Quite honestly, I don’t know where to start with Homer & Eddie. The DVD case makes it out to be another 80s road trip comedy. Far from it, Homer & Eddie feels like David Lynch taking on the Americana of Forrest Gump. There’s a threatening surrealism lurking just underneath the surface of the film, or maybe I’m reading into it too much. Nonetheless, Homer & Eddie is an odd drama, a feel-bad story about two misfits who embark on a repetitive and largely aimless journey.
Homer Lanza (James Belushi) was rendered mentally challenged by a baseball that hit him in the head when he was a child. Eddie Cervi (Whoopi Goldberg) is a sociopath with a muddled family history and a fatal secret. Homer sets out to visit his father, who is in the hospital dying of cancer. But when Eddie finds Homer sleeping in her car in a junkyard,...
Homer Lanza (James Belushi) was rendered mentally challenged by a baseball that hit him in the head when he was a child. Eddie Cervi (Whoopi Goldberg) is a sociopath with a muddled family history and a fatal secret. Homer sets out to visit his father, who is in the hospital dying of cancer. But when Eddie finds Homer sleeping in her car in a junkyard,...
- 4/15/2009
- by Mark Zhuravsky
- JustPressPlay.net
Opens Friday, March 7
As the president prepares the nation for war, the Bush administration could not have asked for a more beneficent combat movie than "Tears of the Sun". The Antoine Fuqua-directed action thriller sends Bruce Willis into the African jungle, leading a squadron of compassionate warriors, conscience-stricken with every death and tenderhearted toward every mistreated villager. Willis plays a Navy SEAL lieutenant who chooses to defy orders and significantly alter a mission in order to save a handful of refugees in the midst of an ethnic cleansing. When asked by his own men about his decision to play hero at the risk of their mission, he says, "When I figure it out, I'll let you know." Apparently, he never does.
Fuqua mixes the heroism, tears and courage with enough taut suspense and action to appeal to male audiences of all ages. Sony is backing the slick production with plenty of TV spots and marketing support to win high awareness and ensure solid numbers when the film opens next weekend. The downside is that Willis is no longer a sure thing at the boxoffice. Helping matters is Monica Bellucci as a Doctors Without Borders physician whose blouse is never buttoned more than halfway up, delivering as much sex appeal as a combat movie will allow. Final numbers should be in the middle range.
"Tears" imagines a revolution breaks out in Nigeria, spurring atrocities and the assassination of the ruling family. (As that troubled country has returned to elected civilian rule, it isn't clear what the filmmakers mean by a "ruling family.") The U.S. government orders Willis and his SEALs to parachute into the remote jungle to retrieve the good doctor, a priest and a couple of nuns. None of these Westerners is willing to go, but Willis tricks Bellucci into believing he will also rescue her ambulatory hospital patients.
The helicopter can't accommodate the lot, of course, but his mission is nearly complete when he shoves the angry doctor into the chopper without her patients. Then halfway back to the aircraft carrier, after the choppers fly over Bellucci's hospital devastated by rebels, Willis abruptly changes his mind and has the helicopters return for the sick villagers.
Sending as many natives as possible back in two choppers, he and his squad now must escort the remainder as well as Bellucci -- her presence on ground making absolutely no sense -- to the border of Cameroon. Normally, this would require nothing more strenuous than a cross-country hike. But writers Alex Lasker and Patrick Cirillo decide that hidden among the villagers is the sole surviving heir of the murdered Nigerian rulers, whom rebel troops want to kill at all costs.
All of this extracurricular activity causes near apoplexy in Tom Skerritt, Willis' commanding officer. Skerritt makes constant phone calls to his suddenly rebellious lieutenant, always dialing up when he is topside, screaming into the phone as aircraft take off and land.
Much of the action is arbitrary and predictable. The best moment comes not with sound and fury but absolute silence as enemy soldiers creeps past the villagers' position in the nighttime jungle. The movie's many emotional moments do wear thin, though. John Wayne war movies were seldom this sentimental. The nadir is attained when a black SEAL declares "those Africans are my people, too." Did he really have to say that?
Cinematographer Mauro Fiore lets the flora and fauna of the Hawaiian locations do much of the work. Naomi Shohan's set design, in a location far from Africa, looks realistic enough. Hans Zimmer supplies a fairly traditional action-movie score though with a pleasing hint of African percussion.
TEARS OF THE SUN
Columbia Pictures
Revolution Studios presents a Michael Lobell/Cheyenne Enterprises production
Credits:
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Screenwriters: Alex Lasker, Patrick Cirillo
Producers: Michael Lobell, Arnold Rifkin, Ian Bryce
Executive producer: Joe Roth
Director of photography: Mauro Fiore
Production designer: Naomi Shohan
Music: Hans Zimmer
Costume designer: Marlene Stewart
Editor: Conrad Buff
Cast:
Lt. A.K. Waters: Bruce Willis
Dr. Lena Kendricks: Monica Bellucci
"Red" Atkins: Cole Hauser
"Zee" Pettigrew: Eamonn Walker
Kelly Lake: Johnny Messner
"Slo" Slowenski: Nick Chinlund
"Silk" Owens: Charles Ingram
Capt. Rhodes: Tom Skerritt
Running time -- 118 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
As the president prepares the nation for war, the Bush administration could not have asked for a more beneficent combat movie than "Tears of the Sun". The Antoine Fuqua-directed action thriller sends Bruce Willis into the African jungle, leading a squadron of compassionate warriors, conscience-stricken with every death and tenderhearted toward every mistreated villager. Willis plays a Navy SEAL lieutenant who chooses to defy orders and significantly alter a mission in order to save a handful of refugees in the midst of an ethnic cleansing. When asked by his own men about his decision to play hero at the risk of their mission, he says, "When I figure it out, I'll let you know." Apparently, he never does.
Fuqua mixes the heroism, tears and courage with enough taut suspense and action to appeal to male audiences of all ages. Sony is backing the slick production with plenty of TV spots and marketing support to win high awareness and ensure solid numbers when the film opens next weekend. The downside is that Willis is no longer a sure thing at the boxoffice. Helping matters is Monica Bellucci as a Doctors Without Borders physician whose blouse is never buttoned more than halfway up, delivering as much sex appeal as a combat movie will allow. Final numbers should be in the middle range.
"Tears" imagines a revolution breaks out in Nigeria, spurring atrocities and the assassination of the ruling family. (As that troubled country has returned to elected civilian rule, it isn't clear what the filmmakers mean by a "ruling family.") The U.S. government orders Willis and his SEALs to parachute into the remote jungle to retrieve the good doctor, a priest and a couple of nuns. None of these Westerners is willing to go, but Willis tricks Bellucci into believing he will also rescue her ambulatory hospital patients.
The helicopter can't accommodate the lot, of course, but his mission is nearly complete when he shoves the angry doctor into the chopper without her patients. Then halfway back to the aircraft carrier, after the choppers fly over Bellucci's hospital devastated by rebels, Willis abruptly changes his mind and has the helicopters return for the sick villagers.
Sending as many natives as possible back in two choppers, he and his squad now must escort the remainder as well as Bellucci -- her presence on ground making absolutely no sense -- to the border of Cameroon. Normally, this would require nothing more strenuous than a cross-country hike. But writers Alex Lasker and Patrick Cirillo decide that hidden among the villagers is the sole surviving heir of the murdered Nigerian rulers, whom rebel troops want to kill at all costs.
All of this extracurricular activity causes near apoplexy in Tom Skerritt, Willis' commanding officer. Skerritt makes constant phone calls to his suddenly rebellious lieutenant, always dialing up when he is topside, screaming into the phone as aircraft take off and land.
Much of the action is arbitrary and predictable. The best moment comes not with sound and fury but absolute silence as enemy soldiers creeps past the villagers' position in the nighttime jungle. The movie's many emotional moments do wear thin, though. John Wayne war movies were seldom this sentimental. The nadir is attained when a black SEAL declares "those Africans are my people, too." Did he really have to say that?
Cinematographer Mauro Fiore lets the flora and fauna of the Hawaiian locations do much of the work. Naomi Shohan's set design, in a location far from Africa, looks realistic enough. Hans Zimmer supplies a fairly traditional action-movie score though with a pleasing hint of African percussion.
TEARS OF THE SUN
Columbia Pictures
Revolution Studios presents a Michael Lobell/Cheyenne Enterprises production
Credits:
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Screenwriters: Alex Lasker, Patrick Cirillo
Producers: Michael Lobell, Arnold Rifkin, Ian Bryce
Executive producer: Joe Roth
Director of photography: Mauro Fiore
Production designer: Naomi Shohan
Music: Hans Zimmer
Costume designer: Marlene Stewart
Editor: Conrad Buff
Cast:
Lt. A.K. Waters: Bruce Willis
Dr. Lena Kendricks: Monica Bellucci
"Red" Atkins: Cole Hauser
"Zee" Pettigrew: Eamonn Walker
Kelly Lake: Johnny Messner
"Slo" Slowenski: Nick Chinlund
"Silk" Owens: Charles Ingram
Capt. Rhodes: Tom Skerritt
Running time -- 118 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
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