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It’s Torture

17 Oct

The tagline for the movie Rendition is “What if someone you love … just disappeared?” Well, it seems apt to paraphrase it for this review: What if a movie starring Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Meryl Streep … one that dealt with a topical subject like torturing suspected terrorists … one where the two apparent leads apparently fell in love off-screen … suddenly disappeared? I mean, did you know the movie was being released this Friday? I haven’t seen a single ad, article, TV spot, or heard anything about it. It’s almost as if the New Line doesn’t even want you to know it exists.

Well, you should thank them. Rendition is actually a pretty awful movie. Reese’s Egyptian husband is taken into protective custody and shipped off to North Africa after he’s suspected of being involved in a terrorist bombing. Jake’s on the team that does the torturing, but apparently he’s conflicted about it (I say apparently because he doesn’t show any emotion at all). Streep is the apparently Southern CIA agent who orders and then covers up these torture interrogations, known as extraordinary rendition. (Oh, and I say apparently in Streep’s case because it took about half the movie for me to realize she was speaking with a twang in her voice. It’s definitely the worst accent she’s ever done.) Peter Sarsgaard plays an aide to a Senator (Alan Arkin); apparently, Sarsgaard’s character went to school with Reese’s. (Again, apparently because they don’t look at all like they’re the same age — in fact, Sarsgaard is five years older than Reese.) Oh, and did I mention that Reese’s character is pregnant and at one point when she goes into labor after a tense confrontation (you knew that would happen, didn’t you?), someone actually stops to ask her, “Are you alright?” And all this is without mentioning the film’s chronology of events, which is totally confusing and jumbled up just to make it seem more “artsy.” (And if you’re interested, Reese and Jake never once act together here. It’s like they’re in two different movies.)

Reese’s husband is the one being tortured, but really, it’s the moviegoers who are enduring the worst of it. I’ve definitely seen worse movies, but this one surely ranks as one of the worst of this year. No wonder you’re not hearing anything about it. I give Rendition a D.

A Real Bang Up Job

14 Oct

Jesse James was like the evil Brad Pitt of his day, and with no US Weekly or Perez Hilton around to immediately document his exploits, his legend only loomed larger because of how stories of his crimes were passed on.

So it makes perfect sense that in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, James is played by the male half of Brangelina himself, Mr. Pitt.

In this very Terrence Malick–esque film, Robert Ford (the very good Casey Affleck) works his way into his idol’s gang and attempts to befriend James. But Ford learns that the legend and the man are two very different things, and soon he’s plotting against James to bring him down. Continue reading →

Get on the Train

6 Oct

You’ve gotta love Wes Anderson.

When he’s on, when he’s great — i.e.: Rushmore — he’s awesome.

About half of his new film, The Darjeeling Limited comes close to reaching the same comic heights of Rushmore (but in a very different way).

And the second half, well, it’s not bad, but it’s not as good either. Continue reading →

A Real Fixer-Upper

6 Oct

It’s no secret that I’m a George Clooney fan, and have been for a while.

So the night that Michael Clayton opened, I was there.

And I’m happy to say, the man does not disappoint.

Here he plays — well, he’s a lawyer, but he’s the kind of guy that high-powered law firms have on staff to fix things in their clients’ favors, not necessarily to get involved in the actual law.

But Clayton’s feeling off his game lately thanks to a bad business decision and a messy divorce, and he says he’s more of a janitor, cleaning up messes.

Either way, he gets enmeshed in a case involving supposed environmental giant U/North and in assisting a colleague who is losing his grip, he finds all is not as it seems with his firm’s prized client. Continue reading →

Will It Be a Cut Above?

5 Oct

Just wanted to say I’m totally digging the trailer for Sweeney Todd, the new Johnny Depp–Tim Burton collaboration coming to theaters this Christmas. Longtime readers of this blog know I love the show, and the film adaptation looks dark and cool, albeit less musical than the show itself (but perhaps that’s intentional for marketing purposes). I’m hoping Depp’s performance is less Jack Sparrow Gone Mad than the trailer appears, but given that he’s rockin’ another English accent, comparisons are easy to make. (HollywoodElsewhere.com says it’s Depp’s “best performance ever.”) Anyway, check out the trailer for yourself and let me know what you think.

This Movie’s Dope

4 Oct

If it’s November, you know it’s time to bring out the big guns. And with American Gangster you get some real big ones: Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington and director Ridley Scott.

Washington stars as Harlem drug king Frank Lucas, and Crowe is Richie Roberts, the detective working to bring him down.

Don’t be expecting a two-man show, though. This one belongs totally to Washington. I’m not usually a Denzel fan, but here he’s so cool, so charismatic, such a badass, so bigger than life, that he damn near steals the movie all for himself. How appropriate.

Not that Crowe is lacking. It’s just that by comparison, Washington has the more showy role. Continue reading →

Not Quite Fit for a King

30 Sep

Terrorism, at least on the surface, is a pretty senseless act.

It’s often marked by big, loud actions that do nothing more than disrupt an otherwise peaceful existence.

Though this analysis might be weak and simplistic, I find it an apt way to begin a review of The Kingdom because similarly, the movie is often big and loud, and on the surface, it’s pretty empty.

Kingdom tells how a group of FBI agents go to Saudi Arabia to investigate a terrorist bombing in an American compound by an Osama bin Laden wannabe.

It stars Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, and Chris Cooper, but none of those folks — not even my beloved Jennifer Garner — give a performance that makes much of an impact.

Jeremy Piven’s also in the film, but he seems totally miscast. He’s playing an ambassador, but I kept giggling every time he was on screen waiting for him to bust out an Ari Gold–ism.

Which is not to say The Kingdom is a bad movie necessarily. But it sets everything up and then in about 15 minutes it blows up into explosions, chases and gunplay, and then it’s over.

Essentially, it turns a timely setting into a convenient place for an action flick. And it’s a good last 15 minutes, but sort of a waste nevertheless.

So I’m giving The Kingdoma B-. Sorry, Jen.

Down in the Valley

30 Sep

I wish I could review In the Valley of Elah fairly, but watching it was not a great experience.

That said, this is a very good movie.

Tommy Lee Jones gives a fantastic, Oscar-worthy performance as the father of an Army private who has disappeared after returning home from Iraq. It’s one of the best performances I’ve seen from him.

This is a more introspective character and his performance doesn’t require him to bark orders or chew scenery.

Instead, he’s often quite heartbreaking — particularly in his phone conversations with his wife, played by Susan Sarandon. Continue reading →

Thanks for Nothing

29 Sep

To the two women who brought their two young children to the 2:50 p.m. showing of In the Valley of Elah at the AMC Boston Common theater today …

You suck. You really, really, really suck.

Why do you suck? Do I really need to tell you? Continue reading →

Not Wild Enough

25 Sep

I remember when I first heard the story of Chris McCandless. It was in 1997 on an episode of 20/20, where there was a segment about author John Krakauer’s book Into the Wild. Something about McCandless fascinated me and I went out soon after to buy Krakauer’s book. I read it, too. McCandless tapped into my young, idealistic sense of adventure and wanting more out of life. Ten years later, there’s still a part of me that yearns for such excitement.

All that is my way of saying I was pretty excited to see Sean Penn’s Into the Wild movie, especially because the reviews have generally been very good. So I’m happy to report that the movie is good. Mostly. True to McCandless, it doesn’t pander and takes its time telling the story of how, following his 1992 graduation from Emory, McCandless cut up his credit cards, donated his savings to Oxfam, changed his name to Alexander Supertramp, and headed out on the road to, as Thoreau said, “live deliberately.” There’s a natural, organic feel to the 2.5-hour movie, and Penn really wants to pay tribute to someone he considered a kindred spirit. To that end, the film was shot in many of the same locations that McCandless journeyed to, and rather than raise questions about McCandless’ motives and psyche — as Krakauer’s book did a lot of — Penn clearly takes McCandless’ side and makes you sympathetic to the character. Penn also knows the affinity people feel for the book, and there are all sorts of reveals that seem to make readers excited, starting with when McCandless first stumbles upon the abandoned bus. (Amazingly, the tragic site has become a morbid tourist attraction for McCandless fans.) It helps that as McCandless, Emile Hirsch is generally very good, capturing the alternately wide-eyed and yet fearful young man. In supporting roles, Catherine Keener and Vince Vaughn are also very good.

But where Penn stumbles, and where he lost me, was with some of the filmmaking choices. I didn’t love how McCandless would every now and then look right into the camera. That didn’t seem true to the character or the film. I also didn’t like the multiple points of view. Between McCandless’ letters, his voiceovers, his sister’s voiceovers, etc., you either didn’t always know who was actually telling the story or were distracted from it. Why the film is broken into four “chapters” is unclear. Also, there were a couple scenes that could have been cut. And there’s one scene late in the movie where Hirsch’s performance is so lame that it damn near threatens to derail the whole momentum of the film. In fact, it’s so bad that when McCandless does finally die (no spoiler there), I wasn’t sure if I still felt the sympathy for him that I felt earlier.

So I think I’m going to call Into the Wild a little bit of a letdown. It’s still generally, mostly, a good film, but I can’t really give it a stronger grade than a B.

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