American Gangster - Review

Watching the trailers for Ridley Scott’s American Gangster it’s hard not to be reminded of Scorsese’s The Departed, the most recently successful Hollywood spin on the world of mobsters versus cops. But if there’s any similarity between the two films at all, it ends with the advertisements. Where Scorsese’s film is intense, entangled, and full of pathos Scott’s film is calculating and flat. American Gangster is a procedural more than anything; a basic, by the numbers execution of a standard good cop versus sympathetic mob boss drama.

It’s the story of two men on opposite sides of the law. On one side is Frank Lucas; an enterprising and loyal lacky to Harlem’s top kingpin. When his mob boss drops dead, Frank uses the lessons his gangland mentor taught him to take over the massive heroin trade in New York, shipping drugs from Thailand inside the coffins of soldiers. It’s the middle of the Vietnam war, and there’s plenty of body bags to go around. On the other side of the line is Jersey cop Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), a doggedly honest detective and drug enforcement officer surrounded by a force full of corrupt policemen. Richie is out to end the drug trade by cutting off its head, and the clues he follows are gradually leading him towards Frank.

The irony of both characters is that their professional and personal lives are flipped. Frank does dishonest things for a living, but in his personal life lives by a strict moral code of humility, honesty, and family. Richie is a painfully honest cop, but his personal life is a garbage dump of lies, failed relationships, and insecurities. Playing those two contrasts against each other could have resulted in something interesting, except American Gangster doesn’t let you get a solid feel for either character and since they never actually interact with each other until the end of the movie, that contradiction in who these two men are never plays as much of a factor as it could or should have.

Though we learn a lot of facts about Frank and Richie, we never get inside their heads. Crowe and Washington give typically great performances, yet they’re limited by the surprisingly slim substance of Gangster’s script. We see plenty of both men at their jobs but for Steve Zaillian’s script, more often than not really understanding them is reduced to showing us which beautiful naked woman Richie is sleeping with or flashing to the nice things Frank has bought his mother. For all the time we spend with both Frank and Richie, the film never seems to get any deeper into why they are who they are than that.

Still, the movie’s engaging when we’re watching Frank run the perfect crime syndicate or following Russell Crowe as he attempts to uncover Frank’s dealings with single-minded determination. Early on the movie drags when Scott struggles to squeeze several years of plotting into a few minutes, but once the movie settles down into the day to day to day operations of cops and peddlers it finds its rhythm. Any attempt to compare American Gangster with the legions of classics already submitted to the mobster genre will find Ridley Scott’s new film lacking. However, any Ridley Scott fan who goes in with lowered expectations is likely to leave the theater at least a little entertained, even though two and a half hours is a bit excessive for a film that’s barely better than a mildly acceptable diversion.

Bee Movie - Review

DreamWorks may have messed up on the title for Bee Movie. Oh they got it half right, it is about bees after all, but it’s not so much a movie. Instead, Jerry Seinfeld has jotted down a few fairly obvious bee observations and then paid a bunch of incredibly talented artists to animate them. There’s not much of a story to string those observations together and what story there is, well it’s bee-buzzingly silly.

Actually, silly may be a somewhat generous term for what’s going on here. Stupid may be a better one. It starts rationally enough, with the movie taking us inside the secret lives of bees inside a bee hive. Barry B. Benson (voiced by Jerry Seinfeld) is a newly graduated bee about to select the job he’ll do in his hive, a job he’ll do until the hive quite literally works him to death. Barry, unlike all the other buzzing bugs around him, finds this prospect somewhat unsatisfying and the film seems on the verge taking its audience down the path of some grand social statement about corporatism and working a life of drudgery for very little reward. It’s also sort of funny, with the Seinfeld co-written script making cute bee related gags, about on par with the sort of corny gunk you’d see on an episode of The Flintstones, only with a much funnier, wry, Seinfeld twist.

Then in a moment of pure cinematic exhilaration, Bee Movie tosses all of that as Barry flies out of his hive for the first time into a wide open world; a world where quite literally everyone is certifiably insane. I’m not just talking about insane from the point of view of a bee; I’m talking all American, grade “A” crazy. Bee Movie stops making any sense. Barry starts talking to a human named Vanessa (voiced by Renee Zellweger). Vanessa reacts appropriately, with utter shock and amazement. They form a relationship, and Barry talks her into helping him sue honey manufacturers for stealing bee honey. That’s right, this is a courtroom movie. With almost no effort Barry is suddenly arguing before a human judge and jury, who unlike Vanessa, are surprisingly accepting of the notion that bees are intelligent and can not only talk, but make a pretty mean legal argument. Before long even Vanessa has lost her head, and she dumps her boyfriend in favor of dating Barry. I guess she has a thing for stingers.

Bee Movie goes from cute and funny to bizarre in an instant. The film’s universe is inconsistent, topsy turvey and I’m not sure what it’s trying to do. It keeps on making those giggle-worthy little bee-related observations, and they’re enough to keep it entertaining, but the story doesn’t make sense by any standard. It morphs from the bee version of Toy Story into some sort of wacky Looney Tunes cartoon, complete with John Goodman doing a Foghorn Leghorn impression as opposing council and an erratic plane crash sequence governed by the laws of Bug Bunny-style physics. I love the Looney Tunes, but Bee Movie needs to pick a tone and stick with it. One minute it’s a more realistic, epic animated film in the vein of Ratatouille, the next it’s Space Jam. Any pretense of sensible plot progression is abandoned in order to put Barry in common human social situations where he’s given the opportunity to insert a randomly funny comment on human/bee relationships. The result is a lot of great Seinfeldian bee jokes, but they come at the expense of more basic things, like say logic.

The baffling thing about Bee Movie’s wildly weird behavior, is that it’s hard to figure if the script is simply that bad, or if there’s some sort of wicked genius at work here. Yes the film is completely illogical and absolutely all over the map, yet I think maybe it’s on purpose. It’s as if the Bee-team said screw all that normal stuff and let’s just focus on entertaining ourselves by having a lot of fun with bees, doing whatever the heck we want. And so they did. The grand, uplifting theme about individuality and grabbing your dreams hinted at in the beginning is a red herring that never goes anywhere, as is any other sensible thing in the film you might grab on to. Bee Movie is what it is: an amiable black and yellow collection of rather silly, mildly amusing jokes thrown together with some great animation and a few pulse-pounding bee-flight sequences. Utterly ridiculous? Absolutely. But maybe that’s not so bad.

Saw IV - Review

You can expect a few things from a Saw movie. To quote the franchise’s serial killer, Jigsaw, there will be blood – lots of it. The franchise definitely doesn’t hold back on the gore factor, which is kind of cool in an era where so many movies shoot for the PG-13 crowd. There will be lots of indulgent traps - well planned out machinations that are always timed perfectly to deliver a killing blow to the poor victim at just the right time. Finally, there will almost always be hyper-edited sequences during heightened plot moments, leading into some sort of dizzying wrap up sequence that explains all the twists and turns of the movie by replaying the last hour and a half in just under two minutes. The only thing missing is the old guy yelling, “And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you meddling kids,” to make it a perfect Scooby-Doo plot device. Yet, the movies can be a fun, albeit mindless form of entertainment.

All of the above holds true for Saw IV, the latest chapter in the ongoing Saw franchise. The movie opens with coroners performing an autopsy on Jigsaw himself (Tobin Bell) and, true to the producer’s word, the killer is unquestionably dead. To keep there from being any lingering doubt, the first gore of the movie comes from watching as Jigsaw’s skull and chest cavity are opened in a graphic yet precise sequence. Eventually this leads to the beginning of the movie’s story: a trademark mini-cassette tape is found inside the corpse that proves that, although the killer is dead, the games aren’t over with.

This time the action follows Detective Rigg (Lyriq Bent), who has survived life as a supporting character in the previous two Saw films only to become the target of Jigsaw’s game himself. While Rigg is dealing with a gambit of traps and games, two visiting FBI agents are on a separate course, attempting to figure out how Jigsaw is still operating considering his ex-living status along with the death of his assistant Amanda. The solution: Jigsaw had more than one helper, and the remaining aid is still on the loose.

Standard Saw fans may be a little disappointed in the latest installment because the traps and gore seem to take a back seat to plot and exposition. Instead of just laying on the traps that parallel the moral shortcomings of those involved, the movie offers a glimpse behind the method and madness of Jigsaw and explains how the killer was created. Unlike poor backstories like Hannibal Rising and Rob Zombie’s Halloween, the story doesn’t demystify Jigsaw as much as just explain how a brilliant architect named John became the killer, extending the mythos around the character.

The flashbacks explaining Jigsaw’s past (courtesy of the FBI agents interrogating his ex-wife) intertwine beautifully with Rigg’s storyline. Instead of being placed in different traps like Jigsaw’s normal victims, Rigg is exposed to other victims in traps or forced to put them in the traps after seeing the killer’s rationale behind the selection of prey. It’s an interesting way to give some insight to both the audience and the detective, although that doesn’t make some of the traps any less disturbing. As always, the creativity of the killing devices makes me question the sanity of letting the movie’s writers run free.

As creative as the traps might be, the one downfall for the movie is the writing. I can get past the intense gore at times and the seizure inducing editing of the film at key moments, but some of the dialogue of the movie is absolutely horrific. Even worse, the writers feel the need to point out that Rigg is being indoctrinated into Jigsaw’s mentality throughout the picture. Frankly, that sort of thing could have been left unsaid, and yet the FBI Agents offer it as part of their investigation at every crime scene.

As Saw movies go, Saw IV is probably one of the better in the series, although the plot-heavy story might turn off those who look to the franchise just for the interesting slayings. Then again, I’ve always been intrigued by the moral justification Jigsaw offers for his killing, and it’s great to see that expanded without demystifying the character to a point of banality like other franchises. If we must get a new Saw movie every Halloween, at least the franchise is evolving and not just regurgitating the exact same formula every year. Eventually, enough will be enough, but if Saw keeps this kind of storytelling up, it could have another few years ahead of it before getting old.

Battlestar Galactica: Razor - Review

Battlestar Galactica is already the most cinematic show on television, so it makes an awesome kind of sense for the Sci-Fi channel to port their most talked about series over to theaters. Unfortunately, they’re not doing it by having their parent company Universal turn BSG into a feature film, but rather by simply projecting an extended length episode of the television show in cinemas.

Tonight I was there for the theatrical debut of Battlestar Galactica: Razor; a summer, tide audiences over until the new season, made for TV movie set in the BSG universe. It debuts on television November 24th, but tonight on November 12th, for one night only, it played in movie theaters around the country for free. It was free because it was sponsored by Microsoft, as anyone who was there can attest, since the film was interrupted right in the middle for a series of rather annoying, Xbox advertisements. Though it was nice of Microsoft to make the event possible by sponsoring it, they probably weren’t doing themselves any favors by interrupting Razor, since no one could hear the mid-feature commercials over all the booing. Really MS, the ten minutes of Xbox commercials before and after the movie were more than enough. We put up with it on television, but sitting in a movie theater it felt all wrong.

Commercial interruptions aside, for all the time we BSG fans spend talking about how theatrical the show is at home on our plasma televisions, it lost a little something projected up on that big screen. All the fast zoom outs and handheld cameras, which do so much to make the show seem bigger on our TVs, don’t exactly work in a movie theater. Weirdly, BSG seemed more cinematic sitting at home in my living room.

That’s not to say watching it in a movie theater wasn’t a worthwhile experience. Razor is a solid entry into the BSG world (if not exactly an accessible one), and seeing it with a big, in to it group like that is the best way to watch just about anything. Sure, maybe Razor would never work as a stand alone movie. It’s designed primarily to cater to the already in Battlestar faithful, and that’s the way it should be. This isn’t really a film, more a long television episode masquerading as one to let us BSG nerds live out our fantasy that some day maybe we’ll get a proper BSG feature. And so we put on our “Frack Me” t-shirts, printed out our free online tickets, lined up, and filed in.

Though the show lost something visually in being thrown up on an oversized screen, it held on to all the usual dramatic tension any average Battlestar episode brings to bear. And that’s really what Razor is, a longer than normal BSG episode focused on ancillary characters. It’s a story told in two parts. Part one is set some time in Season 2 and follows Lee Adama as he takes command of the Pegasus and hires a new XO named Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen), a former favorite Lieutenant of the ship’s deceased commander, Admiral Helena Cain. Part two is a flashback to ten months earlier, and it lets us see a day we’ve always wondered about, by following around Kendra Shaw during Cylon’s first attack Earth, through the Pegasus’s escape, and on to their fight for survival as Admiral Cain must make hard decisions about who lives and who dies. If you’ve been following along with the show, then you already know she makes a lot of pretty bad calls.

In the thick of everything is Kendra Shaw, a new character to the BSG universe, created specifically for Razor. She’s a tortured hero in the mold of Kara Thrace, haunted by the memory of what she did under Admiral Cain while still utterly convinced that Cain’s barbaric choices were essential to their survival. In the past Kendra watches things fall apart on the Pegasus, in the present she works with Lee Adama to lead the crew of the Pegasus on a rescue mission. Surprisingly, newcomer Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen holds her own against the show’s seasoned cast members rather well, sliding right into their universe of tortured BSG characters as if she’s an old familiar. I’d rather be watching more of James Callis’s Baltar, but if we have to put up with a replacement character then they could have done a lot worse than Kendra.

Razor isn’t essential to the overall Battlestar Galactica storyline, but it does an admirable job of filling in minor gaps. It’s stocked with geeky little revelations of the kind any true BSG fan will appreciate. Unfortunately, true BSG fans have been spoiled by a show with pretty high standards, and will no doubt recognize that Razor is maybe a notch below some of Battlestar’s best regular season work. Perhaps it’s because it’s focused on an ancillary character instead of one of the show’s regulars, but I think it suffers simply because parts of it feel tacked on. Razor comes off like something that was written not because they had a great story to tell, but because they had a lot of those geeky little filler details they wanted to convey while using as few members of the regular BSG cast as possible.

Whatever minor flaws there may be in the feature or in its theatrical presentation, I don’t think Battlestar fans will be unhappy. Razor is worth watching simply because it has Battlestar Galactica stuck in front of it, and we’ve got a long wait until the show returns with new episodes. Razor is filler, but good filler. If you’re fan, you’ll leave full to the brim on situational tension and engrossing character drama. If you’re not, then there’s absolutely zero chance you’re reading this review. Go watch American Idol. Frack you.

Dan In Real Life - Review

Maybe you look at that poster for Dan In Real Life and you wonder what the heck to make of it. Is this a drama? Is it a comedy? Why on earth is Steve Carell in this and why does he have his head smashed up against a stack of pancakes? Ignore all those nagging questions. Forget whatever preconceived notions you might have from those pointless Hollywood trailers. Go in as blank as possible and trust that once you’ve seen it, everything will make wonderful sense, even the pancakes.

Evan & Jaron have a great song that features the lyrics, "the furthest distance I’ve ever known is from my head to my heart." That’s a particularly apt phrase for Dan, a man who daily uses his newspaper column to dispense pearls of sincerest wisdom to besieged parents, but who can’t seem to find his way with his own three daughters. Though he’s as dedicated a father as any child could hope for, since his wife’s death he has struggled to translate all that knowledge from his head to where it really counts: his own life. It’s a condition that everyone around him seems to notice, including his quirky, supportive extended family, but Dan remains in complete denial. Until the day he meets Marie.

A chance encounter at a bookstore brings Dan (Steve Carell) and Marie (Juliette Binoche) together, and an innocent morning conversation turns into something he never expected: a second chance at love. Equally as taken with him, Marie hesitantly offers her phone number with no promises, warning that she’s just started a new relationship. Dan heads back to the cabin where his aforementioned extended family is enjoying a traditional group vacation. They’re all abuzz over the arrival of Dan’s brother Mitch’s (Dane Cook) new girlfriend: Marie.

Faced with that particular kind of plot revelation, I would usually balk. The “two-brothers-one-girl” bit has been done to death. But even when a set up has been used again and again, there’s always room for it to be done in a fresh and enjoyable way. Granted, it rarely occurs, but the possibility is there, and Dan In Real Life does everything right to make it happen. Yes, the film has its predictable moments, but, when the performances are so convincingly genuine, and disarming, even those anticipated twists are enjoyable.

Dan in Real Life offers another refreshing twist by refusing to pander. It doesn’t resort to either stock comic relief or dramatic tear jerking. There are no solely funny scenes or sad scenes because for once they’re blended together the way they should be. As the title suggests, this is Dan in real life, and just like real life there’s humor in tragedy and bitterness in joy. That blended balance requires a unique actor to play the lead, and it’s exactly that which makes Steve Carell the perfect man for the job.

There’s been a lot of concern over whether or not Carell can pull this part off. He’s established his position as a master of comedy and proven himself to a lesser extent with his semi-dramatic role in Little Miss Sunshine. This however, is his real test to see if he can carry a non-comic lead well enough be taken seriously. I’m pleased, and more than a little surprised, to say that he passes the test with flying colors. I expected him to do well, but nowhere near the success he rates as Dan. Turns out he’s a pretty well rounded actor, easily breaking away from the stereotype mold that Hollywood is so quick to stamp on him. Not only can he strike that precarious balance of drama and comedy, he can do it while playing the guitar. Better, he knows how to weave himself into scenes with others without overpowering his cast mates.

And it’s a good thing he doesn’t, because along with Binoche and Cook, the supporting cast is as close to perfect as you could hope. I’m sure shooting most of the movie in a very cozy cabin setting helped create a sense of family among them, but they also seem to go the extra mile to bond in a way that reflect the intimacies and tensions of a close-knit extended family. Maybe not everyone can relate, but their performances definitely awoke some memories for me, adding more to the sensation of real life that surrounds the story.

Dan in Real Life avoids the trite and cliché in favor of simplicity and honesty, so much so that this could be the story of how your aunt and uncle fell in love, or how your own son or brother met the woman who turned their life around. Thanks to a well directed cast, a brilliant script, and a perfectly matched soundtrack, this is easily the most uplifting, satisfying movie I’ve seen, or hope to see, all year.