Movie Reviews

Mon - December 10, 2007

Atonement: A Review

Ian McEwan's 2002 novel, Atonement, is a fine book . Joe Wright and Paul Webster have made a movie which does it justice.

Ian McEwan's website lays out the story:

On the hottest day of the summer of 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her older sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching Cecilia is their housekeeper's son Robbie Turner, a childhood friend who, along with Briony's sister, has recently graduated from Cambridge. By the end of that day the lives of all three will have been changed forever. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had never before dared to approach and will have become victims of the younger girl's scheming imagination, and Briony will have committed a dreadful crime, the guilt for which will colour her entire life.

The spelling of "colour" is a clue, this story is British. That is more evident in the movie than it was on reading the book. British drama has become more restrained since it climbed out of the circular outdoor theaters. Now we can watch British actors stiffen even more than usual, for dramatic effect, with furtive casting about of the eyes the only motion on the screen.

Methinks I doth protest overmuch. For the entire movie, I saw the actors as their characters, never an actor trying to play a character. This movie tells the story of the novel very effectively.

There is just something about the appearance of Keira Knightley , though. She looks like an exotic creature who has been pressed between the pages of a gigantic book. When she turns sideways, she disappears.

Posted at 10:42 PM

Mon - October 15, 2007

Into The Wild: A Pat Fitzgerald Review

I saw this movie as a disturbing story, well told and beautifully shot.

Sean Penn's movie tracks the fatal voyage of Christopher McCandless, who was by some measures a child of privilege from Annandale. Upon graduation from college, he tells his parents that he intends to use the remaining twenty four thousand dollars in his college fund for law school. He then donates his college fund to charity, and disappears in a manner calculated to get a several month head start before his parents find out that he has gone and left no forwarding address.

Let the romantic adventures begin! A vagabond, encumbered only by the possessions he carries on his back, not by The Man or The Rat Race.

The only problem with that is that at some point, Romance collides with Physics. You can't finesse physics. McCandless was rolling the dice, and got hooked on the adrenalin rush that goes with that gamble. He was too caught up in all that to be bothered with understanding or improving his odds. That is why he thought he was irrevocably stranded when he was really within a short distance of a river crossing. That is why he had no food, but was within a short distance of a stocked cabin. That is why he thought he was measuring himself against Nature, as he died within twenty miles of a highway.

My friend Bill Wood writes, "Those bounded by death-fear and insecurity will quickly assess him as a stupid kid who died. Those who have trod the thin air and occasionally let slip the moorings of conventional life will “get” McCandless." This defense of McCandless is a weak reed. As much as Bill loves the romance of measuring himself against nature, he prepares himself better before treading the thin air and slipping his moorings. At least he does these days. If you talk with people who live and make their living in the wilderness of Alaska or elsewhere, I doubt that you would find their preparation and practices as "being bounded by death-fear and insecurity," and I doubt you would hear comments of admiration for McCandless.

McCandless wanted to measure himself against Nature. He got measured. The romantics dispute the measurement and the units.

I thought it was cruel of him to disappear and never again contact his parents or his sister.

The movie about all this was a very nice piece of Hollywood drama. It allows the viewer to think about what it would be like to drop out of the rat race, or have adventures in the wild, or have a child disappear forever. The beauty of Hollywood is that after all that, you walk blinking back into the light of the real day, and get to make your own choices.

Posted at 02:16 PM

Into The Wild: A Bill Wood Review

Escape from a Faustian, dysfunctional family, bordered by conditional love, is not rare. Remember Hippies? Remember yourself!? I dislike the term “identity crisis”. Identity search is more appropriate for Chris McCandless’ voyage. McCandless hungered for the free air of freedom after an uneventful youth with suffocating parents. It happens. He yearned for wisdom, but didn’t just accept what Tolstoy or Thoureau or Jack London wrote, instead he wanted to hew his own wisdom from the hard rock of lone experience. He not only dumped his material belongings, but eschewed the advice of those he met along the way as though it would befoul his self-made vision. Had he been a little more mature before his fateful plunge into late spring Alaska, he might have lived. He might have learned a few more hunting or foraging skills. He might have accepted the compass and map as non-threatening, which would have led him to a hand-operated tram over the river he could not cross, his personal Styx, or the stocked cabin within walking distance of his lonely, magic bus. It seemed he was getting there at the end. He resumed his given name in the last thing he ever wrote. Would he have communicated with his family had he made it out of the wild? Would he had learned to forgive as counseled by the forlorn, aged Ron Franz (Hal Holbrook, amazing performance)? Who knows. McCandless, in his alter-ego, Alexander Supertramp, had quite a ride along the way. Certainly, some luck was at work to keep him from terminal disaster when he rode the Colorado River as a novice kayaker, survived a sadistic beating by a railcar bouncer and roamed the streets of hard core LA. Yet skills and knowledge were gathered and no doubt some epiphanies puctuated the sweet ache of his loneliness. Those bounded by death-fear and insecurity will quickly assess him as a stupid kid who died. Those who have trod the thin air and occasionally let slip the moorings of conventional life will “get” McCandless. Let us gaze into the white-ink density of the Milky Way one eve and say, “It’s OK, Supertramp McCandless. We understand.”

Posted at 01:18 PM

Sun - September 30, 2007

3:10 To Yuma: A Bill Wood Review

I’m sucker for the western genre. Director James Mangold would have had to severely butcher this film for me not to like it. He didn’t. As Roger Ebert points out, 3:10 is a morality play along the likes of The Unforgiven or Shane. No gay cowboys in this tale, although the two main characters, outlaw Ben Wade (Russel Crowe) and Dan Evans (Christian Bale) form an intense relationship and explore each other's weaknesses, a couple of great turns by these leads. Crowe shows us the apocryphal gentleman criminal, who we can’t decide to love or hate. This role would have been perfect if Crowe could have thrown a telephone or a teletype at somebody. Christian Bale manages to remind us of neither Batman nor American Psycho as he limps convincingly as a peg leg Civil War veteran tying to start a cattle ranch and win the respect of his family. The psycho role is filled ably and homicidally by Ben Foster as Charlie Prince, who is forever seeking the approval of his surrogate father, Wade. Taking a nod from Saving Private Ryan, the bullets ping and thud realistically instead of the fake richochet effect. The most amazing aspect of 3:10 is that the shooters are constantly reloading. I think this may be the start of a new genre, “reloaders”. As an occasional cowboy action shooter (alias, “Sody Pop Kid”) under the mentorship of Sarge Halfmast, who looks suspiciously like a certain P. Fitzgerald, I can attest that once a cartridge is fired it cannot fire again. It must be removed and replaced by a fresh load. Ben Wade was shooting a Colt Peacemaker with custom black ivory grips.

At one point reference was made to Charlie Prince’s “Schofield”. The Schofield was similar to the Peacemaker except it had a much shorter cylinder. This modification by Major George Schofield made the Smith and Wesson Schofield quicker to reload, about 30 seconds compared to a minute for the Colt. The downside was less power from the short cartridge. At one point, Evan’s son, William (masterfully performed by Logan Lerman) picks up a spent brass. It looks to me like a Schofield. Of note, Major Schofield ended his life with the help of his own revolver. On that note, I will end this review.

Peter Fonda (bounty hunter Byron McElroy), holds a double-barrel hammer gun, possible a Colt.

The Spencer repeater was used by Union infantry and cavalry. The Spencer company was eventually bought by Winchester. At last we see that not everyone used a Winchester ‘73 in the Old West.

-------

A Bill Wood review

Posted at 08:18 AM

Tue - August 7, 2007

The Bourne Ultimatum - A Bill Wood Review

The Bourne Ultimatum.

Help, this camera won’t stay still.

As a long ago fan of the Ludlum Bourne trilogy, I was enraptured by The Bourne Identity. I can remember consuming entire plane flights mesmerized by the amnesiac super-Bond, who never had to sleep and had enough cash stashed so he could zip around to sexy international venues as he sought not only his identity, but also the soft underbelly of the evil black-ops minions of Treadstone. I was still on board with the movie sequel, The Bourne Supremacy. But after fighting the nausea of constant hand held camera action scenes in The Bourne Ultimatum, I feel as if I have amnesia. I can’t find the Ludlum magic in BU. Identity gave us some pauses in the action, pauses where character and plot could develop, which made us actually care about Bourne and the fetching German siren, Marie Kreutz, played by Fanka Potente (Run Lola Run). Ultimatum not only veers away from the actual Ludlum book, but it writhes in the fever grip of the disease of sequelism. Director Paul Greengrass has sequelitis. This disease causes movie makers to pick technically appealing aspects of the first of a series and blow them out of all proportion in the sequels. In this case, brief hand held cam shots that pulled us into the action during chase or fight scenes in Identity are now expanded to the entire scene and the action is piled up non-stop, leaving scant room for dialogue or development. We know nothing more about Julia Stiles' character, CIA station operative Nicky Parsons. I was afraid Stiles had a pathologic facial paralysis until the final scene. It all becomes too much. Bourne’s prescience in outwitting techno-savvy CIA operatives and his survival of repetitive concrete falls, long stair banister jumps and high speed car crashes finally pushes beyond the thin line of believability. This was the same fate of Transporter 2, where the edgy action of the first film was stretched into cartoonland. I guess two out of three Bournes isn’t bad. But Peter Jackson nailed three out of three. Match that.

-- Bill Wood

Posted at 10:30 AM

Sat - June 30, 2007

Live Free or Die Hard: A Review

I enjoyed going to this movie.

I went to this movie with my 14 year-old daughter. She enjoyed it as well.

Careful observation showed that there were parts of the movie that were more delicious for her than me, and vice versa. I thought about the review I heard where the critic claimed that Justin Long had stolen the show from Bruce Willis. I think that when Len Wiseman made this 4th film in the Die Hard franchise, he very intentionally triangulated the audience by age. Justin Long, the Mac from the PC vs Mac commercials, embodies the hip ease with which young people outthink their elders, at least according to the young people. Bruce Willis is referred to in the movie as "a Timex in a digital age." The Timex slogan is a big part of his appeal to my generation. "Takes a licking but keeps on ticking," "bloody but unbowed," NYPD Detective McClane looks like some of us feel -- beat to shit, but still moving.

Audiences like this movie better than critics. There is something about being compelled to watch a large number of movies without a break which changes what it takes for a movie to please you. I heard one fairly decent critic sniff that this was a good action picture, but that he faulted it because it could have been better. That is the same basic message I used to get when I brought home a B.

Posted at 07:45 PM

Fri - May 11, 2007

Spiderman 3 -- A Bill Wood Review

A Bill Wood Review.
Spiderman 3: As The Web Turns

I think I know what happened. Not sure, but here’s my theory. Lord of the Rings was wildly successful with a trilogy of over-two hour movies. These new long movies were done to remain faithful to Tolkein and the Hobbit Culture and avid fans did not mind the long viewing as more beloved details could be included.
Next, Hollywood execs do focus groups. Focus groups tend to pander to consumerist personalities (who else would volunteer for a focus group) and these people always think more is better. A new mantra arises that blockbuster movies must be over 2 hours because that’s what people want.
In the past, screenplays were viciously cut and edited. In the past the shooting film was viciously cut and edited. Great films from that era presented their stories with momentum, suspense and a powerful punch at the end.
All is lost now. S3 may be the most flagrant example of cinematic super-sizing yet. Instead of one scene exposing how despondent Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) is, we now get five, with exactly the same message, but no advancement of plot. We are similarly bludgeoned with the themes of Peter Parker and Harry Osborne’s (New Goblin) rivalry, Parker’s tender relation with Aunt May, Parker’s rivalry with smarmy news photographer Edie Brock (Topher Grace) and rehashing now for the third time, Parker’s on-again, off again (X3) romance with Mary Jane.
If you’re idea of fun is to watch a two hour, twenty minute episode of As The World Turns, then S3 is your huckleberry.
Even the CGI battles become monotonous with heaping servings of body slams peppered with over the top Foley sound.
Spiderman is consumerist mutant trash. Go see it if you like being offended.

Posted at 09:55 PM

Tue - January 30, 2007

Curse Of The Golden Flower: My Review

Methinks Bill doth protest overmuch.

If you want to do the glib Hollywood parlor trick of boiling every movie down to one sentence, "Curse of the Golden Flower" is "The Lion In Winter meets the Forbidden Palace."

The visuals in this movie are stunning, from the palace interiors to the battle scenes. Despite the detail in the visuals, though, this story is true to the precepts of drama in that there is no visual element which does not tell the story and advance the plot.

The characters, even the minor characters, are fully formed and have their own agendas.

The 10th Century Tang Dynasty Emperor has three sons, the two youngest by the (current) Empress. The Emperor and Empress are moving against each other, and the sons must decide where their loyalties and futures lie. The First Son's loyalty is divided by his incestuous relationship with the Empress. The Second Son is on the cusp of being made the Crown Prince, rather than his older half-brother. The Third Son is pissed off about being third.

There comes a point where plotting must lead to action. The armed conflicts are in some ways like ballet, at times graceful and fluid as they move back and forth, and at other times like a chess game, with each side denoted by the color of their pieces making dramatic moves and countermoves. With that analogy, I won't spoil the ending by saying whether the game ends with the fall of the King or the Queen. For all the grace of the movements, though, this movie earns its "R" rating with fairly realistic depictions of medieval warfare. That didn't stop us from eating our popcorn, though.

This was a truly excellent film, and I am surprised it was not nominated for an Oscar.

Posted at 05:57 PM

Curse Of The Golden Flower: A Bill Wood Review

Review: The Curse of the Golden Flower or Please Don’t Eat the Chinese Daisies

It’s true I guess. Shakespeare ripped off the plots of ancient Chinese history to come up with Hamlet, King Lear, etc. Or, did screenwriters Yimou, Nan and Zhihong rip off Shakespeare? Actually, neither. This plot is totally based on an old Winston Churchill joke, as recently told to me by the Right Honorable Dr. Fitzgerald. Lady Astor: Sir Winston, if I was your wife I’d give you poison. Sir Winston: Madame, if I were your husband, I’d drink it. That pretty much sums up the plot. This movie was filmed in the Forbidden Palace. If they make one more visually epic film there they won’t be able to call it Forbidden any more. The interior scenes are in screamingly garish colors that remind one of a Chinese palace. Uh… The twisted plot, that exposes every character as unlikable and treacherous, becomes obvious in the first forty minutes, and then we wait an hour for the characters to catch up. Zhang Yimou hasn’t studied hip American movies. The plot must always twist in unforeseeable ways for a movie to appeal to American audiences. For example, Emperor Ping (Yun-Fat Chow) could have turned out to be one of those imperial eunuchs and therefore the three brothers would have been each other’s father except the Emperor’s first wife would be revealed to be a doctor he’d known for many years. Oh forget it. I’m going to get some of that black fungus tea my wife just bought for me. Speaking of Yun-Fat Chow, Pat and Ruth and I went out for some tasty Chinese food right after the movie.

Posted at 08:47 AM

Fri - December 15, 2006

Apocalypto: A Bil Wood Review

Apolcalypto. We got clipped-O.

I struggled, maybe not as much as Jaguar Paw, but struggled nonetheless to unearth some kind of meaning from this mesoamerican The Fugitive with the longest percussion track in history. My sense is that there really is no meaning other than money-extraction, but let me try. OK, it’s about Justice. If you do bad things to people, then bad things will happen to you. If you trick a friend into eating a tapir testicle or applying an irritant to his genitals, then something bad will happen to you. If your culture thinks a fun rave includes decortications and decapitations, then something bad this way comes to your culture, maybe something like a nasty infection from the genitals of another culture, which will also teach you the meaning of Zealous. If you do believe this Cancun-gone-bad predictofest is about Justice, then prepare to have your world crumble under an eclipse as you realize that a man who let forth a nasty but heartfelt drunken anti-Semitic rant is director of the number one box office holiday rip and it just happens to coincide with the Holocaust Deny-ers Conference in Iran. Funny? No, but that won’t deter the real target audience of this movie. That is the Pierced Youth of America Who Think They’re Tribal. You guys doan know nuthin bout piercin. Mel gonna show you how it really be. If you’re not already pierced don’t worry. As you watch the penultimate scene, you will suddenly FEEL pierced. And not in a good way.

Bill Wood

Posted at 06:28 PM

Tue - December 5, 2006

Casino Royale - A Review

After seeing Casino Royale, I feel disloyal.

After all, my favorite actor of all time is Sean Connery. My favorite movie of all times is The Man Who Would Be King, which Michael Caine has referred to as the one film which should be remembered after Caine's death..

Even with this bias, I have always enjoyed the James Bond films, through George Lazenby, to Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan.

However, in Casino Royale, I think Daniel Craig is the best Bond yet.

This film is really quite different from the previous Bond films. I had grown accustomed to kitsch in Bond films, in dialog and character names, for example. I was habituated to campy depictions of (at the time) futuristic technologies. In the current Bond offering, the kitsch and camp are gone.

In their place we have Ian Fleming's James Bond. There is less comedy, more drama. The villains and their motives are not that improbable in today's world. The depicted technology all exists; there is no device you might not see in Gizmodo.

However, with one line, I was reassured that the understated Bond humor remains. For me, that was embodied in one scene when Bond replies to a villain, "Allow me." I will be interested to see if that scene strikes the same chord for others.

Ian Fleming introduced Bond to the world with Casino Royale in 1952. For fun, I think I will add that to my reading pile.

Posted at 10:40 AM

Thu - October 19, 2006

"She Wore A Yellow Ribbon"

While watching this movie, I think I saw the origin of a cornerstone of the George W. Bush administration.

John Wayne plays Capt. Nathan Brittles. Whenever a subordinate starts to answer a criticism with the words, "I'm sorry, " Brittles cuts him off and says, "Never apologize. It's a sign of weakness." Soon, when Brittles starts to say that, the junior officers join him in chorus.

Unfortunately, to paraphrase Sen Lloyd Bentsen, Mr. Bush is no John Wayne.

Posted at 09:16 AM

Wed - July 12, 2006

Trivia Question du Jour

What movie begins with an interview granted to a reporter for the Shinbone Star?

Posted at 07:00 PM

Fri - June 9, 2006

Do The Math

From Salon

"Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy have turned into an item, at least according to the latest rumors from Los Angeles. A source tells People, 'They are very happy.' "

So between the two of them does it add up to one brain?

Posted at 04:43 PM

Tue - March 28, 2006

John Wayne Film Festival

We are having a bit of a John Wayne film festival at our house just now.

We started it off Saturday with "Rio Bravo ." Sheriff John Chance (Wayne) has thrown the brother (Claude Akin) of the local bad guy and power broker in jail, and must face all the hired guns with no help besides a drunk (Dean Martin), a cripple (Walter Brennan), and a young gunslinger (Ricky Nelson).

Elizabeth loved it, and asked for more. That led to a double feature on Sunday, "The Train Robbers" and "Tall In The Saddle." With "The Train Robbers," I noticed a recurring theme of the cast including a photogenic crooner, as Bobby Vinton played the young gun this time.

Last night's film was "The Searchers" , where the diabolical Comanche Chief Scar thought he would get the best of John Wayne. That'll be the day.

Tonight, however, we will see one of my all-time favorites. "Stagecoach". John Ford, Monument Valley, the whole deal.