The Water Diviner (2015) * * *

Directed by:  Russell Crowe

Starring:  Russell Crowe, Jai Courtney, Olga Kurylenko, Dylan Georgiades

The Water Diviner stars Russell Crowe (in his directorial debut) as a man who travels from his native Australia to the battlefield of Gallipoli to find and bury his three sons who died there.     This is thankfully not as depressing as it sounds.     Crowe does not bog the story down in hopeless anguish and pain, but sees a way for healing and even prosperity in the face of such loss.     It has an unexpected feel of hope in the midst of what is an agonizing journey for Crowe's Joshua Connor.

The Battle of Gallipoli (fought from April 2015-January 2016) was one of the bloodiest battles in World War I.     Thousands died, including Connor's three sons, who joined the Australian army in defense of God, king, and country.     Connor blames himself for his sons' battlefield death, which is depicted in heartbreaking fashion, and also for his wife's suicide.     She could not bear the passing of her children.    Connor promises to return the bodies to his farm for a proper burial before she takes her own life unexpectedly.

So far, The Water Diviner sounds like a downer.    A real one-note downer, but Connor travels to Turkey to begin his quest and becomes friendly with an innkeeper (Kurylenko) and her son, who scours the ports and train stations for business.     This budding friendship (and eventual romance) with Kurylenko is just what the doctor ordered for Connor, who can at least see some light at the end of the tunnel.    And so do we.

The relentless, daunting quest to find the bodies of his sons is at first a nuisance to the Australian soldiers occupying the land.    Inspired by Connor's tenacity, they help him find two of the sons.    Where is the third one?    Unfortunately, the trailers made the third son's fate abundantly clear, which is a pity because it robs the development of its power.     Blame the advertising geniuses for that blunder, not Crowe.      I won't spoil it for you.    But, it does add another layer of optimism. 

Crowe takes a story that seems like a slog at first glance and moves it along with confidence.    Sometimes movie love stories are shoehorned in and prove to be an ungainly fit.    Not here.    Crowe and Kurylenko are smart and appealing, both looking for a measure of happiness in their situations.     The movie isn't all earnest and deep.    It allows its characters to see their way through to the other side.    Crowe is, of course, a superb actor.    The Water Diviner shows that he can direct in the event the acting thing doesn't work out for him.  

Blazing Saddles (1974) * * *

Directed by:  Mel Brooks

Starring:  Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Alex Karras, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, Slim Pickens

Blazing Saddles took a while to grow on me.   It took me a while to appreciate its comic anarchy.    It also never could be made today.   Some may not get the joke.  They would be too outraged at a black sheriff saying, "Where the white woman at?" to truly understand that the sheriff is intentionally playing at racial stereotypes to tweak the townsfolk that can't stand him because he's black.

There is a threadbare plot in Blazing Saddles which is really just a clothesline for writer/director Mel Brooks to hang all of this craziness onto the film as its running time will allow.    I am sure more wound up on the editing room floor.   Some of it is in bad taste, of course, but a lot of it is funny because Brooks dares you not to laugh.   As Brooks once said in response to assertions that his films are vulgar: "It rises below vulgarity."

The "plot" involves greedy railroad barons who want to build a railroad right through where a town currently sits.   The town's mayor Hedley LaMarr (Korman) will be enriched by the baron if he is somehow able to force the residents out to make way for the railroad.   His "ingenious" plan is to hire a black sheriff named Bart (Little), which would surely scare the ignorant townsfolk enough for them to flee.  It doesn't quite work out that way, so LaMarr then hires a giant, dimwitted goon named Mongol (Karras) to terrorize the town.  Bart is able to thwart Mongol with tricks straight out of Looney Tunes, including an exploding cake.   

Bart hires a drunken gunslinger to be his deputy and hatches an ingenious scheme of his own to thwart the barons and save the town.  Well, as ingenious as a movie like Blazing Saddles will allow.     Along the way, Blazing Saddles cheerfully incorporates bodily functions, blatant racism, puns, and ridiculous scheming.   And then there is Lili Von Shtupp (Kahn), a femme fatale hired by LaMarr to seduce Bart, only to fall for him. Would it shock anyone to learn that part of this has to do with the size of his wang?

Brooks gets away with a lot in Blazing Saddles.    It is lowbrow and highbrow at the same time, but I laughed enough to recommend it.   Little plays Bart not as a dumb, gullible puppet, but as a smart man who takes a perverse pleasure in being hated.   It is fun for him to shock people by playing to their prejudices.   Harvey Korman is at his best when he is playing seemingly sophisticated villains and caves into his nuttiest desires despite his really, really trying not to.   He is the type of guy who hatches sinister plots and then laments "Where's my froggy?" when taking a bath.

Does the movie end with the railroad barons failing and the town being saved?    I guess so, but then the movie veers off into a direction that no one sees coming.   In another movie, this might be considered excessive.   In Blazing Saddles, it's icing on the cake. 

Silver Streak (1976) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Arthur Hiller

Starring:  Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, Jill Clayburgh, Ray Walston, Patrick McGoohan, Scatman Crothers, Ned Beatty, Richard Kiel, Clifton James

The last person you would ever expect to see holding a gun, running on top of a moving train, and fighting bad guys is Gene Wilder.     Whatever the opposite of an action film star is, Wilder is it.    This makes his casting as the hero in Silver Streak all the more inspired.    Throw Richard Pryor into the mix as the hilarious sidekick and we have a gem from beginning to end.     

George Caldwell (Wilder) boards the Silver Streak train in Los Angeles expecting to take a relaxing trip to Chicago.     He thinks the trip will clear his head, but soon he finds himself meeting the wrong woman at the wrong time and his plans are waylaid.      Silver Streak echoes (and pays homage to) Hitchcock by making George the innocent man wrongly accused.      A man is murdered aboard the train and George is made to be the prime suspect.     He finds himself involved in fights and killings which he is not built for, but he holds his own.     Oh, and he is physically thrown off the train not once, not twice, but three separate times during the movie.     Each time, he uses ingenuity to get back on the train and save Hilly (Clayburgh) from certain death.

During one of the excursions off of the train, George hooks up with a car thief named Grover T. Muldoon (Pryor), who fearlessly evades the cops and hatches a scheme to disguise George as a black man in order to board the train again.     I know what you're thinking...blackface=bad taste.     It's all context, however, and this sequence is very, very funny, mostly because Wilder is the last guy you would expect to pretend to be a black man.      I doubt such a scene could be made today just on principle, but in 1976 such humor wasn't even considered daring.

Wilder and Pryor are a deft comic team which plays off each other very well.     They also make believable action heroes, which is no small feat.     Clayburgh is a sweet, sympathetic damsel in distress, while McGoohan, who plays her devious boss Roger Deverau, hatches a labyrinthine scheme to murder an esteemed professor, put a double in his place, and somehow make millions in the process.    The plot is straight out of Hitchcock and this is not a bad thing.    Htichcock himself may have seen this film and enjoyed it for all I know.

Wilder and Pryor would reteam for three more films:  Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Another You (1991).     The latter two films were made while Pryor was in the early stages of MS and it sapped his energy from the proceedings.     Stir Crazy was a pretty funny movie, but not quite as energetic and uproariously silly as Silver Streak.      Oh, and let's not forget the climactic scene in which the runaway Silver Streak crashes through a Chicago train station in spectacular fashion.     It doesn't seem like anyone was killed miraculously and the gang gets to ride off into the sunset.    I never said Silver Streak was realistic.    I said it was funny and skillfully done, which is all you can ask.  

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Zack Snyder

Starring:  Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Jeremy Irons, Gal Gadot, Laurence Fishburne, Holly Hunter

I admit my expectations for Batman v Superman were not high.    Snyder's Man of Steel (2013) was a loud, incomprehensible mess, so why wouldn't Batman v Superman be?    The good news is Batman v Superman was actually a thought-provoking film that was about something other than mindless violence and CGI run amok for a long while.     It was about the consequences of such violence and how fear distorts perception to dangerous levels.     Bruce Wayne (Affleck) fears that if Superman (Cavill) goes unchecked, what is to stop him from taking over the planet or destroying humankind at his whim?     We see the origins of the impending battle from a revisit to Superman's battle with General Zod from Man of Steel.    This time, we see it from billionaire CEO Wayne's point of view.     He sees building destroyed and many of his employees die or maimed.     He feels Superman recklessly disregards the people he claims to be saving, so Wayne takes it upon himself to be the one to hold Superman accountable.  

Batman v Superman becomes the movie I feared it would be in the final 30 minutes or so.    Not content to merely have Batman and Superman fight to the death, Lex Luthor (Eisenberg) unleashes his giant monster made from part human blood and part Kryptonite on Metropolis, which must be battled by Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman (Gadot).     Wonder Woman is first seen as a mysterious woman with murky motives.     She is connected somehow with all of this and a 100-year old photo provides the key to her connection.      Gadot is attractive, but she does not arouse male fantasies like Lynda Carter did on the 1970s TV show.   

Any qualms anyone has with buildings being destroyed and people put in harm's way are forgotten in the battle against the giant thing on Kryptonite steroids.      Metropolis is in ruins once again and the residents are probably bone-weary of these battles by now.     If I were them, I'd move to the country.    Batman's entire argument against Superman flies out the window and the movie becomes just another loud, CGI explosion.      With that being said, Batman v Superman is written thoughtfully and the performances are very good.     Cavill was made into a boring Superman in Man of Steel, but here is a physically imposing presence and interesting to boot.     We see his pain as the grumblings start from disillusioned, fearful people who resent his interference in people's affairs.     (Although if faced with the giant monster, I wouldn't mind his involvement so much, but that's just me).   

The sneering and punch lines that accompanied the news of Ben Affleck playing Batman were unlike any we had seen since Affleck trotted out Gigli and Surviving Christmas.     Yet, Affleck handles himself well and is convincing.    He is a Bruce Wayne/Batman who is scaled down and with a chip on his shoulder.    Superheroing does not seem like a burden to him.     The death of his parents, which is revisited for the umpteenth time in the beginning, provides sufficient motivation for him to prove his worth to a lawless society.     Ironically, Clark Kent/Superman becomes alarmed at the Dark Knight's vigilantism and believes that Batman should be watched as well.     The battle lines are clearly drawn and we dig in.

It is a pity that Batman v Superman could not leave well enough alone.    It is the first in a series of future Justice League films, which hopefully do not become crowded monstrosities like The Avengers movies have become.     Snyder and the writers (including David S. Goyer who wrote the Dark Knight trilogy), hedged their bets and played to the crowd that wanted to see an epic battle gone haywire.    I am weary of loud, CGI fests where he can't follow the action and objects and bodies fly around at a dizzying pace.     If you have seen one superhero battling a seemingly unbeatable creation, you've seen them all.      What we are left with is a near-miss, but truth be told, Batman v Superman is better than I had any reason to anticipate.     I very much enjoyed the idea that a superhero film could be engaging on an intellectual and emotional level.     Who needs Luthor's nonsense?  

Vacation (2015) *

Directed by:  John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein

Starring:  Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Leslie Mann, Chris Hemsworth, Charlie Day, Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Steele Stebbins, Skylar Grisondo

What did we do to deserve this movie?    What did the actors do?    Was there a clamoring for a Vacation remake/reboot that I wasn't aware of?     Did both directors of this dreck equally believe that they were giving the viewing public a worthwhile product?     Questions.   Questions we have no answers for.    

Vacation, no matter whether a reboot or remake, is a movie that exists only to up the ante on gross-out humor.    We see vomiting, a cow run over by a quad, people bathing in "hot springs" that turn out to be raw sewage, bloody fights, bullying, various sexual escapades, a prosthetic penis, and no laughs.     There was more I'm sure I overlooked or erased from my memory.     The movie manages to squeeze in all of this crap within 95 minutes.     It even tries to wax sentimental at times, which only adds to my dislike of it.  

If you've seen National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) or any of its sequels, you know the plot of this Vacation.     The link is Rusty Griswold (Helms), who was played by Anthony Michael Hall in the original film and other actors in the sequels.     Rusty is an airline pilot who spends a lot of time away from home and wants to reconnect with his family.     Instead of vacationing at the family cabin no one likes, Rusty decides to drive cross country with his family to Walley World, the theme park Chevy Chase and company went through hell to get to in the original. 

Vacation makes the original seem subtle by comparison.     The original was a serviceable comedy and it had Christie Brinkley flirting with Chase from her red Ferrari.     No Brinkley here.     There is a woman in a fast car who flirts briefly with Helms, but her car is soon involved in a deadly wreck.    Ha ha.    It is amazing how tone deaf directors (and writers) Daley and Goldstein truly are.     What is funny about a deadly car accident?     Or a whitewater raft tour guide who plunges seemingly to his demise in a waterfall?     Or the poor cow smashed to smithereens?    Or the various jokes about pedophilia?    Or a cow that likes to eat hamburger and ribs?    (Yes, that would make the cow a cannibal...ha ha).

Helms and Applegate are affable actors who try mightily to get through Vacation in one piece.    They deserve better than this.    Everyone involved in the project does.    There are only so many ways you can show bodily fluids expelled from the body.     Applegate is forced to chug a pitcher of beer and then puke it up (along with yesterday's meals it seems) while trying to navigate an obstacle course.     Since when did disgusting equal funny?     I don't know where this started, but it has been going on for what feels like decades.

What we have here is another Vacation movie, which is tantamount to a party guest showing up that wasn't invited.     We are uncomfortable in its presence, but we don't want to cause a scene so we put up with it.     I have been told that I am hard to please when it comes to movies.     Perhaps that's true.    My expectations for Vacation were not high and it came in way below them.     Some laughs and a reasonable amount of tact and decency are not high expectations for a movie like Vacation.      Have we lowered the bar on comedies so much that ones without bodily fluid expulsions are a welcome relief?    Yes.  

Secret In Their Eyes (2015) * 1/2

Directed by:  Billy Ray

Starring:  Chiwetel Ejifor, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Alfred Molina, Dean Norris, Michael Kelly,
Zoe Graham, Joe Cole

While watching Secret In Their Eyes, I thought of the line in Funny Farm in which Chevy Chase's wife says about his book, "There are all these flashbacks.   Flash forwards.    I think there was even a flash sideways."    Secret In Their Eyes begins in the present day with plenty of visits to the past trying to sustain a story so thin it is miraculous 105 minutes can be fleshed from it.     The movie spends even more time on a character and relationship that really isn't necessary.    Can anyone who has seen this movie know what purpose Nicole Kidman's character serves?   

The film is a Hollywood remake of the 2010 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film "The Secret In Their Eyes".    This version of Secret In Their Eyes is a plodding police procedural in which no one seems to be having a good time.     The film feels tired and defeated even before it arrives at the silly twist ending.    Actually, there is the twist ending and then another twist ending which reverses the first twist.     What is even more bizarre is the main character's complete nonchalance to it.    This would be a perfect time to channel Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer and say, "These are things that should have been brought to my attention YESTERDAY."   

The events begin in 2002 Los Angeles.    9/11 changed the world months earlier and Los Angeles is seen as the next potential terrorist target.    FBI agents Ray Kasten (Ejiofor) and Jessica Cobb (Roberts) having a local mosque under surveillance because it has Muslim attendees, I suppose.    Soon, a body is found in a dumpster next to the mosque revealed to be Jessica's daughter (Graham).   She was raped and murdered.    Ray conducts his own unofficial investigation since the matter is under city jurisdiction.     All roads lead to a slimy creep named Marzin.   The trouble is Marzin is a protected snitch providing information about the mosque.     District Attorney Martin Morales (Molina) drags his feet on prosecuting Marzin because national security takes higher priority to him than a murder.     With priorities so fouled up, it is not surprising to learn Morales is long gone as DA when the film moves to the present day. 

I mentioned Nicole Kidman in the first paragraph.    In 2002, she plays assistant DA Claire Sloane, whom Ray has a crush on.     Their relationship is non-existent until suddenly it is existent.    Their initial scenes revolve around Ray's unrequited love for her and without any explanation they are suddenly holding hands and declaring their love for each other.     Did the scenes establishing the furthering of their relationship wind up on the editing room floor?    The movie flashes to present day as well, where the now-retired Ray returns to Los Angeles to inform Jessica and Claire that he has located Marzin, who disappeared after the murders and is supposedly living under a presumed name right in L.A.    Are we to believe that a murder suspect would return to the scene of the crime years later under an assumed name and identity?    Really?

Kidman, who is still a great beauty of course, serves no real purpose to the plot except to be gazed upon by Ray.    If her character were cut out of the movie, the only casualty would be the running time.    She seems more like a third wheel.    For some reason, Julia Roberts is asked to play Jessica without makeup and looking sad and sickly all of the time.    We want to send her to a tanning salon and grief counselor in that order.    Ejiofor was so powerful in 12 Years a Slave and muted here.    There is no juice there, even in scenes where he has to stare at Kidman like a schoolboy with a mad crush.   

Secret In Their Eyes moves along slowly between two time frames with our full knowledge that there has to be a Big Reveal somewhere and all of this stuff will be rendered meaningless anyway.    The movie is unnecessarily solemn as it creeps along to an ending that defies logic and sanity.    Billy Ray takes this film so seriously that there is little room for any sort of enjoyment from the actors.    They dial down so much they seem to be taking Billy Wilder's advice to Jack Lemmon on acting to heart.   If you don't know the story, Wilder kept reshooting the same take over and over again, asking Lemmon to emote less and less with each take.    Lemmon finally responded, "If I give you any less, I won't give you anything,"   Wilder replied enthusiastically, "YES!"    

The War of the Roses (1989) * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Danny DeVito

 

Starring:  Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, G.D. Spradlin

 

Gavin is a divorce lawyer counseling a potential client.    He says, "I want to tell you a story about Barbara and Oliver Rose.    But I'm not going to start the clock.    My fee is $450 an hour.    If someone who makes $450 an hour wants to tell you something for free, you'd better listen."  I'm not sure how this makes good fiscal sense, but it's a movie and we'll let it slide.  The Roses are quite a story and Gavin starts it off with, "They met. Great. They agreed on that.  The way I see it, the poor bastards never had a chance."

 

The War of the Roses is an aptly titled film about the dissolution of an eighteen-year marriage.   Did I mention it's a comedy?    Well, it is and it isn't.    As the war over ownership of the couple's home escalates dangerously, the movie accomplishes a tricky feat of tone.    The one-upmanship grows to ridiculous proportions, but we are entertained despite ourselves.   This is not any easy thing to do.     DeVito, as director and co-star, manages to somehow pull it off.   The War of the Roses would be horrible in less capable hands.

 

Oliver (Douglas) and Barbara (Turner) meet, fall in love, and raise a family.    He is a lawyer who soon establishes his own practice.    They buy a nice suburban home and are content to spend the rest of their lives together.   Well, Oliver is anyway.   Barbara grows bored and feels aimless.   She starts a catering business and one day, without warning, she begins to despise Oliver.   One day, Oliver experiences the symptoms of a heart attack.  He is rushed to the hospital, but Barbara never shows.    Her explanation: "When I see you eat, when I watch you sleep, when I look at you lately...I just want to smash your face in."   She then punches Oliver and the divorce is on.

 

Both want their house.   Both refuse to leave which leads to an escalating series of spiteful actions such as Barbara locking Oliver in a sauna, Oliver ruining a dinner party by urinating on the fish, and the death of one, possibly two pets.    Did I mention this is a comedy?    Of the two, Oliver is the more sympathetic.  Barbara, as played by Turner, comes across as so cold and callous that we wonder why Oliver fell for her in the first place.   We're not supposed to take sides, but I wanted Oliver to win.   Turner was much more likable in movies like Prizzi's Honor, Peggy Sue Got Married, and Romancing the Stone (which also co-starred Douglas and DeVito).    

 

DeVito is also strong and funny in the crucial supporting role of Gavin.    He tries in vain to talk Oliver into selling the house and getting the divorce over with quickly.  ("There is no winning.   There are just degrees of losing.")   Gavin is right as it turns out, and it provides the inspiration for him to make sure future clients know what they're getting into before going through with a divorce.  

 

The War of the Roses deserves credit for having the courage to see its story through to its unconventional ending.   It doesn't end on a false happy note or a tearful reconciliation.   Those conclusions would not have rung true, not after everything that transpires.  DeVito and company take dark material and shoehorn it into a worthwhile dark comedy.  The actors seem to love daring us to follow them where The War of the Roses leads.  In the end, the moral of the story is clear, at least to Gavin.    "I would advise you to be generous. Generous to the point of night sweats."    The Roses help us see why he is not altogether wrong.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) * * * *

Directed by:  Kevin Reynolds

Starring:  Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris, Luis Guzman, Michael Wincott, Dagmara Dominczyk, Henry Cavill

The Count of Monte Cristo is glorious fun, a vibrant revenge drama in which the baddies get their comeuppances in the most satisfying ways.     They deserve it because they are shameless, unrepentant, and opportunistic; and they don't see it coming.     How could they possibly foresee it?     They coldly betray guileless and innocent ship hand Edmund Dantes (Caviezel), send him away to a God-forsaken island prison to die, and go about their lives enriching themselves.     Little did they know Dantes would return years later as the rich, enigmatic Count of Monte Cristo to exact his vengeance.    

I recount the events of The Count of Monte Cristo with heedless glee.   The Count does not return to slice people up with his sword or shoot people.    That would be too easy.    His revenge includes public disgrace, financial ruin, and a slow, meticulous plan to destroy all of those involved in the betrayal.     This includes his former best friend Fernand Mondego (Pearce), who married Dantes' fiancée after Dantes was sent away.   Dantes was sent away as an illiterate, kind, gullible fool and returns as a rich, powerful man to be reckoned with.   His physical features have not changed, but those from his past do not recognize him.   They believe he is dead, for one thing, but they also do not recognize the man behind the makeover.   This person is literate, cultured, and these men think they can enrich themselves further by allying with him.  They are wrong.

When Dantes is sent away, he comes into contact with fellow prisoner Faria (Harris), who is forever trying to tunnel out of the desolate prison.  In return for Dantes' help, Faria teaches him how to read, fight properly with a sword, and gives him a map leading to a small island with endless treasure.    Dantes will use his riches to create the count and finance his plan after he escapes from prison in a way copied by the young boy in Room.  Along the way, he enlists a loyal sidekick Jacopo (Guzman) to help him hatch his scheme.    

The Count of Monte Cristo is as much about the revenge as it is about the transformation of Dantes.    Knowledge is more power to him than all of his riches and he uses it to his advantage.   However, as he rekindles his relationship with Mercedes (Dominczyk), he may be too obsessed with his plan to realize she still loves him.   This concerns Jacopo, who tells the count, "I swore to be your man and to protect you.    Even if that means protecting you from yourself."   Jacopo's loyalty to his friend is real and touching.    

There is also the matter of Albert (Cavill), Mercedes' son (supposedly with Fernand) who is caught in the middle of the scheme.   There is more to Dantes' relationship with Albert than at first indicated, which adds another layer to the enterprise.   Caviezel is equally outstanding as both the meek Dantes and the strong Count.   His transformation is convincing.  Pearce sneers and speaks with nothing but contempt for lesser beings, which encompasses everyone.  He is a hateful villain, which is what he needs to be.  Guzman, one of the most dependable character actors working, provides strong comic relief when needed and strong loyalty at other times.    

The Count of Monte Cristo masters its pace.  It doesn't plod or bog itself down with endless swordplay.  The story, based on the 19th century novel by Alexandre Dumas, is powerful enough to carry us along joyfully.   There is enough action, romance, and humor to satisfy everybody.  They don't make movies like this often these days.  Stories of revenge these days mean that dozens of people will have their heads blown off and blood spurts out all over the screen.   They don't take their time to weave delicious tales of purely satisfying vengeance in which souls are destroyed as much as bodies.  What a pity.  They could take several cues from this movie.

Alive (1993) * 1/2

Directed by:  Frank Marshall

Starring:  Ethan Hawke, Vincent Spano, Josh Lucas, Ileana Douglas, Josh Hamilton

A plane carrying the Uruguayan rugby team crashed in the Andes Mountains in October 1972.    The survivors were stranded for ten weeks in the freezing cold with limited food.     As the trailers for Alive depicted at the time of its release, the survivors had to resort to cannibalism when food ran out.     Alive is well made on a technical level, but do we really need a retelling of this story in this fashion?

I recently saw Everest, which was also about people trapped on a mountain battling harsh, freezing conditions.     No one in Everest ate anyone else and there were other subplots to keep it afloat.     We spend the entire time with the survivors in Alive.    There were no scenes involving loved ones awaiting news or the organization of rescue efforts.      We are assaulted with people freezing, getting sick, dying, arguing, fighting, and of course the cannibalism.     It's just not any fun to watch.

There wasn't much talk of Hollywood diversity when Alive was released in 1993.   If there was, there would have been apoplexy at the casting of white actors playing Uruguayans.      Ethan Hawke is a fine actor, but a Nando Parrado (his character's name) he is not.    Same goes with Spano, Hamilton, and others playing people named Roberto, Antonio, etc.     However, Hollywood cares mostly about the bottom line and neither Javier Bardem nor Benicio Del Toro was famous at the time.

Fortunately, the movie doesn't lovingly focus on the cannibalism part.    The ads suggesting it might have brought more curious ticket buyers into the theater, but those with a perverse fascination with it will be disappointed.      Another curious aspect of the film is John Malkovich's narration as one of the survivors.     He doesn't discuss the horror and fear involved, but how being that high up is like being close to God.     Some of the poor folks that died became much closer to God than they would have liked.     It is a bizarre tone.     Malkovich's dialogue sounds like someone who, thinking back on everything, realized that surviving a plane crash and nearly freezing or starving to death wasn't all bad.

Some survivors left the crash site on a quest for help and the survivors were eventually rescued.    But curiously there are no reunion scenes with loved ones or anything else.    Surely, someone missed these people while they were gone.    Didn't anyone in the Uruguayan or South American media cover the crash?    The survivors are rescued and the movie is over once Malkovich waxes spiritual about his experience.    Alive is a movie with tunnel vision.    This is not a good thing.    




    

Steve Jobs (2015) * * *

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Starring:  Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels, Seth Rogen, Katherine Waterston, Michael Stuhlbarg. MacKenzie Moss, Ripley Sobo, Perla Haney-Jardine, John Ortiz

Steve Jobs is like a three-act play about the iconic Apple co-founder.    It could almost be right out of Shakespeare.    We see why people he loved or loved him had such a love/hate relationship with him.      He could be funny, charming, cold, calculating, and spiteful all within the span of a two-minute conversation.      Mules call this man stubborn.      His success and failures all hinge on his belief that only he knows how to project his vision to the world.      As Steve Jobs opens, he threatens his chief programmer with banishment from the computer world if he is unable to get his new product to say "hello" to an enthralled audience of 3,000 people.    We sense he isn't kidding around.     What seems like a small, insignificant detail to others means the world to him.     That's what ultimately matters.

Most of the action centers around three distinct days in Jobs' life.     One in 1984, 1988, and 1998.    In each, he is preparing for a product launch that will revolutionize the computer industry.     Jobs (Fassbender) is besieged with problems, both personal and professional.     Some of these are handled by his strong-willed right hand Joanna Hoffman (Winslet), who may be the only person in the world who can speak to him so honestly and directly without getting fired.     Others involve his former girlfriend Crisanne (Waterston), who is looking for money from Jobs and acknowledgement that he is the father of her daughter Lisa.     He denies paternity despite blood tests proving that he is 94% likely to be the father.     How does he deny it?    By dreaming up a cockamamie formula which asserts that Lisa's father could be 28% of the male population of the United States.     This is not flattering to Crisanne, but her feelings are not top priority for him.

People in his life, from Lisa to Crisanne to co-founder Steve Wozniak (Rogen) to Apple CEO John Sculley (Daniels) drop in on him to lay out their most recent issues with him.    Wozniak simply wants public acknowledgment of his team's hard work, which Jobs refuses to do because the launch isn't about the past but the future.     The more Wozniak pleads with him, the more Jobs digs in his heels.     Sculley is not thrilled with Jobs' use of skinheads in the company's most recent Superbowl ad.    Sculley is concerned that the board will oust Jobs because he's a prick to work with.     Jobs is unreasonably expecting 1 million units of his new Mac to be sold within 90 days.    If that doesn't happen, Sculley and the board may gleefully fire him.     Even though the Mac isn't compatible with any other systems or equipment, Jobs is convinced of its worth.     Failure number one.

News footage is used to bridge the gaps between the three acts.    We learn of Jobs' dismissal from Apple and his creation of Next, a new company which promises a perfectly cubed computer.     Once again, he has a closed system which will limit its usefulness.     Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.     Jobs thinks he is the exception to this rule.     Steve Jobs is unique because it subtly shows how failures, not necessarily successes, shaped him.     He does not transform into a lovable teddy bear at the end, but he is able to reconcile with his daughter and somehow straighten out his trajectory.     Writer Aaron Sorkin and director Boyle work at a hectic pace.    Steve Jobs does not take time to catch its breath.     We have to think fast to keep up.     Sorkin's Oscar-winning screenplay for The Social Network (2010) also focuses on a socially awkward computer genius.   The comparisons are similar.    He knows his stuff, even if the script throws out a few too many obscure references and one-liners just to show us how smart it is.

Fassbender is aptly able to juggle Jobs' arrogance, brilliance, coldness, and surprising humanity (not that there's a lot where that came from) without getting whiplash.    He turns in a captivating performance and his Oscar nomination was well deserved.      Winslet is nearly his equal, speaking in a slight Eastern European influenced accent which compels Jobs to call her "Yentl".    She is perhaps the only person on Earth who knows the right way to talk to Jobs and even influence him.    He respects her and is loyal.     Their relationship does not become sexual, but they definitely admire and respect each other.     Winslet and Fassbender have great chemistry, not a small detail in a film like this.

Steve Jobs doesn't completely take us inside Jobs.    It holds us outside to an extent, but it moves along quickly and intelligently.     I admired the subtlety that somehow exists between the dialogue and the frenetic pace.     It takes some work to catch it, but it gives us a nice payoff.     Especially the scene in which Jobs confesses to Lisa that yes he did indeed name his operating system after her.     It's a nice scene.   

Hello My Name Is Doris (2016) * * *

Directed by:  Michael Showalter

Starring:  Sally Field, Max Greenfield, Beth Behrs, Tyne Daly, Caroline Aaron, Stephen Root, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Peter Gallagher

I don't think there is anyone named Doris under the age of 60 anymore.    It's a nice name, but it has been replaced by trendier girls' names like Brooklyn, which is a name of the younger, prettier girlfriend of the guy Doris (Field) has the hots for.    In about 20 years, there will be numerous older women named Brooklyn, Katelyn, and Brittany and people will be saying how no one under 50 is called Brooklyn, Katelyn, or Brittany.    It's a cycle.

Hello My Name Is Doris is the story of 60ish, unmarried Doris Miller.    She works in an office in which she is clearly unappreciated and doesn't fit in.     Her only mistake is being older in an office full of young people.    She hides in her cubicle typing in things all day and is puzzled to learn her comfy chair will be replaced by a giant inflatable posture ball you see in gyms.     Her mother, whom she spent her prime years caring for, recently died and now she has a void in her life.     She was left with her family home which could be featured on a future episode of Hoarders.    Her brother Todd (Root) gently suggests that she see a therapist to deal with her hoarding.     She does reluctantly and is even more reluctant to throw anything away even though her stuff is threatening to fall on top of her.

One day on the elevator in her office building, Doris sees a vision who is forced to stand facing her in the crowd.     He is 30ish, handsome John Fremont (Greenfield), a newcomer to the company fresh from the "Los Angeles" office.     She is thunderstruck with love for the first time in a long, long time.     Any future meetings with him result in fantasies that come straight out of the romance novels she reads.      She knows she has very little chance of winning him, but after attending a self-help seminar with a speaker oozing smarminess from every pore, she decides to go after John.     Doris finds she is out of her depth with today's technology, but enlists the help of her best friend's 13-year old granddaughter to create a phony Facebook profile.     Sure, she poses as a young, hot woman with a master's degree, but hey at least she can gaze at John and learn about him.

For the first time maybe ever, Doris decides to come out of her shell in pursuit of John.     She learns who his favorite band is, buys the CD, and even goes to the band's concert.    She runs into John there and they connect, although his definition of connection and hers are very different.    Her bright outfit catches the eye of the band's lead singer, who then hires her to pose for their next album cover.     The Doris of even six months prior would never dream of being this adventurous.

She really believes she is making headway with John, until she meets his young, pretty, sweet girlfriend Brooklyn (Behrs), whose only crime is being John's girlfriend.     To Doris, that is enough reason to resent her.     Her resentment, fueled by alcohol, causes Doris to sabotage John's relationship via Facebook.     It's not a nice thing to do and out of character for Doris, but all's fair in love and war.

The movie succeeds or fails on how much we like Doris.    Sally Field, who exudes likability and sweetness, is the reason we like her.     Another actress may not have aroused our sympathy.     We admire the way she emerges from her shell of a life.     She was trapped, but the arrival of John forces her to make changes.    Even if she doesn't succeed, she at least decided to take one more shot at happiness which was put on hold as she cared for her sick mother.     We learn she once had a fiancée, but they broke up when he moved to Flagstaff and she stayed in Staten Island to be with her mother.    

Hello My Name Is Doris is a warm comedy.     John himself is a nice guy who at first tolerates Doris but then builds a genuine friendship with her.     He is not romantically interested in a woman 30 years older than him, but he's not dismissive of her either.     The movie doesn't transcend into greatness, but it maintains a gentle tone kind of like Doris herself.  

Breaking Away (1979) * * * *

Directed by:  Peter Yates

Starring:  Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley, Robyn Douglass, Barbara Barrie, Paul Dooley, Hart Bochner

Breaking Away truly understands its characters and what they feel.    At 19, Dave (Christopher), Mike (Quaid), Moocher (Haley), and Cyril (Stern) are content with hanging around Bloomington, Indiana yearning to belong.    They are derisively called "Cutters" by the frat boys at Indiana University, which is right in their backyard.    Cutters refers to the working class masons who constructed the buildings that neither they nor their children have the means to enter.   "We're good enough to build them, but never good enough to go inside," one character astutely says.    Dave, Mike, Cyril, and Moocher are the children of cutters, but to the college boys that is guilt by association.     

The movie was a surprise hit in 1979.    The conflict between the frat guys and the Cutters is settled in a bicycle race called the "Little 500", but Breaking Away isn't satisfied with being a sports movie.     Its people are alive, unique, and memorable.     Dave is the most colorful of the Cutters.   He worships the Italian cycling team so much so that he adopts a phony Italian accent and drives his father crazy.    ( "No more foods with eenie in them.   I want American food like French fries,")    The relationship between Dave and his cutter turned used car salesman father (Dooley) is a touching and complex one.     The payoff scene in which these two finally learn to understand each other causes tears to well up. 

Also complex is Dave's burgeoning relationship with a college girl.   He poses as an Italian exchange student, because he doesn't think she would accept him as he is.     His friends also feel the same way, but show it in different ways.     Mike is a resentful former high school quarterback who fears his best days are behind him.     He also would rather curse the darkness than light a candle.    Moocher is a short kid who isn't afraid to throw punches when he is insulted.      He brings a new meaning to "punching the clock" after his boss calls him shorty.    Cyril took the college entrance exam and failed, but operates under the façade of going with the flow.    

Breaking Away won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for its writer Steve Tesich, who grew up in Indiana and fully understands this world from the inside out.     The movie operates with a vibrancy in nearly every frame.     The frat guys are dickheads, of course, but they also behave as if they are as resentful of the Cutters as the Cutters are of them.     A few bad breaks and they could be Cutters themselves.     But we look forward to the Cutters finally winning some respect in the big race.    

The big race itself is a grueling, sweaty, tiring one.     I loved the way the final lap was shot.    It is shot from far away and without close ups.     There is no slow motion.    We see it as if it were being shown live on TV with all of the built-in suspense you would expect.     We are truly rooting for these kids to emerge as hometown heroes over the hateful outsiders.     Breaking Away could not have worked if Tesich, Yates, and the cast did not give their all to make it special.    

The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) * * *

 

Directed by:  Robert Redford

 

Starring:  Matt Damon, Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Bruce McGill, J. Michael Moncrief, Jack Lemmon, Joel Gretsch

 

Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance is reminiscent of his own A River Runs Through It (1992).     Both are studies of men who learn life's lessons and are healed through doing what they do best.    In Bagger Vance, it is golf.     Golf is a game of efficiency in every aspect, from the swing of the club to the ultimate goal of sinking the ball in the cup in fewer strokes than your opponents.  

There are no teammates.    It is just the golfer against the world...and himself.

 

Matt Damon stars as Rannulph Junuh, a golf wunderkind from Savannah, GA who would have become Bobby Jones had World War I not interfered.     He went to war and came back broken.     The experience scarred him to the point that he never wanted to do anything but drink and play cards.     He was once in love with Adele Invergordon (Theron), daughter of the richest man in town who commits suicide after the stock market crashes.     Broke and stuck with a new golf course her father built but no one plays on, Adele dreams up a plan to bring a golf exhibition to Savannah.    The players?    Jones and Walter Hagen (McGill), an 11-time major champion.     She persuades both men to play for the $10,000 prize and manages to lure her former flame Junuh out of retirement so the town can have a rooting interest.

 

Since Junuh hasn't swung a club in years, he can not get himself right until one night Bagger Vance (Smith) appears out of nowhere and into his life.    He offers to be Junuh's caddy, but he provides greater insight than just what club to use and how to play the holes.     He has an instinct for saying the right things at the right time.     We sense some of this advice is not just aimed for winning a tournament.      Who is this mysterious Vance?     Is he a person?   A spirit?   A guardian angel?    The movie leaves that for us to decide.     Whatever he is, he sure helps Junuh and makes an impression on a 10-year old boy named Hardy (Moncrief), Junuh's biggest supporter.

 

The golf tournament is a study in styles.    Jones and Hagen are both golf superstars, but neither is arrogant nor dismissive of Junuh.    They respect the game too much to disrespect their opponents.    Hagen is more extravagant, while Jones is quiet and reserved.     Their games reflect their personalities.     Junuh is 12 strokes behind these titans after the first day, but we know he is not out of it.   

 

Who wins the tournament is not as important as how Junuh's life is forever changed.      He learns to put away the past and just focus.     Golf is about focus and concentration.     If you have neither, the game can be unbelievably frustrating.      Ask anyone who has ever two-putted on the green.     Redford uses golf as a metaphor for improving by life by being focused and efficient.      There should not wasted time or motion.     As Bagger Vance himself says, "Golf isn't a game to be won, only played."    We know he is talking about life itself.   

 

The Legend of Bagger Vance looks and sounds beautiful.    I especially liked the finale in which the final hole was played at dusk and car lights were illuminating the area.    The golf course is lush, but foreboding.    Games live and die on each hole and its own individual hazards.     The performances are all the more effective for being quiet and internalized.      We know what they're feeling with just the right economy of words.      They seemed to have taken Bagger's message to heart too.  

 

 

 

 

 

Heat (1995) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Michael Mann

Starring:  Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Danny Trejo, Dennis Haysbert, Wes Studi, Ted Levine, Amy Brennaman, Ashley Judd, Diane Venora, Natalie Portman

Heat is the study of two professionals who excel at their jobs.     One of those professionals is an expert armed robber, but that does not stop the cop on his tail from admiring his work.    Still, these men must act according to their nature.    Respect does not play into this.     It is a luxury neither can afford.     Heat examines these men who do not exist without their jobs.     They have little room for joy or family.   They spend their off hours itching to get back to work again.    It is a sad, lonely existence, even in Los Angeles.

Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro occupy the same screen for the first time in their careers.  They co-starred in The Godfather Part II, but did not share any scenes.   Both have played cops and/or criminals so often they could be honorary members of the police force or the mob.   They do it so well.  Heat is a prime example.  DeNiro is Neil McCauley, a career criminal who organizes and carries out carefully planned heists with nothing left to chance.   His last heist would have gone off without any sort of trail, except for a trigger-happy cohort who kills a bank security guard.   This gives the cops a slim lead to go on, but it is a lead.   Neil beats the crap out of his cohort, but he escapes before Neil can kill him.  

The detective on the case is Vincent Hanna (Pacino), who admires the efficiency of Neil's work, even if he doesn't know who he is just yet.   "These guys are good, real good," he says as he examines the crime scene.     Hanna is determined to catch his foe, even at the expense of a crumbling home life caused by his perpetual absence.     Neil is not married and has no family, but he sees a possible alternative to his criminal life with a young woman he meets.    He falls for her, but he always recalls the advice given to him by his friend and mentor Nate (Voight): "Don't take on anything you can't leave behind in thirty seconds flat."    For Neil, up to now, these were words to live by.

Heat mercilessly focuses on the toll the job takes on Vincent and Neil.    Vincent's stepdaughter attempts suicide, while his wife laments and damns him for his marriage to his job.    For Vincent, being a cop isn't just a job.    It is his being.     If he could spend 24 hours a day doing it, he would.    Neil has made serious money off of his scores and could retire at any time.    But retire to what?    His partners tell him, "It's the juice.  It's the action."  Neil agrees.   He gets a jolt out of the action more.   It is true that he has generated more exposure on himself than ever before, but that doesn't stop him from trying another heist.  

Heat takes its time examining the lives of its characters.    It has action and suspense, including a loud, terrifying shootout in the middle of a busy Los Angeles street.    We care about the outcome because Michael Mann invests thought and time into his people.    The ending will not be tidy because Vincent and Neil can not go against their grain.   Neil could have gotten away clean, but the lure of taking care of one last piece of unfinished business is too much to resist.   It costs him.     The price Vincent pays to catch Neil is one many would not pay.   He does pay it because it would go against his nature not to.   

DeNiro and Pacino give us some of their best work in Heat.   They are wounded pros who can't (or won't) escape their fates.     They would rather die than go against how they are wired.    For one or more of these people, that is what happens.    

 

Big Eyes (2014) * * *

Directed by:  Tim Burton

Starring:  Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Jason Schwartzman, Krysten Ritter, Delaney Raye, Madeleine Arthur

Big Eyes is not as much a biopic of artist Margaret Keane as it is a document of her struggle to have her voice heard and her work rightly credited to her.     Her arrangement with her husband Walter was simple.    She does the work, he sells it and puts his name on the paintings.     They make a lot of money, although Walter appears on the cover of magazines, but all should be well right?     Only a fool would upset this apple cart, no?    It is not that easy.    Walter's egomaniacal control over Margaret and practically locking her in a room to create an assembly line of art wears on Margaret.    She is forced to lie to her daughter about what she is doing in the room and this will not do.      For Margaret, this is worth the risk of upsetting Walter's apple cart.

Tim Burton's Big Eyes is based on true events.    Keane's paintings of large eyed children are known worldwide, even if you don't remember who actually made them.     I remember seeing them, but I never looked into who the artist was.     But, the paintings are indelibly etched in memory as part of pop culture.     Burton has made a career of telling stories that were part sci-fi fantasy and part spooky horror stories.     Don't forget he also directed Pee Wee's Big Adventure.     Big Eyes is told more or less straightforward without bells and whistles.     It is a different, refreshing direction for him.   

When Big Eyes opens, Margaret (Adams) is a recently divorced woman with a young child who moves to San Francisco trying to sell her paintings.     Her work is scoffed and sales aren't good.     She meets Walter Keane (Waltz) in a park one day while both are painting.    Walter regales Margaret and her daughter with stories of living and studying art in Paris.    They are both wowed.    A romance blossoms and the two soon are married.     Walter convinces Margaret of his artistic brilliance by showing her work he allegedly did, but we soon find out he may have studied art without ever actually creating any.     Since he is a born salesman (and maybe even a con man), he convinces Margaret to allow him to sell her work and take credit.   Oodles of money will flow in, which it does, and life will be good for all.

It is surely good for Walter, whose face graces magazine covers as his celebrity and fame rises on the back of Margaret's incessant work.     She may receive ancillary benefit, but soon she is weary of lying to her child about why she's confined to a room for sixteen hours a day.    Walter, drunk with fame and fortune, is not about to let the gravy train stop on account of Margaret's qualms.     Margaret feels like a prisoner and her relationship with her daughter suffers.  

Adams and Waltz are two top-notch actors whose performances are a study in contrasts.    Adams' Margaret is gullible, reticent, but eventually finds the strength to stand up to Walter.    We understand why she feels as she does and we sympathize.    Waltz projects the right amount of charisma, sneaky charm, and a natural knack for sales.     We respond to his going over the top because, let's face it, Walter brings nothing else to the table and he knows it.     The bravado is part of his misdirection.    

As in real life, the Keanes took their battle over authorship of the paintings to court.    The judge comes up with a brilliantly easy solution:  Have Margaret and Walter each create a painting in front of him and the jury.    It is hilarious watching Walter attempt to weasel out of this.     He summons up every bit of energy and excuse to avoid being exposed, but soon he finds no amount of conning will get him out of this.    

Big Eyes is not a movie with a flashy story, just great performances by actors with tons of charm and plenty to spare.     We see what drives them and we see why Margaret eventually has to say "enough".     This is not a word in Walter's vocabulary.    He is indifferent to his family's wants and needs.     As long as he is making money and achieving any sort of recognition which has eluded him his whole life, he can live with that.   

Find Me Guilty (2006) * * *

Directed by:  Sidney Lumet

Starring:  Vin Diesel, Ron Silver, Peter Dinklage, Alex Rocco, Paul Borghese, Linus Roache, Annabella Sciorra


Vin Diesel is an actor who combines streetwise intelligence with physicality.    These days, he is content making Fast and Furious movies because they make tons of money and there seems to be no end to the sequels.    I've enjoyed him in movies in which he challenged himself and the audience, such as Boiler Room, Saving Private Ryan, The Pacifier, and this movie.     He has a strong screen presence.    Once he realizes he can't make Fast & Furious movies forever (or can he?), then he can certainly throw himself into non-action roles and be effective.

Find Me Guilty is based on a mid-1980's federal mob trial in which the defendants (about 10 of them in all) were known gangsters.    The counts against the defendants ranged from conspiracy to extortion to drug charges and even murder.     There were dozens of counts and the trial lasted well over a calendar year.     Diesel plays Jackie DiNorscio, who is serving a 30-year drug sentence and is among the defendants.     He is offered a deal to testify against his co-defendants and receive a reduced sentence.     DiNorscio refuses.    "Jackie D don't rat," he says in the third person, which happens a lot.  

Jackie is the only defendant without a lawyer.    He acts as his own attorney and he is surprisingly effective at cross-examining witnesses and endearing himself to the jury.     He makes the jurors and the crowd laugh, which exasperates the prosecutor Sean Kearney (Roache) and gives the defense hope.    "A laughing jury is not a hanging jury," says attorney Ben Klandis (Dinklage), who advises DiNorscio on the side.     "I'm not a gangster, I'm a gagster," Jackie tells the jury and from the looks of things, they may believe him.

The irony here is that even if Jackie is acquitted, he must still return to prison to serve out his sentence.     His co-defendants will go free.    This is fine by Jackie, who is loyal to these men even though some of them tried to have him killed.     Others aren't nearly as impressed with his sideshow antics, including crime boss Nick Calabrese (Rocco), who makes his disdain for Jackie well known. 
Perhaps his loyalty impresses the jury.    They are the only people in the entire room whose opinion truly matters anyway.

Diesel is among some strong character actors and is not overpowered by them.    He proves what a good actor he can be when he plays someone who doesn't shoot, fight, or drive fast cars.    The outcome of the trial is one for the books.     The jury's decision was likely more based on their affection for Jackie and their resentment against Kearney for having them sequestered for a 15-month long trial.      Kearney really underestimates the jury's impatience.     Their impatience allowed Jackie to sneak in, tell some jokes, and avoid spending the rest of his life in jail.     Talk about timing. 

Starman (1984) * *

Directed by:  John Carpenter

Starring:  Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith, Richard Jaeckel

Starman is all too reminiscent of E.T. and suffers in comparison.    In E.T., an alien is stranded on Earth and befriends a human while awaiting the day when a ship will come to bring him home.     In Starman, an alien is stranded on Earth, assumes the identity of a woman's dead husband, and the two travel cross country to the rendezvous point where he will be picked up and brought home.     Coincidentally, both E.T. and Starman were written at about the same time, but E.T. was filmed first.    Starman is not a ripoff, but it was released two years after the unprecedentedly successful E.T. and I couldn't help but realize how similar they are.   

The movie stars Jeff Bridges as the unnamed alien whose ship is shot down over rural Wisconsin.     He finds refuge in a cabin belonging to a young widow named Jenny (Allen), whose husband died a year earlier.     The alien awkwardly assumes the human form of Jenny's late husband and soon they are traveling to Arizona to meet up with the mother ship.      They fall in love while on the road and outrunning government agents who suspect correctly that Bridges is from another planet.     Like in E.T., when the government starts poking around, it's time to head for higher ground.  

Bridges and Allen have nice chemistry together.    Jenny takes her time to patiently teach Starman about human traditions and emotions, all of which are foreign to him.    While trying to learn to move in his new body, Starman (as the credits call him) resembles a walking ostrich.     He is a benevolent alien fascinated by the human species, while the only humans he meets other than Jenny are hostile and violent.     Bridges (Oscar-nominated for his role) hits all the right notes and makes for a likable alien.     Allen is sweet, kind, sad, and confused while coming to grips that her husband is back...sort of.     Charles Martin Smith has the thankless task of being the sympathetic bureaucrat who has to track down the couple and capture the alien.   

Starman inevitably moves toward its predictable conclusion with a couple of nice touches, including a scene where he brings a dead deer tied to the roof of a car back to life.     The hunter who killed the deer is none too happy about this, although he should be at least somewhat curious about a man who can bring things back to life.    I guess he is not a big-picture kind of guy.     But the sweet scenes are islands onto themselves.     The rest is just formula chase/road movie stuff.   

In the movies, anyway, humans are forever desiring to make contact with alien life forms only to chase them down and make life generally miserable for the poor things.     Starman must have seen E.T. so he knows what's in store.    

A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Scott Frank

Starring:  Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, David Harbour, Brian Bradley

Matt Scudder (Neeson) is an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic who hires himself out as "an unlicensed private eye."   He tells a prospective client, "I do favors for people and they give me gifts."   This client is a wealthy drug dealer whose wife was kidnapped and then killed even though the dealer paid the ransom.    Scudder knows he is dealing with a special breed of sicko and agrees to investigate.     This line of work is not the best way for Scudder to temper his demons, but we sense he takes these jobs as penance for accidentally shooting a child dead during a shootout.  

A Walk Among the Tombstones is not wall-to-wall fistfights, chases, and shootouts (at first).    It patiently allows Scudder to do the detective work and discover the true nature of the monsters he is trailing.     Then it plateaus and never recovers about midway through.    It hedges its bets and gives us the ending we would expect in a film these days starring Liam Neeson.     He starts out as Matt Scudder and ends up as Bryan Mills.    Tombstones covers some of the same territory as Joel Schumacher's splendid 8MM (1999), but does not have the courage to go all the way like 8MM did.   Pity.

Neeson, of course, is an imposing physical presence who has made a career lately out of playing wounded characters who still have a shot at redemption.    Oh, and yes he looks at right at home carrying a gun.     He can play characters with tortured souls with the best of them.     He also creates a touching friendship with a homeless teen (Bradley), who sleeps in libraries and becomes Scudder's partner and ostensibly the son he never had.     In the grand scheme of Tombstones, the teen isn't really necessary.     He becomes one more character you have to keep track of, although at least he does not become a target of the villains that Scudder must rescue.

The characters here are given different dimensions which is an interesting choice.    The drug dealer (Stevens) is seen as refined, even civilized and not altogether unredeemable.    He would have turned out okay if it weren't for the profession he chose.    The kidnappers are monsters driven by uncontrollable desires that we can not fathom having.     Tombstones is not afraid to lead us down this terrifying path, until it suddenly is.   

Tombstones becomes a film with brilliant parts that don't add up to a satisfying whole.    It is like closing your hand on something but just coming up with air.    Things reach a resolution and an ending that may satisfy some people.     Maybe because Liam Nesson is the star, audiences expect a certain type of ending and we know whatever issues Neeson is having won't prevent him from kicking ass.    It's all kind of a letdown. 

 

Children of Men (2006) * 1/2

Directed by:  Alfonso Cuaron

Starring:  Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Clare-Hope Ashitay

The world of Children of Men is a bleak one.    It is 2027.   The human race faces eventual extinction because humans can no longer reproduce.     No person has reproduced in 18 years and CNN grimly reports the death of  "the world's youngest human", who was just 18.    Other cities and countries have crumbled, while Britain remains the only semblance of civilized society left despite being a police state.     Everything has an Orwellian feel to it.    The grayness and emptiness is straight out of Michael Radford's adaptation of Nineteen Eighty Four (1985).

Until the actual plot kicks in, Children of Men depicts an eerie, doomed world.    Theo Faron (Owen) is a microcosm of the apathy that engulfs society.    The coffee shop where he buys his daily morning coffee blows up moments after he leaves.     It is tough to say what bothered Theo more: the explosion or that he wasn't in it.    The nation is on the brink of civil war between the government and revolutionaries.    This will not be the last violence anyone will see.   

Theo is soon contacted by his former lover Julian (Moore), with whom he had lost a child.   Their mutual pain is apparent with every word they speak.    She is now with the resistance and asks Theo to help protect a young woman named Kee (Ashitay), the world's first pregnant woman in 18 years.    This is where Children of Men steps wrongly into peculiar territory.    The movie does not make it clear why a pregnant woman, who should be seen as a beacon of hope that humans may not go extinct, is a threat and needs to be protected.     She is seen as a potential pawn in the ongoing war between the government and the resistance, but how would she be one?    Is the movie trying to say that the government, despite imposing a police state, wouldn't welcome living proof that humankind's days aren't necessarily numbered?     You would think the first pregnant woman in 18 years wouldn't have to be smuggled out of Britain.

Owen provides Children of Men with a satisfactory hero.    He changes from being an apathetic loner to a father figure who protects Kee at all costs.     It doesn't occur to him or anybody else in the movie that he shouldn't have to protect her at all.    If you consider the worldwide grief people express over the lost of the 18-year old, then how would Kee not be the most welcome story on Earth?     Maybe there was an explanation as to why Kee needed to escape Britain, but I missed it.    The resistance also has designs on the child, but it is unclear why.  

Cuaron is technically well done and sets up an intriguing, albeit bleak future.    Then the story kicks in with its puzzling lack of clarity and all is lost.     We know the whole story about the pregnant woman, but why hasn't anyone tracked down the father?    Is Kee meant to be a virgin Mary and her pregnancy is the result of a virgin birth?     If that were the case, then Kee would be even more of a celebrity, no?    Who in their right mind would want to hurt her?    Once I figure that out, then maybe I can enjoy Children of Men more. 



 

Everest (2015) * * *

Directed by: Baltasar Kormakur

Starring:  Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Sam Worthington, John Hawkes, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emily Watson, Keira Knightley, Robin Wright

At one point in Everest, the climbers are asked by a reporter why they would risk life and limb to climb to the top of Mount Everest.     They are stuck for an answer.     One says, "Because it's there," but no psychological reasons are revealed.      Do the climbers even know?     The same character admits that he is at home and peace only when he trying to climb the mountain.      He feels lost anywhere else.      Everest depicts a 1996 ill-fated climb based on true events in almost documentary-like fashion.     We don't learn much about the people, except that some have tried and failed, but we do learn that they pay hefty sums to scale this mountain.      Hefty sums to the tune of $65,000.     It makes you wonder.

Mount Everest, of course, is the world's tallest mountain.     Team leader Rob Hall (Clarke), who leads the expedition up the mountain, explains that once they cross a certain altitude, "Your body starts to die."     Everest peaks at a height near where 747's hit their cruising altitudes.      Getting to the top is hard enough.    The bigger problems occur when two consecutive winter storms hit and some of the climbers can't get back down.      Humans are not meant to exist in temperatures that cold and altitudes that high.      That doesn't stop people from risking everything to climb it.     I think it should be illegal to climb, but that's just pie-in-the-sky thinking.

Climbing Mount Everest means the possibility of falling, freezing to death, passing out from lack of oxygen, frostbite which may quickly advance to losing body parts, and oxygen tanks freezing up.     Is the risk really worth the reward?     It is to these climbers.     If someone is willing to fork over $65,000 to attempt the climb, then no amount of logic or sensibility will be able to dissuade that person.      Character development is not a priority here.     The people all have the same goal, which is to get to the top and back down in one piece.     We are not any more in sympathy with one person over another, although Rob has a baby due in about two months.      Another named Beck Weathers (Brolin) has a family at home worried about him, but don't all of the climbers?

Everest is not meant to be exhilarating.     It is at its strongest when it clearly and brutally shows us the hell the climbers must endure.     The film convincingly places us on the treacherous slopes of this daunting mountain.     The weather screams at people to keep away.     The climbers themselves probably realize that not everyone will make it back alive.     The bodies of those who perish stay buried in the snow since it is too high to send a helicopter up to bring them down.    Climbers certainly aren't going to carry the bodies.     They have enough trouble just getting themselves down.

Everyone has a personal goal.    For the climbers of Mount Everest, the ability to one day tell others they climbed to the top of Mount Everest is their goal.     Is it the ultimate adrenaline rush?    Likely.   Is it the ultimate test of human endurance?    Likely.     Is it stupid even to attempt?     We may think so, but these climbers probably think running marathons is too easy.    Everest maintains an intrinsic level of suspense because of our universal fear of possibly not returning from a treacherous situation alive.    Of course, the climbers put themselves there, but our judgment won't help them much.

       

Room (2015) * * * *

Directed by:  Lenny Abrahamson

Starring:  Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, Tom McCamus, Sean Bridgers

Room is one of the most emotionally devastating films I've seen in a long time.    When it's over, I was drained.    It didn't step wrong.     This is not a feel-good movie, even though it ends on a note of hope.    I thought about its implications and how it affected my own life.     Great movies allow you to think, debate, and feel.     This is one of them.    With that being said, I do not know how quickly I would want to revisit it.     There is only so much raw emotion I can handle.

Room begins in a sparsely furnished room so tiny the mice are probably hunchback.    The occupants are Ma (Larson) and Jack (Tremblay), who turns 5 years old today.     Jack is the child of rape and abuse.     Ma was kidnapped 7 years ago and forced to live in this tiny shed with only a skylight and a TV with bad reception to remind her there is an outside world.     Ma's captor, Old Nick (Bridgers) brings them supplies and food, but rapes Ma almost nightly.   He has the door locked which can only be opened by a security code.   Jack is hidden in a tiny closet, but still can see through the slits.     It is not clear if Old Nick has ever had any contact with Jack.     He refers to Jack as if he were a stranger.

To date, Ma has been able to shield Jack from this horrifying existence by putting on her best face and pretending to be strong.     She does not reveal the true nature of their predicament.     Jack is the only reason Ma probably has not committed suicide up to this point.      How Ma did not give in to despair is a question best left unexplored.      She can not stop the natural progression of Jack's curiosity.     She knows she can not keep the truth hidden forever, so she concocts a daring plan to escape.     Ma reveals in stories she tells Jack about she attempted to escape before, but was punished severely for it.     She is so focused on keeping Jack happy and safe that she neglects her own needs, including a rotting tooth she soon simply has to pull out.  

I won't reveal the escape plan itself, but it does work.    I am not spoiling anything because it is common knowledge that the mother and child manage to free themselves through ingenuity and taking a cue from The Count of Monte Cristo.     Room's second half is about how Ma and Jack have to adjust to the outside world.     Jack has never known anything but Room (the euphemism Ma uses to describe the shed they were trapped in.)    Ma remembers life before being kidnapped, but that may as well have been a lifetime ago.      Her mother and father, now divorced, have a tearful reunion with Ma (whose real name is Joy Newsome), but things become dicey.     The trauma Joy suffered for seven years has taken its toll.    She can not function in the real world.   "I thought I would be happy," she tells her mother.     Most of the time, she is miserable and stays confined to her mother's home.    It is if she exchanged one room for another.

Brie Larson won an Oscar for Best Actress for her role.    It was completely deserved.   What conflicting emotions she had to convey.     She doesn't play the role for sympathy or to pull at the audience's heartstrings.      She is simply a woman trying to process the almost unimaginable psychological trauma enacted on her by a monster.    Her love for Jack took top priority and she unselfishly put his well-being before hers.     We can't even imagine what she went through.    That transcends acting and into total embodiment.

Jacob Tremblay is a nine-year old actor who was seven when Room was made.     Where did he find the strength and the know-how to take on so much of the emotional heavy lifting?     I have to believe director Lenny Abrahamson instilled it in him.      His performance transcends as well.     He is not just a young boy playing a young boy.    He is a boy forced to save his mother on more than one occasion because he is tuned in to her suffering.      Ma sacrificed so much to allow him to cope.    He copes and flourishes with intelligence and sensitivity you rarely see in such a young child.    

If nothing I described makes Room sound like a fun night at the movies, well that's because it isn't.    Movies don't always have to have fun subject matter.     Room invites us to walk in Ma and Jack's shoes for a little while.     The screenplay by Emma Donoghue is based on her novel (which was based on similar real life events), but it allows us to truly feel their situation from the inside out.     How exactly would I react losing seven years of my life in the most dehumanizing way imaginable?    Holocaust survivors did the same thing and 70 years later we are still trying to figure out how it happened and how they survived.     The difference is, we can leave the theater and go back to our normal lives where no such distress has ever happened.    Joy and Jack must live on with it forever.    How do people even process that?     Room unblinkingly explores that.     A lesser movie would have probably had the movie end with a trial or something more "Hollywood".    Room is clearly not a lesser movie.    It stays with you.