African-American playwright/comedian Tyler Perry takes impersonating older black women to a whole new level in director Darren Grant's crowd-pleasing comedy "Diary of a Mad Black Woman," a riotously funny, but romantically soapy, revenge fantasy about a wife of 18 years who finds herself abandoned by her rich, philandering husband and forced to fend for herself. Like Eddie Murphy, Perry spreads himself throughout "Diary" in three separate roles. He plays a mild-mannered lawyer; a hormone-addled geezer, and his crowning glory: Madea, a wild and woolly grandma who would curl the Terminator's toe-nails. Indeed, Flip Wilson paved the way for black female impersonators back in the 1960s with his hit TV show where he popularized the character of Geraldine. Later, Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence set new standards with their side-splitting portrayals of black matriarchs respectively in "The Nutty Professor" flicks and "Big Momma's House." Whereas Murphy played an older, fatter woman fairly straight in the "Nutty Professor" farces, Lawrence played an FBI agent masquerading as an armed and dangerous big momma-type out to collar crooks. Not only does Perry let his falsetto-voiced grandma pack an automatic pistol, but also he puts her behind the wheel of a Cadillac that she drives as if it were a Bradley Assault Vehicle. When you aren't busting a gut laughing at the antics of Madea, you'll be cheering on Kimberly Elise as she matches wits with her villainous husband played by Steve Harris in a game of one-oneupmanship. Imagine the Ice-Cube ghetto comedy "Friday" criss-crossed with "Waiting to Exhale" and "Soul Food," and you'll have a fair idea what to expect from the PG-13 rated "Diary of a Mad Black Woman." The dominant theme here is forgiveness, and characters learn about the meaning of forgiveness.
Basically, "Diary" details three stories. The first concerns an elite Atlanta, Georgia, attorney Charles McCarter (Steve Harris) who kicks his wife of 18 years, Helen (Kimberly Elise of "Beloved"), out of his palatial mansion. He evicts Helen, because he feels like he isn't spending enough time with his sexy Hispanic mistress (Lisa Marcos) and the two kids that he conceived with her. When Helen refuses to go quietly, Charles turns into a Neanderthal and drags her by the hair out the door. Charles has already loaded all Helen's stuff into a U-Haul truck, and he has hired a friendly steelyard worker, Orlando (debonair Shemar Moore of "The Brothers"), to take her wherever she wants. Eventually, Helen winds up back in the ghetto at her grandma's house. Grandma Madea (Tyler Perry in drag) lets Helen stick around until she can get back on her feet. Seems Helen signed a prenup, so she isn't entitled to squat. Nevertheless, Madea brandishes her pistol and convinces Helen that she has a right to payback. "This is for every black woman who ever had a problem with a black man!" Meanwhile, in the second story, which occurs twenty minutes into "Diary," Helen falls in love with the U-Haul driver. Talk about too good to be true! This tale resembles a Harlequin romance. Orlando pleads with Helen, "I want to be your knight in shining armor." The third plot involves another attorney, Brian (Tyler Perry straight), who worries about the effect that his estranged crack-head wife, Deborah (Tamara Taylor of "Senseless"), may have on their young daughter and the fear that the child may follow in her mom's footsteps.
First-time director Darren Grant knows when to pour on the sap and splash on the slapstick. Just when "Diary" gets incredibly sticky with feel-good, religious sentiment, Grant brings on the comic relief in the form of Perry either as the outrageous Madea or as her vulgar brother Joe who saves this melodrama from sinking beneath the weight of its own treacle. Perry penned the screenplay based on a couple of black gospel stage plays that are available on video. He alternates comedy with drama so that there's nary a dull moment. Moreover, like any good scenarist, Perry tosses in a surprise or two, so that "Diary" doesn't get stuck in a rut. Kimberly Elise, who looks like an African-American Brigitte Bardot, is both sympathetic and believable as the woebegone wife who gets mad but ultimately gets even. Any woman--black, white, or any color—will savor those moments with great relish when Helen extracts her pound of flesh from her arrogant spouse. Despite the inherently contrived quality of the material, which consists of tried-and-true clichés and conventions, the first-class cast makes us believe in the storybook romantic as much as the unusual about-face changes in behavior that other characters make. While it may sound like Grant and Perry are out to bash men, this is far from true. They balance the negative with the positive, then provide insight the like of which rarely appears in most mainstream Hollywood movies, because it would seem artificial. Although aimed primarily at African-American audiences, "Diary of a Mad Black Women" deals in truths about the human condition that know no color barrier and will tickle any funny bone.
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.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
FILM REVIEW OF ''THE NEXT 3 DAYS''
Academy Award winning writer & director Paul Haggis puts Oscar winner Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks through the ringer as a husband breaking his wife out of jail in the American remake of the 2008 French thriller “Anything for Her.” “The Next 3 Days” (*** out of ****) qualifies as an exciting but implausible suspense saga enhanced by adroitly staged action scenes, top-notch performances from a seasoned cast, and enough red herrings and obstacles to make you want to gnaw your fingernails. Best known for scripting and helming "Crash," Haggis took home an Oscar for writing and directing and the film clinched Best Picture. He received an Oscar for his “Million Dollar Baby” screenplay, and he is credited as one of the creators for the long-running Chuck Norris television series “Walker, Texas Ranger.” Recently, Haggis wrote two of the less James Bond extravaganzas: “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace.”
Basically, Haggis knows a thing or two about actioneers, and he makes an incredible jailbreak seem credible in “The Next 3 Days.” Moreover, aside from its hefty two hour plus length, this pulse pounding, distaff version of “The Fugitive“ remains largely faithful to its Gallic source material. The City of Pittsburgh plays an important part in the plot and “The Next 3 Days” serves as a first-class travelogue for the town. Unlike many movies that shoot city landmarks to authenticate their yarns and then shoot urban scenes in Canada, Pittsburgh has no stand-ins. Pittsburgh natives will probably be the only ones to groan about some of the logistical contradictions of the town. Anybody who has seen the “Mythbusters” television show will know that utilizing air pressure by means to a tennis ball to unlock a door won’t work. However, there are many sites about bump keys on YouTube like the one featured here that our protagonist watches for information. As gripping as PG-13 rated “The Next 3 Days” is, Haggis never lets the violence, drug material, profane language, and sexuality become gratuitously gritty.
“The Next 3 Days” opens in a restaurant as John Brennan (Russell Crowe of “Robin Hood”) and his wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks of “Role Models”) are dining with John’s brother Mick (Michael Buie of “Mystery, Alaska”) and Mick’s wife Erit (Moran Atias of “Land of the Lost”). Workplace politics precipitates an argument, and Erit insists a woman can serve under a man better than a man can serve under a woman. Lara suspects Erit is trying to seduce John, and the two ladies clash. Later, the next morning, Lara and John are enjoying breakfast with their young son Luke. Lara snaps a photo of them. No sooner has this scene of domestic happiness transpired than the Pittsburgh Police Department converge on John’ house. They arrest Lara for the murder of her boss. Lara’s boss was a woman and Haggis inserts a flashback of Lara and her superior arguing. Eventually, Lara storms down to the parking lot and collides with an unknown woman. We see Lara pick up a fire extinguisher. A bystander entering the high rise parking lot spots Lara leaving and notices a woman sprawled on the concrete by her car. Since Lara got into an argument with her boss, the Pittsburgh Police arrest her. They find Lara’s trench coat that she was in the process of washing out a blood stain. The blood stain matches the DNA of her murdered boss. Based on this evidence, the jury finds Lara guilty.
John refuses to believe that Lara could coldly kill her boss and then sit through a diner date without betraying herself. Over the course of the next three years, the predicament John and Lara face grows steadily worse. John’s attorney, Meyer Fisk (Daniel Stern of “Home Alone”), tries to get John to examine the evidence from an objective perspective so he can understand why their appeal failed. Things come to a boil quickly as Lara tries to commit suicide. She doesn’t want to endure a twenty year stretch for murder.
John decides to take matters into his own hands. He contacts an ex-con, Damon Pennington (Liam Neeson of “The A-Team”), who has penned a book about his prison exploits, specifically his many escapes. Damon warns John to be prepared because the police will catch him by blocking off the bridges around Pittsburgh and shoot him on sight. John devises an elaborate escape plan which requires him to enter the criminal underworld. Primarily, John needs forged passports authentic enough to fool the authorities so he can relocate his family to South America. John learns quickly that trying to break Lara out of prison is no picnic. He is nearly caught at one point in the prison using a bump key. Nevertheless, John explores all the possibilities with a scrapbook map plastered onto one wall of his house. This scene and setting recall the ABC-TV series “Prison Break” where the hero sought to break his brother out of prison. John discovers that breaking Lara out of jail isn’t so easy so he tampers with Lara’s diabetes medical folder. Initially, Lara refuses to accompany him when John gets the drop of the cops escorting her.
The last half hour of “The Next 3 Days” moves like a rollercoaster with many surprises to heighten the suspense. A paunchy Crowe looks believable as John Brennan; Brennan teaches English literature at a community college teacher. He is the last person who would embark on such a desperate mission. John doesn’t discuss his ideas with his father and mother. Elizabeth Banks is good as his imprisoned wife. Somewhere along the way, Lara confides in John that she did kill her boss. John doesn’t let this revelation alter his plans. Haggis keeps the action careening along at top speed, and Crowe makes the hero a sympathetic fellow. Crowe’s character shift from a peaceful community college to a gun-toting thug is impressive.
“The Next 3 Days” ranks as an exciting melodrama with surprises galore.
Basically, Haggis knows a thing or two about actioneers, and he makes an incredible jailbreak seem credible in “The Next 3 Days.” Moreover, aside from its hefty two hour plus length, this pulse pounding, distaff version of “The Fugitive“ remains largely faithful to its Gallic source material. The City of Pittsburgh plays an important part in the plot and “The Next 3 Days” serves as a first-class travelogue for the town. Unlike many movies that shoot city landmarks to authenticate their yarns and then shoot urban scenes in Canada, Pittsburgh has no stand-ins. Pittsburgh natives will probably be the only ones to groan about some of the logistical contradictions of the town. Anybody who has seen the “Mythbusters” television show will know that utilizing air pressure by means to a tennis ball to unlock a door won’t work. However, there are many sites about bump keys on YouTube like the one featured here that our protagonist watches for information. As gripping as PG-13 rated “The Next 3 Days” is, Haggis never lets the violence, drug material, profane language, and sexuality become gratuitously gritty.
“The Next 3 Days” opens in a restaurant as John Brennan (Russell Crowe of “Robin Hood”) and his wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks of “Role Models”) are dining with John’s brother Mick (Michael Buie of “Mystery, Alaska”) and Mick’s wife Erit (Moran Atias of “Land of the Lost”). Workplace politics precipitates an argument, and Erit insists a woman can serve under a man better than a man can serve under a woman. Lara suspects Erit is trying to seduce John, and the two ladies clash. Later, the next morning, Lara and John are enjoying breakfast with their young son Luke. Lara snaps a photo of them. No sooner has this scene of domestic happiness transpired than the Pittsburgh Police Department converge on John’ house. They arrest Lara for the murder of her boss. Lara’s boss was a woman and Haggis inserts a flashback of Lara and her superior arguing. Eventually, Lara storms down to the parking lot and collides with an unknown woman. We see Lara pick up a fire extinguisher. A bystander entering the high rise parking lot spots Lara leaving and notices a woman sprawled on the concrete by her car. Since Lara got into an argument with her boss, the Pittsburgh Police arrest her. They find Lara’s trench coat that she was in the process of washing out a blood stain. The blood stain matches the DNA of her murdered boss. Based on this evidence, the jury finds Lara guilty.
John refuses to believe that Lara could coldly kill her boss and then sit through a diner date without betraying herself. Over the course of the next three years, the predicament John and Lara face grows steadily worse. John’s attorney, Meyer Fisk (Daniel Stern of “Home Alone”), tries to get John to examine the evidence from an objective perspective so he can understand why their appeal failed. Things come to a boil quickly as Lara tries to commit suicide. She doesn’t want to endure a twenty year stretch for murder.
John decides to take matters into his own hands. He contacts an ex-con, Damon Pennington (Liam Neeson of “The A-Team”), who has penned a book about his prison exploits, specifically his many escapes. Damon warns John to be prepared because the police will catch him by blocking off the bridges around Pittsburgh and shoot him on sight. John devises an elaborate escape plan which requires him to enter the criminal underworld. Primarily, John needs forged passports authentic enough to fool the authorities so he can relocate his family to South America. John learns quickly that trying to break Lara out of prison is no picnic. He is nearly caught at one point in the prison using a bump key. Nevertheless, John explores all the possibilities with a scrapbook map plastered onto one wall of his house. This scene and setting recall the ABC-TV series “Prison Break” where the hero sought to break his brother out of prison. John discovers that breaking Lara out of jail isn’t so easy so he tampers with Lara’s diabetes medical folder. Initially, Lara refuses to accompany him when John gets the drop of the cops escorting her.
The last half hour of “The Next 3 Days” moves like a rollercoaster with many surprises to heighten the suspense. A paunchy Crowe looks believable as John Brennan; Brennan teaches English literature at a community college teacher. He is the last person who would embark on such a desperate mission. John doesn’t discuss his ideas with his father and mother. Elizabeth Banks is good as his imprisoned wife. Somewhere along the way, Lara confides in John that she did kill her boss. John doesn’t let this revelation alter his plans. Haggis keeps the action careening along at top speed, and Crowe makes the hero a sympathetic fellow. Crowe’s character shift from a peaceful community college to a gun-toting thug is impressive.
“The Next 3 Days” ranks as an exciting melodrama with surprises galore.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
FILM REVIEW OF ''SKYLINE" (2010)
“Skyline,” the latest entry in “The War of the Worlds”/ “Independence Day” science fiction genre about aliens invading Earth, qualifies as an above-average opus with spectacular-looking alien spaceships as well as exotic airborne creatures with twitching tentacles galore. The first forty-five minutes of the Brothers Strause epic draws you into its enigmatic storyline with its vast horde of aliens and their way of mesmerizing their victims with blinding lights before they gobble them like snacks. Unfortunately, the second half of “Skyline” doesn’t provide any exposition and we are left watching helpless humans playing cat and mouse games with these ugly “Cloverfield” style predators. Meanwhile, the human characters in “Skyline” (**1/2 out of ****) are neither compelling nor sympathetic. First, they consist of clueless civilians confined to a high-rise apartment complex. Indeed, unlike the original “War of the Worlds” (1953) and “Independence Day,” “Skyline” doesn’t trot out the usual array of high ranking military leaders plotting strategy from secluded bunkers while bespectacled scientists scramble to invent technology capable of exterminating the aliens. Second, the cast consists of actors who are virtually unknown and lack even a modicum of charisma. It doesn’t help matters that nobody seems to know anything about these intergalactic predators. Indeed, you can either stun them if you smash a car into them or blast them to smithereens with anything from a high-powered assault rifle to explosive missiles. Nevertheless, these foes outnumber the heroes, and they give no quarter. Mind you, the aliens themselves never let us in on why they have decided to devastate the planet. Instead, they pig out on humans as if mankind were a seafood buffet, and the prime human delicacy for these entities is the human brain. They suck off the heads and eat the brains. Okay, a mind is a terrible thing to waste in “Skyline,” but there is something unusual about these aliens that distinguish them from most aliens. When they shine their blinding lights on these poor humans, the light turns humans into slightly grilled zombies. Sometimes the light enables our heroes to muster enough energy to fight back. Worst of all, “Skyline” doesn’t so much end as it screeches to a halt on a cliffhanger, leaving the hero and heroine in a beauty and the beast situation.
Elaine (Scottie Thompson of “Star Trek”) and Jarrod (Eric Balfour of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) are recuperating for a birthday party in Los Angeles thrown for Jarrod's best friend Terry (Donald Faison of “Next Day Air”) when blinding lights penetrate the shutters of Terry’s penthouse. Elaine awakens with a case of morning sickness and stumbles into the shower. Afterward, she rouses Jarrod who checks out the light. Suddenly, his skin crinkles into a veil of lines. At this point, sophomore co-directors Colin and Greg Strause, who helmed “AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem,” and freshmen scenarists Joshua Cordes and Liam O'Donnell abruptly back up the action by fifteen hours. We see Elaine and Jarrod deplaning at Los Angeles International Airport. Jarrod is surprised to find a uniformed chauffeur waiting for them at the curb with a limo. The chauffeur takes them to a scenic Marina del Rey luxury penthouse apartment with giant windows where they meet Terry and the celebration begins. This is about the time that we learn Elaine is sick and Terry wants Jarrod to relocate from New York to Los Angeles to work for him. Later, after everybody has passed out from too much liquor, a shower of incandescent meteors scintillate the night skies over L.A. One of Terry’s friends who sacked out in the living room opens the shutters, and the dazzling lights lure him onto the balcony. Veins appear like burn wounds on his face, and protoplasm-like extraterrestrial invaders suck him and thousands of others into their mouths. Eventually, Jarrod and Terry investigate, principally through a telescope that they had used the evening before to spy on other residents. They are overwhelmed at the flotilla of bizarre-looking alien spacecraft filling the skyline. They figure out that they must not look into the light and close the shutters. Before long the alien creatures, flying around like inquisitive squid, send their tentacles into the apartments to feed on the residents. Naturally, our heroes learn nothing from television news sources and they venture outside for a better look. Initially, the military respond with marauder jets and snipers armed with .50 caliber rifles. Jarrod notices that nothing appears to be happening over the marina. Terry and he pile into cars with their girlfriends and c0-workers and head for the marina. They don’t get far before a humongous “Godzilla” like predator stomps Terry’s car. This gigantic beast chases them around the high-rise about the same time that a new character, Oliver (David Zayas of “The Expendables”), joins them. Earlier, during Terry’s birthday part, Oliver had warned them to tone down the racket. He has keys to everything in the high-rise, and the survivors regroup in Terry’s apartment. Helplessly, they stand by and watch the ensuing battle between mankind and these aliens.
Basically, if you’ve seen one alien invasion epic or television mini-series, you’ve seen them all. Only the aliens change. “Skyline” boasts some terrific looking aliens and these elaborate predators steal the show. Meantime, the humans are a dull, dreary lot waiting to be eaten. After the novelty of the aliens wears off and the Strause brothers show that these invades are vulnerable to conventional weapons, “Skyline” loses its grip on us. We still don’t know anything about these predators, except that they love to feed on brains. Undoubtedly, the Strause brothers were trying to figure out ways to avoid formula, but leaving out crucial scenes—such as the military and the scientists grappling with this alien threat—means that the suspense and tension evaporate. The last thing that the Strauses do is take us within the belly of these beasties where our heroes wind up with little hope for them and then “Skyline” ends with a whimper. Clearly, a sequel is in the works from this cliffhanger ending, but you walk out of this movie feeling like you have been cheated despite the film’s trim 92 minute running time. The only thing worse than a bad movie is a half of a bad movie!
Elaine (Scottie Thompson of “Star Trek”) and Jarrod (Eric Balfour of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) are recuperating for a birthday party in Los Angeles thrown for Jarrod's best friend Terry (Donald Faison of “Next Day Air”) when blinding lights penetrate the shutters of Terry’s penthouse. Elaine awakens with a case of morning sickness and stumbles into the shower. Afterward, she rouses Jarrod who checks out the light. Suddenly, his skin crinkles into a veil of lines. At this point, sophomore co-directors Colin and Greg Strause, who helmed “AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem,” and freshmen scenarists Joshua Cordes and Liam O'Donnell abruptly back up the action by fifteen hours. We see Elaine and Jarrod deplaning at Los Angeles International Airport. Jarrod is surprised to find a uniformed chauffeur waiting for them at the curb with a limo. The chauffeur takes them to a scenic Marina del Rey luxury penthouse apartment with giant windows where they meet Terry and the celebration begins. This is about the time that we learn Elaine is sick and Terry wants Jarrod to relocate from New York to Los Angeles to work for him. Later, after everybody has passed out from too much liquor, a shower of incandescent meteors scintillate the night skies over L.A. One of Terry’s friends who sacked out in the living room opens the shutters, and the dazzling lights lure him onto the balcony. Veins appear like burn wounds on his face, and protoplasm-like extraterrestrial invaders suck him and thousands of others into their mouths. Eventually, Jarrod and Terry investigate, principally through a telescope that they had used the evening before to spy on other residents. They are overwhelmed at the flotilla of bizarre-looking alien spacecraft filling the skyline. They figure out that they must not look into the light and close the shutters. Before long the alien creatures, flying around like inquisitive squid, send their tentacles into the apartments to feed on the residents. Naturally, our heroes learn nothing from television news sources and they venture outside for a better look. Initially, the military respond with marauder jets and snipers armed with .50 caliber rifles. Jarrod notices that nothing appears to be happening over the marina. Terry and he pile into cars with their girlfriends and c0-workers and head for the marina. They don’t get far before a humongous “Godzilla” like predator stomps Terry’s car. This gigantic beast chases them around the high-rise about the same time that a new character, Oliver (David Zayas of “The Expendables”), joins them. Earlier, during Terry’s birthday part, Oliver had warned them to tone down the racket. He has keys to everything in the high-rise, and the survivors regroup in Terry’s apartment. Helplessly, they stand by and watch the ensuing battle between mankind and these aliens.
Basically, if you’ve seen one alien invasion epic or television mini-series, you’ve seen them all. Only the aliens change. “Skyline” boasts some terrific looking aliens and these elaborate predators steal the show. Meantime, the humans are a dull, dreary lot waiting to be eaten. After the novelty of the aliens wears off and the Strause brothers show that these invades are vulnerable to conventional weapons, “Skyline” loses its grip on us. We still don’t know anything about these predators, except that they love to feed on brains. Undoubtedly, the Strause brothers were trying to figure out ways to avoid formula, but leaving out crucial scenes—such as the military and the scientists grappling with this alien threat—means that the suspense and tension evaporate. The last thing that the Strauses do is take us within the belly of these beasties where our heroes wind up with little hope for them and then “Skyline” ends with a whimper. Clearly, a sequel is in the works from this cliffhanger ending, but you walk out of this movie feeling like you have been cheated despite the film’s trim 92 minute running time. The only thing worse than a bad movie is a half of a bad movie!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
FILM REVIEW OF "MY SOUL TO TAKE" (2010)
“Scream” trilogy director Wes Craven must have been brushing up on his slasher movie skills for his forthcoming “Scream 4” when he decided to make his latest thriller “My Soul to Take.” This strictly sophomoric exercise in formulaic murder and mayhem in a high school setting with a capable cast of no-name teens qualifies as a rental when you acquire a free movie coupon. Surprisingly, writer & director Wes Craven has penned and helmed a predictable as well as incoherent serial killer thriller that lacks everything that made the “Scream” movies so memorable. Worse, “My Soul to Take” (** out of ****) is another one of those 3-D movies that wasn’t originally lensed in 3-D. Instead, the studio converted it to 3-D like “Clash of the Titans.” In other words, the 3-D effects--even in a digital presentation—don’t have in-your-face, visually dynamic quality of genuine 3-D effects. Meaning, nothing comes flying out of the screen at you, like either ‘My Bloody Valentine” or “Resident Evil: Afterlife.” “My Soul to Take” generates minimal atmosphere, but this 107 minute, R-rated nonsense never musters any compelling characters, spine-tingling suspense, or even a big last-minute surprise. If you’re the kind of person who spots the killer long before the movie outs the killer, you’ll quickly tire of this unexceptional epic.
“My Soul to Take” opens with an absorbing action scene. A happily married husband and father, Abel (Raúl Esparza of “Find Me Guilty”), is putting the finishing touches on a wooden rocking horse in his downstairs workshop when his pregnant wife Sarah (newcomer Alexandra Wilson) asks him to join her upstairs. A television newscast about a savage serial killer in Riverton, Massachusetts, appropriately nicknamed the “Riverton Ripper,” is making Abel’s wife feel paranoid. As he is leaving his workshop, Abel slips on a tool, smashes his head on a work bench, and hits the floor. Upstairs, Sarah learns from the newscast that the authorities cannot identify the killer, even though he has been recorded on a high definition surveillance camera. Nevertheless, they have been able to magnify the murder weapon sufficiently to make out the word ‘vengeance’ on the blade. Abel spots the exact same knife with ‘vengeance’ on the blade under his work bench. Suddenly, his multiple personalities—triggered by the fall—begin to argue with him.
Abel’s homicidal personality warns him that he will slaughter his entire family if he calls his doctor. Abel phones his physician, Dr. Blake (Harris Yulin of “Scarface”), to warn him about his episode. Before the police arrive, Abel kills Sarah and is poised to stab his daughter Leah. Riverton detective Paterson (Frank Grillo of “Pride and Glory”) bursts in and shoots Abel twice. Like any standard-issue serial killer, Abel doesn’t just lie down and die. He distracts Paterson, disarms him, and shoots the detective twice in the chest. Luckily, Paterson has on a bullet-proof vest. In the ambulance, on the way to the hospital, Abel slips out of his restraints and slashes away at the ambulance nurse. All these sudden hysterics prompts the ambulance driver to swerve and the vehicle flips over and lands on a river bank. The ambulance explodes into flames as Paterson and the nurse are thrown free. Abel manages to escape into the night. The authorities never find a trace of his body.
The action fast-forwards to sixteen years later. A crowd of teenagers are holding a late night ceremony near the scorched remains of the ambulance. The teens are observing what they call “Ripper Night.” As it turns out, during the eventful night when the Abel embarked on a killing rampage, seven children were prematurely born at the hospital. Word has it that either Abel died that night or his murderous soul migrated into one of the seven prematurely born babies. Our shy, clueless protagonist ‘Bug’ (Max Thieriot of “The Astronaut Farmer”) doesn’t know anything about his desperado dad. Not only does Bug suffer from chronic migraines, but he also displays signs of schizophrenia. Bug’s vindictive sister Leah (Emily Meade of “Burning Palms”) has spread a vicious rumor that Bug has been institutionalized for mental instability. Miraculously, Bug survived the slaughter. Bug’s mischievous buddy, Alex (John Magaro of “The Box”); high school coed Brittany (television actress Paulina Olszynski); a hormone-addled jock Brandon O’Neal (Nick Lashaway of “The Last Song”); religious zealot Penelope Bright (Zena Grey of “The Shaggy Dog”); a blind African-American, Jerome (Denzel Whitaker of “The Great Debaters”); and an Asian-American, Jay (Jeremy Chu of “Mr. Deeds), constitute the other six of the ‘Riverton Seven.’
The Ripper kills Jay first. Jay is crossing a bridge on his way home when a masked killer with dreadlocks reminiscent of the alien from the “Predator” movies attacks him. A day later the authorities find Jay’s body. Not long afterward, the Ripper slashes Zena’s throat in the generator room adjacent to the school swimming pool. Brandon is chasing Brittany through the woods because he wants a blow-job from her when they stumble onto Zena’s corpse. The Ripper surprises them and stabs them to death. Craven incriminates Bug at every turn with a number of clues that make him look like the prime suspect. Bug has a way of going into different personalities and speaking like other people. Primarily, during a school prank in the girl's restroom, Bug’s cell phone winds up in Brittany's purse. Later, the police find Brittany when Bug’s mother calls his cell phone and the ringing leads them to Brittany's body.
Nothing about “My Soul to Take” is either scary or suspenseful. Mind you, the performances are pretty good, but Craven doesn’t distinguish himself with either is “Scream” like wit or staging. “My Soul to Take” is every bit as forgettable as Craven’s second-rate werewolf movie “Cursed” and never generates a third of the tension of “Red Eye.” Ultimately, the slasher here referred to as the “Riverton Ripper” isn’t very terrifying in comparison with either hockey mask clad Jason of the “Friday the 13th” franchise or Michael Myers of the “Halloween.” The slasher attacks are timed when you least expect them, but Craven doesn’t give his mass murderer anything in the way of traits or an attitude to make him intimidating. Worse, anybody who ever saw the classic Marx Brothers’ comedy “Duck Soup” will spot a rip-off of the mirror scene between Groucho and Harpo. Ultimately, “My Soul to Take” takes your money and your time with nothing to show for either.
“My Soul to Take” opens with an absorbing action scene. A happily married husband and father, Abel (Raúl Esparza of “Find Me Guilty”), is putting the finishing touches on a wooden rocking horse in his downstairs workshop when his pregnant wife Sarah (newcomer Alexandra Wilson) asks him to join her upstairs. A television newscast about a savage serial killer in Riverton, Massachusetts, appropriately nicknamed the “Riverton Ripper,” is making Abel’s wife feel paranoid. As he is leaving his workshop, Abel slips on a tool, smashes his head on a work bench, and hits the floor. Upstairs, Sarah learns from the newscast that the authorities cannot identify the killer, even though he has been recorded on a high definition surveillance camera. Nevertheless, they have been able to magnify the murder weapon sufficiently to make out the word ‘vengeance’ on the blade. Abel spots the exact same knife with ‘vengeance’ on the blade under his work bench. Suddenly, his multiple personalities—triggered by the fall—begin to argue with him.
Abel’s homicidal personality warns him that he will slaughter his entire family if he calls his doctor. Abel phones his physician, Dr. Blake (Harris Yulin of “Scarface”), to warn him about his episode. Before the police arrive, Abel kills Sarah and is poised to stab his daughter Leah. Riverton detective Paterson (Frank Grillo of “Pride and Glory”) bursts in and shoots Abel twice. Like any standard-issue serial killer, Abel doesn’t just lie down and die. He distracts Paterson, disarms him, and shoots the detective twice in the chest. Luckily, Paterson has on a bullet-proof vest. In the ambulance, on the way to the hospital, Abel slips out of his restraints and slashes away at the ambulance nurse. All these sudden hysterics prompts the ambulance driver to swerve and the vehicle flips over and lands on a river bank. The ambulance explodes into flames as Paterson and the nurse are thrown free. Abel manages to escape into the night. The authorities never find a trace of his body.
The action fast-forwards to sixteen years later. A crowd of teenagers are holding a late night ceremony near the scorched remains of the ambulance. The teens are observing what they call “Ripper Night.” As it turns out, during the eventful night when the Abel embarked on a killing rampage, seven children were prematurely born at the hospital. Word has it that either Abel died that night or his murderous soul migrated into one of the seven prematurely born babies. Our shy, clueless protagonist ‘Bug’ (Max Thieriot of “The Astronaut Farmer”) doesn’t know anything about his desperado dad. Not only does Bug suffer from chronic migraines, but he also displays signs of schizophrenia. Bug’s vindictive sister Leah (Emily Meade of “Burning Palms”) has spread a vicious rumor that Bug has been institutionalized for mental instability. Miraculously, Bug survived the slaughter. Bug’s mischievous buddy, Alex (John Magaro of “The Box”); high school coed Brittany (television actress Paulina Olszynski); a hormone-addled jock Brandon O’Neal (Nick Lashaway of “The Last Song”); religious zealot Penelope Bright (Zena Grey of “The Shaggy Dog”); a blind African-American, Jerome (Denzel Whitaker of “The Great Debaters”); and an Asian-American, Jay (Jeremy Chu of “Mr. Deeds), constitute the other six of the ‘Riverton Seven.’
The Ripper kills Jay first. Jay is crossing a bridge on his way home when a masked killer with dreadlocks reminiscent of the alien from the “Predator” movies attacks him. A day later the authorities find Jay’s body. Not long afterward, the Ripper slashes Zena’s throat in the generator room adjacent to the school swimming pool. Brandon is chasing Brittany through the woods because he wants a blow-job from her when they stumble onto Zena’s corpse. The Ripper surprises them and stabs them to death. Craven incriminates Bug at every turn with a number of clues that make him look like the prime suspect. Bug has a way of going into different personalities and speaking like other people. Primarily, during a school prank in the girl's restroom, Bug’s cell phone winds up in Brittany's purse. Later, the police find Brittany when Bug’s mother calls his cell phone and the ringing leads them to Brittany's body.
Nothing about “My Soul to Take” is either scary or suspenseful. Mind you, the performances are pretty good, but Craven doesn’t distinguish himself with either is “Scream” like wit or staging. “My Soul to Take” is every bit as forgettable as Craven’s second-rate werewolf movie “Cursed” and never generates a third of the tension of “Red Eye.” Ultimately, the slasher here referred to as the “Riverton Ripper” isn’t very terrifying in comparison with either hockey mask clad Jason of the “Friday the 13th” franchise or Michael Myers of the “Halloween.” The slasher attacks are timed when you least expect them, but Craven doesn’t give his mass murderer anything in the way of traits or an attitude to make him intimidating. Worse, anybody who ever saw the classic Marx Brothers’ comedy “Duck Soup” will spot a rip-off of the mirror scene between Groucho and Harpo. Ultimately, “My Soul to Take” takes your money and your time with nothing to show for either.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
FILM REVIEW OF ''8MM" (1999)
Columbia Pictures should have kept “8mm” (* OUT OF ****) in the can. If you thought Nicolas Cage’s previous movie “Snakes Eyes” was crappy, director Joel Schumacher’s second-rate, slipshod, murder-mystery about a runaway girl, a snuff movie, and our pornographic society may alter your opinion. Co-starring Joaquin Phoenix and James Gandolfini, “8mm” lacks originality, kinky intensity, and catharsis. Although the filmmakers take audiences on a tour of the sleazy hindquarters of American society, “8mm” balks at pushing the envelope in its depiction of decadence. Never as disturbing as the Al Pacino movie “Cruising,” the George C. Scott film “Hardcore,” or the Charles Bronson’s thriller “Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects,” this darkly lensed pseudo-suspenser simmers far too long before the plot comes to a boil. Fans of “Se7en” scenarist Andrew Kevin Walker may wonder how much Columbia diluted his script to yield such comatose claptrap.
When an industrial czar’s rich widow, Mrs. Christian (Myra Carter of “The Witches of Salem: The Horror and the Hope”), opens her recently deceased husband’s safe, she discovers what she suspects is a snuff movie. In this one-reel film, a young girl appears to die at the hands of a leather-clad sadist. The elderly Mrs. Christian hires clean-cut, buttoned-down Tom Welles, a small potatoes private eye, to determine the authenticity of the snuff film. Welles accepts the assignment without high hopes. He treats it as a missing person’s case. Once he has identified the girl as May Anne Matthews (Jenny Powell), he contacts Mary Anne’s working class mom (Amy Morton) and snoops around the runaway’s room.
The trail takes Welles to the West Coast where he hires a smart-aleck porno-store clerk, Max California (Joaquin Phoenix), with an encyclopedic knowledge of kink to guide him through the underworld of hardcore pornography. Max warns Tom before he begins his tour, “There are things you’re going to see that you can’t unsee.” Max is a tough young man who has not let the filth and pornography affect him. When Tom Welles meets him, Max has a clover of a cheap porno novel wrapped around a copy of Truman Capote’s bestseller “In Cold Blood.” Throughout the case, Tom grapples with the question that bugs him about the dead millionaire: “Why did he want to film a little girl being butchered?” Tom keeps L.A. porno producer Eddie Poole (James Gandolini of “True Romance”) under surveillance until Poole leads him to a guy who produced the snuff movie, the infamous Dino Velvet (Peter Stormare of “Armageddon”), who has his headquarters in New York City.
Tom and Max fly to the Big Apple, contact the fiendish Dino, and give him the front money for the movie. Tom has one condition: they must allow him to observe them as they film. At this point, Tom sends Max packing out of harm’s way, before he confronts the pornographers in an abandoned warehouse at the edge of town. The killers surprise Tom and turn the tables on him. “Satan ex machine,” quips the nasty Dino with relish as he shows Tom that they knew about him from the start. Further disclosure would spoil what little suspense Schumacher conjures up.
“Se7en” scenarist Andrew Kevin Walker has inked a lukewarm murder-mystery yarn shot on surprises but long on clichés. The co-scenarist on “Hideaway” (1995), Walker provides standard set-pieces such as a rain swept graveyard fight, a “Silence of the Lambs” confrontation in a creepy house, an “In Cold Blood” style murder sequence, and a “Death Wish” vigilante hero. The villains epitomize stereotypical predators who pose little threat to the sanitized knight hero. The action plods more often than it pulsates. Obviously, Schumacher deploys atmosphere (i.e. , set design) as a smoke screen to cover up the pornographic material that good taste and censorship prevent him from showing. Indeed, as prudish as “8mm” is, the filmmakers had to contrive something more than prurience to attract an audience.
“8mm” makes the most of Nicolas Cage and shows Joaquin Phoenix at his best. Cage imbues “8mm” with his unique brand of underdog charm and antithetical heroism. Cage plays Welles as a sad-faced Sam Spade with a nagging wife (Catherine Keener) and an infant daughter. Young, ambitious, mobile, and polished, Tom devotes himself to his family. When he isn’t on a case, he’s raking the front yard. Tom is the heart and soul of “8mm,” and the filmmakers make him tough, resourceful, but vulnerable and hen-pecked. Tom Welles serves as the conscience and custodian of morality of “8mm.” A great deal of John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards from director John Ford’s “The Searchers” jostles for prominence in Nicolas Cage’s performance. Eventually, Tom begins to obsess over poor Mary Anne Matthews and her plight. Cage struggles to make straight-arrow Tom Welles a flesh and blood fellow, but Schumacher doesn’t abet him. Tom Welles doesn’t have much of a back-story. He is a cipher defined only by Cage’s repertoire of looks and gestures. Mind you, Cage gives a soulful, serious performance. Tom Welles may be too tightly wrapped, and Cage never lets his guard down. Welles can be defined by how much he can absorb before he buckles. “8mm” is another exercise in masculine control, and the film charts his growth from law-abiding private eye to lone vigilante.
The bad guys in “8mm” wear their villainy like placards. Four villains menace Tom Welles, but the fourth is not unmasked until the climax. All deserve to die, and as the offal of humanity they earn miserable, ignominious deaths. As a porno-movie producer, Eddie Poole (James Gandolfini) elicits nothing but contempt as the kind of verminous scum who sodomizes women, guzzles liquor, curses blasphemously, and dresses like a lout. He is a repository of politically-incorrect and socially unacceptable traits. As another porno producer, Dino Velvet (Peter Stormare) hams it up with a crossbow and the beard of a vaudeville villain. Chris Bauer creates evil incarnate as ‘Machine,’ the leather-clad star of S & M videos who kills because he enjoys it. Machine’s speech at the end of “8mm” serves as a commentary on the face of evil.
The villains in “8mm,” like some in real-life, do what they do because they can afford it and they enjoy it. They are not pawns of a disease. The late tycoon commissioned a snuff movie because he had the money, and wealth represents power in American society. The one real film lay in his safe like a scalp in a poacher’s bag. Eddie Poole made the snuff movie because “it was something I did for money.” Machine dismisses societal reasons for his homicidal behavior. “I was beaten as a child. I didn’t hate my parents. I like it.” Machine makes these comments as he slips on a pair of dorky glasses and leers at Tom.
Director Joel Schumacher has helmed several classy Hollywood movies, such as “Falling Down,” “The Client,” “A Time to Die,” “Batman Forever,” “Batman and Robin,” “The Lost Boys,” and “Flatliners.” The veteran director imitates Tim Burton this time out with his emphasis on Stygian lighting, gothic color schemes, and prosaic storytelling. Sadly, the story is presented in such a procedural manner with the accent on reality that it amounts to a bore. Cage takes breaks from the case to call up his plain-Jane wife and his baby daughter to apologize for not being with them. When things go too far, his wife reads him the riot act and threatens to leave him.
Essentially, Schumacher has gone too far in the other direction. From splashy comic book super heroes, he has retreated to dreary, world-weary ordinary mortals forced to make life’s disasters his omelets. Rather than immerse audiences in sex and nudity, Schumacher approaches the obscene then swings the camera on Cage’s face to see the effect it registers on Tom Welles. Always the epitome of subtlety, when he wants to suggest sleaze, Schumacher punches up the volume on composer Michael Danna’s electronic, Arabic-flavored music score. “8mm” drags along with a burst of energy near the end that does little to redemn the long wait to which the filmmakers subject their audience.
Altogether, “8mm” is a dull, clammy, little exercise in voyeurism and perversion. Columbia Pictures and director Joel Schumacher couldn’t have contrived a better bedtime story for the Super Court Justices to lull themselves asleep to than “8mm.”
When an industrial czar’s rich widow, Mrs. Christian (Myra Carter of “The Witches of Salem: The Horror and the Hope”), opens her recently deceased husband’s safe, she discovers what she suspects is a snuff movie. In this one-reel film, a young girl appears to die at the hands of a leather-clad sadist. The elderly Mrs. Christian hires clean-cut, buttoned-down Tom Welles, a small potatoes private eye, to determine the authenticity of the snuff film. Welles accepts the assignment without high hopes. He treats it as a missing person’s case. Once he has identified the girl as May Anne Matthews (Jenny Powell), he contacts Mary Anne’s working class mom (Amy Morton) and snoops around the runaway’s room.
The trail takes Welles to the West Coast where he hires a smart-aleck porno-store clerk, Max California (Joaquin Phoenix), with an encyclopedic knowledge of kink to guide him through the underworld of hardcore pornography. Max warns Tom before he begins his tour, “There are things you’re going to see that you can’t unsee.” Max is a tough young man who has not let the filth and pornography affect him. When Tom Welles meets him, Max has a clover of a cheap porno novel wrapped around a copy of Truman Capote’s bestseller “In Cold Blood.” Throughout the case, Tom grapples with the question that bugs him about the dead millionaire: “Why did he want to film a little girl being butchered?” Tom keeps L.A. porno producer Eddie Poole (James Gandolini of “True Romance”) under surveillance until Poole leads him to a guy who produced the snuff movie, the infamous Dino Velvet (Peter Stormare of “Armageddon”), who has his headquarters in New York City.
Tom and Max fly to the Big Apple, contact the fiendish Dino, and give him the front money for the movie. Tom has one condition: they must allow him to observe them as they film. At this point, Tom sends Max packing out of harm’s way, before he confronts the pornographers in an abandoned warehouse at the edge of town. The killers surprise Tom and turn the tables on him. “Satan ex machine,” quips the nasty Dino with relish as he shows Tom that they knew about him from the start. Further disclosure would spoil what little suspense Schumacher conjures up.
“Se7en” scenarist Andrew Kevin Walker has inked a lukewarm murder-mystery yarn shot on surprises but long on clichés. The co-scenarist on “Hideaway” (1995), Walker provides standard set-pieces such as a rain swept graveyard fight, a “Silence of the Lambs” confrontation in a creepy house, an “In Cold Blood” style murder sequence, and a “Death Wish” vigilante hero. The villains epitomize stereotypical predators who pose little threat to the sanitized knight hero. The action plods more often than it pulsates. Obviously, Schumacher deploys atmosphere (i.e. , set design) as a smoke screen to cover up the pornographic material that good taste and censorship prevent him from showing. Indeed, as prudish as “8mm” is, the filmmakers had to contrive something more than prurience to attract an audience.
“8mm” makes the most of Nicolas Cage and shows Joaquin Phoenix at his best. Cage imbues “8mm” with his unique brand of underdog charm and antithetical heroism. Cage plays Welles as a sad-faced Sam Spade with a nagging wife (Catherine Keener) and an infant daughter. Young, ambitious, mobile, and polished, Tom devotes himself to his family. When he isn’t on a case, he’s raking the front yard. Tom is the heart and soul of “8mm,” and the filmmakers make him tough, resourceful, but vulnerable and hen-pecked. Tom Welles serves as the conscience and custodian of morality of “8mm.” A great deal of John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards from director John Ford’s “The Searchers” jostles for prominence in Nicolas Cage’s performance. Eventually, Tom begins to obsess over poor Mary Anne Matthews and her plight. Cage struggles to make straight-arrow Tom Welles a flesh and blood fellow, but Schumacher doesn’t abet him. Tom Welles doesn’t have much of a back-story. He is a cipher defined only by Cage’s repertoire of looks and gestures. Mind you, Cage gives a soulful, serious performance. Tom Welles may be too tightly wrapped, and Cage never lets his guard down. Welles can be defined by how much he can absorb before he buckles. “8mm” is another exercise in masculine control, and the film charts his growth from law-abiding private eye to lone vigilante.
The bad guys in “8mm” wear their villainy like placards. Four villains menace Tom Welles, but the fourth is not unmasked until the climax. All deserve to die, and as the offal of humanity they earn miserable, ignominious deaths. As a porno-movie producer, Eddie Poole (James Gandolfini) elicits nothing but contempt as the kind of verminous scum who sodomizes women, guzzles liquor, curses blasphemously, and dresses like a lout. He is a repository of politically-incorrect and socially unacceptable traits. As another porno producer, Dino Velvet (Peter Stormare) hams it up with a crossbow and the beard of a vaudeville villain. Chris Bauer creates evil incarnate as ‘Machine,’ the leather-clad star of S & M videos who kills because he enjoys it. Machine’s speech at the end of “8mm” serves as a commentary on the face of evil.
The villains in “8mm,” like some in real-life, do what they do because they can afford it and they enjoy it. They are not pawns of a disease. The late tycoon commissioned a snuff movie because he had the money, and wealth represents power in American society. The one real film lay in his safe like a scalp in a poacher’s bag. Eddie Poole made the snuff movie because “it was something I did for money.” Machine dismisses societal reasons for his homicidal behavior. “I was beaten as a child. I didn’t hate my parents. I like it.” Machine makes these comments as he slips on a pair of dorky glasses and leers at Tom.
Director Joel Schumacher has helmed several classy Hollywood movies, such as “Falling Down,” “The Client,” “A Time to Die,” “Batman Forever,” “Batman and Robin,” “The Lost Boys,” and “Flatliners.” The veteran director imitates Tim Burton this time out with his emphasis on Stygian lighting, gothic color schemes, and prosaic storytelling. Sadly, the story is presented in such a procedural manner with the accent on reality that it amounts to a bore. Cage takes breaks from the case to call up his plain-Jane wife and his baby daughter to apologize for not being with them. When things go too far, his wife reads him the riot act and threatens to leave him.
Essentially, Schumacher has gone too far in the other direction. From splashy comic book super heroes, he has retreated to dreary, world-weary ordinary mortals forced to make life’s disasters his omelets. Rather than immerse audiences in sex and nudity, Schumacher approaches the obscene then swings the camera on Cage’s face to see the effect it registers on Tom Welles. Always the epitome of subtlety, when he wants to suggest sleaze, Schumacher punches up the volume on composer Michael Danna’s electronic, Arabic-flavored music score. “8mm” drags along with a burst of energy near the end that does little to redemn the long wait to which the filmmakers subject their audience.
Altogether, “8mm” is a dull, clammy, little exercise in voyeurism and perversion. Columbia Pictures and director Joel Schumacher couldn’t have contrived a better bedtime story for the Super Court Justices to lull themselves asleep to than “8mm.”
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
FILM REVIEW OF "MCQ" (1974)
Initially, prominent Hollywood action director John Sturges and leading man John Wayne had planned to make "The Sons of Katie Elder." Wayne's declining health, however, prevented them from collaborating on that superb western that Henry Hathaway eventually helmed. Instead, Sturges and Wayne got together to make the urban police thriller "McQ," and "McQ" (***1/2 out of ****) ranks as one of the best of the modern-day police thrillers in the tradition of both "Bullitt" and "Dirty Harry." The Lawrence Roman screenplay, inspired by Roman's previous epic "Slaughter on 10th Avenue," is top-notch stuff with a genuine mystery attached to an otherwise highly serviceable thriller about a rogue cop. Veteran detective Lon McQ (John Wayne) has a vendetta to settle with the chief villain, Manuel Santiago, and McQ believes that Santiago put out a contract on his partner Stan Boyle. Yes, this formulaic plot is as creaky as "The Maltese Falcon," but Sturges and Wayne always pay off in spades.
This atmospheric actioneer is worth watching for several reasons. First, cinematographer Harry Straddling, Jr. lensed a really cool, careening auto chase across scenic Seattle. Second, everybody has memorable lines of dialogue. Third, Elmer Bernstein delivers another thumping orchestral score. Fourth, Hal Needham staged the first ever tumbling cinematic car stunt on the beach at the end. Fifth, John Wayne gets to wield the rapid-firing MAC-10 submachine gun in its motion picture debut. "Lon, it's not licensed," the firearms guy reminds him. "Jack," McQ replies, "neither am I." Remember Dirty Harry had his .44 magnum, so Wayne winds up with a variation on his old "Stagecoach" repeater. Sixth, Eddie Albert, despite one sudden haircut goof in an interrogation scene, stands out as McQ's fire-eating superior Ed Kosterman who blames everything on 'radicals.' Kosterman keeps his eyes glued on McQ from start to finish. Eventually, Kosterman assigns a cop, J.C. (Jim Watkins of "Cool Breeze") to shadow McQ because McQ has a history of police brutality. McQ is a "Die Hard" type cop. He does what he needs to so he can get what it wants. It's not often that you see John Wayne play a character who intentioned lies. Western television star Clu Gulager is on hand, too, in a first-class cast that includes "McCloud's" girlfriend Diana Muldaur, perennial tough guy villain Al Lettieri, Colleen Dewhurst, Julie Adams, and portly David Huddleston.
The complex plot opens with McQ's long-time partner Stan Boyle (William Bryant of "The Guns of Will Sonnet") putting three bullets each into two uniformed cops during the early morning breakfast hours. What McQ doesn't know is that Boyle is the one did the killing. Boyle doesn't give either man a chance to return fire. Later, at a rendezvous outside of a coffee shop, Boyle hands his murder weapon, a 9MM automatic pistol with a silencer, over to the mystery man who lets him have it with a shotgun blast in the back. The mystery arises over who did the killings. Captain Kostermann (Eddie Albert of "Roman Holiday") insists that radicals are behind these murders. Predictably, McQ believes that his arch nemesis Santiago (Al Letierri of "The Godfather")is to blame. As it turns out, Kostermann and McQ are both wrong!
Nothing is a picnic for our hero. Later, he is trying to pull out of an alley and two 18-wheel tractor-trailer rigs box him in and slam repeatedly into his Green Hornet until it is a shambles and he is squished up in it. The villains, it seems, have been trying to separate McQ from his car since the outset when a car thief tried to swipe his car at the marina. No sooner has McQ left the Seattle P.D. than he persuades a local private eye, Pinky (David Huddleston of "Bad Company"), to help him get a P.I. license so he can take advantage of Pinky's cover. "I see it, do-it-yourself gumshoe," Pinky observes.
John Sturges, who helmed "The Magnificent Seven," "The Great Escape," and "The Satan Bug" maintains the suspense and tension throughout this 111 minute thriller and sets up one primary red herring in the Roman screenplay that pays off in the finale. Mind you, "McQ" is no "Dirty Harry." It doesn't address the legal complications of our flawed justice system, and the chief villain is a corporate type drug smuggler with a large company that he can hide behind as well as an expensive attorney who doesn't miss a trick.
Sure, John Wayne looks a mite long in the tooth to be playing such an athletic role, but he carries himself well enough and he has a genuine character to play. Incidentally, Wayne had a chance to play "Dirty Harry," but he turned it down. He doesn't have a bank robbery scene like Clint did in "Dirty Harry," but he has a scene where he nails a fleeing hit-man named Patty Samuels dead in his tracks on a Seattle dock with a well-nigh impossible shot. "That was the greatest shot," raves a dock hand, "that I ever saw." Interestingly, this scene resembles a scene from Sturges' "The Magnificent Seven" where Brett (James Coburn) fired at a man on horse just as the rider reached the skyline. Brett blew the horseman out of the saddle. Chico rhapsodizes about the shot, but Brett explains that he was aiming for the horse but not the rider!
"McQ" is an above-average thriller that every John Wayne fan must see!
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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.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
FILM REVIEW OF ''RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE" (2010)
Spectacular 3-D visual effects, larger-than-life action situations, and audacious characters make the fifth entry in the “Resident Evil” franchise a lot of fun. Virtually everybody is referring to “Resident Evil: Afterlife” (*** out of ****) as the fourth entry. Basically, with some justification, each is ignoring director Makoto Kamiya’s “Resident Evil: Degeneration.” Mind you, “Resident Evil: Degeneration” was an animated epic without Alice as the chief protagonist, and it went straight-to-video when Sony released it back in 2008. As far as I’m considered, Sony scraped the bottom of the biohazard barrel with “Resident Evil: Degeneration.” Nothing about it was remotely memorable. Meanwhile, “Death Race” director Paul W.S. Anderson returns to the helm with the latest entry “Resident Evil: Afterlife.” For the record, Anderson directed the original “Resident Evil” (2002) and has penned all four of the live-action features as well as served as producer. “Resident Evil: Afterlife” qualifies as a crisp, invigorating, 97-minute actioneer never wears out its welcome. The digital 3-D prints are scintillating to see. When the butt-kicking heroic babe charges the camera and hurls those ninja throwing stars, you want to dodge them. Meaning, Sony Pictures produced the movie in 3-D. Lately, some studios have simply converted a 2-D movie into 3-D, and the movie looks terrible. This is not the case with “Resident Evil: Afterlife.”
This action-packed post-apocalyptic zombie flick unfolds in Tokyo. An outbreak of the T-virus devastates the capital city of Japan. By the time that practically everybody is dead, the Umbrella Corporation posts snipers to pick off wandering zombies. Without warning, the Umbrella snipers begin to die. Of course, Alice with her samurai sword is at work, and she brings multiple clones of herself armed with Heckler and Koch MP-5 submachine guns. Initially, she kills close to 500 soldiers at the Umbrella Corporation’s underground headquarters and targets the evil Umbrella Corporation Chairman Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts of “Edge of Darkness”) who manages to escape in a twin-engine helicopter with wings. The real Alice sneaks aboard to kill him and he drains her of the mutant resources that the T-virus instilled in her. Basically, Alice goes back to being a mortal. Wesker, who has been infected by the virus, is struggling to control the effects of the T-virus, and he needs what has been rolling around in Alice’s system. Suddenly, the hover chopper jet that Wesker escaped in from the Tokyo Headquarters crashes on a mountainside. Miraculously, Alice survives. She sets off to find her friends, Claire Redfield (Ali Larter of “Final Destination”) and K-Mart (Spencer Locke of “Spanglish”), who flew off in helicopters to Alaska to find safety at a place called Arcadia. The catch is that Arcadia is a super tanker operated by the Umbrella Corporation. and they capture everybody who left the desert in the previous film “Resident Evil: Extinction.” The Umbrella henchmen slap a ruby red spider-like contraption onto their chests that robs them of their memory. Claire managed to escape, but K-Mart and over two thousand others were imprisoned to be used in more Umbrella experiments. Alice commandeers a propeller-driven plane, flies to Alaska and finds Claire. The ruby red spider like device on Claire’s chest has wiped out her memory, and Claire tries to kill Alice when they first met.
Together Alice and Claire wind up flying to Los Angeles. The city of Angels stands in cinders and only seven people have survived. They are holed up in a skyscraper prison, and zombies have laid siege to the building. Alice wings her way in and makes a cliffhanger landing on the prison roof. She almost overshoots the roof. By now, Claire has regained her memory. They meet a sleazy movie producer Bennett (Kim Coates of “Waterworld”), Bennett’s intern Kim Yong (newcomer Norman Yeung), basketball superstar Luther West (Boris Kodjoe of “Surrogates”), Angel Ortiz (Sergio Peris-Mencheta of “Love Ranch”), aspiring actress Crystal (Kacey Barnfield of “Popcorn”), and Wendell (Fulvio Cecere of “Watchmen”). Initially, they believe Alice and Claire have come to fly them to the nearby supertanker Arcadia. The supertanker is visible from the top of the prison, and they’ve heard the radio station about safety and food. Of course, Alice has to disappoint them. Nevertheless, Alice is intrigued about the ship. Claire meets her older brother Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller of ABC-TV’s “Prison Break”) who has been mistaken for a killer and locked by Bennett and his people. Chris has a way that they can escape from the prison and make it to the coast where they can get transportation to the Arcadia. Eventually, the zombies break into the prison after a Goliath dragging a gigantic hammer smashes his way through the locked gates and comes after Alice. As our heroes struggle to escape from the zombies, they are whittled down by the opposition.
Ultimately, the flaw that afflicts “Resident Evil: Afterlife” and all the “Resident Evil” sequels is story. In the original "Resident Evil," the Umbrella Corporation manufactured viral weapons and an industrial spy broke into the corporation’s Raccoon City complex and unleashed it. Everybody died, but they did not remain dead. They came back from the dead as ravenous flesh eating zombies. Not only did the men and women come back as zombies, but also the laboratory animals and mutant laboratory experiments. Since “Resident Evil,” Alice (Milla Jovovich) has been destroying zombies as well as Umbrella executives who want to carry on business as usual. Anderson hasn’t altered that serviceable narrative very much. You can only do so much with zombies unless you are cult filmmaker George Romeo, and Romeo changed zombies in “Land of the Dead.” Nevertheless, aside from the deadly familiarity that the franchise suffers from, everything else in “Resident Evil: Afterlife” looks fantastic. Jovovich’s gravity-defying antics, the exotic settings, a variety of new zombies: burrowing zombies, zombies octopus-like mandibles, water zombies, and a gigantic zombie with a gargantuan axe, as well as glossy production values, George Washington quarters as Alice’s shotgun ammo, a high body count, and the thumping tomandandy soundtrack make this adaptation of the Capcom survival horror videogame a blast to watch.
This action-packed post-apocalyptic zombie flick unfolds in Tokyo. An outbreak of the T-virus devastates the capital city of Japan. By the time that practically everybody is dead, the Umbrella Corporation posts snipers to pick off wandering zombies. Without warning, the Umbrella snipers begin to die. Of course, Alice with her samurai sword is at work, and she brings multiple clones of herself armed with Heckler and Koch MP-5 submachine guns. Initially, she kills close to 500 soldiers at the Umbrella Corporation’s underground headquarters and targets the evil Umbrella Corporation Chairman Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts of “Edge of Darkness”) who manages to escape in a twin-engine helicopter with wings. The real Alice sneaks aboard to kill him and he drains her of the mutant resources that the T-virus instilled in her. Basically, Alice goes back to being a mortal. Wesker, who has been infected by the virus, is struggling to control the effects of the T-virus, and he needs what has been rolling around in Alice’s system. Suddenly, the hover chopper jet that Wesker escaped in from the Tokyo Headquarters crashes on a mountainside. Miraculously, Alice survives. She sets off to find her friends, Claire Redfield (Ali Larter of “Final Destination”) and K-Mart (Spencer Locke of “Spanglish”), who flew off in helicopters to Alaska to find safety at a place called Arcadia. The catch is that Arcadia is a super tanker operated by the Umbrella Corporation. and they capture everybody who left the desert in the previous film “Resident Evil: Extinction.” The Umbrella henchmen slap a ruby red spider-like contraption onto their chests that robs them of their memory. Claire managed to escape, but K-Mart and over two thousand others were imprisoned to be used in more Umbrella experiments. Alice commandeers a propeller-driven plane, flies to Alaska and finds Claire. The ruby red spider like device on Claire’s chest has wiped out her memory, and Claire tries to kill Alice when they first met.
Together Alice and Claire wind up flying to Los Angeles. The city of Angels stands in cinders and only seven people have survived. They are holed up in a skyscraper prison, and zombies have laid siege to the building. Alice wings her way in and makes a cliffhanger landing on the prison roof. She almost overshoots the roof. By now, Claire has regained her memory. They meet a sleazy movie producer Bennett (Kim Coates of “Waterworld”), Bennett’s intern Kim Yong (newcomer Norman Yeung), basketball superstar Luther West (Boris Kodjoe of “Surrogates”), Angel Ortiz (Sergio Peris-Mencheta of “Love Ranch”), aspiring actress Crystal (Kacey Barnfield of “Popcorn”), and Wendell (Fulvio Cecere of “Watchmen”). Initially, they believe Alice and Claire have come to fly them to the nearby supertanker Arcadia. The supertanker is visible from the top of the prison, and they’ve heard the radio station about safety and food. Of course, Alice has to disappoint them. Nevertheless, Alice is intrigued about the ship. Claire meets her older brother Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller of ABC-TV’s “Prison Break”) who has been mistaken for a killer and locked by Bennett and his people. Chris has a way that they can escape from the prison and make it to the coast where they can get transportation to the Arcadia. Eventually, the zombies break into the prison after a Goliath dragging a gigantic hammer smashes his way through the locked gates and comes after Alice. As our heroes struggle to escape from the zombies, they are whittled down by the opposition.
Ultimately, the flaw that afflicts “Resident Evil: Afterlife” and all the “Resident Evil” sequels is story. In the original "Resident Evil," the Umbrella Corporation manufactured viral weapons and an industrial spy broke into the corporation’s Raccoon City complex and unleashed it. Everybody died, but they did not remain dead. They came back from the dead as ravenous flesh eating zombies. Not only did the men and women come back as zombies, but also the laboratory animals and mutant laboratory experiments. Since “Resident Evil,” Alice (Milla Jovovich) has been destroying zombies as well as Umbrella executives who want to carry on business as usual. Anderson hasn’t altered that serviceable narrative very much. You can only do so much with zombies unless you are cult filmmaker George Romeo, and Romeo changed zombies in “Land of the Dead.” Nevertheless, aside from the deadly familiarity that the franchise suffers from, everything else in “Resident Evil: Afterlife” looks fantastic. Jovovich’s gravity-defying antics, the exotic settings, a variety of new zombies: burrowing zombies, zombies octopus-like mandibles, water zombies, and a gigantic zombie with a gargantuan axe, as well as glossy production values, George Washington quarters as Alice’s shotgun ammo, a high body count, and the thumping tomandandy soundtrack make this adaptation of the Capcom survival horror videogame a blast to watch.
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