Get Low (Movie Review)

Sometimes quirky works. Aaron Schneider proves this in his feature film directorial debut, Get Low. While the film faced a scattered release schedule, this Southern fable offers a texture that many modern productions lack. It serves as a showcase for a veteran cast working at the top of their game. Read More

The Spy Next Door (Movie Review)

If Jackie Chan did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.  His latest vehicle, “The Spy Next Door,” fits neatly into his array of comic action films suitable for children and their parents.  The 92 minute, PG-rated effort from helmer Brian Levant and screenwriters Jonathan Bernstein, James Greer, and Gregory Poirier, offers a little something for everyone.  That’s not to say that it is flawless.  It sticks pretty closely to the unassuming geek as martial arts master formula which Chan has perfected.  Add to the recipe a little “fish-out-of-water” and season with elements from the “Get Smart” series and you have a tasty frittata that should satisfy all but the most finicky.
 
Chan stars as Bob Ho, a Chinese intelligence officer on loan to the CIA.  That preposterous premise sets the tone for rest of pic’s hijinx.  His cover is a geeky, suburban pen salesman.  The “Next Door” part of the story involves Amber Valetta as Gillian, single mother of three impossible kids, and Chan’s love interest.  Plot centers on Ho’s desire to retire from spying and marry Gillian.  Her kids’ opinion of him is the first hitch.  He’s just not cool enough.  The second hitch is a sort of comic version of Al Pacino’s famous line, “Every time I try to get out they drag me back in.”
 
In this case, the drag back is a Russian plot to unleash a bacterium on all the world’s oil supply — Russia’s excepted — which consume anything made of petroleum and then vanish as quickly as they appear.
 
Pic is played over-the-top to excellent comic effect.  Magnús Scheving’s Poldark, Ho’s arch enemy, is a marvelous caricature of a bad guy.  Another standout on the Russian team is Katherine Boecher as Creel, a slinky blond sporting tight black outfits, Jimmy Choos and a mean kick.
 
What brings all the elements together and creates pic’s best action sequences — as well as most of its jokes — is a sort of contrived plot point in which Gillian leaves town to look after her injured dad and puts Bob in charge of her three unruly brats.   To Bob, this is his chance to make the kids like him.  It’s also his fish-out-of-water moment.  Spies have some learning to do where raising kids is at issue.  Of course, Bob has to win the kids over — and he does so in part by accident.  Gillian’s 11-year-old, Ian (Will Shadley) is as much a geek as Bob appears to be, a would be rocket scientist, who downloads the Russian’s secret bacterium formula from Bob’s home computer thinking it is a video game.  This puts the Russians on Bob’s tail and consequently on the kids’ tails.  The sight of Bob kickboxing Russian spies is just too cool for words.  Ian is won over.  So is four-year-old Nora (Alina Foley).  Farren (Madeline Carroll), Gillian’s 13-year-old stepdaughter, is the toughest nut, but even she cracks.  The kids join the fight against the Russians with undisguised glee in scenes reminiscent of the “Home Alone” series.  Thus far, the formula works.
 
Gillian is another story.  Furious at the revelation that Bob is a spy and that her brood has been endangered, she gives him the shove — permanently.  Since this is a comedy, however, the final reel offers a slapstick climax, which includes a Russian spy wearing a television as a hat.
 
Special mention goes to recording artist Billy Ray Cyrus as CIA good guy Colton James and comic George Lopez as the Russian’s mole in the CIA.  Choreography is as good as one has come to expect from Chan, and lensing by Dean Cundey frames it all to good effect.  Soundtrack includes familiar “Secret Agent Man” and Blondie’s “One Way Or Another”.  One nit to pick is Chan’s accent.  He can be a tad tough to understand at times, but since editor Lawrence Jordan leaves no loose ends, a lost line or two can be imputed from the context.

Saw VI (Movie Review)

In an extraordinary move the Spanish government have restricted “Saw VI†(not surprisingly the sixth installment in the Jigsaw horror series) to the nation’s eight theaters that are allowed to show porno.  While this begs the question, “Are Spaniards really into Pay Per View?â€Â  Your critic says that it is an over-the-top judgment call.
 
Your critic entered the screening room expecting something akin to a snuff film that would arouse men who harbor violent thoughts against women.  Fortunately such was not the case.  However, pic contains moments that those with weak stomachs should avoid.
 
“Saw VI†meets or exceeds all standards on a technical level.  Sound recording works.  Lensing is competent.  Special effects don’t look expensive, but work.  Editing delivers just the right amount of tension.  Where it falls down is in storyline and acting.  There are three thesps who turn in creditable performances:  Tobin Bell, who created the role of Jigsaw John, Betsy Russell as his wife, addiction doc Jill, and Peter Outerbridge as William, a medical insurance executive who is pic’s evil capitalist.  The rest, notably Costas Mandylor as crooked detective Hoffman, either sleepwalk through their roles or need to go back to acting school.  In Mandylor’s case, those who remember him from TV’s “Picket Fences†will be disappointed to know that he has both gained weight and lost talent.  Dialogue is subpar.  Plot leaves a ton of loose ends.  Most of them have to do with the question, “Why?â€
 
While dying of a cancer for which William’s insurance company refused to cover treatment (pic is at least timely) Jigsaw John has developed a very nasty post mortem revenge plot cloaked in pseudo human decency.  He sets up William, the insurance VP who refused coverage for an experimental procedure, in a catch 22.  He has to save himself by killing others.  Instead of building suspense, plot is an excuse to string together a series of bloody vignettes.  It’s a sort of “Galaxy Quest†on acid.  Such clues as exist are telegraphed.  Surprises surprise without any credible setup.
 
It is never explained why wife Jill goes along with the bloody scheme and why crooked detective Hoffman executes it.  It’s those pesky loose ends….
 
Direction on a technical level by Kevin Greutert is good.  Screenplay by Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton should have been sent back for rewrites.  But “Saw†is a franchise.  It functions on a different plane from the rest of cinema.  It has a track record at the box office and a loyal audience.  Lionsgate’s marketing strategy of not showing it to crix until opening day is open to debate, but pix such as “Saw VI†tend not be affected by notices.

Public Enemies (Movie Review)

Rated: R for gangster violence and some language.
Release Date: 2009-07-01
Starring: Ronan Bennett, Ann Biderman
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Country: USA
Official Website: http://www.publicenemies.net/

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“Public Enemies†is a romanticized account of the last 15 months of bank robber John Dillinger, America’s first “Public Enemy Number Oneâ€.  At 143 minutes, it feels as if one has seen it in real time.  Pic, which follows Dillinger from March 1933 to July 1934, when he was killed by G-Men in an ambush leaving Chicago’s Biograph Theater, depends largely on Johnny Depp’s star power as Dillinger.  Depp is compelling.  Also compelling are Christian Bale as G-Man Melvin Purvis who led the trackdown, and Marion Cotillard (“Piafâ€) as Dillinger’s love interest, Billie Frechette.  Making FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover out to be a self-serving careerist is easy, but at least Billy Cudrup attacks the caricature with gusto.  His advice to Purvis to follow Italian Fascists and “take the white gloves off†is priceless.  Diana Krall does a superb but uncredited “Bye, Bye, Blackbird†in the scene where Dillinger and Frechette meet.
 
There is a problem in retelling history on screen.  Most already know the ending. Dillinger’s story has been retold in no fewer than five theatrical and TV movies since 1945.  In the interest of drama, helmer Michael Mann (who also gets screenwriting credit) and writers Ronan Bennett and Ann Bidermann take liberties with facts and timeline.  The doomed romance between Dillinger and Frechette gets as much screen time as the robberies and gunfights – which seem to use as much ammo as the Bosnian war.
 
Pic hinges on moments brought to life by key players – mostly Depp and Cotillard. Their scenes together fairly radiate love.  Depp delivers a finely nuanced Dillinger (full of loyalty, bravado, charm, even compassion) who is ultimately very sympathetic… for a killer.  This is in keeping with the era wherein Dillinger was revered as a sort of Robin Hood by many.  Cotillard’s Frechette takes a beating for him under interrogation, the halting of which is a redeeming moment for Purvis.  There is a suggestion that the G-Men had help in ambushing Dillinger from Frank Nitti’s (Bill Camp) gang.  John Ortiz as Phil D’Andrea, Nitti’s chief bookie provides a clue:  The gambling racket, he explains to Dillinger, rakes in more cash in one day than Dillinger stole in his most lucrative bank job.  Having Dillinger around can draw attention from the law.  Ultimately Dillinger, hiding in plain sight, is ratted out by madam Anna Patzky (Emilie de Ravin) in an effort to stave off deportation to her native Romania, an act which pic ties to Nitti’s gang.
 
Tech credits are excellent except for sound recording.  Several key lines of dialogue are inaudible.  The heavy Midwestern accents don’t help.  Period costumes, settings, and props do the trick but for the automobiles.  It is doubtful that G-Men drove Pierce Arrows.  The make was more likely to be found in the White House garage.
 
It would be nice to give filmmakers credit for making Dillinger’s final movie at the Biograph “Manhattan Melodrama,†a gangster flick in which Clark Gable bravely faces execution, but this is one instance where they stuck to facts.
 
“Public Enemies,†based on the book by Bryan Burrough (“Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34”) is rated “R†largely for violence.  There is some sexual content and a bit of innuendo.

State of Play (Movie Review)

Rated: PG-13 for some violence, language including sexual references, and brief drug content.
Release Date: 2009-04-17
Starring: Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy
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Country: USA
Official Website: http://www.stateofplaymovie.net/

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There is something about seeing a bloated overweight, unkempt Russell Crowe that makes one cringe – and put down that black and white cookie.  He’d have done well to follow Shelley Winters’ famous advice about playing fat roles.  However, Crowe’s weight is not what goes awry in “State of Play,†a crime thriller from helmer Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotlandâ€), although being fat does not add much to his character as Cal McAffrey, a reporter at the “Washington Globeâ€.
 
Until the final reel, “State of Play†(based on an eponymous BBC Television series), has all the makings of a well made film noire:  Bad weather, dark lighting, ominous music, more plot twists than a back road in Connecticut, and corruption in places high and low.  Why, there are even three murder attempts in the first reel, two of them successful.  Until the final reel the storyline fits together like a well crafted jigsaw puzzle.  It has an excellent cast:  Helen Mirren as foul-mouthed newspaper editor Cameron Lynne, Ben Affleck as philandering congressman Stephen Collins, Robin Wright Penn as his wife, Jeff Daniels as the House Majority Whip, and Jason Bateman as a sleazy, not too bright PR man, each playing his part to perfection. Rachel McAdams is convincing as a newspaper blogger who earns her reporting stripes solving a string of four seemingly unrelated murders in a buddy-film subplot opposite Crowe.
 
Pic opens with a drug addict running from a gunman (Michael Berresse) who catches and kills him.  He also shoots a pizza delivery man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Then the mistress of Congressman Collins, whose committee is investigating the “mercenary†private army on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, dies mysteriously underneath the wheels of the Washington Metro.  All roads lead to a vast conspiracy with 30 or 40 billion Dollars at stake for the company hoping to profit from the privatization of homeland security at its center.  Crowe’s McAffrey is hot on the trail as dead bodies pile up.  He is also dispensing PR advice to his college roommate, Affleck’s Collins.  Subplots appear to spin out of control but each peels a layer from pic’s onion – until the final reel, that is, when a surprise ending both confuses audiences and leaves unresolved the biggest plot element, the conspiracy and the company at its center – is it real or a red herring?
 
Blame in this case has to be shared.  Screenwriters Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy, and Billy Ray deserve a major chunk.  But many a bad screenplay has been fixed in the edit room.  Take that, Justine Wright.  And one has to ask just how much control Macdonald had over the final cut.  At 127 minutes, it’s not as if the picture had to be fleshed out to feature length.  It coulda been a contender….
 
“State of Play,†distributed in the US by Universal, carries a PG-13 rating, largely due to Mirren’s lines.  Other than that there is little objectionable for children.  But not even adults have a chance of making sense out of it.

Paris 36 (Movie Review)

Rated: PG-13 for some sexuality and nudity, violence and brief language.
Release Date: 2009-04-03
Starring: Christophe Barratier, Pierre Philippe
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Country: France
Official Website: http://www.faubourg36-lefilm.com/

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Mickey and Judy Put on a Show… In French
 
It is only April but “Paris 36†may be the feel-good movie of 2009.  The third feature by helmer Christophe Barratier (“Les Choristersâ€) is a stew of plots and subplots with a cast almost the size of that of “Slumdog Millionaire,†but that does not detract from its appeal.  Set in Montmartre from New Year’s Eve 1935 to New Year’s Eve 1945, pic’s action takes place against the backdrop of the short-lived Popular Front government of Leon Blum, the Jewish premier who became the focal point of French Fascist anti-Semitism.  To cram all that historical context into a two hour movie is a daunting task, but Barratier and co-writers Pierre Philippe and Julien Rappaneau are more than up to it.  Fast moving plot and crisp dialogue help.  So do compelling performances by the entire cast, Barratier’s confident direction, and no-frills editing by Yves Deschamps.
 
Despite its historical context, “Paris 36†is a comedy that morphs into a musical.  The Fascists are almost comical.

Plot centers on a music hall taken over by a greedy, Fascist real estate thug (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) who closes it and puts its workers, including lighting man Germain Pigiol (Gérard Jugnot), out of work.  Eventually the workers, led by Pigiol, occupy the theater and stage shows that bomb.  They are saved by the arrival of Douce (Nora Amezeder), a songstress of fine voice whose history is central to the plot.  Pic is narrated by Jojo (Maxence Perrin) who plays the roughly ten-year-old son of Pigiol.  Jojo’s theatrical ambitions provide one of two key subplots.  The other hinges on a love triangle pitting labor activist Millou (Clovis Comiac) against Donnadieu’s Gallapiat over the affections of Douce.
 
Deus ex-machina plot twists are easily overlooked.  Notable among them is the surprise un-retirement of Max (Monisieur TSF played by Pierre Richard—TSF is French for radio) a 20-year agoraphobic who sees the world through his radio.  It seems that Douce’s mother, a music hall star, was the love of his life.  He composed her songs and conducted her orchestra in the very same music hall at pic’s center some two decades earlier.  He returns to do the same for her daughter.
 
Production numbers, set in the music hall, abound during pic’s final reel.  One feels almost transported to MGM in the 1930s except that it’s all in French.  It seems that every worker at the theater, even the lighting guys, is a superb singer and dancer.  Who’d of thunk?  Barratier handles what pathos there is economically.  Auds are guaranteed not to shed a tear.  Production design by Jean Rabasse excels in evoking inter-war Paris.  Original music by Reinhardt Wagner and lensing by Tom Stern leave nothing to be desired.  The only minor quibble, easily overlooked, is its somewhat predictable ending.
 
Pic, distributed in US by Sony Pictures Classics, carries a PG-13 rating, perhaps because of a few brief violent scenes.  However, for families not averse to subtitles, “Paris 1936†makes an excellent outing.

Sunshine Cleaning (Movie Review)

Rated: R for language, disturbing images, some sexuality and drug use.
Release Date: 2009-03-13
Starring: Megan Holley
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Country: USA
Official Website: NULL

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“Sunshine Cleaning,†the third feature from helmer Christine Jeffs, is an amusing trifle of a chick flick that manages to hold attention for 102 minutes.  It does so despite a thin plot mainly due to smashing performances by Alan Arkin as con-artist cum paterfamilias Joe Lorkowski, Amy Adams as his less than successful elder daughter Rose, and crisp dialogue by screenwriter Megan Holley.  Arkin is making a career at playing pretty much the same existential character he played in “Little Miss Sunshine.â€Â  Fortunately for “Sunshine Cleaning,†this time his character is not killed mid-flick.
 
Plot centers on Rose’s almost “I Love Lucy†style effort to better her circumstances.  A star high school cheerleader, opening cuts show her working as a maid days while screwing her now married high school boyfriend (Mac played by Steve Zahn) nights.  An unwed mother, her son Oscar’s (Jason Spevack) expulsion from public school ignites her immediate need for more money to pay private school tuition.  The Ethel in the duo is slacker younger sister Norah (Emily Blunt).  “Sunshine Cleaning†is a biohazard cleanup concern Rose starts after Mac mentions that it is a lucrative growth industry – a point driven home by pic’s opening in which a fellow played by Christopher Dempsey offs himself by shotgun in a sporting goods store.
 
After a shaky start, all goes well until Norah accidentally burns down a client’s house.  That puts uninsured Rose out of business.  A couple of notes of pathos (and tears) are introduced via the revelation, mid flick, of absent mother’s (Marya Beauvais) suicide when the siblings were tots.  The revelation is set up by an odd subplot with lesbian overtones that leads to a dead end.
 
Sharp editing by Heather Persons and Jeffs’ firm hand at the throttle move things along at a fine clip, making “Sunshine Cleaning†seem far more compelling than it is.  Its message, if it has one, is the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.â€
 
A weepy ending would be out of the question.  Jeffs avoids it with a couple of scenes that appear to be almost tacked on – the pivotal one being a sort of deus ex machina that is not entirely set up by what went before, but is at least consistent with pic’s humorous tone.  Editor Persons offers a nicely balanced touch in which quick cuts at the film’s open and end accomplish a good deal of exposition.  “Sunshine Cleaning†is a bit like Chinese food.  It seems more substantial than it is while one is eating it.
 
Minorities are almost conspicuously absent in this flick set in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Beyond a few seemingly Mexican-American small roles, cast credits reveal only a few Spanish surnamed actors.  One, however, Clifton Collins (a.k.a. Clifton Gonzalez-Gonzalez) plays a pivotal although not necessarily ethnic role.
 
Distributed in the US by Overture Films, “Sunshine Cleaning†is rated “R†due to language, violence (the suicide in the first reel), and sexual content.