Duplicity

A rare occasion when the leads see eye-to-eye.

(Universal) Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti, Rick Worthy, Denis O’Hare, Oleg Shtefanko, Kathleen Chalfant, Khan Baykal, Carrie Preston, Christopher Denham, Thomas McCarthy, Wayne Duvall. Directed by Tony Gilroy.

Events of recent years have convinced most of us of one thing – most corporate entities have zero sense of morality and even fewer ethics. While granola-eating sorts have been suspicious of corporate America for decades, many of their worst fears have proven to be true. I wonder what these people who we once called paranoid will think when they get a gander at Duplicity.

Ray Koval (Owen) is an MI-6 agent working in Dubai when he meets Claire Stenwick (Roberts), a gorgeous woman working at the American consulate. Being a kind of ladies man, he takes the girl to his hotel room where she drugs him and takes from him some Egyptian missile codes. Turns out she works for the CIA. Koval’s career takes a header because of the incident. This would have never happened to James Bond.

A few years later we meet Howard Tully (Wilkinson) and Richard Garsik (Giamatti), CEOs of rival shampoo companies Burkett-Randall and Equikrom, respectively. They have a mutual loathing that goes beyond business rivalry and has moved into the realm of personal vendetta. Both are paranoid about industrial espionage and have hired former government agents to commit counter-intelligence against the other. When Tully announces a revolutionary new product that will change the game forever, Garsik knows that it is a matter of corporate survival for him to retrieve the formula of the unknown product and market it before his hated rival can destroy him.

We discover that both Stenwick and Koval are working as corporate intelligence experts; one for Burkett-Randall, the other for Equikrom. They are in the perfect position – and have all the right skills – to make a play of their own for the big prize. Because, as we are told through a series of flashbacks, the two have found a serious mutual attraction for each other. However, the game is afoot and there are plenty of twists and turns the two must navigate if they are to make the big score, the most treacherous being that they must first learn to trust one another.

Tony Gilroy previously directed Michael Clayton so he’s capable of directing a good movie. While his previous effort had many twists and turns, this one puts it to shame in that department. Often you don’t know whether you’re coming or going, and nothing is ever what it seems. The unconventional storytelling method (we’re basically shown two parallel stories, one the current corporate espionage tale, the other the evolution of Ray and Claire’s relationship and how they got from bitter rivals to romantic partners.

Owen and Roberts are attractive leads. They’ve worked together once before (in Mike Nichols’ 2004 drama Closer) and the chemistry between them is reasonably good. Owen, in particular, comes off not unlike a modern Cary Grant. However, they are truly outshined by their supporting cast. Giamatti and Wilkinson are two of the better actors working today and they are at the top of their games here, Wilkinson as a driven industrial titan, Giamatti as a corporate pirate with a cult of personality not unlike Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Preston also has a nice couple of scenes as a corporate travel agent seduced by Ray and then interrogated by Claire. That interrogation scene is one of the most memorable in the movie.

While Gilroy occasionally captures the American corporate culture dead on, in a way it’s more of a parody of a typical American corporation. Considering what actual corporate pirates are getting away with these days, these guys seem like buffoons by comparison. And I have to admit that the ending, while unexpected (which I generally appreciate), came off like one twist too many for me. Still, this is a reasonably intelligent caper movie, well-written for the most part and with plenty going for it. I can recommend it on that basis, but it clearly isn’t one of the high-water marks for the genre. Then again, it doesn’t really have to be.

WHY RENT THIS: Well-written, intelligent caper movies are hard to come by these days. The leads are attractive and have decent chemistry. Glittering performances by the supporting cast, particularly Giamatti and Wilkinson.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Storytelling method can be a mite confusing at times. Plot twists and turns get to be the movies raison d’etre rather than an element of the plot. Ending was one plot twist too many.

FAMILY VALUES: Some sexual situations and mild language, but otherwise nothing you’d be embarrassed to bring the kids to.

TRIVIAL PURSUITS: Julia Roberts’ character Stenwick was named in honor of the late actress Barbara Stanwyck, who made the iconic Double Indemnity.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: None listed.

FINAL RATING: 6/10

TOMORROW: Control

The Time Traveler’s Wife

Time travelers are also genetically incapable of shaving.

(New Line) Eric Bana, Rachel MacAdams, Arliss Howard, Ron Livingston, Stephen Tobolowski, Jane McLean, Phillip Craig, Brooklynn Proulx, Fiona Reid, Hailey McCann, Michelle Nolden, Alison MacLeod.  Directed by Robert Schwentke

They say that love conquers all, and sometimes it does. However, it can put a strain on a marriage when your husband frequently disappears. I can only imagine it would be far worse if he were to disappear in front of your very eyes.

Henry deTamble (Bana) has an odd genetic quirk. He is able to travel through time. Unfortunately, he has no control over his traveling; it occurs frequently and without warning. Also, only his body travels; his clothes do not so he arrives wherever he does buck naked, forcing him to find clothes any way he can, often pissing off those he steals the garments from. He generally doesn’t have them long, sometimes only minutes before he is pulled back to his own time. Also, he tends to go to the same events over and over again, pulled to them like a moth to a flame. One of those events is the death of his mother in a car crash. His first traveling episode occurs at that moment, saving him from being in the same car with her at the moment the gas tank explodes and saving his life.

He is drawn also to events in the life of Clare Abshire (MacAdams), a free-spirited artist whose father Philip (Craig) is a wealthy conservative who loves to hunt. He visits her often in childhood, and then they run into each other as adults. It isn’t long before a very passionate affair begins, and before long he realizes his loneliness is over. He proposes, she accepts and they get married. Unfortunately, he has one of his more inopportune traveling episodes, so an older version of himself stands in for him, leaving his new father-in-law to wonder why his new young son-in-law has a touch of grey in his hair.

They win a lottery (time travel has its upside too) and buy a nice house in the suburbs of Chicago where Clare has a studio she can work in. Her former roommates and close friends Gomez (Livingston) and Charisse (McLean) – who have also become a couple – visit regularly. Clare wants to have a baby, but every attempt ends up in miscarriage. It seems that his progeny has inherited Henry’s time traveling gene and travels out of the womb before becoming viable. This causes considerable friction, and in desperation Henry turns to a scientist (Tobolowski) whom an older self had mentioned to Clare would be of use. There is also a nagging question; why is it that Clare has never encountered a version of Henry that is older than he is now? Could it be that a cure is found for his condition? Or is there a more tragic fate in store for the time traveler?

Based on the runaway bestseller by Audrey Niffenegger, German director Schwentke has crafted the kind of film that pre-teen girls obsessing on the Twilight films and novels can graduate to. He and screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin (who wrote Ghost) have to deal with the novel’s inherent nonsensical premise and they choose not to deal with it, a wise decision. They (and the audience) just accept that the time travel is a fact of this universe and move on, as you should. If you try to apply logic to any of it, have a goodly supply of Excedrin close at hand.

The secret to having this movie work is in the chemistry between Henry and Clare, and Bana and MacAdams do have enough of it to make the movie’s romantic element shine. Bana, in particular, makes a terrific romantic lead – he has shown glimpses of it in movies like The Incredible Hulk and Munich but this is the first time I’ve seen him in a romantic role and he carries it off nicely. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that the ladies get several views of him in the altogether, although whether you find his behind attractive is quite up to you.

The movie is flawed – unfortunately, the source material violates its own internal logic freely – but that isn’t because of the leads. They are in nearly every scene, together or separately and it is their movie to carry and they give it a good showing. There are times that Clare whines about her lot in life, but I think there are quite a few wives whose husbands are in harm’s way in the Middle East who would like to have her situation over theirs. I suppose its all a matter of perspective.

There is certainly a bittersweet element to the movie, and there are some moments that are genuinely difficult to watch. Still, Clare and Henry are basically nice people, so you root for things to go well for them which is a shame because they have a lot of burdens to bear. When I think of great romance movies with elements of fantasy in them, I generally think of Ladyhawke and The Princess Bride. This isn’t as good as either of those movies – more like a Harlequin romance with elements of fantasy than a romantic fantasy as such. However, on its own merits it holds up pretty well, so if you like to see a good romance, I suppose Clare and Henry provide a good one, especially for those caught up in the romance between Bella and Edward.

REASONS TO GO: The chemistry between the leads is solid and believable. Bana in particular makes a great romantic lead. The romantic element is at the forefront, so those who like Harlequin romances and the Twilight series will enjoy this.

REASONS TO STAY: The premise is not the most logical to ever come down the road, and the movie – as the book did – violates its own internal logic from time to time.  

FAMILY VALUES: There is some male nudity (mostly shots of the bare behind variety) and a few disturbing images, as well as some brief sexuality. Okay for most teens.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Eric Bana filmed Star Trek immediately after production wrapped on this film, a role that required him to shave his head. When re-shoots were required for The Time Traveler’s Wife, they had to be delayed while Bana’s hair regrew, which wound up delaying the release of this film for over a year.

HOME OR THEATER: This is a rare toss-up for me. I think it works equally as well in a darkened movie theater, or in the comfort of your own home. Bring plenty of tissue.

FINAL RATING: 6/10

TOMORROW: Duplicity

District 9

A spectacular image from District 9

(Tri-Star) Sharlto Copley, David James, Louis Minnaar, Vanessa Haywood, Kenneth Nkosi, Jason Cope, Mandla Gaduka, Nathalie Bollt, Sylvanie Strike, Greg Melvill-Smith, Marian Hooman, Johan van Schoor, Jed Brophy. Directed by Neill Blomkamp

There have been a number of scenarios in the movies regarding first contact with an alien race. In some cases it is a spectacular affair, with the pomp and ceremony befitting such a momentous occasion. In others, it is a terrifying event, where the destruction of our species is at stake. What actually happens is something nobody can honestly predict.

In this version, a gigantic spaceship enters our atmosphere and comes to a halt, hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa. After a couple of weeks of standoff with no contact between humans and those aboard the spaceship, a United Nations team cut their way into their ship, only to encounter a horrifying sight; over a million starving aliens, huddling in abject misery in the bowels of the ship.

More than 20 years later, the aliens have been relocated to a ghetto in Johannesburg known as District 9 (an ironic nod to District 6, a district in Johannesburg during the apartheid era in which black Africans were allowed to own their own homes), which has become rampant with crime and violence. Nigerian gangsters run roughshod over the aliens, selling black market canned cat food (which is an intoxicant to the aliens) and supplying all manners of vice, including prostitutes for the creatures. Residents of neighboring townships have become fed up with the filth and crime which has spilled over into their neighborhoods. The Prawns, as the aliens are commonly known, have no conception of personal property and simply take whatever they see that attracts their attention.

The whole alien mess has been dumped into the hands of a corporate subcontractor called MNU, or Multi National United. They administer (loosely speaking) alien-human relations but what they really are is the second-largest weapons manufacturer in the world, and their interests lie in getting the Prawns’ superior arsenal of weapons to work, but they can’t – there is a bio-technological element that works with alien DNA only.

In the meantime, tensions have grown to the boiling point in the surrounding neighborhoods and rioting has become commonplace. Despite the outcry of humanitarian organizations, the decision is made to relocate the aliens to Sector 10, 240 kilometers outside of Johannesburg. Students of South African history may note the irony in that.

The management of the relocation process has fallen to Wikus van der Merwe (Copley), a low-level bureaucrat who it just so happens has married the daughter of the company’s vice-president, Piet Smit (Minnaar). Wikus is somewhat inept, a bit of a blowhard, lacking in moral fiber and utterly out of his depth. Nonetheless, he sets out about his duties with great enthusiasm, leading a team of MNU mercenaries, commanded by the ruthless Koobus Venter (James).

While ostensibly there to get the aliens’ “scrawl,” which for legal purposes is to acknowledge that they have been informed of their pending relocation, Wikus is also searching for caches of illegal weapons and technology forbidden to the aliens. In one shack, owned by an alien who has been given the human name of Christopher Thompson (voiced by Cope), he finds what seems to be a harmless metal cylinder. However, he manages to open it, accidentally spraying himself with a black liquid.

This innocuous act leads to devastating consequences for Wikus. He begins to change from the inside out and soon discovers to his horror that his left arm has changed into an alien one. He is abducted by MNU mercenaries who take him to a secret medical research facility where it is discovered that Wikus’ human DNA is transforming into alien DNA. He is now able to operate the alien weapons, much to the delight of the MNU executives. Unfortunately, in order to make this breakthrough of use, they are going to have to harvest Wikus’ mutated DNA – before he completely changes over. Unfortunately, the operation has a side effect – it will kill Wikus.

Director Blomkamp has previously worked mostly in the special effects field. He based this movie, which he co-wrote, on a short film he made called Alive in Joburg which in turn was inspired by his experiences growing up in the apartheid culture. He uses a quasi-documentary feel, with interview subjects and a narrator. Eventually, we grow to realize that the documentary isn’t about the alien relocation, it’s about Wikus and his role in the events portrayed on-screen.

Obviously, cultural and racial segregation is a theme here and the fact that the movie is located in Johannesburg is an irony that escapes only the thickest of viewers. Man’s inhumanity to man is nothing compared to man’s inhumanity to non-man. The depiction of atrocities and conditions in the slum are based on the filmmakers own experiences, as well as the conditions found currently in the slums of Johannesburg. In a further irony, the District 9 depicted here was an actual slum in which the inhabitants were slated to be moved to government housing elsewhere in the city. The shacks depicted here are actual residences (save for Christopher Thompson’s, which was the only one built for the film), down to the mutilated animal carcasses which were prevalent there.

The decision was made to go with unknowns in the cast and, much the same as in The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield works out nicely. They combine traditional narrative techniques along with the shaky hand-held first-person cameras that have become commonplace in the last few years, creating a heightened sense of realism.

It also must be said that the CGI here of the mothership and the aliens is pretty extraordinary. The aliens are truly revolting, resembling a cross between a lobster, a grasshopper and a crawfish. They are given expressive human eyes which convey everything from slightly unfocused incomprehension to near-tears. I don’t know that I wouldn’t feel a bit unnerved having these sorts of things living in my vicinity.

The cast does a solid job here, mostly in limited roles. Only Copley and James have extensive screen time and they make the most of it, James mostly as the sneering, psychotic villain. Copley is given a much more difficult part, and he does a surprisingly good job of it. Wikus is not a typical hero. He doesn’t always do the right thing and quite often, self-interest motivates his decisions. He is also hopelessly inept and one of those annoying people who think they know far more than they do. He has more in common with Inspector Clousseau than with Rambo. Still, for all his faults, you end up rooting for him, maybe because of all his faults.

As a sci-fi action movie, it’s satisfying. The alien weapons range from not very different than ours to “HOLY CRAP!!!” The aliens themselves are no E.T. They are the Mariel boat people of their species. The last 20 minutes of the movie is essentially a running battle between the MNU toadies and Wikus, using a kind of Prawn Terminator and there is body parts shooting off in all sorts of nasty directions, generally accompanied by a spray of gore and ichors. Perhaps scariest of all, however, are the Nigerian gangsters who are ignorant, savage and utterly without a shred of decency. In that sense they have far more in common with the corporate monsters than the non-human ones.

For a movie that has so much going on in terms of subtext, there isn’t a whole lot of exploration of that. In essence, the filmmakers lay out the facts and events that transpire and let you make of them what you will. In that sense, it isn’t unlike an actual documentary, something that was no doubt intentional on the part of the producers (who include Peter Jackson, by the by).

I enjoyed the Johannesburg setting; it’s neat to see a movie set somewhere you don’t get to see explored too often by mainstream American cinema. I only recall Tsotsi and Stander as being set there, although I’m sure there are plenty of others. There is some lovely cinematography showing the cityscapes dominated by the mothership, as well as shots of the squalid ghetto.

I liked this movie quite a lot. The filmmakers don’t waste a moment in this movie, which is something some veteran moviemakers can’t say. I doubt it’ll be remembered as a benchmark in sci-fi cinema, but nobody will leave the multiplex feeling disappointed. Mission accomplished!

REASONS TO GO: The faux-documentary style creates a heightened sense of realism. Excellent CGI, believable aliens, impressive weapons and some very nice action sequences make this a nice little thrill ride.

REASONS TO STAY: Some of the dialogue is a bit hard to understand. There are some truly stomach-churning moments for those who are sensitive to such things.

FAMILY VALUES: There’s a good deal of violence and truly loathsome aliens who may cause some nightmares for the wee crowd. There’s also a good deal of crude language.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Sharlto Copley is not a professional actor, nor has he any plans to continue pursuing a career in the field; all of his lines are ad-libbed.

HOME OR THEATER: Some of the shots of the mothership hovering over Johannesburg are best appreciated on the big screen.

FINAL RATING: 7/10

TOMORROW: The Time Traveller’s Wife

(500) Days of Summer

Happy loving couples make it look so easy...

(Fox Searchlight) Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Clark Gregg, Minka Kelly, Matthew Gray Gubler, Chloe Moretz, Rachel Boston, Geoffrey Arend, Patricia Belcher, Yvette Nicole Brown, Maile Flanagan. Directed by Marc Webb.

We all get into relationships for different reasons. Sometimes – most of the time, I’m hoping – we get in because we honestly believe that this person may be The One. On other occasions, we’re just doing it to pass the time until something better comes along. And other times, what starts out as “just friends” deepens into something special.

Tom (Gordon-Levitt) is a romantic. He believes that true love is inevitable, something that finds you, something you know the moment you set eyes on your soulmate. He has been through the wars of love and has had his ass kicked. He’s something of a settler in most respects; trained as an architect, he has found work as a writer for a greeting card company. However, the one thing he won’t settle for is the love of his life. That is an absolute for him.

Summer (Deschanel) is a beautiful woman who has turned heads ever since she was old enough to know how. She’s had her share of lovers, but watched her parents endure an ugly, bitter divorce. It was bad enough that she has erected emotional walls the Chinese would envy. She’s looking for like, not love – for her, true love is a myth, much like Santa Claus.

She’s impulsive enough to move from Michigan to Los Angeles because she’s bored. She gets a job at the same greeting card company that Tom works for, and the two connect almost instantly. They both like the Smiths, for one. They both have a quirky sense of humor, and they both are intelligent, hip people. Tom’s closest friends – MacKenzie (Arend) and Paul (Gubler) are wary for Tom. He’s lost his heart on more than one occasion, but this time is different. Even Tom’s sister Rachel (Moretz), whom Tom most often turns to for romantic advice (what the hell, she’s twelve, she knows plenty more about the subject than he does) can see it.

The two seem well-suited for each other. Tom is completely smitten, but Summer has a bit of a reserve that Tom is okay with for the time being. After all, it looks like she’s beginning to let him in. Then, with a suddenness that sets his head to spinning in all sorts of directions, she dumps him. He’s left to review the various points of the 500 days he spent with summer (aha! Clever title…) and try to figure out where things went wrong – and what is really important to him.

Director Webb, who has mostly worked in the music video field, takes a very intelligently-written script (by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber) that is somewhat difficult to film because of the constant bouncing forward and back in time frames and manages to weave it into a cohesive whole. From the opening graphics, the viewer becomes totally aware that they’ve lucked into something special. The humor is laugh-out-loud funny, and universal to nearly everybody.

It is also unique among comedies. Now, while I have nothing against Judd Apatow and modern comedies like Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Knocked Up, there’s beginning to be a certain sameness about them. As anti-formulaic as they were, they’ve become so imitated that they’ve become their own formula. (500) Days of Summer is completely different. It has some of the cutting edge elements of those movies, but has cut out the raunch, and added a double dose of intelligence. This is as well-written a romantic comedy as you are likely to find, although in a very real sense this isn’t strictly a romantic comedy – more like an anti-romantic comedy. They do warn you with voiceover narration in the movie’s opening moments that this is not a love story, and the filmmakers stay true to their word.

Part of the movie’s success revolves around the likability of the leads. Both Deschanel (The Good Girl) and Gordon-Levitt (Brick) have plenty of indie cred to begin with, but are also are moving rapidly to the A-list, which they may very well take a huge leap towards after this movie comes out. They have some support – “Criminal Minds” uber-nerd Gubler as Tom’s stable friend, Arend as his manic friend and Boston as a semi-sympathetic ear on a blind date for Tom after the break-up. While it’s true that Deschanel has made a career out of playing the quirky indie girl (and plays one here), she gives Summer just enough depth to make her stand out amidst the pack.

While there is a scintillating indie soundtrack, don’t make the mistake of lumping this with all the indie movies that populate the art houses year after year. Things come out of left field, center field – Hell, out of the bleachers from time to time – enough to keep even the sharpest and most savvy moviegoer on their toes. The humor is biting and sometimes takes shots at indie sacred cows (like a montage of foreign film spoofs during Tom’s dream sequence). How refreshing for a film with this kind of background to not take itself so damn seriously, as indie films are wont to do.

In the end, the movie is about expectations versus reality. We tend to see things the way we want to see them, particularly when it comes to love and relationships. We may love someone so much that it hurts, but love has to be a two-way street, otherwise it’s just obsession. When you run into a movie that is so well-written and that understands what love truly is without the rose-colored glasses and treacle Hollywood is well-known for, you find yourself feeling like you’ve just met someone that you know is going to be your good friend for the rest of your life. It’s the kind of movie that alternates between hysterical and insightful and does just enough of both to keep you off-balance.

(500) Days of Summer is the kind of movie you’ll be quoting to friends and have in the forefront of your mind for a long, long while after the lights come up. For my money, this is the frontrunner for Best Movie of 2009 until another comes along to knock it off its perch – and that’s a big “if”.

REASONS TO GO: A well-written, intelligent romantic comedy that takes on the subject of true love without the rose-colored glasses of Hollywood. Attractive, likable leads have you rooting for them for all the right reasons. Laugh-out-loud funny at times, insightful at others, all set to a scintillating indie soundtrack.

REASONS TO STAY: Can’t think of a single reason to miss this movie.

FAMILY VALUES: Some fairly muted sex scenes and a few adult situations (like a dare to shout the word “penis” as loud as you can), but otherwise suitable for the entire family.

TRIVIAL PURSUITS: Deschanel and Gordon-Levitt previously worked together on the 2001 film Manic.

HOME OR THEATER: This is a movie that may be somewhat hard to find, but it is well worth the effort, and a movie this innovative and entertaining deserves all the support it can get.

FINAL RATING: 10/10

TOMORROW: District 9

Transsiberian

Emily Mortimer's just hanging around.

(First Look) Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Eduardo Noriega, Kate Mara, Ben Kingsley, Thomas Kretschmann, Colin Stinton. Directed by Brad Anderson.

There is a romance about train travel. As we ride the rails, we are in a world of our own, looking out onto the world beyond. In this world, we meet our fellow travelers, not all of whom who are what they would seem to be at first glance.

Roy (Harrelson) and Jessie (Mortimer) are an American couple returning home after doing missionary work in China. They decide to take the long way home by taking the Transsiberian railway from China to Moscow.

At first, the trip seems to be a pleasant adventure as Jessie, a photographer, gets plenty of opportunity for fascinating snapshots while Roy gets to play tourist. Most of the train’s staff speaks no English and are as surly as only Russians can be, but that doesn’t diminish Roy’s enthusiasm as they travel through exotic-sounding places that they’d only read about in Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky novels.

They meet another couple from the West; Carlos (Noriega), a carefree Spaniard, and Abby (Mara), his much-younger girlfriend. Where Carlos is worldly, Abby is naïve. They seem an odd couple, but then again so are Roy and Jessie. Roy is a straight-arrow churchgoer who is dedicated to charitable works and steam engines. He is child-like in many ways. Jessie has far more skeletons in her closet than most women her age. Wild in her younger years, she has a hard-fought sobriety that she clings to like a four-year-old girl clings to a favorite doll. She notices that Carlos is immediately attracted to her.

After a stop in Irkutsk, Jessie is alarmed to find that Roy has missed the train. Nobody has seen him and she can’t get in contact with him. She gets off at the next stop to wait for him and Carlos and Abby volunteer to wait with her. Carlos offers to show Jessie a great place to take some pictures. They hop on a bus and walk into the countryside after getting off in a small village. What happens next is…well, I won’t tell you to ruin the surprise.

As thrillers go, Hitchcock pretty much has the market cornered but director Anderson (The Machinist) shows a flair for the genre. He takes Hitchcockian elements from movies like The Lady Vanishes and North by Northwest and gives them a nice twist. Add to this the bleak Russian landscapes and the grim, suspicious people who inhabit it and you have the makings of a nice thriller.

Harrelson has become a really solid character actor, and he imbues Roy with the kind of naïveté that would have made his “Cheers” character Woody Boyd seem sophisticated and urbane by comparison. Mortimer, a veteran British actress, also does a solid job as Jessie, who is trying to overcome a sordid past. Kingsley is alternately charming and menacing as a Russian narcotics detective who, like nearly everybody on the train, isn’t all that he seems to be. He’s one of the best actors in the world, and he shows why he gets that kind of consideration here.

The movie is spine-tingling and leaves you on the edge of your seat until the very last frame. Rather than attract big stars to the leading roles, Anderson wisely cast solid character actors, every one of whom are outstanding actors in their own right. He allows his cast and the stark landscape to capture the imagination and attention of the viewers. The result is one of the better independent thrillers to come down the pipeline in a very long time.

WHY RENT THIS: The bleak Siberian landscapes and a solid cast make this one of the most intense thrillers to come out of the independent circuit for quite some time. Sir Ben Kingsley brings charm and menace to his role. Writer/director Anderson takes Hitchcock’s plot elements and twists them into something special.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Lots of sexual tension but no sex as such.

FAMILY VALUES: There is a fairly graphic torture scene and a murder that may be a little too intense for some.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Director Brad Anderson’s first film was a horror short called Frankenstein’s Planet of Monsters.

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: None listed.

FINAL RATING: 7/10

TOMORROW: (500) Days of Summer

New Releases for the Week of August 28, 2009

 

 

 

Who says Paul Dano can't look studly?

TAKING WOODSTOCK

 

(Focus) Emile Hirsch, Demitri Martin, Imelda Staunton, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kelli Garner, Eugene Levy, Liev Schreiber, Henry Goodman. Directed by Ang Lee.

In 1969, the counterculture was focused on a farm in upstate New York for one glorious shining (ummmm, okay…raining) weekend – near a place called Woodstock. Director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) takes a fond look back at that moment in time in this new comedy inspired by events that actually happened – note that it’s inspired by and not based on, so expect ol’ Ang and his screenwriting partner James Schamus to play a bit fast and loose with the facts but so what? It’s all in good fun.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Rating: R (for graphic nudity, some sexual content, drug use and language)

Adam

(Fox Searchlight) Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving. Adam is a young man who not only lacks the social graces, he lacks any sort of grace whatsoever. He has been comfortable in his insulated world – until Beth walks into his life. As worldly and cosmopolitan as he is shy and awkward, she comes into his life like a tornado in a miniskirt. An unlikely romance, yes but this is an indie film after all so there you go.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Rating: PG-13 (for thematic material, sexual content and language)

The Final Destination

(New Line) Bobby Campo, Shantel van Santen, Mykelti Williamson, Krista Allen. The fourth (and possibly final) entry into the horror franchise follows the same formula – teen has premonition, saves friends from horrible accident that kills others, then said friends begin getting picked off in a series of elaborate, gruesome accidents. Yes, I know you’ve seen it all before – but have you seen it in 3D? Yes, it’s in 3D in selected theaters, but not all so check ahead if your particular multiplex is carrying it in that form if it’s important to you.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Rating: R (for strong violent/gruesome accidents, language and a scene of sexuality)

Halloween II

(Dimension) Scout Taylor-Compton, Tyler Mane, Malcolm McDowell, Brad Dourif. Is it that time of year again? Rob Zombie, who is God to legions of horror film fanatics, returns in this sequel to his reboot of John Carpenter’s Halloween. Taking place immediately after the first film left off, it follows heroine Laurie Strode in the aftermath of the carnage of the first movie as Michael Myers seeks out his own brand of retribution.

See the trailer here.

For more on the movie this is the website.

Rating: R (for strong brutal bloody violence throughout, terror, disturbing graphic images, language, and some crude sexual content and nudity)

G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra

Sienna Miller has a helicopter to catch.

(Paramount) Channing Tatum, Dennis Quaid, Marlon Wayans, Sienna Miller, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Christopher Eccleston, Arnold Vosloo, Ray Park, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Byung Hun Lee, Rachel Nichols, Said Taghmaoui, Gregory Fitoussi, Jonathan Pryce. Directed by Stephen Sommers

For the major studios, it’s no longer enough merely to make a movie. There must be merchandise, stuff that will help the bottom line when all is said and done. This is particularly critical for an expensive, big-budget film that the studio is hoping to spin off into a lucrative franchise. It helps when the franchise and merchandise is already built-in.

In the near future, James McCullen (Eccleston), CEO of MARS Industries, an international weapons supplier, has created a brand-new weapon – a missile filled with micro-organisms called nanomites. These little critters consume anything made of metal, and they multiply at an astonishing rate. A single missile can potentially take out an entire city. He has sold four such warheads to NATO, which sends a team led by American warriors Duke (Tatum) and Ripcord (Wayans) to guard the shipment.

The NATO team is attacked by a well-trained, well-armed outfit led by the Baroness (Miller), who apparently once had a romantic relationship with Duke but the two had a falling out after her brother Rex (Gordon-Levitt) – a scientist attached to Duke’s unit – was killed after Duke had sworn to protect him. So here they are, together again in a way, with her soldiers pointing high-tech guns at Duke and Ripcord, the only survivors of the attack. They are rescued, however, by a third team armed with high-tech weapons of their own.

It turns out that this team is a secret military organization comprised of the best of the best, a multi-national force that exists to tackle jobs no one national military can handle. The team is commanded by General Hawk (Quaid) who had asked Duke to join the team four years earlier, but Duke turned it down – no doubt because he was in a funk after Rex’s untimely passing. Duke and Ripcord, impressed by what they have seen, want in but the other Joes, as they’re called, are skeptical. This is the most elite military fighting force on Earth, after all. However, during their training camp they are both so impressive that Hawk feels compelled to bring them aboard.

A good thing too, because the Baroness means to get those warheads for her employer. She and her employer’s personal ninja Shadowstorm (Lee) lead a team of specially enhanced soldiers – they’ve been injected with the nanomites, rendering them completely obedient, impervious to pain and utterly without fear – into the Joe’s Egyptian base, more casually known as The Pit. The raid is successful despite the best efforts of Joes Heavy Duty (Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Scarlett (Nichols), Breaker (Taghmaoui) and Snake Eyes (Park), a mute ninja who turns out to be Shadowstorm’s brother. The new recruits acquit themselves nicely as well. However, the warheads are taken and General Hawk is seriously injured. The Baroness’ team is greatly assisted by Zartan (Vosloo), a sociopathic master of disguise.

The Joes trace the Warheads to Paris, where the Baroness have taken them to her husband, a civilian nuclear physicist (Fitoussi). She forces him to weaponize the warheads and then callously has Shadowstorm kill him. She is definitely not getting a puppy for Christmas!

In any case, the Joes catch up to her and Shadowstorm and chase them through the streets of Paris, but despite their best efforts, they are unable to prevent the Baroness from firing one of the warheads at a national icon of France, which could spread throughout Paris like a terrible virus. The Joes keep this from happening, but they have to find the remaining three warheads and neutralize them before something horrible happens.

Sommers is a talented director, whose Mummy pictures rebooted Universal’s classic horror icon and made for some of the more entertaining movies of the past decade. He has a deft hand at action sequences and it is no surprise therefore that the action here is first-rate. There are also some nifty special effects (the destruction of the Eiffel Tower sequence is one of the most memorable of the entire summer). It’s a fun movie to watch.

The main issue I have with the movie is in the writing. I suspect that the writers felt that the target audience would be young, male and not too picky when it comes to plot, dialogue or characterization. The box office numbers may bear out that decision; certainly my 20-year-old son was enthusiastic about the movie, lamenting that only a P.S.A. at the end of the movie (the animated series was notorious for their weekly Public Service Announcements that were punctuated with the line “Knowing is half the battle” – the line is used here by General Hawk) would have made this a perfect cinematic experience.

As I often do, I must humbly disagree with my son. I think that this could have been a much better movie. The actors are given lines that I don’t think I could possibly say with a straight face, so I do give the acting crew credit. Their characters are pretty two-dimensional for the most part; the only intriguing one was Ray Park’s Snake Eyes, who was, appropriately, mute. Tatum was also disappointing. He seems to me to have a great deal of potential, but I have yet to see him live up to it. He seems more content with wooden performances a la Paul Walker, my least favorite action star. I do have to say that he isn’t given a lot to work with here.

Cliché after chest-beating cliché is spouted by the actors until I felt a need to turn some of those high-tech weapons on the cast. The studio didn’t screen the movie for critics, which is usually a sign that they don’t have a lot of confidence that the critics are going to write positive reviews for the movie and on that point the studio was pretty accurate. I will say that the movie is big dumb fun. Yes, it’s dumb and it could have been a whole lot better, which is frustrating to watch. However, there is enough fun to give it a mild recommendation, but given some of the competition in the theaters right now, it would be completely understandable if you spent your money on a different movie.

REASONS TO GO: Some terrific action sequences are enhanced by spectacular special effects. The futuristic weapons in the movie have a sky-high cool factor. There will be a good deal of nostalgia for those who loved the animated television series, even though the movie is ostensibly based on the comic book series more than the cartoon.

REASONS TO STAY: Absolutely ludicrous dialogue is rendered meaningless by a plot that a second-grader could have come up with. Channing Tatum gives a performance that makes Al Gore look positively charismatic.

FAMILY VALUES: Lots of cartoon violence – if you feel comfortable with your child watching the cartoon series, they should be okay seeing this as well.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Brendan Fraser makes a cameo as a training Sergeant who is, according to Fraser, a descendent of his character Rick O’Connell from The Mummy, also directed by Sommers.

HOME OR THEATER: I would recommend the big screen for the action and special effects, but keep in mind that this isn’t the best-written movie you’ll see this summer.

FINAL RATING: 4/10

TOMORROW: Transsiberian

Julie & Julia

Meryl Streep is the consummate actress; she’ll even kiss a crab!

(Columbia) Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina, Linda Emond, Helen Carey, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Jane Lynch, Joan Juliet Buck, Frances Sternhagen, Helen Coxe, Crystal Noelle, George Bartenieff. Directed by Nora Ephron

We all occasionally look for inspiration outside of ourselves. It can come from a person, or a book of poems or a hobby. Sometimes we need something to help us find our own meaning in life.

Julia Child (Streep) is the wife of Paul (Tucci), a career diplomat. In 1949, he gets a plum assignment to the American Embassy in Paris. Her French is limited, but she falls in love with the cuisine of France where there can never be enough butter or cream. She tries to find something to fill her time, taking hat-making lessons but what really inspires her is food, so she enrolls in the prestigious French cooking school Le Cordon Bleu. Although the mistress (Buck) is skeptical of the chances of the only woman in a class full of aspiring chefs, she is a natural and quickly becomes a very skilled chef in her own right.

Julie Powell (Adams) works in a cubicle, dealing with the family of victims of 9-11. She and her husband Eric (Messina) have just moved to a loft in Queens above a pizza parlor; she feels removed from her life. She’d once had ambitions of being a writer but hadn’t been able to finish the novel she wanted to write. Stressed out and miserable, she finds solace in cooking, particularly from the recipes of Julia Child. Her husband suggests she cook all the recipes in Child’s landmark “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in a single year, a total of 524 recipes in 365 days and then blogging about it. Motivated, she agrees to do it even though initially she wonders if she’s communicating with anybody.

Meanwhile, back in the 50s, Julia has met Simone Beck (Emond) and Louisette Bertholle (Carey) at an embassy party. The two are trying to write a French cookbook for American housewives, without much success. They are having trouble relating to an American audience. They need Julia’s perspective. The three open up a cooking school, although Louisette contributes very little. Beck and Bertholle meet very little enthusiasm from American publishers, and Julia despairs as the project drags on. Only the support of her husband keeps her going.

Julie’s blog doesn’t seem to be betting much attention. The project is becoming more of an obsession, as Julie develops a kinship with the author of the cookbook. She begins to get stressed and when she fails from time to time, she has some spectacular meltdowns. Her single-mindedness has gotten to the point where her normally patient husband has walked out on her after one meltdown too many.

The two stories are told parallel to each other. Ephron weaves them together skillfully as they can be. Part of the problem is that there is a disparity between the performances of the two lead women. Streep is one of the best actresses of her generation, and she’s at the top of her game here. She captures Child’s mannerisms and personality nearly spot-on. Much of the material comes from letters written by Child herself and her husband Paul. They give insight into the couple that no biopic would normally be able to offer.

That’s not to say that Adams’ performance is bad. She’s a fine actress in her own right and she has a role here that is against type – a somewhat neurotic obsessive who has a slight streak of self-indulgence. The problem is that while Powell was an ardent admirer, her story is not nearly as interesting as Child’s. In many ways, Powell is basking in the reflected glow of Child. Adams in many ways relegated to a supporting role to Streep and I suspect she doesn’t mind too much.

Tucci and Messina have thankless tasks as the husbands. The roles of saints are inherently less interesting than those of sinners, and these husbands are definitely saints. Their patience and understanding would do Gandhi proud and while these make excellent traits in real-life husbands, they tend to make on-screen versions look like milksops.

One of the things the movie is successful in doing is portraying the satisfaction of creating a meal from scratch. It is true in our modern American society, meals have become a function more of ease and time as opposed to what they once were, a function of passion and love. We place emphasis on meals that are pre-prepared and easily heated in a microwave oven. We’ve lost the inclination to spend time preparing a meal, even one taken from a recipe. The sense of satisfaction from a well-made meal that is delicious is lost to us.

Vegans may have a difficult time watching this as various meats and fishes are shown in the process of preparation and it isn’t always a pretty picture, particularly a group of lobsters who do not go gently into that good night. French cooking relies heavily on butter and cream, and Julia Child was extremely fond of both. We have become obsessed with healthy eating in this country, which is a bit of a joke. On the one hand, we are perhaps the most obese culture in history, relying on the glories of Big Macs and Whoppers to keep our nation fed. On the other hand, we spend time eating bland, so-called healthy meals that have little soul or passion to them and are meant to be good for us but so very rarely satisfy other needs. Food isn’t merely fuel for the body; it is also something that feeds our souls. Spoken as a man who has battled weight issues his entire life, I might add.

If all you think of food is as a means to keep your body’s engine running then this movie probably doesn’t have a whole lot to say to you. If, on the other hand, food is something to be savored and enjoyed then this is the kind of film you might find inspiration in. Streep’s performance is extraordinary and well-worth seeing on its own merits.

Like any well-cooked meal, Julie & Julia takes time to savor. It’s not a typical summer release in that there are no explosions, no big laughs. Instead, it warms the soul quietly, much in the way a good casserole comforts us. It’s not spectacular, it’s nothing that is going to have fanboys twittering on the internet, but it’s a solid movie about passion – and that’s the spice of life right there.

REASONS TO GO: Once again, Meryl Streep gives an unforgettable performance. You may be inspired to cook a really great meal after seeing this.

REASONS TO STAY: Streep’s performance is so good that she overwhelms the other actors onscreen. Vegans may be put off by the preparing and cooking of meat.

FAMILY VALUES: There’s some blue language and some mild sexual situations but nothing the average teenager wouldn’t see or hear on an ordinary school day.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: In order to make the 5’6” Streep approximate the 6’2” Child, camera tricks, sets with lowered counter tops, and shorter actors were employed.

HOME OR THEATER: As much as I like this movie, I think the closer you see it to a kitchen, the better.

FINAL RATING: 7/10

TOMORROW: G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

For Don Ready, life is a mile-high party.

(Paramount Vantage) Jeremy Piven, Ving Rames, David Koechner, James Brolin, Jordana Spiro, Kathryn Hahn, Ed Helms, Tony Hale, Ken Jeong, Charles Napier, Jonathan Sadowski, Alan Thicke, Rob Riggle, Noureen DeWulf, Will Ferrell. Directed by Neal Brennan

 Used car salesmen are some of the most excoriated people on earth. It’s not a profession for the faint of heart. To be a successful used car salesman, you have to have the goods.

Don Ready (Piven) has the goods. He’s a gun-for-hire, a mercenary with the killer instinct of a born closer. He grew up thinking the salesmen in Glengarry Glen Ross were pussies. He’s assembled a team of tight-knit professionals who go from dealership to dealership, bailing them out when they need sales boosted quickly. Selleck Motors of Temecula, California are just such a dealership. The business has been in Ben Selleck’s (Brolin) family for 40 years, but the banks are getting ready to foreclose. The fourth of July weekend is approaching and Selleck’s team of psychotics and losers just aren’t getting the job done. Over the misgivings of his daughter Ivy (Spiro), Ben has to call in the cavalry.

That would include the legendary Don Ready, his numbers genius partner Brent Gage (Koechner) whom Ben has taken an unhealthy liking to, the oversexed Babs Merrick (Hahn) who has taken an unhealthy liking to Ben’s son Peter (Riggle), a ten-year-old in a 30-year-old body, and Jibby Newsome (Rames) who just wants to make love to a woman someday – but he’s not a virgin, mind you. He’s had plenty of sex. He just wants to make loooooove.

They have one weekend to sell 211 cars on the Selleck lot. If they don’t, smarmy import car lot owner Stu Harding (Thicke) and his egocentric son Paxton (Helms) – who is also, incomprehensibly Ivy’s fiancée (and a member of Temecula’s best boy band – excuse me, man band, who once opened for O-Town. You can Google it.

That’s pretty much it for the plot. The movie, essentially, is a vehicle – ‘scuse the pun – for Piven, best known as Ari Gold on HBO’s Entourage. The script moves ahead at a breakneck pace, much like the patter of a used car salesman. If you don’t like one gag, have no fear – another will be along in a moment. It’s like a well-served bus line of comedy.

Piven is one of my favorite underrated actors. He doesn’t seem capable of giving a bad performance, and some of my favorite movie moments in films like Very Bad Things and Smokin’ Aces were as a result of Piven’s talents. He gets some solid back-up, particularly from Napier as a mad dog salesman, Brolin, Rames and Helms. Hahn is also worth checking out; she’s slutty without being overly sleazy.

There is a vibe that is produced in Judd Apatow’s best movies here; Temecula, a small town in California’s Mojave Desert, becomes a place we can relate to. Everything is magnified there because there really isn’t all that much to do. Considering the state of the auto industry, this movie provides a comedic bail-out in a summer when laughs have been in short supply, both in the multiplex and out of it. There is definitely a cynical edge to the movie and you get the feeling that the actors are right there with you laughing at some of the antics of their characters. Ferrell, who has an uncredited cameo as Ready’s best friend who suffers a tragic fate, produced this and I would put it up there with Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy in terms of comedic punch. People who liked that and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story are going to find this to their liking.

REASONS TO GO: One of the funnier movies of the summer, although a bit on the cynical side. Some nice performances by a smart troupe of character actors.
REASONS TO STAY: Some of the gags can be a bit scattershot.
FAMILY VALUES: Some nudity, much sex and sexual innuendo and a good deal of foul language might give parents pause.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Director Brennan began his career as a writer and director on “The Chappelle Show” on television.
HOME OR THEATER: While the big screen doesn’t necessarily enhance this movie any, it’s always nice to support a smaller film at the box office.
FINAL RATING: 7/10
NEXT: Julie and Julia

Hello world!

Hi there. My name is Carlos. Pleased ta meetcha. This is my movie blog. I have been a movie critic for print weeklies and online groups since the mid-Eighties. I have also been a rock critic as well. I love to write, and I love to watch movies, so this is a natural. I am going to write about a single movie each day, generally a review but not always. Some of the movies will be current releases, others will be off of DVDs. Hopefully they’ll inspire you to respond, or help you choose what movie to see. I hope so – this is supposed to be fun!

This is an outgrowth of the Friday Night Movie Bunch, a loose-knit group of people in the Orlando area who went to the movies every week. Although that group is now down to my wife and I (and we generally go on Saturday afternoons anyway), the spirit is still the same. Usually I’ll tell you which movie is going to be up the next day.

Every Wednesday I’ll be publishing a list of movies that are coming out that week ending on Friday. These are movies opening in the Orlando area only, specifically in the area near my home in Apopka but including nearby theaters in Winter Park and Maitland. I’ll give a little bit of information about the general plot and sometimes a little commentary as well. I’ll also provide links to the film’s website and to the film’s trailer, generally from their IMDB video page. I’ll also provide the MPAA rating for American readers.

My wife Doreen – who I usually refer to as Da Queen – and I generally see our major releases at the AMC Altamonte Mall 18 in Altamonte Springs, Florida although we also see movies at the the Regal Winter Park Village and the Enzian Theatre in Maitland as well. Some of the DVD reviews are of movies I’ve already reviewed for our Friday Night Movie Bunch newsletter, with DVD information added in.

In addition, there will also be seasonal preview features, such as a Fall/Winter/Holiday and Summer Movie Guide, as well as other features as may tickle my fancy from time to time. Longtime FNMB readers will note that the Top Five feature is not included in this blog, although I may revive it again someday. If I do, you can find more information about it here.

Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I love writing this – coz I’m probably not going to stop. Seriously. Those threats just aren’t going to work.