Med City Movie Guy

"Amelia"

In the new biopic, “Amelia,” Hillary Swank plays the sassy sparkplug who was, among other things, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. She disappeared somewhere over the Pacific for reasons never confirmed though her last Facebook update, “I’m passing over a pretty coral island,” suggests something distracted her.

     As a little girl growing up in Kansas, Amelia Earhart was smitten with flight. In 1928, only a year after Lindbergh, she too crossed the Atlantic, first commanding a crew then later solo. Over the years, she promoted competitive flying, supported Women’s Rights, taught at Purdue University, wrote best-selling books and, of course, died circumnavigating the globe.
     “Amelia” tells this story, highlighting the conflict between Earhart’s love for flying and her love for and reluctant marriage to publisher George Putnam (Richard Gere). Along the way, she has an uncharacteristic indiscretion with Gore Vidal’s father (Ewan McGregor) and takes a great deal of personal inventory, topping that list is her disinclination to exploit her accomplishments to promote a line of luggage and clothing in order to fund her passion.
     It’s a pleasant film that skews towards older audiences, but with no intrigue or action and only a brief romantic triangle, “Amelia” never really gets off the ground.
    Gere is perfect as the doting husband and “Million Dollar Baby” Hillary Swank may just have another Oscar nod with her portrayal here, but the film lacks dimension. We get a few human moments when Earhart hawks waffle irons and takes Eleanor Roosevelt up for a spin, but we’re left hanging. Notwithstanding a passing suggestion that a boozing navigator was to blame for the Pacific disappearance, there is no controversy. Where is the mock indignation over Vidal sleeping his way to some vague position in Roosevelt’s administration? Where is the revisionism? “She gave a glance to another female pilot, y’know what that means!”
    None of that is here. We don’t miss it, not really, but we’ve been conditioned to expect artistic license and dramatic extrapolations in a biopic. What we get instead is something better suited for A&E which may explain why “Amelia” crashed and burned at the box-office.
    However, it wasn’t the competition that grounded the film (it was bested by someone else who apparently performed high: Michael Jackson), it was the subject matter. Though the Earhart “character” has been immortalized a few times on the big screen -- she walks out of the mothership in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” and plays an action hero in “Night at the Museum 2” -- a dignified and successful biography has been elusive.
    It still is.

  

2 Honks 
MPAA Rating: PG for some sensuality, language, thematic elements and smoking.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810038855/trailer

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"Michael Jackson's This Is It "

Read the review in the Post-Bulletin.

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Halloween Films

So you’ve outgrown the traditional Halloween slasher films like Friday the 13thand you’re afraid that after the new uber-frightening Paranormal Activity you’ll have to drive home checking the rear-view mirror every few seconds to make sure the back seat is still empty? Then check out these holiday DVD classics, any of which are a better alternative to donning an Obama mask and begging door-to-door for miniature Milky Way bars.

Tales From the Crypt (1972)
A classic horror anthology. In one short, Joan Collins is stalked by a maniacal Santa Clause, in another, a car-crash victim realizes he was only dreaming but awakes to find that he was dreaming while at the wheel and veers into an oncoming vehicle. The others are better: an old man harassed by a neighbor sends the bully a personalized Valentine and a memorable poem; a woman makes a poor choice wishing that her husband is brought back to life; and a blind man exacts clever revenge on a heartless hospital administrator.

Horror of Dracula (1958)
With apologies to Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee’s Count Dracula is probably the most ominous in this retelling of the classic Bram Stoker novel from Britain’s Hammer Films. Peter Cushing’s archetypal Van Helsing exquisitely counter-balances Lee’s evil omnipresence. Co-stars a gaggle of busty burial-shrouded women.

The Glass House (2001)
Leelee Sobieski, Diane Lane and Bruce Dern star in this Hitchcockian thriller about a brother and sister who are adopted by friends of the family after their parents die in a car crash. But are their benefactor’s motives as selfless as they seem? Unimpressive at the box office, but worth a midnight screening. Don’t confuse it with the 2006 follow-up.

Poltergeist (1982)
“They’re heeeeerrrr!” Steven Spielberg’s tale of a family who moves into a new home that just happens to be a portal to the afterlife is just as chilling the second time around. Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams are the parents who setout to retrieve their daughter from the cold grasp of a cadre of ghosts attracted to her youthful energy. Spooky, of course, but for my money, not nearly as disturbing as Robbie’s clown.

The Lady in White (1988)
Lukas Haas stars as a 9-year-old who, locked in his grade school’s cloakroom, encounters the ghost of a little girl killed there years earlier. It effectively modulates between suspense and mystery (and at times is downright unsettling) as the details of the crime unfold and mesh with town legend. Don’t be fooled by its reminiscent “Wonder Years” feel, this one is quite possibly the creepiest film ever made.

 

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"Law Abiding Citizen"

In the intense new drama Law Abiding Citizen, Gerard Butler plays a resourceful inventor who uses abject brutality to right the crimes against society. Memo to those of you who take two brochures from the “please take one” display rack: you had better start sleeping with one eye open.

     After his wife and child are savagely killed, Clyde Shelton (Butler) is understandably incensed. One of the perpetrators is sentenced to death, the other cops a plea offered by wunderkind prosecutor Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) who believes “some justice is better than no justice.” Shelton finds no consolation in that philosophy and believing neither punishment is commensurate with the crime, metes out his own.
     He makes quick work of the perps -- one’s lethal injection cocktail gets a little more kick than a bleeding-heart liberal might have served, the other is the leading man in his “this is what happens to bad guys” After School Special. Shelton doesn’t stop there. After he’s arrested for exacting vengeance, he targets the flawed judicial systems and those he believes were complicit in his family’s deaths: the defense attorney, the soft judge, legal assistants, and ultimately, the mayor. But how is Shelton orchestrating the hits from his prison cell?
     The revenge genre is one of the few guilty pleasures left. While we openly abhor violence and the cruel and unusual punishment of its purveyors, we somehow find it incredibly satisfying when Charles Bronson’s Paul Kersey blows away the scum of the city in Death Wish, a gender-neutral phenom, by the way, as Jodie Foster demonstrated in The Brave One. In both of those films, the system was impotent and the hero merely dispensed quick justice. Those films worked.
     Unfortunately, Law Abiding Citizen goes too far. We can empathize with Shelton’s grief, acknowledge the inadequacies of the judicial system, and even support the position Matthew McConaughey espoused in A Time to Kill that “the only problem with the death penalty is that we do not use it enough.” But when Shelton’s executions turn sadistic, he loses us.
     Plot holes don’t help, either. Midway through the film, we learn Shelton has some special government training that lets him kill from a distance -- a prison cell, for instance -- which makes this a sort of Silence of the Lambs only without the overhead of an excellent script.
     To be fair, Jamie Foxx does a fine job and the film is riveting and intense, but it takes a strong stomach to get past the violence, even when it’s justified.

2 ½ Honks
MPAA Rating: R for several good reasons.

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Memo to Steven Spielberg: Go Crazy!

Wanda Sykes cracked a good one last night. She told Jay Leno that to let Roman Polanski get a pass because he makes movies is “like telling Spielberg he can go out on a rampage." While this is not an appropriate forum to discuss Polanski’s two crimes -- the one he admitted and the other committed when he jumped bail -- Sykes’ follow-up comment does invite our response. She went on to say, "… and his movies weren't even that good!"

Each of us enters the theater with a prejudice; usually this one: “This is supposed to be good.” Our expectations are based on a reputation or a review, but rare is the critic who risks reporting that the emperor has no clothes. That would be the same as saying, “goodbye junkets and after-awards parties; hello blogosphere.” (“Hello blogosphere,” by the way!)

Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist are some of Roman Polanski's hallmarks. But would they (and his others) still be regarded as "good" were their credits to be sans the famous Polish director’s name?

I say “maybe.” Maybe we’ve been conditioned to regard something as better than we actually believe it is because that’s how we *think* we’re supposed to view those films which, apparently, are so beyond our sophistication that they’re also beyond our comprehension. “So *this* is what a good film is, dang! Mind if I spit my tobacco in your popcorn bucket, Jethro?”

What do you say? Which directors are over- or underrated? Which so-called “good” films do you think stunk? And which of those that the experts pooh-pooh’ed did you really like?

I’ll start. Roger Ebert gave Bruno 3 1/2 stars. That’s crazy talk!

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"Zombieland"

In the rabidly funny action comedy Zombieland, Woody Harrelson leads the last four humans on a cross-country road trip. Along the way, they’re beset by hoards of dazed, glassy-eyed people wandering the streets. A few are zombies, the rest of them are just trying to make sense out of the Nobel Peace Prize decision.

     Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) has laid out a few rules for surviving in a post-apocalyptic world where zombies prey on the few humans who remain. Rule #1: Cardio. “The fatties were the first to go,” he says, because they were too slow. Rule #2: “Beware of Bathrooms,” where you’re most vulnerable. The list goes on and so does he, trekking back to his home in Ohio (thus the nickname). His path crosses Tallahassee (Harrelson) and the two pair-up with no particular place to go except that one of them is desperately trying to find a Twinkie because, “You gotta enjoy the little things in life.”
     While pillaging a rural shop for supplies, they meet sisters Wichita and Little Rock (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) travelling in the opposite direction. The four agree to make a pilgrimage to a California amusement park because of a sentimental link the sisters harbor. What they don’t anticipate is when they turn-on the park lights, the neon attracts zombies from miles around and they soon find themselves at ground-zero of an epic battle.
     Forget everything you know about schlock zombie films like Vincent Price’s The Last Man on Earth or Night of the Living Dead. This one is the best. It’s hip, It’s clever. It’s quirky. Factor-in low expectations and you’re guaranteed to leave the theater tremendously satisfied.
     There is some gore, of course, but a lot less than you might imagine because the zombies are just a backdrop. What’s up front is the consummate buddy film, road trip, odd couple, love story, comedy and action film folded-into one wildly entertaining package.
     Harrelson is perfect and Eisenberg leverages his Woody Allenesque intellectual-skittishness exquisitely. Emma Stone, who stole the show in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Abigail Breslin, who vied for the title of Little Miss Sunshine in the Oscar-winning film of the same name, round-out the cast.
    Bill Murray’s cameo (and after-credits gag) may be the most memorable, but it is the dialog that gets the biggest laughs. For example, Harrelson responds to the proposed amusement park suggestion with, “Pacific Playland? That place totally blows!” Then, tones it down for the little girl’s benefit and adds, “ ... my mind!"
    Well, it cracked me up, anyway.

3 Honks
MPAA Rating: R for zombie horror violence/gore and language.

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"Whip It"

In Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, Whip It, the star of romantic comedy classics like The Wedding Singer and Fever Pitch reintroduces the rough sport of Roller Derby, albeit with updated safety gear like mouth guards, elbow pads, and H1N1 flu masks.

     Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) isn’t happy with the life laid out for her. From beauty pageants, her mother insists, you can learn a lot, “no matter what you go on to be in life.” Sage advice coming from a former competitor who went on to deliver mail so when a team of women skaters storm into a shop one day, Bliss finds her new heroes. “Nonsense,” says one of them, “put on some skates and be your own hero.”
    The teen resurrects her old wheels, tries out, and makes the team (big surprise), but quickly learns the bigger challenge is juggling the double life of good daughter/student/waitress and Roller Derby star.
     Barrymore rolled-out a winner with Whip It. It’s entertaining to not just Page’s young Juno fans, but to their parents who’ve harbored a dark secret all these years: Roller Derby was actually pretty cool. And while it’s not the first time the “sport” has come to the big screen, Raquel Welch’s 1972 Kansas City Bomber preceded it by a generation, it is the first to show its skaters as empowered rather than exploited … a precipitous overture that makes it a borderline girl’s-night-out film.
     Still, with an eclectic cast and colorful characters like Smashly Simpson, Rosa Sparks and Babe Ruthless you have to expect something out of the ordinary. Which is precisely what we get in this genuine film that is probably as polished as Barrymore’s tenure in Hollywood yet never seems to lose that “indie” feel.
     Page, of course, carries the entire film and except for an odd underwater romance is quite adept. Barrymore, the small bits we get of her as a “Hurl Scout” anyway, is a natural. But for Kristen Wiig -- who’s had only small roles just about every film from Knocked Up to Adventureland -- there is finally some red meat. She’s a skater, a single mom, a mentor, and in many ways, a rudder for the film.
     Alas, Whip It was body-slammed at the box office. Probably because it’s simply not the kind of film moviegoers flock to. That says less about Barrymore’s first-born than it does about the competition (Zombieland) which moviegoers flocked to. That’s OK. Whip It will eventually gain traction and, like a jammer on the business-end of a whip, roll past the competition.

3 Honks
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content including crude dialogue, language and drug material.

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