of-town motorist who makes him so queasy that he takes a day off of work and lies in the darkness of his boarding house. Initially, Riordan’s boss, R.S. Kenyon (Donald MacBride of “Room Service”), considers it a nickel and dime case and wants Riordan on another case. Riordan convinces Kenyon to give him more time. Riordan calls on Philadelphia Police Detective Lieutenant Sam Lubinsky (Sam Levene of “Golden Boy”) who not only grew up with the Swede but later arrested him for theft and sent him to prison for three years. Lubinsky tells Riordan about the Swede's ill-fated boxing days and later how he fell into bad company. Lubinsky arrested his own childhood friend on a theft charge because the Swede refused to let him arrest his flame Kitty on a shoplifting charge. Riordan attends the Swede’s funeral that Lubinsky and his wife, Lilly Harmon Lubinsky (Virginia Christine of the Folgers Coffee commercials), have arranged and asks about another funeral guest.
Charleston (Vince Barrett of “Scarface”) shared a prison cell with the Swede for two years. He tells Riordan his side of the story. In the flashback, Charleston contacts the Swede as soon as he got out of prison about a job. The Swede joins the ring of criminals led by ‘Big’ Jim Colfax (Albert Dekker of “The Wild Bunch”), a trigger-happy goon, Dum Dum Clarke (Jack Lambert of “Vera Cruz”), and Blinky Franklin (Jeff Corey of “True Grit”). Charleston refuses to participate in the robbery caper because he thinks that it is too big and will end in failure. He explains that he will never go back to prison and lives only for 'easy pickings.'
Riordan learns that Colfax, Clarke, Franklin and the Swede robbed the Prentiss Hat factory from a single lead, a green silk bandana with an Irish harp on it. An incredulous Kenyon reads about the robbery.
While Kenyon reads about the robbery on the soundtrack, Siodmak presents the robbery in a single take with a crane shot. Clearly, Siodmak knew his craft to pull off this complicated camera movement. This scene exemplifies Siodmak’s finesse with the mise-en-scene. Touches like this one elevate “The Killers” and make it look better than it convoluted story. Indeed, Veiller, Huston, and Brooks expand the scope of the action, going back seven years to depict the Swede’s victories and successes. Usually, the Swede lost. He goes soft on a dame, Kitty (Ava Gardner of “Whistle Stop”) and takes a fall for her so that she won’t land in prison. The remainder of “The Killers” deals with caper that Big Jim cooks up. When the Swede joins them, he is surprised to see Kitty as Big Jim’s squeeze. Later, Big Jim and the Swede fight over a card game. Big Jim hates the Swede and tries to cut him out of the robbery. The Swede trumps him because Kitty tells him about the new rendezvous and he swipes the $250-thousand from Colfax, Clarke, and Blinky.
“The Killers” qualifies as a top-notch film noir caper. Burt Lancaster became a star as did his co-star Ava Gardner. The irony is the Swede never had a chance with Kitty. He took a dive for her and she still tricked him. The theme of fate pervades “The Killers.” The Swede knows he’ll never escape either fate or the gunsels. Siodmak coaxes solid performances from a talented cast. Lancaster is simply dazzling as the thick headed Swede who goes dizzy over Kitty and is destroyed by her treachery. Ava Gardner looks spectacular as the cunning Kitty, while Albert Dekker is appropriately perfidious as Colfax. He uses Kitty to trick not only the Swede into thinking that he has robbed Colfax and his pals, but also he eliminates his conspirators—Dum Dum and Blinky—by letting the Swede take the loot. The plot twists and the ending when Kitty finds her neck finally caught in the noose of fate is outstanding. Film noir not only cheats the villains but it also cheats Riordan. Initially, Riordan is elated because he solved the six-year old robbery, but Kenyon points out:"Owing to your splendid efforts, the basic rate of the Atlantic Casualty Company as of 1947 will probably drop one-tenth of a cent." “The Killers” is powerful stuff.
Friday, July 31, 2009
FILM REVIEW OF "ICE STATION ZEBRA" (1968)
"The Great Escape" director John Sturges serves up a platter of Cold War paranoia and tension with "Ice Station Zebra" (**** out of ****), his riveting 1968 submarine thriller. Uncle Sam and the British rush to the North Pole to recover the contents of a Soviet satellite that the Russians have lost which contains ultra-classified film of every missile silo both American and Communist on the globe. Brawny Rock Hudson stars as Captain James Ferraday, commander of the U.S.S. Tigerfish (SNN-509), a nuclear sub, who receives his hush hush orders as well as his hush hush passenger, a laconic British Intelligence agent known only as Jones (Patrick McGoohan of "The Prisoner") who wants to beat the Russkies to the prize.
This glossy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer action-adventure blockbuster received Academy Award nominations for David L. Fapp's cinematography as well as its visual effects. Slow-moving in a peasant old-fashioned way, the Douglas Heyes screenplay introduces all the characters as they assemble at different times aboard the Tigerfish, generates some tension as a mysterious saboteur tries to sink the sub, and then breaks out into frigid North Pole frontier during its final hour with a showdown that reveals the identity of the saboteur and a showdown with Russian paratroopers. The Sturges film is based on the Alistair MacLean novel that isn't as epic in scope as the film and future "Dirty Harry" scenarist Harry Julian Fink adapted it with "Little Caesar" scribe W.R. Burnett contributing uncredited portions. Reportedly, Alstair MacLean's novel was partly based on an actual incident that occurred in 1959. If you like your Cold War thrillers with a snap, you'll love this taut 152-minute epic that never deploys a gratuitous minute. "Ice Station Zebra" was not only Rock Hudson's favorite movie, but also millionaire Howard Hughes' watched this movie repeatedly toward the end of his life. Interestingly, Hughes hired Sturges to helm his own subterrean adventure thriller "Underwater" back in
1955.
John Sturges was an old hand at making action films with predominantly all male casts by the time that producer Martin Ransohoff signed him on to helm "Ice Station Zebra." Some of the windy scenes after the heroes reach the eponymous site are reminiscent of Sturges' early work in "The Walking Hills" and the journey to site recalls his western "The Law and Jake Wade." Sturges orchestrates this big, international actioneer without a false turn but that means that it has to unfold at a slow but sturdy pace. Ferraday receives his orders out of uniform in a pub in Scotland from Admiral Garvey (Lloyd Nolan) and back at the naval base a clandestine secret agent, David Jones arrives who casually admits that Jones isn't his real name. Not long after Jones' arrival the Tigerfish receives a platoon of U.S. Marines, all of whom are young, and equally young lieutenant, Lt. Russell Walker (Tony Bill)leads them. The passengers keep piling up with the additional of a Soviet defector, Boris Vaslov (Ernest Borgnine of "The Dirty Dozen"), who Jones smuggled out of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Not surprisingly, Jones trusts Vaslov implicitly. The final passenger who is picked up in route is U.S. Marine Captain Anders (Jim Brown of "100 Rifles") who comes aboard ready to kick ass. The first scene in Ferraday's cabin with Anders and later Lt. Walker is terrific! Anders makes it clear to Walker who the boss is in no time at all.
Once Sturges and Heyes have everybody aboard the Tigerfish and the orders are clear, the tension and suspense sets in the action. Vaslov loves to roam the ship without escort, while Jones worries about their most recent arrival, Captain Anders, who was picked up in transit. About 45 minutes to an hour later, the Tigerfish reaches the polar ice cap and tries to surface, but the ice above is far too thick. Ferraday decides it is time to fire a torpedo through the ice and then surface. Out of nowhere a disaster occurs. Somebody have tampered with the torpedo tube and let water into the tube so that when our guys go to load the fish, water erupts in a flood and fills the torpedo room. Down does the Tigerfish to alarming depths with its hull sure to implode at any moment as the depth gauge dial clicks over numbers rapidly. Miraculously (well they could die this earlier, of course) the Navy sub escapes but Jones is now certain in his suspicions that Anders is the guilty party and a mustache, taciturn Jim Brown convinces us that if he isn't the villain then he is a very sinister dude.
From this point onward, Sturges and Heyes add the man versus nature theme to the action. Once they have broken through the ice—it's intermission time—they encounter an Artic storm that has them bent down and using canes to cross the ice cap. There is one particularly thrilling moment—especially if you're watching this flick during the winter—when three guys plunge into a crevasse and require rescue. It's rather like the "Star Wars" scene where our heroes are trapped in the trash compactor and the walls are gradually closing in on them. The ice gradually closes in on the navy guys. After they reach Ice Station Zebra, they realize that a fire broke out and now it's time for Jones and Ferraday to huddle and cover all the plot's expository points. An entire scene is allocated to the description of the goods that they are scavenging the area for and how its wound up in Soviet hands with no small amount of espionage involved. Again, the weather has kept the Russians from moving, but we learn that once the storm clears, here comes the Russkies!
McGoohan is essentially replicating his "Secret Agent" man persona and Hudson is tall, dark, and monosyllabic as the rock-solid submarine skipper. Borgnine has never been better as a slippery Russian defector and Jim Brown gives his best performance ever. The photography is top-notch and it's cool that Sturges often stages scenes in the submarine from an angle, not entirely shot at normal, eye-level range with everything horizontal. The scenes under the thick ice are simply incredible! Clint Eastwood's "Firefox" and the last Sean Connery James Bond thriller "Never Say Never Again" borrowed some of this spectacular submarine footage. Ferris Webster's editing deserves a nod, especially in the fight between Vaslov and Anders. Although it didn't match the earnings of another MacLean thriller "Where Eagles Dare," "Ice Station Zebra" is still worth catching.
An excellent book to peruse if you are interested in John Sturges, his life, and his films is Glen Lovell's top-notch biography on Sturges entitled "Escape Artist: The Life and Films of John Sturges." Mr. Lovell spent 10 years writing and researching this seminal text about Sturges.
This glossy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer action-adventure blockbuster received Academy Award nominations for David L. Fapp's cinematography as well as its visual effects. Slow-moving in a peasant old-fashioned way, the Douglas Heyes screenplay introduces all the characters as they assemble at different times aboard the Tigerfish, generates some tension as a mysterious saboteur tries to sink the sub, and then breaks out into frigid North Pole frontier during its final hour with a showdown that reveals the identity of the saboteur and a showdown with Russian paratroopers. The Sturges film is based on the Alistair MacLean novel that isn't as epic in scope as the film and future "Dirty Harry" scenarist Harry Julian Fink adapted it with "Little Caesar" scribe W.R. Burnett contributing uncredited portions. Reportedly, Alstair MacLean's novel was partly based on an actual incident that occurred in 1959. If you like your Cold War thrillers with a snap, you'll love this taut 152-minute epic that never deploys a gratuitous minute. "Ice Station Zebra" was not only Rock Hudson's favorite movie, but also millionaire Howard Hughes' watched this movie repeatedly toward the end of his life. Interestingly, Hughes hired Sturges to helm his own subterrean adventure thriller "Underwater" back in
1955.
John Sturges was an old hand at making action films with predominantly all male casts by the time that producer Martin Ransohoff signed him on to helm "Ice Station Zebra." Some of the windy scenes after the heroes reach the eponymous site are reminiscent of Sturges' early work in "The Walking Hills" and the journey to site recalls his western "The Law and Jake Wade." Sturges orchestrates this big, international actioneer without a false turn but that means that it has to unfold at a slow but sturdy pace. Ferraday receives his orders out of uniform in a pub in Scotland from Admiral Garvey (Lloyd Nolan) and back at the naval base a clandestine secret agent, David Jones arrives who casually admits that Jones isn't his real name. Not long after Jones' arrival the Tigerfish receives a platoon of U.S. Marines, all of whom are young, and equally young lieutenant, Lt. Russell Walker (Tony Bill)leads them. The passengers keep piling up with the additional of a Soviet defector, Boris Vaslov (Ernest Borgnine of "The Dirty Dozen"), who Jones smuggled out of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Not surprisingly, Jones trusts Vaslov implicitly. The final passenger who is picked up in route is U.S. Marine Captain Anders (Jim Brown of "100 Rifles") who comes aboard ready to kick ass. The first scene in Ferraday's cabin with Anders and later Lt. Walker is terrific! Anders makes it clear to Walker who the boss is in no time at all.
Once Sturges and Heyes have everybody aboard the Tigerfish and the orders are clear, the tension and suspense sets in the action. Vaslov loves to roam the ship without escort, while Jones worries about their most recent arrival, Captain Anders, who was picked up in transit. About 45 minutes to an hour later, the Tigerfish reaches the polar ice cap and tries to surface, but the ice above is far too thick. Ferraday decides it is time to fire a torpedo through the ice and then surface. Out of nowhere a disaster occurs. Somebody have tampered with the torpedo tube and let water into the tube so that when our guys go to load the fish, water erupts in a flood and fills the torpedo room. Down does the Tigerfish to alarming depths with its hull sure to implode at any moment as the depth gauge dial clicks over numbers rapidly. Miraculously (well they could die this earlier, of course) the Navy sub escapes but Jones is now certain in his suspicions that Anders is the guilty party and a mustache, taciturn Jim Brown convinces us that if he isn't the villain then he is a very sinister dude.
From this point onward, Sturges and Heyes add the man versus nature theme to the action. Once they have broken through the ice—it's intermission time—they encounter an Artic storm that has them bent down and using canes to cross the ice cap. There is one particularly thrilling moment—especially if you're watching this flick during the winter—when three guys plunge into a crevasse and require rescue. It's rather like the "Star Wars" scene where our heroes are trapped in the trash compactor and the walls are gradually closing in on them. The ice gradually closes in on the navy guys. After they reach Ice Station Zebra, they realize that a fire broke out and now it's time for Jones and Ferraday to huddle and cover all the plot's expository points. An entire scene is allocated to the description of the goods that they are scavenging the area for and how its wound up in Soviet hands with no small amount of espionage involved. Again, the weather has kept the Russians from moving, but we learn that once the storm clears, here comes the Russkies!
McGoohan is essentially replicating his "Secret Agent" man persona and Hudson is tall, dark, and monosyllabic as the rock-solid submarine skipper. Borgnine has never been better as a slippery Russian defector and Jim Brown gives his best performance ever. The photography is top-notch and it's cool that Sturges often stages scenes in the submarine from an angle, not entirely shot at normal, eye-level range with everything horizontal. The scenes under the thick ice are simply incredible! Clint Eastwood's "Firefox" and the last Sean Connery James Bond thriller "Never Say Never Again" borrowed some of this spectacular submarine footage. Ferris Webster's editing deserves a nod, especially in the fight between Vaslov and Anders. Although it didn't match the earnings of another MacLean thriller "Where Eagles Dare," "Ice Station Zebra" is still worth catching.
An excellent book to peruse if you are interested in John Sturges, his life, and his films is Glen Lovell's top-notch biography on Sturges entitled "Escape Artist: The Life and Films of John Sturges." Mr. Lovell spent 10 years writing and researching this seminal text about Sturges.
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