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Reviews
Catch and Release (2006)
C&R - no real "spoilers"
CATCH AND RELEASE This movie is not a typical "Hollywood" style production, and that's a compliment. Most of the time it comes off as being very real, with only a couple of gratuitous frat boy antics by Kevin Smith's character being a distraction to that real feeling. I'm no fan of Smith's, and was prepared to thoroughly dislike his character and practice ignoring him to get to the rest of the film. In all fairness, I was pleasantly surprised that some depth thankfully came across in the character allowing him to blend into the story and even contribute to it most of the time. Enough about that. Even Julliette Lewis' whacky offbeat character was tinged with just enough tentativeness to take it from the realm of stereotype. Sam Jaeger's character melts into the background through most of the film so it was nearly a surprise to see it jump to the forefront for a bit.
The basis of the story is a good one, getting to know one of the main characters, who just happens to be dead, through his friends, his fiancé, and secrets that are revealed after his death. In the main the result is that you feel you've spent the day with some friends just hanging out and listening to their thoughts. The pace of the film "feels" pretty even, there are no outrageous special effects and although there are a few "ah ha!" moments and some very emotionally charged moments the overall result is close to seamless.
There was one glaring omission of an element that is usually present in this type of "real life" story involving a woman's trials and emotions, but that realization comes only in retrospect . There was no gal-pal foil to Jennifer Garner's lead character. You know, the one that innermost secrets and feelings are revealed to, the one that is the sounding board, the supporter that offers encouragement and sometimes sabotages whether meaning to or not. Garner's character is surrounded by males who supply that foil and thus give a new meaning to the dynamic. (Or maybe not so new insert obscure and slightly abstract reference to Will and Grace here -) In any event it shifts the perspective a bit and affords the opportunity to see things in a slightly different light.
Jennifer Garner is always amazing. Her innate sincerity seems to walk her steadily if not effortlessly through this role. And what a departure from Alias! Not even so much like 13 Going On 30. It's fun to note the contrast and how well she handles it. We won't talk about Electra, I'm thinking not her fault.
Now for what this is really all about. You know what it's about. Tim Olyphant. Talk about a departure! (although anyone who's even slightly familiar with his other work knows the capabilities) I'd be tempted to say Fritz is nothing whatsoever like Seth Bullock, probably because he's not. Yet there is a similarity, the ability to convey an attitude with just a glance. That comes from Tim Olyphant. Thankfully, Fritz has a lot more dialogue than Seth ever had even though he is one of the quieter characters in the film. You can read a page of dialogue in Tim's expression, and the content is unmistakable. You get hit with one of those big dark eyed looks and it speaks to you, loud and clear. I've said it a million times, but it couldn't be any more true, Tim is so present in whatever role he's playing that his characters always come at you in 3-D even if the feeling is a calculated understatement. What a joy to watch! In a love scene enough raw heat comes off this man to melt several surrounding city blocks.
Freedomland (2006)
A Waste of Time
FREEDOMLAND Samuel L. Jackson Julianne Moore
Novel and screenplay by Richard Price Directed by Joe Roth
(There are no real "SPOILERS" here the movie itself was rotten enough, thank you. All the same I'm not revealing anything important regarding this non-plot.)
The tagline for this movie is "The Truth is Hiding Where No One Dares to Look". That about sums up, because when the movie's over, the truth is still in hiding. The director sure as heck didn't bother, and that becomes blatantly apparent early on. Substituting dizzying camera action that goes on forever for any real feeling that might have been conveyed by the actors in an early scene between Jackson and Moore in the hospital set the stage for distraction. The actors may actually have been doing their jobs, I think maybe they were, but any emotion or information they're attempting to convey is too hard to grasp when you're being manipulated into feeling an overwrought chaos visually.
This overdone artifice crops up again just a few short minutes later when Brenda (Moore) catches glimpses of a figure through a crowd, then the figure as you might guess disappears. This scene could have been effective but for the fact that the "glimpses" continued way past the "we get it already" stage. It was overdone to the point of being burned to cinder. This lack of knowing when to stop is exactly the type of thing that draws you OUT of the story, the opposite of its intent.
Given that the above was preceded by a too-busy crowd scene where it was difficult to pick up the thread of intent in the Decalogue of one of the major characters and it leaves you with a what-the-heck-is-this-about impression that is difficult to put behind.
When you find yourself wondering about things like a cop stating he's been on the force for 22 years when you know that they can retire after 20 years then there's probably something wrong. There was another glaring disconnect of plausibility when Jackson takes Moore's keys out of her pocket for her because both of her hands are bandaged then she goes into the bathroom by herself and comes out 20 seconds later with her jeans neatly snapped and zippered. Her apparent recovery of use of her hands is nothing short of miraculous, but not believable.
Jackson (Shaft, Kill Bill, and working on 6 movies for 2006) suffered simultaneously from over directing and lack of direction. I suppose the same could be said of Moore (currently listed in 5 roles for 2006), who was basically stuck playing the same scene over and over. What could have been a saving grace in the form of plot anchor and story movement was Ron Eldard's (House of Sand and Fog and 17 episodes of ER as "Shep") portrayal of Moore's brother; sadly his character was under utilized and merely peripheral.
No, this movie tried to deal with two issues simultaneously and both suffered in the process. I'm assuming Richard Price's novel must have enjoyed some success for it to get to the screen, but this may be a case of the novelist-turned-screenwriter for his own book just not working. Couple that with director Joe (get a rope!) Roth's overuse of the cameraman, who I hope was at least given Dramamine, and you're left with a storyline as sadly lacking in focus as the scene from inside the car where the image was blurred supposedly for an effect that it sadly failed to convey. What IS noticeable is that the entire story is out of focus at this point.
No real sense of purpose materializes until about halfway into the movie when the march into Freedomland begins. Credit much of that purpose to Edie Falco's (The Sopranos) character who seems to have a discernible plan for getting to that elusive quality of truth that has previously been openly hinted at but never gelled. Finally, this issue of the story has some hope at resolution. That hope is dashed when the facts around the disappearance of the child are revealed but aren't wholly plausible. No four year old child is capable of thinking through the mechanism that this one supposedly employed. If the novel bought into this "resolution" as fact, then it was wrong as well, and that mystery is still unsolved in spite of the fact that we're supposed to believe otherwise.
There was not even a feeble attempt at resolving or even coherently delineating the other issue, however. The problem of prejudice in assuming that a black male is the logical suspect for any crime is bandied about ineffectively not only missing the larger issue but doing it a disservice in the process. Surely the novel didn't mistreat this issue in the same manner? One aspect of the movie centers on a black man being accused of committing a crime in a neighborhood that is 99% black. Why would you not see a black person as a suspect given the odds of that demographic? The movie tries to say that this is wrong, and fails miserably, thereby not only missing but also diluting the larger problem that exists in society and that's a darned shame. They could have made a point here, and they failed.
Director Joe Roth doesn't seem to have much experience under his belt other than being one of the producers of the 2004 flick, "The Forgotten", which perhaps not coincidentally starred Julianne Moore. The title of that movie may well become the mantra for his career if he doesn't get a clue before attempting anything else.
The producers wasted a lot of time and money on this one, don't waste yours.
Coastlines (2002)
Coastlines
COASTLINES, a Victor Nunez film Timothy Olyphant Josh Brolin Sarah Wynter Angela Bettis
(the following contains no plot spoilers, only commentary on performances and general tone)
Someone's certifiably insane. Why this movie was never released is inexplicable. It portrays a complex intermingling of the relationship between three people with some close to startling revelations that lead to the ultimate resolve of their feelings.
What is not surprising, having seen all of his post and previous work, is Tim Olyphant's flawless portrayal of Sonny Mann. Like his warm honey voice, Tim's seamless performance slides across the screen with a subtle but decidedly dangerous undertow. He plays Sonny quietly with a couple of notable exceptions when that unmistakably sensed volcano just under the surface throughout erupts, yet with an amazing control. It's Tim's control that conveys the feel of Sonny's quiet and determined desperation without skipping a beat and meshes his tentative yet confident tenderness effortlessly into the character. Tim doesn't let you escape knowing, with brilliant understatement at times, that Sonny has some already heavy baggage that gets a brick added to it. Tim is always accomplished at "throwing the looks" with those huge eyes, and being so completely present in any role he assumes that it reaches out, grabs you, draws you into the character, and absent any distraction from other actors draws you into the storyline simultaneously.
Credit is also due to Brolin and Wynters for the everyday believability seen in their characters. Angela Bettis's performance also falls neatly into that category, though I kept waiting for her to morph more completely into Juliette Lewis, but haven't bothered to figure out quite why that is yet - though it's probably a flashback to Lewis's character in Kalifornia.
The friendship between Sonny and Dave and his wife, Ann, is at first heartwarming but rapidly becomes disturbingly uncomfortable and tense, and oddly enough more so to the viewer than to the characters when the movie ends with a tentative resolve.
The almost too evenly paced plot is coherently interrupted five times, which is enough to save it from flatness; three times by physicals events involving Olyphant's character, and twice by dialog between Brolin and Wynter. The interesting thing is that the dialog shockers are at least as effective as the physical ones, and if Brolin's last deceivingly quietly delivered zinger in the storyline doesn't make you jump then you're in an alternate universe, or at the very least have the volume turned off.
The examined dynamics of love and friendship alone make this a worthwhile view. Then there's Tim Olyphant - more icing than any cake can handle.
The Legend of Zorro (2005)
Good entertainment
The Legend of Zorro (no spoilers)
Anytime you offer the premise of a nice looking guy in a black cape flying through the air reminiscent of my beloved vampire Lestat as penned by Anne Rice, you have my attention.
It strikes me as odd, though, that Antonio Banderas does seem seven years older, because I'm not, but hey! even though his hair was better in the first Zorro, he's still easy on the eyes, and oh
the boots and shirts can not be beat. All in all he has the essence of Zorro and that's what we're looking for here, folks. Catherine Zeta-Jones delivers attitude that's not too overwrought to be believable in context, and watching her get her petticoats dirty in order to kick some butt is delightful. Both Banderas and Zeta-Jones maintain the continuity of character from the first "Zorro" movie, which I believe is notable given the seven year interlude, and thanks are no doubt in order to director Martin Campbell for that accomplishment as well.
Perhaps the deepest ideas you can or should walk out of this movie with are that entertainment for entertainment's sake is not dead, that cupid bow lips for women never really went out of style, and that men who have hair on their heads should let it grow out past the buzz cut stage. C'mon, in the entirely superficial arena which I am by no means above of appreciating the male of the species, let's face it, even Josh Duhamel is more Josh Duhamel when he has longer hair and nothing, but nothing beats Tim Olyphant with fluffy hair.
Oops, I just drifted much the same as this movie drifts towards the middle. When the action slows to a stop the dialogue also becomes flat leaving you to search for a plot that seems non-existent at the time. Hey every movie this long needs an intermission, right? You'll easily recognize this one and if you're smart you'll use the time to get your popcorn and roam freely about the theater for a few minutes. Thankfully, it does regain its pace, so don't leave.
When the actors, both human and animal, at least appear to be more involved in generating the action than CGI's I can not only forgive, but also praise the stunt doubles and camera work. To my untrained eye and/or sense of reality the only scene that caused me to consciously think "CGI" was one involving the horse and a train.
Most of the deliberate cuteness in dialogue is easily forgiven, especially if you've viewed the first "Zorro" directed by Martin Campbell and thereby have come to expect it. There are even a couple of times when Banderas' asides deftly and thankfully last not-a-second-too-long. The Lee Marvin reference will not be lost on most of you, and the twist on it is absolutely great.
The only scenes in which the word "Oscar" came to mind were ones involving the horse. However, 10 year old Adrian Alonso, who had never spoken English prior to this role as Joaquim, is a definite scene stealer at times.
There's not a darned thing wrong with walking into a theater with the mission statement "entertain me" and having that objective fulfilled. An abundance of extremely well choreographed action scenes propel this movie to high marks on that entertainment scale.
Rent (2005)
Go ahead and "rent" out your brain for this one
Rent 135 min.
I can say with all the confidence in the world that it can't have been said in print more than 6,000 times about the Broadway production it's West Side Story meets The Rocky Horror Show, Tim Curry clone and all.
Forty percent of the movie was so incredibly, horribly bad as to be almost unbelievable with regard to the "huh?" factor. Twenty percent was right in the middle, doable, with even some of the corn and predictability factor being forgivable. Maureen's "art" just plain sucks, and is the most glaring example of the play not translating well to the screen. The remaining forty percent is what you go to see - stellar, touching, rock your socks off in both good ways and not so comfortable ways.
The story itself doesn't show a lot of muscle, although the thread of continuity is fair. Look to the vignettes for the worthwhile punches which, though they are sporadic, are definitely there.
There's an inherent risk in any movie where most of the dialogue is sung, that being if you don't groove on the song you won't have a feel for the scene and it will dilute the point. When it works, it works, when it doesn't, it doesn't, and this movie is a strange mixture of both. The times when what must have been the original "feel" of the stage version are captured are worth the trip. See it.
Derailed (2005)
Derailed? You bet it is...
Don't bother unless you can sit through an hour and 20 minutes of saying to yourself "I really, really, really can't believe anyone could be that stupid" just to get to 20 minutes of sort of, well maybe in another universe could have been, interesting action.
Oooh, don't give away the ending? Ooooh, big plot twists? Yeah, I don't think so.
If you think you have to see it, wait six months it'll be on Lifetime minus a couple cuss words. Whatever you do though, never, repeat NEVER try to get a copy of it through airport security, even an untrained dog could sniff this one out.
Don't waste your money oh to heck with that, don't waste your TIME; the title directly refers to the plot.
Afterthoughts...
Why the heck ya think I went to see it if not for Clive Owen? But it's horribly disappointing to see Clive kinda walk through this one with a stunned look after the rock it performance in King Arthur. I got the impression he just wasn't feeling this one so much, and small wonder. In all fairness there are a couple of times when it looks like he may be present in the role, but most of the time - no, it's just a practiced deer in the headlights stand in posture.
Vince Cassel does a great switch over between maniacal villain/suave villain but in his scenes with Cassel, Clive just seems to have a "what the heck?" demeanor, leaving Cassel to carry it. Melissa George and Addison Timlin actually engaged and gave him something to bounce off of a couple times, and even in one scene with Anniston it looked as though there was somebody home. Overall Anniston can't hold the interaction with any real in-the-moment presence, leaving Clive no choice but the "hello?" stance.
I can't really blame Clive in this one, however. The wannabe clever plot was an obvious flat-liner. Although the action kept pace fairly well, the "oh, come ON" factor gave the semblance of lack of direction, and maybe therein lies the rub. I think too much weight was given to the so called storyline, and neglected the actors, a couple of whom managed to find their feet, but overall the preoccupation with trying to deliver a plot twist that wasn't there left Clive adrift with no real foil. He can, and has, done better, he was just surrounded by lack of focus in this one.