WAZZUPININ?!?

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

2012-01-05T15:26:00.001-08:00

ELIZABETH TAYLOR

2011-03-23T19:58:00.001-07:00

CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRE'S ASSISTANT (2009)

2011-01-12T16:52:00.000-08:00

Starring: John C. Reilly

Director: Paul Weitz

Based on the popular series of books by Darren Shan, it tells the story of a small-town teen who inadvertently shatters a 200-year-old truce between warring factions of vampires. Sixteen-year-old Darren (Chris Massoglia) is your typical adolescent; he spends most of his time with his best friend, Steve (Josh Hutcherson), earns decent grades, and generally manages to stay out of trouble. But trouble finds Darren when he and Steve make the acquaintance of a vampire named Larten Crepsley (Reilly) while attending a traveling freak show at a local theater. Transformed into a bloodsucker by Crepsley, Darren joins the Cirque Du Freak and quickly ingratiates himself with the unusual cast of characters who populate it, including Madame Truska the Bearded Lady (Salma Hayek) and the traveling sideshow's towering barker (Ken Watanabe). As Darren works to master his newfound powers as a budding member of the supernatural underworld, he becomes a valued pawn between the vampires and their deadlier rivals, the Vampaneze. With tensions between the two sects intensifying, Darren must figure out a means of keeping the coming war from destroying his last vestige of humanity. Patrick Fugit, Orlando Jones, Willem Dafoe, and Jane Krakowski co-star.

A very bland comedy wasting all the stars' talents. (108 mins.)

My Rating: *1/2

THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD (2008)

2010-09-20T18:38:00.001-07:00

Starring: John Malkovich, Colin Hanks & Emily Blunt

Director: Sean McGinly

This is a very agreeable "feel good" movie and, as such, should find favor with a great many of those who view it. The story, which is in the tradition of other "behind the scenes with a difficult talent" films as My Favorite Year, concerns an aging mentalist -- do not call him a magician, please -- named Buck Howard (Malkovich), who was once at the top of the heap but is now reduced to playing to small, if appreciative, audiences far from the big time. His new road manager, Troy (Hanks), has joined Buck because he is floating aimlessly after dropping out of law school and is trying to "find himself." Working with Buck is an education in itself, as he has taken self-delusion to an extreme, is entirely self-involved, and more than a bit temperamental. But there's something about Buck that draws Troy in and ultimately teaches him a lesson about being true to himself.

Buck is a very audience-friendly film, provided that viewers are willing to let themselves be taken along for a fairly manipulative ride. Director-writer McGinly has created a well-crafted screenplay that hits all the right buttons in terms of eliciting the desired response. Where he has fallen down a bit is in not adding real depth to the story or keeping it as tightly focused as it might have been. Troy's dilemma is a bit too superficial, as is the setup with his disapproving father (well-played by the actor's real-life papa, Tom Hanks). The part of the plot which deals with Troy's dalliance with a young P.R. agent feels incomplete, perhaps because Blunt's dynamic, eye-catching performance makes the viewer want to learn more about her character and see more confrontations between the agent and Buck. However, neither of these flaws (nor McGinly's tendency to overwrite and overuse the narration) is fatal by any means and they're more than made up for by some wonderful comic moments and McGinly's trenchant yet amiable way of dissecting the whole concept of celebrity. Most importantly, Buck has Malkovich operating at the top of his not inconsiderable form. The actor clearly relishes this character, and it is a joy to watch him inhabit Buck's skin and bring him to beautiful life. Malkovich finds the humanity beneath the caricature without letting the caricature slip away; Buck's trademark "I love this town" is funny because it is simultaneously cheesy and heartfelt. As Troy, Hanks isn't able to hold his own against Malkovich -- or Blunt -- but he does the best he can as the "straight" man in the movie. The supporting cast, especially Steve Zahn's and Debra Monk's on-target "hayseeds," are aces. McGinly's direction is smooth, if a bit too concerned with getting its points across, and Tak Fujimoto's cinematography is both glossy and warm. (87 mins.)

My Rating: ***

LA STRADA (1954)

2010-09-20T18:26:00.001-07:00

Starring: Anthony Quinn, Giuletta Masina & Richard Basehart

Director: Federico Fellini

La Strada is often considered one of the masterpieces of 20th century filmmaking, a sad and poignant remembrance of innocence lost and of the roads that each of us must choose. As with much of the work of director Fellini, man is viewed as suspended between the heavens and the earth, adroitly symbolized here by Il Matto/The Fool (Basehart), a high-wire circus performer. Fellini's motifs are among the most influential of all post-WWII filmmakers, and you'll find clever Fellini and La Strada references in such unlikely films as Blues Brothers 2000. Giuletta massina's Chaplin-like Gelsomina is among the screen's most poignant and tragic performances, and she, like the entire film, is aided by Nino Rota's evocative score. Fellini had few production values to work with, but here he doesn't need them. La Strada is among the most studied films of late Italian Neo-Realism and a classic of the first rank. (115 mins.)

My Rating: ****

THE SOLOIST (2008)

2010-09-20T18:13:00.001-07:00

Starring: Robert Downey, Jr. & Jamie Foxx

Director: Joe Wright

When the Soloist was originally intended to be a 2008 Oscar hopeful, the initial advertising campaign made it look like a cross between Shine and A Beautiful Mind. And the setup certainly smacks of Oscar bait: Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez (Downey), recovering from an especially nasty bike accident, meets the homeless Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (Foxx) during a walk through the park. Because Nathaniel plays a violin with just two strings -- and plays it rather well -- he catches Steve's eye, and Steve, always on the lookout for a story, strikes up a conversation. When the obviously mentally ill Nathaniel mentions that he went to Juilliard, Steve decides to investigate the man's life, and discovers that the onetime cello prodigy suffered a schizophrenic breakdown while he was at the school, leading to a life on the street. Steve proceeds to write a column about Nathaniel, and the overwhelmingly positive response to the story prompts the gift of a cello from a reader. After delivering the present to Nathaniel, Steve slowly finds himself, almost against his nature, trying to make life better for the man.

This kind of movie quickly falls apart if the actors overplay the inherent sadness of the situation, and thankfully the stellar cast never makes that mistake. Although he's become more famous for performances in blockbusters like Iron Man and Tropic Thunder, Downey hasn't lost an ounce of his dramatic chops. He makes Steve selfish and prickly, but also so charming and funny that you understand why his subjects trust him with their life stories. You can also see why his ex-wife (Catherine Keener), who is now his boss, stays close to him even though she left their marriage. Steve begins asking himself why he cares so much about what happens to Nathaniel, questioning his own motivations -- is it really an ongoing act of selfless goodness, or is he just doing it for his career? Steve doesn't find a satisfying answer, until realizing that this new friendship offers the chance for him to become a better person.

As the catalyst for Steve's change, foxx pulls off a disciplined, subtle performance. Foxx isn't interested in earning our pity -- a choice that undermines so many actors playing mentally ill characters. You never question the debilitating nature of Nathaniel's disorder, but you also never question that he's able to take care of himself to the best of his ability, surviving -- however miserably -- in L.A.'s large homeless community. Both he and Downey avoid obvious melodramatic choices, and in doing so they create unfailingly honest portraits of complicated people.

(109 mins.)

My Rating: **1/2

CROSSROADS (1986)

2010-09-14T18:21:00.001-07:00

Starring: Ralph Macchio, Joe Seneca & Jami Gertz

Director: Walter Hill

A superb blues score by guitarist Ry Cooder highlights this enjoyable fantasy about an ambitious young bluesman (Macchio) who "goes down to the crossroads," in the words of Robert Johnson, to make a deal with the devil for fame and fortune. Most viewers will enjoy the performances, the story, and the music in this all-too-rare-big-screen celebration of the blues and its mythology.

This misbegotten fantasy seems like a revamp of The Karate Kid, with a crotchety old musician replacing the wise karate master who guided macchio's coming-of-age. Halfway through, it becomes a Faustian morality play in which Macchio has yo play a mean guitar to save his mentor's soul. (100 mins.)

My Rating: ***

PANDORA'S BOX (1929)

2010-09-14T18:13:00.001-07:00

Starring: Louise Brooks

Director: G. W. Pabst

Pabst's most famous film featured his first, star-making collaboration with American actress Brooks in a complex exploration of sexual psychology and Weimar Germany's social decadence. Working from Frank Wedekind's play in Pabst's trademark realist style, Pabst and Brooks transformed the character of Lulu from an evil temptress into a hedonistic innocent at ease with her sexuality. Pursued by men and women alike, Lulu is prey as much to social repression as to her own insatiable desires, as she winds up blamed for the troubles that others have brought on themselves through their own sexual hypocrisy. The appearance of Jack the Ripper at the conclusion is a sign less of sensationalist melodrama than of Lulu's internalized victimization. Brooks's subtle, nuanced performance and Pabst's fluid editing style infuse Pandora's Box with a sensuality that remains undiminished to this day. Critically panned on its release, Pandora's Box has since come to be seen as a hypnotic masterwork, remarkable for its frank treatment of sexuality and the sympathetic, inscrutable, fascinating presence of Brooks, who became a Jazz Age flapper icon. (131 mins.)

My Rating: ***1/2

ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)

2010-09-14T17:54:00.000-07:00

Starring: Bette Davis, Ann Baxter, George Sanders & Celeste

Holm

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Mankiewicz's jaundiced look at the show biz battle zone better known as Broadway is probably the summit of Hollywood movie-making; it's as finely crafted an entertainment as we're likely to see. Eve, a female Uriah Heep, insinuates herself into the good graces of some theater folk whose generosity does not prepare them for this cunning steamroller out to eliminate years of hard knocks at their expense. What gives this cynical high comedy its emotional resonance and depth, however, is poignance with thick Davis plays Margo Channing, the just-turned-forty actress who's a living monument to enormous talent and volcanic temperament.

Witty dialogue to spare, especially great when spoken by Sanders and Thelma Ritter. 6 Oscars include Best Picture, director, screenplay, and Supporting Actor (Sanders). Later musicalized on Broadway as Applause. (138 mins.)

My Rating; ****

DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK (1952)

2010-09-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Richard Widmark, Anne Bancroft &

Elisha Cook

Director: Roy Ward Baker

Those who consider Monroe an actress of limited range should take a look at Don't Bother To Knock, in which the sex symbol is cast in a most un-Monroe-like part and turns in a quite impressive performance. Monroe's talent was considerable, and while she shown in the lighter roles that emphasized her obvious sexual allure, she was quite capable of handling meatier roles. Knock is also interesting to watch because Monroe's part is a surprising one for a star to take -- a psychotic who is not especially sympathetic. Knock has lots to recommend it aside form Monroe, include a script that, while it often stretches credulity, is nonetheless tightly structured and features some great dialogue, as well as an across-the-courtyard-through-the-windows scene that is engrossingly voyeuristic. A very young Bancroft turns in a solid performance, as do Cook and Widmark is less solid; he's fine, but he doesn't seem to be totally engaged in his part and thus can't fill out some of its more two-dimensional qualities. Knock could have been a truly top-notch little thriller had director Baker given it a bit more sizzle. Unfortunately, he's a bit cautious, and so Knock doesn't build up the head of steam and the tense suspense that it needs to. Nevertheless, it's well worth a look, especially for Monroe fans. (76 mins.)

My Rating: ***

GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST (2009)

2010-09-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner & Michael

Douglas

Director: Mark S. Waters

There are only so many ways to spice up the traditional romantic comedy formula, which is probably why many of them are so dull and familiar. Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past stars McConaughey as über-famous womanizing photographer Connor Mead, a single man so entrenched in his love 'em and leave 'em lifestyle he'll use a video conference to break up with three girls simultaneously. He takes time out of his busy playboy schedule to attend his brother's wedding, where he comes face to face with Jenny Perotti (Garner), the only girl who ever truly captured his heart. Because the two have known each other since childhood, Jenny seems to be the only one who can call Connor out on his emotionally empty life and bad-boy behavior. After the rehearsal dinner -- where Connor, who hates all weddings, delivers a drunken speech about how love isn't real -- he's visited by the ghost of his uncle Wayne (Douglas), a Hefner-esque horndog who taught Connor everything he knows about picking up chicks. Wayne tells Connor that three more ghosts will visit Connor that night. They proceed to show him his romantic past, present, and future, in an attempt for him to get over himself and recognize his true feelings for Jenny.

Mark S. Waters is the kind of filmmaker who won't screw up a good script (Mean Girls), but he's not talented enough to make subpar material tolerable (Just Like Heaven). Because this script is so paint-by-numbers, Ghosts shows off Waters' best and worst qualities as a director. On the plus side, he trusts his actors when the material is good, allowing them to get laughs when the dialogue is genuinely funny. On the minus side, he encourages over-the-top performances in order to disguise the flat jokes and lame slapstick set pieces -- something that makes many of the characters more annoying than endearing.

But when the jokes are good -- or even just not awful -- the actors deliver. Sure McConaughey has been typecast in this role for years, but that's because he's good at it. The man knows how to mix his trademark laid-back attitude with a hint of vulnerability that makes him appealing to both men and women who want to see this kind of movie. But it's Douglas who walks off with the movie because he's got most of the best lines -- his robe-clad, highball-swigging swinger gives the movie what little fresh energy it has.

But "freshness" isn't even the point. After all, the people who want to see this movie will want it to be exactly what they expect. It's the movie equivalent of fast food -- nobody needs this to be good, just adequate. And Ghosts is nothing if not thoroughly adequate. (100 mins.)

My Rating: **

PLAY MISTY FOR ME (1971)

2010-09-08T18:49:00.000-07:00

Starring: Clint Eastwood

Director: Clint Eastwood

Well-done shocker of late night radio DJ stalked by a homicidal ex-fan. Eastwood's first film as a director, Don Siegel plays Murphy the bartender.

Eastwood made a promising directorial debut with this mystery about a sexy disc jockey on a California radio station, and his involvement with a psychotic. Jessica Walter is first-rate playing the dangerous listener who takes charge of Eastwood's life when he makes the mistake of entering into what he thinks is a casual affair.

(102 mins.)

My Rating: ***

PIRANHA II: THE SPAWNING (1981)

2010-09-06T18:50:00.000-07:00

Starring: Lance Henriksen

Director: James Cameron

This poorly scripted horror film about miniature, finny "jaws" details the mating rituals of the fictional "grunion" fish (falsely introduced as "piranhas" for more box-office recognition) and their need to attack and kill humans -- either inside or outside the water. These saber-toothed wonders have been hatched from a canister of eggs on a sunken ship in front of a posh Club Med resort, which features the mating rituals of humans who at times need to attack and kill fish. The product of a series of secret genetic engineering experiments, the toothy fish are to be tracked down by an undercover biochemist (Steve Marachuk), who is soon joined by the resident scuba diver at the resort (tricia O'Neill). With believable gore but second-rate special effects, this film in no way presages the coming success of its debut director, James Cameron.

A flying-piranhas movie helmed by Cameron should by all means be better than this bland horror sequel -- proving that the picture's behind-the-scenes story is ultimately more involving than movie itself. As a film study, the picture shows nothing of Cameron's talent, which could possibly be because of his rumored noninvolvement in most of it. Shut out from most of the production, the special effects technician-turned-stand-in director obviously wasn't involved with most of the final product, as evidenced in its watery take on such an outrageous premise. Airborne deadly fish should be comedy gold -- ironic or not -- but the sly humor of the the original Piranha film, written by John Sayles, is sorely missing from the proceedings. Instead, the flick plays out in a fairly straightforward tone that kills the entire flick. Though it is interesting to see Henriksen and Cameron together at even this early of a stage in their careers, Piranha II is devoid of any other cinematic merit -- other than being the first film to open with an underwater sex scene involving scuba divers. (94 mins.)

My Rating: **

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE (2010)

2010-09-06T18:43:00.001-07:00

Starring; John Cusack

Director: Steve Pink

The story starts with old friends Adam (Cusack) and Nick (Craig Robinson), who are both pretty mopey. Adam's girlfriend just left him, and Nick is feeling kind of emasculated about his failed music career. But they put their thirtysomething angst aside when the third member of their old clique, the tequila-soaked basket case Lou (Rob Corddry), is hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning after jamming too hard to some rock in his Trans Am. They're not sure whether or not their hard-partying buddy was actually trying to kill himself, but just to be safe, they try to cheer him up with a trip back to Kodiak Valley, the ski lodge they frequented in their youth. After talking it up to Adam's nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) in the car on the way there, they realize that the resort, much like them, has become a spent shadow of what it once was. But, lucky for everyone, the hot tub attached to their room transports them back in time to 1986, where they re-inhabit their 20-year-old bodies, party at the lodge in its heyday, and try not to do anything to prevent Jacob (who for occasional milliseconds starts to flicker out of existence) from being born.

What follows is a fairly solid sex/stoner/gross-out comedy with a predilection toward '80s jokes. That's all well and good, but it can be a little disappointing when you think about what could have been. You've got a fun sense of smirking self-awareness surrounding the unabashedly silly premise, you've got a pointlessly evil rich-kid villain named Blaine, and you've got Cusack playing a guy who is transported back to the '80s -- to a ski lodge, no less. You'd think there would be a lot of room for cleverness and self-parody, but aside from an extra making a "two dollars" reference near the beginning, none of the humor really ties together in a cool way -- it's mostly just big hair and leg warmer jokes. William Zabka even shows up and makes a cameo (the bad guy from the Karate Kid!), but you might not even recognize him. He's hiding under an admittedly awesome mustache, but he certainly doesn't challenge anyone to a ludicrously climactic ski competition. Of course, that might not matter to most viewers, because the movie is still funny, and if nothing else, it delivers on the title. (100 mins.)

My Rating: **1/2

THE WHITE RIBBON (2009)

2010-09-06T18:31:00.000-07:00

Starring: Christian Friedel

Director: Michael Haneke

When university film students are studying the career of Michael Haneke in 50 years (and they will be), it seems likely that The White Ribbon will be seen as the crest of his impressive career. However, the film represents a pinnacle in terms of reception, rather than execution. Certainly, it will be difficult for Haneke to duplicate this film in terms of hardware, having already garnered the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the trifecta of Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenwriter at the European Film Awards, with Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Foreign Film promising the possibility of more accolades in the near future. This film is easy to praise, with its gripping and thoughtful examination of the foundations of fascism in a German village just before World War I, delivered through the lush austerity of Christian Berger's striking black-and-white cinematography. With time, however, the impetuous consensus which has agreed to herald Haneke as the cinematic master of this moment in film history will dissipate, revealing that The White Ribbon is frayed and blemished, though Haneke himself would likely agree that such defects can only increase the film's ability to intrigue.

The film opens with the voice of a narrator, who warns that the story he's about to tell may not be entirely true, an assessment which is manifested by the fact that the majority of the action happens behind the groaning doors and sturdy shutters of the village, meaning that no single character has access to all of the relevant events. An unknown perpetrator strikes at the moral heart of the Protestant village with a series of vicious pranks and brutal assaults, until the villagers' trust of one another is gradually eclipsed by suspicion. Having no other outlet for their fear and frustration, many of the villagers, particularly the town pastor, flex their authority by tightening the vice of discipline on their children, who in turn become the carriers of their parents' parasitic malice.

Haneke employs some ham-handed devices to reinforce his theme, including a prominent biblical quote and the metaphor of the film's title, which is nakedly explained in a central speech. At times, he resorts to scenes of benign banality which seem better suited to a television sitcom, as one young boy adopts a wounded bird while another innocently queries his older sister about the nature of death. It is unthinkable that Haneke intended to single-handedly decipher something as seminal as the rise of German fascism, but one of his central assertions is that people will often forego moral struggle in favor of simple reproach, and it seems likely that audiences will do the same as they digest and interpret The White Ribbon. In life, "this" never quite blossoms into "thus" -- the causes of complex events can never be truly elucidated, only endlessly examined. Haneke has made a noble effort in this direction, but in the end his attempt at lucidity inevitably draws us further from the essential nature of fascism, rather than nearer to it. (144 mins.)

My Rating: ***

SURROGATES (2009)

2010-09-06T18:16:00.001-07:00

Starring: Bruce Willis

Director: Jonathan Mostow

Anybody who likes a solid sci-fi action film probably loves Bruce Willis, and anybody who loves Bruce Willis would probably be willing to give his futuristic thriller Surrogates a chance. But, sadly, this movie doesn't deliver for fans of the genre, for lovers of old Bruno, or for soulless robotic avatars populating society in place of real humans.

That's basically the premise of Surrogates. Human beings no longer walk around in the real world, and instead stay at home hooked into a super-advanced sensory replication program through which they control lifelike robots that leave the house in their place -- the titular "surrogates." People love that their surrogates are stronger, faster, and better-looking than their "meatbag" selves, but there's also a quasi-hippie collective living on a reservation outside of mainstream society whose members don't believe in using surrogates. When the son of the inventor behind the android innovation becomes the victim of a mysterious murder in which not only the surrogate is destroyed, but the boy at home controlling it is killed as well -- all signs point to the anti-robot enclave, and their vaguely Rastafarian charismatic leader, The Prophet (Ving Rhames).

So now FBI agent Greer (Willis) -- who is clearly disillusioned with surrogate society following an obligatory tragedy in his past (a lonely-looking baseball glove lovingly inscribed with "Robbie" in a child's writing tells us just about as much of that backstory as we ever hear, or need to) -- has to investigate the crime, and get to the bottom of a possible conspiracy behind it to end surrogacy altogether. The way that the mystery unfolds, like the rest of the movie, is pretty flimsy and boring.

For a story mounted on a hardcore Asimovian prologue -- detailed, long-form imaginings about the introduction of technology into the human evolutionary play -- everything in Surrogates besides the special-effects budget feels downright chintzy. The script fails to grab you in even a one-liners-and-explosions kind of way, and even Willis can't sell the crappy dialogue well enough to get you on board with anything that happens in the story. It does look pretty cool, but not cool enough to make it interesting -- even for a summer action movie starring a seasoned pro. (89 mins.)

My Rating: *1/2

HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU (2009)

2010-08-31T18:00:00.001-07:00

Starring: Jennifer Connely, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, Ginnifer Goodwin, Ben Affleck, Justin Long & Bradley Cooper

Director: Ken Kwapis

You can reasonably expect that a romantic comedy based on a self-help book, which was itself based on a single line from an episode of Sex And the City, might not have anything new to say about the battle of the sexes -- especially when the title is as sickeningly hip as He's Just Not That Into You. And while Kwapis" movie certainly comes weighed down with observations and insights recycled from thousands of other romantic comedies, he at least manages to shape them into something entertaining, if not in any way essential.

If you know you're dealing with overly familiar dialogue, then you'd better put it in the mouths of actors who, through sheer personality, can do something unique with it, and hiring Goodwin as your ingenue starts you off on the right foot. As Gigi, a naïve twentysomething single girl unable to read the signs that the men she's interested in just aren't interested in her, Goodwin exudes positivity without being cloying, and sadness without being pitiful. The scenes charting her slow courtship with emotionally detached bar manager Alex (Long) are the best in the movie because the two have genuine chemistry -- they are easily the standouts of a large cast. That's not to say that any of the other actors embarrass themselves: Affleck shows off his laid-back charm; Cooper impresses as a cheating husband who stays likable even when he knows he's screwing up; and Johansson offers up another subtle variation on the carnal goddess archetype she's already perfected.

Kwapis" skill as a television director serves him well with this material -- he knows how to keep the multiple storylines moving, without sacrificing quality screen time for any of the performers. The movie hums along like a solidly built clock, but there's just nothing surprising or new -- anybody who gets ill at the prospect of sitting through a chick flick should avoid it at all costs. That said, there is something so thoroughly adequate about the whole project, it's hard to deny that it "works." There's tons of professionalism in this movie, but it lacks passion -- they should have called it "Like, Actually." (129 mins.)

My Rating: **

AIRPORT (1970)

2010-08-31T17:51:00.001-07:00

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Helen Hayes, Van Heflin, Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, George Kennedy & Maureen Stapleton

Director: George Seaton

Airport was widely lambasted by critics for its tried-and-true technique of showcasing a raft of Grand Hotel-style big-name box-office stars in a melodramatic thriller; a critic called it "the best film of 1944." But no one could argue with its success or its influence. Director/screenwriter George Seaton displayed a masterful old hand's touch for showcasing stock characters in a soap opera format, adapting Arthur Halley's blockbuster novel with Martin as the pilot and a cast top-heavy with stars. Airport won huge audiences and six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, with veteran Hayes, one of the first Oscar winners in 1932, winning a supporting award. The crowd-pleasing behemoth spawned almost a decade's worth of big-budget disaster films, including three inferior sequels, and then another round of disaster spoofs, beginning with 1980's Airplane! (137 mins.)

My Rating: ++1/2

THE UNBORN (2009)

2010-08-25T22:25:00.000-07:00

Starring: Odette Yustman

Director: David S. Goyer

From the second we first see Casey Beldon (Yustman), it's obvious that something is terribly amiss. Jogging along a lonely park path, she has a bizarre encounter that chills her to the very core. Casey is being haunted by a dybbuk, a malevolent entity of Jewish folklore that has passed from this plane of existence, yet hasn't been allowed entry into the afterlife. Its sole mission is to gain reentry into our world by inhabiting human bodies. Less powerful dybbuks have the ability to possess the dead, but the stronger they become, the more likely they are to possess the living as well. When Casey's left eye starts changing color, a doctor informs her that such occurrences aren't uncommon in twins, and she begins looking into her past in an attempt to discover the truth about her origins. That investigation leads her all the way back to the mental hospital where her mother died, and into contact with a Holocaust survivor who may hold the key to unlocking the mystery that began in an operating room in Auschwitz. Enlisting the aid of the skeptical Rabbi Sendak (Gary Oldman) in order to comprehend the true powers of the dybbuk, Casey attempts to protect her friends from the murderous ghost while figuring out a way to defeat it. But the closer Casey comes to understanding the dybbuk's power, the more powerful -- and threatening -- the malevolent spirit becomes.

It is populated by a fairly talented cast that includes the likes of Oldman, Jane Alexander, and Carla Gugino, but none of them are given much to do since the true star of the film is the special effects. The surrealistic imagery is deeply unsettling from the opening scene, and only gets more intense as the movie gains momentum. And while the film isn't graphic in traditional cinematic terms, it bombards us with a steady stream of deeply horrific images that seem to be birthed from the darkest depths of the imagination. From ghostly kids to knife-wielding youngsters, skittering creepy-crawlies, and contorted monstrosities that seem inspired by John Carpenter's The Thing, we're witness to any number of unsettling creatures and concepts over the course of the film's short running time. As a result, it never feels compromised despite its more audience-friendly rating. And what more could a horror fan ask for than a spook-fest that feels pure in its intentions while taking full advantage of every opportunity to scare us silly? (86 mins.)

My Rating: *1/2

THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (2009)

2010-08-25T22:11:00.000-07:00

Starring: Denzel Washington & John Travolta

Director: Tony Scott

Surprisingly, in a summer full of action-packed blockbusters, this cracking remake may be the movie to beat for sheer popcorn-chomping thrills. New York City subway system dispatcher Walter Garber (Washington), recently demoted due to charges of bribery, is observing his control screen when he notices an anomaly -- the Pelham 123 has come to a standstill between stops, and the driver is unresponsive. The train has been hijacked by a trigger-happy gang of criminals -- or is that terrorists? -- led by Ryder (Travolta), who's just as quick to crack a joke as he is to execute a hostage with a hasty bullet between the eyes. Ryder wants ten million dollars in one hour, and for every minute the city doesn't deliver, he'll kill another hostage.

The visuals here are vintage Scott, and though the hyper-stylized opening shots of a neck-tattooed Travolta and company getting into place for the big event to the tune of Jay-Z's "99 Problems" (replete with shots of Luis Guzman looking like the long-lost fourth member of Run-DMC) may lead us to suspect that Scott is bordering on self-parody, once the action gets under way about 30 seconds later, there's no mistaking that we're in the hands of a true master. But Scott and cinematographer Tobias Schliessler's deliciously garish visuals aren't the only factors that make this movie a compulsively satisfying bit of summer pulp; Brian Helgeland's screenplay is about as tight as it could get without being written in shorthand, and unexpectedly subdued performances by Washington and Travolta ensure that the not-so-subtle nuances of the characters they portray don't derail the film by shifting our focus away from the rising tensions underground. Of course, anyone who's seen Travolta chew scenery as a bad guy knows he has a penchant for going over the top and another mile up, but while he's certainly having a blast as the F-bomb-dropping, stock-ticker-obsessed Ryder, he still feels dialed back from the cartoonish criminal excess of Swordfish and Face/Off. His wild-eyed antics give the film some of its funniest, and most terrifying, moments. Likewise, Washington's restrained performance as the disgraced Garber allows us to forget we're watching an Oscar-winning Hollywood heavyweight and simply identify with the character -- a crucial factor in keeping us actively involved in the story.

From the cast to the crew, everyone involved seems to be firing on all cylinders, though it's Helgeland whose contributions make this retread an unmitigated success. Considering what New York City has been through since Godey's original novel came out in the early '70s, the central concept of the movie may be even more relevant now than it was 30 years ago. By taking some well-placed jabs at the media, and pondering the difference between terrorism and unrepentant crime-for-profit, Helgeland innovates within a familiar framework and turns it into something fresh, vital, and timely. (106 mins.)

My Rating: **1/2

BROCKA'S "STARDOOM" (1971)

2010-08-17T23:52:00.000-07:00

BROCKA'S "WANTED PERFECT MOTHER" (1970)- 1 of 2 Film Clip

2010-08-17T23:47:00.000-07:00

BROCKA'S "TUBOG SA GINTO" (1971)

2010-08-17T23:40:00.000-07:00

PX (1982)

2010-08-17T23:33:00.000-07:00

Mahinhin Vs. Mahinhin (1981)

2010-08-17T23:27:00.000-07:00

Pito Ang Asawa Ko (1974)

2010-08-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

Patayin Mo Sa Sindak Si Barbara (1974)

2010-08-17T23:09:00.000-07:00

Tanikala (1980)

2010-08-17T23:03:00.000-07:00

MA.ISABEL LOPEZ in MGA NAKAW NA SANDALI

2010-08-17T22:54:00.000-07:00

LAMPEL COJUANGCO in ALINDOG

2010-08-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

GEORGE ESTREGAN in THE KILLER AIDS,the movie

2010-08-17T22:38:00.000-07:00

NOBEL SON (2007)

2010-08-02T22:36:00.001-07:00

Starring: Alan Rickman, Mary Steenburgen, Danny DeVito, Bill Pullman & Eliza Dushku

Director: Randall Miller

Perhaps one of the greatest things about being a movie lover is running across one of those rare, undiscovered gems -- the twisting thriller with the audacity to demand that you actually use your brain to solve the mystery, or the outrageous comedy that was just a bit ahead of its time and didn't find an audience until it was long gone from theaters. Nobel Son is none of those things.

Philandering chemistry professor and recent Nobel prize winner Eli Michaelson (Rickman) is in Stockholm to collect his award when he and his wife, Sarah (Steenburgen), receive word that their son, Barkley (Bryan Greenberg) -- a Game Boy-obsessed college student writing his Ph.D. thesis on cannibalism -- has been kidnapped. If they ever hope to see Barkley alive again, Eli and Sarah are to drop two million dollars in unmarked bills in the trunk of a display car at a local shopping mall. Later, after the drop has been made, it quickly becomes apparent that this isn't your typical kidnapping. As the mystery deepens and spacey detective Max Mariner (Pullman) struggles to pinpoint a suspect, the fact that Eli was hated by nearly everyone he ever met leads the detective to suspect everyone from the prickly professor's own son to a flaky local artist who goes by the name City Hall (Dushku).

Directed like the coked-up, sopping wet fever dream of an ADHD film student who flushed all of his Ritalin, Nobel Son is hands-down one of the most obnoxious movies in recent memory. In the opening minutes, Paul oakenfold's throbbing, energetic techno score seems like exactly the kind of movie glue that might just hold this mess together and keep it moving. Then the realization sets in that it never goes away -- even in the dialogue scenes -- at which point it becomes not just distracting, but grotesquely overbearing. As if an entire movie set to 120 bpm wasn't annoying enough (perhaps, like being handed special glasses when you purchase a ticket to a 3-D film, audiences going to see Nobel Son should be given a pacifier and a glow stick before entering the theater), the fact that a talented cast is given little to do as the camera whooshes, swooshes, and cranes around them makes the entire experience truly frustrating. Of all of these actors, Rickman is given the most to do as the cruel, pompous laureate whose "genius side of the brain is so big that it swallowed up the civilized side," and while Steenburgen and Pullman have one or two fun character beats, the rest of the cast seems to pop in for their quirky cameos before vanishing almost as quickly as they appeared.

If a thriller is going to be "clever," it pays for the filmmakers to exercise a little restraint so the audience can have some room to reflect on the story as it twists and turns to a satisfying conclusion. Nobel Son does the exact opposite, straining to force cleverness where there is none, and then attempting to dazzle by resorting to the sort of cinematic tricks that even a coked-up, hyperactive film student would recognize as cliché. (110 mins.)

My Rating: *1/2

THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S (1945)

2010-08-02T22:19:00.000-07:00

Starring: Bing Crosby & Ingrid Bergman

director: Leo McCarey

Amiable if meandering sequel to GOING MY WAY, with Father O'Malley assigned to a run-down parish where Bergman is the Sister Superior. Bing introduces the sing "Aren't You Glad You're You?"

Also directed by Leo McCarey, this film has Bing Crosby returning as the modern-minded priest once again up against a headstrong opponent, Mother Superior (played by Bergman). while not as memorable as his encounter with hard-headed older priest Barry Fitzgerald in the first film, this relationship---and the movie as a whole---does have its viewing rewards. (126 mins.)

My Rating: ***

NIGHT AND DAY (1946)

2010-08-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

Starring: Cary Grant

Director: Michael Curtiz

A life of Cole Porter, told without truth or wit. there are, however, a lot of songs, including Mary Martin singing "My Heart Belongs To Daddy." Grant also sings, with considerable talent. Directed way off the beam by Michael Curtiz.

There was no way Hollywood could make an accurate biography of Cole Porter in those days---it had to play footsie with his ruthless social lionizing and sexual proclivities---but the film stands out as a remarkable document of the performers and performances available to the cameras at the time. Where else can you see Martin doing "My Heart Belongs To Daddy" and Monty Wholley declaiming "Miss Otis Regrets"?

Music only worthy aspect of this fabricated biography-drama, stiffly played by Grant, who even sings "You're The Top." (128 mins.)

My Rating: **1/2

STIGMATA (1999)

2010-07-28T20:08:00.000-07:00

Starring; Patricia Arquette & Gabriel Byrne

Director: Rupert Wainwright

Lights flash, water drips, doves flutter, statues cry blood, and one by one Arquette is inflicted by the wounds of Christ. That's about all anyone needs to know about Stigmata, yet another attempt to spook audiences by exposing them to eerie images of religious anomaly, with the fate of humanity ambiguously in the balance. What better actor to navigate this dark landscape than Byrne, who seems to lurk in the shadows of one spiritually skewed flick after another. Byrne plays the investigator-priest sent all over the planet to debunk Virgin Mary sightings and other claims that henpeck the Catholic Church, here corruptly embodied by Jonathan Pryce's power-hungry Cardinal Houseman. Watching him scurry to squelch evidence of Christ's true gospel, among the many absurdities the lazy script asks viewers to swallow, one wonders why Pryce agreed to play such a caricature in piffle like this. It may provide a cool, cheap thrill to hear a guttural male voice speaking Italian from Arquette's lips, and it may be superficially chilling to see her scrawl chapter and verse in an ancient language her goth Pittsburgh hairstylist couldn't possibly understand. But for a genuinely disquieting experience, it's probably better to stick to the inspiration for Stigmata and a dozen other such knockoffs: 1973's The Exorcist. (102 mins.)

My Rating; *1/2

A SINGLE MAN (2009)

2010-07-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

Starring: Colin Firth

Director: Tom Ford

George Falconer (Firth) feels lost. Not only is he still grieving the death of his longtime companion, Jim (Matthew Goode), but he's also a Brit teaching English at a California college. He's so distraught with heartbreak that he's decided to kill himself, and proceeds to get all his affairs in order while carrying on with what otherwise would be a normal day. He gives an unusually forceful lecture to his class, revealing enough that a perceptive student, Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), senses something is wrong with the professor; collects his important financial papers from his bank; buys bullets for a handgun he owns; and makes a visit to his best friend (Julianne Moore). But throughout these methodical preparations, George keeps running into people -- a colleague's daughter, a attractive gay hustler, and the sympathetic Kenny -- who offer him glimpses of why he should stay alive.

Ford -- with co-screenwriter David Scearce -- has fashioned a remarkably good screenplay from Christopher Isherwood's novel. George is the kind of man who's very comfortable with himself, but very uncomfortable at how others will react to him -- he has an understanding that some people will never accept him because of his sexuality. His inherent Britishness makes it easy for him to hide his pain from his associates, and Firth inhabits the role with formidable grace and ease. It's pretty much impossible to believably play a clinically depressed character and make him charismatic at the same time, but Firth does it. Our hero isn't charismatic in the regular sense, but Firth expresses his intensity, intelligence, and deeply felt love for Jim with such naked honesty that it's impossible not to care for George -- to genuinely fear that he will choose death over life.

Firth dominates the film, but he's far from the only actor who gets to shine. Moore has what amounts to an extended cameo, but her typical excellence shines through as Charley -- George's boozy best friend and onetime lover. Jon Kortajarena impresses as Carlos, a young hottie George flirts with while buying gin, and with a minimum of screen time, Goode makes us understand why George would be so devoted to Jim.

Ford deserves much credit for the script, but his directorial instincts, while ambitious, don't necessarily serve the material. He overdirects, occasionally fading from color to black-and-white and back again during a single shot, and using vastly different lighting on characters that are in the same scene with each other. He's obviously good with the actors -- or, at the very least, smart enough to hire exceptionally talented performers and get out of their way -- but he pushes too hard on the visuals, something that afflicts many first-time directors, and something all the good ones outgrow.

A Single Man offers evidence that ford has a career in movies if he wants it, but it's most memorable for giving the criminally underappreciated Firth the chance to reassert himself as one of the most talented actors of his generation. (99 mins.)

My Rating: ***

CRAZY HEART (2009)

2010-05-11T22:29:00.001-07:00

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall & Colin Farrell

Director: Scott Cooper

At one point in the movie, 57-year-old alcoholic, down-on-his-luck country singer/songwriter Bad Blake (Bridges) explains that the great songs sound like you've already heard them. There's much truth in that statement, and it's an apt description of the movie's charm as well.

A onetime country star who wrote a number of popular tunes, Bad's career is currently in the dumps. He's on a tour traveling hundreds of miles a day in his trusty, beat-up truck in order to play in bowling alleys and bars with a different set of local musicians every night. His diet consists primarily of whiskey and the easily seduced members of his aging fan base. However, things change when he sits down for an interview with struggling young music writer and single mom Jean (Gyllenhaal). The two begin a tentative affair, and not long after that, Bad's manager calls with an offer to have him open a big show for Tommy Sweet (Farrell), a onetime member of Bad's backup band who's now a new-country superstar.

There isn't much pressing drama in Crazy Heart, but that's fine because the key to the film's success is Bridges. Looking and sounding a great deal like Kris Kristopherson, Bridges exudes a lived-in weariness. We see in equal measure how four bad marriages and a long time without a hit have turned him into an alcoholic mess, but we also see the talent and the inner fire that keeps him going even when it looks like his body may be too rundown to continue. On top of everything else, he does his own singing, and his voice has a gravelly authenticity.

The original songs he sings, composed by a number of pro songwriters -- including one of the film's producers, T-Bone Burnett -- sure sound like country standards. All the tunes are catchy and quotable -- most especially Bad's biggest hit, "Falling and Flying"; this is a rare case where the soundtrack alone will work just as well as the movie.

With its tale of an alcoholic faded country star looking for redemption, it's impossible to watch Crazy Heart and not think of Tender Mercies, a fact Cooper is quite aware of. Instead of running from the comparisons, he bravely embraces them by casting that movie's Oscar-winning star, Robert Duvall, as Bad's oldest friend, and it's yet another testament to Crazy Heart that it can stand on its own alongside that classic. Duvall -- who also is credited as a producer on the movie -- gets a pair of scenes to play with Bridges, and their low-key naturalism together is not only affecting for us, but should serve as a lesson for any young actor on the skills required to maintain a decades-long career. There are no histrionics, just two fictional people made flesh and blood before our eyes.

Crazy Heart is certainly familiar. It doesn't surprise with its story, but it surprises with the details in Bridges exquisite performance, and in the honest, plain-spoken way it touches on familiar themes like friendship, redemption, and love. (111 mins.)

My Rating: ***

UP IN THE AIR (2009)

2010-05-11T22:18:00.001-07:00

Starring: George Clooney

Director: Jason Reitman

Ryan Bingham (Clooney) makes his living personally handing out pink slips -- he's the top hatchet man at a company that other companies hire when they are downsizing. And since business is booming, his job keeps him on the go constantly. He flies all across the country, staying in a series of nice hotels. And although this itinerant lifestyle prevents him from having any kind of stable, regular life, this doesn't bother him in the slightest -- he's thrilled to be a boy in a traveling bubble. During one particular layover, he strikes up a conversation with Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga), a fellow savvy traveler. They bond over the ins and outs of various airlines and hotels, and quickly fall into bed. By morning, they are figuring out when their schedules will allow them to meet up again, even though they both make it clear that there are no strings attached.

When Ryan arrives back in the home office, he meets no-nonsense career-oriented twentysomething Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), a fast-rising up-and-comer who wants to change the company's practices and save millions by having the staff fire people remotely via webcams. Furious at the thought of losing a lifestyle he's grown quite comfortable with, he convinces his boss (Jason Bateman) to let him take Natalie on a few trips so that she can learn what it's really like to fire someone.

She learns the ins and outs of dealing with people who've been given the worst news of their lives -- how to handle them firmly but calmly, while serving up a few inspirational platitudes. Clooney brings to these sequences a maturity we haven't seen in his other work -- honestly, if you had to be fired you would want Ryan to do it. But it's precisely the character's ability to comfortably cut ties that makes him a loner in his private life. He conveys Ryan's lone wolf persona not as a defense against life -- a mask to cover up some hidden pain -- but simply as just the way the guy is. That makes his slow transformation -- his realization that Alex might be something more than just another friend with benefits -- all the more realistic.

For its first half, Up In The Air combines the workplace comedy with the road movie, and it's an engaging, entertaining melding of those two durable genres. But where the film surprises is by changing gears halfway through into a bittersweet family comedy. Ryan's sister (Melanie Lynskey) is getting married, and, for possibly the first time in his life, he wants to make a real connection with his siblings. This follows through on yet another plot strand -- Ryan's attempt to make a living as a self-help guru. He has a side gig lecturing about how to manage your life, and he stresses that the weight of relationships in our lives slows us down when life is all about moving forward. Up In The Air is about Ryan learning what's true and what isn't about this speech he's been giving for years.

Reitman's film is so ambitious you can't shake the feeling he's trying to create "The Great American Movie," a summation of where we are right now at the close of the 21st century's first decade. Up In The Air is so truthful, poignant, and entertaining, so assured with its adherence to classical Hollywood structure, that he just might have pulled it off. (109 mins.)

My Rating: ***

PARIS, TEXAS (1983)

2010-05-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

Starring: Harry Dean Stanton, Dean Stockwell & Nastassja Kinski

Director: Wim Wenders

Paris, Texas is a haunting vision of personal pain and universal suffering, with Harry Dean Stanton impeccable as the weary wanderer who returns after four years to reclaim his son (Hunter Carson) and search for his wife (Nastassja Kinski). It is the kind of motion picture we rarely see, one that attempts to say something about America and its people - and succeeds.

Oblique, self-satisfied, and slow, like all of Sam

Shepard's writing, but distinguished by fine performances and rich Southwestern atmosphere by director Wenders and cinematograher Robby Miller. this won raves from many critics, so it may be a matter of personal taste.

An often involving, sprawling odyssey against sun-baked landscapes that's another journey to writer Shepard's male-female sexual war zone. A man, missing for several years, is reunited with his brother's family (Stockwell), who've been raising the son he abandoned when his wife ran off. The film's most touching when it creates how the careworn man re-established a relationship with his son. (150 mins.)

My Rating: ***

STATE OF PLAY (2009)

2010-05-11T21:45:00.000-07:00

Starring: Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams & Helen Mirren

Director: Kevin Macdonald

Director Macdonald successfully revives the 1970s-style paranoid thriller with State Of Play, a taut and assured reworking of the 2003 BBC series of the same name. Paring down the original six-hour series to a lean 127 minutes, Macdonald and screenwriters Carnahan, Gilroy and Ray barely give the audience a moment to breathe as a veteran reporter and a doe-eyed blogger race through the streets of Washington, D.C., to uncover an ominous political conspiracy.

The story gets under way with two seemingly unrelated incidents: the morning after a low-level drug dealer and a pizza deliveryman are gunned down in a dark alley, a congressman's aide is pushed in front of a moving subway train. When the latter is reported as a suicide by the media, speculations of foul play begin to emerge after the aide's boss, rising U.S. congressman Stephen Collins (Affleck), tearfully announces her death on live television. Collins' old college roommate is Cal McAffrey (Crowe), a reporter for the Washington Globe, who openly resents the preferential treatment given to inexperienced underlings likeWashington Globe Capitol Hill blogger Della Frye (McAdams). As the chairman of a committee overseeing defense spending, Congressman Collins is currently on a campaign against rogue government contractors profiting from the "Muslim terror gold rush" abroad. Beholden to no one, these contractors seem increasingly poised to make their presence known in the U.S., where they are gradually gaining a foothold. When McAffrey discovers that the deceased aide was in fact Congressman Collins' primary researcher in the case against the government contractors, suspicions of conspiracy lead him on a treacherous investigation pointing to corruption at the highest levels of government.

State Of Play is the kind of thriller that starts with a bang and throws in enough twists to tie your brain in knots as the layers of deception are stripped away to pose some genuinely frightening questions: Are we already at the point where independent defense contractors can gun down American citizens within the U.S. without fear of repercussion? If so, how could this have happened while U.S. citizens remain fatally unaware? And what could entice soldiers who once defended their country abroad to now set their crosshairs on innocent Americans? Is it really all about the money?

While the primary players are all in top form, it's supporting performances by Mirren, Penn and Bateman that make State Of Play compulsively watchable. Bateman in particular injects the film with a healthy dose of humor and energy in the third act, when he appears in the role of a pill-head PR agent who could hold the key to blowing the entire investigation wide open. A rare treat for cinema lovers starved for the days when scruffy newspaper reporters fearlessly sniffed out corruption, State Of Play delivers the kind of conspiratorial thrills that would have made Pakula proud. (127 mins.)

My Rating: ***1/2

THE CAPTURE (1950)

2010-04-13T22:07:00.001-07:00

Starring: Lew Ayres & Teresa Wright

Director: John Sturges

Virtually ignored at the time of its release, this film has built up a small but enthusiastic following since its lapse into public domain. American oil man (Ayres) kills a coworker whom he suspects of robbery. Thinking it over, he wonders whether or not the man was innocent. He seeks out his victim's widow, played by Teresa Wright. They fall in love and marry, which does nothing to soothe Ayres' guilty conscience. When he discovers who was actually behind the robbery, he goes after the real culprit, who is accidentally killed before justice can be done. Falsely accused of murder, he now fully understands the untenable position of the man he'd killed so long before. The Capture was produced by Niven Busch, the then-husband of Wright.

The Capture is a treat for viewers looking for an intriguing drama that they haven't seen time and time again. Relatively obscure, thanks to its financial failure when first released, it is a lean, crisply directed thriller that plays with interesting questions or morality, innocence and guilt. Playing at times like a Western, at other times like a mystery, and at others like a romance, it perhaps tries a little too hard to be all three types and thus becomes slightly unfocused; but most viewers will be adequately rewarded by its assets and forgive it for being perhaps a little overly ambitious in trying to bridge these genres. Certainly there will be no complaints about its cast, with an appropriately guilty Ayres and a typically luminous Wright leading the way and a dependable supporting cast. Busch's screenplay is well constructed, setting up its situations with a sure hand, utilizing the flashback structure most effectively, and raising moral issues in a manner than both supports the story and adds depth to the characters. Sturges' direction is spot-on, and there's fine cinematography from Edward J. Conjager that adds to the atmosphere and tension. Thos seeking something a little off the beaten path should keep an eye out for the Capture. (67 mins.)

My Rating: ***

THE INTERNATIONAL (2009)

2010-04-13T21:58:00.001-07:00

Starring: Clive Owen & Naomi Watts

Director: Tom Tykwer

This taut political thriller has a lot going for it: an elaborate, ripped-from-the-headlines plot about political intrigue and corporate hegemony; intense performances by the very concerned-looking Owen and Watts; and a perfectly orchestrated, impossibly awesome shoot-out staged in the Guggenheim. You'd think that all this would be enough to give any movie a solid thumbs-up, but despite all the points it gains for furrowed brows and kick-ass gunfights, the film loses quite a few for being dry as burnt toast.

The rather complex story centers on Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Owen) and New York Assistant DA Eleanor Whitman (Watts), who stumble upon a corporate-backed geopolitical conspiracy stemming from an institution called the International Bank of Business and Credit. The two embark on an investigation into the IBBC, only to find it jacked into governments and corporations all over the world, with the idea of bringing the powerful entity to justice growing less and less realistic as their quest lands them in New York, Milan, Istanbul, and Berlin. Before the credits roll, the two have dealt with just about everything in the conspiracy thriller playbook, including money laundering, former Soviet loyalists, club-legged hitmen, the Italian mob, Middle Eastern war profiteering, and an old-school, shot-at-the-podium political assassination.

Weaving all that (and much, much more) into a coherent story was probably a difficult task, and while it's possible that it makes sense on paper -- with all the dots connected and the plot holes closed -- that doesn't mean it's enjoyable on film. There's such a massive assortment of characters, locations, loyalties, and interests at play, the narrative continually loses cohesion, as viewers inevitably lose interest. Probably more important, though, is that even the coolest web of seditious, above-the-law power brokering would seem flat without compelling characters, and no matter how much we know they're capable of, the stars just aren't given the chance here to make us care. (118 mins.)

My Rating: ***

BODY OF LIES (2008)

2010-04-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio & Russell Crowe

Director: Ridley Scott

Scott's Body Of Lies follows the increasingly complex machinations of CIA agent Roger Ferris (DiCaprio), who begins the film as a field agent in the Middle East attempting to secure information that would stop upcoming terrorist attacks. Ferris maintains regular phone contact with his boss Ed Hoffman (Crowe), a CIA bigwig -- forever on his cell phone -- dispensing directives while attending to domestic duties like kiddie soccer games. After a promotion, Ferris becomes the Agency's number one man in Jordan, quickly earning the trust of Jordanian intelligence official Hani (Mark Strong in a scene-stealing performance) -- a relationship that Hoffman compromises in an attempt to catch one of the world's most feared terrorists.

All of these characters come to life thanks to William Monahan's airtight adaptation of David Ignatious' novel, and the uniformly excellent performances. In addition to serving up some deliciously funny one-liners, Monahan employs a simple step-by-step construction in order to tell this remarkably complicated espionage tale -- a story chock-full of divided loyalties and paranoia. The audience always knows exactly as much as Ferris does, a fact that keeps his motivations -- and therefore the entire plot -- clear. As for the actors, DiCaprio is, in no uncertain terms, a movie star; and this is a star turn. He's certainly credible as an action hero, but he also communicates intelligence, fear, and an inherent morality in the scenes between the big explosions. This accomplishment makes the chases and gunfights all the more entertaining because we actually care about the person whose life is constantly at risk. Crowe complements DiCaprio as the Aussie's strong physical presence plays off DiCaprio's inherent softness (no matter how much time he spends in the weight room, he will always be a baby face).

Scott's movies have always betrayed his formative years in advertising; his films always offer loads of surface pleasure, but they rarely have strong ideas. The crisply photographed and edited Body of Lies reveals some ambition, for while it certainly works as pure entertainment, this tale of a good man trying to extract himself from an impossible situation offers some commentary on America's feelings about being in Iraq. Fortunately, Scott never hammers this point home, and the result isn't a lecture about American foreign policy, but a smartly updated old-fashioned espionage thriller. (129 mins.)

My Rating; **1/2

LOGAN'S RUN (1976)

2010-04-08T19:21:00.000-07:00

Starring: Michael York, Jenny Agutter, Peter Ustinov, Richard Jordan & Farrah Faucett-Majors

Director: Michael Anderson

Popular but overlong sci-fi film concerning a futuristic society where people are only allowed to live to the age of 30, and a policeman nearing the limit who searches desperately for a way to avoid mandatory extermination. Nice production is enhanced immeasurably by outlandish sets and beautiful, imaginative miniatures.

A science fiction film that is less concerned with philosophizing about the future than providing some entertainment with dazzling sets and futuristic gadgets. Living in a domed-in hedonistic civilization, Logan (York) is a policeman who hunts down "runners" who attempt to escape society's law that at 30 you must submit to "renewal," which is actually execution.

Dazzling first half, showing life of unending pleasure and extinction at age 30 in the year 2274, canceled out by dreary second half. Earned a special Oscar for visual effects. From novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. Later a brief TV series. (120 mins.)

My Rating: **1/2

THE BIG CLOCK (1948)

2010-04-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

Starring: Ray Milland & Charles Laughton

Director: John Farrow

Tyrannical publisher of crime magazine (Laughton) commits murder, his editor (Milland) tries to solve case and finds all the clues pointing to himself. Vibrant melodrama; taut script by Jonathan Latimer from Kenneth Fearing novel. Elsa Lanchester has hilarious vignette as eccentric artist.

Remade as NO WAY OUT (1987). (95 mins.)

My Rating: ***

THE SCAR (1948)

2010-02-17T20:49:00.000-08:00

Starring: Paul Heinreid & Joan Bennett

Director: Steve Sekely

Fans of hardboiled film noir will want to look for this lesser-known but memorable example of the genre. Paul Heinreid plays two parts: a gambler fleeing from the police and a psychiatrist who is his exact double. The gambler plans to escape the law by killing the doctor and assuming his identity. Suspenseful melodrama. (83 mins.)

My Rating: ***

ADVENTURELAND (2009)

2010-02-17T19:50:00.000-08:00

Starring: Jesse Eisenburg, Kristen Stewart & Ryan Reynolds

Director: Greg Mottola

Touted in ads as the latest raucous comedy from the director of Superbad, Adventureland isn't what it looks like -- but it's still good. With an even makeup of one part '80s nostalgia, one part rowdy teen farce, and one part pensive, emotional drama, the film may seem a little modest at first (especially for those expecting it to push the fantastic limits of manic R-rated teenage hilarity the way its predecessor did), but don't write it off as emo. Most of the sentimental stuff is genuine and sweet. And, yes, there are plenty of dick jokes.

The story takes place in 1987, as James Brennan (Eisenburg) has just finished college, and is gearing up for a trip to Europe before starting grad school in the fall. But, of course, things don't go as planned, and he ends up back at his parents' house, working at the local amusement park to stash away money for next year's rent. Lots of quality workplace humor ensues, as James spends his summer vacation awarding the winners of rigged carnival games with cheap plush toys, bonding with hometown losers and other weirdos, falling in love with the park's resident sarcastic hottie (Stewart), and getting punched in the balls every day by his spastic childhood best friend.

It covers all the requisite ground for a nostalgic coming-of-age summer comedy/romance (the hero discovering his dad's vices, an embarrassing case of arrested virginity, flagrant use of "Rock Me Amadeus"), but Adventureland works because it does all of that really, really well. That's partly thanks to a spot-on cast. Eisenburg carries the movie with a graceful balance of charisma and nerdiness, tempering his athletic build and cut-from-marble cheekbones with a guileless stammer (even if he does sometimes sound like he's doing an impression of Michael Cera), and Stewart is fairly irresistible as the sometimes awkward, always disarming love interest, Em. Ryan Reynolds also turns in an impressive performance, in what turns out to be a kind of self-effacing role for an actor who made a name for himself playing the fast-talking cool guy.

It is also delightful because it's intensely sincere -- something hard to pull off in a movie set in the dated, but not yet historical past. Because the movie never feels sneering or mean-spirited, it makes this particular past feel like your own, even if your formative summers never involved menial labor, acid-wash jeans, or torrid first romances with reticent brunettes. It all inspires a sense of affection that makes it easy to love, whether the hero is pouring his heart out, or just enduring a good old-fashioned punch to the testicles. (106 mins.)

My Rating: ***

THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (1946)

2010-02-17T19:35:00.000-08:00

Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott & Kirk Douglas

Director: Lewis Milestone

In The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers, relationships formed in childhood lead to murder and obsessive love. The wealthy Martha Ivers (Stanwyck) is the prime mover of the small Pennsylvania town of Iverston. Martha lives in a huge mansion with her DA husband, Walter O'Neil (Douglas), an alcoholic weakling. No one knows just why Martha and Walter tolerate one another....but Sam Masterson (Heflin), an Iverstown boy who returns to town, may just have a clue. At least that's what Martha thinks when Sam asks Walter to intervene in the case of Toni Marachek (Scott), who has been unjustly imprisoned. It seems that, as a young boy, Sam was in the vicinity when Martha's rich aunt met with her untimely demise. What does Sam know? And what dark, horrible secret binds Martha and Walter together? Directed by Lewis Milestone, and based on John Patrick's Oscar-nominated original story, Love Lies Bleeding, this movie creates in Martha a unique and interesting, driven, obsessed, and spoiled character, but one not without sympathy. Stanwyck is outstanding as Martha, with her predatory smile and sharp, manicured nails. Douglas is surprisingly convincing as a lost, sad, weak man, who loves his wife, but is unable to gain her respect. This movie eventually lapsed into public domain and became a ubiquitous presence on cable television.

Something of a warm-up for the later The File on Thelma Jordon, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers mixes obsession, desire, delusion, ambition, and fear into a fascinating and enthralling tangle. Unusual for a movie of its period, it's fairly sophisticated in dealing with what is, at heart, a "sick" relationship between Martha Ivers (Stanwyck) and Walter O'Neil (Douglas), and demonstrating how easily a person (Sam Masterson [Heflin]) can get sucked into one. Fortunately for Masterson, he gets out in time, but it's a pretty narrow escape. Ivers is a remarkably tense film, although it's a tension that tends to linger beneath the surface; this is appropriate, as it reflects the turmoil and anxiety that lies under the calm surface of Ivers' and O'Neil's lives. That tension gives the film its life and strange vibrancy, and gives snap to even mundane scenes. There are some problems, notably the fact that the creators don't really seem to have a grasp on Masterson's motivation after the idea of blackmail enters the picture. Is he really interested in the money or is it a plot to get to the bottom of the Martha mystery? But the compelling, multi-layered performances of the stars (including Scott) more than make up for the few flaws in the script. (117 mins.)

My Rating: ***1/2

A SERIOUS MAN (2009)

2010-02-08T21:00:00.000-08:00

Starring: Michael Stuhlbarg

Director: Joel & Ethan Coen

With A Serious Man, Joel and Ethan Coen create a jet-black comedy about anxiety and dread so funny -- and so disturbing -- that snack counters should sell Klonopin along with the popcorn.

After being informed by his doctor that he's in perfect health, math professor Larry Gopnik's (Stuhlbarg) world quickly unravels. In quick succession, his mentally unstable brother moves in, a student offers Larry a bribe for a passing grade, his wife informs him their marriage is over, he receives unexpected angry calls from a Columbia Record Club debt collector, and his teenage kids continue to ignore him, apart from his ability to fix their TV's reception problems. As Larry slowly loses control over his surroundings, he seeks counsel from various rabbis, whose parables offer little help to alleviate his anxiety and fear.

Giving away too much more of the plot would be unkind, because experiencing the totality and swiftness with which Larry's life crashes down around him is half the fun of the movie. The Coens fashion a slow-motion existential train wreck where a good and honest man drowns in events that relentlessly grow more outlandish and tragic. And understand that for all the unending pain, there are big laughs throughout -- particularly from Larry's wife's new love, Sy Ableman. Whenever Sy speaks to Larry, he offers the most caring and supportive sentiments imaginable, but he delivers them in a voice so lulling and smooth that it hilariously amplifies their insincerity.

Yet, for all the belly laughs (including a brilliant joke that gets set up in the first ten minutes but doesn't pay off until nearly the end of the movie), this is at heart a Kafka-esque nightmare. The movie underscores the fact that the Coens are remarkably talented filmmakers -- very few directors could make audiences feel dread and panic this acutely while simultaneously doubling them up with laughter.

But it's the unease and not the laughter that the Coens end with, and it's hard to ignore that this is their third film in a row to wrap up with a profound spiritual bummer. The Coen brothers used to temper their skeptical view of people and life with occasional glimpses of positivity -- it's hard to find a more likeable and good-hearted hero than Fargo's Marge Gunderson, unless it's "The Dude." But, A Serious Man finds Joel and Ethan entrenched in pessimism, and that might be the most disquieting aspect of the whole movie. (105 mins.)

My Rating: ***

THE BLIND SIDE (2009)

2010-02-08T20:52:00.001-08:00

Starring: Sandra Bullock

Director: John Lee Hancock

Based on the remarkable true story of Michael Oher, as chronicled by Michael Lewis in his nonfiction book of the same name, John Lee Hancock's The Blind Side offers an overly familiar formula delivered with a commendably restrained amount of melodrama.

Memphis businesswoman and housewife Leigh Anne Tuohy (Bullock) gets what she wants in life through sheer force of will. Her children attend a ritzy private school, and when the higher-ups there admit Michael Oher (Quinton Aron), a disadvantaged African-American kid, because the football coach wants him to play for the school, Leigh Anne focuses all of her considerable energy on giving the boy the kind of loving and stable environment he's never had. Eventually, he grows close to Leigh Anne, her husband (Tim McGraw), teen daughter, Collins, and cloyingly precocious young son, S.J. Michael works hard to get his grades high enough to play, develops skills as a left tackle, and starts getting letters of interest from big-time college programs. But problems arise when influences from Michael's past come back into his life, and when the NCAA worries that the Tuohys might be unethically pushing Michael toward attending their alma mater.

It is decidedly square. Its uplifting message and thoroughly unashamedly folksy qualities make it a feel-good, three-hanky, you-go-girl, wind-beneath-my-wings piece of sappy inspirationalism. But, it does have some persuasive things in its favor. First of all, it gets football right -- those who know nothing about the game will actually learn a little about what an offensive lineman does and how he does it. Secondly, it's not aggressive in its middlebrowness; the film -- like Hancock's previous sports movie, The Rookie -- has a light touch, best exemplified in McGraw's charmingly laid-back performance as Sean Tuohy, a man unfazed and thoroughly charmed by his outspoken Type-A wife.

And let's be clear that this is a Sandra Bullock film through and through. She's essentially playing a less sexually brazen Erin Brockovich -- a no-nonsense Southern girl who fights for what's right, for herself and for her family. It's not a part that requires much depth, but she fills it with her usual charm, and her core audience will undoubtedly laugh and cry along as Leigh Anne stands up to coaches, gang-bangers, and administrators who stand in her and Michael's way.

The movie is very familiar -- you've seen it all before -- but it succeeds at achieving its modest goals. It's cinematic comfort food that could have been called "Chicken Soup for the Football Lover's Soul." (126 mins.)

My Rating: **1/2

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS (2009)

2010-02-08T20:41:00.001-08:00

Starring: Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges & Kevin Spacey

Director: Grant Heslov

It's hard to imagine a movie about the U.S. military training soldiers to discover their psychic powers that wouldn't be fun, especially if it's played for laughs. And the first half of Heslov's directorial debut doesn't disappoint.

The action begins when heartbroken reporter Bob Wilton (McGregor) heads off to imbed himself with troops as the Iraq War starts, but Wilton can't get himself into the country until he chances upon Lyn Cassady. It turns out Lyn spent decades as part of the New Earth Army -- a platoon of men, led by Bill Django (Bridges), who lived a new-age lifestyle in an attempt to cultivate extrasensory perception that would allow the U.S. army to win wars nonviolently. Bill now has a secret mission in Iraq, and allows Bob to come along. As the duo gets into a series of misadventures, Lyn shares with Bob the colorful history of the New Earth Army and chronicles the nefarious machinations of Larry Hooper (Spacey), whose jealousy of Lyn's remarkable skill brought an end to the group.

With material this quirky and satirical, it's a good thing Heslov shows a flair for comedy. He knows how to accentuate the laughs through editing and framing -- most notably in a scene involving an IED -- and he's very good with his actors. Clooney is screamingly funny playing Lyn's rigid military training and his free-spirited mind against each other in ways that make the character unique -- he's a haunted hippie/dreamer/warrior. He's well-matched by Bridges, who brings an appropriate Dude-like vibe to the proceedings, as well as Spacey, who delivers yet another amusing turn as a naturally loathsome a-hole.

If only the script by Peter Straughan (very loosely adapted from a nonfiction book by Jon Ronson) had a stronger narrative through-line, the whole movie might have maintained its satirical edge throughout, becoming a bizarre cross between The X-Files and Stripes. Unfortunately, the wind comes out of the movie's sails in the second half, after we discover the goal of Lyn's sojourn behind enemy lines, and nothing from that point on has the imaginative bite of the movie's opening hour. But there are plenty of big laughs in this movie, and it doesn't take psychic powers to see that first-time director Heslov, with a stronger story, is capable of great things. (90 mins.)

My Rating: **1/2

TCM's 31 Days of Oscar Moodboard

2010-02-05T22:23:00.001-08:00

SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC (1948)

2010-02-03T21:05:00.000-08:00

Starring: John Mills

Director: Charles Frend

Unrelenting docudrama of determined British explorer Robert Falcon Scott (Mills), highlighting the details of his last expedition to the South Pole. This saga of bravery and endurance features an especially moving finale. Music by Vaughan Williams, who later used part of this score in his seventh symphony.

This impeccable re-creation of the race to the South Pole superbly captures the unrelenting frustration of explorer Robert Scott's ill-fated final expedition. Gorgeously lensed and orchestrated by director Charles Frend. With stunning photographic effects, authentic narrative, but as drama it's curiously remote, only occasionally affecting. (110 mins.)

My Rating: ***

Movie Trivia: The Antarctic setting for Captain Scott's march homeward from the South Pole in Scott In Antarctic was in fact close to the Arctic Circle--almost as far from the true locale as it was possible to get. The main location was the vast glacier close to the small Norwegian town of Finse. Director Charles Frend and star John Mills were amazed to find that many of the citizens of Finse had personal memories of Captain Scott. The explorer had used the glacier in 1909 for trials of the motor sledges he took with him on his final and fatal expedition.

NEVADA SMITH (1966)

2010-02-03T20:51:00.000-08:00

Starring: Steve McQueen

Director: Henry Hathaway

The character who first appeared in Harold Robbins's The Carpetbaggers (Nevada Smith) is given a film of his own. In this episodic but well-acted film, our half-breed killer tracks down his parents' killers.

Steve McQueen, in the title role, is butcher's-freezer-cold, calculating, and merciless in this hard-hitting, gripping Western. The focus is on a senseless, vicious double murder and the revenge taken by the son of the innocent victims.

Remade as a TVM in 1975. (135 mins.)

My Rating: ***

THE PRIZE WINNER OF DEFIANCE, OHIO (2005)

2010-02-03T16:41:00.001-08:00

Starring: Julianne Moore & Woody Harrelson

Director: Jane Anderson

Of all the roles Moore plays well, she excels most at bringing new dimension to the housewife with unfulfilled yearnings. That's definitely the case with Jane anderson's The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, the involving true story of an educated mother who tries to support her spouse and ten children by winning contests to write corporate jingles. Because Moore's prize winner is also the family breadwinner, her drunkard husband, Kelly, spends most of his time feeling castrated and lashing out. Unfortunately, Harrelson mirrors his character's failings by not carrying his share of the acting load; his portrayal alternates between episodes of simplistic rage and simplistic remorse. These extremes prevent us from understanding why Evelyn Ryan would stay with him, unless out of sheer sainthood -- and, of course, a devotion to her 1950s values. What should be a significant flaw is eclipsed by the high quality of everything else onscreen, starting with Moore, whose ability to conquer her disappointment is both inspiring and heartbreaking. (Her narration is also a consistent treat.) The period production design jumps off the screen in cheery pastels that belie the story's pervasive darkness. It's a fun snapshot of an era when television shows and ads were always cross-pollinated, and grand prizes came in the form of a lifetime supply of birdseed. And while the husband-wife relationship never feels completely true, the movie does capture an authentic and touching bond between Evelyn and her feisty daughter Tuff -- whose memoirs inspired this film. For those seeking it out, the film also contains a covert indictment of the Catholic Church. Not only are Evelyn's problems exacerbated by an unwillingness to consider either birth control or divorce, but a priest with alcohol on his breath makes light of Kelly Ryan's crash-and-burn boozing. (99 mins.)

My Rating: ***

(500) DAYS OF SUMMER (2009)

2010-02-03T16:09:00.000-08:00

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Zooey Deschanel

Director: Marc Webb

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel star in director Marc Webb's wry, nonlinear romantic comedy about a man who falls head over heels for a woman who doesn't believe in love. Mark (Gordon-Levitt) is an aspiring architect who currently earns his living as a greeting card writer. Upon encountering his boss' beautiful new secretary, Summer (Deschanel), Mark discovers that the pair have plenty in common despite the fact that she's seemingly out of his league; for starters, they both love the Smiths, and they're both fans of surrealist artist Magritte. Before long Mark is smitten. All he can think about is Summer. Mark believes deeply in the concept of soul mates, and he's finally found his. Unfortunately for Mark, Summer sees true love as the stuff of fairy tales, and isn't looking for romance. Undaunted and undeterred by his breezy lover's casual stance on relationships, Mark summons all of his might and courage to pursue Summer and convince her that their love is real. (95 mins.)

My Rating: ***

HUNGER (2008)

2010-02-03T15:57:00.001-08:00

Starring: Michael Fassbender

Director: Steve McQueen

One doubts that any feature film could more maturely, passionately, or elegantly evoke the madness and confusion at the heart of the early-'80s IRA conflict than Irish director McQueen's harrowing docudrama Hunger. The film unfurls in 1981, around the tail end of the IRA prisoners' "no wash" strike against the Brits, and dramatizes the martyrdom of Irishman Bobby Sands, champion of a hunger strike within a penitentiary -- and a man who led at least nine of his fellow inmates to the grave in pursuit of unascertained political status. Yet the Sands tale only occupies the second half of the picture. Long before we can identify Sands or follow his crusade, he takes his time to establish the overall atmosphere of the prison and, more importantly, the profound and noble ideas at the core of his film.

The deepest truths and insights into his perspective arrive in an opening sequence, when we observe a British prison employee, Raymond Lohan gazing at himself in the mirror, with a weathered and disillusioned face. Lohan's deep-set, slightly pained eyes aren't eyes that lack a conscience, and his countenance will return to haunt our memories time and again throughout this picture -- likewise, his routine ritual of plunging his bloody, skinned knuckles into warm water to ease the pain. Lohan may be an administrator of brutality (like the other guards, he generates an adequate amount of disdain in the audience, and sympathy toward the prisoners via his brutal actions), but his ability to suffer makes him more human in our eyes -- as does his decision to take flowers to his catatonic mother. Our feelings toward the IRA remain equally balanced; not long after we witness the psychotically violent, perhaps fatal beating of an IRA prisoner (by a uniformed British guard), he interpolates an appalling, sickening act of violence from an IRA terrorist that redefines one's notion of shocking. It comes out of nowhere, unfolds in the sweetest and most benign of locations, and ends with the gunman practically jaunting away merrily, hands in his pockets. The central message is clear: the men on both sides of this fence are neither monsters nor saints. Both the guards and the suffering prisoners have been irrevocably plunged by fate into the same maelstrom of suffering.

Curiously, for a drama about the IRA, the first half of the film completely omits ideological argument and an exploration of the political goings-on at the core of this tumult. And that represents a deliberate choice. For the humanistic director, everything within the prison represents complete insanity -- from the fecal matter smeared on the cell walls, to the slop thrown into bedside troughs, to the maggots swarming around one sleeping prisoner's head, to the said beatings. At the heart of everything, the director reminds us, these men are men, who belong to the same human quilt, and the groups have mutually resigned themselves to the same pit of despair and masochism -- making all external conflicts irrelevant when held up next to the film's gut-wrenching plea for sympathy.

The picture then shifts gears dramatically at about the 45-minute mark, moving into the Sands story, and in what will go down as one of the most audacious directorial choices of 2008, he commits the film and the audience to a fixed shot and a single take for about 20 minutes. Sands (Fassbender) and a priest, Father Dominic Moran, sit on opposite ends of the same table, dissect the pros and cons of martyrdom, and fire arguments at one another on the progression versus regression of the IRA cause. The scene packs an emotional and intellectual wallop: he fully enables us to grasp (and possibly share) the priest's logic, his die-hard conviction that the notion of a hunger strike is absurd and pointless, and his belief that the IRA is a worthy cause but has lost its original foundation, just as the director explores the logic behind Bobby's rebuttals. The fixed shot is thus valuable for keeping the men equidistant from the audience, and underscoring the ideological balance present in the conversation. The film concludes with long, anatomically detailed, and thoroughly devastating sequences of the prisoner withering away to nothing, yet he laces the scenes with lyrical cutaways to Bobby's childhood, hallucinations that his childhood self is visiting him, and images of birds aloft, that draw out the grace and nobility within the man's soul and recall an identical metaphor in Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc.(92 mins.)

My Rating: ***1/2

MY RATING

2010-01-30T21:06:00.000-08:00

**** - CLASSIC

***1/2 - EXCELLENT

*** - VERY GOOD

**1/2 - GOOD

** - SATISFACTORY/FAIR

*1/2 - POOR

BOMB - FORGET IT

ALIVE (1993)

2010-01-29T21:19:00.000-08:00

Starring: Ethan Hawke & Vincent Spano

Director: Frank Marshall

Queasy movie about the rugby team that survived 72 days in the Andes Mountains when their plane crashed on its way from Uruguay to Chile. A half-good movie encumbered by clunky dialogue for its delivery) - but physically impressive beyond the astonishing particulars of its story (which involves cannibalism). Unquestionably the most chilling portrayal of a plane crash in movie history. Scripted by John Patrick Stanley, from the book by Piers Paul Read. John Malkovich appears unbilled. Same story previously filmed as SURVIVE! (125 mins.)

My Rating: ***

THE GODFATHER, PART III (1990)

2010-01-25T19:28:00.000-08:00

Starring: Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Eli

Wallach, Joe Mantegna, George Hamilton, Bridget

Fonda, & Sofia Coppola

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Only a filmmaker like Coppola (teamed with writer Mario Puzo) could extend his history-making Mafioso saga and make it work so well. Absorbing story of Pacino's attempt to remove himself from the world of crime, and how fate and circumstance draw him back in, with his trigger-happy nephew (Garcia) and the rest of his family in tow. Longish, but masterfully told, with one almost-fatal flaw: the casting of Coppola's daughter Sofia (an amateur) in the pivotal role of Pacino's daughter.

From the first frame of this operatic, Shakespeare-influenced final chapter in the screen's finest gangster epic, we are thrust back into the larger-than-life world of the Corleone family. It is two decades after the "modern-day" events in Part II, and Michael (a brilliant performance by Al Pacino) has managed to move his family interests out of crime and into legitimate enterprises. But sinister forces lurking within his empire compel Michael to revert to the old, violent ways - with tragic consequences. (163 mins.)

My Rating: ***1/2

THE GODFATHER, PART II (1974)

2010-01-25T19:04:00.001-08:00

Starring: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton

& Talia Shire

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

They said it couldn't be done, but cowriter-director Coppola made a sequel that's just as compelling. This one contrasts the life of melancholy "don" (Pacino) with early days of his father (De Niro) as an immigrant in N.Y.C. Winner of six Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay (Coppola, Mario Puzo), Supporting Actor (De Niro), Score (Nino Rota, Carmine Coppola), Art Direction/Set Decoration (Dean Tavoularis, Angelo Graham, George R. Nelson).

Oscar winner for Best Picture is even better in many ways than The Godfather, as this blockbuster completes what is surely the greatest gangster saga ever filmed. Michael Corleone (Pacino) has consolidated the power handed to him by his father, as the film flashes back and forth between the early life of the late Don Vito and the ongoing story of his embattled family after his death. (200 mins.)

My Rating: ****

THE GODFATHER (1972)

2010-01-25T18:45:00.000-08:00

Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Talia Shire,

Diane Keaton & Robert Duvall

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

The 1970s' answer to GONE WITH THE WIND, from Mario Puzo's novel on the violent life and times of Mafia patriarch Don Corleone (Brando). Pulp fiction raised to the highest level, masterfully done, and set to Nino Rota's memorable score. Absolutely irresistible. Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Actor (Brando), and Screenplay (Coppola and Puzo). Baby in baptism scene is actually Coppola's infant daughter Sofia - who later costarred in THE GODFATHER, PART III. Followed by two sequels.

Mario Puzo's popular novel comes to life in artful fashion. Film in foreboding tones, the movie takes us into the lurid world of the Mafia. Marlon Brando won an Oscar for his performance, but it's Al Pacino who grabs your attention with an unnerving intensity. (175 mins.)

My Rating: ****

KISS ME DEADLY (1955)

2010-01-25T18:26:00.000-08:00

Starring: Ralph Meeker & Cloris Leachman

Director: Robert Aldrich

"Remember Me."

One of film noir's darkest nightmares, this grim adaptation of one of Mickey Spillane's "Mike Hammer" thrillers has as much to do with the paranoiac sci-fi films of the fifties as it does with the two-fisted universe of the private eye. Meeker is Hammer, a sleazy gumshoe on the trail of "the great whatsit" (actually a box filled with radioactive substance), who's willing to beat, berate, and otherwise abuse anyone standing in his way. Directed with stunning artistry (and tongue in cheek) by Robert Aldrich, the film has weathered critical distaste to emerge as a cult classic, a brutal and often very funny critique of Spillane's macho sensibility and the nuclear paranoia of fifties America.

Years ahead of its time, a major influence on French New Wave directors, and one of Aldrich's best films. Leachman's film debut. Some video versions have 82 seconds of additional footage which completely changes the finale.

(105 mins.)

My Rating: ***1/2

LAKEVIEW TERRACE (2008)

2010-01-25T18:17:00.000-08:00

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington & Patrick Wilson

Director: Neil LaBute

There's something to be said for making a mainstream movie that depicts behavior as taboo as destructive racism on the part of a black main character. It's probably even less common for a director to opt to tackle this kind of phenomenon not in some gritty urban drama, but in a wide-release Sam Jackson thriller. At least that's how Lakeview Terrace is marketed -- though for all its semi-successful attempts to ratchet up the intensity with every scene, it's pretty obvious that if the thriller side of this movie was in the driver's seat, the social-commentary side was riding shotgun, and probably reading the directions.

The premise is that twentysomething couple Chris (Patrick Wilson) and Lisa Mattson (Kerry Washington) move into the titular posh gated community in the Hollywood Hills, only to discover that their neighbor Abel (Samuel L. Jackson), an officer with the LAPD, appears to be totally crazy. He makes it clear that he disapproves of their relationship -- since Chris is white and Lisa is black -- and animosity grows, passive aggression becomes real aggression, and Chris and Lisa's imperfect marriage starts to crack under the pressure as the conflict violently comes to a head. This basic treatment sounds like the grounds for an interesting story, but unfortunately, the film often handles all the subject matter with a really distracting degree of heavy-handedness. While there are scenes that succeed in subtly hitting all the right nerves, evoking director Neil LaBute's trademark brand of uncomfortable realism, too many themes hinge on über-simplified paint-by-numbers clichés and hokey constructs. For example, the film thematically builds around an analogy in the form of a subplot about a wildfire that burns in distant view of the community. As the hostility incrementally escalates between Abel and the Mattsons, the fire is incrementally revisited, placing the characters on their balcony again and again to make the same observations about the inferno growing closer and more powerful, and recite the same transparently naïve lines about how, of course, the danger will never reach their (figuratively) insulated home. We get it! This kind of conflict threatens everybody! We get it! Especially those who seem immune! We get it! In the end, we all get burned! It's like a PSA; you're just waiting for Jackson to break the fourth wall, look into the camera and say, "It's time to end the hate. Nobody wins at this game, homes. Nobody wins."

The stupid fire thing even comes up again when Chris puts a row of fully grown trees along his property line to block his view of Abel's yard. Official-voice-of-reason Lisa shakes her head in consternation and argues that this will only breed more antagonism, to which Chris halfheartedly responds that the landscaping is environmental: "Trees make oxygen, right?" And oxygen fuels fire! GET IT?!? It's that kind of triteness that keeps stealing the scene, especially when Chris and Lisa discuss their marriage. The parts are well acted, but the undergrad-film-student dialogue keeps veering toward soap-opera style. Which would be fine if this were just a thriller, but the highfalutin content about class and race makes the style feel awkward and incongruous. (106 mins.)

My Rating: **1/2

BLOOD DIAMOND (2006)

2010-01-07T16:06:00.001-08:00

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly & Djimon Hounsou

Director: Edward Zwick

Ed Zwick's movies have traditionally been earnest, sober-minded action-adventure dramas that offer up some supposed serious examination of a societal ill. Blood Diamond keeps up that streak by showing how the illegal smuggling of diamonds impacts African countries. While Zwick does a fine job of laying out the confluence of bloodthirsty rebellions, corrupt governments, and greedy foreign interests that keep many African nations in a constant state of turmoil, his story of an Afrikaner (Leonardo DiCaprio) who sacrifices his own self-interest for the love of a woman and the good of a decent African man is so relentlessly square that the film plays more like a ham-fisted lecture than a movie. As is usual for Zwick, Blood Diamond offers beautiful, coffee-table-book-quality cinematography. While these images are pleasant to look at, the thuddingly obvious subtext of horrible atrocities occurring in such beautiful places makes it difficult to be awed by the natural majesty, and they constantly betray the schematic mindset of the director.

DiCaprio is enough of a movie star to know how to own the screen, and his selfish rogue who learns to care for others is a stereotype that goes all the way back to Bogart inCasablanca. He tries, and viewers should be very thankful for the effort, but the serious tone of the picture constantly douses the sparks of life he brings to the material. Jennifer Connelly is entirely unbelievable in the role of a hard-as-nails, internationally respected reporter. Some people, like Dennis Farina, were born to swear on screen, but she is not one of those people. When she spews out the f-word, she does it with a world-weariness that rings false. She sounds like a 12-year-old girl trying the word out on her parents for the first time. Djimon Hounsou might be a very talented actor, but in this film -- as in most of his major films -- he is not playing a person as much as he is a symbol of "otherness" that white characters must learn to respect in order to teach the movie's moral. Here, as with In America and Amistad, he suffers both beautifully and majestically, making it hard to think of the character as a real individual. It's not a bad performance; it's a badly conceived character.

In the end, Zwick's motivations are good-hearted, but that doesn't excuse the fact that the film is a crushing bore because he talks down to his audience. The lessons and facts and morals are spoon-fed to the viewer, and Zwick fails to grab our attention during the action scenes, so there ends up being very little of interest for the audience. (143 mins.)

My Rating: ***

THE HOUR OF THE GUN (1967)

2010-01-07T15:56:00.000-08:00

Starring: James Garner, Jason Robards Jr. & Robert Ryan

Director: John Sturges

Director John Sturges's sequel to Gunfight at the O.K. Corral didn't seem like much when originally released in 1967, perhaps because James Garner was thought to have lost the charm he displayed in the TV series, Maverick. But today this outstanding western deserves to be. Garner is superb as an embittered and obsessed Wyatt Earp, who, with the help of an increasingly ailing Doc Holliday (Jason Robards, Jr.) sets out to bring Ike Clanton (Robert Ryan) to justice. Flavorful score by Jerry Goldsmith. (100 mins.)

My Rating: ***1/2

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (1978)

2010-01-06T20:01:00.001-08:00

Starring: Brad Davis, Randy Quaid & John Hurt

Director: Alan Parker

The mother of all prison escape movies. This is the true story of Billy Hayes, who was busted for trying to smuggle hashish out of Turkey and spent five years in the squalor and terror of a Turkish prison. Midnight Express is not an experience easily shaken. Yet it is a film for our times that teaches a powerful and important lesson.

Hayes's ever-present desire to get on the "Midnight Express" (prison slang for escape) makes this thriller totally engrossing as it reaches an effective climax.

Great moviemaking, though not as faithful to Hayes' true story as filmmakers would have us to believe. Oscar winner for Oliver Stone's script and Giorgio Moroder's score. (121 mins.)

My Rating: ****

HANG 'EM HIGH (1968)

2010-01-06T19:52:00.001-08:00

Starring: Clint Eastwood

Director: Ted Post

Clint Eastwood's first stateside spaghetti Western is a good one, with the star out to get the vigilantes who tried to hang him for a murder he didn't commit. Pat Hingle is the hangin' judge who gives Clint his license to hunt, and Ben Johnson is the marshal who saves his life. Ed Begley, Sr. is memorable as the leader of the vigilantes.

Steely avenger (Eastwood) sets out to take care of those varmints who strung him up and left him for dead. Played in Clint Eastwood's usual flinty manner, should please non-discriminating Western buffs. (114 mins.)

My Rating: **1/2

DEATH WISH (1974)

2010-01-06T19:40:00.000-08:00

Starring: Charles Bronson

Director: Michael Winner

Audience manipulation at its zenith; Businessman Bronson's wife and daughter are savagely raped, and his wife dies, turning mild-mannered liberal Bronson into a vigilante on N.Y.C. streets. Chilling but irresistible; a bastardization of the Brian Garfield novel, in which vigilantism as a deterrent to crime is not a solution but another problem. Music by Herbie Hancock. One of the muggers is played by Jeff Goldblum, in his film debut. Followed by four sequels.

This morally-questionable premise blazed the trail for dozens of other films about one-man urban crimebusters. Colorfully presented, but a violent, unpleasant movie. (94 mins.)

My Rating: ***

SCROOGE (1935)

2010-01-06T18:25:00.000-08:00

Starring: Seymour Hicks

Director: Henry Edwards

This little-known British version of Charles Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol is faithful to the original story and boasts a standout performance by Seymour Hicks, who also cowrote the screenplay. A truly enjoyable film, unjustly overshadowed by Alastair Sim's bravura performance as Scrooge in the venerated 1951 version. (78 mins.)

My Rating: **1/2

THE SHINING (1980)

2010-01-06T18:11:00.001-08:00

Starring: Jack Nicholson & Shelley Duvall

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Eliminating most of the supernatural episodes from the original Stephen King novel, Kubrick's version, is at once a coolly ironic near-parody (with a Nicholson performance that defines "over the top") and a genuinely chilling dissection of how a family breaks down when the father cannot (or does not want to) perform his duties as provider and protector. Making the most of the then-new Steadicam technology for intricate camera movements, Kubrick renders the hotel and maze palpable as Danny moves through them, while turning the Overlook itself into an eerily threatening entity, punctuated by Danny's vividly disturbing shinings. It isn't just Jack who is psychotic: it is the hotel and all it represents about the American system. Positioned to be a summer hit, The Shining was released to decidedly mixed reviews (including from King, who vocally objected to Kubrick's alterations of his novel); although it was the most successful movie Kubrick had made, it did not become the blockbuster that he had hoped. Despite this checkered reception, Kubrick's ability to combine icy detachment with visceral dread makes The Shining a profoundly creepy interrogation of madness, memory, and familial disintegration. (146 mins.)

My Rating: ***1/2

A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951)

2010-01-06T17:43:00.000-08:00

Starring: Alastair Sim

Director: Brian Desmond-Hurst

Superb film is too good to be shown only at Christmastime; always delightful Sim makes Scrooge a three-dimensional character in this faithful, heart-warming rendition of the Dickens classic. Screenplay by Noel Langley. Patrick Macnee plays young Marley. Original British title: SCROOGE.

Starring Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, the meanest miser in all of London, this is a wondrous uplifting story - as only Charles Dickens could craft one. Recommended for the whole family, A Christmas Carol is sure to bring a tear in your eye and joy to your heart. (86 mins.)

My Rating: ****

THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT (1977)

2010-01-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

Starring: Marie-France Pisier, John Beck & Susan Sarandon

Diector: Charles Jarrott

Trashy Sidney Sheldon novel gets the treatment it deserves in ponderous story, set from 1939-1947, about a woman who parlays her body into film stardom. Dull, as opposed to lively, drek.

The story involves a French movie star and a Washington socialite vying for the affections of a World War II hero. Average music scoring by Michel Legrand. (165 mins.)

My Rating: *1/2

TRUE GRIT (1969)

2010-01-06T16:43:00.001-08:00

Starring: John Wayne, Glen Campbee, Kim Darby & Robert Duvall

Director: Henry Hathaway

Film version of Charles Portis' wonderful novel about an over-the-hill marshal who helps a 14-year-old track down her father's killer. Not as good as the book, but Wayne's Oscar-winning performance and rousing last half hour make it fine screen entertainment. Sequel: ROOSTER COGBURN. Followed by a TV movie in 1978 with Warren Oates and Lisa Pelikan.

Well-directed by Henry Hathaway, it's still not one of the Duke's classics-although it does have many good scenes. (128 mins.)

My Rating: ***

TAPS (1981)

2010-01-06T16:25:00.000-08:00

Starring: George C. Scott, Timothy Hutton, Tom Cruise, Sean Penn & Ronny Cox

Director: Harold Becker

A military academy is to be closed and replaced by a condominium, but the boys are fired with a sense of honor, duty, and love for the military. The National Guard moves to take the grounds by force; a bloodbath ensues. Not very believable, with sometimes pompous dialogue, but makes a strong point against carrying honor and tradition too far. Fine performances.

George C. Scott is an iron-jawed commander of a military academy and Timothy Hutton a gung ho cadet who leads a student revolt in this often exciting but unnecessarily violent drama. Sean Penn's film debut. (126 mins.)

My Rating: **1/2

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

2010-01-05T05:38:00.000-08:00

Another year to see and enjoy old movies in a new light.

TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. (1985)

2009-11-19T21:36:00.001-08:00

Starring: William Petersen

Director: William Friedkin

A brutal thriller from the director of The French Connection and The Exorcist. A reckless Secret Service agent stops at nothing in his attempt to nab the counterfeiter who killed his partner. Plenty of violent action and the de rigueur car chase, but it's the convincing depiction of the sleazy L.A. criminal elements that keeps the storyline simmering.

Gritty movie equivalent of TV's Miami Vice makes it hards to root for anyone, since the good guys are as sleazy as the bad guys! Petersen (CSI Las Vegas) plays hotshot agent going after slimy counterfeiter--but for a crack federal agent he acts pretty dumb! One spectacular car chase is not enough to counteract bad taste the film leaves behind. (116 mins.)

My Rating: **1/2

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)

2009-11-19T21:24:00.000-08:00

Starring: Gregory Peck

Director: Robert Mulligan

Excellent production of Harper Lee's sensitive book about an Alabama lawyer bringing up his two motherless children. Peck was never been better, and the two children are most affecting. Superb script (Horton Foote) and direction (Robert Mulligan) make this, in its own quiet way, one of the best movies dealing with race relations that the Americasn film industry has ever made.

Peck won an Oscar as a Southern lawyer who defends a black man accused of rape, and tries to explain proceedings to his children and their friend. Leisurely paced, flavorful adaptation of the best-selling novel; Foote's screenplay also earned an Oscar. Robert Duvall's film debut. (129 mins.)

My Rating: ****

JUNEBUG (2005)

2009-11-19T21:12:00.000-08:00

Starring: Amy Adams

Director: Phil Morrison

Phil Morrison's Junebug has many of the elements expected from American independent films. It is character driven, offers a geographically specific location that is rarely seen in American films, and features lead characters who change in small and possibly, depending on one's appreciation of the film, profound ways. The strengths of the film are in the women. Embeth Davidtz plays Madeline, the sophisticated art dealer visiting the rural backwater that is home to her husband's family. She manages to make a character that should be unsympathetic very empathetic mostly because she does nothing consciously to offend her hosts' sensibilities. Hers is a finely modulated performance. Amy Adams, as the talkative sister-in-law who desires to gain some of Madeline's worldliness, serves up a great performance. The character lacks the prejudice seen in the other characters. Her performance is as open as her character, full of wide-eyed wonder and -- when the time comes -- deeply felt sadness. She portrays all of these emotions without ever sounding a false or actorly note. (106 mins.)

My Rating: ***

THE HAPPENING (2008)

2009-11-09T21:48:00.000-08:00

Starring: Mark Wahlberg & Zooey Deshanel

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Lady in the Water director M. Night Shyamalan puts PG-13 suspense on pause to tell this grim apocalyptic tale about a family fleeing a natural disaster that poses a grave threat to the whole of humanity. Philadelphia high-school science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) is discussing the disappearance of the bees with his students when the staff is summoned to the theater and briefed about a mysterious event that is currently unfolding in New York City. According to reports, citizens in the vicinity of Central Park have suddenly and inexplicably begun seizing up just before killing themselves by whatever means are at their disposal. As the phenomena begins to spread and talk of terrorism fills the airwaves, Elliot, his wife, Alma (Zooey Deschanel), their friend Julian (John Leguizamo), and his daughter, Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez), board a train bound for the presumed safety of the country. When the train screeches to a halt before arriving at its final destination, however, the frightened passengers are forced to fend for themselves as each consecutive news report paints an increasingly grim picture of the situation in more urbanized areas. Theories abound on what could be causing the unexplainable rash of suicides, but the only thing that everyone seems to agree on is that it's some kind of airborne contagion that is carried in the wind. It would appear that humankind's reign on planet Earth has come to an end, but perhaps if this small band of survivors can find a safe place to lie low until this all blows over, all hope for survival of the species might not be lost just yet.

Note to M. Night Shyamalan: No matter which angle you shoot it from, a mild summer breeze is not terrifying. A hurricane, absolutely; a tornado, most certainly; a typhoon, indubitably. Hell, even an especially large dust devil might prove capable of jangling the nerves of some particularly sensitive anemophobics. Unfortunately (at least for Shyamalan), the continuous scenes of trees ominously rustling in the breeze or fields of grass churning like a menacing green ocean throughout The Happening mostly elicit feelings of tranquility and inner peace rather than paralyzing fear and insurmountable dread -- the kiss of death for a film attempting to paint nature as the ultimate enemy of humankind. But Shyamalan's failure to make gusts of wind blow fear into the hearts of moviegoers isn't the only reason why The Happening fails to click as an effective horror film; weak direction of actors, a meandering screenplay, and a particularly anemic ending all add up to a misfire that -- despite an admittedly original premise and a promise to ramp up the gruesome imagery -- largely lacks any real sense of tension or danger. Sadly, since the director fails to ratchet up the levels of intensity any higher than in his previous films, the widely touted fact that this is his first R-rated film feels like a gimmicky (and somewhat misleading) ploy to convince moviegoers that Shyamalan has finally taken off the kid gloves, as opposed to a sincere attempt to grow as a filmmaker or branch out into more challenging and mature themes. (89 mins.)

My Rating: *1/2

DOLORES CLAIBORNE (1995)

2009-10-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

Starring: Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh & Christopher Plummer

Director: Taylor Hackford

A Maine woman is accused of murdering her longtime employer, which brings her estranged daughter home for the first time in years. Now, the two women begin to sort out unanswered questions from the past. Gripping adaptation of Stephen King's novel (by Tony Gilroy) holds your interest from start to finish, as the real story unfolds. Bates' performance is a powerhouse and the rest of the cast is equally fine. Kudos too, to Hackford's arresting visual treatment. (131 mins.)

My Rating: ***1/2

CHAPLIN (1992)

2009-10-15T22:28:00.001-07:00

Starring: Robert Downey, Jr.

Director: Richard Attenborough

Reverent, lovingly detailed bio of Charlie Chaplin--from his squalid childhood in London to early moviemaking days with Mack Sennett, to international stardom, celebrity, and scandal. Downey is astonishingly good as Charlie and the film starts out great, but flattens midway through and tries to cover too much ground. Geraldine Chaplin plays her own grandmother, Charlie's severely neurotic mom.

Well-intentioned and often well-acted biopic. Unfortunately, director Richard Attenborough takes almost a scandal-sheet approach, forgetting what made Chaplin so important was the movies he made. worth seeing for Downey and equally impressive turns by Kevin Kline (as Douglas Fairbanks Sr.) and Geraldine Chaplin. (144 mins.)

My Rating: ***

BEDLAM (1946)

2009-10-05T17:49:00.000-07:00

Starring: Boris Karloff & Anna Lee

Director: Mark Robson

One of the lesser entries in the Val Lewton-produced horror film series at RKO, this release still has its moments as the courageous Anna Lee tries to expose the cruelties and inadequacies of an insane asylum run by Boris Karloff, who is first-rate, as usual.

Set in the 18th-century London. Robert Clarke appears unbilled. B&W. (79 mins.)

My rating: ***

CRISIS (1946)

2009-10-05T17:38:00.001-07:00

Starring: Dagny Lind, Inga Landgre & Marianne Lofgren

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman made his directorial debut with this 1946 drama which found a number of his key themes already in place. Ingeborg (Dagny Lind) is a middle-aged woman living in a small Swedish community where she supports herself giving piano lessons and running a boarding house. Ingeborg has devoted much of her life to looking after Nelly (Inga Landgre), a teenage girl who was abandoned by her mother Jenny (Marianne Lofgren) when she was a baby. Ingeborg deeply loves Nelly and think of her as her daughter, and she's distraught when Jenny appears and announces she intends to reclaim Nelly and take her to Stockholm, where she now runs a successful beauty salon. Despite Ingeborg's pleas that her poor health limits the time she can spend with Nelly, Jenny is adamant, and the teenager decides to go, though her decision is largely motivated by her mixed feelings about Ulf (Allan Bohlin), an older veterinarian who wants to marry her, and her sudden infatuation with Jack (Stig Olin), a mysterious charmer who is a friend and distant relative of Jenny. Kris (aka Crisis) was adapted from a popular stage play by Leck Fisher; the production was hampered byBergman's inexperience, and his mentor Victor Sjostrom was brought in to supervise the last few weeks of shooting. (95 mins.)

My Rating: **1/2

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (1943)

2009-10-05T17:24:00.001-07:00

Starring: Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr & Anton Walbrook

Directors: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

A truly superb film chronicling the life and times of a staunch for-king-and-country British soldier. Sentimentally celebrating the human spirit, it opens during World War II and unfolds through a series of flashbacks that reach as far back as the Boer War. Roger Livesey is excellent in the title role. Deborah Kerr portrays three woman in his life across four decades with charm and delight. Definitely a keeper.

Title character bears no relation to famous David Low caricature buffoon on whom he's supposedly based. Heavily cut for various reissues; often shown in b&w. (163 mins.)

My Rating: ***

DUPLICITY (2009)

2009-10-05T17:05:00.001-07:00

Starring: Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Tom Wilkinson & Paul

Giamatti

Director: Tony Gilroy

If you know your con-game movies, then you're familiar with the differences between short cons and long cons. The short con is all about making a quick buck -- like getting a bartender to give you change for a 20, when you really paid with a 10. Long cons, on the other hand, require months, if not years, of setup, and come with a payoff to match. They also make for timeless movies like The Sting, The Grifters, House of Games, and Tony Gilroy's Duplicity. Like those other time-tested con movies, Duplicity is about more than just lying, deceit, and trickery -- the story's mind games also serve as a metaphor for bigger issues -- in this case, love. In the opening scene, Ray Koval (Clive Owen) seduces Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts) at a cocktail party thrown by the government of Dubai. Their passionate night together ends with him drugged, and her taking pictures of some sensitive documents in his possession -- and thus begins a most unusual courtship between people who inherently mistrust everyone around them. It would be just plain wrong to reveal much more about the plot, but years later, the two end up on opposite sides of some serious corporate espionage, and their time together in the past has more of an effect on their present than anyone -- the characters or the audience -- really understands.

Tony Gilroy proved that he could fashion an airtight thriller with Michael Clayton, and he's done it again here. The complex plot never confuses viewers -- you always know where you are in the story. And even if, at a given moment, you don't know why characters are having the same word-for-word conversation in totally different times and places, you can trust it will all make sense in the end.

In addition to creating a brain-twisting thriller full of double agents and triple crosses,Gilroy also makes Duplicity a credible romantic comedy at the same time thanks to dialogue that sparkles with humor -- the kind of dialogue actors kill to say. Clive Owen knows how to deliver a laugh line, and he gets more than his fair share of them, but it's his ability to charm his victims -- he makes it seem like it's fun to be lied to -- that makes him ideally suited for the part. And while we're on the subject of charm, Julia Roberts can still flash that 1,000-watt smile, but she's also grown into a more confident actress, able to play cold and calculating just as effortlessly as she can warm and charming. Together, they make a smart and sexy pair, entirely different from their battling lovers in Closer. While Owen andRoberts may anchor the movie, the whole cast gets to have fun, especially Tom Wilkinsonand Paul Giamatti as feuding corporate CEOs. Their first confrontation makes for a hysterically funny opening credit sequence. Wilkinson gives his business tycoon a know-it-all smugness that conflicts hilariously with Giamatti's paranoid and angry character -- he's half Gordon Gekko and half Donald Duck. And Carrie Preston steals her few scenes as a corporate travel planner who falls for all of Ray's considerable charms. But, however strong the acting is, Tony Gilroy deserves the lion's share of credit for making such a delightful movie. His writing and direction find the perfect balance of comedy, sexiness, and tension. The con-game elements may drive the story, but it's the romantic comedy that givesDuplicity heart and soul. (125 mins.)

My Rating: ***

THE DEVIL'S EYE (1960)

2009-10-01T20:40:00.001-07:00

Starring: Jarl Kulle, Bibi Andersson, Nils Poppe & Sture Lagerwall

Director: Ingmar Bergman

A woman's chastity gives the Devil sty in his eye, so he sends Don Juan back to Earth from Hell to seduce her, but the modern-day woman finds his old-fashioned charm amusing rather than irresistible. Droll Bergman comedy is a bit slow, but witty and playful.

Bits of the Bergman elegance and insight, snips of humor and captivating paradoxical detail. (90 mins.)

My Rating: ***

THE BODY SNATCHER (1945)

2009-10-01T20:26:00.000-07:00

Starring: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell, Edith Atwater, Russell Wade & Rita Corday.

Director: Robert Wise

Fine, atmospheric tale from Robert Louis Stevenson short story of doctor (Daniell) who is forced to deal with scurrilous character (Karloff) in order to get cadavers for experiments. Last film to team Karloff and Lugosi, their scenes together are eerie and compelling. One of the classic Val Lewton thrillers. Screenplay by Philip MacDonald and Carlos Keith (Lewton).

A doctor is blackmailed by a villainous coachman when he wishes to stop securing bodies for medical research in Scotland of the 19th century. For horror fans, this is one of the best; for others, a good and chilling version of Robert Louis Stevenson's tale. (77 mins.)

My Rating; ***

TORTURED (2008)

2009-09-30T23:35:00.000-07:00

Starring: Cole Hauser, James Cromwell & Laurence Fishburne

Director: Nolan Lebovitz

An FBI agent in the midst of a crucial undercover investigation resorts to extreme measures in order to prove himself in this crime thriller starring Cole Hauser, James Cromwell, andLaurence Fishburne. FBI agent Kevin Cole (Hauser) is under direct orders from powerful crime boss Ziggy to track down millions in stolen cash. As he begins to turn the screws on the shady mob accountant (Fishburne) who may just have all the answers, Agent Cole realizes that the is slowly slipping though his fingers. The mind games have begun, and in a world where ruthlessness is essential to survival, your most recent lie could well be your last. Emmanuelle Chriqui co-stars.

A complex but convoluted FBI crime-drama that will leave you tired and hanging on what's really happening. (107 mins.)

My Rating: **

THE MAGICIAN (1958)

2009-09-30T23:19:00.000-07:00

Starring: Max Von Sydow, Ingrid Tullin, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Naima Wifstrand, Bibi Andersson & Erland Josephson.

Director: Ingmar Bergman

An early Ingmar Bergman-directed film that will tingle your spine and stimulate your brain. The supernatural, comic, mystical and the human mingle in this imaginative tale of a magician and his troupe who are detained in a small Swedish community when their magical powers are disbelieved. Visually rich, gothic atmosphere.

Complex, provocative account of Albert Emmanuel Vogler (Von Sydow), a 19th-century hypnotist-magician who has studied with Mesmer but finds himself debt-ridden and charged with blasphemy. A thoughtful (and too-long underrated) portrait of a man who is part-faker, part-genius. (102 mins.)

My Rating: ***

TORMENT (1944)

2009-09-30T23:11:00.000-07:00

Starring: Mai Zetterling, Stig Jarrel, Alf Kjellin, Olof Winnerstrand.

Director: Alf Sjoberg

Schoolboy (Kjellin) and girl he falls in love with (Zetterling) are hounded by sadistic teacher (Jarrel).

Moody and evocative, with a script by Ingmar Bergman. Also known as FRENZY. (100 mins.)

My Rating: ***

TOOTSIE (1982)

2009-09-30T22:46:00.000-07:00

Starring: Dustin Hoffman

Director: Sydney Pollack

It's been a long time since we've had such an uproarious comedy and such a wonderful, poignant drama. Dustin Hoffman's portrayal is no in-drag impersonation but a subtle, well-conceived comedy coup.

He plays Michael Dorsey, an actor who knows he's terrific but can't get a job. When his agent, played with great comic flair by the film's director, Sydney Pollack, tells him he is unemployable, Hoffman dresses as a woman and gets a job playing a tough, liberation-minded administrator of a hospital in a television soap opera.

Screenwriters Larry Gelbert, Murray Schisgal, and uncredited Elaine May, have penned a yarn that is tasteful, insightful, and hilarious.

Jessica Lang won Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Bill Murray appears unbilled. Film debut of Geena Davis. (116 mins.).

My Rating: ****

NAKED CITY (1948)

2009-09-29T22:55:00.000-07:00

Starring: Barry Fitzgerald & Don Taylor

Director: Jules Dassin

Detailed story of a police investigation into the murder of a model takes the backseat to the star of this movie--New York City. Pace-setting location filming helps this interesting crime-drama that was the basis for the superior and long-running TV series. Producer-narrator Mark Hollinger died shortly before the premier showing.

Fitzgerald is still first-rate, cast against type as the detective in charge, and the cast is peppered with soon-to-be familiar character actors (Arthur O'Connell, Paul Ford, James Gregory, Celia Adler, et al.). Cinematographer William Daniels and editor Paul Weatherwax won Oscars for their work. Screenplay by Albert Maltz and Malvin Wald. (96 mins.)

My Rating: ***

L 'AVVENTURA (1960)

2009-09-27T22:33:00.000-07:00

Starring: Monica Vitti & Gabriele Ferzetti

Director: Michaelangelo Antonioni

Director Michaelangelo Antonioni's studied, enormously perceptive film about empty relationships in an unfeeling world. Story superficially concerns the disappearance of a girl, and the search for her by her lover and her best friend. The slow pace of the film contributes to its overall impact.

Subtle, incisive allegory of spiritual and moral decay makes for demanding viewing. Antonioni's first international success was also the first of a trilogy (followed by LA NOTTE and L 'ECLISSE).

Winner of the Special Jury Award at Cannes. Italian with English subtitles. (145 mins.)

My Rating: ***

JUST BEFORE NIGHTFALL (1971)

2009-09-27T22:23:00.001-07:00

Starring: Michel Bouquet & Francois Perier

Director: Claude Chabrol

Claude Chabrol, the French filmmaker known for his masterful explorations of crime, suspense, and the darker sides of human nature, directed this drama about a man forced to come to terms with his double life. Charles Masson (Michel Bouquet) is a successful ad man with a loving wife, Helene (Stephane Audran), two children, and a close friendship with his next-door neighbor Francois Tellier (Francois Perier), an architect who designed both of their houses. However, Charles has a secret -- he's been having an affair with Francois's wife Laura (Anna Douking). Charles and Laura share an enthusiasm for sadomasochism, and one night while mock-strangling her during lovemaking, Charles goes too far and kills Laura. At first, Charles seems to get away Scot free -- he's not considered a suspect, and while someone did see him leave the scene of the crime, that person declines to inform the police. But Charles cannot escape his conscience, and he eventually feels compelled to tell both Helene and Francois, neither of whom react with any particular shock or dismay. Juste Avant La Nuit was adapted by Chabrol from a novel of the same name by Edouard Atiyah. (100 mins.)

My Rating: ***

SHUTTER (2008)

2009-09-27T21:47:00.000-07:00

Starring: Joshua Jackson

Director: Masayuki Ochiai

Ghostly images appearing in pictures are nothing new. Neither are long-haired, sepulchral Japanese women dressed in white, moving slowly and looking ominous (see The Grudge). Yet Masayuki Ochiai's Shutter repackages these tired horror tropes into something effectively chilling, despite the fact that it isn't the least bit new or inventive. Shutter feels like the latest in a trend that's been bled dry, namely, Hollywood remaking Japanese horror movies -- yet it's actually an update of a Thai film, directed by a Japanese director, set in Japan and featuring American actors. This idiom is certainly familiar enough, but settingShutter apart is its relatively clean and straightforward script. Neither huge logical leaps nor clarifications of who's who/what's happening, are necessary to wade through its brisk 85 minutes, which leaves Ochiai free to concentrate on his eerie set pieces. Jaded viewers may find themselves embarrassed to be producing such a reaction, considering Shutter's massive debt to other films, but the fact remains -- these fleeting images in the "spirit photos" do leave a viewer feeling disquieted, and sometimes downright spooked. When the spirit, a lonely girl who stalked her unrequited love (Joshua Jackson), manifests herself physically, it's a bit more clearly recognizable as a hackneyed theft from the Grudge andRing movies. But even if he isn't reinventing the wheel, Ochiai utilizes his familiar images as well as possible given our familiarity with them -- and thereby underscores what made them unsettling in the first place. Shutter will never be confused for anything more than an anonymous genre film with a generic title, but it's slightly less anonymous and generic than it could have been, which makes it worth recommending on some level -- especially relative to the other anonymous and generic options out there. (85 mins.)

My Rating: BOMB

TWO LOVERS (2008)

2009-09-27T21:35:00.000-07:00

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix & Gwyneth Paltrow

Director: James Gray

A depressed young man moves back in with his parents and finds his life turned upside down as he struggles to choose between the beautiful daughter of a close family friend and the scintillating but volatile next-door neighbor whose passion helps to reignite his lust for life. The third screen outing for writer/director James Gray and actor Joaquin Phoenix following We Own the Night and The Yards.

Directing a movie is all about establishing and maintaining a consistent tone. When the editing, art direction, and cinematography all complement each other -- and when the actors understand how subtly they need to play each scene -- that's when a filmmaker has greatness within reach. James Gray achieves just that with Two Lovers because he tells a story of emotionally operatic proportion in the tone of a gentle whisper.

Phoenix drives the movie with a remarkable performance as a simple man who's as torn apart by his passions as he is compelled to act on them. Taking advantage of the nuances in the script, Phoenix plays all of these internal struggles without resorting to James Dean-inspired brooding. Phoenix reveals the depth of Leonard's pain in the character's everyday conversations.

The entire story practically begs for scenes with huge cathartic upheavals -- the kind of scenes that make their way into Oscar highlight reels -- but instead Gray plays everything close to the vest because he knows that's exactly what his characters would do. (110 mins.)

My Rating: ***

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976)

2009-09-18T23:24:00.000-07:00

Starring: David Bowie & Rip Torn

Director: Nicolas Roeg

A moody, cerebral science-fiction thriller about an alien (David Bowie) who becomes trapped on our planet. Its occasional ambiguities are overpowered by sheer mind-tugging bizarreness and directorial brilliance.

Title character ostensibly heads world conglomerate, but is actually here to find water for his planet. Highly original, fabulously photographed adaptation of Walter Tevis' classic fantasy novel is riveting for the first two-thirds, goes downhill toward the end. Still tops of its kind. (140 mins.)

My Rating: ***1/2

RICHARD III (1955)

2009-09-18T23:11:00.001-07:00

Starring & Director: Laurence Olivier

Elaborate if stagy version of Shakespeare's chronicle of ambitious 15th century British king and his court intrigues.

Once again, as in Henry V and Hamlet, England's foremost player displays his near-matchless acting and directing skills in bringing Shakespeare to life on film. His royal crookback usurper is beautifully malevolent, a completely intriguing, smiling villain. This film fascinates from first to last. (161 mins.)

My Rating: ***1/2

THE OMEGA MAN (1971)

2009-09-02T03:02:00.002-07:00

Starring: Charlton Heston

Director: Boris Sagal

Visually striking but unsatisfying second filming of Richard Matheson's sci-fi thriller I Am Legend. Heston is under siege by a race of zombies spawned by apocalyptic germ warfare. Heston is superior to Vincent Price (who had role in THE LAST MAN ON EARTH).

Heston does a last-man-on-Earth number in this free adaptation. The novel's vampirism has been toned down, but Chuck still is holed up in his high-rise mansion by night, and killing robed (and sleeping) zombies by day. Although this is no more faithful to Matheson's work than 1964's The Last Man On Earth, it has enough throat-grabbing suspense to keep it moving. (98 mins.)

My Rating: ***