The Dark Knight
By Scott Mendelson
The Dark Knight is an emotionally and physically draining roller coaster and morality play. While Chris Nolan makes a few tactical blunders that prevent the picture from achieving the mythical status that it craves, it remains an uncommonly compelling action film. This obscenely entertaining Batman adventure is not perfect, but it's a fine achievement.
Taking inspiration from Heat and The Untouchables, Nolan has attempted a crime opera rather than a comic book adventure. There are several large scale action sequences, but for the most part they are only slightly less choppy than Batman Begins. Fortunately, the real meat is the complicated narrative and character interaction.
A token amount of plot: This sequel picks up a year after Batman Begins. Batman and Lt. Jim Gordon are putting the final squeeze on the Gotham mob scene, with the help of the new squeaky-clean and charismatic District Attorney, Harvey Dent. Alas, the seemingly motiveless bloodshed and chaos of a pasty-faced madman known as The Joker will soon jeopardize everything.
The emotional arc of The Dark Knight involves three good men as they attempt to cope with unstoppable and inexplicable evil without corrupting their own morality. Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) sees the idealistic Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) as a man who can inspire people without a mask and with complete devotion to law and order, to the point where there may not be a need for Batman. Gary Oldman anchors the movie with one of his best performances. His James Gordon is a sobering portrait of a man who makes integrity and decency exciting in a city where both are scarce.
Heath Ledger is terrifically fun with a definitive and spellbinding take on The Joker that is every bit the equal of Jack Nicholson and Mark Hamill (although in quieter moments, his performance resembles Nicholson's more than you'd expect). Presented as a remorseless, murderous force of nature, The Joker has no back story and little character development, and his ultimate motive is a civics lesson in mass pandemonium. Ledger's work is a stellar supporting turn in the best sense of the word.
Bale again makes a compelling Bruce Wayne. His philosophical interplay with Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) and Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) are again highlights. However, the voice that Christian Bale uses for Batman sounds even more cartoonish than in Batman Begins. The vocal choice comically sounds like what it is - a soft-spoken man trying to sound gruff and angrily macho. Maggie Gyllenhaal makes an acceptable replacement for Dawes, more convincing than Katie Holmes as an ADA but less compelling as Bruce Wayne's moral compass. Here, alas, her primary purpose now is her role in the love triangle between Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne.
Chris Nolan has achieved something bold and daring, trading in the optimistic and introspective Batman Begins for a dark and pessimistic meditation on moral compromise and blowback. The story itself eventually comes to involve not just the battle between heroes and villains, but the choices that innocent civilians make in times of terror and mania. While lower in body count than Tim Burton's Batman, the violence is potent and the film is incredibly intense throughout (do not bring the kids). However, the need to combine R-rated content with a PG-13 format leads to an obtuseness to the carnage. The violence is presented with such quick cutting and obscure angles that it's occasionally difficult to discern what happened.
Amid the fine acting, rich characters, and visually dynamic scenes of epic action and tragic violence, there is just too much, and yet not enough. More so than in Batman Begins, Nolan again feels the need to over-explain story points and character themes through lengthy monologues. And there is just too much story for this one film. The Dark Knight is seemingly the film that Nolan wanted to make as the second and third film of the series. But since he doesn't know if he will make a third film, he tried to stuff everything into one sequel.
Thus, this 152-minute epic feels too short by at least thirty-minutes. Batman himself ends up getting the short shrift, and even Harvey Dent's arc gets especially shortchanged. In fact, Eckhart's Harvey Dent comes off as less psychologically realistic and complex than Richard Moll's performance in Batman: The Animated Series. Either Nolan should have made this a two-hour film concentrating on Batman and The Joker, or he should have made a three-hour Batman epic. We're left with a film that's both too long and too short.
Despite several genuine flaws, the film works splendidly as a Batman story, an action drama, and an intelligent and thoughtful adult entertainment. That it's merely one of the best movies of the year and not the greatest movie ever made is no shame. By any rational standard, The Dark Knight is a triumph.
'STEP BROTHERS'
STEP BACK AND AWAY
By Sean Chavel
What the bleep do you know? The new Will Ferrell comedy Step Brothers has many, many bleep words. It's one of those movies that thinks that it is breaking into taboo territory by unleashing as many bleep words into as many scenes as possible. You know what a bleep word is - it's a four-letter word. It's also one of those movies that thinks it is breaking barriers if it secretes as many sex anatomy jokes as possible in its running span. But mainly it's the profanity that's overused. A bleep word can't be used effectively as every punchline to every scene bec-ause eventually it wears thin. In comedy, context is everything.
This is the worst movie Will Ferrell has made since becoming a box office superstar, and I didn't think he could sink lower than "Semi-Pro" from earlier this year. Ferrell could be the funniest guy in the movies currently, but he needs somebody to rein him in and teach him the benefits of subtlety. When Ferrell participates in the screenplay, as he does here, the results are sloppy and loutish and off-the-line tasteless.
The premise ain't bad, as this could have been a good movie if it had fallen into the hands of a better screenwriter. Ferrell is near 40-years old and still living with his mother (Mary Steenburgen). John C. Reilly plays a 40-year old who is still living with his father (Richard Jenkins). Both men seem to be stuck at a 12-year old mentality loafing around the house all day surviving on allowance money. Both Ferrell and Reilly become step brothers when respectively their mother and father marry.
They all move into a big house. The boys become competitors for their parent's affection and bullies to each other. When Reilly commands Ferrell not to touch his drum set, Ferrell threatens back that he's going to put his nut-sac on his drums set. Only he really means it. These guys roughhouse each other until they learn to be brothers that can, you guessed it, play compatibly together in their treehouse. They look at porn together! Alright, I admit it; I had a few guilty laughs during the movie (garage karate, the sleepwalking, Chew-bacca masks). But I'd gladly give up those few moments of hilarity to have never seen the movie at all. The white dog poo scene is one of the year's low points, right there and then I wanted to flush the entire movie out of my mind.
The movie isn't without a story arc. These boys must eventually learn to grow up and join the workplace. But this movie explores the grown-up workplace about as maturely as one of Adam Sandler's more childish vehicles. No real comedy can be generated when the workplace grown-ups curse as often as the overgrown boys of the title's name. There's no class distinction, thus, no human paradoxes that can be humorously pickled. I'm no prude, I've seen gutter poetry used outrageously effectively in movies ("GoodFellas," the films of Quentin Tarantino, "Knocked Up," come to mind), but "Step Brothers" has no sense of human perspective or linguistic rhythmic flow; therefore its foul language can't be funny.
The movie evolves from being a dumb curiosity into a descent of intolerability. The last 20 minutes or so, in particular, feels like a long haul. The writing is an awkward jumble of intentions, but you do wish mushy sincerity would win out just so you don't have to hear anymore crass jokes. By the way, none of the four-letter words are actually bleeped out, i.e., censored, I only wish they had been.
Ashley Tisdale is Picture Perfect in Picture This!
By Kenyth Mogan
Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical) takes on her first starring role outside of the Disney Channel, in the MGM direct to DVD feature 'Picture This!' The film, rated PG-13 for sexual references, is the typical (not so) ugly duckling who transforms into a beautiful swan with the help of some contacts and new found self confidence. but it's not just a sappy teenage movie or a new age carbon copy of a classic fairy tale. Tisdale portrays Mandy Gilbert, the awkward and klutzy nobody who wants to be somebody to the most popular guy in school, Drew Patterson, portrayed by Robbie Amell (Life with Derek). But in her mind, the only way to achieve that is to own a high tech video phone that will allow her to 'scheme, spy, and conspire' just like all the other kids in high school. It's a gift her Father gives her for her 18th birthday. But, Mandy soon finds out that a cell phone that allows you to send video while you talk can be more like a handicap than a weapon. When her Father demands her to show her where she is and what she's doing, he catches her in a lie (just after she's been invited to the biggest party of the year by her Prince Charming) and grounds her. But, ever determined to get her fairy tale ending, Mandy refuses to give up, and along with her best friends Alexa and Cayenne portrayed by Lauren Collins and Shenae Grimes (both of Degrassi) survive a death car, take control over a bar full of drunks and successfully manage to 'phone punk' her Dad into believing she's studying.
Written by Temple Matthews, this take on a Cinderella type story is actually quite original. It wasn't boring; the dialog was, for the most part, actually true to how teenagers talk, and I was engaged from the moment it started until it was over; though the jump between the last two scenes is just slightly confusing. Matthews based the main character off of his own daughter and a discussion they had about what life would be like if he bought her a picture/video phone. Matthew's even made reference to how Big Brother (or Big Father in this film's case) can keep tabs 24/7 with the way technology is heading, is comical and scarily fitting.
Each character in the film was perfectly cast. The role of Mandy gave Ashley Tisdale a chance to grow beyond her mouse ears and flex her acting muscles for a slightly older audience - which she does with perfect comedic timing. The girl has talent, and this film is proof that there is no reason why she cannot follow in the foot steps of fellow Disney alumni, Kerri Russell. In an interview on the DVD's special features Tisdale stated that she fell in love with the script and wanted to play the role of Mandy because of how real she seamed, and how she thought that a lot of girls could relate to her. Lauren Grimes and Shanea Grimes are also comedic and enduring. Robbie Amell is both strong and sensitive as the film's high school heartthrob. He's not the overly masculine alpha male jock of typical teen movies, nor is Cindy Busby (Heartland) who plays Lisa Cross, they typical one dimensional antagonist. She has actual depth and Marie-Marguerite Sabongui and Angela Galuppo are more than her simple robotic clones Blair and Kimberly. Kevin Pollak is Mandy's over bearing and over protective Father, Tom while Maxim Roy is her aunt who is fighting to get her the freedom she needs to become the young woman she wants to be. Tisdale also serves as the films executive producer. It is her step into a role behind the camera.
The soundtrack from the film is hip and catchy. Tisdale, with Collins and Grimes, performs a cover of Pat Benatar's 1982 hit 'Shadows of the Night'. It will be available for download in July. The DVD will be released on July 22nd in both widescreen and full screen formats and with special features that includes: 2 making of featurettes, cell phone confessions from the cast, and a trivia game. It will retail for $19.99 and will also premiere on ABC Family on July 13th at 8/7 central time. In short, the film is good. It's a step forward for Ms. Tisdale into more adult roles, but not so adult that parents of her Disney Channel fans would have to worry.
“Felon”
Can't Quite Tunnel Out
By Colin Archdeacon
Celebrated stuntman-gone-director Ric Waugh's latest film, "Felon", offers a surprisingly sincere and restrained commentary on the depraved state of US prisons and the inescapable psychological corruption suffered by inmate and guard alike. Stephen Dorf and Val Kilmer both lend their considerable efforts to a film which proves, in the end, incapable of establishing the kind of emotional resonance which could have made Felon a sensational movie. Lazy characterization and a weak script hold this well-crafted film back from achieving all that it could have.
Waugh, who also wrote Felon, admirably sidesteps any glamorizing of prison's notoriously complex network of gang politics and social mores, opting instead to explore what happens to men when they leave reality and enter an environment so keenly devoid of society's most fundamental values that even human beings become relegated to the status of cargo. It is this transformation which the prisoner must undergo, from human being to piece of meat, which becomes the central theme around which all of the stories in Felon pivot.
The film opens with Wade Porter, a hard-working family man adequately portrayed by Stephen Dorff, getting approved for a loan which will ensure the unfettered expansion of his construction company and the financial security of his wife and son. Soon after the good news breaks, however, Wade and his wife (Marisol Nichols) are awoken one night by the sounds of an intruder creeping through their house. Needless to say, everything goes wrong and Wade is soon panting over a dead body on his lawn. After piecing together what happened, local law enforcers decree that since the intruder was unarmed and no longer on the premises, Wade will be put (wince) "under arrest for murder."
I think you can imagine where this is going. Wade is suddenly thrust into the alien world of irrational violence and relentless dehumanization which is the US prison system. Featuring a surprise cameo by Los Angeles' own Twin Tower Correctional Facility, those menacing windowless behemoths lurking on the southeast periphery of Union Station, the film's horrors escalate until Wade is serving six years in an isolated unit called "the shoe". In the shoe Wade and the prison's most violent inmates (whom he has somehow gotten lumped in with) are pitted against one another in gladiator style combat by lead prison guard and insatiable sadist Lt. Jackson (Harold Perrineau).
Wade's luck takes a turn, however, when he is befriended by reformed homicidal maniac John Smith, a ludicrously underdeveloped messiah figure played with admirable patience by Val Kilmer. A formidable bone-breaker himself, Wade quickly acclimates to prison, much to the distress of his wife, whose own life is in a tailspin thanks to Wade's imprisonment. As we learn more about the other guards and prisoners in the shoe, it becomes clear that anyone who gets entangled in the seething brambles of the prison system, be it as employee or inmate, is infected by the psychology of incarceration. Prison teaches one to look at each individual as a body of opposition, as soulless mass which must be feared, destroyed or exploited. The question posed to Wade by John Smith, and in fact the issue at the heart of Felon, is a simple one: is the process reversible?
While cinematographer Dana Gonzales tastefully employs the familiar shaky hand-held camera technique, setting a tone of panic and realism which complements the central themes of the film quite well, the believability of the film's look and feel is not enough to obscure the fact that few of the characters in Felon feel like real people. This is due in large part to a flat script which has characters uttering lines as disarmingly silly as "just behave yourself, will ya?"
Kilmer's role as the revenge killer gone philosopher is particularly distressing as it is the influence of his ideals which catalyze the film's refreshingly potent climax. Spattered with tattoos that represent his ideology, Kilmer spends so much time dispensing mysterious one-liners and brisk warnings that he never has a chance to reveal what exactly it is that he's learned during his life-sentence. Meanwhile, Stephen Dorff is asked to do little more than portray your typical working-class guy dealt a losing hand by fate, a role he plays well but which has limited potential to have a lasting effect on viewers. Ultimately, Felon should be applauded for the delicate concepts which it explores, however, in the absence of any unique or memorable characters the film becomes more thinking exercise than emotional experience.
'MEET DAVE'
EDDIE INSIDE EDDIE
By Sean Chavel
If Eddie Murphy is decidedly fixed on making movies for the kiddie market than it's fair enough to say that he's done a lot worse than Meet Dave. Harmless and even mildly clever at times, this vehicle lets Murphy indulge in the better of his physical comedian qualities. Murphy is a miniaturized alien who is the captain of a spaceship constructed in a human form. The spaceship also looks like Murphy. The expansive crew of mini-people act under Murphy's command to control and operate his body. This lets way for Murphy's gift of physical humor, looking odd and out of place as this dysfunctional spaceship unaccustomed to Earth customs.
How the aliens from planet Nill just happen to talk like Earthlings and look like Earthlings is never addressed. The movie doesn't want to bother with explaining such things. Nor do such coincidences with Murphy bumping into Elizabeth Banks (as Gina) and her son improbably before Murphy realizes later they are the exact people he needs to find to track down a very special device that he needs to retrieve to return to his home planet. It's hard to recall what the device is called, but it's a metallic egg inside what looks like a piece of asteroid.
Captain Dave Ming Chang (his chosen Earth name) falls under the charming spell of Gina, a cutie single mom with those high-spirited and peppy qualities that actress Elizabeth Banks who is playing her possesses. Cute. Or cutesy. There's a small schmaltz factor in the movie, but it's not too smothering (select male members of the audience might find themselves gagging). The movie works best though when Murphy indulges in awkward mannerisms and behaves weird in front of strangers. He picks up the phrase "Welcome to Old Navy" while shopping and interprets it as a common social greeting. Murphy's facial ticks while he says this is what makes the scene work.
What doesn't work so well is a side story with a couple of cops, led by Scott Caan investigating a strange landing from the sky. Bor-inggg. These cops bring nothing lively to the company and the writing of these characters is shopworn. This whole business of cops doing alien tracking should have been discarded from the script. Sure, there are tackier elements in the movie. "Meet Dave" is directed by Brian Robbins of "Norbit" infamy for god sakes - he doesn't exactly have an elegant eye for things. But nothing's more boring than watching these cops.
"Meet Dave" isn't despicable nor is it reputable. It is dumb in parts - the spaceships crew members in particular are square peg caricatures - but the movie is not obnoxious like "Norbit" or "Daddy Day Care." It's the kind of occasionally funny crapfest that you wouldn't mind watching on cable after midnight when most of your higher brain functions have shut down but you're not quite ready to sleep. "Meet Dave" doesn't demand anything from you. But you do wish you could demand a little more from it: The movie does descend down predictable lines and whatever charm the movie initially possessed is stretched thin. But for the kids out there who have never seen "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" or any other "Shrinking Man" movie will likely be tickled by the sight of mini-men adrift along the sidewalks of New York Times Square. Movie also features Ed Helms (he plays Andy Bernard on TV's "The Office") and Gabrielle Union whose character has got lovestruck eyes on the Captain.