Crash / * (R)

Jean: Sandra Bullock
Graham: Don Cheadle
Officer Ryan: Matt Dillon
Officer Hanson: Ryan Phillippe
Ria: Jennifer EspositoRick: Brendan Fraser
Cameron: Terrence HowardChristine: Thandie Newton
Anthony: Chris “Ludacris” Bridges
Peter Waters: Larenz Tate
Daniel: Michael Pena

Lions Gate Films presents a film directed by Paul Haggis. Written by Haggis and Robert Moresco. Running time: 100 min. Rated R (for language, sexual content and some violence).

What ever happened to the race issue? Is Spike Lee the only director allowed to make a film critiquing the Land of the Free on tolerance? No, in fact many other directors make comments here and there, but few are willing to take the modern race problem on in full engagement and Paul Haggis’s film Crash may be evidence as to why. Crash is an overwrought, schmaltzy, embarrassment of an indictment on the American condition of prejudice and racial hatred.

Film critics Roger Ebert and his former counterpart Gene Siskel often said the success of a movie lies not in what it is about, but how it is about.* Haggis’s intentions with this film are no doubt noble in nature. He tries to deal with the subtleties of racism in this country. The things people do without even thinking about it that have serious racist implications. Unfortunately, he fails to present these subtle ideas in a subtle manner. Instead he overstates his case against us inhumane beings with the heavy-handedness of pure dreck.

Haggis borrows director Robert Altman’s modus operandi of telling multiple interweaving character storylines to create a complete universe reflecting, in theory, several points of perspective. Haggis does not, however, impart Altman’s unique sense of reality on events. He imbues his film with an almost other worldly quality, as if it were some sort of fantasy, utilizing angelic voices on the soundtrack and numerous slow motion takes. It is as if he is going for some sort of operatic style, and he succeeds at that, but it seems to be in direct conflict with the material at hand.

Most of the film is presented in flashback. The film opens after a car accident involving two police detectives (Don Cheadle, Oceans Twelve and Jennifer Esposito, Taxi) and an Asian American woman. After we discover that these detectives are already at their crime scene where a young man has been discovered murdered at the edge of the highway, the film jumps back to the previous day and builds to the point at which the audience came in again. Usually a device like this has an importance in the overall picture of the story, but here it seems designed merely to conceal a surprise relationship between two of the film’s characters.

Like most of these character pastiche movies, all of these characters’ lives overlap and interlock. There are the two detectives who are also sleeping with each other, the upper class politician (Brendan Fraser, The Quiet American) and his wife (Sandra Bullock, Miss Congeniality), the wet-behind-the-ears idealist rookie cop (Ryan Phillippe, Gosford Park) and his bigoted veteran partner (Matt Dillon, City of Ghosts), the Hollywood affirmative action/ forced diversity black television director (Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow) and his trophy not-quite-so black country club wife (Thandie Newton, The Truth About Charlie), the two gang banger thieves (Chris Bridges, a.k.a. Ludacris and Larenz Tate, Ray) spouting modern racist pseudo-philosophy, a Persian family of shop owners who are mistaken for Arabs, and a Hispanic locksmith (Michael Pena, Million Dollar Baby) who has moved his family to a better neighborhood so his daughter (Ashlyn Sanchez) doesn’t have to grow up with the threat of drive-by shootings. Save for Daniel, the locksmith, every one of these characters is blatantly and rudely racist in almost every situation in which the audience finds them. Raising their voices for all the hear when making some vulgar comment about someone of differing ethnicity or background, these characters seem almost proud of the fact that they can offend and alienate friends, family and strangers alike at any given moment. And all the characters are racist at the same level. There is very little variation of degree to the bigotry presented here.

Writers Haggis and Robert Moresco attempt to inject some humanity into these characters by filling out their lives with the tragedy of life and some sort of backwards morality arc, but this method can hardly compensate for the grossly exaggerated racist caricatures which he establishes for each from the beginning. Dillon’s veteran LAPD bigot is probably the best example of this. His character is the most proud of his racism although the others aspire to his level. First we see him essentially sexually assault the Hollywood TV director’s wife during a racially motivate traffic violation stop, then to punch the point home he berates a black desk jockey at his father’s health insurance provider’s office for the poor coverage, not implying, but outright stating a more qualified white employee would be better suited for the job of assisting clients. Then he becomes the hero cop when he saves a woman from a car accident who ironically is that same Hollywood television director’s wife he molested on the street earlier in the film. Aw! All is forgiven. Not really, but to show that the guy really does have it tough we also get to see him struggling with his father’s failing bodily functions throughout the film.

Phillippe’s pure-minded rookie offers a ray of hope along with the locksmith and his daughter, but it is fleeting and fake hope respectively. My hope is that Phillippe protested and threatened to drop out of the picture if the writers didn’t promise to at least attempt to explain his character’s utterly unmotivated turn from total tolerance to full out racial profiling at the turn of a radio station dial. But that explanation must have been cut from the film without Phillippe’s knowledge. Maybe he’ll sue. And what the filmmakers do with the fate of Daniel’s daughter is outright dramatic exploitation and should be taught in film school as something even lower than a cheap shot at the audience’s heartstrings. It probably is, but not with the negative connotation I infer here.

So often genre pictures, like comedies or horror films, are judged harshly for their exploitative nature. This comedy relies too heavily on fart jokes, or that horror flick just jolts its audience to death without providing any thought provoking terror. But it seems that drama is never as adroitly scrutinized. Yes, there are powerful performances. Yes, Haggis paints some beautiful pictures and establishes a connected universe. Yes, the film carries an important message about tolerance. But the heavy-handed nature of its delivery detracts from its effect. I can’t remember the last time the rotation muscles in my eyes got such a workout. I got dizzy my eyes were rolling around in their sockets so much during this film.

Are we just supposed to accept this bigotry as the way it is and always will be because there is not discrimination as to who is infected by it in this movie? If everyone were as intolerant as the people in this film, the state of race relations in this country would be much worse off than they are today. We might look like a country like Rwanda, where genocide knocks at the door on a daily basis. By the final shot in the film where another car accident brings the movie full circle and we see the health insurance desk jockey jump out of the ruined car spewing racial epithets at the driver who rear ended her, whose racial orientation is really a moot point by this stage in the film, I thought maybe I was supposed to applaud because she was a bigoted jackass too.

* I feel it should be noted, since I invoked his name in my negative review of this film that, Chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert felt very differently about this film than I did. You can read his four star review by clicking his link located under my ratings chart.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit / ***½ (G)

Featuring the voices of:
Wallace: Peter Sallis
Lord Victor Quartermaine: Ralph Fiennes
Lady Tottington: Helena Bonham Carter
PC Mackintosh: Peter Kay
Mrs. Mulch: Liz Smith
Rev. Clement Hedges: Nicholas Smith

DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Features present a film directed by Nick Park and Steve Box. Written by Bob Baker, Mark Burton, Box and Park. Running time: 85 min. Rated G.

For some reason stop motion animation seems like one of the most magical of the film arts, which are so often characterized as magical to begin with (at least by film freaks such as myself). Many critics suggest the very nature of its illusion; essentially taking still photographs of clay puppets -- 24 frames for every second of run time -- with just the slightest of adjustment between each shot and putting them all together to form the illusion of movement; makes this animation format so fascinating to audiences. Another reason might be because it is so rarely seen, especially on the big screen. The time involved in creating a feature-length stop-motion animation is so great studios are not keen on the idea of investing in such an endeavor that may not capture an audience. In the characters of Wallace & Gromit, however, Aardman and DreamWorks have a property that has already proven its ability to please the masses with three previous Oscar nominated shorts, two of which won the coveted trophy.

Wallace & Gromit are… wacky absent-minded inventor and his trusty dog who saves his master from his own folly, respectively. In this their first feature-length adventure The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, we find master and dog the proprietors of a successful pest control company, wittily named Anti-Pesto, in a city obsessed with vegetables. A city with such a large obsession with large veggies it is undoubtedly going to have a large rabbit problem, but not until Anti-Pesto is commissioned to solve the problem humanely and Wallace (Peter Sallis) begins to experiment like a mad scientist with ways to psychologically motivate the bunnies off veggies does the town have a problem with a large rabbit. A were-rabbit, that craves veggies on a manic level when the moon is full, a result of Wallace’s inventions in a scene that recalls Victor Frankenstein’s monster creation and countless other schlock scientists from B horror movies.

Like creators Nick Park and Steve Box’s previous claymation feature Chicken Run, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit delights in referencing a pantheon of classic films. While Chicken Run ran the gamut of prisoner of war films, from Stalag 17 to The Great Escape; Were-Rabbit stays mainly within the tamer regions of the horror genre riffing on films like Jaws, The Hound of the Baskervilles, King Kong, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and even legends like Jack the Ripper along with the direct references to Universal Studios classic monsters like Wolf Man. Even more so than making specific film references in the genre of classic monsters, Park and Box succeed in evoking the feel of those classic films in their miniature sets and environments. Every stand-by location, from the mad scientists’ lab and dungeon to the gothic mansion to the church and graveyard, is utilized, bringing back memories from childhood of Saturday afternoon horror marathons on the Boston local stations. The townspeople even form an angry mob by the end of the program with crazy coots calling for someone’s head and people brandishing pitchforks and torches.

One element of the classic horror monster film is a love triangle of sorts. Wallace plays the part of the tortured scientist, who is seen with sympathy by the rich philanthropist, in this case Lady Tottington (Helena Bohnam Carter, Corpse Bride). But of course the good Lady has other suitors, such as the hotheaded, big game hunter Lord Victor Quartermaine (Ralph Fiennes, The Constant Gardner), who pretends to be sincere when all he is after is her fortune. The fact that he is not entirely honest is made clear early on when his toupee is sucked up into Wallace’s humane rabbit vacuum. Another great laugh is nabbed when Quartermaine loses his hair a second time near the end of the story. His replacement cap successfully emasculates him.

The strength of the Wallace & Gromit vehicle lies in the mute Gromit. The dog acts as the audience’s eyes, the commentator on the events, and the true brains of the operation. It is Gromit who solves the mystery of the Were-Rabbit and Gromit who provides most of the film’s hard laughs. Gromit himself is caught up in the town’s obsession with veggies and plans to enter his own giant gourd in the annual contest that everyone is anticipating. He treats his prize veg with the care of a parent nursing a sick child, and when he is forced to choose between helping his friend Wallace and possibly sacrificing his gourd, the results are both touching and humorous.

It is often hard to express the joy certain pictures carry with them. I mean just look at the supporting character names: PC Macintosh? That’s just great! Wallace & Gromit capture something that has been lost in films for some time. It is in a format (claymation) from a simpler time in movies. It is a movie that is fun for what it is, not for what it is trying to be and it has a mind for other films made in the same fun nature. Wallace & Gromit themselves are uncomplicated characters that are just a joy to be with. With a solid shot at anther Oscar nod now that the Academy has added an animated feature category, hopefully this will not be the last time this duo finds their way onto the big screen. The animation may actually be a trick, but the results are certainly a treat.

Rock School / ***½ (R)

Featuring:
Paul Green, C.J. Tywoniak, Will O’Connor, Madi Diaz Svalgard, Tucker Collins, Asa Collins, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Eric Svalgard, Andrea Collins, Chris Lampson, Monique Del Rosario, Brandon King, Lisa Rubens, Lisa Green, Jimmy Carl Black.

Newmarket Films presents a documentary directed by Don Argott. Running Time: 93 min. Rated R (for language).

The opening of the documentary Rock School shows us a twelve year old playing the guitar riffs of Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” as if he were the legend himself. The kid plays the famous solo note for note, exactly as we all know it from Santana’s studio recording. We think from this introduction that this will be a film about musical prodigies taking a whack at a pop culture rock movement that we’d all like a taste of. Some might even get the impression from the perfect mimicry that the musical landscape of the child performers will merely be a stale replica of the rock music many of us idolize. Instead Rock School is a testament to the power of music and how wonderfully it can be used as a tool for teaching lessons of life and maturation of self. Even more so it is an amazing character study of Paul Green, the man who founded one of the most popular independent music programs in the country and was the basis for the character portrayed by Jack Black in the movie School of Rock.

We learn that Green was a struggling musician, trying to run the racket of being in a band, getting gigs, getting his kicks doing what he loved, playing rock music. Of course, it wasn’t the life we get to read about and see in the rock magazines. He was poor, struggling and dealing with typical non-success problems like band break ups and even successful band problems like artistic differences. As a kick, he would get together with kids and do sort of tutorial/appreciation session that eventually evolved into his own rock school. The Paul Green School of Rock Music soon had a list of thousands vying to enroll to its rock teachings for 9 to 16 year-olds. There are different programs for different skill levels and each program level gets practical experience by putting on themed concerts. In this film the beginner program puts on an evening of Black Sabbath songs while the All-Star group practices for a Frank Zappa tribute festival held in Germany each year called Zappanale, which serves as the climax to the film.
We start out by meeting several of the school’s students of various levels of accomplishment.

There are the Collins twins, Tucker and Asa, who in Green’s own words “will probably never be any good.” CJ is the twelve year old from the opening, who is already a guitar god and clearly is the school’s biggest success and star. Madi seems to be Green’s favorite in the way his own child might be “favored” in his program. He is clearly harder on her than any one else because he “sees so much potential in her.” He ridicules her at first for wanting to play Sheryl Crow songs, but she ends up soaring in her moments in the Zappa All-Stars. And Will is Green’s personal hard luck case, a kid who was never given a chance in life before Green asked him to attend his school. Although Will is “piss poor” according to Green “and will probably never get any better,” he is the best example of the school’s success and worthiness as an institution that can shape and improve the lives of its students.

The parents also are represented in a few cases. Andrea Collins is a great example of one of those parents who is living her own dream vicariously through her children, which may explain why the twins’ commitment level isn’t quite up to some of the other student’s standards. She describes her self as like a “soccer mom” but with a different twist. It is clear who is really getting something out of the school during a scene in which she is preparing the twins for their Black Sabbath concert as she discusses with them why one of them can have an inverted cross on his head and the other can’t. It has something to do with the particular Ozzy Osborne outfit each is wearing.

Green himself is a character above and beyond anything Jack Black presents in the Hollywood movie with all the cute kids. Sure I could see Black playing this guy as he really is, but then no one would like him anymore. Green is a raving maniac who yells at his students, curses incessantly and is stuck in a time of music that is revered but most certainly past. He admits that he probably couldn’t have made in the rock world today because he is really in love with the rock world of 1972. But it is his passion and devotion to the music that he does love that drives this school and fills so many of his students with a purpose in life.

Green cannot be accused of not caring. There is a scene with his infant son where he is already trying to get the kid to strum a cord. “They are never too young to start… Can you say Jethro Tull?” He preaches rock as a way of life where there are no boundaries and he utilizes no boundaries in his teaching. He tells the nine year olds in his beginner group that the Black Sabbath concert is not about them or the music, “It’s about Satan.” He does not adhere to the current trend in education of never comparing students, but freely tells students, “She is better than you. What are you going to do about it?” He berates students for not understanding that these are classics that must be played in complete reverence. “Realizing you made a mistake isn’t enough! Don’t make mistakes! Not on ‘Rebel Yell’!!!!!”

Perhaps the most moving part of this film is the growth of Will. When Paul met Will, he was a kid whom no one had ever given a chance. It was thought by his family and doctors that he was mentally handicapped until a late age. He had attempted suicide on several occasions and had no friends. Green gives Will no special treatment. He was one of the kids who received the “Rebel Yell” lashing, but Will never speaks ill of Green. Will realizes that Green played an important role in his life and speaks more intelligently than anyone else in the film’s closing moments when he speaks of how he and Green finally parted ways.

I had my own rock mentor during my formative years in my best friend Trevor Walsh. He instilled me with a passion for listening to music, if not actually playing it. Music has meant a great deal to me in my life and Green’s passion for it displayed in this movie perfectly exemplifies how powerful music can be to all it touches. His passion overflows even into those whose don’t share it on the same level. The closing comments offered up by the twins say it all: “Party on,” and “Long live rock.” And the final concert by the Zappa All-Stars carries those seeds of discovery that can draw you into an obsession like music. My obsession continues and I’d like to ask my buddy Trev, “Do you have any suggestions for a good starting place to begin exploring Zappa?”

XXX: State of the Union / * (PG-13)

XXX/Darius Stone: Ice Cube
Agent Augustus Gibbons: Samuel L. Jackson
General George Deckert: Willem Defoe
Agent Kyle Steele: Scott Speedman
President James Sanford: Peter Strauss
Agent Toby Shavers: Michael Roof
Zeke: Xzibit
Lola Jackson: Nona Gaye

Columbia Pictures presents a film directed by Lee Tamahori. Written by Simon Kinberg. Running time: 98 min. Rated PG-13 (for sequences of intense action violence and some language).

Hello. My name is Andy Wells, and I am a movie addict. I have been watching movies since I was three years old, but I don’t think I really developed a movie-watching problem until I attended college. I mean I would go on movie binges from time to time before then, and everyone watches a stupid movie or two from time to time. A lot of the time I didn’t even know any better. But lately I fear I have been losing control of my movie watching habits. It was when I started watching movies with full knowledge that they would be harmful to my health that I knew I had to do something about my problem.

My life changing moment came the other night when I rented XXX: State of the Union starring Ice Cube (Are We There Yet?) as Darius Stone, the new XXX. The fact that he was the new XXX was one of the key indicators that my problem had become so severe that I needed to seek out help. You see, this is the second XXX movie, and I didn’t even like the first one starring Vin Diesel. I suppose if he had accepted the offer to star in this sequel his problem would have been an even bigger one than mine.

Another indication that I had lost control of my movie viewing sensibilities was my knowledge that this sequel itself was a bad movie. When XXX: SOTU opened in theaters in April, it received resoundingly negative reviews. It rates a whopping 15% on the Tomatometer at RottenTomatoes.com. Totally rotten. “Plays less like a sequel to XXX than a parody of it and the whole action genre.” -- Josh Bell, Las Vegas Weekly. “Succumbs to a depth of directorial incompetence not seen since the likes of Megaforce.” -- Erik Childress, Efilmcritic.com. And the coup de grace -- “A salt-lick of under-hung jackasses.” -- Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central.

XXX is supposed to be some sort of generation X James Bond, a Bond for the X-Games set, a grittier modern Bond, with all the absurdity and a hip coolness that appeals to the primary movie ticket buying demographic, the twentysomethings. At least that was what the first movie was supposed to be, with the second it has mutated into some sort of Bond in da ‘Hood with a Bond that is not suave and debonair, but moody, reclusive and disagreeable. And it is all directed by Lee Tamahori, who seems to understand the wall-to-wall action and gadgets of Bond (he directed the last Bond outing Die Another Day), but has no understanding whatsoever of the modern black gangsta flick. His use of urban setting like chop shops and a hip-hop soundtrack is a grosser example of exploitation than most films that made up the blacksploitation movement in ‘70’s cinema. Worse still neither his star nor his writer Simon Kinberg (Mr. & Mrs. Smith) has absolutely any intuition of the essential elements of the espionage/action genre. Ice Cube is like a cardboard cut out that makes no effort to draw in the audience or even other characters to achieve the illusion of a character who could accomplish half of what he does here. Kinberg writes in authority figures and political manipulation, impossible escapes and femme fatales, but shows no aptitude for putting them into logical use.

I felt sorry for poor Scott Speedman (Underworld), who by this time should have a contract out on his agent’s life. He walked through his role as the one sensible NSA agent other than the two heroes, played by Cube and Samuel L. Jackson (Coach Carter), as if he was watching his entire career flash before his eyes. And what about Jackson’s presence in this film? I believe loyalty to a role is a sign of an actor with a sense of responsibility to his fan base, the people that made him a star, but there comes a point when a script is bad enough that a good performer’s input just becomes another version of prostitution. And don’t think I’m letting Willem Defoe (Spider-Man) off as the heavy. Shame on you two!

I believe my breakthrough came as I entered the final act of the film and the climactic chase sequence that finds all our heroes and villains hurtling toward nowhere in particular at mach two in a secret Presidential escape train, because train tracks are so easy to keep out of plain sight from the general public, especially if they run along the most traveled interstate highway in the country. Even as the plot approached this abhorrent absurdity, I found my jaw slacking open from the literally mind numbing experience. Like some sort of sedative had been injected into my bloodstream, the extremities of my vision began to blur and drool started flowing unabated out of my mouth. I felt my own braindamage begin to set in.

Luckily, my meltdown was only temporary… this time. I had to think about my family. My reputation. What would people say when they found out I had even held a movie this idiotic in my hands? I imagined many people could tell just by looking at me. Did I look like a stroke victim? Was there a portion of my face that had remained in its retarded revulsion brought by this cinematic idiocy? I couldn’t risk it anymore.

After just the beginning of months -- possibly years -- of therapy, my personal film aficionado physician says I am making progress. It is slow, but I’ll make it as long as I live one film at a time. I’m on step three of my rehabilitation program. I’ve already gone into my Netflix queue and deleted potentially harmful movies like The Pacifier and Transporter 2. Next, I moved important films like Fitzcarraldo and Nashville to the top of my queue. Now, I am confronting my friends and others I may have hurt. I am sorry. I hope you haven’t looked at movies like XXX: SOTU and rented them just because I have. I am ashamed to have seen it; and I hope you can forgive me.

Sahara / *** (PG-13)

Dirk Pitt: Matthew McConaughey
Al Giordino: Steve Zahn
Dr. Eva Rojas: Penelope Cruz
Massarde: Lambert Wilson
Admiral Sandecker: William H. Macy
General Kazim: Lennie James
Rudi Gunn: Rainn Wilson
Carl: Delroy Lindo

Paramount Pictures presents a film directed by Breck Eisner. Written by Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua C. Richards and James V. Hart. Based on the novel by Clive Cussler. Running time: 127 min. Rated PG-13 (for action-related violence).

In the opening scenes of Sahara, the audience is transported back to the American Civil War in grand Hollywood fashion, with explosions blasting left and right, extras dying in the background, and obviously a great deal of money being spent on an introduction setting that will not be revisited again after the first five minutes of the film have passed into memory. How do we know this Civil War setting will not be returned to? Because the trailers all showed Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn and Penelope Cruz running around the modern desert. As the Civil War introduction to the film closes with an ironclad war ship sailing off into the darkness during the battle, the intelligent audience member knows that much of the plot of the film will hinge upon the fate of this ironclad which mysteriously disappears after this introduction and that this would be a great point to shut off most of the cranial functions so you can just sit back and enjoy some escapist entertainment.

Sahara is an adventure in the vein of Indiana Jones with a taste of James Bond thrown in and it does a pretty good job providing an exciting and humorous action adventure. Plausibility be damned. Dirk Pitt is the dashing hero in this tale. Perhaps his is the worst name ever conjured up by an adventure novelist, although Clive Cussler seemed to provide fairly normal names for pretty much everyone else involved. He comes with standard comic foil in partner Al Giordino and damsel-in-distress/love interest Dr. Eva Rojas. All three are provided with an appropriately overcomplicated plot and moral-free power hungry villains to thwart. It isn’t quite as high class as James Bond or Indiana Jones, but with a bowl of popcorn thrown into the deal there can be no real complaints.

Most of the film’s success is due to the surprisingly effective action comedy team of McConaughey (Reign of Fire) and Zhan (Shattered Glass) as Dirk and Al respectively. The two are part of a marine salvage crew for NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency) under the direction of Admiral Jim Sandecker (William H. Macy, The Cooler). While on a salvage mission off the coast of West Africa, Dirk saves the life of World Health Organization doctor Eva Rojas (Cruz, Head in the Clouds), who is investigating the outbreak of what looks like a highly contagious disease along the lines of the Ebola virus. This eventually leads them into conflict with repressive dictator General Kazim (Lennie James, Snatch) and the French industrialist with whom he has struck a sinister business arrangement, Yves Massarde (Lambert Wilson, Catwoman). Not so surprisingly, dodging bullets, jumping out of exploding boats, chasing down deadly viruses and jumping on to speeding trains eventually leads our heroes to that missing ironclad from so many years ago.

McConaughey is effective as the debonair swashbuckler. He brings his brand of laid back southern charm to the archetype, which in turn allows for a more relaxed atmosphere to the action itself. He turns Bond into a man who doesn’t shave. He works well off Zahn’s comic zeal, offering up more hearty laughs than your average actioner. The two bicker like a married couple at times, yet are able to pull off the effect that they actually are action heroes, former military specialists.

Zahn is particularly surprising in what he brings to the fun. Zahn’s dry wit is intact and threatens to steal the show with his deadpan delivery of sarcasm, as in the final show down when Al returns from fixing something during a hail of artillery and Dirk asks him what took him so long, “I stopped for coffee.” “Did you get a receipt?” “Yeah, I got a receipt!” But he also does a great job selling his military training. He handles guns in this flick like a pro and nabs a typical muscle bound hero gag for himself in a scene where he is asked to drop his weapons and ends up with a large arsenal lying at his feet.

Sahara is nothing cinematically amazing, but it is pure fun. It is McConaughey and Zahn’s picture and the pair bring a charm to it no other pairing of leads could. I laughed a lot and never came anywhere near crying. This is a movie you watch with a smile. You may not remember it a few years down the line, but you’ll enjoy it now.

Oldboy / **** (R)

Oh Dae-su: Choi Min-sik
Lee Woo-jin: Yu Ji-tae
Mi-do: Kang Hye-jeong
No Joo-hwan: Ji Dae-han
Mr. Park: Oh Dal-su
Mr. Han: Kim Byoung-ok

Tartan Films presents a film directed by Park Chan-wook. Written by Hwang Jo-yun, Lim Joon-hyung and Park. Based on the story by Tsuchiya Garon and Minegishi Nobuaki. Running time: 120 min. Rated R (for strong violence including scenes of torture, sexuality and pervasive language).

Asian films have slowly been growing their own subculture amongst cinephiles over the last couple of decades. Anime started infiltrating the American film market in the late eighties with the release of Akira. Jackie Chan got a major foothold with comedic martial arts in the nineties along with the crime drama shootouts of John Woo. The aughts brought the Japanese costume swordplay and mystical arts dramas with the Best Picture Academy Award nominee Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon leading the charge, and introduced the Asian ghost story with a slew of American adaptations of Japanese horror after the surprise success of The Ring. The latest craze in Asian cinema is the stylized and twisted films of Korea. Oldboy was my personal introduction to Korean cinema, and it will be hard for any other films from that nation, or any, to top it.

Oldboy is violent, savage, brutal, beautiful and filmed with great care for the material and the characters. It is easy to see why Quentin Tarantino has been such an outspoken fan of this film. It is a revenge picture that is twisted and dark in a way an American filmmaker would not dare to explore in such an action driven genre. Whereas Tarantino fills his hardass characters with words and speech in lieu of the action, director Park Chan-wook (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) finds balance between the action and the drama, even using the action as the drama without the usual melodramatics of special effects. When his hero, brandishing a hammer, battles a hall full of goons armed with sticks, Chan-wook shows us the entire fight start to finish without cuts, following the slow progression down the hall, with the combatants stopping to get their breath, leaning over themselves to grope their wounds and gasp for air; and it is like no other fight scene before. The necessity of the fight is easier to feel by seeing the effort of it.

We are introduced to our hero Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik, Happy End) as a raving drunk, giving the local police in the station house a harder time than most. This is not the man we come to know throughout the film. Upon his release from the police station, with little thanks to his cousin No Joo-hwan (Ji Dae-han, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring), he is kidnapped and kept captive for 15 years. The details and circumstances of his captivity are best left discovered by the viewer and the reasons remain unknown for much of the film, a mystery Dae-su must seek the answer to upon his sudden release. Dae-su vows vengeance against his captors, but he can hardly imagine the cost of that vengeance when everything has played itself out.

One of the most striking elements of the film is how close to Hollywood the production values are. The picture is clean and crisp, not like the grainy 16 mm or digital appearance of so many other foreign films. Chan-wook utilizes the clean picture by creating beautiful imagery throughout the film. Dae-su’s release from his prison takes place in a grassy field on the top of a building. He pops out of an abandoned trunk -- reborn -- no longer a man without control; now a man with a singular purpose, to destroy the lives of the men who took his own away.

Dae-su’s prison itself reminded me of the used hotel look found in the Coen Brothers’ Barton Fink, a dreary place to spend the days that could warp your mind with its blood red walls and cheap outdated décor. Outside he meets a famous chef, whom he recognizes from television, his only contact with the outside world during his imprisonment. He strikes up a quick relationship with the chef, whom he knows only as Mi-do (Kang Hye-jeong, Three… Extremes), and then… Well, lets just say that is where things get kicked up a notch ---BAMM!

As I watched the first third of the movie, it was plain to see this was a skillfully made film; but I wondered what made it really special. As I learned more about Dae-su’s mysterious captor, Lee Woo-jin (Yu Ji-tae, Natural City), it became apparent that this really was more than a simple revenge flick. A sort of love triangle forms between the three primaries -- Dae-su, Woo-jin, and Mi-do -- not physically, although Dae-su and Mi-do express their passion for each other, but a dependency on each other is discovered. A theme of loneliness pervades each of their lives. The filmmakers use the characters’ isolation to bind them to each other.

The performances are top notch. I am surprised that Min-sik was not nominated for every acting award in every film festival in which this film competed. The man we are introduced to in the beginning of the film could be a completely different actor and the man who ends the film has endured such anguish, and Min-sik conveys it all as if he lived it all. His expressionistic face is both wonderful and horrifying, as is the beauty and brutality of his journey. Dae-su says he does not like the haircut he is given by his captors, but sometimes the hair makes the man.

I am amazed by Oldboy. I find it hard to express how intoxicating this film can be. It is a drunkenness that only continues to grow after the film has ended. I feel the only way to truly express the passion and pain found within this film is to rant and rave the way Dae-su does to the police during his introduction, or perhaps a more appropriate way to spread the appreciation of this film is to rampage through the halls, taking on hordes of mindless Michael Bay fans, shoving it in their faces, forcing them to see what quality film action actually looks and feels like. And if that doesn’t work maybe I should pull their teeth out with a hammer and bash in their skulls for their poor taste. That may be what Oldboy would do.

Red Eye / *** (PG-13)

Lisa: Rachel McAdams
Jack: Cillian Murphy
Cynthia: Jayma Mays
Dad: Brian Cox

DreamWorks SKG presents a film directed by Wes Craven. Written by Carl Ellsworth and Dan Foos. Running time: 85 min. Rated PG-13 (for some intense sequences of violence, and language).

Red Eye is a good solid thriller. It doesn’t offer anything new to the cinematic world, but it never gets tired. With a running time of 85 minutes, it has a quick pace and only concentrates on the vitals of the story, which is exactly as it should be. It has some shocking moments and a solid, albeit sparse cast. It may not be a movie you need to run out to see, but if you’re in the mood for a good old fashioned Hollywood thrill ride it does not disappoint.

Rachel McAdams stars as Lisa, a career focused manager of a high class Miami hotel, on the way home from her grandmother’s funeral in Texas. She meets a charming stranger named Jack, who through a series of seeming coincidences finds opportunity to warm up to this woman who seems to avoid personal relationships. The two find themselves sitting next to each other on the red eye flight back to Miami. Is it kismet, or something more sinister?

To pretend this is anything but a thriller would be needlessly misleading. Jack’s intentions are sinister and director Wes Craven’s heavy hand doesn’t seem interested in keeping this a secret; but that’s okay because the thrills are what the audience bought their tickets for. Jack works for an unnamed employer who has hired him to arrange for a big time financial figure to be in a certain room of Lisa’s hotel the next morning. Asking him for financial advice is not what this employer has in mind. In order to arrange this Jack is holding Lisa’s father’s life at stake. Lisa is the only hotel manager with the security clearance to arrange the room change.

Of course, the airplane cabin is a favorite film location for suspense, no wonder no real airlines allow their planes to be seen in these types of films. Craven (Scream trilogy) utilizes the claustrophobic space well, as Lisa is trapped on the window side with the knowledge that if she does anything to alter Jack’s plans, a man sitting outside her father’s house will kill him. After two attempts to let others on the plane know that something is terribly wrong with the man sitting next to her, screenwriter Carl Ellsworth (of syndicated TV shows like Cleopatra 2525) does a good job making it seem as if any more options she tries will only lead to her father’s assassination.

The film is grounded in McAdams’s performance. With this film and last summer’s sleeper romance The Notebook, she has successfully graduated from the prom queen witch with a “b” roles that dominated her early career in films like Mean Girls and The Hot Chick. Because of the nature of this film, it may not be a star making turn, but it proves she can carry a movie.

Cillian Murphy, as Jack, may be typing himself for American audiences as an all-out heavy considering this film and his other summer performance as The Scarecrow in Batman Begins, but he carries the menace well. With a boyish face that seems likeable, his full lips and large eyes give just a hint of something off-kilter, and those steely blues can be deadly. The casting is such an important element in a film that hangs so dependently on only two primary performers, and Craven gets it as close to perfection as is possible here.

It is also nice to see Brian Cox (The Bourne Supremacy) get a turn as a nice guy playing Lisa’s dad. This gifted actor gives dad that slightly odd ball feel that all us twenty and thirtysomethings see in our own parents’ behavior that convinces us they are just about to go off the deep end. And what a discovery Craven makes with newcomer Jayma Mays as Cynthia; Lisa’s fill-in manager while she’s out of town, who gets to deal with a less than typical night from hell in the hotel business. She’s one of those nice girls who gets to run around in panic as if someone has wrapped her legs in elastic, but she does it with such comedic grace that it would be hard not to fall in love with her for it.

This isn’t a perfect movie, there are times where the writer and director try hard enough to shock the audience that the puppet strings are visible, but the whole story is so tightly paced and so focused on getting to the point that it hardly matters. There is nothing extraneous in this film. The man who hires Jack is never revealed, nor are his reasons because they don’t matter to our heroine. Her only concern is for her father’s life and the lives of the people Jack would have her set up for execution. For the audience, only these two characters matter, whose lives are brought together for a singular purpose, to provide a thrill ride that requires only a little suspension of disbelief and a desire for some thrills in a darkened movie theater.

Must Love Dogs / ** (PG-13)

Sarah: Diane Lane
Jake: John Cusack
Carol: Elizabeth Perkins
Bill: Christopher Plummer
Bob: Dermot Mulroney
Dolly: Stockard Channing

Warner Bros. Pictures presents a film written and directed by Gary David Goldberg. Based on the novel by Claire Cook. Running time: 98 min. Rated PG-13 (for sexual content).

I realize it has been a long time since I was in the dating game, and I certainly thank the heavens that I don’t have to put myself through that type of heart-wrenching torture any longer (and with continuing good fortune, hopefully never again). But as I recall it, the search for “true love” was never fraught with all coincidences and misunderstandings of Hollywood’s ruminations on the dating game. In reality rejection was quick and only briefly painful, not the Hollywood life altering version; and hope rarely dangled, except in my imagination, with a series of near misses with the one for which I was destined.

Must Love Dogs is yet another in the growing canon of Hollywood love stories about two people who should no doubt be together in the audience’s eyes and yet can’t seem to figure it out themselves until at least an hour and a half have passed away from the audience’s lives. The film relies heavily on the strength of its stars charms, with Diane Lane (Unfaithful) and John Cusack (High Fidelity) playing the two recently divorced destined lovers and Dermot Mulroney (About Schmidt) even showing up also as a recent divorcee and second potential love interest for Lane. Boy, that is a lot of broken marriages to center a love story around. The movie is bogged down by its own weight, spending too much time trying to show how tough the relationship game is and not enough time on its rewards. In other words, this chick flick is depressing when it should be fun.

Lane plays Sarah, who, it is quickly established in the first scene with her overbearing family, has had trouble getting over her split with her husband. Her family holds a sad divorcee “intervention” by cornering her in her surprisingly high end home for a pre-school teacher, the lawyers must have treated her well anyway. They each bring pictures of potential love interests to pin up on her refrigerator; many of these potentials are already married, so I guess her family doesn’t quite get the concept of fidelity, which might explain why there are so many of them. Sarah’s ever meddling sister Carol (Elizabeth Perkins, The Ring Two) submits her profile to a dating website with the requirement “Must Love Dogs”, even though Sarah doesn’t actually own a dog; but she does look after her brother’s Newfoundland quite frequently because he’s experiencing marriage problems of his own. It’s an epidemic!

Jack (Cusack) is also suffering after the failure of his marriage. Apparently, he’s a hopeless romantic who has watched Doctor Zhivago more than any sensible person should, and yet somehow lost his wife due to his obsessive career as a wooden racing boat sculptor, of which he has never sold any. Don’t ask me how he is able to even buy enough food to eat. His existence can only be explained by the Hollywood mystery forces that require leads in romantic comedies to hold unique and unusual careers that magically allow them to live at the upper end of middle income America.

Jack is also a bit of a modern philosopher, something that Cusack manages to pull off as a charming characteristic even though the screenplay by director Gary David Goldberg gives his character the almost insurmountable obstacle of destroying every date he has with Sarah by talking too much and being too brutally honest. Goldberg, a veteran of TV who was largely responsible for the success of such sitcoms as Family Ties and Spin City, must have had some great tragedies in his own love life to take out all of this bitterness and emotional angst toward relationships on these two characters who really should be having a hell of a lot more fun together than they are.

One of the successes of the picture is the relationship between Sarah and her sister Carol. Perkins and Lane, who are rumored to be best friends in life, build a believable sibling rapport with two parts competition and one part love. Perkins seems to be allowing her character to live vicariously through Lane’s, although Goldberg miraculously has not inflicted marital problems on Carol as well. Carol does seem to show up at Sarah’s house at very unusual hours of the day for a woman with a family of her own -- a convenience of the plot that my own wife actually pointed out to me.

Goldberg does hit some other correct notes. Mulroney is perfectly cast, bringing the proper amount of charm to his divorcee competing for Sarah’s affection, yet keeping a little of the smarm in his back pocket so the audience will root for the right guy. And Sarah’s poet quoting father (Christopher Plummer, Alexander) gives one of the better explanations of old age philandering I’ve heard, although the fact that he brings three dates to family functions is not dealt with directly or humorously enough. But Goldberg plots far too many romantic comedy conventions. The lovers catch each other in about three too many misunderstood compromised positions. And it doesn’t have enough romantic comedy laughs. It could be he was trying to make a romantic drama, but those aren’t filled with such surface oriented characters. These characters want to be funny, but must face reality far too often for the comedy to withstand.

It is interesting that one of the characters in this movie is so obsessed with a romance classic like Doctor Zhivago, because the difference between a classic romance -- comedic or otherwise -- and our inferior modern romance standards struck me as the credits began to roll. It seems the lovers must be kept apart in order for there to even be a movie. Lovers realizing that the other lead is the person they are destined for would certainly shorten the running time of just about every romance ever made. In a classic romance the lover’s are kept apart by situations beyond their control. Modern romances have brought so much self-analysis into the lead characters that it is the characters themselves who keep themselves from seeing what is obvious to the audience. There have been some good romantic comedies made over the last decade and a half, but the last classic romantic comedy I can think of is When Harry Met Sally…. If you’re thinking of going to see Must Love Dogs, do yourself a favor and rent When Harry Met Sally… instead.

Downfall / **** (R)

Adolf Hitler: Bruno Ganz
Traudl Junge: Alexandra Maria Lara
Magda Goebbels: Corina Harfouch
Eva Braun: Juliane Kohler
Albert Speer: Heino Ferch
Dr. Schenck: Christian Berkel
Werner Haase: Matthias Habich
Wilhelm Mohnke: Andre Hinnicke
Peter Kranz: Donevan Gunia
Heinrich Himmler: Ulrich Noethen

Newmarket Films presents a film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. Written by Bernd Eichinger. Based on the book Inside Hitler’s Bunker by Joachim Fest, and the book Bis zur letzten Stunde by Traudl Junge and Melissa Muller. Running time: 155 min. Rated R (for strong violence, disturbing images and some nudity).

A few years ago, Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Feature). It was a very simple interview documentary with Traudl Junge recalling her experiences as Hitler’s secretary during the Second World War. Downfall, also nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category this year, is the dramatization of the final days in the Berlin bunker for Hitler and his staff. This new film is bookended by footage from the Junge documentary where she confesses not to have known of the genocidal atrocities committed by the Nazis under the orders of Hitler; although the dramatized material shows Junge seeing a more humane side to the man, his darker nature and intentions confound Junge and Hitler’s military staff, who understand little of what this madman was trying to accomplish during the final desperate days before his double suicide with Eva Braun.

It is fascinating, as an American filmgoer, to get a look at that great war from the German point of view. Admittedly, this film focuses on a period in the war when the German forces were crumbling and in general disarray, but it seems as if the Germans are still the bad guys in this one. More accurately they are the good guys and the bad guys, but nothing is so black and white in this film.

Bruno Ganz (The Manchurian Candidate) portrays Hitler as a man who once had a dream for his people. A man so convinced he is right that against all reason he chooses to remain in Berlin when it becomes obvious the city will fall to the Russian forces surrounding it, because his conviction will prove his cause’s worthiness to his people and the world, even if the Fuhrer must take his own life in the end. His military staff and their families alternate between those who see his folly clearly and want to abandon him but stay out of loyalty to the German cause, and those who are so brainwashed by their belief in the cause that they are willing to sacrifice themselves with the same vigorous insane rationale as Hitler himself. There are many who have already abandoned the cause and opted to leave Berlin to begin negotiations with the Allied Forces. Many of those people wear two faces, like Heinrich Himmler (Ulrich Noethen, The Red Jacket) who claims loyalty to Hitler’s face, while secretly opening negotiations with the Allies. “When I meet Eisenhower, should I give the Nazi salute, or shake his hand?”

It is said that most criminal acts are acts of desperation. Of course, the war crimes of the German officers of Hitler’s inner circle hang ever present over the proceedings presented here, although none of the genocide is ever actually dramatized; it has been seen enough in other films that its representation is unnecessary here. The desperation of these crimes is saturated throughout this picture, however. Hitler himself goes from soft moments of solitude to vociferous outrage during his strategy meetings, consciously defying any sensible advice due to his personal desperation to ensure meaning to his inevitable demise, while many of his officers fight in vain desperation to defend Berlin’s indefensible position from the Russian Army because that is what their Fuhrer has ordered them to do. The desperation of the German citizens is seen in the many nameless non-soldiers who are ravaged by the bombing raids and artillery fire as their leaders have abandoned their responsibility for them. A bomb hits a group of people, refugees in their own city, and seconds after the dust has cleared the people return to find out who was with them that is now lying dead in the street.

Director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Das Experiment) takes a sort of Altman-esque approach to the story, throwing a very large ensemble together, following multiple storylines. There are no real introductions to the characters, many of which need none for their infamy. Their jobs shape both their lives and the audience’s view of them. The SS commanders on the front line seem the most vulnerable. We root for them because they are in the line of fire. Although, really everyone here is in the line of fire. While Hitler himself, who shuts himself off from any realization of what is going on around him -- because of him -- becomes everyone’s enemy. Eva Braun (Juliane Kohler, Nowhere in Africa) is the consummate party girl, throwing a party in a ballroom above the bunker during an artillery raid, even trying to make the suicide pills seem fun to the secretaries. It is Magda Gobbles (Corina Harfouch, Hamlet X) who could be seen as the coldest heart, with her insistence on poisoning all the Goebbels children because “growing up in a socialist state would be worse than death.” It is a remarkable performance by Harfouch, who convinces us that someone could actually think that such an unthinkable act is the right thing to do.

Alexandra Maria Lara (Cowgirl) is the doe-eyed innocent secretary Frau Junge, who witnesses these events along with the audience. It is interesting how her role is not omnipresent, allowing the audience to interpret much of the events on their own but it is through Junge that we are treated to the rare glimpses of humanity from Hitler himself. Ganz, in his portrayal of the Fuhrer, gives a hint that he is a touch conflicted in his resolve, but he allows no other to see that he may have doubts about his mission. It is a very delicate performance in his quite moments, juxtaposed by the trapped animal that Hitler becomes for his officers who have nothing but bad news to give him.

Naturally Ganz’s performance as Hitler has gained most of the attention for this film with his range of emotions and madness, but the picture is very much an ensemble effort. The cast gives us a unique look into the psyche of a group of people who did what some could not understand for a time. These filmmakers realize that these people in that horrible bunker were people, just like anyone. Like anyone, desperate times create desperation in them all, and individuals deal with that desperation in a way dictated by their personality. Some ran away. Some pretended everything was all right. Some did their jobs. Some lied in order to survive, and Hitler thrashed like a caged animal.

The Upside of Anger / ***½ (R)

Terry Wolfmeyer: Joan Allen
Denny Davies: Kevin Costner
Andy: Erika Christensen
Popeye: Evan Rachel Wood
Emily: Keri Russell
Hadley: Alicia Witt
Shep: Mike Binder

New Line Cinema presents a film directed and written by Mike Binder. Running time 118 min. Rated R (for language, sexual situations, brief comic violence and some drug use).

I’ve been on a bit of a kick of late appreciating actors who have been held in less than high regard for their acting abilities. Certainly at the level to which marquee stars rise in their success they must have more than just luck behind them, even in those cases where those stars seem a bit monotonous in their performances. At about the time My Own Private Idaho made its Criterion Collection debut this spring I was watching a lot of Keanu Reeves films. His ability was arguable during his early efforts, but the kid made some incredible artistic choices in material and eventually came into his own as an actor. A few weeks ago I was surprised to find myself taking in all the William Shatner performances I could find, an underrated performer if ever there was one. I was very happy to see he snagged himself an Emmy nod for his work on Boston Legal. The new video release The Upside of Anger may just spur on my next underappreciated performer obsession with its wonderfully light and seemingly out of somber character performance by Kevin Costner.

While Costner’s performance is worth the rental price, The Upside of Anger is really Joan Allen’s movie. Allen (The Contender) plays Terry Wolfmeyer, a mother of four daughters whose husband has left them for a European rendezvous with his twenty-something Swedish secretary. Her story is told mostly through the eyes of her youngest daughter, nicknamed Popeye (Evan Rachel Wood, Thirteen), who fears her mother has lived her life through bitterness and anger since her father’s indiscretion. This observation is true, although her mother has a lot of help from alcohol.

Terry is a controlling woman, whose life has unraveled out of her control. It doesn’t help that this upheaval happens when her daughters have reached that age where they begin to take control of their own lives. Her oldest, Hadley (Alicia Witt, Mr. Holland’s Opus), is graduating from college with some surprises for her mom. Emily (Keri Russell, TV’s Felicity) wants to pursue an artistic career in dance, but seems to suffer from an eating disorder. And Andy (Erika Christensen, The Perfect Score) has decided against higher education all together in order to get a jump-start on her broadcasting career, taking a job at a local radio station as a PA for a womanizing producer who quickly mixes work and pleasure.

Amongst this whirlwind of female chaos Terry finds her somewhat floating along neighbor Denny Davies (Costner, Open Range), an aged (not aging) ex-ballplayer who is high half the time, drunk all the time, and has a whimsical approach to life that has appeal and relief to it. Denny saunters his way into the family, setting a series of events in motion that both add to and act as release from Terry’s slipping grasp on her life as she knows it.

The film, like its characters, segues back and forth between great comedy and great drama. Even in the tragic moments of Terry’s life there is comedy and even the levity is laced with poignancy. It is the idea of a relationship with Denny that causes the greatest distress at first. Denny is obviously glad to hear about the departure of Terry’s husband, and quickly tries to fill the physical and emotional void left in Terry. Denny, with his carefree existence as a radio jock, seems at first to be a minor league prize for a major league lady; but his charm is undeniable and soon Terry finds herself offering a roll in the sack to a startled Denny.

There are wonderful relationships explored between mother and daughters here, but the courtship between the film’s two stars is so endearing and odd and funny and real, it steals the whole show. Costner’s turn here reminds me of the wacky brother gunslinger he portrayed early in his career in the western Silverado. This character is a far cry from that one; but he is so free to be silly and just a little off kilter here, I smiled every time he came on the screen. Allen, on the other hand, embraces the severity of her character, utilizing some stern looks that have served her well in previous roles, but the character is put through such conflict emotionally that her severity works both ways, providing the wrenching drama from the actress we have come to expect and also providing stark contrasts with the way she wants to control a situation and how it comes out that her stern nature often becomes a tool of comedy.

Writer/director Mike Binder (HBO’s Mind of the Married Man) shows a natural affinity for presenting the calamity of real life. He puts just the right amount of absurdity into the lives of these characters to sell them off as the genuine articles. He casts himself as Denny’s producer and Andy’s boss/boyfriend Shep, and builds a great deal of comedic and cathartic material out of this essentially sideline player. Much of Terry’s titular anger is directed at Shep during his relationship with her daughter. Her imagining Shep’s head exploding at the dinner table one evening provides one of the film’s biggest laughs, while it is also Shep that shovels a load of hard to take truths at Terry when he can finally stand no more of her.

There are developments that should be left for the viewer to discover, but The Upside of Anger really looks at those happenings of life that people are always going through, yet can never imagine having to go through. Its absurdity and seriousness are important in their relationship to each other. Terry and Denny play important roles in each other’s lives that mirror that relationship of these seeming opposites. It is one of those films that is a pleasure to know someone had to realize it in order to conceive of it. Binder promises with this film to be a director and writer of keen insight into the human soul and condition.

Constantine / ***½ ( R )

John Constantine: Keanu Reeves
Angela and Isabel Dodson: Rachel Weisz
Chas: Shia LeBeouf
Gabriel: Tilda Swinton
Father Hennessy: Pruitt Taylor Vince
Midnite: Djimon Hounsou
Balthazar: Gavin Rossdale
Lucifer: Peter Stromare

Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures present a film directed by Francis Lawrence. Written by Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello, based on characters from the Hellblazer graphic novels. Running time: 120 min. Rated R (for violence and demonic images).

As a former comic book collector I feel as if I’m experiencing a slight advantage over most filmgoers at the metroplex lately with all the comic book superhero and graphic novel adaptations that Hollywood is spewing out. If so many of them weren’t so good, I’d probably find myself getting rather sick of the comic book invasion of the silver screen.

To be sure Hellblazer was one of my top five favorite comic books back in the days when I consumed the graphic literatures in mass quantities, so I bring an already established appreciation to the material. Of course the expectations of a true fan can also work against a Hollywood adaptation. The title character of the new horror/superhero film Constantine is a dealer in the dark arts of magic and witchcraft who concentrates his energies mostly with putting demons and devils back in their place, Hell. The John Constantine of the comic book is a bloody British bastard with almost no friends and an exponentially growing list of enemies, on this mortal coil and in the seven planes of hell. He is the furthest thing from a hero to ever work for the side of good, and he is quintessentially British. His dialogue balloons in the comic often need translation for American readers. So the choice of Los Angeles as the setting for this adaptation and the casting of Keanu Reeves (The Matrix series) in the title role seemed more like Hollywood financial and marketing compromise than solid artistic choices. I still think they missed their opportunity of the perfect American equivalent of the character by not casting Kiefer Sutherland as Constantine. But despite the slightly softer Reeves interpretation of Constantine and the location and culture changes, the filmmakers have done an astonishing job of preserving the mood and atmosphere of the Hellblazer comic book for this film.

In the movie, Constantine describes the human race as pawns in a game played between Heaven and Hell. God and Satan have wagered the souls of all men in a childish bet as Constantine sees it. “The rules are no direct contact, only influence. … Angels and Demons can't cross over into our plane. So, instead we get what I call half-breeds. The influence peddlers. They can only whisper in our ears.” Constantine’s role in the balance between good and evil seems to be to police those who are over stepping their bounds of influence in the mortal realm. But as minions from Hell start appearing on Earth, it seems someone has changed the rules.

The rouge demons focus their brief appearances on an L.A. detective, Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz, Enemy at the Gates), after the apparent suicide of her twin sister Isabel. Although she doesn’t believe in Constantine’s claims about God and Satan, Angela enlists his help because she also does not believe her sister is a suicide and events seem strange beyond explanation.

To fit in with Hollywood rules of structure, Constantine is surrounded by a supporting cast of magical helpers, including a sidekick/driver/apprentice, Chas (Shia LeBeouf, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle), a supernatural bar tender who favors neither side, Midnite (Djimon Hounsou, In America), an arch rival, Balthazar (Gavin Rossdale, yes, the front man for the band Bush), and a clairvoyant priest, Father Hennessy (Pruitt Taylor Vince, Identity). Although, in the comic book Constantine’s few friends were normal because most other supernatural warriors wanted nothing to do with him, this supporting cast strikes the right amount of relief for Constantine and is not overused or sentimentalized.

Constantine strikes up an intriguing relationship with the archangel Gabriel (Tilda Swinton, Adaptation) with his desire to buy his way into heaven by the deeds he does to keep the demons at bay. “It doesn’t work that way,” is Gabriel’s response. Some of the best material in the story is taken directly from “Dangerous Habits”, one of the early Hellblazer storylines in which Constantine tricks Lucifer into healing the lung cancer he has contracted from life long smoking. Peter Stromare (Fargo) chews some premier scenery as God’s fallen son Lucifer in the film’s final act.

First time feature director Francis Lawrence actions things up a bit for the film, outfitting Constantine with a cross-shaped automatic weapon. It isn’t as ludicrous as it sounds and, like the supporting cast, this weaponry is sparsely utilized. What is lavishly draped throughout this production is a searing landscape of production design. Production designer Naomi Shohan (Tears of the Sun) and cinematographer Philippe Rousselot (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) envision a sweltering Los Angeles to go along with a blistering Hell where the shimmering visuals nearly summon the stench of brimstone to the viewer’s nostrils. As in the Matrix movies Reeves finds himself swimming in a vibrant CGI world that proves the strengths of the technology, not the distraction of it.

As for how Constantine holds up to those without a previous initiation to this world where mortal men converse with the likes of Gabriel and Lucifer, I’m not really the one to say. The filmmakers provide a compelling story and Constantine himself remains, albeit not quite as intriguing as his comic book incarnation, a solid central figure who struggles with the meaning of his existence and is smart enough to outfox the forces of heaven and hell. Constantine is a dark, moody supernatural noir that remains true to its source material, providing a creepy story that sees mortal men co-existing in a twisted game with angels and devils. Now doesn’t that sound like a fun time at the cinema?

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory / ***½ (PG)

Willy Wonka: Johnny Depp
Charlie Bucket: Freddie Highmore
Grandpa Joe: David Kelly
Mrs. Bucket: Helena Bonham Carter
Mr. Bucket: Noah Taylor
Mrs. Beauregarde: Missi Pyle
Mr. Salt: James Fox
Oompa Loompa: Deep Roy
Veruca Salt: Julia Winter
Violet: Annasophia Robb
Mike Teavee: Jordan Fry
Augustus Gloop: Philip Wiegratz
Dr. Wonka: Christopher Lee

Warner Brothers Pictures presents a film directed by Tim Burton. Based on the book by Roald Dahl. Running time: 115 minutes. Rated PG (for quir! ky situations, action and mild language).

My almost 4 year-old son described the difference between the 70’s Gene Wilder starring Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the new Johnny Depp starring Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as such, “In the (earlier) one Willy Wonka was a man, but in this one he was a girl.” However, I don’t think Depp would be disappointed by this perception of my son’s, since I believe I overheard him stating in an interview that he based his performance on a prepubescent girl.

Dueling Willy Wonkas aside, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an extravagant exploration of the imaginations of both director Tim Burton and its creator Roald Dahl. This is not Burton’s first journey into Dahl’s likeminded imagination, he produced the underrated animated feature of Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, and there doesn’t seem to be any better material on the planet suited to Burton’s unique cinematic imaginings. Theirs are a world of bright bold colors, bug-eyed children, little dancing and singing men, flying glass elevators, black and white social stature, the bridging of young an old, and the delightful love of candy.

Charlie is a boy filled with the wild-eyed wonder of a child embodied by the newest young talent Freddie Highmore, brought along from the film Finding Neverland by co-star Depp. Charlie comes from a poor family. The Buckets are the archetypal lower class family. Mr. Bucket (Noah Taylor, Vanilla Sky) is a factory worker whose job is eliminated by a machine. Mrs. Bucket (Helena Bonham Carter, Big Fish) struggles to make yet another night of cabbage stew bearable. All four grandparents roost in a single bed in the middle of the Bucket’s shack of a house; one has lost her marbles, one is hoarding his, and Grandpa Joe (David Kelly, Waking Ned Divine) dreams of better days when he worked with the oddball magician candy maker Willy Wonka.

Wonka had long ago shut the doors of his factory to both the public and his employees because of the vicious tactics of corporate spies stealing the secrets to his candies. He has somehow kept the factory running, and after years of seclusion Wonka suddenly announces a contest that will allow five children (and a guardian each) to see the inside of his mysterious chocolate factory. All a child has to do for this rare privilege is find one of five golden tickets hidden in the wrapper of a bar of Wonka chocolate. Charlie sees this contest as an opportunity to relive his Grandpa’s dreams of the past and realize the dreams of his own and his family to rise above the squalor of their poverty.

While the movie still focuses firmly on Charlie and his struggle to break the chains of his social standing, screenwriter John August (Charlie’s Angels) also adds a great deal of backstory on Wonka to bring another level of familial meaning to the tale. Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean) drives the mood of the film with another typically odd performance. Not content with just presenting Wonka’s world as merely a product of absurdity, Depp and Burton turn Wonka into an oddity of bundled repression, a child that refuses to face the scars of growing up. Throughout the course of the film Wonka is accosted by flashbacks from his childhood of his father (Christopher Lee, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones), a dentist who coldly allows his son none of the sweet nectars of candy, especially chocolate.

All of the elements of the book are here: the horrible cast of children who win the other four tickets and their equally deplorable parents, the many different worlds of creation that go on behind the door of the magnificent chocolate factory, and the singing little men -- the Oompa Loompas. Instead of the orange-faced little people of the previous Chocolate Factory, Burton makes the strange men quite human, but Hobbit-sized and the hundreds of them all played by one man, Deep Roy (whose credits up to this point consist primarily of Ewoks and the like mostly in films with the word “freak” in the title.)

Composer Danny Elfman (Spider-Man) deserves a big credit for composing the music to Dahl’s original Oompa Loompa lyrics, which tell the all too painful truths about each rotten child after they each meet their frightening fates for breaking the rules while inside the chocolate factory. Elfman breathes unique life into each song by adopting a different style to each that reflect the unique environments of the rooms in which the incidents occur in the factory. While Dahl’s Oompa Loompa lyrics follow a repeated pattern in each song, no two songs sound alike in Elfman’s hands.

The film’s greatest achievement is its realization of this visual feast the chocolate factory has to offer. The atrium set where the contest winners begin their journey on the river of chocolate is lavishly scrumptious. It looks good enough to eat, as it should. Even the outside world is rich with Burton’s fantastical sense of exaggeration and bold imagery. The Bucket’s ramshackle house, the town house of Dr. Wonka which up and relocates itself to a wintry plain, even the candy stores where the children buy their Wonka bars reflecting the basic natures of the cultures around the world all add to the sense of wonder that this tale of childhood inspires.

At one point one of the brats asks, “Why is everything so pointless here?” Charlie simply replies, “Candy doesn’t have to have a point, that’s what makes it candy.” It is good that the filmmakers do not extend this argument to the film itself. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory not only isn’t pointless, it is poignant. It is dipped in a deep sense of family love and the heart of childhood. I was a bit disappointed that Burton chose to cut out the scene where Charlie and Grandpa Joe also break the rules of the factory, but in the end the innocence of childhood and its necessity in life top the peak of this delicious desert. Desert isn’t pointless; it gives us comfort and closure, but mostly it tastes good.

Be Cool / *½ (PG-13)

Chili Palmer: John Travolta
Edie Athens: Uma Thurman
Raji: Vince Vaughn
Elliot Wilhelm: The Rock
Nick Carr: Harvey Keitel
"Sin" LaSalle: Cedric the Entertainer
Martin Weir: Danny DeVito
Linda Moon: Christina Milian
Steven Tyler: Himself

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presents a film directed by F. Gary Gray. Written by Peter Steinfeld. Based on the novel by Elmore Leonard. Running time: 112 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for violence, sensuality and language, including sexual references).

Be Dull.

The Jacket / **½ ( R )

Jack Starks: Adrien Brody
Jackie: Keira Knightley
Dr. Becker: Kris Kristofferson
Dr. Lorenson: Jennifer Jason Leigh
Dr. Morgan: Jake Broder
Jean: Kelly Lynch
Stranger: Brad Renfro
Nurse Harding: Mackenzie Phillips

Warner Independent Pictures presents a film directed by John Maybury. Written by Massy Tadjedin. Based on the story by Tom Bleecker and Marc Rocco. Running time: 102 minutes. Rated R (for violence, language and brief sexuality/nudity).

In my last review, for the film Hostage, I noted that it was a difficult film to review because it contained both admirable aspects and silly detractors. By the time I finished that review, although my ranting lacked my typical passion for the subject matter, the up and down quality of the work gave me plenty to say about it. The Jacket is difficult to review -- not because of an inconsistent nature, but merely because it sits in the heart of mediocrity. It is not a bad movie, nor does it contain anything exceptional about it that would inspire me to recommend it to anyone. I really have very little to say about it either way.

The plot revolves around Gulf War veteran Jack Starks, played by Academy Award winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist). Starks suffers from amnesia due to a head wound he received during the war. After helping a child and her spaced-out mother (Kelly Lynch, Drugstore Cowboy) get their truck running, Starks makes the mistake of hitching a ride from a psychopath (Brad Renfro, Bully). When the two are pulled over by a highway patrolman, the driver shoots the patrolman and Starks is left to take the rap for the crime.

Suddenly, I’m beginning to realize a lot of little small faults in the film. I’m not sure why Starks has lost his memory during the war. I expected this to play into the murder rap somehow, but in the court scene where he is found not guilty by reason of insanity and sentenced to a mental hospital the authorities are quite aware of who he is; and although he cannot clearly recall the man with which he hitched a ride, this has nothing to do with his Gulf War injury and could easily just have been due to the murder incident. There are a good deal of little details that are servants of the plot and the plot alone during this set up, such as why would a man who has trouble remembering his name give away his primary form of identification? A series of poor and unlikely decisions leads to Starks’s internment in the hospital.

With Stark in his proper place to begin his shocking journey we are introduced to two doctors who will play large parts in his fate. Dr. Lorenson (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rush) is the sympathetic doctor that plays so close to the book she refuses to believe a patient she has been told is crazy. Dr. Becker (Kris Kristofferson, A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries) is the mad scientist who must break the laws of morality to reach his well-intentioned if not well-conceived goals. Revealing more of the plot would entail giving away too much of this story that wants to seem more complex than it is.

Brody is the perfect actor for this role. His ability to express pain and yet bring an everyday natural quality to all of his scenes make his character an intriguing hero. Circumstances lead Starks into a tremulous relationship with a waitress named Jackie. Keira Knightley (King Arthur) brings a good raw nature to her character making it plausible that her beauty could be overshadowed by her character’s scarred upbringing. The two make a good couple, and I’d like to see them together in a story with more bite.

The movie has a good pace and atmosphere to it, not too slow or dark. The content reminded me very much of Jacob’s Ladder. It is questionable as to whether Starks is imaging all of this; or possibly, like that other much more frightening film, he is already dead. The film opens with the phrase “The first time I died…” Perhaps it was the only time? Its conclusion takes a much lighter perspective than the dark Ladder.

I suppose the reviewing of such middle of the road films isn’t really the hard thing. This one is somewhat difficult because there is so little of the plot I can actually reveal without giving most of the film’s surprises away, but I know how I felt about it. Eh?! But a friend recently opened up a discussion with me about star ratings and this is what becomes really difficult with a film like this. Do I give it two and a half, or three? I enjoyed watching it. It wasn’t like I felt I had wasted two hours of my life, but I certainly couldn’t say to anyone, “You should see this movie.” Perhaps I should have only given Hostage two stars for its silliness. At least The Jacket isn’t silly. I don’t know about you, though. See it if you want. Now there’s an endorsement. Get that one in the newspaper ads!

Hostage / **½ ( R )

Jeff Talley: Bruce Willis
Walter Smith: Kevin Pollak
Dennis Kelly: Jonathan Tucker
Mars: Ben Foster
Tommy Smith: Jimmy Bennett
Jennifer Smith: Michelle Horn
Kevin Kelly: Marshall Allman
Jane ! Talley: Serena Scott Thomas

Miramax presents a film directed by Florent Emilio Siri. Written by Doug Richardson. Based on the novel by Robert Crais. Running time: 113 minutes. Rated R (for strong graphic violence, language and some drug use).

Hostage is one of those difficult to review movies that contains much to admire and yet doesn’t work in the end. It segues back and forth between standard action thriller storytelling techniques and original ideas which alter an otherwise overdone genre. Here you can get the best of what a Bruce Willis actioner has to offer and an overwrought melodrama that inspires a rolling of the eyes back into your head. While I knew exactly how events would turn out in the end, I was continually surprised by how it got there; and had the last act not dripped the melodrama from its frothing mouth, I would have been grateful for the experience of watching an original take on an old dog that still has some new tricks in him.

Bruce Willis (Sin City) is Jeff Talley, a former L.A. hostage negotiator who has moved on to a small town police chief’s job after a botched hostage situation results in the death of a young boy. Despite domestic problems due to the change in life style, the quite town agrees with Talley, who is happy to turn over a surprising crime situation over to the county sheriff’s office when three thieves force their way into a local millionaire’s mansion and take him and his two children hostage. Talley is pulled back into the fray when the shady organization that employs the services of the millionaire, Walter Smith (Kevin Pollock, The Usual Suspects), kidnaps Talley’s family in order to force him to retrieve an important computer disc from the mansion.

This brief synopsis hardly reflects the multiple dramatic levels on which this thriller operates. The Talleys and the Smiths both represent similar family dynamics. The Talley’s seem on the verge of divorce with a daughter in rebellion because of her fear that her parents’ relationship may be at an end. Walter Smith is a widowed father of a teenage daughter and a smart young boy. Jennifer Smith (Michelle Horn, Return to the Secret Garden) is also going through a rebellious stage, which is dealt with both firmly and reasonably by her father, who also seems to be involved in more dangerous business than he suggests to his children.

The three hostage takers are better conceived than they first appear. What they do by breaking into the Smith’s mansion is utterly stupid, but the film smartly realizes this and uses the knowledge to force these criminals into a corner where they become cornered beasts lashing out at anything and everything around. The leader is Dennis (Jonathan Tucker, Texas Chainsaw Massacre), who finds himself being pulled between his own partners: his brother Kevin (Marshall Allman, Little Black Book), and the real threat of the trio, the deeply disturbed Mars (Ben Foster, The Punisher). Mars provides the film with a true visible threat as a counterpoint to the story’s unseen and unknown kidnappers of the Talley family. The depth of his psychopathic mind brings an edginess to the action that is unexpected.

But the film really belongs to Willis, who takes his performance, as people are finally beginning to realize, to emotional levels of which only Willis is capable. Willis takes a relaxed approach to his hostage negotiator in the film’s tragic opening sequence that informs the burden of guilt on his shoulders throughout the rest of his story. It is easy to believe Willis as a man who wants nothing to do with that type of high pressure responsibility again and when he initially passes the buck to the county sheriff’s office early on in the story the audience breathes a sigh of relief along with Willis’s character even though you know he will have to be pulled back into the game somehow.

Director Florent Emilio Siri’s only other American directing credits are for a couple of video games in the Splinter Cell covert-ops series and he certainly has a grasp on depicting organized military tactical action, as the police and SWAT units here look as if they are declaring all out war on this mansion with little regard taken for the actual victims of the crimes. Credit is due for the director’s willingness to put so much weight on the psychological end of both Willis’s police chief and Foster’s psychopath, but as the film climaxes the action and psychological drama begin to clash, with Siri depending far too much on the emotional impact of slow motion and close-ups of these two characters in their emotional strain. There comes a point where all this slow motion photography becomes almost silly and a distraction from both the action and emotions involved.

Siri does show some potential to become an effective action director but needs to learn to balance the video game pyrotechnics with the emotional content of the characters. He has some good ideas on both fronts, but in the end lets the melodrama get away from the film. I liked the complications of the plot which left me guessing at times, and on at least one occasion took me a minute to realize what had happened; but everything was built up to such a degree at the end I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at all the catharsis.

Note: Hostage sports one of the most unique looking opening title sequences I’ve seen in film recently, which certainly owes much to Siri’s video gaming background. Unfortunately, it seems more suited to comic book action, a la Sin City or Daredevil, than it does with this more reality based, emotionally charged material.

Elektra / *½ (PG-13)

Elektra: Jennifer Garner
Abby Miller: Kirsten Prout
Mark Miller: Goran Visnjic
Kirigi: Will Yun Lee
Roshi: Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Stick: Terence Stamp

Twentieth Century Fox presents a film directed by Rob Bowman. Written by Zak Penn, Stuart Zicherman and Raven Metzner. Running time: 97 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for action violence).

Elektra, one in the latest wave of comic book characters re-envisioned for film, is a victim of its own pretensions. It doesn’t want to be a comic book adventure; it would prefer to be a mystic Chinese swordplay flick in the vein of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Hero, but it lacks both the intelligence and imagination to run in that sort of company. A spin-off of the Marvel comic book movie Daredevil, it leaves its viewers wishing it actually had the depth the filmmakers seem to think it does.

Jennifer Garner reprises her role as Elektra from the Daredevil movie. While she was killed at the end of that story, she is resurrected here by a spiritual and martial arts master known simply as Stick (Terence Stamp, The Limey). The only explanation for such an silly name for a martial arts sensei is a scene in which he plays pool very aptly for a blind man. Her death and renewed life has left Elektra somewhat unbalanced. Although her spirit longs to be good, the only thing that she seems to be any good at is killing. She is an assassin for hire, who has developed a reputation for being unstoppable, invisible, and coldly lethal.

The film opens with a hit on a man named DeMarco (Jason Isaacs, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, in an uncredited role) that seems to know he has no chance of survival with Elektra as his assassin; perhaps because he chooses to sit there and wait for her to come rather than do anything to get away. He narrates to his bodyguard how Elektra will get past all his security like a ghost and kill all who get in her way. Even with his boss’s encouraging words and being able to see each of his team taken out by the shadows on video monitors, the bodyguard foolishly tries to do his job to the end, but the end is quick. As Elektra prepares to finish DeMarco she whispers in his ear, her signature, about how she died once from across the room and right behind him at the same time. It is actually a fairly intense sequence and does a good job getting the idea of the Elektra character across. Alas, the idea of the Elektra character is about all the movie is successful at conveying.

As for the actual character of Elektra, rather than the idea of one, Garner spends most of the film looking pissed off at the world and cutting herself off from any human contact, including any sort of connection with the audience. She even spends long periods alone on the screen without letting her guard down for the audience. She is so good at sulking here that it is hard to believe she is so likable on Alias every week. I’m not saying it is a bad performance. She embodies it so well, this is either her real personality, or she has been misdirected.

Director Rob Bowman shows little of the skills here he developed as one of the most accomplished directors of The X-Files television series. Yes, it has his signature dark moodiness, but lacks the characterization and humor he used to make that series a success. There is a band of villains in this film that make Colin Farrell’s undeveloped performance as Bullseye in the Daredevil movie look like a masterwork in character study, and Typhoid and Tattoo could have really been interesting.

Anyway, Elektra is hired to off a guy named Mark Miller (Goran Visnjic, NBC’s ER) and his daughter (Kristen Prout, Once Upon a Christmas), but before she knows they are her targets she gets to know them and can’t find it in her to complete her mission. But there are many other people interested in killing them because of their secret, and therefore when Elektra decides to protect them, there are many people interested in killing her.

Considering the pedigree of the Elektra character as one of the grittiest action based in the Marvel compendium and the director’s slant to take the film in the direction of Chinese swordplay actioners, it is surprising how bad the action scenes are in the film. Most sequences seem only half realized, with each character only getting a chance to pose and swing before their role in the fight is done with. There is a scene in a forest where Elektra must take on four different supernaturally powered villains where each appears on screen and flexes their muscles before they are either defeated or pushed aside by other forces. Elektra never really fights any of them in that scene. There is another showdown between Elektra and the leader of these unsavories where there are sheets flying all throughout the room in which they are fighting. The sheets look cool, but only serve to provide places where the villain can pop up out of nowhere (but behind the sheet that is) and surprise! Elektra with an ambush.

I really expected better from this character that starred in one of Marvel’s first “for mature readers” books. This movie certainly isn’t for mature readers, I wonder if the makers even had a script from which to read; and it certainly isn’t for mature audiences. I suspect even a video game drone’s mind might wander while watching this movie’s uninspired action sequences, and they would be the only reason to see it anyway.