Home » Movies
'THE INTERNATIONAL'
THE WAR ON WEAPONS FINANCIERS
By Sean Chavel
The International has the appearance of a thinking man's thriller. Lots of character undercurrent motives with subtle but cunning dialogue exchanges. In the outline, there is a network of evil weapons financiers who are subsidizing terror and war across the globe. Clive Owen, as Interpol Agent Louis Salinger, is the hero who sets out to avenge his colleague's death and to take down these executive bankers. Money is filtered from Berlin to Milan to New York to Istanbul - this means lots of cool location hopping courtesy of aerial camerawork. Luckily, in New York, Agent Salinger gets assistance from a Manhattan Assistant District Attorney named Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts supplies beauty and additional intelligence).
In a movie with lots of talky dead-ends, the script suggests "Lord of War" rewritten by the guys who made "Syriana." Whenever the dialogue does cut to the point, you wonder if there's another shade of truth underneath to what you just learned. Key clues are not visualized but are talked about - it makes you wish you walked into the theater with a connect-the-dots diagram, a spare notebook and a flashlight so you can review the plot points while watching the movie. Key characters get talked about when they are not part of the scene, and sheesh, there are so many characters. You get lost in a sea of names, tracking who belongs to what organization, and you can't wait for the next scene to cut to that character so you can be reminded of who they are. How about within a scene? It'd be great if they put on name tags "Good Guy!" or "Bad Guy!" just so you can remember who they represent!
Bad guys aplenty, many of them to more or lesser depths it's hard to tell, but Brian F. O'Byrne seethes impressively as a mysterious hitman - Clive Owen looks hard-bitten in his pursuit of this character. There's a good hour (yes, an hour or so that makes you halfway care) in "The International" where the film engages you in this cat-and-mouse hunt, but the extra layers upon layers becomes too much a burden. Too many things said, to too little perceptive avail. Too many characters, too many of them superfluous after the curtain falls. The one villain with a few perceptive shades is Armin Mueller-Stahl ("Avalon," "Shine") who expresses regret about weapons financiering, but also functions as a plot explanatory device. A character with two purposes and three-dimensions? Who'd of thought!
All of this must sound aggravating, dense, and incredibly vague. What you probably would like to know is about whether Clive Owen is tough and rugged, and whether or not he has chemistry with Naomi Watts, and whether there is any good action. Owen is a brainy action star who can be as believable as anyone since Harrison Ford in this kind of role. There are unfortunately no sparks between him and Naomi Watts. And some of the action is really good in that Tom Clancy-inspired way. There is a plausible assassination scene that is intermingled within the film (cue actor O'Byrne) where the telescope point-of-view shot aims at a keynote stage speaker, but the enthrall takes place in the aftermath havoc and subsequent investigation. Damn if it isn't spoiled by the hackneyed shoe print clue. The assassin should have worn a different make of shoe!
Behind the lens, European wunderkind Tom Tykwer (director of two masterpieces: "Run Lola Run" and "Perfume: A Story of a Murderer") makes his American film debut. The film is not without style - the film makes good use of executive steel décor and lots of great above head camera angles on locations to suggest characters lost or unsettled in their surroundings. Tykwer has made a good-looking film but if wanted to achieve further success he should have stripped down the plot to more coherent essentials.
If the film's troubles are more than what it's worth then at least let's say Bravo! to Tykwer for staging the centerpiece gunfight scene. Yes, it's a shame that such a great gunfight scene is lost in an otherwise so-so movie. Not only is the gunfight scene take place in the unexpected locale of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, it is also the best dramatic use of the Guggenheim Museum in a film since Woody Allen's "Manhattan." Ha-ha, I never thought there'd be a time where I'd ever mention Tom Tykwer and Woody Allen in the same movie review! But where Woody Allen and Diane Keaton got lost in philosophical bliss, Tykwer shatters the ceiling roof glass. Exclamation point deserved!
DEAD LIKE ME:
LIFE AFTER DEATH
By Kenyth Mogan
When the Showtime original series Dead Like Me ended suddenly in 2005 after only two seasons, I had given up hope of ever seeing the quirky, and outrageously awesome grim reapers Rube (Mandy Patinkin) - The Hard Headed leader, Roxy (Jasmin Guy)- the tough talking, butt kicking cop, Mason (Callum Blue) - the screw up. Daisy (Laura Harris) - the ever dramatic actress, and George (Ellen Muth) - the smart mouthed newbie who was killed by a falling toilette seat from the US space station. But on February 17th MGM reunites (most of) the cast for a direct to DVD feature "Dead Like Me: Life After Death"
There are two major cast changes from the television series to the film, the first being that Mandy Patinkin was absent from the film, the reason given by the new 'Head Reaper' Cameron (Henry Ian Cusick ) was that he received his lights and moved on. The second was the replacement of Laura Harris as Daisy Adair with Sarah Wynter. Another notable cast change is the absence of Greg Kean who portrayed George's Father, Clancy. Though the cast changes were a bit jarring to most of the fans, the chemistry that made the original series so successful is still there.
The film, like the show is a mixture of comedy and heartfelt drama that actually takes a step up from the original series. George has grown into a successful and mature young woman while her younger and living sister, Reggie (Britt McKillip), has also blossomed from an awkward preteen to a beautiful young woman; the scenes between Muth and McKillip are some of the best in the film.
Cleverly written by Stephen Godchaux and John Masius, the film takes place 4 years after the series cancellation and is actually a chance at a series resurrection. However, even if Dead Like me does not end up back on television screens once a week, this film will at least leave fans with a sense of closure. The special features of the DVD includes commentary with director Stephen Herek and Ellen Muth as well as a featurette entitled "Back from the Dead: Resurrecting Dead Like Me"
Friday The 13th
By Jonathan Weichsel
Ah, the joy of seeing people you don't like all that much getting hacked to bits on the big screen! Of all the horror franchises that came of age during the 1980's, it is the Friday The 13th series which is the most keenly aware that in order to really enjoy a movie about a guy who walks around killing people, you have to really dislike the people being killed.
This is where the latest reboot of the Friday The 13th franchise gets it right. The characters are absolutely obnoxious. You literally can not wait for them to die, and you can't help but cheer when they finally get hacked to bits. The most obnoxious of the bunch is Trent (Travis Van Winkle). Trent is the kind of guy who will pick a fight with a stranger handing out missing person signs, cheat on his girlfriend while she is right outside knocking on the door, and speak disparagingly to his friends because they aren't as wealthy as he is. His friends consist of a motley crew of sex-starved stoners and drunks who are pretty open about only liking Trent for his money.
In order to enjoy a movie about a guy who walks around killing people, you also have to identify with the guy. Jason, who never speaks and never shows his face, has always been one of the more difficult horror villains for filmmakers to flesh out into a real character. The more successful Friday The 13th movies portray Jason as blindly seeking revenge against camp counselors because it was a camp counselor who let him drown, and a camp counselor who chopped his mother's head off. The least successful movies in the series literally just have him walking around killing people for no reason. This latest installment finds a middle ground. He keeps the same shrine around his mother's mummified head as in the earlier films, and he even kidnaps a girl named Whitney (Amanda Righetti) who looks just like his mother. But we never see that he identifies the people he is killing with the camp counselors who cased him so much pain. Instead, Jason is recast as a swift, territorial hunter protecting his land. I found this new emotional hook difficult to grasp on to.
But, when it comes to movies like Friday The 13th emotional hooks are beside the point. The movie itself is good old fashioned trashy fun. The female characters need about as much of an excuse to get naked as Jason needs to kill them, there is drug use throughout, and well, there is a guy in a hockey mask who walks around killing people with a machete. If you are someone who can enjoy this type of movie, you'll like it, and if you aren't, you won't.
The Friday The 13th series has always gone for cheap thrills rather than genuine frights, and this installment is no exception. One complaint many people have about Friday The 13th, as well as similar series, is that the killings aren't scary, because you know they are coming. But, knowing that Jason is about to kill the couple hooking up in their tent or the stupid drunk guy in the tool shed is part of the fun. Cinematically it is very simple: There is someone out doing something, the soundtrack changes to Jason's theme music, the camera angle changes, and then Jason pops out from somewhere and bam! In the case of this latest installment, the killings are perfectly timed to make you jump out of your seat a bit. It's not that you don't know they're coming. It's just that they're edited so that they come a second or two before you expect them. The effect is the same as going on an amusement park ride, where you know there are twists and drops, but you don't know exactly when they are coming.
'UNDER THE SEA 3D'
IMAX DELVES TO LIFE FORMS BENEATH
By Sean Chavel
Coming out of Under the Sea 3D you might be so floored that you may wish that an IMAX film like this would gross $100 million dollars. Such a phenomenal success would boost more IMAX films to get made that will go to the far and beyond reaches of our planet. This exotic marine exploration reminds one that an IMAX experience can often be better than a regular movie, enveloping us in the most fantastic locations in the world and letting us see new creatures and new environments for the very first time.
The 70mm IMAX theaters are the biggest cinema screens available. They usually are comprised of documentaries featuring earthly splendor, but occasionally something like "The Dark Knight" will get that IMAX projection. Most of our movie going public considers IMAX as that rare infrequent experience that is simultaneously alluring but outside the pop culture contempo, but perhaps it is about time that we all said that if it's a new IMAX film it's time to go pay attendance and feel the awe.
Filmed in the Great Barrier Reef of Southern Australia and the Coral Triangle of Indonesia mainly, the cameras get close-up with Cuttlefish, Leafy Sea Dragons, Garden Eels - and those are just the camouflaging organisms. You might be telling yourself, How Come I Forgot There Is Such a Thing as Sea Snakes? Or How Come I Forgot That Jellyfish Are Eaten By Other Fish? The 3D glasses make you feel like you're in reaching distance and the overall visual and aural sensation lets you feel like you're in the world's grandest aquarium. That's IMAX for you - reliable as cinema's most accessible teleport.
For marine beauty, "Under the Sea" (directed by Howard and Michelle Hall, IMAX deep sea veterans) is the most visually astonishing and transporting since "Aliens of the Deep," a 2005 IMAX film - available on DVD - made by none other than James Cameron. The Hall team is adept in getting all the necessary footage and drawing out resources: This "Sea" adventure is narrated by Jim Carrey, but his name shouldn't be the drawing power. Carrey is an amiable narrator guide who occasionally gives us useful information (there's a tadpole of didacticism about rising ocean temperatures causing harm to corral reefs). For the most part, the narration is customarily blithe and friendly which makes this all-audience friendly.
Breathtaking beauty is too commonly shrugged off and the familiar assembly line sequels and brand name movies are attended without thought and consideration to alternative. I wish that audiences would think more often outside the box, and instead of attending regular feature films they would opt for an IMAX presentation - documentaries like "Under the Sea" lets you feel like you are discovering something new and attending an experience outside of archetypal movie going. Your sense of discovery is renewed.
Running length is nominal but that is no surprise since IMAX docs are characteristically short. In the case of "Under the Sea" however you're starved for more. Total 40 minutes long? I could have watched hours of this stuff. "Under the Sea" opens in IMAX theaters at the Burbank AMC 16, California Science Center IMAX theater in Los Angeles, and The Bridge cinema de lux in Los Angeles on February 13th.
"Confessions of a Shopaholic" Review
By Jane Boursaw
I'm a huge fan of all the Sophie Kinsella books, and "Conf-essions of a Shopaholic" is based on her book by the same name. It's about a woman named Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher - pronounced "I-la")) who LOVES to shop.
There are more books in the series, including "Shopaholic Ties the Knot," "Shopaholic & Sister," "Shopaholic Takes Manhattan," and "Shopaholic & Baby," so I'm really, really (picture me in my most persistent voice here) hoping they make more of these movies, with Isla Fisher in the lead role. She's so sweet and funny, and such a great comedic actress. She's a Lucille Ball for the new age.
Like many of us, Rebecca Bloomwood loves to shop. But like many of us, she's taken shopping to a new extreme - maxing out her credit cards, avoiding calls from debt collectors, and dreading the mailman, who surely will bring a stack of new bills every day.
Rebecca dreams of working at a top fashion magazine, but can't quite seem to get her foot in the door there. She even snags an interview with the magazine, but when she gets there, the position has already been filled. So instead, she ends up interviewing with another magazine in the company, "Successful Saving." You can see the irony of shopaholic Rebecca getting a job at a savings magazine.
But the boss, Luke Brandon (Hugh Dancy), loves her first proposal - helping people save money by comparing it to the way women shop for shoes. In fact, Luke gives her an ongoing column with her own mysterious byline, "The Girl in the Green Scarf." There's a funny story where that byline comes from, but you'll have to see the movie for it!
Luke ends up being a romantic interest for Rebecca, but despite attending shopaholic meetings, her debt continues to grow and threatens to destroy both her love life AND her career. But as you might expect, Rebecca gets a light bulb moment and just might have the answer to getting her life together.
Hugh Dancy is charming, and the supporting cast is great, too. Krysten Ritter plays Suze, Rebecca's best friend with whom she shares an apartment. Joan Cusack and John Goodman play Rebecca's loving, working-class parents. And Leslie Bibb plays Alicia Billington, a social-climbing woman who's also interested in Luke.
And there are some awesome actors on the sidelines, including Lynn Redgrave, who plays a drunken lady at a ball; Kristin Scott Thomas, the editor of the fashion mag; John Lithgow, a business colleague of Luke's; Wendie Malick, the leader of the shopaholics group; Christine Ebersole, a TV show host; and Julie Hagerty (remember her from "Airplane!"?), who plays Luke's assistant.
All of this fun casting adds special touches to the movie, but mainly, it's the charming personality and lively antics of Isla Fisher who, as mentioned, is like a new Lucille Ball with her physical comedy. She runs into doors, drops trays full of food, unleashes a throng of beads on the floor, falls into people, and all sorts of other fun pratfalls that not every actress can pull off.
"Confessions of a Shopaholic" is definitely a chick-flick, and I loved it! Also, it's rated PG, so there's nothing too objectionable for girls. I took my 11-year-old daughter and her friend, and they both loved it, too. I definitely recommend it!
If you like romantic, girlie movies