Movie Review: Repo Men

I went to see Repo Men on opening day with my 20 year old son. We both had the exact same reaction when we walked out of the theater; “such a great concept, what a bummer it didn’t work”. It has all the trappings of a good sci-fi movie: dystopian setting, a comedic tone, the big bad corporation terrorizing the public. But this adaptation of Eric Garcia’s novel, “Repossession Mambo”, is messy and disjointed. It never develops this very nifty idea into anything more than a sci-fi equivalent of a dirty movie. In-other-words, you’ve seen it all before. Remy (played by the forever gorgeous - Jude Law) and Jake (Forest Whitaker) are “repo men” for “The Union"; a company that supplies the sick and dying with artificial organs, "artiforgs,", only to come and surgically reclaim them if you can’t make your payments (a new liver will run you about $750,000.00). Their version of Miranda Rights: “You have the right to an ambulance”. Funny. And I think there is a political message here: There must be a public option! Liev Schreiber does a great job as Frank, the ruthless head of the company. It is directed by Miguel Sapochnik (he’s British by the way). It is his first full length feature film and it shows. It is big and bold but it’s sloppy and lacks heart. Surprising because Sapochnik is responsible for the very clever and engrossing, The Dreamer; a fifteen minute short/thriller about a military clone who is heading for execution and escapes. It’s an inspiring and intelligent look at human emotion. It works because we care deeply about this clone. It’s amazing what can be accomplished in fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the 111 minute, Repo Men. Carice van Houten is interesting as Remy’s wife Carol, who is fed up with her husband’s barbaric line of work. Alice Braga (I Am Legend) steps in to take her place. Loaded with mechanical transplants, freeing her from the “reclaim system” provides one of the more noteworthy scenes in the movie. If you're a big Jude Law fan, see it when it comes out On Demand. If you’re not, skip it. You won’t be missing much.

Movie Review: Green Zone

Matt Damon is Roy Miller, a U. S. Army warrant officer in charge of finding weapons of mass destruction (WMD’s) in Iraq. We all know the United States declared war based on some very questionable “intelligence”. Miller, frantic and frustrated by his failed searches, is one of the few people in the movie who actually cares whether this so called intelligence is true or not. Green Zone is based on the bestselling nonfiction book by Rajiv Chandrasekara, "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone". The book is a tension filled page turner that I assume accurately depicts the horrifying confusion that characterized the beginning of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The movie is directed by Paul Greengrass who also directed (and wrote) the riveting, United 93. This is an excellent example of how two movies with known storylines and outcomes can succeed or fail at generating tension. United 93 was almost unwatchable because of its realism and the palpable anxiety created by Greengrass and the small group of relatively unknown actors (Khalid Abdalla is in both – he is Freddy, the one legged man in GZ and a terrorist in United). I never felt tension in the Green Zone even though a tremendous amount of effort went into attempting to create it. Maybe I’m just a little tired of the shaky-camera technique used instead of a good screenplay and good acting to create intensity. As an educational piece, Green Zone succeeds. We learn about the possible and probable, ins and outs of this charade carried out by the Bush administration to fool the world into believing Iraq was hiding WMD’s. What else is new? The movie looks real. Production started in Spain, was moved to Morocco and the filming was finished up in the UK. Kudos to the set designers and cinematographers for making this film look authentic. Damon is not at his best and the character is too close to Jason Bourne to let us forget it. Greg Kinnear is good as the sleazy Pentagon Intelligence Officer and orchestrator of this scam. If you want a visual for how this country got into the Iraq war, then the Green Zone will work for you. If you have read and heard enough, skip it.

p.s. The real Green Zone is the heavily guarded diplomatic/government area of closed-off streets in central Baghdad where U.S. occupation authorities live and work. It includes the main palaces of former President Saddam Hussein. The area houses the civilian ruling authority run by the Americans and British and the offices of major U.S. consulting companies.

A Prayer by Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace - that where there is hatred, I may bring love -that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness - that where there is discord, I may bring harmony - that where there is error, I may bring truth - that where there is doubt, I may bring faith - that where there is despair, I may bring hope - that where there are shadows, I may bring light - that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted - to understand, than to be understood - to love, than to be loved. For it is by self-forgetting that one finds it. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen

Movie Review: She's Out Of My League

Not a good movie. For starters, it’s a comedy and there are very few laughs. Unlike Superbad and Knocked Up, (movies it will be compared to), She’s Out of My League is strictly a one-joke movie and there are too many times when the one joke is not funny. Molly (Alice Eve), “a solid 10”, get’s romantically involved with Kirk (Jay Baruchel)," a solid 5". That’s the joke. The problem (other than it’s not that funny), she’s not a 10. She’s a 7. And we all have images of 10’s in our minds: Megan Fox, Halle Berry, Rachael Taylor, to name a few. You can see how this would present a problem. We overlook it if the movie is good. There are scenes where you will actually cringe because the script is so lame and the acting is so bad. Enough. Skip it.

p.s. Whoever came up with the term “moodle”, a man-poodle; very clever. But you see that bit in the trailer. By the way, I was very disappointed because I thought it had the potential to be cute. Baruchel, who appears to be rather one dimensional, can be funny and adorable in a 'Woody Allen' kind of way. But he needs better material. Woody is always working with supperior material.

The Academy Awards

The best picture won Best Picture: The Hurt Locker. I love when that happens.

To be continued.......

Movie Review: Alice In Wonderland

It’s great fun to walk into a movie theater, not expecting much, and walk out feeling totally entertained. It doesn’t happen often enough so when it does, I am very appreciative. Tim Burton’s, Alice In Wonderland is not a great movie but it is a good movie. What really saves it? It’s short. Clocking in at 108 minutes allows us to overlook some of its shortcomings and enjoy what it has to offer. It is an unusual take on the old story, keeping the major players but tweaking it a bit, ultimately making a different and timelier (not better), point. The screenplay has Lewis Carroll’s story as the back drop but the updated style of Linda Woolverton - who brought us the tough characters in Disney’s Mulan and The Lion King - bringing to the table something fresh and unique. This Alice is a film about a brave 19 year old girl who follows her dream and follows her heart and to do that she just may have to run away and slay a dragon (or a Jabberwocky). I think a lot of girls can relate to that. This girl can. The movie is a Tim Burton production, so you can rest assured, it will be crazy. He’s responsible for: Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, The Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd (he really loves Johnny Depp), to name a few. But the craziness works, as it always does for him, because the stories are strong and his cast always delivers. Alice is no exception. Mia Wasikowska (you’ll recognize her from HBO's In Treatment) as Alice is beautiful and as tiny as she is, exudes strength. By the end, she is like Joan of Arc. Helena Bonham Carter (Sweeney Todd, Terminator Salvation) is irresistibly wicked as the Red Queen. Crispin Glover as Stayne, is equally perfect as her sidekick. Their ridiculous lusty glances at each other are too funny. This is not Johnny Depps’ shining hour, but he is good. As The Mad Hatter, he uses one of his weird voices that, at times, is difficult to understand. You will be asking yourself, “what did he say?”, quite a bit but don’t worry, you’ll always know what’s going on. Tweedledee and Tweedledum (both played by Matt Lucas), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), the Blue Caterpillar (Alan Rickman) are the other familiar Wonderland residents; all great and beautifully rendered. In terms of the art direction and set design, Wonderland is no Pandora. The bar has been set very high; we have been spoiled by Avatar. In all fairness, Alice was not shot in 3D. Traditional cameras were used and the dimensional technology was added later. It shows. Visually, it pales in comparison to what we have come to expect from 3D. This is not a movie for small children. Some of the images are very scary. The story is sweet and strong enough to hold up on a TV screen, but see it in a movie theater. It’s fun, fast moving and you can talk about how it compares to the original story when you get out.

Movie Review: A Prophet (Un prophète)

The story of A Prophet is a fairly common one: A scared young man, who’s been in trouble his whole life, gets incarcerated for an insignificant crime and gets trapped in a system that really teaches him how to be a criminal. It traces the evolution of an illiterate French-Arab prisoner who uses his time in prison to learn how to read and write, add and subtract. What sets this movie apart from the others is that it delves a little deeper into prison culture. Nothing we haven’t seen before but it’s simply a closer look; how the laundry works and how the bread is passed around, the classroom and textbooks that are used. When we are provided with this type of material, we tend to look harder and it makes the movie more interesting. Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim - a newcomer!) is a disheveled, frightened, nervous young Muslim who becomes an errand boy behind bars for a Corsican mob boss (César). As he takes on more responsibility and advances his criminal career, Jacques Audiard, the director, focuses on the mechanics of prison life as well as how the not so innocent, but inexperienced, Malik responds to his changing status. It is his inexperience that provides the constant tension that keeps this film so intense. A Prophet also shows us Maliks’ reaction to his first plane ride, his first view of the ocean and the feeling of sand under his feet. This is as much a coming-of-age picture as it is an object lesson in how a poor, lost kid finds his place in the criminal world. Audiard does not neglect the blood and guts. We witness plenty of both, right from the start. The movie kicks into high gear early, when Malik is coerced into assassinating a snitch. This act of violence will haunt him and fundamentally, change him. When all is said and done, this is the essence of the movie. What happens to us when we are forced to do something that goes against our nature? A Prophet is a rare film about a young man, who is a survivor and prison becomes his proving ground. Tahar Rahim does a fantastic job conveying the innocents of this 19 year old even while he commits acts of brutality. The movie is down and dirty and not for the faint of heart, trust me. It is a French language, subtitled movie that is not always easy to follow. My one complaint (and pet peeve with so many movies), it’s too long. It is well over 2 hours. Fifteen minutes shaved off of this film and it would be better. If you can find it, see it.

p.s. A Prophet won The Grand Prix last year at The Cannes Film Festival and it is one of the nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at this years Academy Awards. It should win.