Foxcatcher (2014) * * *

Directed by:  Bennett Miller

Starring:  Steve Carrell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Sienna Miller, Anthony Michael Hall, Vanessa Redgrave

I liked Foxcatcher without loving it.    I was intrigued by some portions, while held at arm's length in others.     Yet, Foxcatcher is beautifully photographed, cold, desolate, and tragic.    It is not the type of movie one would "enjoy" like an action thriller or a romantic comedy, but it can be admired nonetheless.   

Based on true events, Foxcatcher tells the story of two Olympic gold medalist wrestling brothers, Mark and David Schultz, whose lives become tragically entangled with millionaire John Dupont (Carrell).    As Foxcatcher opens, Mark (Tatum) is living a life of lonely solitude.   He trains with his older, more lauded brother Dave (Ruffalo), while living in a dumpy apartment eating ramen noodles and earning a meager living speaking at elementary schools.     Late one night, Dupont's assistant calls and flies him first class to Foxcatcher, Dupont's vast horse farm near Valley Forge, Pa.    Dupont offers Mark a job training his stable of wrestlers for the 1988 Olympics.    "Name your price," Dupont says, and Mark blurts out "$25,000".     Mark has little idea that Dupont would've likely paid much more.    Dupont also wishes to lure Dave into the fold, but Dave refuses to uproot his family.   

Dupont is a strange man with a big, misshapen nose who speaks and behaves under a fog of cocaine and mental illness.     Carrell's performance is all the more frightening, not only because I knew what would eventually happen, but because we sense he is a lonely man forever trying to please his disapproving mother and failing.    This rejection builds up inside him until he finally acted on it in January 1996, killing Dave in front of his family.    "I had one friend when I was a child and I found out at 15 that he was paid by my mother to be my friend," he confides in Mark.    We witness his mother (Vanessa Redgrave) express her disapproval of Dupont's love of wrestling.   "Wrestling is a low sport and I don't like to see you that low."

We learn soon that Dupont loves wrestling because he uses it as a way to indulge his repressed homosexuality.    He intently watches men rolling on the mat, acting as a coach, but really just preferring to watch.     Dupont does very little coaching.    The one time he attempts to coach is done so ineptly that it causes snickers within his stable.     Because he pays for the facilities and puts his group up in nice quarters on the property, Dupont sees himself as a coach, father figure, and friend, especially to Mark.    Dupont hooks Mark on cocaine, even briefly becoming his lover, which is implied if not ever seen.    Throughout it all, Dupont wishes Dave would be in the fold, mostly because Dave is Dupont's Moby Dick.    Like Captain Ahab, pursuing Dave gives Dupont something to strive for.    Dave eventually comes aboard, but notices Dupont's strange behavior rather quickly.    He also believes his brother is not well physically or mentally either and manuevers him away from Dupont.

The performances are strong.    Carrell's presence casts an eerie pall over the entire movie effectively.   Tatum is physically imposing, and naive to Dupont's motives.     Tatum projects a man starved for love and approval.   Dupont gives him the approval he has forever sought.    Dupont easily manipulates Mark, saying that he has lived in Dave's shadow his whole life.     The most fascinating performance is Ruffalo's.    He is a student of wrestling who has learned to move on with his life after his active wrestling career was over.    He is intuitive and cares deeply for his younger brother.     He is a good man who did not deserve to be murdered.    Ruffalo provides the most well-rounded character, one we can relate to more easily than Mark or Dupont, who both are scarred and tortured in their own way.    Much of the action takes place on Dupont's large, spacious, yet cold estate.     There is no happiness there, only a cold exertion of power and influence.     

Because Dupont was wealthy and a member of the famed Dupont family, this story grabbed headlines in 1996 because we witnessed a rich man who has it all nevertheless become unhinged and give in to his base desires.    His desire was to kill.   Why was that?    We can speculate that he knows
that, aside from money, he has little self-worth.     He enters an over-50 wrestling tournament which he sponsors and wins because his opponents are paid to lose.    He can not accept that he is a failure as a coach, friend, and son.     This eats at him until he acts out on unsupecting Dave one winter morning.

When Foxcatcher was over, I was aware the movie didn't delve into Mark's feelings on his brother's death.    He is seen becoming a cage fighter, which he did successfully, but how did he feel about his benefactor murdering his brother?    Dupont was convicted of murder and died in prison in 2010.    Foxcather is chilling, sometimes sterile, and a very quiet film, with occasionally the simple piano score breaking the silence.    We know everything is building to the eventual murder of Dave Schultz.     I admired Foxcatcher even if ultimately it wasn't fully engaging.      Foxcatcher is presented in such a fashion that the people never can truly penetrate their cold surroundings.     Maybe that is the point.

Get Smart (2008) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Peter Segal

Starring:  Steve Carrell, Anne Hathaway, Terence Stamp, Alan Arkin, James Caan, Dwayne Johnson

Last week, the name of the next James Bond movie was announced.    It will be titled SPECTRE, no doubt referring to the terrorist organization which is never quite able to fulfill its dreams of world domination thanks mostly to Bond.    Let's face it:  SPECTRE is a group of screwups which, no matter how hard it tries, cannot dispose of one man.    Why should any world leaders take SPECTRE seriously, considering its dubious track record?    They should just wait for James Bond to show up.     Even Dr. Evil's organization is more threatening. 

With that in mind, is KAOS, the group battling Maxwell Smart and company in Get Smart, any different?    KAOS is meant to be a sendup of SPECTRE, but in actuality, they are both similar.    How can KAOS be a spoof of SPECTRE when SPECTRE is as equally adept at fucking up as KAOS?    Actually, KAOS simply provides the plot on which to hang the gags for Get Smart.     The results are very funny and witty.    Director Segal and his cast weren't content with a silly adaptation of the 1960's TV series, but wanted to put its own stamp on things.     There are plenty of sly one-liners to be sure, but we can't help but root for the underdog Smart, who succeeds at times despite himself and at times because he can be pretty darn brilliant.

KAOS orchestrates a new plot in which it builds a nuclear weapon to blow up half of Los Angeles during the President's trip there.     A Moscow bakery is used as a front to create the weapon.     At least KAOS didn't go through the trouble of stealing a warhead.     When CONTROL, the agency Smart works for as an analyst, is blown to smithereens, Smart is made an agent and is teamed up with the mysterious, sexy Agent 99 (Hathaway), who at times has to bail Smart out of trouble and may even wind up in love with him when all is said and done.

Agent 23 (Johnson) is also put on the case.    Carrell carries the load, but Hathaway and Johnson also prove to be deft comic actors.    Alan Arkin can be funny without even seeming to try.    "Anyone who is thrown in jail and then breaks out of jail to save the same people who jailed him is either a double agent or not an idiot.    And you are not a double agent," he tells Smart at one point.     Sounds pretty logical to me.     Terence Stamp is on hand as Siegfried, the head of KAOS who bemoans that he is stuck with dopes working for him.    He gets his comeuppance in a very funny sequence in which he makes the wrong guy angry at the worst possible time. 

Get Smart took great care to be a smart comic action film.    We care about the outcome, mostly because we like these slyly goofy characters so much.     An initial showdown between Smart and Siegfried is a microcosm of the film's wit.

Siegfried:   If you were CONTROL, you would already be dead.

Smart:   If I were CONTROL, you would already be dead.

Siegfried's henchman:   It actually makes sense.

The Italian Job (2003) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  F. Gary Gray

Starring:  Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Jason Statham, Seth Green, Franky G, Mos Def, Donald Sutherland

The Italian Job is a superior example of a slick caper/chase film.    There are even a few ingenious moments which are thrilling.    It is not quite as good as Ocean's Eleven, which also depicts a group of thieves stealing lots of money, but it is definitely in the same league.    Here, the coveted prize is millions of dollars worth of gold bars, but money is money.

These days, most thefts occur online, where someone has to simply hit a few buttons to swindle someone out of their money.    Or, like in the case of Bernie Madoff, a thief can run a pyramid scheme which bilks clients out of millions.    They wouldn't dream of cracking a safe or speeding a Mini-Cooper through LA traffic and down the steps of Union Station.    Why go through all of the intensive labor?

The Italian Job begins with a Venice heist in which a group of thieves steal millions in gold bars only to have one of the group, second in command Steve (Norton), betray them, kill the group leader (Sutherland), and swipe the gold for himself while leaving the others for dead.    The surviving members are Charlie (Wahlberg) the mastermind, Left-Ear (Def), an explosives expert, Handsome Rob (Statham) who drives a mean getaway car and seduces women, and Lyle (Green), the computer whiz who insists he is the true creator of Napster. 

Charlie brings in Sutherland's daughter Stella (Theron), a safecracker with revenge on her mind.   They plan to find Steve and steal the gold back.    This, of course, does not happen without plenty of plot twists and unexpected developments.    F. Gary Gray proved with The Negotiator (1998) that he can make a thriller which crackles with suspense.   The Italian Job is an extremely well-crafted film full of car chases, thefts, double crosses, and a very, very creative way to make a truck full of gold seemingly disappear from the street.    I especially enjoyed that.

The Italian Job isn't heavy, deep, or meaningful.     It is a great way to spend a couple of hours having fun watching a cheerfully preposterous film.    That beats wasting two hours on similar films that go on autopilot and are not in any way made special by the filmmakers or cast.     We have seen films like The Italian Job a hundred times.  What makes it work better is the energy expended to at least try and stand out from the crowd. 

The Theory Of Everything (2014) * * 1/2

Directed by:  James Marsh

Starring:  Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, David Thewlis, Charlie Cox, Emily Watson

The Theory Of Everything is the story of Dr. Stephen Hawking, one of the world's most brilliant scientists confined to a wheelchair since the late 1960s due to Lou Gehrig's disease.    He was given two years to live when first diagnosed, but he is now 72 and continues to be among the most revered people in the scientific community.    His fame has even entered mainstream media, including a recent cameo appearance on The Big Bang Theory.    His mind is as sharp as ever, even though his body has failed him.    His communication with the world is done through a computer which "speaks" his thoughts.

Hawking's story as presented here lacks power.    I found myself enjoying the performances and hoping for a spark which never arrives.    The film concentrates not only on Hawking, but on his first wife Jane (Jones), who loved him and nursed him as his motor skills and normal daily functions slowly ceased.     They first meet at Cambridge in 1963, before Hawking earned his doctorate.    He is gawky and awkward, as if he is behind the wheel of a body that he can't quite control.    One day his legs give out from under him and we learn the sad truth.     Yet, Jane has fallen for him and promises to conquer his disease together.    They marry and have three children, but soon Jane has the unenviable task of caring for three toddlers and her husband who can barely feed himself.     They move the bed to the kitchen so he doesn't have to fight his way up and down stairs to get to the breakfast table.    However, the burden is relentless.

As Hawking, Redmayne is physically convincing.    We witness him shrivel up in his wheelchair and stare into space, seemingly seeing nothing but observing everything.    It must have been draining to play Hawking physically, but Redmayne does so with humor and warmth.     The screenplay doesn't really provide us with much insight into Hawking's feelings as his body fails.    There certainly had to be moments of anger and sadness that Hawking felt, but the movie sidesteps them.     Jones is sweet, caring, and kind as Hawking's wife, but even though she dutifully tends to Hawking, the love for him is never adequately conveyed.     Nor is the continued stress on her as the caretaking of her family overwhelms her.    

A subtext of the film is both Stephen and Jane's tacit approval of each other having lovers.    Since Stephen can no longer physically satisfy his wife, she turns to the kindly local church choirmaster (Cox), who assists Jane in the caretaking of her family and then becomes her lover.    He is the epitome of kindness and gentle anguish as he struggles with his feelings for her.    He wants to Do The Right Thing.     Except for some brief scenes, we never really see Hawking as a near-genius scientific mind.     We sense he is a genius because others tell us he is.    We rarely even see him working and struggling to prove his lauded theories.     The only way we know he worked at all is when we see his books put on display in store windows.    

It is hard to fault the performances in The Theory Of Everything.     The trouble is more at the screenplay level.    The film is happy to cover the surface of things, but doesn't delve too deep.    A lot of ground is covered, but not really explored.      What we have here is skilled, but ultimately perfunctory.   

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) * 1/2

Directed by:  Tom Shadyac
 
Starring:  Jim Carrey, Courteney Cox, Dan Marino, Sean Young, Tone Loc
 
When Jim Carrey is playing hostile, aggressive, in-your-face characters like Ace Ventura, he is as pleasant as fingernails dragging across a chalkboard.     He has the range to play better roles and thankfully he has branched out as his career progressed.      Carrey puts a whole lot of energy into Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, but the results aren't funny.     Many people laughed hysterically at Carrey as he mugged his way desperately through scene after scene.    I didn't and still don't understand what is so funny.     Twenty years after seeing Ace Ventura the first time, I'm happy to see that my sense of humor hasn't changed.
 
The title character is a Miami-based pet detective who finds lost animals.    He is assigned by the Miami Dolphins to find Snowflake, their dolphin mascot kidnapped from its pool shortly before the Super Bowl.     The thought of the Miami Dolphins playing in the Super Bowl may be funnier than anything else in the movie.    Then again, it was released in 1994 when Dan Marino was the quarterback.    Marino also goes missing, which further complicates the case.
 
Ace also has to put up with Lt. Einhorn (Young), who busts Ace's balls every chance she gets because she thinks he is a lousy detective.     He proves her wrong even though he is a slightly better detective than Jacques Clouseau.     Ace is so obnoxious and unlikable we almost wish he wouldn't solve the case, which we care little about anyway.    The film's success rests on Carrey, which means that the film is not a success.
 
Carrey's methods at surgically removing laughs include facial contortions, phrases like "Alrighty then", and generally being a loud, boorish creep.     The other actors stand around waiting for Carrey to stop his act so they can utter their lines.   Courteney Cox (pre-"Friends") is on hand as the Dolphins employee who hires Ace and acts as the potential love interest.    Her role is thankless, as are most of the supporting roles.  

Carrey has talent and should do his best to avoid playing roles like Ace Ventura.    I remember once watching his standup act from the early 80s in which he employed numerous vocal impressions and facial expressions of famous people.    That was pretty funny.   

Road To Perdition (2002) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Sam Mendes

Starring:  Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Daniel Craig, Jude Law, Tyler Hoechlin, Stanley Tucci, Ciaran Hinds

Road To Perdition is a film that rises above mob movie cliches.    It is not simply about mobsters whacking each other for business or personal reasons, but about a father wishing to shield his son from a life he himself can not escape.   It is also about the old adage "there's family...and then there's family."  The Paul Newman character is forced to make a decision to kill his biological son or the man he loves "like a son".  Or in his world, have one or the other killed.  The choice isn't as easy as it may seem.

Directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty), Road To Perdition is a film with similarities to American Beauty, including a similar score and lots of rain.    Road To Perdition doesn't have intermittent showers, but torrential downpours.   We hope there were dry clothes and a lot of coffee nearby.   This is a beautiful looking movie, photographed by Conrad Hall, who won a posthumous Oscar for his work here.   Even the scenes without rain are shadowy and menacing, thanks in large part to Hall's work.  It underscores everything.  The look is gloomy even if the action is not.  

We are so engrossed by the drama that we forget Road To Perdition is without much comic relief.     Unlike American Beauty, which played like satire, Road To Perdition is deadly serious.     It opens in rural Illinois in the winter of 1931, an area ruled by Irish mob kingpin John Rooney (Newman), whom Mike Sullivan (Hanks) works for.    Sullivan is a hitman mostly, but tries his best to conceal this information from his sons.    This does not dissuade their curiosity.    "Do you know what Dad actually does when he goes on missions for Mr. Rooney?", Sullivan's youngest son asks his older brother Michael (Hoechlin).    Michael, who feels distant from his father, decides to find out and stows away in his father's car when he treks out on one of his "missions".   

Michael witnesses mob killings, perpetrated by Rooney's son Connor (Craig), who thinks he will take over the family business one day.     Michael's father thinks his son won't talk, but the Rooneys aren't quite so sure.    Soon, Connor kills Sullivan's wife and younger son, forcing father and son to flee, unable even to be present at the funeral of his family.     While on the road and desperately trying to find Connor (who is under protection not only by his father but the Capone family in Chicago), Michael and his son bond.    There aren't any wordy speeches or declarations of love, but small, touching moments in which each is able to finally understand the other.     We learn the father's distance and coldness were an attempt to shield his family from his job.   

There are inner conflicts as well.    Sullivan feels betrayed by Rooney, whom he viewed as a father and almost worshipful at that.   Rooney, understanding he has to allow for Sullivan to be killed, says, "God help me," in sheer agony.   We understand the nature of their relationship which ultimately has to be sacrificed.     The key scene between the two occurs later, when Rooney tells Michael in no uncertain terms that his loyalty is with his son.    "There are only murderers in this room.  One thing is for sure, none of us will ever see heaven," Rooney says. "Michael can," responds Sullivan, as if it would matter.  

Road To Perdition is rarely less than gripping.   Tom Hanks may not seem like the actor to play a cold mob enforcer, but he is subdued, conflicted, and identifiable even as we don't approve of his profession.    He hates his job, but does it out of loyalty to Rooney.    It is quite a good performance, also because we sense there is a moral compass in him as he protects his son.    This was Newman's final on-screen role (and he received an Oscar nomination for his work).    He lends such gravity and power to his scenes that we don't realize he is not onscreen that much.     His presence occupies scenes he is not even in.    Also on hand is Jude Law as Maguire, who is hired to kill the Sullivans and sells photographs he takes of his past victims.     Law is effectively creepy.

The overall feeling the film conveys is coldness, not just temperature-wise, but within the characters themselves.    I read that the temperature dipped as low as -30 F during some of the scenes.    These characters have compartmentalized and rationalized so much that there is little joy in them.    Road To Perdition is the opposite end of the spectrum from Goodfellas, where the mobsters loved being in the mob.     People like Mike Sullivan probably wish they had sales jobs instead. 












 

Nightcrawler (2014) * * *

Directed by:  Dan Gilroy

Starring:  Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton

Louis Bloom (Gyllenhaal) is a sociopath who stumbles across the perfect career as a "nightcrawler", a term for a free lance video cameraman who listens intently to police scanners and sells footage of grisly car crashes and homicides to the highest bidding TV stations.    Bloom is scary, not necessarily because he behaves violently towards others, but because we imagine the lengths he will go to satisfy his egotistical career goals.    "It's not that I know people.   It's that I don't like them," he tells his assistant Ricky (Ahmed), who begins to understand the true nature of his boss all too well.

Bloom behaves cordially, almost too cordially,  and with a disarming smile for everyone he meets.    If Norman Bates were not satisfied with running the motel and ventured out into the streets of Los Angeles, he would likely behave like Bloom.     We witness the ingratiating Louis turn into manipulative and scheming Louis on numerous occasions, especially when attempting to entice the news director he works with (Russo) to sleep with him.     She tries the old line, "I wouldn't want to ruin our friendship," in order to dissuade him.    Louis responds with, "What if you telling me no ruins our friendship?"    Guys, I must say this may be the perfect comeback line for that age-old excuse.    If a woman tries to lay it on you, channel Louis Bloom and see how it goes.    Or better yet, don't.

Nightcrawler succeeds primarily because of Gyllenhaal's relentless performance.     Slight of build, but not slight of ambition, we see Louis learn the art of nightcrawling.     If you think he would be above staging a crime scene or perhaps messing with the brakes of a competitor's van so that it would be involved in a gruesome accident, then you would be wrong.    Gyllenhaal is tightly wound, almost sounding like a walking, talking MBA online course when discussing his goals and future prospects.    He never assaults anyone or turns into a psychotic killer.    However, we also know he is so beyond ordinary human feelings that what remains is a shell of a person.    In the TV news business, where the unspoken (and sometimes spoken) rule is "If it bleeds, it leads",  a nightcrawler's job, in a sense, is to film the most blood so it will capture the lead story slot.    

This is the perfect job for Louis, who isn't bothered by gore, violence, or ruthlessness.    The only thing that seems to rankle him is when his news director chastises him for not giving her better material.     That is enough to make him smash his bathroom mirror.     Nightcrawler is a character study about the type of person MBA online or even classroom courses seem to spit out.    We hear the MBAspeak about motivation, goals, personal development, performance reviews, and longterm business plans.    What we don't hear, especially from Louis, is any semblance that there is a human being inside.    Louis, and many like him, are flesh, blood, and smiles, but there is really no one home.     Certain aspects of Nightcrawler play like black comedy, a la Network, in which we think some of the satire is over the top, but upon reflection we realize that it is just barely ahead of the facts. 

Interstellar (2014) * * *

Directed by:  Christopher Nolan

Starring:  Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, John Litghow, Wes Bentley

A good portion of Interstellar is gripping and emotionally powerful.    Then, it hits a wall from which it never quite recovers.    The film could easily be trimmed by about 20 minutes and still maintain its original vision.    Christopher Nolan attempts to stuff a lot of ideas into this space epic, which overall is an ambitious, thought-provoking project for about 3/4 of its running time.     We see Einstein's Theory of Relativity put into practical use, which turns out to be a very sad ordeal, although if my belief is correct there has to be something traveling at the speed of light in order for the theory to work.   

Interstellar opens on Earth at an unnamed time in the future.    The planet is beginning to die.    All other crops except corn can no longer be grown.     There are frequent massive dust storms and fires.    The population has dwindled so much so that the New York Yankees now play on a Little League field somewhere in the middle of the nation's heartland.    There are also no more armies, mostly because money is directed to saving whatever life is left on Earth.    

I will tread lightly while describing the plot so I don't give away too many plot points.    Part of the wonder of Interstellar is its scope.    The early scenes create a sad tone.    We see a planet dying and the likelihood that people will die with it.    As George Carlin once said, "The planet isn't going anywhere.   We are."    A former astronaut named Cooper (McConaughey), along with his near-genius daughter, stumble across a site used by NASA and run by Dr. Brand (Caine).   NASA's mission?    To send astronauts across the galaxy to find another planet which Earthlings can inhabit so they can move there and save the human race.   The catch?    Since it takes years to get to the edge of the galaxy, the astronauts will likely never see their loved ones again.     Can the ones chosen for the mission place the needs of the many ahead of the needs of the few?    Most can not. 

It is this central question that pulls along Interstellar and creates genuine, touching moments.     Nolan, with limitless technical expertise and resources at his disposal, is deftly able to envision a future growing bleaker by the moment even as the sun still shines.     Then, Instellar digresses into almost a homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey.    Plot developments come up that aren't really necessary or even relevant.      Things are concluded not with a wallop, but with a more muted, stunted ending unworthy of all the emotional investment that came before.

Interstellar is visually stunning as it takes us into the deepest recesses of space to uninhabitable planets.    What we mostly feel is the sense of time lost as the astronauts discover new worlds.    It takes so long to get there and back (even through a black hole) that many years pass on Earth.    Loved ones grow older and die.    This is likely why we send robots and machines into space instead of humans.     Machines don't have family attachments and people they miss.    The feelings of loss would be just too intense for humans to sacrifice for the greater good.     Interstellar works best when it focuses on that.     When it turns a little too sci-fi, it loses its way.     That is a strange thing to say about a sci-fi drama.

Thank You For Smoking (2006) * * *

Directed by:  Jason Reitman

Starring:  Aaron Eckhart, Cameron Bright, Maria Bello, David Koechner, Sam Elliott, Robert Duvall, William H. Macy, Katie Holmes


The fact that Nick Naylor (Eckhart) is a lobbyist for Big Tobacco doesn't detract from his charm and likability.     When asked why he does it, he replies, "Because I'm good at it."    He is.    Nick is able to go on TV shows defending smoking, even when faced with a cancer-stricken teenager in the midst of chemotherapy treatments.     Thank You For Smoking is a pointed satire of the lobbying industry.    Yes, it is as much an industry as tobacco or auto manufacturing.    Billions of dollars in profits hang in the balance.    

Nick's job is to keep people smoking and keep the government at bay.    He is divorced and has a son, but not many friends.    The closest thing he has to friends are representatives from the Alcohol and Firearms lobbies (Bello and Koechner), whom he meets with once a week over lunch to talk shop.   

Nick's biggest challenge is a congressman from Maine (Macy) who is eager to debate him on the dangers of smoking.     Nick says he can back up claims that smoking isn't bad for you with scientific research conducting by Big Tobacco scientists.    "These guys can disprove gravity."    Lobbying isn't exactly life-affirming work, but it pays the bills.    Eckhart performance is smooth, charismatic, and charming.     He can sell ice to Eskimos.    If he has any reservations about his job, he doesn't show it much.     But yet, he has to know he is helping peddle a lethal product.   

Reitman, like in his other films Up In The Air (2009) and Young Adult (2011) walks the fine line between satire and presenting us with characters who are borderline pathetic.    Do we laugh at them so we may not cry?    Possibly.    There are no real heroes in Thank You For Smoking, just varying degrees of greedy corporate types and sleazy politicians.    It is a tribute to Reitman and Eckhart that they create a mostly likable guy in Nick Naylor who we wish would see the light.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Bryan Singer

Starring:  Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Peter Dinklage, Nicholas Hoult, Halle Berry, Ellen Page

On the personality scale, X-Men fall short of The Avengers but are more palatable than The Fantastic Four.    They are rather inert, but at least have special, distinct superpowers that can wow us every now and then.    The movies, like the X-Men themselves, leave me with a "meh" feeling.    I'm not bored, but I'm not engrossed.     Try as they might, even the gifted cast can't stop the indifference in me.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is a sequel to X-Men: First Class (2011), which introduced Professor Xavier (McAvoy) and Magneto (Fassbender) as young men learning to deal with their powers.    It also brought into focus the rift in ideaology which created the on-again, off-again friendship between Professor X and Magneto.     I didn't see the first two X-Men movies, truth be told, but nothing about any of their sequels or spinoffs make me want to go back and watch them.   

The plot of this film held promise, mostly because time travel movies are inherently intriguing.    The idea of defeating time and changing the past holds universal appeal.     Days Of Future Past brings together the X-Men as young and older people, sometimes in the same frame.    Wolverine (Jackman) doesn't qualify as young or old because he is immortal, so he is the one chosen to have his mind transferred back to 1973 to prevent mutant Raven (Lawrence) from killing a scientist who is making it his life's mission to destroy mutants.    The assassination led to unintended consequences in which Raven is taken prisoner and her DNA used to create giant robots that can adapt to mutants and destroy them in a worldwide war 50 years later.    It is up to Wolverine to convince the younger Professor X and Magneto to put aside their differences to stop the assassination.    

How Wolverine exactly travels back in time is explained, but not really understood.    We accept that it happens and move on.    Poor Wolverine seems to land the worst jobs and takes the biggest beating of all of the X-Men.     The blades that protrude at will from his knuckles don't do as much damage as the fact that he simply can't be killed.     The other X-Men have wild powers also, but as people they get the short end of the stick in the charisma department.    Jennifer Lawrence is beautiful, of course, but spends a lot of the movie as a blue shape-shifter who could've just as easily walked in from the Avatar set.

There is the occasional fun involving one-liners and some neat effects, plus we get to see actors who enjoy themselves despite slim material.    I won't divulge the outcome of the time travel, except to say that generations of X-Men will be able to attend Professor X's school and learn history from Wolverine.     How much is tuition at that place anyway?  

Lucky You (2007) * * *

Directed by:  Curtis Hanson

Starring:  Eric Bana, Robert Duvall, Drew Barrymore, Debra Messing, Charles Martin Smith

Huck Cheever (Bana) grinds out a living playing poker on the Las Vegas strip.    Things aren't going so well lately.    Desperate to earn the $10,000 entry fee for the upcoming World Series of Poker, Huck hocks his mother's wedding ring and plies his trade at the poker tables.     He is on a first-name basis with casino managers and waitresses, who let him in on the lucrative games.    Huck's skill was learned from his estranged father LC Cheever (Duvall), who is a former world champion back in Vegas trying to reconcile with his son.     Huck hasn't gotten over his father's divorce from his mother.    His play as a "blaster" (a player who bets heavy and fearlessly in order to win money fast) may be attributed to his anger toward his father.     "You play cards like you should live your life and you live your life like you should play cards," LC tells Huck.    Huck doesn't understand that until a woman named Billie (Barrymore) walks into his life.

Huck likes Billie well enough, but he seems to be playing an angle at all times with her.    He is unable to see that she may be good for more than someone to teach poker to.    When he wins her some money at the table, you can sense he will be around later to "borrow" it to play more cards.    Billie, as played by Barrymore, is sweet and a bit naive.    She falls for Huck despite her sister Suzanne's (Messing) advice not to.    Huck is a pleasant guy, but is better at reading people when they play cards than in real life situations.    He doesn't sense his father's desire to reconcile any more than he senses that Billie sees him as a potential lifemate.   

Lucky You is entirely more fascinating when it deals with poker.   It knows its stuff.    We get a sense of the action and we learn the lingo.     Poker is a game of skill and a game in which you sometimes create your own luck.    Of course, landing that third 8 you need to knock your opponent out of a tournament is luck writ large.    But also needed is plenty of character and an ability to bounce back from a bad hand.     The pros seen in this film have made a living at playing the odds and knowing when to fold.    "Sometimes a good fold is as good as a win,"  Huck tells Billie.    There is a payoff later when Billie breaks up with Huck saying, "I'm making a good fold."   

The Huck/Billie romance isn't nearly as interesting.    They have more fights and breakups in their first week of knowing each other than most couples do in a lifetime.     The romance is perfunctory at best.    I'd give it another week until they call it quits for good.    Billie is the catalyst to Huck's realization that life is more than poker, but it seems added to the mix in order to boost the box office.     You get a sense the movie was hedging its bets.

Everything comes down to the final table at the WSOP, in which Huck and LC square off.    There is plenty of suspense in these sequences, especially when Huck and LC go head to head after a heart-to-heart chat in the men's room.     I know Huck forgives his father and all, but damn, throwing away pocket aces in that situation is so extreme we almost can't believe it.    Regardless, I admired Lucky You for its craftsmanship and its strong points, which involve a lot of hands of poker where Huck and LC do their stuff.    

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) * * * *

Directed by:  Woody Allen

Starring:  Woody Allen, Martin Landau, Jerry Orbach, Sam Waterston, Alan Alda, Anjelica Houston, Joanna Gleason, Mia Farrow

Woody Allen's contention in Crimes and Misdemeanors is that we all live in a godless universe, or at least a universe in which God turns a blind eye to evil.    Then what guides us?    During a deep philosophical conversation between a wealthy ophthalmologist named Judah (Landau) and his patient, a rabbi who is going blind (Waterston), the rabbi states, "I don't think I could go on living if I didn't believe there was a moral structure."     Judah chillingly replies, "God is a luxury I can't afford."    The rabbi believes Judah is merely confessing an affair to him, one which has gone on for two years and threatens to turn his world of wealth and privilege upside down.    However, Judah has other plans, which involve hiring a hitman to forever silence his mistress.     At first, such a thought repulses him.   "She's not an insect to be stepped on."   But when the chips are down, Judah decides to arrange the murder with help from his brother, who has Mafia connections.

This is the Crime.    The Misdemeanor involves a struggling documentary filmmaker named Cliff whose marriage has turned platonic and is filming a documentary about his arrogant, rich, and famous brother-in-law whom he envies and hates.   The brother-in-law Lester (Alda) is a sitcom writer and producer who theorizes: "Comedy is tragedy plus time", "If it bends it's funny, if it breaks it isn't" and "Oedipus is the structure of funny."   Cliff can't stand him.  Matters are only made worse when both men vie for the affections of production assistant Halley (Farrow), who likes Cliff well enough but may be more drawn to Lester.   Cliff, although married, is in love with Halley and wants desperately to be with her.    But can he find happiness in a godless universe?    We know he can't compete with the powerful, assertive Lester, but stranger things have happened.    

The film moves effortlessly between the two stories.   Judah's dilemma takes on tragic dimensions, while Cliff's is played like a comedy in which the joke seems to always be on Cliff.    Even Cliff's own documentary on a Holocaust-surviving professor hits a wall when the old man commits suicide out of the clear blue.   "Every day he said yes to life.   Today, he said no."   Cliff is doomed to be unhappy, while Judah may actually come out clean on the other side.   Is this just? 

Crimes and Misdemeanors is one of Allen's best films.   Landau's story takes unexpected turns, including a sudden bout of conscience which causes Judah to revisit the religious upbringing he had once dismissed.    Regardless of Judah's crisis, his mistress is dead and being upset after the fact won't help in God's eyes.    Judah's story is as absorbing as Cliff's is funny.   The two stories which seemingly have little in common are dovetailed nicely during the final wedding sequence.    We find out how things turn out for both Judah and Cliff during an enlightening conversation.   It is telling that the guy who set up the murder of his lover is the happier of the two.   What does that tell you about the universe?  

Dirty Harry (1971) * * *

Directed by:  Don Siegel

Starring:  Clint Eastwood, Reni Santoni, Harry Guardino, Andy Robinson

Before Dirty Harry became a popular action star, he was Harry Callahan, who made his debut in this 1971 film as "Dirty Harry", but not for reasons you would expect.    He is a San Francisco detective (or Inspector as called in San Francisco) who is brought in to do the dirty jobs other cops won't touch.   Like talking a guy down who is threatening to jump from atop a tall building.    Or being the bagman holding $200,000 in ransom money to save a kidnapped girl from a psycho named Scorpio, whose letters taunting the city and police are an echo of the Zodiac killer who was terrorizing the city at that time.

Dirty Harry is not simply a well-made thriller, but one that poses questions difficult for anyone, let alone police, to answer.    There are at least two instances in which Harry's treatment of Scorpio violates his civil rights.    Harry shoots Scorpio in the leg and steps on it in order to find out where the missing girl is.    Callahan's reasoning is one we can all identify with, but according to his superiors, "you violated at least the 4th, 5th, 6th, and possibly the 14th amendment."    Most would agree with Callahan's version of justice when it comes to Scorpio, who is a vile, reprehensible man with no redeeming qualities.     But is it legal?   This isn't liberal speak, but a question posed by the creation of the amendments that Callahan violated despite his practical intentions.    

Because Scorpio is such a creep who deserves his fate in the famous "Do I Feel Lucky?" scene, it is easy to root for Harry.    In this film and subsequent Dirty Harry sequels, he states his case that the victims deserve to be spoken for and crimes deserve punishment.     That is what drives him to use extreme methods.     Despite this, some believed Dirty Harry painted Callahan as a facist vigilante.    Magnum Force (1973) was made, I believe, to debunk the notion that his mindset was facist.    I believe the former argument is correct.

Dirty Harry is not a mindless action thriller.    It introduces us to a cop who doesn't stepping on a few toes and civil rights to achieve justice.    Eastwood's persona in many films is that of a man of few words with plenty of simmering emotion underneath.     Like Eastwood the director, Eastwood the actor is economical in every respect.     He doesn't say or do more than is required, which adds to his mystique.    Words come out of his mouth as if there isn't much more where that came from.    He is defined more by action.     Just ask Scorpio, who after kidnapping a busload of kids, is on the receiving end of Dirty Harry's famous .44 Magnum.    Then again, there wouldn't be much left of him to ask. 

Neighbors (2014) *

Directed by:  Nicholas Stoller

Starring:  Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Dave Franco, Lisa Kudrow

Animal House this ain't.    Neighbors and Animal House both focus on the antics of heavy-partying fraternities, but that is where the similarities end.     Animal House was funny because of its anarchic spirit and actually took some time to develop its characters so guys like D-Day, Otter, and Bluto are still remembered nearly 40 years later.    Nothing about Neighbors will be remembered 40 minutes later let alone 40 years.    Neighbors makes the crucial mistake of believing that the frat parties themselves are funny.   The party scenes are so choppily edited with blaring background techno music the viewer will get a headache.     A large fountain is placed in the backyard which could just as easily be situated in front of any City Hall in the U.S.    Who pays the electrical bill for the frat house?    Who paid to get the fountain shipped there?    

The plot of the film is well-explained in the ads and movie poster.    New parents Mac (Rogen) and Kelly (Byrne) are adjusting to parenthood when a loud fraternity moves into the vacant house next door.    The fraternity president is Teddy (Efron), who is often seen with his shirt off just to show us all how much he has been going to the gym lately.    They move in so much stuff that it begs the question where they keep it all.    How many people live at the frat house?

At first, Mac and Kelly make peace with Teddy and the crew by partying with them.    Sometimes all night.    The baby is apparently forgotten as everyone smokes weed and bonds.    The truce doesn't last though, because Mac and Kelly are kept up all night by the obnoxious neighbors.    They call the police and then the ever-escalating feud begins, in which both sides inflict physical and emotional pain on each other.    The best of these pranks was given away in the trailers, in which Mac's car airbags are stolen and used to launch Mac into the ceiling when he sits down in his cubicle chair.    The rest play like bad outtakes from Jackass.

Mac and Kelly are seemingly the only neighbors who complain to the police about the noise.    There is a brief explanation that the fraternity "bought them off".    Considering the frat boys do nothing but hang around and party all day and night, how do they get the money to buy everyone off?    There are so many questions it threatens to become a list.

Neighbors, however, doesn't deserve much thought.    Many of Rogen and Byrne's scenes feel annoyingly improvised.    Each grows more wearisome than the last, playing like streams of consciousness gone berserk.    I can imagine Rogen and company cracking themselves up and lighting up a big joint at the end of the day's shooting with satisfied smiles.     Like many of Rogen's other movies, there are plenty of weed references and plenty of weed smoking.    We get it, Seth.    You like weed.    There is also plenty of male bonding with homoerotic subtext, plus hazing in which freshmen are humiliated by being forced to perform blatantly homosexual acts.    Do the writers of Neighbors think this is funny?    It outlines my argument as to why I never joined a fraternity in college.    Why go through the embarrassment and indignation of pledging just so I could wear a jacket and get into frat parties for free?   The cover charge for these parties back in 1989 was $2.00 by the way.    I'd rather just pay the $2.00 and spare myself the nonsense.

Thankfully, Neighbors only runs about 90 minutes, but it sure does feel longer.   It is a long slog through situations and a plot which fail to amuse on any level.     The actors put a lot of energy into a lost cause.   

Draft Day (2014) * * *

Directed by:  Ivan Reitman

Starring:  Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary, Ellen Burstyn, Chadwick Boseman, Arian Foster, Frank Langella

I'm not sure what exactly comprises an NFL team general manager's day, but if it's anything like Sonny Weaver Jr.'s (Costner), then he can have it.   Especially the day of the 1st round of the NFL Draft, which may or may not make or break the future of NFL teams.    I'm not usually a viewer of the NFL draft broadcast, which occurs in April amongst great fanfare mostly because it's the closest thing football-starved fans will come to seeing football players until training camp.    The draft itself is dull fare.    The commissioner walks up to the podium every 15 minutes announcing the college player a team has picked much to the delight or disdain of the fans who show up and those watching at home.   We see the player stride to the podium, given a team jersey, and pose for a photo-op with the commissioner before being hustled off the stage.   We see this repeated all night long.    Many would disagree with my take on this.

Draft Day focuses on the tense, drama-filled day Sonny faces hours before his Cleveland Browns are to pick their first-round draft choice.    The Browns have faced decades of futility and Sonny is looking to reverse that.    He accepts an early trade offer from the Seattle Seahawks to move up to the first overall pick.   It seems fans, Sonny's pregnant girlfriend Ali (Garner), and the Browns' head coach Vince Penn (Leary) all have different opinions on who that pick should be.    The Browns' owner (Langella) makes a thinly veiled threat that Sonny must make a splash in the draft or be fired.   Sonny is living proof that coaches and/or general managers are hired to be fired.    Especially in Cleveland.   

Sonny, as played by Costner, is a guy we can sympathize with.    He has not only the Browns' future in his hands, but the happiness of Browns fans, who have put up with decades of misery.   Throw in the temper tantrums of his starting quarterback who thinks he will be traded, a head coach who feels left out of the loop, and a mother who wants to sprinkle the ashes of his late father on the practice field today; and you have an idea what Sonny is up against.   And you think your job is stressful.
Costner convincingly allows us a glimpse into a man whose job is one big conduit of stress.

Draft Day is intriguing throughout, mostly because Sonny doesn't show everyone all of the cards.   It is presented so the non-NFL draft geek can follow along, while presenting enough insider stuff to please hardcore fans.    Naturally there is plenty of product placement with the NFL logo plastered all over the place, but at least it feels authentic.    This isn't the Any Given Sunday football league, where Sonny would be the GM for the struggling Dallas Knights.    I'm sure things are never wrapped up like they are in Draft Day and everyone goes home happy, but the film isn't a documentary, but a light drama in which things work out for Sonny at least for one day. 

True Crime (1999) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Clint Eastwood

Starring:  Clint Eastwood, Denis Leary, James Woods, Bernard Hill, Isiah Washington, Michael McKean, Diane Venora

To describe True Crime makes it sound like formula:  A washed-up reporter grabs for a last shot at redemption by preventing an innocent man from being executed at the 11th hour.    Eastwood, as star and director, turns the film into an exercise in human drama and ratcheted-up suspense.    How exactly does it feel to be a condemned man seeing his wife and daughter for the final time?    There is so much emotion and truth in these scenes that it sure feels like Eastwood has firsthand knowledge. Juxtaposed with these powerful scenes are a journalist procedural in which Steve Everett (Eastwood) believes a black man named Frank Beachum (Washington) due to be executed at midnight is innocent and gathers evidence to prevent the execution.

If only Beachum were Everett's only issue.    His affair with his editor's wife is discovered, his wife is about to leave him over the seemingly numerous infidelities in their marriage, he is warned off the story by his publisher, and he is teetering on the edge of sobriety after being on the wagon for two months.    Oh, and it's his day to take his daughter to the zoo.   True Crime is successfully able to juggle these points without seeming crowded or trying too hard to touch all the bases.    Everett is wounded and hardly a hero, but we root for him because he is pulling up his bootstraps to make one more run at doing the right thing.  

True Crime feels emotionally true as we follow Everett's hectic day.   We see him bascially run through the zoo with his daughter in order to avoid being late to lunch with a witness who said he saw Beachum kill a store clerk.    This tricky scene is well handled.    The witness is not a racist and sticks to his story despite all of Everett's best journalistic ploys, but there is an undercurrent of racism.   We see Steve's editor (Leary) giving him the evil eye all day, trying his best to control his hostility.     We meet the warden (Hill) and prison chaplain, who are preparing for the execution in adherence to their duties.    It's not pleasant, but it must be done.    We even hear radio news broadcasts explaining how exactly a lethal injection is administered.    Knowing Eastwood as we do, this information is not just superfluously delivered for no good reason.    It leads to an extraordinary payoff.

We have seen many films in which a lawyer/journalist/family member works tirelessly at the 11th hour to prevent an execution.    True Crime is the best of them, mostly because Eastwood took the time to make an old theme feel fresh and new.    It is also very emotionally draining.    Watch the scenes involving Beachum's last visit with his wife and daughter.    That is something I wouldn't wish on anyone. 

The Other Woman (2014) *

Directed by:  Nick Cassavetes

Starring:  Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Kate Upton, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Nicki Minaj, Don Johnson

Sometimes after watching an abysmal movie, I think about the scripts that were passed over in favor of the one that was made into the wretched film.     I think that at least some of those scripts have to be better.    They likely just couldn't follow a formula or were not "marketable" to certain audiences which guarantees them at least a strong weekend or two before showing up on DVD a few months later. 

The Other Woman no doubt is pitched at female audiences who get to see the lying, cheating weasel guy get what's coming to him.    The concept is better than the execution.    The Other Woman is a dead, flat comedy.    The actors try to inject life into it, but once you see a guy shit his pants after drinking a laxative-laced drink, you've seen it a thousand times.    Without sounding too sexist, the brief scenes of bodacious Kate Upton running on the beach in a bikini isn't enough to make up for the other 1 hour, 45 minutes one has to endure just to see those brief scenes.

There are actually two (or maybe more) women who would qualify as "the other woman".   The man they all covet is a slick, handsome Wall Street type named Mark (Coster-Waldau) who runs pyramid schemes with investors' money.    His wife Kate (Mann) unwittingly partakes in these schemes by blindly signing whatever papers he asks her to sign.    Kate has other issues with her husband, who has carried on an affair with a corporate lawyer named Carly (Diaz) for over a year.   Oh, and he neglected to tell Carly that he is married.     Carly discovers this tidbit when she travels blindly to his Connecticut home for a rendezvous and the wife answers the door.    Carly breaks off the affair, but Kate tracks her down at her office and, in an ungainly plot twist, the two become friends.   

Kate, as played by Mann, is fingernails-scraping-across-a-blackboard annoying.     Her dialogue consists of bouts of verbal diarrhea which would drive any sane person to drink.    The two do bond over cosmopolitans (which I suppose is the female bonding drug of choice these days).    There is even a scene in which Kate's giant dog squats on Carly's floor.    Everything about this friendship is ungainly and that is even before the plot takes over.   

The two gain another ally in Amber (Upton) who is discovered to be the third woman in Mark's life when they follow him to the Hamptons one weekend.    Amber has no idea Mark was married either and the three plot revenge.    How Mark is able to juggle these women plus keep up on his pyramid schemes should be the subject of a different movie, or maybe even take the place of the plot of this one.    We know how things will turn out.    There is not one plot development that surprises or challenges us.    There are no laughs at all.    Actually, there may have been more laughs in Diaz' and Cassavetes' last collaboration, My Sister's Keeper (2009), and that is a tearjerker drama.  

The Drop (2014) * * *

 



Directed by:  Michael Roskam

Starring:  Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini, Noomi Rapace, John Ortiz

I enjoyed The Drop despite the fact its main character is malleable and undefined.    Is he smart?  Dumb?   A killer?   An observant bystander?    He is all of those things and none of those things.    He is whatever the script needs him to be at that time.    The Drop is a crafty piece of film noir for the most part despite its faults.    The performances, including Gandolfini's final screen performance, are top-notch.    They create flawed, desperate people.    What are they desperate for?   Love, money, or perhaps both.

The Drop takes place in Brooklyn, where bars sometimes function as "drops" for Chechen mob money.    The mob collects their money at closing and then the next night another bar handles the money.    Bob (Hardy) is the bartender at Cousin Marv's, a small bar once owned by Marv (Gandolfini), but now in the hands of Chechens.    One night the bar is robbed of its $5,000 till and the mobsters want their money back.    Bob and Marv can't give too many details on the masked thieves, although Bob helpfully tells the police that one had a stopped watch on his wrist.     For reasons explained later, Marv isn't happy with Bob for telling the police that piece of information.

Bob stays quiet and keeps his head down.    He goes to mass, but doesn't take communion, which is noted by the detective on the robbery case who has seen him there every day at 8am.    He stumbles across an abused dog in a woman's trash and soon adopts the dog and falls for the woman (Rapace), a waitress with issues of her own.     Then, there is the business of the missing $5,000.     Who stole it and who knows more than he or she is letting on?    Marv has his own issues, including a father on life support whose care is sucking him dry financially.    Gandolfini proves what a versatile actor he was.    His Marv is weary and desperate.    He, like Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront, was once a contender.    "I used to be respected.    I used to be feared," he tells Bob.    Now, he is under the thumb of the mob who took over his bar as repayment for his gambling debts.   

As if all of this weren't enough, there is a lingering missing persons case on a man last seen at Cousin Marv's before his disappearance.    All of this links together without seeming gratuitous.    Naturally, Bob and Marv are more involved than suspected.    Hardy is able to keep up with Bob's ever-changing persona, quite a feat here.    At first, I thought Bob was supposed to a nitwit bartender.    He reveals his smarts later, but it doesn't mesh with what we saw earlier.

The Drop was written and directed with the word "gritty" in mind.   Its characters and the world they inhabit is seedy and cold.    The film takes place right around Christmas and the events culminate on Superbowl Sunday, but this Brooklyn seems colder, more desolate, and lonely.    The characters plod through life as if it were a duty rather than a pleasure.    We begin to wonder if all of the money in the world would change that.   

Get On Up (2014) * *

Directed by:  Tate Taylor

Starring:  Chadwick Boseman, Nelsan Ellis, Jill Scott, Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis, Dan Aykroyd

James Brown surely had to be more charismatic and likable than the guy presented in Get On Up, which presents Brown mostly as an egomaniacal, belligerent a-hole.    The premise is we should forgive Brown his trespasses because, boy, could he sing and dance.    There is no denying Brown's influence on music.   The epilogue of Get On Up tells us he is among the most "sampled artists of all time."   He was unique and there won't be another one like him.     If the movie is to be believed, then thank goodness.     But, there had to be more sides to the man than Get On Up represents.

The film opens in the early 90s with a very high James Brown pulling a gun on a group of real estate class trainees.    Brown owns the building and was very upset that one of the trainees used the bathrooms.     This awkward scene sets the tone for the rest of the film, which shows Brown as an arrogant bully who makes life rough for anyone who loves him.    In real life, Brown was jailed for the gun incident and for leading cops on a high speed chase while high on PCP. 

We follow Brown through his poor childhood in Georgia, where he was bounced around between his mother, father, and an aunt who ran a brothel.    He is jailed for stealing in this teens, but discovers a talent for singing and dancing that he uses when he is released to form a band.    Brown, however, isn't a lead singer for long.    He is signed to a record deal as a solo act, retaining only the loyalty of his friend Bobby (Ellis), who becomes Brown's right hand man, backup singer,  and occasional doormat.    When Bobby expresses a desire to become a solo act himself, Brown behaves like a scorned creep thus ending their friendship for a number of years.

Maybe the real James Brown was this way all the time and thus we are presented with a one-dimensional look at the "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business."    The performances are spot on.   Boseman supplies energy and his moves are certainly Brown-esque, so we can't blame him for acting as the material suggests he should.    Director Taylor made 2011's The Help, which was a look at racially-torn Mississippi during the early days of civil rights.    Get On Up is a biopic which doesn't cover much new ground.     We have seen Brown's story in countless other musical biopics.    I have sometimes criticized some biopics for not showing why the subject was so lauded in the first place.    Get On Up shows so many musical numbers that the film seems like it is just killing time.  

I use Behind the Candleabra, Steven Soderbergh's biopic of Liberace, as a counterpoint to this film.    It wasn't afraid to show Liberace as touching, tender, vicious, spiteful, and human.    He is presented three dimensionally.    Get On Up focuses on the vicious, spiteful stuff.    There is not one scene involving Brown's wife in which he is seen as anything but an abusive creep.    His son dies from a drug overdose, causing Brown to get high and lead the cops on the chase, but to my knowledge he has no scenes involving him interacting with this children.    They are around, like the wife, but hardly given anything to do.

We say some biopics show its subject "warts and all."    Get On Up is only interested in the warts part.    There is a good film to be made about "Mr. Please, Please, Please," but this isn't it. 

The Gauntlet (1977) * * *

Directed by:  Clint Eastwood

Starring:  Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince

Clint Eastwood's The Gauntlet is an action film full of bullets, chases, and even some depth.    Eastwood plays a cop who is assigned to escort a witness from Nevada to Phoenix to testify at a mob trial.    The mob wants her dead, as do other people whose motives are made clear later.    Unlike Eastwood's other cop roles, his Ben Shockley is a drunken underachiever who pulls it together to try and get the job done.    The witness is a hooker named Gus Malley (Locke), who we learn graduated college and possesses a fierce intelligence.    She is more than a match not only for Shockley, but any other male who dare underestimates her.    It is refreshing to see that in a female role which could have been typical, but is made special.

Shockley is under the gun right from the beginning.    Upon picking up Gus from jail, he learns Vegas has placed odds on her getting to Phoenix alive.    Determined, Shockley survives a hail of bullets, explosions, and traps.    He is slow to catch on that he is being set up.    Shockley and Gus survive the onslaught and manage to get to Phoenix in a bus which is shot at by most of the Phoenix police force.    It is not made clear why Shockley informs anyone what his route will be.    It is also not made clear why the police stop firing at him when he runs the bus up the city hall steps.    While we're at it:   Why did the police idly stand by as the ending played out like it did?

Up until the final 15 minutes, which despite being considerably tense is the tipping point where the film flies off the rails, The Gauntlet is a well-paced, well-constructed action film.     It also shows Eastwood playing a somewhat vulnerable character which is a derivative of his usual macho characters played until that point.     Eastwood doesn't even shoot the bad guy at the end, although he does punch a biker woman in the face.    She was attempting to kill him and rape Gus, so he isn't totally unjustified in punching her.     I enjoyed Locke as well, who takes what seems to be a simple character and adds complexity.   

The Gauntlet wouldn't break records for originality even back in 1977, but it is one more example of Eastwood's evolution as an actor and director.    If they just did something different with the finale, we would've had close to a classic here. 

A Civil Action (1998) * * * 1/2

 

 

 

Directed by:  Steven Zaillian

Starring:  John Travolta, Robert Duvall, William H. Macy, Tony Shalhoub, John Lithgow, James Gandolfini, Dan Hedaya, Kathleen Quinlan

We witness in A Civil Action an attorney who goes against all of his instincts and sinks his fortune and career because he becomes too emotionally involved in a case.    The attorney, Jan Schlictmann (Travolta), narrates throughout and explains how the litigation process works.    He knows lawsuits are created so settlements can be reached.    Only 1.5% of lawsuits filed in the U.S. ever reach a verdict.    He explains how pride and emotional attachment to a case are as useful as "a doctor who recoils at the sight of blood."     Yet, throughout A Civil Action, we see him break all of his own rules and we can only helplessly stand by as it costs him.

Schlictmann is a successful personal injury lawyer who has a nose for cases that will pay off.     His strategy is to sink his firm's money into the case in order to win a huge settlement later.     This strategy works until his partners present him with a class action lawsuit filed by residents of a small Massachusetts town.     Numerous town children died from various illnesses caused by illegal chemical dumping by local factories, which contaminated the town's water supply.     Schlictmann's initial instinct is to drop the case, but after meeting with grieving families and discovering the factories are run by two multi-billion dollar corporations, he decides to take the case.    His reluctance at first is based on his experience that children pay the least in the hierarchy of personal injury, but he allows himself to be moved, which goes against his belief in emotional detachment.

The antithesis of Schlictmann is Jerome Facher (Duvall), the veteran attorney for one of the co-defendants.   He is a skilled tactician.    He understands what will happen and why, correctly foreseeing how the case will play out.    At one critical point, he offers Jan a settlement (which Jan rejects) knowing full well that his client will ultimately be exonerated.    In a way, Facher sees Jan as we do...a smart lawyer whose judgment is clouded and legal strategy compromised by emotion.    He knows the settlement will not be accepted, but he intuits, "The case will come down to people as it always does."   He is right to assume that a jury would be unpredictable because years of experience tells him that.

Adding considerable tension is his firm falling deeper and deeper into debt while trying to win the case.    They accrue millions in debt and unpaid taxes.    The firm's accountant (Macy) pleads with Jan to settle in order to avoid further financial woes.    "We are floating on credit.   Every dollar we spend is a dollar we don't have."    All of the external factors scream for Jan to settle, but he doesn't, believing foolishly he will win a big figure settlement.  

A Civil Action is not a courtroom drama in the sense we usually think of courtroom dramas.    It is about the grueling process of maneuvering through the treacherous legal system.     Jan thinks he is searching for the truth.    Facher advises him differently, "If you are searching for truth, you will find it at the bottom of a bottomless pit."    He is not cynical, just knowing.    A Civil Action creates an almost insider's view of the justice system, which in the case of personal injury is less about justice and more about the big payday.    Jan's clients want an apology.    Jan replies, "Corporations apologize with their checkbooks."   

Travolta's performance is all the more captivating because we see him make wrong decision after wrong decision while being confident he is making the right ones.   Duvall, in an Oscar-nominated performance, is not simply wise, but turns Facher into an likable eccentric who continually totes around a raggedy briefcase and finds joy in conference room pens.    His superstitions may fool people, but he reveals calculation in his legal strategy after deposing the parents.  "These people can never testify."   They never do, which stuns Jan, whose biggest flaw is his faith in a legal system he knows full well is compromised.  




   

The Angriest Man In Brooklyn (2014) *

Directed by:  Phil Alden Robinson

Starring:  Robin Williams, Mila Kunis, Peter Dinklage, Melissa Leo, Bob Dishy, Hamish Linklater, Richard Kind, Louis CK

Robin Williams' recent death casts a morbid shadow over The Angriest Man In Brooklyn, which even without Williams' death hanging over it is a rudderless, tone-deaf film.    I've rarely seen a film in such a rush only to go absolutely nowhere, like being on an express train that suddenly breaks down and you wonder helplessly if you will be stuck on the tracks all night.    It is a waste of plenty of notable talent.

Phil Alden Robinson wrote and directed Field Of Dreams, which is a great movie.    His 1992 Sneakers was a decent crime caper.    He hasn't directed a film since 2002's The Sum Of All Fears.   I can only speculate on the reasons he chose this film as his return to directing.     Perhaps on paper, it seemed like a challenging idea.   I won't be tracking Robinson down to find out.

The Angriest Man in question is Henry Altmann (Williams), a Brooklyn lawyer who is having a very bad day.    His car is run into by a taxi, he waits hours at a hospital for his appointment to see his regular doctor, who has taken an impromptu vacation and is replaced by the burnt-out Dr. Sharon Gill (Kunis).   She has the unfortunate job of breaking the news to Henry that he is dying from a brain aneurysm.    When Williams flips out demanding to know how long he has to live, she blurts out 90 minutes.    Henry storms out believing that he only has 90 minutes to live and chooses to use that time to make amends to those he has hurt.    If Henry didn't naively believe he only had 90 minutes to live, then we would've been spared a lot of what happens in this movie.  

The wheels are in motion, but the film stays stuck in the mud.    The remainder of the film involves Henry running around Brooklyn trying to reconcile with his loved ones, including his son Tommy (Linklater), who eschewed a partnership in his father's firm to open a ballroom dancing school.   This choice pissed off Henry so much that the two have been estranged for two years.    Henry's other son was killed two years earlier, transforming Henry from happy family man to the Angriest Man.    Henry's marriage also wound up on the rocks, causing his wife (Leo) to cheat on him with their next door neighbor (Dishy).    Meanwhile, Dr. Gill chases Henry around town hoping to tell him that her prognosis was wrong....not the aneurysm part but the 90 minutes to live part.    Kunis plays Dr. Gill as The Angriest Woman In Brooklyn.    In another film, she and Henry could have married and lived miserably ever after.      

The Angriest Man In Brooklyn is a film of could haves,    It could have been touching, sentimental, or at least funny.    It is none of those things.    Robin Williams' character undergoes so many quick transformations that he could sue for whiplash.   First, he is angry, then seething, then screaming, then thoughtful, then intuitive, then sad, etc. etc.    If you thought it was difficult keeping up with Williams' manic pace in his stand-up act, wait until you see Henry Altmann.    Leo, Dinklage, Dishy, and even Richard Kind show up in little more than cameos.    Their job is to be upset with or chase Henry down and just miss him as he leaves a place or hails a cab.     By my recollection,  Henry is able to travel from the hospital, to his office, to his home, and even to the Brooklyn Bridge all within 90 minutes on a Friday afternoon.    This includes all of the conversations he engages others in while he is present at these places.    It is surprising how little traffic there is at rush hour.  

Watching Henry's failed suicide attempt will no doubt evoke the fresh memory of Williams' own suicide.     The filmmakers of course could not have foreseen such a thing, but it only adds to the other issues The Angriest Man In Brooklyn suffers from.    James Earl Jones (who played a pivotal role in Robinson's Field Of Dreams) shows up as a stuttering shop owner, adding to Henry's already taxed patience.    This must be an inside joke, considering Jones had to overcome a debilitating stammer early in life to become an actor.    But in this film, it is just one more contrived roadblock in the way of Henry's path to happiness.   

Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014) * * 1/2

Directed by:  James Gunn

Starring:  Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, (voices of) Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker

Guardians Of The Galaxy represents the lesser known members of the Marvel universe (lesser known to me anyway), however, the film made about them isn't too bad.    The action scenes generally didn't do much for me.    They seem perfunctory, with characters firing giant bazookas and killing of massive amounts of nameless, faceless extras.    We have seen them plenty and there is nothing to differentiate the Guardians battles with any of the others.     The characters, however, are unique, with quirky personalities and fun dialogue.    They nearly elevate the film all by themselves.     Nearly.

The guardians in question include a cocky intergalactic thief named Peter Quill aka Star Lord (Pratt), a green woman named Gamora (Saldana) whose adoptive father is an evil ruler named Ronin with designs on destroying a planet, a hulking monster (Bautista) who eyes revenge on Ronin, and then there are Groot, a creature that resembles a walking tree and Rocket (Cooper), a wise guy who is part raccoon and part other animal.    Groot and Rocket get laughs with their byplay.    All Groot is capable of saying is "I Am Groot," and Rocket is somehow able to interpret that statement to mean any number of things.    This reminds me of Chewbacca and Han Solo, with Solo forever interpreting Chewbacca's loud, indistinguishable groans as something meaningful.  

The five come together after all are imprisoned for attempting to steal or steal away a small orb which, if put in the wrong hands, would cause the destruction of any planet it comes in contact with.    Drax is already in prison, but agrees to join the others to destroy Ronin, who apparently is the guy who wants the orb and should never, ever be allowed to possess it.     The five escape prison, which reminded me all too much of the dingy facility in Escape Plan, and go on a mission to keep the orb away from Ronin and save the galaxy at the same time.

The characters are given their own special touches.    Star Lord likes to play 70s soft rock on his walkman while robbing things.    Drax is awfully literate for a brute.    Rocket is a little creature who packs a big wallop and has a heart after all, especially when it comes to his friend Groot.    Groot is pretty sensitive too for a tree.    Gamora is the guardian with the least personality.    Her function is to passionately inform the rest of the guys what needs to be done next and be a standard love interest for Star Lord.

Guardians of the Galaxy is low rent Star Wars and somewhat fun.   Star Wars became a classic because it elevated its standard storyline with emotion and depth.    Guardians doesn't approach that, but I would like to see these characters in a movie with a more significant plot. 

Up In The Air (2009) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Jason Reitman
Starring:  George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Sam Elliott, JK Simmons

Ryan Bingham (Clooney) is a man at peace with himself.    He is a road warrior, traveling 300 days a year as a "Termination Facilitator", or in other words he fires people on behalf of companies who don't want to do it themselves.    He enjoys his job and his world of hotels, rental cars, and flights that take him all over the country.    He is friendly, but no one can really call him a friend.    When he is not firing people, he conducts seminars about how personal relationships are a drain on people's lives.    He uses a backpack as a prop, explaining how he fits everything he needs into that one backpack.    The rest is superfluous.

Bingham is a loner, but not without charm and social skills.    He seems like a good guy to hang with, but he wouldn't rank high on a list of people you would want to share your most intimate secrets with.    He wouldn't have it any other way.    The closest things he has to personal connections are with Alex (Farmiga), a fellow road warrior with whom he has a casual relationship (i.e. sex when they happen to be in the same city at the same time) and Natalie (Kendrick), a perky newcomer at Ryan's company who travels with him and learns the ropes.  

Ryan's world receives a jolt when his company pulls him off the road in favor of "termination facilitators" firing someone via video conferencing.    It isn't very personal, but it sure does save on travel expenses.     Ryan's apartment looks unlived in.    The only things in his fridge are alcohol and condiments.   He dreads being home.   Ryan has a goal in his life, which is to earn 10,000,000 frequent flier miles, which is something only six other people have ever reached.   "More people have walked on the moon," he tells Natalie as he joyously instructs Natalie on travel tips and racking up frequent flier miles.    He doesn't want to travel anywhere on vacation with the miles, mind you.    "The miles is the goal," he explains.    We don't know whether to see that as admirable or pathetic.

Up In The Air doesn't relegate itself to formulas.   It is part comedy, part drama, part documentary of a man whose life is his job.    It doesn't pay off the way you would expect.    Director and co-writer Jason Reitman handles things gently and doesn't beat us over the head with satire.    Things maintain an even tone.  Some of the people whom Ryan or Natalie fire are real people who have been on the chopping block, giving those scenes an extra realistic edge.    Clooney received an Oscar nomination, as did Farmiga and Kendrick.    His performance is comfortable, confident, sly, and knowing, even after he undergoes some unexpected transitions.    The women in his life (including his two sisters we meet later) provide some semblance of stability and yes, those personal relationships he finds he doesn't dread so much after all.