Prisoner of the Screening Room

"White Dog"

2010-11-06T17:36:00.002-04:00

It must have seemed like a great idea to all concerned back in 1981. Paramount Pictures wanted a “'Jaws’ with paws” horror film; teen star Kristy McNichol was looking for a project that would help her make the transition to adult roles; director Samuel Fuller (“Shock Corridor,” “The Naked Kiss”) needed a big hit to continue his comeback. But what they found was a movie that was ultimately too hot to handle.

The sad story behind “White Dog” illustrates how a misunderstood message movie sparked a controversy that derailed careers.

It’s amazing something as potentially incendiary as “White Dog” was even put into production by a major studio, but, as with so many things, it was all in the timing. “Dog,” based on a semi-autobiographical book by Romain Gary, had been on the back-burner at the studio since the mid-1970s when it was supposed to be directed by Roman Polanski. With potential strikes by the Writers’ Guild and the Directors’ Guild on the horizon, Paramount executives were anxious to stockpile as many pictures as possible and rushed “Dog” in front of the cameras.

Curtis Hanson (later to direct “L.A. Confidential” and “8 Mile”) collaborated with Fuller on a screenplay about a young actress, Julie Sawyer (McNichol), who saves an injured German shepherd, only to discover she’s been caring for a “white dog,” an animal trained by racists to kill African-Americans. Although Julie is advised to have the dog destroyed, she insists on taking him to Keys (Paul Winfield), a black trainer who thinks he can change the dog’s programming, using B.F. Skinner-style behavior modification techniques.

Keys runs an animal refuge called Noah’s Ark with his elderly partner, Carruthers (Burl Ives). “Can’t nobody unlearn a dog,” Carruthers insists, but Keys is certain he can complete his mission in five weeks. Winfield skillfully navigates the rivers of emotion flowing through Keys, who is clearly no stranger to prejudice and persecution; in Keys’ confrontations with the dog, editor Bernard Gribble cuts back and forth between the frenzied eyes of the snarling animal and the glacial glare of Keys, daring us to guess which one is ultimately more dangerous.

There are a few freakishly funny moments in “White Dog,” including a bizarre, possibly ad-libbed line from a police officer as he arrests a man who assaulted Julie (“Same damn rapist I nailed last year!”) and some weird walks down Memory Lane from Carruthers, who detests America’s obsession with technology and hurls syringes at an R2D2 dart board. It’s also easy to chuckle at the fuzzy tops, pastel-colored pants and Olivia Newton-John headbands in Julie’s oh-so-early-‘80s wardrobe.

But even when McNichol’s clothes are comical, the sincerity in her performance demands she be taken seriously. At the time “Dog” was filmed, McNichol was at the peak of her career, having just wrapped up a four-season run in ABC’s acclaimed series “Family” that brought her two best supporting actress Emmys. She’d had a surprise box office hit with the summer camp comedy “Little Darlings” in 1980 and had just completed filming “Only When I Laugh” with Marsha Mason. Although Julie may not be a complex or particularly fascinating character, McNichol gives her an impressive balance of vulnerability and volatility. When Julie finally erupts, it’s not a showy, “polish up that Oscar for me” tantrum: She sputters and repeats herself and gets caught up in loops of anger, just like a normal person in an emotionally charged situation. Honesty and straightforwardness were always McNichol's trademarks, and they are very much in evidence here.

Fuller was not a director given to pulling punches, and he builds the intensity to an almost uncomfortable level in some scenes. Far from being an enjoyably scary monster movie, this is a chiller that truly shakes you up, its foreboding mood constantly accentuated by Ennio Morricone’s gripping score (permeated with quietly churning pianos and strings that sound like muted sirens) and the outstanding cinematography of Bruce Surtee.

“White Dog” is ripe with unsettling images and offbeat directorial choices. In one sequence, the dog attacks a victim in an empty church. Although Fuller does not spare us from the anguished screams of the man being mauled, the camera drifts away from the violence and settles on a stained glass window depicting, of all people, St. Francis of Assisi. Similarly, when Keys pulls a gun on the dog during a standoff, the camera moves in not on the barrel of the revolver, but on Keys’ finger caressing the trigger. It’s not the weapon that will possibly kill this creature, Fuller is telling us, it’s the fury of the man who is wielding it.

For Fuller and company, the trouble began even before the cameras rolled. After the NAACP voiced concerns about the material, a representative was invited to supervise the filming; apparently, that wasn’t enough to calm the organization. “When you train a white dog to kill black folks, that gives the KKK and other white supremacist organizations ideas,” said Willis Edwards, then-president of the NAACP’s Beverly Hills/Hollywood chapter.

But if Edwards had bothered to wait until the film was completed, he might have seen that “White Dog” is an indictment, not an endorsement, of such practices. The screenplay attacks the sick minds responsible for turning the dog into what one character calls “a four-legged time bomb”; instead of being intrigued by the situation, the filmmakers are repulsed. One of the most terrifying moments occurs when Keys explains to Julie how racists can teach a dog to “attack black skin,” as he puts it: Hire an African-American wino or junkie to beat the dog regularly until it learns its horrible lesson.

Rumblings about a possible NAACP boycott led Paramount to nix a nationwide release of “Dog” in the spring of 1982. There are no signs the studio even bothered to make up marketing materials for it, such as posters or a trailer. Ultimately, the movie played a one-week test run in Detroit before being quietly shuttled off to the late-night cable TV graveyard. The film cost $7 million to produce and brought in less than $50,000 during its brief run.

The bad buzz around the film tarnished McNichol’s reputation (and her subsequent appearance in the campy Australian musical “The Pirate Movie” didn’t help a bit); a disgusted Fuller left America altogether, spending his remaining years in France.

Neither of them had any reason to be ashamed. "Dog" is a hard-hitting horror film with a staunchly anti-racist theme, and it’s exceptionally well played by Winfield and McNichol. Even without the controversy, it’s unlikely “White Dog” would ever have become a box office hit. But it remains one of the most disturbing films of its day, a movie that goes straight for the jugular — just like its namesake.

'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'

2010-09-24T22:01:00.003-04:00

"Greed is good," Wall Street wizard Gordon Gekko famously proclaimed in director Oliver Stone's 1987 hit "Wall Street." The statement was meant to be alarming but, in the rush-rush, help-yourself climate of the late 1980s, plenty of people agreed with him.
Twenty-three years later, in the era of "too big to fail," we've all seen the catastrophic after-effects of that philosophy, and "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" finds Gekko, once again portrayed by Michael Douglas, serving as more of a Cassandra than a cheerleader. He's served a lengthy stretch in prison ("the best thing that ever happened to me," he insists) and written a book titled "Is Greed Good?" that's he's actively promoting.
But while "Money" is quick to condemn the amorality and excesses of the modern "masters of the universe" -- the villain, predictably, is a fat cat with a George W. Bush smirk who gets his kicks destroying competitors for fun and profit -- it also teases us with flashy labels (Moet Champagne and Johnnie Walker Blue Label get prominent placement) and a blinding array of bling: A scene at a charity ball functions as little more than an excuse for Rodrigo Prieto's camera to drool over the dangling diamond earrings and knockout necklaces draped on a parade of over-primped trophy wives. Similarly, a superfluous motorcycle race through the woods amounts to little more than a commercial for Ducati bikes. Greed may no longer be good, but it's still pretty glamorous.
Unsurprisingly, the there's-more-to-life-than-your-bank-balance message of "Money" ends up muddled. At the end of the original, we could believe trader Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) had learned something about loyalty and the dangers of taking the easy way to the top. The conclusion of "Money" is harder to buy, partly because it depends on a half-hearted twist and partly because even screenwriters Allen Loeb and Stephen Schiff don't seem to believe their own contrivances.
While Stone's film is often flashy and sometimes funny, it's just as frequently frustrating, since the most engaging characters keep getting dumped out of the story or squeezed into the sidelines. Mystifyingly, that includes Gekko, who pops in occasionally to make a speech or pitch a plan and then vanishes for entire reels.
That gives us ample opportunity to get acquainted with Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), an investment bank hotshot who makes millions, but kindly sends a chunk of each check to his buddy who's working on an ambitious alternative energy project. Moore is also living with Gekko's estranged daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan), who operates a left-wing online news outlet that she describes as "non-profit"; to Moore and his cronies, that's practically a four-letter word.
Winnie hasn't spoken to her dad in years and has no interest in mending the broken family ties, but Moore meets with Gekko in secret and becomes convinced the old snake has finally shed his slimy skin. For his part, Gekko sees a bit of himself in Moore's take-charge spirit and his ability to stay a step ahead of his enemies, which include Gekko's old nemesis, Bretton James (James Brolin), a loathsome wheeler-dealer who makes Gekko seem like a Sunday school teacher.
Yet despite the admiring looks Gekko throws in Moore's direction, Moore is not another Gekko and LaBeouf is certainly no match for Douglas. "Money" requires LaBeouf to do a considerable amount of heavy lifting, and he simply isn't up to the task. While he reads his lines more or less convincingly, his acting is all on the surface; when you look into his eyes, you don't see a driven financial genius or a passionate boyfriend -- you see a performer waiting for his next cue and trying to remember the right line and reaction. Putting him up against emotional powerhouses like Douglas, Mulligan and Frank Langella (who plays Moore's worn-down mentor) is reminiscent of the old "Don Adams' Screen Test" show, in which starry-eyed amateurs got their chance to play scenes opposite seasoned pros.
Imagine visiting your favorite steakhouse and being served one tantalizing cube of Kobe beef every 20 minutes or so while the waiter kept bringing breadsticks and water: That's what it feels like when Michael Douglas is reduced to Special Guest Star status in a Shia LaBeouf movie.
Still, a little Gekko is better than none at all, and Douglas provides a believable portrait of a lion in winter, sorting through the fragments of his turbulent past and trying to figure out his next move. The strongest scene in the movie has nothing to do with business at all. It's a riveting, splendidly played conversation/confrontation between Winnie and Gekko, in which both of them try to express their anger and regrets while still, cautiously, reaching out to one another. The rest of "Money" is eye-appealing, but this is the only moment that actually stirs the emotions.

"Green Zone"

2010-03-12T22:33:00.001-05:00

There was a time when movies were promoted as being "torn from today's headlines." Although director Paul Greengrass' "Green Zone" can't exactly make that claim, the story it covers remains unresolved, giving the film both a touch of timeliness and a bit of a lingering sting as well. Set in Baghdad in 2003 and 2004, it's compelling and somewhat suspenseful; on the downside, it also leaves you with that sinking feeling of just having found an old bill you forgot to pay.

Read the full review here.

"Remember Me"

2010-03-12T22:30:00.002-05:00

“Remember Me” is a tearjerker that won’t make you cry. It will, however, make you groan and squirm and possibly snore as it painstakingly details the lackluster love story of a bitter rich-kid-turned-rebel and a sunny social-worker-to-be brought together by police brutality. That may sound a bit peculiar but, as Al Jolson once said, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet.

Read the full review here.

"Alice in Wonderland"

2010-03-06T11:51:00.003-05:00

Although it may be called “Alice in Wonderland,” director Tim Burton and screenwriter Linda Woolverton (“The Lion King”) have taken substantial liberties with Lewis Carroll’s original stories, a decision that may infuriate purists but one that actually turns out to be somewhat shrewd.

Considering how many times filmmakers have put “Alice” in front of the cameras, it’s surprising how few of the adaptations have worked. The major obstacle is the scattershot structure of Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass”: They’re primarily collections of whimsical anecdotes that don’t necessarily coalesce into a plot. So many screen versions of “Alice” have turned into little more than fanciful variety shows, with Alice meandering from one crazy character to the next.

Read the full review here.

"Brooklyn's Finest"

2010-03-06T11:47:00.003-05:00

"One-Adam-12. One-Adam-12, see the multiple plotline pile-up at the corner of Desperation and Heartache."

Officers Reed and Malloy never got that call, but then again they were both far too wholesome to be involved in any of the seamy shenanigans that trip up the top cops in the ironically titled "Brooklyn's Finest."

Robbing gangsters, cavorting with drug dealers, partying with prostitutes and double-crossing friends are all in a day's work for Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere), Sal Procida (Ethan Hawke) and Clarence "Tango" Butler (Don Cheadle), each of whom has enough moral conflicts and sordid secrets to fill a squad car.

Read the full review here.

"Me and Orson Welles"

2010-03-06T11:42:00.003-05:00

Ten years ago, Winona Ryder produced and starred in "Girl, Interrupted," in which she'd play a bright young woman struggling with mental illness and institutionalization. Although she earned an Oscar nomination as Daniel Day-Lewis' quietly calculating bride in "The Age of Innocence," Ryder was still best-known as the winsome ingenue of "Mermaids," "Edward Scissorhands" and "Little Women." Here was her chance to finally dazzle critics and fans in a mature, challenging role.

But then she made one fatal mistake: She cast a semi-unknown named Angelina Jolie as a fellow patient. And once audiences got a look at Jolie, Ryder's star vehicle was officially hijacked. Jolie won a best supporting actress Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award for her electrifying performance; hopefully, she remembered to send Ryder -- who got some favorable reviews for her performance and little else -- a lovely bouquet and a kind thank-you note.

Read the full review here.

"Cop Out"

2010-02-26T07:06:00.003-05:00

Let's see: There's a world-weary older white cop with a fast-talking, hyperactive black partner, and they're chasing down bad guys. The soundtrack is studded with old-school classics such as The System's "Don't Disturb This Groove," Run-DMC's "King of Rock" and the Beastie Boys' "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn."

And who's the man behind those squishy-sounding synthesizers driving the action? None other than Harold Faltermeyer, creator of the legendary "Axel F" theme from "Beverly Hills Cop." Why, he hasn't scored a movie since the days when Bruce Willis was starring in Seagram's Golden Wine Cooler commercials.

Yes, despite its contemporary setting, everything about "Cop Out" reeks of the early 1980s. But although director Kevin Smith would love to turn Willis and Tracy Morgan into Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, this is not "48 Hrs." -- although frequently "Cop Out" does feel like it's about 48 hours long.

Read the full review.

"Shutter Island"

2010-02-19T19:51:00.003-05:00

“Seen any walking nightmares lately, marshal?” a woman asks deputy marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) late in director Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island." She’s a psychiatrist, although she might as well be a psychic: Daniels has been prowling around the creepy corridors of the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, and he’s witnessed enough scary sights to fill a month’s worth of bad dreams.

It’s 1954, and psychiatric hospitals are not far from the dismal days of ice baths, crudely administered electro-shock treatments and other atrocities. In Ashecliffe’s Ward C, patients are still stripped naked and locked up in filthy, dark cells where their bodies rot and their minds deteriorate. The conditions in Ashecliffe’s other buildings are slightly better, although nobody’s going to mistake it for a country-club prison.

Adapted from Dennis Lehane’s novel, “Shutter” is a freak show with artsy pretensions.

Read the full review here.

"Edge of Darkness"

2010-01-30T10:03:00.004-05:00

"Payback," "Conspiracy Theory," "Ransom," "Lethal Weapon, Parts 1-4": They're all included in the Mel Gibson mash-up known as "Edge of Darkness." It's probably too late for Warner Bros. to change that title to "Mel's Greatest Hits," which is pretty much what "Edge" turns out to be.

But have you ever had the bad luck to pick up one of those greatest hits collections that turns out to be mostly mediocre re-recordings of favorite tunes? Unfortunately, "Edge" is like that, too.

Read the full review here.

"Yor, the Hunter from the Future" (1983)

2010-01-24T22:24:00.000-05:00

An incredibly dim-witted caveman-meets-super-science picture, this Turkish-made foolishness is absolutely astounding in its total disregard for logic, continuity and credibility. At least "Yor" provides plenty of unintentional laughs. The atrociously dubbed dialogue permits the primates to mouth such zingers as "Sink your teeth into this!" and "Your jealousy burns you like the fire." The prehistoric monsters are frightening as only papier-mache creations can be; when a comrade warns Yor about the approaching "creature of the night," he should have added, "You might get tangled up in his wires!"

A booming disco theme adds the final straw that breaks the dinosaur's back. It might have passed muster on Saturday morning television, but served up on the big screen this Turkish turkey is hard to digest.

"Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" (1990)

2010-01-24T22:23:00.000-05:00

Director-writer Pedro Almodovar scored a major hit last year with his hilarious "Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown," one of the rare foreign-language films to make a splash in mainstream houses. "Women" was a manic romp about a TV star driven to near-distraction by a misguided affair, a tame topic easy for the mass audience to take. For his encore, "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!," Almodovar has tackled a variation on John Fowles' "The Collector," hardly anyone's favorite book. Even more provocative is his decision to make his story of a mentally disturbed man who kidnaps a woman and "teaches" her to love into what is essentially a romantic comedy. Perhaps its greatest truth comes from two of its characters watching a movie in production: one notes that the film is more a love story than a horror story. Replies the movie's director, "Sometimes the two are indistinguishable."

It would probably be much more difficult were it not for Almodovar's dazzling leads, Victoria Abril (one of Europe's hottest stars) and Antonio Banderas, both of whom manage to be not only funny, but also stunningly attractive while doing unattractive things. Banderas plays Ricky, recently sprung from an asylum and nursing a domestic fantasy involving ex-porn star Marina Orsorio (Abril), who's now trying for a career in legit cinema. Ricky follows her from the set of her latest picture, traps her in her apartment, and bombards her with a mix of kindness and dominance. The personality evolutions that follow won't surprise anyone, but Almodovar gives the story the same splashiness employed in "Women," with electric colors and creative camera angles putting a chic sheen on what could have been sordid.

Enjoyable as much of "Tie Me Up!" is (and many of the scenes involving the vivacious Loles Leon as Marina's meddling sister are amusing), you can't help but wonder how it could be misconstrued by real-life Rickys; at a time when the terrorism of stars by demented fans is front-page news, this story comes off as irresponsible, almost a fairy tale for voyeurs. Almodovar's style is seductive, but his message is extremely questionable.

"Sweet Dreams" (1985)

2010-01-24T22:22:00.002-05:00

"Sweet Dreams" is the very Hollywoodsy biography of country music legend Patsy Cline, a rowdy good-time gal who managed to lead a turbulent life while rising to stardom via such hits as "Crazy," "She's Got You" and "Walking After Midnight."

Jessica Lange plays Cline and gives her friskiest, most intriguing performance to date. She's matched by Ed Harris as Cline's second husband Charlie Dick, whose love for his spouse could not always override the call of the bar. There's a volatile chemistry between the actors, whether they're flirting (which they do a lot of) or feuding (which they do a lot more of).

But Lange and Harris have to fight against a choppy screenplay that zooms through the last seven years of Cline's brief career, giving us only fleeting glimpses of her domestic troubles -- when she sang about cheating men and honky tonk nights, she knew what she was speaking of -- and her bumpy road to the top of the charts.

In "Coal Miner's Daughter," Beverly D'Angelo played Cline and sang with her own voice; Lange is dubbed with Cline's original vocal tracks and lip-synchs convincingly. To some viewers this may seem like an actress taking the easy way out. Perhaps so, but it also enables those of us who aren't students of country music to hear that magnificent alto in all its glory.

There's an uncomfortably high gloss to almost everything in the movie, from the Army barracks to the lowdown bars where Cline got her start to the lower-middle-class home of Cline's mom (the superb Ann Wedgewood), and that hardly helps to lend credibility to a story that frequently seems to wobble on the edge of fiction. "Sweet Dreams" ultimately short-changes its colorful subject, although not for lack of trying on the part of Lange, Harris and Wedgewood.

"Strapless" (1990)

2010-01-24T22:22:00.001-05:00

If you've seen either "Plenty" or "Wetherby," two previous works by writer-director David Hare, you can sense he's drawn to self-possessed women harboring inner storms. In "Plenty," his heroine is a former spy with an unquenchable thirst for thrills in the post-WWII world. "Wetherby" is built around a schoolteacher whose guilt and sexual repression drive her to murder. Both pieces offer sterling roles for the lead actress (Meryl Streep in "Plenty"; Vanessa Redgrave in "Wetherby"), and "Strapless" continues Hare's salute to fascinating, challenging women.

Blair Brown, in a performance that demonstrates how little of her talent is seen in the weekly "Days and Nights of Molly Dodd," plays Lillian Hemple, an American doctor working in a British hospital. Reserved and aloof, Lillian is a marked contrast to her sister Amy (Bridget Fonda), a playgirl who will go to any lengths for a good time. On vacation, Lillian meets Raymond (Bruno Ganz), a seemingly wealthy businessman whose immediate interest in her both frightens and intrigues her. "I like the early part" of relationships, she says, noting that she loses enthusiasm in the long run.

She's lying, but it's exactly what Raymond wants to hear. Acting on impulse for the first time in her life, Lillian allows Raymond to talk her into a quickie marriage, an arrangement that leads to personal disaster.

Hare's scripts have never been easily accessible, and although "Strapless" is slightly more in the mainstream than either "Plenty" or "Wetherby," it's no crowd-pleaser. It is, however, a good deal more insightful and thought-provoking than anything else currently on view. The situations will ring true to anyone who has ever placed their faith in the wrong person or wrote off someone who later made a surprising comeback.

There are no martyrs or villains at work here, just characters with strengths and weaknesses that the audience must judge. Lillian is a gifted physician from a medical standpoint, but she's not willing to take a human interest in her patients; Amy seems to be nothing more than a dizzy bon vivant, but finally shows she has more determination and strength than her "serious" sister; what Raymond does is not in any way admirable, but it seems almost forgivable, since he acts out of self-preservation. If the central metaphor is not terribly strong (Amy creates strapless dresses; Raymond leaves Lillian "strapped"), the performances are. Brown downplays her usual charm to emphasize Lillian's self-motivation, and we feel empathy rather than pity when Lillian begins to realize the gravity of her mistake. Hardly a sex symbol, Ganz still projects an air of sensuality that makes him a convincing seducer.

Fonda, taking the smallest of the three leads, shows her work in "Scandal" and "Shag" only hinted at what she can do; her combustible combination of beauty, comic timing and an ability to find the bottom line in her characters make her one of the top discoveries of the past few years.

"The Sound of Music" (1965; reviewed for 1990 revival)

2010-01-24T22:20:00.002-05:00

Laugh if you like, but very few films can hold a candle to "The Sound of Music" when it comes to enduring popularity. A mammoth success upon its original release (it was the top-grossing film of 1965, 1966 and 1967!), it has retained a huge cult following. Unfortunately, there's a whole generation that has seen this Best Picture winner only on TV, where, in most cases, a full half-hour is trimmed; it was even reported a few years back that one money-hungry station owner managed to squeeze this three-hour picture comfortably into a two-hour slot... by cutting all the musical numbers!

"The Sound of Music" has become a symbol of different things to different people. To some, it is the finest in wholesome "family entertainment," the kind of film "they don't make anymore." To others, it's the epitome of Hollywood sentimentality, an unbearable wallow in syrup and sanctimony. Most have at least a grudging respect for it; many others will pretend to think nothing of it, yet never miss a showing. At any rate, the picture certainly has won enough fans worldwide to deserve the 25th anniversary reissue that Twentieth-Century Fox is giving it, and the beautiful new prints currently in circulation offer the opportunity to see every minute of "Music" in sumptuous Cinemascope and Dolby Surround.

Since my only viewing of the picture in a "theatrical" setting was at a drive-in years ago, I was anxious to see what I'd been missing over the years. Quite a bit, it turns out. TV and video completely diminish the impact of this extravaganza, destroying director Robert Wise's brilliant utilization of the Cinemascope frame and obscuring the stunning location scenery. The famous opening, with the camera swooping through the clouds, over the mountains and across a meadow to find Maria (Julie Andrews) singing, is breathtaking on a big screen, as is a later shot that cruises from the wedding bells of Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) and Maria over Salzburg and into a square where Nazis are on parade.

A cinema setting also makes it easy to understand why this film, along with "Mary Poppins" (1964), established Julie Andrews as a major international movie star. Her radiance and energy fills the screen in scene after scene. She's absolutely magnetic, maintaining a spunk level that makes contemporary spitfires like Holly Hunter and Sally Field look like slackers. In the first half of the film (there is an intermission, remember), she is prim but vivacious, until she falls for Von Trapp. From then on out, Wise gives her lots of soft-focus close-ups that make her look like she's made of peach sherbet. of course her singing is sterling, but one tends to forget how absolutely perfect her diction is, thanks perhaps to all that Broadway training. It helps too that the Rodgers and Hammerstein score is not only magnificent, but ridiculously catchy as well. The songs will reverberate in your head for weeks afterward.

The only depressing aspect of seeing "The Sound of Music" these days comes from realizing how Andrews would spend the next 20 years of her career either struggling through megaflop musicals ("Star!", "Darling Lili") or trying to escape her sweet, virginal image (her chest-baring in 1981's "S.O.B." is a strong contender for Cinematic Low Point of the 1980s).

Andrews is certainly the centerpiece of the film, but there's much more to admire, particularly in Wise's direction. Notice how many of the musical numbers are shot in long takes, requiring the actors to sustain a high energy level. There's no MTV-style flash-editing to cover up mistakes. Wise must also have been at least partially responsible for the movie's pacing, which is near-breathless from start to finish but never feels rushed. That's another quality that suffers on TV, where commercial intrusions break up the flow. If you've never been impressed by "The Sound of Music," give it a chance by seeing it where it was meant to be seen. If you've always loved it, this revival is heaven-sent.

"The Sheltering Sky" (1990)

2010-01-24T22:20:00.001-05:00

You don't have to have read Paul Bowles' novel "The Sheltering Sky" to conclude that it must be a good deal more profound than Bernardo Bertolucci's film adaptation. If it weren't, it's doubtful it would still be a cult favorite 40-plus years after its debut. The film seems unlikely to provoke such fervor, although it may provide blessed relief for any insomniacs who venture near it. Soul searching is rarely a thrill a minute but it's rarely as tedious as this.

Bowles' book is a debatably autobiographical account of three Americans making their way through North Africa in the late 1940s. Port and Kit are married, although there's precious little passion left between them, and Tunner, their companion, is infatuated with Kit. Ideally, the trip would bring the couple back together, but instead fate intervenes, all three indulge in impulsive affairs and the trio splits up.

Bertolucci, perhaps hoping to recapture the fire of his "Last Tango in Paris," allows ample time for the sex and flirts with an NC-17 rating, but ignores the entire point of the book. It's not about sex, it's about people too obsessed with their own private worlds to realize the outside world around them. Their inner emptiness is reflected in the endless sands surrounding them. In the movie, there are multiple montages of the desert, but it's nothing but scenery; there's no correlation to the characters or what they're going through. Ryuichi Sakamoto's hypnotic score is far more affecting than anything happening onscreen.

There's nothing in the script or the performances of John Malkovich or Campbell Scott to make Port or Tunner interesting. Debra Winger throws herself into Kit with her customary gusto, but by the time Kit becomes the focal point of the story, the picture is already a lost cause and the semi-kinky liaisons between Kit and her Arab lover Belqassim reveal considerably more about Winger's bravery in showing her body than they do about Kit's descent into insanity. Once again, a group of great resumes unite to produce a piece of work unworthy of any of them. Oscar-bait it may be, but "The Sheltering Sky" is more deserving of the First Annual Chicken Little Award.

"Plenty" (1985)

2010-01-24T22:19:00.001-05:00

"Plenty" is a film destined to arouse a lot of controversy -- not over its quality, but over its heroine: Susan Traherne (Meryl Streep), an Englishwoman who worked with the French Resistance in World War II and, much to the consternation of those around her, longs for the thrills and passion she felt during those days. Restless, dissatisfied and determined to challenge and change society, Traherne rubs employers, acquaintances, and even her husband the wrong way in her quest for satisfaction.

Yet screenwriter David Hare, adapting his successful stage play, asks us to accept and identify with Traherne, a steadfast individualist whose striving and scheming cost her everything, including, finally, her sanity.

Much of the attraction -- not to mention the challenge -- of "Plenty" lies in trying to rationalize Traherne and her motives and motivations. When first seen, she is a young woman who has arrived in France to aid the Resistance movement. Although only 19 years old, she is in a position of power and a situation fraught with danger, and she loves it. After the war, she returns to England, full of high ideals about building a better world where everyone can flourish. But what she finds in her homeland instead is a nation of men and women who are far more concerned with getting back to normal, and satiating themselves in material goods after years of wartime shortages.

For Susan, the postwar world of plenty is distressingly devoid of thrills, goals and open minds. Her feelings of emptiness lead her to seek out bohemian and beatnik friends, a foxy lower-class lover and a husband whose career in the diplomatic services is on the rise. But flirting with danger and accumulating wealth are not the answer for Susan either, and she languishes in luxury.

The role of Susan is custom-made for Streep and she turns in yet another tour de force. Classy and vivacious one moment, scathing and bitter the next, Susan is genuinely a puzzlement, and certainly an addictive one. You may not like her, but you will not forget her.

There is no shortage of fascinating characters in the supporting cast either, nor of fine actors to play them. Singer-comedian Tracey Ullman is enchanting as Alice Parke, Susan's roommate and confidante. Alice wears men's clothes, smokes marijuana and aspires to be a writer and artist, but little things like bad pot keep getting in her way: "How am I supposed to find artistic inspiration if I can't even get any good drugs?" she complains. Sting, who too often relies on his looks to carry his performances, turns in his best screen work to date as Mick, a black-marketeer whom Susan hires to get her pregnant (the love scenes between Sting and Streep are both funny and sexy). But finally, Susan dismisses him after 18 months of trying. "There comes a point at which the experiment should be stopped in the name of common courtesy," she notes.

As Susan's weary husband, Charles Dance brings life to what could easily have been a one-dimensional part, effectively conveying the toll a marriage built on pity can take on a man. Sir John Gielgud also sparkles as the duty-minded Leonard Darwin, whose run-in with the defiant Susan at a dinner party is the nastiest and most uproarious scene in the film.

"Plenty" is not an easy movie to categorize, and interpretations of its central character and its message are sure to be numerous. But there is no denying its power or the allure of the people in it. There are lighter, more charming films around, but there are few as ultimately rewarding.

"The Man Who Wasn't There" (1983)

2010-01-24T22:17:00.001-05:00

You'll wish you were the title character if you're unlucky enough to sit through "The Man Who Wasn't There," another 3-D dud. It's a supposed suspense comedy involving a State Department employee (Steve Guttenberg) who accidentally gets his hands on an invisibility potion that various spies, agents and sundry others want. The yawns never stop as he's chased all over Washington, narrowly escaping the clutches of a nefarious Russian ambassador (Jeffrey Tambor) time after time.

It's hard to know where to begin in talking about what exactly is wrong with "The Man Who Wasn't There" because there's really nothing right with it. The special effects are rock-bottom (the wires and blue matte lines come through stunningly in 3-D) and the film doesn't even use its major gimmick effectively. Instead of having things constantly hurled towards the audience, all we get is bad actors standing around, mouthing banal dialogue and waiting for something to happen.

What passes for acting in this opus includes almost cartoonish facial expressions, lots of squealing and the broadest kind of reactions imaginable. Typical of this is a fascinatingly inane scene in which the hero's girlfriend (Lisa Langlois) makes love to him while he's invisible. Langlois is hopeless to begin with (she attempts to do a Farrah Fawcett imitation and never quite pulls it off) and this feeble pantomime only serves to make her look worse.

"The Lonely Lady" (1983)

2010-01-24T22:16:00.002-05:00

While no one should expect anything derived from a Harold Robbins novel to be classy, it's not unreasonable to go into the theater thinking you're at least going to see some good trash.

"The Lonely Lady" is not good trash; it doesn't even come close to qualifying.

It's a revoltingly sexist, poorly acted, ineptly made and nearly incoherent piece of garbage that can't even properly exploit its star, which would seem to be the primary reason for its existence.

Pia Zadora fills the role of Jerilee Randall (it would be overpraising her to say she actually plays the part), a Valley Girl with a supposed knack for writing. Soon after her graduation from high school, she is whisked off to sinful Hollywood by top screenwriter Walter Thornton (Lloyd Bochner) who, though twice her age, becomes her husband and mentor.

Having learned after her marriage that her hubby is impotent, Jerilee wastes little time in striking out on her own, using her body in various vain attempts to peddle her screenplays to interested parties, both male and female. On her way to the top, Jerilee is raped with the nozzle of a garden hose, becomes an alcoholic, is forced into a liaison with a seductive Italian actress and suffers a nervous breakdown. The audience also endures its share of agony: Zadora's horrifying version of "The Clapping Song" is played twice in the course of the film.

This saga could have made for some good campy fun, but "Lady" takes itself too seriously to be enjoyable on any level, dropping such profundities as "wine is cheaper than self-respect" and "in this business, you can't afford self-respect" with a straight face. Peter Sadsy directs the actors in broad strokes, letting them scream, whine and whisper, but rarely allowing any room for normal conversation.

In addition, the editing is shockingly amateurish, abusing fades, dissolves, jump cuts and other standard storytelling techniques. It also leaves the storyline in pieces: One minute, we see Jerilee whooping it up in bed with an apparently friendly nightclub owner; the next, he's physically forcing drugs on her. While it's doubtful that any of the performances were ever any good, the hack-and-splice method with which this picture was assembled appears to have made mincemeat out of both the players and the plot.

"Impulse" (1990)

2010-01-24T22:15:00.001-05:00

The continued ability of Theresa Russell to find work continues to be one of Hollywood's greatest mysteries. The walking definition of the term "limited actress," Russell plays apathy well, but continually finds other emotions well beyond her grasp. Early on in "Impulse," Russell, struggling to portray an L.A. vice cop with personal and professional woes, is called upon to deliver anger and indignation as she finds her smarmy superior officer lounging around her home. Her body tenses up, her eyes narrow, her chest heaves, and... she whines.

Justifiably more famous for her luscious body than for her thespian skills, Russell has somehow managed to cling to the marquee while other, far more gifted ladies have drifted into obscurity. Sondra Locke, who may be to directing what Russell is to performing, offers her little guidance: No doubt she was too busy trying to imprint "Impulse" with the same heavy-handedness and lack of style that made her "Ratboy" (1987) an instant camp classic.

As "Impulse" rushes to cram as much plot into two hours as most soap operas do in two months (Russell dresses as a hooker for work, but finds herself getting turned on by the job until she has an affair with a lawyer and then ends up implicated in a murder involving a drug magnate and a missing suitcase full of money -- and that's just for starters), Locke scurries to pack in at least one cliche every couple of minutes. Everything you've ever hooted at is here: the woman alone in the old dark house; the lovers' clothes sliding to the floor; the mystery man in shades. Throughout, Russell's lustrous face continually remains as expressionless as a Barbie doll's, and Jeff Fahey, as the love interest, provides the perfect Ken compliment with his own frozen features and plastic blue eyes.

"I Love You To Death" (1990)

2010-01-24T22:14:00.000-05:00

It would make a perfect headline for one of those supermarket tabloids: WIFE SHOOTS CHEATING HUBBY; NOW HE LOVES HER MORE THAN EVER. But in this case, the story really is true: "I Love You To Death" is based on the strange romance of a Pennsylvania couple whose marriage was revitalized after the wife almost succeeded in murdering her spouse.

The film plays less like docudrama than weird sitcom, however, as director Lawrence Kasdan and a superb cast engage in what seems like a working vacation. The fun is infectious, and the result is a slight but highly entertaining comedy of errors.

Joey Boca (Kevin Kline, elaborating on his "Fish Called Wanda" persona) runs a pizzeria and, although he professes to love his devoted wife Rosalie (Tracey Ullman), doesn't hesitate to make special deliveries to female customers. When Rosalie is confronted with his infidelities, she teams up with her mother (Joan Plowright), their friend and co-worker Devo (River Phoenix) and two bemused local drug addicts-turned-hitmen (William Hurt and Keanu Reeves) to stop Joey's sleeping-around once and for all. There's a surprising twist to the attempted homicide that's too improbable to be fiction; it gives the story a jaw-dropping punchline.

All involved have a high time, particularly Plowright, with a fierce Yugoslavian accent, and Hurt and Reeves, playing a duo with no surplus of IQ points. The casting is so strong that even bit players shine: Miriam Margolyes only has about three minutes onscreen as Joey's perturbed mom, and she makes an unforgettable impression slapping some sense into her son.

But it's Ullman who truly impresses. For years, there's been speculation that within the wildly eccentric comic there was a first-class dramatic talent: Here's the proof. Rosalie is the only central character grounded in reality and if Ullman had played her as farcical, the movie would have fallen flat. Instead, in the movie's darkest scene, she shows Rosalie's shame and humiliation, then lets us in on the overwhelming passion that drives her to jail rather than divorce court. It's a stunning performance that should certify her as an actress, not just a comedienne.

"The Handmaid's Tale" (1990)

2010-01-24T22:13:00.000-05:00

It's a rare book that is improved in its transfer from printed page to silver screen and unfortunately Margaret Atwood's acclaimed "The Handmaid's Tale" is not one of them. Harold Pinter's adaptation has its powerful moments, but ultimately the narrowing of the novel's scope dilutes the story's message too much.

Before blame is laid entirely on the filmmakers, however, some consideration should be given to recent history. In 1982, when Atwood's novel was published, her vision of a future society dominated by repressive right-wing born-again Christians with perverted ideas of Biblical teachings seemed chillingly possible. But eight years later, with Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority just a distant memory and the televangelists running for cover, it no longer has the same scare power. Although "The Handmaid's Tale" conjures up several unnerving images, including a downright terrifying execution sequence, the film seems more like science-fiction than a believable vision of the future.

Not helping in the credibility department is the casting of America's high priestesses of camp cinema, Faye ("Mommie Dearest") Dunaway and Victoria ("Flowers in the Attic") Tennant in key villainous roles. Also miscast is Natasha Richardson, a bright actress who doesn't quite fit the lead role of Kate, the fertile young woman coerced by the government into becoming a baby factory. Only Elizabeth McGovern, surprisingly effective in a brief role as Kate's spirited friend Moira, scores. The men have better luck, with Robert Duvall adding unique shades to what could have been a drab walk-through as The Commander, Kate's boss, and Aidan Quinn appropriately alluring as Kate's illicit lover.

"Green Card" (1990)

2010-01-24T22:12:00.002-05:00

To the uninitiated, those filmgoers who haven't seen a French film since "Breathless," Gerard Depardieu is going to come as a shock. Unrefined, more than a bit chubby and blessed/cursed with a nose larger than Streisand's, he is a huge star in Europe, but he's hardly a conventional leading man. But he's enormously charming and diverse, as evidenced by his recent tackling of everything from a sophisticated businessman in "Too Beautiful For You" to Rodin in "Camille Claudel" to his latest efforts, playing a humble immigrant in "Green Card" and the outspoken swordsman "Cyrano de Bergerac." Both films are terrific in their own right, but it's Depardieu who makes them work.

"Green Card" is a perfect contemporary companion piece to "Cyrano," matching up quiet French immigrant Georges (Depardieu) and the even more low-key American gardener Bronte (Andie MacDowell) in a marriage of convenience for mutual benefit. Georges desperately wants a green card to allow him to stay and work in the U.S., while Bronte needs a husband in order to snag an apartment with ample garden space in a marrieds-only building. Seperating almost immediately after leaving city hall, the two are thrown back together when a government crackdown on illegal alien marriages threatens to blow both their covers. With only a few days to do so, Georges and Bronte must construct and memorize a facsimile of a love story, complete with shared memories and a book of snapshots.

The story could have been turned into a plastic sitcom, but director Peter Weir ("Witness," "Dead Poets Society") gives it an earthy feel and the crackling chemistry between Depardieu and MacDowell gives it considerable charm. Speaking English for the first time onscreen, Depardieu beautifully conveys outsider Georges' longings for both America and his American wife in-name-only.

"Ghosts Can't Do It" (1990)

2010-01-24T22:12:00.001-05:00

Good times never last forever, and sure enough, after only six blissful years, John and Bo Derek have resurfaced with a new home movie. The good news (for those who enjoy squirming through the worst cinema has to offer) is that "Ghosts Can't Do It" manages to top even such masterworks of schlock as their earlier "Bolero," "Fantasies" and their perversion of "Tarzan the Ape Man" for sheer artistic ineptitude.

Bo has never shown the slightest acting ability, but that doesn't stop John from throwing down a broad emotional gauntlet for her to run. She does have a sensational body, which is unwisely downplayed for most of "Ghosts," as John dresses her in outfits even Cher might condemn as gaudy: You won't believe the furry black number she trots out for her husband's funeral. The real shame falls on Anthony Quinn, playing Bo's deceased spouse who keeps tabs on her from the spectral world: Most of his footage consists of embarrassing reaction shots that look like they were filmed through an aquarium full of sewer water and lit with a strobe light.

The skimpy and disjointed storyline has to do with Bo and ghostly Quinn pining for each other and scheming to bump off a virile young gigolo so that Quinn can possess his body and "do it" with Bo once more. Far more absorbing though is a climactic showdown between tough tycoon Bo and takeover king Donald Trump, who is portrayed by The Donald himself. "You like to make mischief," Bo teases. "You noticed that too?" he deadpans. Somewhere Ivana is smiling...

"Ghost Dad" (1990)

2010-01-24T22:11:00.001-05:00

Some combinations will never work out: oil and water; fire and gasoline; peanut butter and mustard. Add to that list Bill Cosby and the movies. Remember "Leonard, Part 6"? "Ghost Dad" will make your memories of that one sweeter.

In this dismal, cheap-looking attempt at domestic fantasy in the "Topper" mode, The Cos plays a neglectful single father who is too obsessed with his career to mind his kids. After an accident puts him in the spirit world, he learns it's more important to be with your family than with your boss. Lessons are learned by all, at the expense of any entertainment value.

There's more preachiness here than in a hundred "ABC Afterschool Specials," and the special effects wouldn't pass muster on a local kiddie show. Wires are clearly visible when Cosby floats about, and the matte work that makes him walk through walls and fall through floors is embarrassing. Most astonishing, though, in what might pass for a "family film," is the abundance of scatological humor, with jokes about flatulence, urine specimens and even impotence. Most of these prompted groans from the preview audience, but the most telling comment came as the end credits crept up: "Yea! It's over!" cheered the little boy behind me. Yea indeed.

"Ghost" (1990)

2010-01-24T22:10:00.000-05:00

Hollywood continues to buy ideas in bulk. What else can account for the onslaught of similiarly themed movies all hitting the box office within months of each other? Five years ago, teen science movies were all the rage ("Weird Science," "Real Genius," "My Science Project" and the surprise hit of the bunch, "Back to the Future"). Two years ago, it was the onslaught of the body-switcher movies ("Vice Versa," "Like Father, Like Son," "Dream A Little Dream" and the aptly-named "Big"). And now, in the past few months, we've had ghost stories: Spielberg's "Always," Bo and John Derek's hideous "Ghosts Can't Do It," the aforementioned "Ghost Dad" and this one, with the no-nonsense title "Ghost."

Despite its generic packaging -- and its less-than-promising cast of Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and the generally dreaded Whoopi Goldberg -- "Ghost" works. Director Jerry Zucker's resume of raucous farces like "Airplane!", "Ruthless People" and "The Naked Gun" gives no indication of his being capable of sustaining the movie's many shifts of tone and tempo, but he pulls it off, certainly more successfully than Spielberg did in "Always," which was more saccharine than romantic and was weighed down by overblown comic interludes. But the real crusher of "Always" was its failure to make Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter a believable pair of lovers. In contrast, "Ghost"'s leisurely first hour sets up Swayze and Moore as Sam and Molly, a very credible, likable couple; there's a terrific love scene involving Moore's pottery wheel that establishes their strong erotic bond and that's essential for this kind of material to click. The relationship is interrupted when Sam and Molly are mugged and Sam is murdered by a derelict. His spirit discovers the truth about the killing and finally gets in touch with one person in New York who actually can hear him: Sister Oda Mae Brown (Goldberg), who runs a psychic scam but doesn't believe she actually has the gift. Oda doesn't want to help Sam, but finally gives in after he keeps her up all night singing "99 Bottles of Beer" and "I'm 'Enry the Eighth, I Am." From here on out, "Ghost" becomes a deft blending of comedy and suspense, with some impressive special effects that are incorporated into the film instead of being the center of it.

Swayze has trouble playing agony and shock, but acquits himself nicely in his first decent role since "Dirty Dancing"; after the debacles of "Steel Dawn," "Road House" and "Next of Kin," he may finally have found a picture his female fans will like. Moore has always been an underrated actress and she turns in strong work once again. But it's Goldberg who almost steals the show. After five years of watching her disgrace herself and trash her talents in one sorry vehicle after another, it's hard to believe she could rebound with such a spirited characterization, but she has. As Oda Mae, she's finally found a role that combines the hipness of her standup act with a bit of the serious side she's shown in "The Color Purple" and "Clara's Heart," and she's made the most of it. And if John Travolta could redeem himself in the eyes of moviegoers with just one picture, why not Whoopi?

"Dick Tracy" (1990)

2010-01-24T22:09:00.002-05:00

When militant rappers Public Enemy chanted "Don't Believe The Hype" a couple years ago, they weren't talking about the movie industry, but they might as well have been, especially when it comes to summer blockbusters. It's easy to fall victim to media frenzy and get suckered into watching an atrocious film by a clever ad campaign. "Dick Tracy," easily the most hyped film of the year so far, would seem a strong candidate for suspicion.

Disney, learning valuable lessons from Warner Brothers' marketing of "Batman" last year, started pushing their product last Christmas and has hardly let up since. But what is it about "Dick Tracy" that makes you want to see it? The presence of Warren Beatty? His name certainly didn't sell "Ishtar" three summers back. Madonna, in her return to the big screen? Anyone who sat through "Shanghai Surprise" and "Who's That Girl" has reason to beware of any film she toplines. The title character? Dick Tracy himself has not been hot for at least 40 years. Boil down the slick sell and all you have left is the film itself, meaning that it had better be pretty remarkable if it's going to survive the scrutiny of pitch-wary moviegoers.

Miracle of miracles, it is. More than remarkable, it's flatout stunning. The first time you see it -- and few will be able to resist the temptation of a second or third viewing -- you'll be wowed by the intricate and astonishing production design: No other movie ever made looks like this. From the opening shots that carry us from Tracy's apartment to the other side of town via a breaktaking rapid pan that cruises across a landscape part-real, part-painted, it's obvious that this is going to be a visual vacation.

But the design doesn't overwhelm the actors. Director Beatty knows how to bring out the brightest in his cast, and his ensemble, in turn, gives their all to the script, which is much snappier than you'd expect. The villains and near-villains get most of the good lines: slinky singer-seductress Breathless Mahoney (Madonna, whose sensuality and humor are perfect for the part), asked by Tracy (Beatty) if she's mourning her late sugar daddy, deadpans, "I'm wearing black underwear"; Breathless' new boss, the sub-intellectual crime kingpin Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino, camping it up to the max), tells his minions to "dress like bankers, join the Rotary Club. If you're not of the people, you can't buy the people." Although his lines are not easily intelligible, Dustin Hoffman almost steals the picture as albino informant Mumbles, a sly variation on his "Rainman" performance.

They get fewer laughs, but the good guys aren't boring either. Glenne Headley puts a sassy, smart spin on the potentially goody-goody Tess Trueheart, and Charlie Korsmo, previously seen as Jessica Lange's youngest in "Men Don't Leave," is a delight as The Kid taken in by Tracy and Tess.

And Beatty the actor? He brings his customary charm to Tracy, making him a hero with real heart. As a director, he invests the film with as many emotional conflicts as physical. Underneath the special effects and creative coloring is a truly affecting story about people unable to choose between love and work, or between good and bad. What a rarity: a summer blockbuster set in a fantasy world, but addressing real-life concerns. Here's something worth hyping.

"Cyrano de Bergerac" (1990)

2010-01-24T22:09:00.001-05:00

Budgeted at $17 million, "Cyrano de Bergerac" is the costliest French film in history -- and certainly one of the finest. Director Jean-Paul Rappeneau gives Edmond Rostand's romantic classic a lavish production, but Cyrano is never lost in the spectacle. From the opening scene in which he takes on a theater full of pretentious actors to the grand tearjerking finale, Cyrano is always the center of attention, and Depardieu, full of wit, bravado and passion, rises to the challenge.

Obsessed with the lovely Roxane (Anne Brochet), Cyrano is unable to bring himself to declare his feelings for an all-too-obvious reason. "My nose precedes me by 15 minutes," he sulks.

When Roxane confesses her lust for an attractive but dense cadet named Christian (Vincent Perez) in Cyrano's regiment, Cyrano at first tries to dissuade her (she speaks longingly of Christian's curly hair, while Cyrano warns "his brains may be curly, too"), but he finally relents, using his gift for penning passionate prose to get them together.

Rappeneau brings out all the comedy in the wrongheaded wooing, particularly when the tongue-tied Christian has to speak for himself and can come up with little more than "I love you." "Embroider it!" begs Roxane, starved for more of Cyrano's luscious language. "I love you so much!" Christian answers.

"Cyrano" is also faithful to Rostand's original, unlike Steve Martin's 1987 update "Roxanne," which retained much of the material, but added a happy ending. With this and Franco Zeffirelli's exciting version of "Hamlet" both in release, it's a great time for rediscovering the classics.

"Cinema Paradiso" (1990)

2010-01-24T22:07:00.000-05:00

Director Giuseppe Tornatore's "Cinema Paradiso," this year's Oscar-winner for Best Foreign-Language Film, is an enchanting, sweeping look at post-WWII life, real and reel. It's set mostly in a small Italian village, but the characters, situations and changes it depicts are universal. You don't have to be Italian to empathize with a young man whose dreams are too big for his hometown to possibly fulfill, or to appreciate the village priest who previews every picture, indicating censorable scenes by ringing a bell. And you don't have to read subtitles to recognize an Italian-speaking John Wayne in "Stagecoach" or to pick up on the frustration of a 50-ish man who takes an exam alongside 10-year-olds in the hopes of earning a belated grade-school diploma. In this case, nothing is lost in the translation.

The film's center is Salvatore DiVita (Phillipe Noiret), whose twenty-odd years in the village of Giancaldo are built around his obsession with the local theatre, the ramshackle Cinema Paradiso whose shabby walls and wooden seats seem to disappear when they're washed in the silver-grey glow of Hollywood and Rome. Building a friendship with Alfredo (Jacques Perrin), the projectionist, Salvatore becomes increasingly absorbed in the magic of the cinema, which reflects the changes in the outside world. Things change in film as well. Censorship ends with the arrival of Bridget Bardot, and fire-proof safety film replaces the unstable silver nitrate that could turn a theatre into an inferno. Notes Alfredo, who was blinded in a booth fire, "Progress always comes too late."

It's Alfredo who pushes Salvatore out of Giancaldo, realizing that the town is a comfortable dead-end. Thirty years later, when Salvatore returns from Rome for the first time, his mother sees that his mentor was right: "Here, there are only ghosts." Tornatore conveys the message most movingly as he shows us what Salvatore's fate would have been had he stayed behind: Everyone in Giancaldo is older, but still doing the same jobs they did three decades before. All the changes in town are cosmetic. His vision is bittersweet, but not depressing, and the pathos never feel manipulative. Cheap sentiment is easy to come by in movies; films this emotionally honest are rare indeed.

"After Hours" (1985)

2010-01-24T21:59:00.003-05:00

"After Hours" is a near-perfect black comedy from an unlikely source: Martin Scorsese, the director who's previously given us such rib-ticklers as "Raging Bull," "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver." In this satire of urban paranoia, Scorsese hits the right note from the very first scene and, with the help of a brilliant cast, accomplishes an exceptionally difficult task, creating a comedy that's both uproariously funny (often in a most uncomfortable way) and deeply disturbing at the same time.

Paul (Griffin Dunne) is a word-processor who lives alone in Manhattan. When he runs into an attractive, alluring blonde named Marcie (Rosanna Arquette) in a coffee shop, he decides to make a date and sets in motion the wheels that will ultimately crush him. During his harrowing journey to Marcie's Soho loft -- and the hair-raising trip back -- he runs afoul of almost every kind of disaster imaginable: lost money; heartless subway token vendors; militant gays who mistake him for a criminal; punkers who want to give him a Mohawk; nasty ice cream men; and even a ditzy cocktail waitress (beautifully played by Teri Garr in a sky-high beehive) who subjects Paul to her collection of Monkees records.

Dunne is wonderful as the quintessential schmuck and Arquette, in her fourth movie this year, sparkles as the tempting but twisted Marcie, whose constant confessions are hysterically bizarre. Michael Ballhaus' magnificent photography makes this a banquet for the eyes as well. "After Hours" is so relentlessly sardonic some people won't make it through to the end, but those who do will find this weird, jarring and often hilarious film is an experience they won't be able to shake off.

"Extraordinary Measures"

2010-01-21T20:38:00.005-05:00

Although "Extraordinary Measures" is based on "The Cure" by Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal reporter Geeta Anand, this well-meaning tearjerker too often has the artificial flavor of a made-for-TV melodrama. Granted, you probably wouldn't see stars of Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser's caliber gracing a Lifetime Movie of the Week, but you'd definitely find some of the same situations, perhaps even a lot of nearly identical dialogue.

That's disheartening, since the theme of "Measures" -- a father literally racing against the clock to find a drug capable of saving his slow-dying children -- is deeply poignant. John Crowley (Fraser) is a marketing executive at Bristol-Myers who spends his evenings researching Pompe disease, a rare condition related to muscular dystrophy that has shown up in two of his three children. His wife, Aileen (Keri Russell), tries to keep up a sunny front for the kids, although she and John are both aware many children with Pompe have a life expectancy of only 8 or 9; the disease causes muscular deterioration as well as enlargement of internal organs. Six-year-old Patrick (Diego Velazquez) and 8-year-old Megan (Meredith Droeger) are already showing troubling symptoms, and when Megan is rushed to the ICU after a respiratory illness, one of the doctors urges the Crowleys to see her eventual death as "a blessing."

Instead, John travels from their home in Portland to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he stalks Dr. Robert Stonehill (Ford), a researcher who has devoted much of his career to studying Pompe. Even after John enlists Robert's help, there's the matter of trying to find the necessary financing for further study and development of a treatment, and "Measures" is most effective when it turns its attention to the delicate dance between the medical community and the business world. Suffice to say getting seed money for a biotech start-up requires considerable compromise, gentle arm-twisting and a sturdy stomach: It's hard not to squirm when financiers ask, "What rate of patient death can be defined as acceptable loss?"

"Measures" occasionally makes a stab at America's woebegone health insurance system -- Aileen points out the family will be facing $40,000 a month in medical bills if John loses his benefits package -- and allows Robert to rage against "the bean-counters" who put profits ahead of treating the sick and suffering. "This is not about a return on an investment -- it's about kids!" John bellows in one of the film's tenser moments.

But Robert Nelson Jacobs' screenplay generally opts to play it safe, which diffuses much of the drama. "Measures" includes numerous shots of weary-looking children hooked up to respirators or confined to wheelchairs; it could have used a little more insight and sass instead of the saccharin.

It also would have benefited from a more subtle touch from director Tom Vaughn, whose previous credits include the winning college comedy "Starter for Ten" and the dreary Cameron Diaz/Ashton Kutcher farce "What Happens in Vegas."

Speaking of Diaz, "Measures" often begs comparisons to last summer's "My Sister's Keeper," in which Diaz played a mom dealing with her daughter's leukemia. While "Keeper" had its flaws, it offered characters who were more fully defined than the ones in this story. John is bleary-eyed and determined, Robert is brilliant and belligerent, Aileen is hopeful yet terrified, and the kids are basically on hand to pluck the heartstrings every 10 minutes or so. Apparently, Jacobs had to do a little doctoring of his own to compress the story's timeframe and consolidate some of the major players in the actual case. That may account for why this true story that should have been an emotional powerhouse only gives off intermittent sparks.

"The Book of Eli"

2010-01-15T18:46:00.003-05:00

To paraphrase that old Three Dog Night hit, Eli's a-comin' and the cards say ... a broken head. Or a severed hand. Or maybe just a split-open stomach.

In "The Book of Eli," directors Allen and Albert Hughes take us down, shall we say, a well-traveled "Road." The skies rain ashes, cannibalism is all the rage in certain circles, freeways have been largely reduced to rubble and nearly everyone is dressed in "Mad Max"-style threadbare thug-wear. Familiar sights perhaps, but the Hughes Brothers, production designer Gae Buckley and art director Chris Burian-Mohr have nevertheless put together a memorably miserable vision of the future.

Read the full review here.

"The Spy Next Door"

2010-01-15T18:42:00.003-05:00

"The Spy Next Door" begins with a montage of clips from vintage Jackie Chan films such as "First Strike" and "Supercop," underscored by Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man." Unfortunately, that brief sequence is by far the best part of the movie. "Rumble in the Bronx" this is not; it's barely even Rumpus in the Playpen.

Read the full review here.

"Leap Year"

2010-01-07T23:08:00.005-05:00

Amy Adams is one of the most beguiling and engaging actresses around. Matthew Goode was born with an extra charisma gene. And the countryside and coastline of Ireland are always a banquet for the eyes. Put these powerhouse ingredients together, and you'd naturally wind up with something irresistible, right?

Maybe if you threw in a field's worth of four-leaf clovers, something the makers of "Leap Year" apparently didn't have close at hand. Although Adams and Goode try to glide through the film on sheer amiability, they are anchored to a screenplay that undermines them practically every predictable step of the way.

The exceedingly slight story by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont steals pages from "It Happened One Night," "The Sure Thing," "Runaway Bride" and any other romantic comedy that might have happened to find its way into their Netflix queue. Anna (Adams) is a full-steam-ahead, Type-A personality who has made a career out of dressing up luxury apartments to make them sell quickly (one of her secrets is stolen directly from "Clueless"; I'll leave it to you to find out which one). For four years, Anna's been seriously involved with a cardiologist named Jeremy (Adam Scott) who has yet to say those magic words and slip a sparkling stone on her finger.

So Anna decides to take the initiative herself, secretly following her man to Dublin, where she plots to take advantage of an old Irish tradition by proposing to him on Feb. 29. A series of contrivances is engineered to deliver Anna to the doorstep of a pub/inn run by Declan (Goode), who doesn't immediately warm up to the frazzled American lass, even though she's willing to pay a handsome fee for a ride to Dublin. Still, Declan needs to make some fast money to save his business from creditors so the duo hit the road together, sniping and griping at each other mile after mile.

She can't stand his devil-may-care attitude and his rattletrap car. He carps about her Louis Vuitton luggage and her $600 high heels (and does the world really need one more film in which a know-it-all sophisticate tromps into the wild in wildly inappropriate attire?). Observing it all from the sidelines are a crew of elderly, meddling Irish stereotypes whose behavior and dialogue would make even the Lucky Charms leprechaun blush in embarrassment.

Every so often, "Leap Year" manages to come up with a mildly funny moment or two, and, when they're not hurling puffball insults, Goode and Adams find a sweet tenderness in their rapport that only serves to make you wish they'd been teamed up in a better-written movie. Cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel's camera lingers lovingly on the craggy rock walls, castle ruins and windswept meadows of the Emerald Isle, providing a little eye candy to distract attention away from the plodding plot. Watchable but a long way from wonderful, "Leap Year" strains to kill the requisite amount of time before Anna faces that life-changing Big Decision -- and no, it's not the choice between the shepherd's pie and the cottage pie.

The 100 best -- and the 98 worst -- of the '00s

2009-12-29T10:25:00.024-05:00

As the decade comes to a close, I decided to retrieve my Top 10 lists for each year -- both the best and the worst. Unfortunately for people who like nice round numbers, I didn't see a whole lot of bad movies this year (intentionally, I may add), so I only have eight titles on my 2009 Worst list. So we're left with a grand total of 100 terrific pictures and 98 terrible time-waters instead of an even 200. But let's not quibble over those details.

Here they are, the classics and the clunkers of the past 10 years...

2000 Best:
1. "Chicken Run"
2. "Gladiator"
3. "You Can Count on Me"
4. "The Virgin Suicides"
5. "Almost Famous"
6. "Dancer in the Dark"
7. "The Gift"
8. "Best In Show"
9. "Beyond the Mat"
10. "Erin Brockovich"

2000 Worst:
1. "Battlefield Earth"
2. "Get Carter"
3. "Highlander: Endgame"
4. "The In Crowd"
5. "Bait"
6. "Beautiful"
7. "Supernova"
8. "Bored Silly"
9. "The Skulls"
10. "Down to You"

2001 Best:
1. "In the Bedroom"
2. "Shrek"
3. "The Dish"
4. "Panic"
5. "Monsters, Inc."
6. "Amores Perros"
7. "Memento"
8. "Ghost World"
9. "Amelie"
10. "The Royal Tenenbaums"

2001 Worst:
1. "Tomcats"
2. "The Wash"
3. "Riding in Cars with Boys"
4. "Joe Dirt"
5. "Dr. Dolittle 2"
6. "Head Over Heels"
7. "3000 Miles to Graceland"
8. "Sweet November"
9. "15 Minutes"
10. "Domestic Disturbance"

2002 Best:
1. "Chicago"
2. "The Hours"
3. "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"
4. "Spirited Away"
5. "Bowling for Columbine"
6. "Adaptation"
7. "Insomnia"
8. "Tribute"
9. "Thirteen Conversations About One Thing"
10. "Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)"

2002 Worst:
1. "Rollerball"
2. "Crossroads"
3. "The Master of Disguise"
4. "Frank McKlusky, C.I."
5. "Femme Fatale"
6. "The Adventures of Pluto Nash"
7. "Bad Company"
8. "Sorority Boys"
9. "Dragonfly"
10. "Half Past Dead"

2003 Best:
1. "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"
2. "American Splendor"
3. "Big Fish"
4. "Spellbound"
5. "Pieces of April"
6. "Winged Migration"
7. "Whale Rider"
8. "Finding Nemo"
9. "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World"
10. "Capturing the Friedmans"

2003 Worst:
1. "Boat Trip"
2. "Bad Boys II"
3. "Gigli"
4. "My Boss's Daughter"
5. "From Justin to Kelly"
6. "Cold Creek Manor"
7. "Kangaroo Jack"
8. "Basic"
9. "The Life of David Gale"
10. "Hollywood Homicide"

2004 Best:
1. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
2. "Kinsey"
3. "Sideways"
4. "Hero"
5. "Kill Bill, Vol. 2"
6. "The Incredibles"
7. "Spider-Man 2"
8. "Million Dollar Baby"
9. "Maria Full of Grace"
10. "The Polar Express"

2004 Worst:
1. "Surviving Christmas"
2. "The Whole Ten Yards"
3. "New York Minute"
4. "Paparazzi"
5. "SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2"
6. "Godsend"
7. "Little Black Book"
8. "Catwoman"
9. "My Baby's Daddy"
10. "Darkness"

2005 Best:
1. "Brokeback Mountain"
2. "March of the Penguins"
3. "Murderball"
4. "The Constant Gardener"
5. "Capote"
6. "Batman Begins"
7. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"
8. "Rent"
9. "A History of Violence"
10. "The Squid and the Whale"

2005 Worst:
1. "Mindhunters"
2. "Aeon Flux"
3. "Hide and Seek"
4. "Boogeyman"
5. "The Fog"
6. "Undiscovered"
7. "King's Ransom"
8. "Must Love Dogs"
9. "In the Mix"
10. "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous"

2006 Best:
1. "The Queen"
2. "Little Children"
3. "Volver"
4. "The Departed"
5. "Little Miss Sunshine"
6. "Half Nelson"
7. "United 93"
8. "Jesus Camp"
9. "Slither"
10. "Dreamgirls"

2006 Worst:
1. "Material Girls"
2. "Date Movie"
3. "BloodRayne"
4. "Ultraviolet"
5. "When a Stranger Calls"
6. "Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector"
7. "Little Man"
8. "Tristan and Isolde"
9. "Stick It"
10. "Basic Instinct 2"

2007 Best:
1. "There Will Be Blood"
2. "Control"
3. "Juno"
4. "Lust, Caution"
5. "Into the Wild"
6. "Atonement"
7. "Hot Fuzz"
8. "The Wind That Shakes the Barley"
9. "No Country for Old Men"
10. "Lars and the Real Girl"

2007 Worst:
1. "I Know Who Killed Me"
2. "License to Wed"
3. "Are We Done Yet?"
4. "Thr3e"
5. "Primeval"
6. "Redline"
7. "P.S. I Love You"
8. "The Reaping"
9. "The Number 23"
10. "Premonition"

2008 Best:
1. "Slumdog Millionaire"
2. "Revolutionary Road"
3. "The Wrestler"
4. "The Dark Knight"
5. "WALL*E"
6. "In Bruges"
7. "Young@Heart"
8. "Happy-Go-Lucky"
9. "Man on Wire"
10. "The Vistor"

2008 Worst:
1. "The Hottie and the Nottie"
2. "The Love Guru"
3. "Made of Honor"
4. "Witless Protection"
5. "88 Minutes"
6. "One Missed Call"
7. "Beer For My Horses"
8. "In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale"
9. "Four Christmases"
10. "Repo! The Genetic Opera"

2009 Best:
1. "Stilyagi (Hipsters)"
2. "Up in the Air"
3. "An Education"
4. "The Hurt Locker"
5. "Up"
6. "A Single Man"
7. "(500) Days of Summer"
8. "Anvil! The Story of Anvil"
9. "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire"
10. "In the Loop"

2009 Worst:
1. "Transylmania"
2. "Fired Up"
3. "Confessions of a Shopaholic"
4. "New in Town"
5. "Knowing"
6. "The Informers"
7. "Fanboys"
8. "Paranormal Activity"

The best -- and the rest

2009-12-27T14:53:00.002-05:00

So it's time again to sort through the year's best and worst films, but this time around I have a strange situation in front of me. My favorite movie of the year was never released in America. So I can tell you about it, I can show you clips on YouTube -- and yet I know if you didn't it see at the Toronto International Film Festival in September or at the Chicago International Film Festival in October, or at some other festival somewhere your odds of seeing it in a theater are probably pretty slim.

That's because "Stilyagi (Hipsters)" has yet to find an American distributor, even though it won best picture in the Nika awards, the Russian equivalent of the Academy Awards. It wowed the audiences in Toronto and Chicago, too. Director Valery Todorovsky's electrifying musical comedy-drama combines familiar elements from "Footloose," "West Side Story," "Grease" and "Hairspray" in a story set against the backdrop of 1955 Moscow, where a gang of jazz-loving teens in candy-colored clothes and carefully coiffed hairdos shake up Soviet society, in which gray is the favorite shade of fashion designers. Here is a hint of how good this film is: I understand perhaps five words of Russian, yet I watched "Stilyagi" all the way through without the benefit of subtitles and still had a sensational time (thankfully, the story is not exactly Tolstoyesque in terms of its complexity).

So that was my top choice of 2009. But let's get down to a few films you might have actually seen. Here come this year's 10 best:

1. "Stilyagi (Hipsters)"

2. "Up in the Air"

3. "An Education"

4. "The Hurt Locker"

5. "Up"

6. "A Single Man"

7. "(500) Days of Summer"

8. "Anvil! The Story of Anvil"

9. "Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire"

10. "In the Loop"

And a bunch of worthwhile runner-ups (in alphabetical order): "Adventureland," "Adam," "Bright Star," "Broken Embraces," "The Class," "Coraline," "The Damned United," "District 9," "Drag Me to Hell," "Duplicity," "Every Little Step," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "The Hangover," "The Informant!," "Inglorious Basterds," "It Might Get Loud," "It's Complicated," "Julie & Julia," "Me and Orson Welles," "The Messenger," "A Serious Man," "The September Issue," "The Young Victoria," "Zombieland."

I'm not bothering with a comprehensive 10 Worst list this year because, frankly, much of this year I actively avoided seeing anything I assumed I wouldn't like. After I stopped reviewing full-time at the end of May, I made a promise to myself I would not waste my time watching lousy films (unless there was a paycheck attached). So I missed out on "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," "Land of the Lost," "Imagine That," "Year One," "Dance Flick," "G-Force," "The Ugly Truth," "All About Steve" and many others that will undoubtedly find their places on other Worst of the Year lists. As for the awful films I did wind up seeing, I would dearly like to get back the 12 hours of my life squandered on:

1. "Transylmania"
2. "Fired Up"
3. "Confessions of a Shopaholic"
4. "New in Town"
5. "Knowing"
6. "The Informers"
7. "Fanboys"
8. "Paranormal Activity" (the year's most overhyped "phenomenon," a bad home-movie that was almost as "terrifying" as "The Hannah Montana Movie"; bring on the backlash)

I had thought of tacking on "Obsessed" and "2012" to make it a perfect 10 -- but I have to admit those two turkeys provided so many unintentional laughs I have to admit they were actually kind of fun to sit through.

"It's Complicated"

2009-12-24T11:04:00.005-05:00

Writer-director Nancy Meyers is one of the best friends an actress can have. Not only does she know how to craft substantial parts and write witty lines, she also realizes women don't automatically lose their appeal once they reach that much-murmured-about "certain age." So in "It's Complicated," Meyers unleashes a new sex kitten: Her name is Meryl Streep.

Read the full review here.

"Sherlock Holmes"

2009-12-24T11:01:00.006-05:00

Forget about deerstalker hats and 7 percent solutions. They have no place in the world of "Sherlock Holmes" as envisioned by director Guy Ritchie.

Instead this Sherlock -- portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. as a peculiar cross between an effete eccentric and a rough-and-tumble adventurer -- participates in bare-knuckle boxing matches, dives out windows into the chilly waters of the Thames and even allows his trusty associate, Dr. Watson (Jude Law), to sock him in the nose when Holmes goes too far. Obviously, we're a long, long way from the cinematic heyday of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.

Read the full review here.

"Up in the Air"

2009-12-23T17:52:00.005-05:00

The pervasive influence of lobbyists, teenage pregnancy and joblessness are nothing to laugh about. Yet director Jason Reitman has made three very funny films -- "Thank You for Smoking," "Juno" and "Up in the Air" -- addressing these topics. "Air," in which George Clooney plays a suave hatchet man who happily wields the ax when namby-pamby corporate types don't want to do their own dirty work, is the best of the bunch, a movie that manages to keep you laughing even as it slowly breaks your heart.

Based on Walter Kirn's novel of the same name, "Air" examines the world of Ryan Bingham (Clooney), a guy who jets around the country jettisoning workers from their offices. How does Bingham sleep at night? Quite comfortably, for the most part; he sees himself as a solitary man on a mission. Insults from his victims bounce off of him and their hysterical tears just roll off his back.

In an environment that regularly puts profits ahead of people, Ryan Bingham is a hero. But is this someone we really want to get to know? Yes, Reitman insists.

As "Air" unfolds, Bingham begins to look more and more like the lost son of C.C. Baxter, the status-seeking accountant Jack Lemmon played in director Billy Wilder's 1960 Oscar-winner "The Apartment." Baxter curried favor with his bosses by loaning his bedroom out to executives who needed a private getaway for illicit affairs; Bingham willingly does managers' dirty work for them in exchange for a generous salary. Baxter wanted to climb the ladder, but Bingham has even loftier dreams: He wants to rack up millions of frequent-flier miles to savor the premium perks they bring.

If Bingham is sounding more and more like a thoroughly loathsome personality, that's not the way Reitman sees him and it's certainly not the way Clooney plays him. "Air" realizes there is often a gap between what someone does for a living and who they really are -- and despite his outwardly impressive appearance, Bingham is not Mr. Success. His non-stop travel is a convenient cover for the way he runs away from commitments, from his family, from anything that reeks of stability. "Last year, I spent 322 days on the road, which means I had to spend 43 miserable days at home," he says in his narration. If home is truly where the heart is, Bingham would prefer to leave his in his barely furnished apartment.

In the hands of an actor less capable than Clooney, Bingham might be a very cold fish indeed. But Clooney uncovers the man's humor and wisdom, even his charm. So by the time Bingham finds himself involuntarily shackled to a take-charge trainee named Natalie (the outstanding Anna Kendrick), we find ourselves feeling sympathy for him. And when Bingham encounters Alex (Vera Farmiga), who's almost his equal when it comes to racking up time on the road, we start to hope maybe Bingham has found his perfect match.

"Air" might also be seen as a companion piece to Clooney's earlier "Michael Clayton," another story in which a seasoned pro suddenly realizes the life he's been enjoying is no longer viable. Like Clayton, Bingham begins to question what lies ahead, especially now that Natalie and Bingham's disturbingly upbeat boss (Jason Bateman) are pushing the idea of firing employees through video conferencing instead of going through all the trouble of doing it face-to-face. "The slower we move, the faster we die," Bingham tells an audience in one of his motivational seminars. "We are not swans -- we are sharks." And if Bingham is forced to settle down, he may well be a dead duck.

Reitman and co-writer Sheldon Turner have sandwiched some marvelously witty dialogue into this screenplay, and Clooney, Kendrick and Farmiga make sure every line hits its target. While Kendrick's Natalie embodies every awful trait of the recent bright-eyed business school grad (from the solemn stare to the curt tone she uses when addressing people she doesn't want to know), she's using those tactics to hide a deep well of insecurities. Like a little girl dressing up in Mommy's clothes, she has the right essentials but she doesn't quite know how to put it all together yet.

Alex is another story. Farmiga portrays her as a slick, seen-it-all veteran of the corporate wars who dresses classy, talks sassy and moves through a room as if she fully expected everyone to be watching her. "You're so pretty," Natalie gushes in a rare moment of candor. "You're exactly what I wanna look like in 15 years." Although Alex is too polite to tell Natalie she's got a long way to go, that sentiment flashes across Farmiga's eyes.

When I first saw "Up in the Air" at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, I was so impressed by the performances and the splendid writing I initially overlooked one of the film's most distinctive qualities: Even though its central figure is a man, this movie is a veritable goldmine of superb roles for women. In addition to Alex and Natalie, both of whom turn out to be just as complex as Bingham, there's also Bingham's borderline-neurotic sister, Julie, expertly played by the versatile Melanie Lynskey. In her uneasy phone conversations with her brother, you can hear many years of disappointments and let-downs, and when she asks Bingham to help her with a project for her wedding reception the concept she's come up with is both nutty and, when you think about it, truly sad. While her brother bounces all over the country, Julie and her fiance (Danny McBride) can't even scrape together enough money for a honeymoon trip.

That increasingly wide gap between the haves and the have-littles lingers in the background of "Air" as Bingham contemplates charting a new course for himself. At least he's in control of his own fate: The people he's thrown out of work have little more than Bingham's freeze-dried inspirational slogans and the prospect of an unemployment check to comfort them. But, as this captivating comedy-drama reminds us, nothing is permanent.

"Nine"

2009-12-23T10:40:00.007-05:00

For film director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) the line between fantasy and real life has become so blurred it's practically non-existant. As he drifts through the jet-set scene in 1965 Rome, his past, his present and his fantasy life swirl around him like the constant cloud of cigarette smoke in which he's cocooned himself. His late mother (Sophia Loren) is just as much a part of his reality as his disillusioned wife, Luisa (Marion Cotillard), and his overeager mistress, Carla (Penelope Cruz), and his goddessy leading lady/muse, Claudia (Nicole Kidman). Caught up in his own hype and crushed by the pressure of creating something new, Guido has become the star of his own psychosexual cabaret -- and it's about time he cleaned up his act.

Directed by Rob Marshall ("Chicago"), "Nine" is a eye-filling, somewhat loose adaptation of the 1982 Broadway musical inspired by Federico Fellini's 1963 film "8½." Fellini served up surrealistic scenarios that left viewers' heads buzzing; Marshall dishes out sexy song-and-dance segments that will send 'em running to the nearest cold shower. Problematic and uneven as a character study, "Nine" functions best as a racy variety show (each of Guido's women gets her own number, except for Luisa, who gets two) with Guido as the somewhat mystified master of ceremonies. Guido's faithful costume designer and surrogate nanny Lilli (Judi Dench) serves as the stage manager, while American fashion journalist Stephanie (Kate Hudson) plays the part of the alluring chorus girl who can't wait to jump on the casting couch.

Guido bounces pinball-like between the various ladies in his life -- stopping off along the way to revisit the blowsy/brassy prostitute (Fergie) who gave him his first lessons in love -- while trying to come up with some sort of a viable idea for the new film he's supposed to start shooting in a few days' time. It's pointless to ask why a studio would green-light a movie with no script; Guido, we are regularly reminded, is a genius whose producers encourage him to "write with your camera." Apparently, artistic self-indulgence was not only accepted in 1960s Italy, it was bankrolled.

Given that Marshall has staged most of the musical interludes on the soundstage of Fellini's famous Cinecitta Studios, it's a bit bewildering that he doesn't show any real evidence of Guido's much-celebrated work. About the closest we get to understanding what the Contini catalog contains is Stephanie's tribute to him, "Cinema Italiano," in which she adoringly oozes praise for his directorial style. "I love the speedy little cars, the hip coffee bars, the sleek women in Positano," she wails. "Guido's the ultimate oumo Romano!"

As far as his creative vision is concerned, we'll have to take her word for it. But if we're talking about the ultimate Romeo, well, Guido can definitely qualify as a contender. Although he claims to want to be a faithful husband, he can't seem to cut Carla loose, he aggressively flirts with Stephanie and he obviously entertains fantasies about Claudia in his spare time. If the movie had been 10 minutes longer, perhaps he would have finally gotten around to seducing Lilli as well.

By pushing Guido's carnal urges to the forefront and leaving us in the dark about his skill as a filmmaker, screenwriters Michael Tolkin and the late Anthony Minghella have handed Day-Lewis a character that's difficult to truly like, much less identify with. Guido spends most of the movie trying to dodge his responsibilities and commitments: He runs away from the set; he leaves Luisa to suffer in solitude; he sneaks away from Carla when she's at her most vulnerable, etc. He's not so much a man of action as a man of evasion, and after a while that becomes rather wearying to watch, even though Day-Lewis often finds the comic possibilities in Guido's muddled morality.

"Nine" has also deleted all but two of Guido's songs, which makes little sense since Day-Lewis proves to be a capable enough vocalist and, in the stage version, those solos supply background information that fill out Guido's psyche. Without them, Guido is almost as much a mystery as his work-in-progress.

Thankfully, the women step in to save the show. Cotillard wrings every possible drop of heartbroken resignation out of "My Husband Makes Movies," in which Luisa tries to justify her position as Guido's cheerleader and companion and, although devotees of the show may be furious Luisa's "Be On Your Own" has been bumped in favor of a new song titled "Take It All," Cotillard delivers the torchy number in scorching style. Kidman's quivery alto gives a sweet sincerity to the gorgeous "Unusual Way," although breaking up the ballad with dialogue nullifies much of its power. Similarly, Loren's lullaby "Guarda La Luna," another piece written for the film, is pretty but feels extraneous.

Fergie lets loose with a full-throttle version of "Be Italian" -- backed up by a troupe of tambourine-shaking tramps -- and Dench, trotting around in a mile-long red feather boa, puts plenty of wry razzle-dazzle into "Folies Bergere."

As for Cruz's rendition of "A Phone Call From the Vatican," it's a gold-plated show-stopper. Sliding down electric-pink curtains, writhing around on a mirrored floor and swinging from ropes, Cruz is both voluptuous, volcanic and the dancing definition of va-va-voom. Sure, it's only a movie, but don't be surprised if you find yourself shouting, "Encore!"

"An Education"

2009-12-20T02:13:00.002-05:00

In 1961, London had yet to see the arrival of The Beatles or Twiggy or Mary Quant; in director Lone Scherfig's "An Education," it seems much closer to Sedate London than the Swinging London it would become by mid-decade. So it's no wonder culture-starved 16-year-old Jenny (Carey Mulligan) would be quickly swept away by David (Peter Sarsgaard), who is twice her age, drives a sleek sportscar, knows all the finest nightclubs and showers her with gifts.

Unfortunately, excitement and enlightenment can come at a high cost, something journalist Lynn Barber learned first-hand; her recently published memoir "An Education" is the basis for Nick Hornby's skillfully detailed screenplay. (Some character names were changed to protect both the innocent and the guilty).

Read the full review here.

Visit the official movie website (and hear some of the cool soundtrack music) here.

Detroit Film Critics Society Awards announced

2009-12-17T23:32:00.011-05:00

The Detroit Film Critics Society is pleased to announce the BEST OF 2009 nominees in eight categories. The society was founded in Spring 2007 and consists of a group of 21 Michigan film critics who write or broadcast in the Detroit area as well as other major cities within a 150-mile radius of the city including Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, and Flint, Michigan.
Each critic submitted their top 5 picks in the following categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Ensemble, and Best Breakthrough Performance. From these submissions, each entry was given a point value and the top 5 in each category were put on the final ballot. The final ballots were then given to each critic to rank in order. The results were once again tabulated and the winners were decided.

THE NOMINATIONS FOR 2009 PICKED BY THE DETROIT FILM CRITICS SOCIETY (in alphabetical order)

1. BEST FILM
(500) DAYS OF SUMMER
THE HURT LOCKER
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
UP
UP IN THE AIR

2. BEST DIRECTOR
KATHRYN BIGELOW– THE HURT LOCKER
PETE DOCTER - UP
JASON REITMAN – UP IN THE AIR
QUENTIN TARANTINO – INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
MARC WEBB – (500) DAYS OF SUMMER

3. BEST ACTOR
GEORGE CLOONEY – UP IN THE AIR
MATT DAMON – THE INFORMANT
COLIN FIRTH – A SINGLE MAN
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT – (500) DAYS OF SUMMER
SAM ROCKWELL - MOON

4. BEST ACTRESS
ALISON LOHMAN – DRAG ME TO HELL
CAREY MULLIGAN – AN EDUCATION
SAOIRSE RONAN – THE LOVELY BONES
GABOUREY “GABBY” SIDIBE – PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
MERYL STREEP – JULIE & JULIA

5. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
WOODY HARRELSON – THE MESSENGER
WOODY HARRELSON - ZOMBIELAND
CHRISTIAN MCKAY – ME & ORSON WELLES
STANLEY TUCCI – THE LOVELY BONES
CHRISTOPH WALTZ – INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

6. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
MARION COTILLARD - NINE
VERA FARMIGA – UP IN THE AIR
ANNA KENDRICK – UP IN THE AIR
MELANIE LAURENT – INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
MO’NIQUE - PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE

7. BEST ENSEMBLE
THE HANGOVER
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
STAR TREK
ZOMBIELAND

8. BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
ANNA KENDRICK – UP IN THE AIR
CHRISTIAN MCKAY – ME & ORSON WELLES
CAREY MULLIGAN – AN EDUCATION
CHRIS PINE – STAR TREK
GABOUREY “GABBY” SIDIBE – PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
CHRISTOPH WALTZ – INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

The Detroit Film Critics Society members for the 2009-2010 season in alphabetical order are Kirk Baird – The Toledo Blade, Jason Buchanan – allmovieguide.com, Colette Evangelista – Capital Area Women’s Lifestyle Magazine, Jim Fordyce – www.MIentertainment.biz, Adam Graham – The Detroit News, Corey Hall – The Metro Times, Tom Long – The Detroit News, Jeff Meyers – The Metro Times, Robin Miner-Swartz – The Lansing State Journal, Chad Mitchell – The Chad Show, John Monaghan – The Detroit Free Press, Warren Pierce – WJR Radio, Greg Russell – WMYD-TV, James Sanford – The Kalamazoo Gazette, Debbie Schlussel – Sirius Patriot Channel 144’s Mike Church Show, Perry Seibert – allmovieguide.com, John Serba – The Grand Rapids Press, Lee Thomas – Fox 2, Kirk Vanderbeek – Real Detroit Weekly, Greg Walton – WIOG/KRSP, and Chris Williams – Advisor & Source Newspapers.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: RUTH DANIELS, DETROIT FILM CRITICS SOCIETY AT
(248) 703-0997 or ruthd@emagine-entertainment.com
More information is available on the website at detroitfilmcritics.com

"Avatar"

2009-12-17T12:42:00.003-05:00

No one can say the technology in “Avatar” isn’t up-to-the-minute.

Writer-director James Cameron has taken the motion capture technique (previously used in “The Polar Express,” “Beowulf” and the Jim Carrey version of “A Christmas Carol”) to an astonishing new level, and the digitally created otherworldly landscapes in which most of the story unfolds are often awe-inspiring.

From a purely technical standpoint, the movie is a triumph: Watching “Avatar” you may think you’ve tapped directly into Cameron’s dreams — or, in certain sections, nightmares. A few hundred million dollars buys a lot of stunning visuals, including a flock of shrieking dragon-birds, a cluster of brush-covered monoliths suspended like petrified bubbles in the skies above the planet Pandora, and a phosphorescent forest rife with towering foliage and tentacled trees.

Cameron’s screenplay, however, is old-school in the extreme. The good guys are a race of 10-foot-tall, nature-worshipping, cyan-skinned beings known as the Na’vi; the forces of darkness are represented by the heavy-handed foot soldiers of the military/industrial complex.

Read the full review here.

"Did You Hear About the Morgans?"

2009-12-16T18:33:00.005-05:00

Did you hear about the Morgans? Well, did you hear the one about the New Yorkers who moved to the country and didn't fit in? Then you've heard -- or can imagine -- pretty much everything transplanted Manhattanites Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker experience in writer-director Marc Lawrence's "Did You Hear About the Morgans?," a pre-fab farce that largely squanders the charms of its stars.

Lawrence and Grant have previously collaborated on the mediocre "Music and Lyrics" and sub-mediocre "Two Weeks Notice"; quality-wise, "Morgans" falls squarely in line with their previous output. It's a movie that will probably find its most receptive audiences on long flights where passengers may be so starved for entertainment (or, considering the state of airline food these days, just plain starved) they'll overlook the cookie-cutter characters, formulaic situations and reheated jokes. And maybe on those small-scale screens viewers won't notice how haggard Parker and Grant are made to appear under the film's unflattering lighting. Granted, Paul and Meryl Morgan are supposed to be in the grip of a stressful readjustment, but do they really have to look like they're coming off a week-long espresso-and-No-Doz binge?

As for the plot, I'll give you the set-up and you see if you can write the rest. Lawyer Paul and real estate queen Meryl have been separated for three months after infertility (his) and infidelity (also his) sent their marriage crashing onto the rocks. Meryl's not sure she wants him back, but she gets him anyway after the two witness the stabbing death of one of her potential clients and the Feds force them into the Witness Relocation Program.

They're dumped in a Wyoming backwater, where they're plopped down on a farm, under the watchful gaze of a U.S. Marshal (Sam Elliott) and his sharp-shootin' wife (Mary Steenburgen), who'd make Annie Oakley look gun-shy.

And... go!

Do the Morgans learn to appreciate the folksy ways of their new neighbors? Certainly. Does Paul run afoul of local wildlife? Definitely. Does Meryl embarrass herself while trying to perform chores? You know it. Do the Morgans eventually begin to appreciate each other again, only to have their new-found peace shattered by a ridiculous plot twist? That's for you to find out.

There are a couple of giggles to be had from Meryl and Paul's reactions to their new environment, such as when Meryl makes her first foray into a WalMart-style superstore ("This can't be right: a sweater for $9.99?!") or when Paul complains their new home is so quiet "I could hear my cells dividing."

Most of "Morgans," however, plays like the pilot for a sitcom destined to be rejected by every network. Lawrence pushes Parker to overexaggerate Meryl's expressions and gestures: Before long, her quivering shoulders, stammering voice and fluttering hands make her look like she's unsuccessfully auditioning for the next Woody Allen ensemble piece. The actress, who usually displays a much easier touch when playing comedy, is also hobbled by the screenplay, which dictates that Meryl make some stunningly idiotic moves simply to keep the action moving along. Grant seems generally disconnected from the material, doing and saying what's required of him, but not making much of an effort to sell it.

It's left to seasoned pros Elliott and Steenburgen to brighten up this mundane movie, and they bring a pleasant breeziness to their scenes, even when they get stuck with cringe-worthy wisecracks. But even they can't make "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" worthwhile, much less worth talking about.

Detroit Film Critics Society nominations

2009-12-11T13:04:00.012-05:00

The Detroit Film Critics Society is pleased to announce the BEST OF 2009 nominees in eight categories. The society was founded in Spring 2007 and consists of a group of 20 Michigan film critics who write or broadcast in the Detroit area as well as other major cities within a 150-mile radius of the city including Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, and Flint, Michigan.
Each critic submitted their top 5 picks in the following categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Ensemble, and Breakthrough Performance. From these submissions, each entry was given a point value and the top 5 in each category have been placed on the final ballot. The 2009 winners will be announced on December 18th, 2009.

Leading the nominations is “UP IN THE AIR” which was partially filmed here at McNamara Terminal. Other top nominees include Quentin Tarantino’s “INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS” and “PRECIOUS”.

THE NOMINATIONS FOR 2009 PICKED BY THE DETROIT FILM CRITICS SOCIETY (in alphabetical order)

1. BEST FILM

500 DAYS OF SUMMER
THE HURT LOCKER
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
UP
UP IN THE AIR

2. BEST DIRECTOR

KATHRYN BIGELOW– THE HURT LOCKER
PETE DOCTER - UP
JASON REITMAN – UP IN THE AIR
QUENTIN TARANTINO – INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
MARC WEBB – 500 DAYS OF SUMMER

3. BEST ACTOR

GEORGE CLOONEY – UP IN THE AIR
MATT DAMON – THE INFORMANT
COLIN FIRTH – A SINGLE MAN
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT – 500 DAYS OF SUMMER
SAM ROCKWELL - MOON

4. BEST ACTRESS

ALISON LOHMAN – DRAG ME TO HELL
CAREY MULLIGAN – AN EDUCATION
SAOIRSE RONAN – THE LOVELY BONES
GABOUREY “GABBY” SIDIBE – PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
MERYL STREEP – JULIE & JULIA

5. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

WOODY HARRELSON – THE MESSENGER
WOODY HARRELSON - ZOMBIELAND
CHRISTIAN MCKAY – ME & ORSON WELLES
STANLEY TUCCI – THE LOVELY BONES
CHRISTOPH WALTZ – INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

6. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

MARION COTILLARD - NINE
VERA FARMIGA – UP IN THE AIR
ANNA KENDRICK – UP IN THE AIR
MELANIE LAURENT – INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
MO’NIQUE - PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE

7. BEST ENSEMBLE
THE HANGOVER
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
STAR TREK
ZOMBIELAND

8. BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

ANNA KENDRICK – UP IN THE AIR
CHRISTIAN MCKAY – ME & ORSON WELLES
CAREY MULLIGAN – AN EDUCATION
CHRIS PINE – STAR TREK
GABOUREY “GABBY” SIDIBE – PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
CHRISTOPH WALTZ – INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

The Detroit Film Critics Society members for the 2009-2010 season in alphabetical order are Kirk Baird – The Toledo Blade, Jason Buchanan – allmovie.com, Colette Evangelista – Capital Women’s Lifestyle Magazine, Jim Fordyce – www.MIentertainment.biz, Adam Graham – The Detroit News, Corey Hall – The Metro Times, Tom Long – The Detroit News, Jeff Meyers – The Metro Times, Robin Miner-Swartz – The Lansing State Journal, Chad Mitchell – The Chad Show, John Monaghan – The Detroit Free Press, Warren Pierce – WJR Radio, Greg Russell – WMYD-TV, James Sanford – The Kalamazoo Gazette, Debbie Schlussel – Sirius Patriot Channel 144’s Mike Church Show, Perry Seibert – allmovieguide.com, John Serba – The Grand Rapids Press, Lee Thomas – Fox 2, Kirk Vanderbeek – Real Detroit Weekly, Greg Walton – WIOG/KRSP, and Chris Williams – Advisor & Source Newspapers.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: RUTH DANIELS, DETROIT FILM CRITICS SOCIETY
AT (248) 703-0997 OR ruthd@emagine-entertainment.com
More information is available on the website at detroitfilmcritics.com

"The Princess and the Frog"

2009-12-11T11:33:00.006-05:00

She's as hard-working as Cinderella, as resourceful as Pocahontas, as brave as Mulan and as brainy as Belle: She's Tiana, the heroine of "The Princess and the Frog." She's also Disney's first black princess -- except that for 80 percent of the movie, she's actually green.

That deserves an explanation.

In this funky, often frantic twist on "The Frog Prince" set in 1920s New Orleans, Tiana (voice provided by Anika Noni Rose) is a waitress who dutifully works double shifts to save money for her own restaurant. Although well-versed in fairy tales, she believes a brighter future is only possible if you make it happen for yourself. "If you do your best every day, good things are sure to come your way," she sings.

But then a frog comes along: He claims to be the visiting Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos), who has been transformed into an amphibian by the sly black magic practitioner Dr. Facilier (Keith David). If Tiana gives him a kiss -- "Just one kiss -- unless you beg for more!" -- it could break the spell.

After some initial trepidation Tiana puckers up and... quickly finds the curse is contagious. She too becomes a frog, and she and Naveen must work together to undo the voodoo.

With its mostly nutty cast of characters and emphasis on slapstick, "Princess" is closer in tone to "The Emperor's New Groove" than it is to most of Disney's other princess-driven vehicles. The hand-drawn animation also sets it apart from the slew of recent computer-enhanced cartoons. The lovingly detailed Louisiana locations, running the gamut from rowdy Mardi Gras parties to a slimy swamp, are always a pleasure to look at.

If Randy Newman's generally jaunty score isn't likely to produce any immortal hits, its ragtime-y flourishes are certainly period-appropriate; he even name-checks Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet along the way. The screenplay by Ron Clements, John Musker and Rob Edwards also drops a couple of sly references to Tennessee Williams: The local aristocrat is known as Big Daddy (John Goodman) and his hound dog is named Stella. There's no cat on a hot tin roof, but there is a neurotic kitten who ends up clinging to the ceiling at one point.

Disney has often been criticized for pushing the idea that young women should aspire to marry into money or power. "Princess" tries to have it both ways: Tiana eventually warms up to (and softens the heart of) the playboy Naveen, yet she's also a certifiable workaholic who is determined to do it all by herself. "I'm not a princess, I'm a waitress," she declares, and she's not ashamed of that.

As for whether or not the film has anything to say about African-American culture or the racial politics of the early-20th-century South, the story largely side-steps or sugarcoats those concepts. Tiana's unlikely best friend is a wealthy white brat of a beauty named Charlotte (Jennifer Cody) who kept Tiana's mom, Eudora (Oprah Winfrey), on call as a personal seamstress and dress designer. Segregation is nowhere to be found in this vision of the Crescent City, and since most of the plot involves Tiana and Naveen's adventures in their frog incarnations the only major character of color in "Princess" turns out to be Dr. Facilier, who is evil through and through. His arch-enemy, a daffy sorceress named Mama Odie (Jennifer Lewis), is barely around long enough to belt out her gospel-flavored Big Number.

But "Princess" is first and foremost a fantasy, after all, so why should we expect it to provide much in the way of social realism? The movie is brimming with spirit and marvelous imagery (the freaky, psychedelic singing masks that back up Dr. Facilier in "Friends on the Other Side" are truly trippy) and Rose's soaring voice is always a joy to hear. Instead of history lessons, "Princess" provides lively escapist fun instead, and that's by no means a bad trade-off.

"Invictus"

2009-12-11T11:10:00.003-05:00

According to director Clint Eastwood's "Invictus," William Ernest Henley's 1875 poem of the same name was a source of inspiration to South African president Nelson Mandela during his 27 years as a political prisoner on Robben Island. "Under the bludgeoning of chance/My head is bloody, but unbowed," Henley wrote. "I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."

In 1994, after having been elected to lead the same country that once accused him of treason, Mandela (Morgan Freeman) passes this source of inspiration along to Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), captain of the South African rugby team known as the Springboks. Mandela only has to unite a fractured nation; Pienaar is being called upon to win the 1995 World Cup and, considering the Springboks' sorry track record, he's going to need a lot of encouragement.

Read the full review here.

"Transylmania"

2009-12-04T16:44:00.001-05:00

"What happens in Romania, stays in Romania," declares a dazed college student about to join in a vampire orgy in "Transylmania." Unfortunately, nobody shared that sentiment with directors David and Scott Hillenbrand, and they've thoughtlessly spilled the beans on what it's like to transfer to the University of Razvan, where the undead feast upon the brain-dead. It's a sordid story indeed, one that will infuriate the Romanian Tourist Board and incinerate the reputations of anyone unlucky enough to turn up either on the screen or in the theater.

Read the full review here.

"Everybody's Fine"

2009-12-04T11:15:00.005-05:00

When children grow up and leave their parents' homes, it's almost never an easy transition. Nor does it get much easier as the years pass and the kids build their own lives, careers and households. In case you weren't already aware of this particular fact of life, it's spelled out in great detail in "Everybody's Fine." The story is adapted from director Giuseppe Tornatore's 1990 Italian drama, although it might just as easily have been inspired by Harry Chapin's 1974 chart-topping tearjerker "Cat's in the Cradle."

Writer/director Kirk Jones examines the Goode family -- and if you think that last name isn't going to turn out to be ironic, you've got another thing coming -- in which widowed patriarch Frank (Robert DeNiro) spends much of his time in sentimental solitude. Frank's lofty dream: to get his two daughters and two sons under the same roof for a reunion. Unfortunately, since his offspring have sprung off all over the country, that is no easy task. David lives the bohemian life in New York City, Amy is a strictly-business ad executive in Chicago, Robert toils as a musician in St. Louis and Rose has achieved her dream of being a dancer in Las Vegas. Everyone's a success and everything's fine.

Or is it?

When he can't corral the kids into his own now-empty house, Frank embarks on a cross-country odyssey to call on each one of them. Despite warnings from his doctor that travel is a bad idea, Frank (who is suffering from lung disease) hops on a train to the Big Apple anyway. He may well have boarded the Heartbreak Express: Nothing goes as planned, least of all his encounters with Amy, Robert and Rose.

The screenplay does a nice job of communicating the polite uneasiness that sometimes cloaks conversations with family members. "I tell you the good news and spare you the bad," Amy (Kate Beckinsale) tells Frank in a rare moment of frankness. Robert (Sam Rockwell) and Rose (Drew Barrymore) use similar tactics.

Unfortunately, once the movie has established its core concept -- the kids are all keeping up appearances to keep Dad happy -- it has nowhere else to go. Jones' dialogue is generally more believable than the storyline, which is essentially four mild variations on the same theme. The only episode that actually registers is Frank's visit with Robert, who still carries a few decades-old grudges about Frank's high-pressure child-rearing tactics. There's a little electricity in the interplay between Rockwell and DeNiro that is sadly absent in the rest of the film.

DeNiro plays Frank with a gentle low-key charm that's refreshing to see. Beckinsale and Barrymore are each burdened with unconvincing characters and semi-silly situations. In case someone out there doesn't pick up on the conspicuous clues Jones drops that Amy, Robert and Rose are not the shining successes they claim to be, the movie includes a painfully clunky dream sequence in which Frank analyzes everything he has seen and exposes all the unpleasantries they've hoped to hide.

Perhaps the truth will set them all free, but it doesn't make the film any more credible. The phrase "I'll come visit as soon as I can" is repeated throughout "Everybody's Fine" and, like those reassuring words, the movie is well-intentioned but ultimately unconvincing.

"Brothers"

2009-12-04T10:28:00.002-05:00

For Natalie Portman, fame has been a double-edged sword. If her name is familiar to you, it's probably because of her appearances in the second set of "Star Wars" films, or perhaps because of her guest-hosting gig on "Saturday Night Live," where she contributed a memorably raunchy -- and uproarious -- rap. Maybe you remember her as the shaven-headed renegade on the run in "V for Vendetta."

But those credits don't do justice to her talents. Portman truly excels when she's given an emotionally complex character to work with, and that's what screenwriter David Benioff ("The Kite Runner") and director Jim Sheridan ("My Left Foot") offer her in "Brothers," an Americanized revamping of the 2004 Danish film "Brodre."

Read the full review here.

"Ninja Assassin"

2009-11-26T00:10:00.002-05:00

"Ninja Assassin" starts off not with a bang, but with a slash. A whole lot of slashes, in fact, as an unseen attacker turns a crew of smirking young Yakuza thugs into the Japanese equivalent of Vienna Sausages. Ah, if only they had heeded the wise words of the elderly tattoo artist who tried to warn them: "You cannot bargain with it, you cannot reason with it because it is not a human being! It is a demon sent straight from Hell!"

That ancient inkslinger was absolutely right: Reason certainly has no place in "Ninja Assassin," which makes a half-hearted attempt to set up a plot before abandoning storytelling altogether.
Here the full review here.

"It Might Get Loud"

2009-11-20T12:37:00.003-05:00

One came of age in post-World War II London; another grew up amid the bombings in 1970s Belfast; the third emerged from the southeast side of Detroit in the 1990s. But although Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White are from different backgrounds, they share a life-long obsession with making music.

In January 2008, director Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth") brought the three men together for a "summit." While "It Might Get Loud" gives us a tantalizing glimpse of the trio's time together, it more importantly uncovers each man's roots and influences, charting his journey from would-be rocker to icon.

Read full review here.

"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"

2009-11-20T12:24:00.003-05:00

Like many teenage girls, Claireece "Precious" Jones dreams of being a model and dancing in hip-hop videos. But she has other fantasies, too. "I wanna be normal, and pay attention and sit in the front of the class," she confides. That seems equally far-fetched, considering Precious is practically illiterate, woefully overweight and growing up in 1987 Harlem, where getting an education is seen as a luxury few can afford. When Precious gazes in the mirror, she sees herself not as obese and African-American, but as a beautiful, slender blonde who might be headed for the beach in Malibu; when Precious looks at the squalid apartment she shares with her caustic, cynical mother, Mary, she realizes she's very far away from La La Land. Crackhead neighbors may push the buzzer, but opportunity never seems to knock.

Read full review here.

"The Blind Side"

2009-11-20T12:19:00.003-05:00

Football players can't do much if they sit on the sidelines. Neither can Christians, according to "The Blind Side," an agreeable, if overlong inspired-by-a-true-story drama adapted from Michael Lewis' best seller "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game." Plenty of would-be gridiron stars never live up to their hype, and the same is true of many self-professed people of faith who never actually get around to practicing what they preach.
Read full review here.

"New Moon"

2009-11-19T01:16:00.009-05:00

In the world of "New Moon," vampires can project themselves into your thoughts and a clan of teenage guys (with an aversion to wearing shirts, even in winter rain) can transform themselves into huge, snarling wolves. But Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has a weapon that trumps them all; she's got Glower Power, the gift of seeming utterly sullen and tuned-out, no matter what circumstances surround her.

Her reaction at getting birthday presents? Glower. What crosses her face when she's baffled by the Shirtless Six-Pack Sect? Steely-eyed glower. And her response when her sort-of boyfriend Edward (Robert Pattinson) unexpectedly moves out of town? Nuclear-power glower.

In fact, Bella takes the news so badly she stays home and glowers for the next three months -- we know this because titles reading "October," "November" and "December" cross the screen as she sits curled up in a chair doing you-know-what -- while Edward goes off on some sort of vampiric vision quest. Although far away, he does make a few token appearances in the form of a slightly blurry, scolding hallucination, and having to put up with a man who can't even bother to nag her in person makes Bella so angry, she could just...

"New Moon" is the second film adapted from Stephenie Meyer's enormously popular series of supernatural romances and it turns out to be one of those installments that devotes much of its time to setting up characters and plot complications that will hopefully come to dramatic fruition in the final two movies.

Alas, "Moon" is light on excitement and burdened with too many drawn-out scenes devoted to teen turmoil. Not only are they repetitious, they also make you fear for Bella's mental health after a while. Did her dad (Billy Burke) really just sit back and let her wallow in misery week after week, even when she began having nightmares so intense they caused her to scream in her sleep? Can we really believe the tiny town of Forks, Washington can be home to vampires and werewolves but there's not a single therapist to be found?

Director Catherine Hardwicke's "Twilight," the predecessor to "Moon," had a certain endearing air of lunacy, as Bella met Edward and got her first taste of the lifestyle of the undead. "Moon" (Chris Weitz took over the directorial reins this time around) too often tries to position itself as Serious Cinema, beginning with a heavy-handed "Romeo and Juliet" analogy early on and continuing to maintain a resolutely straight face as Bella is drawn to 16-year-old Jacob (Taylor Lautner), who is on the verge of discovering what he thought were just growing pains are actually the signals that he's carrying a gene that links him to an ancient tribe of shape-shifters.

Since Edward thoughtlessly left town at a time when the vengeful vampire Victoria (Rachelle LeFevre) is still hunting for Bella, having a werewolf as a bodyguard might not be such a bad idea. Unfortunately, Jacob's clan and Edward's circle get along almost as well as the Hatfields and the McCoys, and before the sun goes down on this "Moon"-scape Bella finds she's been appointed an unwilling referee in the feud.

Unless you completely identify with Bella's almost unremittingly angsty attitude, "Moon" is far more of a chore to sit through than "Twilight" was. Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg mercifully drops in an occasional joke or humorous tidbit -- such as when Bella, Jacob and clueless classmate Mike (the very funny Michael Welch) wind up seeing a gruesome action flick titled "Face Punch" -- to break up the general gloominess, and Anna Kendrick, who's about to take the world by storm as George Clooney's protege in "Up in the Air," is a snappy delight here as Bella's fairweather friend. The movie could have used a lot more of her.

There's also a quick jaunt to Italy for a visit with the Volturi, a band of high-living blood-suckers that Edward likens to vampire royalty. The leader, Aro, is played by Michael Sheen and Dakota Fanning makes a cameo as Aro's acolyte Jane, who can paralyze her enemies with pain simply by staring at them; they perform as if they were pleasantly surprised to receive invitations to a really cool costume party. Disappointingly, the members of Edward's extended family, who provided some interesting suplots in "Twilight," are given short shrift here.

Even Pattinson is off-screen for about two-thirds of the all-too-generous 130-minute running time, so it's Lautner who has to provide the eerie eye candy this time out. Although his posters will undoubtedly adorn many a bedroom wall in months to come, Lautner doesn't make the same kind of connection with Stewart that Pattinson did in the first film. He's been wedged into the same sort of role Bill Pullman used to play regularly back in the early 1990s: the compassionate, kind fellow who is obviously not going to have a long-term liaison with the leading lady. Check Weitz's closet: You can be sure there's a Team Edward T-shirt in there somewhere.

Stewart, meanwhile, is straitjacketed by Bella's sheer dreariness. Aside from delivering a couple of out-of-nowhere wisecracks, Bella is worrisomely one-note. When she finally decides to indulge her wild side by riding around with a sleazy biker or diving off cliffs, her expression and mood change so little it's almost laughable. "Moon" delights in depression, at the expense of its storytelling and its heroine's appeal. Remember, even Angela Chase eventually managed to deal with being rejected by Jordan Catalano back in the day; Bella, sweetheart, get help -- we're concerned.

"Pirate Radio"

2009-11-13T10:30:00.003-05:00

"Pirate Radio" revisits the days when offshore, off-the-wall broadcasters catered to England's insatiable appetite for rock and pop while the BBC offered the soothing sounds of Mantovani and Vera Lynn. There's a fascinating culture-clash story to be told about the shifting tastes and colorful characters of this period. Sadly, it has eluded writer-director Richard Curtis. Released overseas earlier this year as "The Boat That Rocked," "Radio" is a busy jumble of fragmented, generally flat scenes and situations that stubbornly refuse to fuse together. A John Lennon lyric sums it all up perfectly: "Always something happening, and nothing going on." Read the full review here.

"2012"

2009-11-13T00:01:00.009-05:00

2012 is the year the world as we know it comes to a calamitous end, according to Mayan prophecies. And 2012 is approximately the number of times you may giggle while watching director Roland Emmerich's "2012," which tells us our planet meets its doom not only in fire and water but in an orgasmic explosion of CGI effects, underscored by thundering percussion; exactly how many timpani drums were sacrificed in the service of this soundtrack?

Brace yourself for volcanic eruptions at Yellowstone National Park, tidal waves in Washington, D.C. and the crushing of thousands of unlucky Catholics beneath the dome of St. Peter's Basilica (which magically turns into some sort of enormous rolling pin). Obviously, Emmerich ("The Day After Tomorrow," "Independence Day," "Godzilla") has been worshipping at the Temple of Irwin Allen, the filmmaker dubbed "the Master of Disaster" in honor of his 1970s blockbusters such as "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno." In between destroying familiar landmarks and taking particular pleasure in demolishing downtown Los Angeles, Emmerich squeezes in an imperiled cruise ship so he can restage some of "Poseidon," as well as showcase George Segal and Blu Mankuma in what looks and sounds like the worst lounge act ever to hit the high seas.

What's put the planet into an End of Days daze, you ask? Mutated neutrinos, of course. Severe solar eruptions have sent those pesky neutrinos raining down on Earth, where they are acting like microwaves on the planet's core, leading Earth to essentially try to shed its skin as land masses quake and break at regular intervals. The governments of the world have joined forces to maintain a code of silence about the oncoming Apocalypse, while secretly building "arks" (yes, you read that correctly) in the mountains of China that will save a few hundred thousand prime human specimens -- provided they can afford the one-billion-Euros per seat passage. There are also elephants, giraffes and other wildlife being loaded onto the arks, although it's unclear how they are expected to pay their way.

As unsuccessful science-fiction writer John Cusack collects his kids, his ex-wife (Amanda Peet) and his ex-wife's new boyfriend (Tom McCarthy) for a hasty trip to the Orient, the U.S. President (Danny Glover) does a whole lot of hand-wringing, goes on TV to say The Lord’s Prayer and then, in one of the film’s many dare-ya-not-to-laugh moments, rolls out an "I’m a-comin', Elizabeth!" speech worthy of Redd Foxx.

In case you want to mark your calendar, the world ends on December 21, 2012, which will at least spare us all the chore of holiday shopping: Thanks, Mayans! Apparently, however, the ancient sages didn’t foresee the closing of the Times Square Virgin Megastore: It’s still visibly open for business in 2012 New York, even though it actually shut its doors last spring.

While Emmerich has far more sophisticated special effects in his toolbox than Allen could ever have dreamed of, the writing in "2012" is barely a step up from coloring-book captions. The screenplay generally substitutes declarations for dialogue ("This was the last day of the United States of America," "You’re telling me the North Pole is now in Wisconsin?!") and the sentimental scenarios Emmerich and co-writer Harald Kloser have concocted make even classy actors like Cusack, Glover and Thandie Newton (in the unfortunate role of the Prez's firebrand of a daughter) look ridiculous.

The only cast members who survive with untarnished reputations are McCarthy, who gives a little edge to his nice-guy plastic surgeon character -- when Peet rejects his advances, he smugly notes that "women pay me thousands of dollars to handle their boobs; you get it for free!" -- and Woody Harrelson, who goes far beyond the call of duty as a nutcase of a talk-radio personality who sees it all coming. Sporting a bargain-basement Halloween wig and throbbing eyes he might have borrowed from Charles Manson, Harrelson not only goes over the top, he heads to infinity and beyond.

But engaging performances and believable drama are low on Emmerich's list of priorities. He’s primarily concerned with dishing up devastation, and "2012" does deliver on that score. Wiping out the world is second nature to Emmerich by now, and his visions of global demolition easily eclipse anything he did in "Tomorrow" or "Independence."

They are also as absurd as they are spectacular; let's just say the end of humanity will probably make a kick-ass videogame this holiday season. If the Physics Police handed out tickets for every natural law "2012" violates, Emmerich and Kloser would have enough to wallpaper Mt. Everest. But perhaps they'll save that stunt for the sequel.

"The Box"

2009-11-05T22:56:00.006-05:00

You may recall cash-strapped Demi Moore had to sleep with Robert Redford to get a million dollars in "Indecent Proposal." But that was in 1993. Back in 1976, things were apparently much easier: All schoolteacher Cameron Diaz has to do in "The Box" is press a button.

That's the attention-grabbing hook of writer-director Richard Kelly's chiller, very loosely based on Richard Matheson's short story "Button, Button." Norma Lewis (Diaz) and her husband, Arthur (James Marsden), an aspiring astronaut, are a Virginia couple with major money worries. So the siren song of temptation is mighty hard to resist when Arlington James Steward (Frank Langella) drops a gift on their doorstep. It's an innocent-looking wooden box with a red button attached to it. Steward's instructions: Press the button within 24 hours and you'll get a million dollars -- but you'll also be responsible for the death of a stranger somewhere in the world. It might be someone's baby, Arthur reasons. Or it could be someone who's already on Death Row, Norma counters.

The offer is peculiar and the messenger is downright creepy: Steward lost a large chunk of the left side of his face recently. Still, Norma (who has a deformed foot of her own) gives the matter serious consideration.

In its first 40 minutes, "The Box" lays the groundwork for a provocative shocker, and Kelly (who made the cult favorite "Donnie Darko" and the largely reviled "Southland Tales") has a great deal of fun recalling the cheesy charm of the Ford Administration, when "What's Happening" and "Alice" were on TV, Bicentennial flags were everywhere and unlucky kids carried lunchboxes promoting "The Exciting World of Metrics." Diaz and Marsden bravely wear the clingy polyester fashions of the day, and the ghastly, pseudo-psychedelic wallpaper in the Lewis' kitchen all but begs for co-star status.

Unfortunately, Kelly eventually loses his balance and the movie abruptly stops building suspense, opting instead for weird goings-on and half-hearted paranoid fantasies that might have been at least partially inspired by "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." If the scenario sounds familiar, it might be because you saw the 1980s "Twilight Zone" episode that was also based on the Matheson tale. It had the major advantage of being one-fourth as long as Kelly's version.

The last hour of "The Box" sends Norma and Arthur on a one-way trip into Wackyland, where they face legions of silent stalkers, outdoor motel swimming pools that are still open in mid-December and neighbors who seem uncommonly prone to nosebleeds. (There are as many bloody noses in "The Box" as there are discussions about marriages in a Jane Austen novel.)

After a certain point, it all seems like strangeness for the sake of strangeness. Characters come and go, with no explanation. Ideas are brought up and almost immediately dismissed. Logic and coherence evaporate while Kelly dithers over whether he's making a psychological shocker or an off-the-wall dark comedy: When Steward tells an anguished mother and father their blind and deaf child will "never hear your voices or see your faces again," you may half-expect him to add, "but on the positive side, he's halfway to becoming a Pinball Wizard."

The slapdash feel of the last half of the film indicates that Kelly might have vainly hoped he could piece together a picture in the editing room. Warner Bros. couldn't guess what he was up to, either, which explains why the movie is being unceremoniously dumped into theaters nearly two years after it finished shooting.

With such overcooked lines as "whatever happens to you from this point on will have greater consequences than you can possibly fathom," "The Box" seems to be inviting laughter, but Kelly obviously didn't let Diaz and Marsden in on the joke: They steadfastly march through scene after scene with straight, troubled faces. Meanwhile audiences, exhausted from trying to decide between gasping and giggling, can only greet each new plot twist with rolling eyes. When "The Box" comes to DVD, it won't be a surprise if many viewers press the button marked "eject" long before the film's unsatisifying conclusion.