darkjosh Reviews

Insomnia (2002)

More Great Work From Nolan; Masterful Work From Pacino

[8/10 · 29 May 2002]

Al Pacino has always been known and rewarded for his loud, showy, abrasive, and larger-than-life characters. He's garnered Oscar nominations for big, in-your-face roles such as in Dick Tracy and The Godfather, and finally won for Scent of a Woman, in which his gargantuan, wild performance literally carried an otherwise average film. That's why it's such a shock and treat to see him playing the lead character, Detective Will Dormer, in Insomnia as a man so lost and broken in spirit that you can see the failure, defeat, and exhaustion on his face. This isn't a variation of his shouting, impassioned, bordering-on-caricature personas; it's a performance of subtlety and depth as he slowly becomes bogged down by both guilt and lack of sleep. In short, it may be Pacino's best performance of his career.

L. A. detectives Will Dormer and partner Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) arrive in the small Alaskan town of Nightmute (sumptuously photographed) to assist local police in the murder of a young girl. The town is in the middle of a 6-month period of constant twilight, with the sun never going down and light pervading all, adding to Dormer's sleeplessness. Ellie Burr (Hillary Swank, in a perfunctory role), a rookie cop, serves as their guide and helps with the investigation. Dormer and Eckhart are in conflict; Eckhart threaten sto give information to the LAPD about misconduct on Dormer's part. During a chase for the killer, Dormer accidentally shoots his partner. The killer sees this, and uses it to blackmail him into helping him flee police capture.

At the midway point, the murderer is revealed, and is played by Robin Williams. Again, here is a performer known for his energetic and spontaneous work in a variety of comedy and family films. Under Nolan's direction, Williams turns in a creepy cool performace, underplaying his role and imbuing the character with an intangible, offbeat quality. With the two main performers doing such quality work, it's sad that Hillary Swanks' role was not more fleshed out. Her job is too basically be in peril when the script calls for it or act suspicious. It's not so much that it's a poorly written character, it's just that a great performer deserves a great role.

Director Christopher Nolan has directed another fine thriller with Insomnia. Of course its much more conventional than Memento, but that's to be expected and really can't be held against a top-notch mindgame such as this. He gets fantastic performances out of his cast, especially Pacino with his masterful onscreen deterioration of his character. A well-paced and engrossing film, with just the right amount of action and a fascinating and thoughtful psychological dance between the two main characters. Nolan is filling the niche he carved himself in the suspense genre with more quality work.

8 out of 10

Panic Room (2002)

Suspenseful, But Nowhere Near Fincher's Previous Work

[7/10 · 11 April 2002]

After delving into a different dimension with Fight Club, David Fincher has returned to the genre that helped realize his brilliance. Panic Room brings Fincher back into the suspense game, directing Jodie Foster in a thriller that finds her forced to retreat into the room of said title.

David Koepp (Stir of Echoes) scripts this potboiler about a recently divorced mother (Foster) and her diabetic daughter (Kristen Stewart) move into a New York home whose previous owner had a panic room built in; basically it's a room surrounded by steel and filled with surveillance monitors, medical kits, and water to last for days. It's a good thing, too, since on their first night, three burglars (played well by Whitaker, Leto, and Yoakam) break in, attempting to find a fortune that's been hidden in, of course, the room.

Foster is used to playing strong women roles, but she's never come off as being more resourceful as in Panic Room. She makes her character seem like less a victim than a force to be reckoned with, and instead ably matches her captors. Whitaker, Leto, and Yoakam all play their parts convincingly as the intelligent, strategic, and violent burglars, respectively. The only role that comes off as a plot device is the daughter, who seems to be there not as a character but more a hinderance to the film's heroine.

Fincher is a master of suspense, and there are droves of it as Foster smartly and able participates in a game of cat-and-mouse with the thieves. She comes up with clever and effective ways of dealing with them, which I won't reveal here. Suffice to say there are many moments when the audience is riveted to the screen and also never feels as if the movie is becoming an implausible eye-roller. Panic Room isn't near Fincher's other work, but still is a tense, above average thriller.

7 out of 10

Hearts in Atlantis (2001)

Great Drama Marred by Flimsy Supernaturalism

[7/10 · 11 April 2002]

Probably the most distinct element about Hearts in Atlantis is the way it provokes emotion through atmosphere more than with, what is, a weak narrative pull. It is doused in a haze of memory and nostalgia, of fear and the unknown. Director Scott Hicks seems busy in recreating the 1950's era, but the emotional tug that is expected never really hits a high note.

Hearts in Atlantis stars Anton Yelchin as Bobby, a young boy living in rural middle America with his neglectful mother (Hope Davis), when an older man named Ted (the inimitable Anthony Hopkins) arrives to live in the suite above their home. Bobby and Ted soon become friends, and Ted hires him for $1 a week to read the paper to him. The true purpose for hiring him, Ted reveals, is to inform him of "the Low Men," people looking for him because of Ted's strange quality to foresee the future.

Stephen King penned the novel, but the movie has more to do with the relationship between Bobby and Ted than the supernatural. It's actually more in the vein of Stand By Me. In fact, were it not for the psychic overtones, Hearts in Atlantis could have easily played out as a straight, coming-of-age drama. Instead, the shift in tone misleads the audience with a schizophrenic mood that switches back and forth between dramatic arcs and hints of otherworldliness, making for, unfortunately a rather dissatisfying payoff.

Both Hopkins and Yelchin are in fine form, making up for the uneven lulls in storytelling, with fine performances. Hopkins excels at the these sort of father-type, knowledgeable roles, and newcomer Yelchin complements him with a believable heartfelt turn as the stalwart, courageous Bobby. Hope Davis is suitably (yet one-dimensional) icy as his self-absorbed mother), and as Bobby's girlfriend, Boorem more than holds her own.

Hearts in Atlantis is not near the caliber of King's other mainstream works that have reached the big screen, such as The Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile. It is still, however, a quiet, gentle, and well-acted and shot coming-of-age story. With the supernatural backstory eschewed and a keener eye for character, this could have been a truly heart-tugging, powerful film, instead of only being strewn here and there with real emotion.

7 out of 10

Soul Survivors (2001)

Derivative Psychological Thriller Posing as Teen Horror

[4/10 · 11 April 2002]

Like a relative that gives you a bad gift, Soul Survivors has its heart in the right place but trips up with a bad execution. Stephen Carpenter's writing/directing effort borrows freely from other, better films, such as Jacob's Ladder and Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes). For those who haven't seen either of these films, I won't give the premise away; suffice to say it's not nearly as well handled here than in those two superior films.

Melissa Sagemiller stars as Cassie, about to go away to college. Her current boyfriend Sean (Ben Affleck) and ex-boyfriend Matt (Wes Bentley), both friends, and Annabel (acerbic Eliza Dushku) are in a car accident after being pursued by two killers (?) in transparent masks. She survives the wreck, but while attending college has visions of the hospital ordeal and dead people reappear and disappear, leaving her in a state of total confusion: who is dead? Who's alive? What's real?

Soul Survivors has the look of a bad been-there, done-that, gore-filled, blood-splattered, body-stacking teen exploitation flick. True, it has its share of killer-stalking-the-victim scenes (plentiful, repetitive, and mind-numbing), but at least it attempts to build suspense through ideas rather than cliches, unfortunately rather unsuccessfully. It breeds confusion much more often than cohesion, as the story becomes jumbled, messy and incoherent near key points of the mystery (predictable as it is.)

Horror fans who pick up a copy will have no idea they are in for a film that is more concerned with building an uneasy facade of reality than delivering a body count. Credit goes to Carpenter for attempting to create something beyond a derivative teen horror flick; too bad he's created a derivative psychological thriller. Sagemiller also deserves kudos for showing strength in the central performance, actually developing her character and evoking some sense of emotion as the unraveling Cassie. It's great the filmmakers try something different, but the film ends up a mixed bag and failed experiment.

4 out of 10

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Lynch's Mind-Spinning Masterpiece

[9/10 · 11 April 2002]

If you've never seen a David Lynch film, you've never seen the kind of disorienting and hypnotic power film can be capable of. There's no other director like him, no other filmmaker who creates disquiet, illusion, and an uncomfortable atmosphere as he does. In Mullholland Dr., Lynch's most complex work to date, he has fashioned all of the ideas that intrigued in Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, and Lost Highway into a maddening, surrealistic, and dreamlike tapestry; the audience may or may not know what's happening, but they are glued to the screen trying logically fit the pieces of the puzzle into an understandable fusion.

I realize I've said nothing about the plot of the film, because its so labyrinthine and mind-boggling that it can't be described justifiably in a single review. The basic storyline however, begins with an actress (Laura Harring) about to be killed by her drivers on Mulholland Dr when a speeding car collides with her limo, leaving her with amnesia. At the same time, Betty (Watts), an aspiring actress oozing sweetness arrives in Los Angeles from Canada. They meet at her apartment, and Betty attempts to help "Rita" (a name she adopts from a movie poster) regain her identity.

Lynch outdoes himself in such cryptic, confusing, sometimes hilarious, but most often odd scenes as a mafioso/film producer spews out his espresso while his partner inexplicably yells out, "Help me! Help me!"a jealous director coats his cheating wife's jewelry in pink paint, and an evening excursion to a nightclub that climaxes with a heartbreaking rendition of a Roy Orbison song in Spanish.

The first 2 hours or so of the movie seem conspicuously solvable, but t a point during all of the story shifts or unravels. Identities change, some characters disappear, reappear, simply don't come back at all, or maybe become one. The audience feels jerked around, manipulated, but intrigued by it all. Logically, we want to know what is going on and try to put all of the pieces together. There are so many pieces however, that it is nearly impossible to look at the proceedings in a logical sense.

This film is not for those who want a straightforward story with a beginning, conflicts, heroes and villains that might as well have name tags on them, or resolutions with a neat and tidy ending. They key to getting any kind of understanding is to simply let it flow through you the first time you watch it (multiple viewings are required, as with most Lynch films) and understand that much of it is dreamlike, so as with dreams, may have happened or may not have. You may get it of you may not. Regardless, it's a fascinating and recommendable journey that's been masterfully created by David Lynch.

9 out of 10

The Score (2001)

Scores of Talent

[8/10 · 12 December 2001]

Director Frank Oz is known mostly for lightweight comedies like In and Out, What About Bob?, and various Muppet movies. The Score is his first entry outside of the comedy genre, and he's done a fantastic job creating an intelligent, absorbing, and refreshingly different kind of crime flick.

Robert DeNiro stars as a brilliant, skillful thief who wants to settle down with his girlfriend, a perfunctory role played by Angela Bassett. Problem is, he is sucked in by temptation and a huge payoff into doing one last job for retired thief and friend Marlon Brando: stealing a priceless scepter from thr 1600s. Enter Edward Norton, who works at the customshouse being targeted for the robbery and feigns mental retardation, enabling him to get info and access about the security system.

Perhaps the most attractive, engaging aspect of The Score is the variety of its three lead actors, arguably the best actors of their time. Each brings uniqueness and individuality to their roles, all the while bouncing off each other and creating a mesmerizing powerhouse of ensemble acting. DeNiro is calm, collected, and ever so professional as the tired, eager to withdraw thief, Marlon Brando is believable as the seasoned, retired thief with a been-there, done-that attitude. and Norton comes off as both arrogant and knowledgeable as the rookie. Angela Bassett, a good actress, has little do here besides dote on DeNiro; her role is severely underwritten and could have benefitted from more development.

The Score is also an usual crime movie in that there are no grandiose shootouts, no car chases, and no climax culminating in huge fireballs and explosions. The screenwriters have wisely chosen to let the talent of the actors and the complexity of the caper take center stage, and director Frank Oz slowly and laboriously paces the film as it leads up to the heist. relying solely on dialogue and clever plot twists to build suspense.

While The Score may sometimes seem to tread familiar ground in its plotting, the bevy of talent bursting from the three lead actors more than makes up for story lulls; in fact, it makes The Score feel more like an authentic, old-school thriller than an explosion-filled, testosterone-fueled heist flick.

8 out of 10

Jeepers Creepers (2001)

Great First Half, Trips Second

[7/10 · 7 November 2001]

For its first half, Victor Salva does a bang-up job of creating dread and suspense in Jeepers Creepers, the latest entry into the teen-horror genre, the director eschewing the normal genre cliches and gives us a truly uncomfortable and disturbing premise: As two college students (brother and sister, and not boyfriend/girlfriend, for a change) drive home through a rural highway, they encounter a ghastly sight: a cloaked person heaving what appears to be dead bodies down a sewer drain. They investigate, make a truly ghastly discovery and are pursued by a road-raged trucker in sequences that echo "The Duel."

From the uncovering of the villain, however, Jeepers Creepers becomes quite standard in its course, and thought it offers quite an unseen ending, the rest of the film doesnt measure up to the nail-biting tension of the first half.

After establishing a nightmarish premise, introducing smart rather than gullible and dumb main characters, and invoking a gim, menacing killer, the film degenerates into the usual cliches: cops who don't believe the main characters, a CGI killer, and a bad screenplay crutch: a psychic who knows some mumbo-jumbo lore about the killer.

Still, Salva does deliver a disturbing start, Justin Long and Geena Phillips are fun and watchable as the siblings, and though it does fail to deliver an equally effective follow up, it's certainly above the likes of the horror tripe that's infested the horror genre (see Valentine) and recommendable.

7 out of 10

Training Day (2001)

Searing Work From Washington and Fuqua

[8/10 · 17 October 2001]

Audiences looking for a big, mindless, action-driven cop flick in Training Day will be surprised by two things: director Antoine Fuqua, who made the dismally mediocre Jaime Foxx vehicle, "Bait", has molded an adult, tense, mature, and engrossing action-drama, and two, Denzel Washington has eschewed his good guy persona, playing a charismatic but unlikable rogue cop.

While the story of corrupt cops lurking in the police department may be done to death, a certain timeliness is present with such stories as the recent LAPD Rampart scandal. Ethan Hawke plays a rookie-cop who hopes to work his way up the rungs of the LAPD to detective by working with seasoned undercover narcotics cop Washington. Washington proves, however, to have questionable methods of investigation and procedure. Hawke unwittingly is drawn into the sickly logical and charasmatic musings of Washington until he ends up unwittingly becoming a participant in a coverup.

Again, the story has been done before, but rarely has it been tackled with such a tense, uneasy, and guttural realism. Director Antoine Fuqua injects the film with a searing authenticity: LA hasn't been such an uninviting. dangerous, ugly urban jungle in a while, with bleak, rainy shots of the city swimming in dirt, litter, and graffiti. The use of realistic looking and acting gang members, and also the cameo appearances of rap stars helps keep tensions high as well, and also adds striking resonance.

Anchoring the whole movie is Denzel Washington, in a refreshing change from his usual upstanding, righteous roles. As the corrupt cop, he gleefully goes for broke in a manic, antihero, larger-than-life performance so unlike his previous work that it will surely garner him an Oscar nomination.

While the last 15 minutes almost undo the fantastic work by the cast and crew, Training Day is an accomplished renewal in the cop movie genre, a promising feature in Fuqua's career, and another great performance under Denzel Washington's belt.

8 out of 10

One Night at McCool's (2001)

A Good Night Time

[6/10 · 10 October 2001]

The enormous influence of Pulp Fiction's staggered, broken, complex structure continues to show up in countless crime films, most of them using it as a crutch to compensate for weak story and characters. One Night at McCool's is a comedy that makes good use of a non-linear story structure, yet it too rests all its weight on it. It's sad, too, since much more fun could have been derived from its quirky characters.

One Night at McCool's story revolves around Liv Tyler, who enchants three men she meets after a night at the bar of the title. There's Matt Dillon who stars as a lonely guy in need of a motherly type of girlfriend,Paul Reiser as a self-proclaimed gift to women, and John Goodman, as a widowed, religious cop looking for a new wife. The story is structured around their retelling of their encounters with Tyler, who is of course, incapable of doing wrong in their eyes. It's funny to see each character project their own twisted view on what went on, and then see another character retell the same scene in a completely different way.

What isn't funny, however, is to see the film desperately trying to interweave these points of view while forgetting about characters and dialogue. While the characters are all easy to laugh at, there really isn't a main character to keep narrative focused, since they all commit a deplorable act that makes the stories they are recounting all questionable. True, it's fun not to know who's giving the closest rendition of the truth, but to have not one redeemable character makes it hard to care about what happens to them.

Paul Reiser gets the most laughs out of any of the other main actors, but it's Michael Douglas' small role as a retro, overgrown-hair, bingo-playing hitman, chewing up scenery and that generates the most laughs and steals every scene. Had One Night at McCool's focused on its characters more than attempting to seem clever with its plot device, it would have been side-splitting rather than simply amusing.

6 out of 10

The Others (2001)

Intelligent, Atmospheric Horror

[8/10 · 7 October 2001]

It's almost impossible to discuss The Others without bringing up 1999's already classic ghost thriller The Sixth Sense. Both are films that move deliberately slow, drawing in the audience with a fine eye for details and no special effects, creating a brooding atmosphere and getting frights from suggestion and small effects. Still, Amenabar's The Others goes even further with his minimalist style, constructing a film that becomes increasingly creepy with the slightest sound effect or plot point.

Nicole Kidman, in a bravura, chilling performance, stars as Grace, mother to two children with a rare disease that makes exposure to sunlight deadly. She lives in a mansion on an island, fog smothering their secluded existence, when one day three servants come looking for work. She hires them, and suddenly strange noises and occurences start descending on the house. Slowly, it becomes evident that they are not alone when her daughter begins to describe her experiences with a mysterious ghost boy named Victor.

The Others is an elegantly mounted film, and Amenabar succeeds in building an uneasy tension with striking cinematography that makes the light and darkness seem to come alive, as if it were a character in itself. At times, the look and feel of it seems more like a macabre Merchant-Ivory production than a haunted house movie. Amenabar's pacing is perfect; it's refreshing to see a summer movie that slowly and confidently ups the ante to the point where the audience doesn't know where the story is going to go. When the film finally reaches it's end, its quite a spine-tingling climax.

8 out of 10

3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)

The King is Definitely Dead

[2/10 · 7 August 2001]

Kevin Costner has been known for doing projects that waste his waning talent, and 3000 Miles to Graceland ranks right down there with The Postman as one of the worst films he has had the misfortune of being associated with. It's at best a sloppy, thoroughly boring pseudo action-drama-comedy that destroys any interest or momentum it was building after the first half hour.

Costner, Russell, Slater, David Arquette and Bokeem Woodbine star as a gang of hoods who dress up like Elvis to rob a Las Vegas casino during International Elvis week. After the caper turns into a bloodbath (predictably), Costner decides to blow away the majority of the cast and it's up to he, Russell, and Courtney Cox as the requisite love interest and David Kaye as the requisite 10 year old to carry the picture into the depths of strangling boredom and mediocrity.

With the Elvis premise, one would expect the gang of criminal Elvi to be sought after and be confused with other impersonators, but that's never the case. Instead we are treated to the wooden acting of all the cast members, cliche after cliche evident in both action and movie-of-the-week plotting, and the grating, irritating penchant of music video director Lichtenstein to speed up, slow down, flash cut, and jerk the film around for no reason. In a particularly excessive, laughable shot, he decides to film Russell and Cox parking at a motel in slow-motion with MTV style flashes of white to the an ear-scraping heavy metal soundtrack.

With no plot to speak of, uniformly lazy performances by the entire cast, and atrocious pacing, editing, plotting, dialogue, and cinematography, one would at least expect 3000 Miles to have some slightly rousing good action sequences. This film/music video fails in even that respect, which is why it's my pick for one of 2001's worst films of the year.

2 out of 10

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Intelligent Art

[8/10 · 7 August 2001]

Perhaps the most interesting, fascinating, and frustrating thing in Steven Spielberg's and posthumous Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi drama A.I. is watching the two directors' visions clash onscreen: the dark, somber creeping of Kubrick and the family-film, goodness, and optimism of Spielberg intertwine in such a smooth manner, it's bound to leave audiences baffled and not liking the film. In fact, it's this schizophrenic tone that makes A.I. a better film than it should be.

The story is reminiscent of Robin William's 1999 sappy outing, Bicentennial Man, in which a robot goes on a quest to become a human; the difference is that here there are no easy answers. A.I. takes place in a future when robotic servants are commonplace. Haley Joel Osment (in a role that will surely garner him awards), plays a robot boy created with the unique ability to love. When he is abandoned by his parents in the woods (in a particularly heart-rending scene), he is left alone and embarks on a quest to become a real boy, in order to regain his mother's love.

Spielberg poses many questions on the meaning of love and life, and thankfully he does not present neat and tidy answers. There are numerous times the film seems to be on the verge of mis-stepping and turning didatic or sugar-coated, but it remains somber and never indulges in either preachiness or shameless emotional milking. It never panders to the audience with simple solution as to the relationship between machines and their makers. While the film is sympathetic to the robot characters, it doesn't make out the creators to be monsters toying with nature.

Visually, the filmmakers creates some astonishing set pieces, imagery, and sequences, including a breathtaking view of New York halfway submerged in water and Coney Island under the sea. The surreal special effects are aided by ghastly makeup effects as well as striking, barren, desolate set designs.

A.I. is easily Spielberg's most complex movie to date, as well as the summer's most intelligent and challenging film amidst loud, abrasive action films and money-hungry sequels. Fans of film will no doubt be entranced by Haley Joel Osment's performance and the bleak story, but also by two masters of filmmaking on opposite ends of the spectrum combining their skills in this provocative amalgam.

8 out of 10

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Burton's Monkey Mishmash

[6/10 · 7 August 2001]

Tim Burton is one of Hollywood's darkest, most imaginative filmmakers, so one must wonder what went wrong with his latest venture, a reworking of the 1968 sci-fi classic, Planet of the Apes. This is Tim Burton-lite, and as easily distinguishable as his prior films are, it's disheartening to see that he clearly gave in to Hollywood blockbuster mentality, as Planet bears no sign of his signature dark style.

Planet of The Apes is loosely based on its predecessor. Mark Whalberg (here a cardboard cut-out action hero) stars as an astronaut who gets sucked into a time warp (?) and finds himself crash landing on a planet and captured by talking apes who have created a society where humans are their servants. He finds a friend in female ape Helen Bonham Carter. The rest of the movie follows our hero Whalberg as he attempts to escape from his captors, in particular a nasty General played by an unrecognizable Tim Roth.

The story is hardly noteworthy. It's merely a clothesline on which to hang a few charged action sequences, grandiose sets, and the human actors eluding their captors. What made the classic so striking was its scenes of the apes treating the humans as livestock. Here, director Tim Burton has instead chosen to eschew characters and rely on the quality of the first film to garner any sort of sympathy for his characters. The only likeable characters are, again, Helen Bonham Carter as an ape who sympathizes with and wants to help the humans, and Paul Giamatti, as a wise-cracking ape who by the end becomes very grating with his one-liners.

The only true innovation in this updated version is the makeup; it's light years ahead of the 1968 version, and the actors disappear behind it, as well as the militarized costumes. The apes look more ferocious, but this is a very poor substitute for an actual story. Even the action sequences are dumbed down, with bullets and spears flying, there is no blood onscreen whatsoever. Was it the studios who persisted in Burton to not show blood? Sleepy Hollow was a gorefest, but I imagine since this is a huge studio summer blockbuster, all controversial images and language were censored in order to have a more family oriented (money-making) movie.

With all its flaws, Planet of the Apes is made watchable thanks to the amazing makeup and the performances from Roth and Bonham-Carter. Perhaps Tim Burton will push the envelope with his next film, as here his influence seems nonexistent, except for the dark ending bound to leave audiences looking for a total mindless summer film confused.

6 out of 10

Monkeybone (2001)

Primate Problems

[6/10 · 12 July 2001]

Considering Henry Selick's credits include the stop-motion animation dazzler "The Nightmare Before Xmas," Monkeybone is as visually enthralling as his previous work, with some truly creative set design, a striking amalgam of puppetry, CGI, stop-motion animation, claymation, and a very twisted, dark atmosphere. However, what dark, twisted chasm did the script fall into?

Brendan Fraser stars as Stu Miley, cartoonist who's creation Monkeybone (unrecognizably voiced by John Turturro) has landed him a TV series. He and girlfriend Bridgette Fonda (in a thankless, 2-D role) abruptly become involved in a car accident, after which Stu falls into a coma and is whisked away to DownTown, a weighstation for souls as their fate is determined, and whose otherworldly, twisted array of characters thrive on the nightmares of humans. Monkeybone hatches a plot to take over Stu's body and feed DownTown tons of fresh nightmares using a 'nightmare juice' created by Stu's girlfriend.

Yes, it is original, but rarely does it ever get amusing. The $70 million budget is clearly all on the screen, with, again, some technically dazzling and darkly creative sets and creatures, but the main characters are all severely underwritten. Brend Fraser is appealing enough as Stu Miley, but Bridget Fonda has some of the worst dialogue of the year. The character of Monkeybone is a thoroughly annoying, unfunny creation. Part Alf, part Pokemon, every line and scene from and about him is inherently grating. Also, the funniest scene (which is truly laugh-out-loud), involving Chris Kattan as a recently killed gymnast, only comes toward the end of the movie.

If only the rest of the scenes could have been as cleverly written and performed as the final ones, Monkeybone would have worked. Instead, we are given a visual knockout of a movie with no heart. Monkeybone is worth a look, simply for the creativity and imagination used in creating the netherworld of Stu's subconscious.

6 out of 10

Panic (2000)

Strikingly Realistic Character Study

[8/10 · 29 June 2001]

Why Panic never got a good theatrical release is easily seen: it's much too smart, and audiences would have probably had a difficult time with it, comparing it to American Beauty in its probing of a midlife crisis, and Sopranos and Analyze This in it's study of illegal goings-on amidst family life. Though Panic may seem to derive from unoriginal material, Brommel's lifelike characters coupled with deft dialogue and observant direction make the film a realistic look at the undoing of a middle aged man.

William H. Macy stars as Alex, a hitman who works for his father's (Sutherland) contract-killing business. He leads a double life, with his wife (Ullman) and son unaware of his real trade. In his middle-age, he becomes increasingly disgusted with what he has done all his life. Under his calm, collected facade stirs repressed resentment for his father's controlling grasp on his life. When he meets a young woman(Campbell) he feels invigored and decides it's time to quit the family business.

The fact that writer/director Henry Brommel decided to make the profession his main character was trying to break away from contract-killing is disposable. He could have easily substituted it with any undesirable profession; his characters are so well-developed and believable, scenes handled so smoothly and realisticly and dialogue written so insightfully and naturally that the focus falls on Macy's conflicted character rather than his job as a hitman. Brommel's script feels like a Shakespearean tragedy, with a definite theme of destiny running throughout.

In Alex, Macy creates a tragic, easily sympathetic character, and turns in yet another brooding, great performance, as can always be expected. Donald Sutherland is also effectively abrasive and abusive as his overbearing father, and Ullman's dramatic turn as Macy's wife is a welcome change for the comedian. Consider a scene in a bicycle shop, where her mood subtly darkens and peaks in an affecting scene of emotional confusion.

Henry Brommel's first feature, Panic is a film that is well-crafted in its sincerity. With a first-rate cast, a plausible script, terse dialogue, and nice direction, this character-study is hopefully just a taste of Brommel's aptness for creating characters that seem real.

8 out of 10

Swordfish (2001)

A Fishy Tale

[6/10 · 13 June 2001]

"Well," I thought, "It can't be as bad as Gone in 60 Seconds," as I shelled out my money for a matinee viewing of Swordfish, and thankfully it wasn't. Still, Sena just barely manages to do more than just clone 60 Seconds in this outing, elevating it with frenetic action sequences.

Swordfish is a mindless film with a script going in so many directions it forgets that though the story is silly, it has to be filled with realistic characters. The plot involves an ex-hacker (Jackman) who is contracted by a powerful terrorist's (Travolta) girlfriend (Berry) to help write a computer code to break into a federal bank and steal billions of dollars. They woo him with the promise of helping him attain custody of his daughter.

The plot may sound simple and mindless, and it is, except that the filmmakers decide to try and twist every possible discernible aspect they can of it, attempting to impress the audience with the ambiguity of it all. To twist a plot is one thing, to mangle it into a heaping mess of indecipherability is another.

What makes Swordfish watchable is the energy of the action sequences as Travolta's sometimes funny and effective lines. The beginning of the film, in which Travolta dissects Dog Day Afternoon and the expectations of audiences certainly makes it seem as if writer Skip Woods would deliver an intelligent action flick - but he doesn't. Thankfully, however, there are some great scenes with audaciously over-the-top action that immensely help the film, including a shattering hostage situation, a kinetic car chase aided by some loud, almost tangible sound effects, and a helicopter dragging a city bus amidst downtown LA.

In the end, Sena wastes a formidable cast in this empty outing, a clear exercise in style over substance. Sure, he's got Travolta, Jackman, Cheadle, and Barry, but with nothing to work with, the actors seem almost uninterested. You can have a top-notch cast, but a weak script can crush it. Still, indiscriminating action fans will revel in the explosions, shootouts, and chases.

6 out of 10

Valentine (2001)

A Horrifying Bore

[2/10 · 7 May 2001]

Just when you thought the teen horror genre had been milked to death, along comes Valentine, a throwback to the campy, laughable fare that tried to pass itself off as horror and has since been ridiculed by Scream and its lesser counterparts. But Valentine doesn't even measure up to the campy fun of those bad flicks - it's just plain bad.

Valentine (released to coincide with Valentine's Day) has literally nothing to do with the holiday. We begin with a Carrie-rip off, in which a 6th grade boy is ridiculed at a school dance when he is accused of assaulting (ridiculous in its own right) a girl. Bullies then pour red punch (substituted for pig's blood) on him in slow-motion. Skip ahead to the students' college years, where girls who rejected him find themselves being stalked and murdered.

So the movie lumbers on with poorly written dialogue, one-dimensional characters, ridiculous plot points, and lazy writing. For example, after a few of the girls are killed, the remaining girls decide throw a party rather than opting to be cautious. With such a dumbed-down plot, at least a few decent death scenes can be expected; the movie instead eschews this and we are given poor, bloodless scenes of implied killings: yes, Valentine even fails to provide gore.

An exercise in uninspired filmmaking, lazy scripting, wooden acting, and bloodless death, Valentine is surely one of the worst recent additions to the thoroughly excavated and empty teen horror genre, failing on every possible level of horror. What's worse, the ending leaves the door wide open to a sequel. Let's hope we don't get a film titled "Easter" anytime soon.

2 out of 10

The Pledge (I) (2001)

A Promise Worth Keeping?

[8/10 · 7 May 2001]

Actor/director Sean Penn reunites with Jack Nicholson for another slow-paced, thoughtful film about death, and moving on with life in The Pledge, a superior film to their 1995 outing, The Crossing Guard.

Nicholson stars as detective Jerry Black, recently retired, who decides to leave his retirement party to go and help investigate an 8 year old girl's murder. He is confronted by the parents, whom he pledges to find the killer for.

The Pledge may have the earmarks of a thriller, but director Sean Penn's subtle and intelligent handling of the material elevates this into a thought-provoking, considerate character study. Not only does Penn provide a crime thriller in the revelation of clues as to who the real murderer might be, he also focuses on Nicholson's character and his illusion that he is indeed moving on with his life after retirement, even though he is simply deluding himself and becoming increasingly desperate to find the killer.

Jack Nicholson's nuanced performance is right on target, and the veteran actor tackles the role with the subtlety and grace he usually never gets to exhibit due to his mostly over-the-top roles. His quiet demeanor, tired pale and relentless prodding into the case truly give a sense of tragedy to Black's dogged persistence and inability to deal with a life of retirement, where he has been so used to always being active and busy with his work. Robin Wright provides good work as the mother who becomes attached to Jerry but doesn't know that he has mixed intentions for their relationship.

It's unusual for a Hollywood studio to produce a movie that moves confidently slow and offers a tragic, decidedly downbeat ending. Jack Nicholson is at his understated best and director Sean Penn delivers a slow, thoughtful, and meticulously well-crafted character study.

8 out of 10

The Mummy Returns (2001)

A Mindless Whirlwind of CGI

[3/10 · 7 May 2001]

Had it not been for my anger and annoyance with the constant use of computer graphics that often looked subpar and ridiculous, The Mummy Returns would have put me into a deep sleep for a couple thousand years.

There are so many poor aspects of the film, but to start, I will not mention The Rock as a star. That's because he has a 5-minute cameo (and 5 minutes is stretching it) in the beginning and then returns in the last 10 minutes of the movie as a CGI monstrosity that looks like the latest Gameboy WWF Raw! installment. Trailers would have us believe he is a major part of the film, and he is: he will get lots of ignorant moviegoers to shell out the bucks.

Mummy brings back the characters from the previous flick for more mindless action along with an annoying child. They travel through Egypt and London attempting to stop the evil mummy Imhotep from taking over the world (I think) as well as the Scorpion King from attempting to do the same (I think).

Director Stephen Sommers is congratulated for giving us the first special-effects-ridden, mindnumbing, corny, deafening Hollywood monstrosities of the summer. While Mummy Returns certainly contains more action than its predecessor, it also has the same corny one-liners, stupid, illogical characters, muted violence, and shameless visuals from the first. It forgets to do what a worthwhile movie does: give us a good story and memorable characters.

The Mummy Returns is not only the same clumsy retread that The Mummy was, it's also a testament to Hollywood's extraneous dependence on budget and CGI to characters and screenwriting. And judging from the millions it'll rake in, it's also a sad commentary on audiences' intelligence.

3 out of 10

Memento (2000)

Unforgettable

[10/10 · 24 April 2001]

Guy Pearce is a showcase of paranoia and confusion in Memento, director Christopher Nolan's dizzying onscreen jigsaw puzzle that plunges the audience into a mesmerizing web of intrigue, obsession, and deceit.

Memento is a film noir that offers a strikingly original premise. Guy Pearce stars as Leonard Shelby, an ex-insurance investigator whose wife was murdered while he lay unconscious from a head injury. The injury, as it turns out, is catastrophic: he can no longer form new memories and only remembers everything before the attack. The story makes for a bevy of confusion as the viewer frantically tries to size up each character, along with Pearce attempting to do the same.

To say more of the plot would be doing the film a disservice. It's a rare cinematic experience where you actually struggle with a character and question everything that you've just seen. Engrossing from its beginning, it never fails to stun in its complexity - not only running itself backwards (we begin the movie at the end and work backwards to a jolting, brilliant beginning) - but also including flashbacks and a separate scene in which Pearce explains his condition, both running tantamount with the main story. Nolan has crafted a unique cerebral teaser in Memento that asks the viewer to partake in the chaotic madness and continues to haunt and ask questions after its brilliant finale, not only about what has just happened onscreen but also questions the concept of memory and what we choose to believe has happened in the past even if our memory isn't totally clear.

Technically, the film stays true to the film noir genre: desolate, bleak, dark, and colorless. The cinematography is handled with jagged splicing and the visual style employed is central conveying the jumbled, boggled mind of Pearce's character. We think we see things, clues are embedded in split second frames assailed at the viewer in bursts of haze.

Guy Pearce gives us his best performance in Shelby, seamlessly getting lost in the profundity of his character's obsessive-compulsive pit. His quiet, understated performance is tragic, heartfelt, entrancing, menacing, and fascinating in his calculating coldness and tender remembrances. Carrie Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano both turn in twisted and wonderfully ambiguous performances as people involved in Pearce's quest for revenge. Surprisingly, we never see the pair onscreen even though the two supporting actors previously worked on The Matrix.

In a time where CGI and special effects seem to be ruling in theaters, Memento reminds us what truly makes a fantastic and truly memorable cinematic experience: innovative storytelling and interesting, sympathetic characters. We needn't see explosions to be entertained, or cars chasing each other at ridiculous speeds, or extraneous gunplay. Not only does the masterpiece that is Memento manage to pull out the rug from its audience and be incredibly intelligent, it manages to raise questions where other films might simply be content to provide two hours of mindless diversion. Memento is anything but mindless and will have you guessing hours after the credits have rolled and is one of the year's best films.

10 out 10

If I Die Before I Wake (1998)

A Surprisingly Above-Average Nightmare

[6/10 · 22 April 2001]

For a movie that plunges into its thin story without introducing any characters, motives, or the scene, If I Die actually manages to create an air of dread from the start, but unfortunately tapers off to a conventional ending.

If I Die Before I Wake has a simple shoestring plot - three redneck burglars break into a suburban home and hold the family hostage, torturing them. In fact, they are tortured for the first third of the movie (the runtime is 72 minutes), and its quite a disturbing bevy of screams and pleading from the family that is successful in building a nightmarish tension.

From then on, we follow daughter Stephanie Jones as she maneuvers (sometimes incredulously) past and hides from their captors. While the script consists of routine dialogue and sometimes monotonous reworkings of Jones eluding her tormentors, it often surprises with the unexpected deaths of some major characters and one chillingly scripted scene in which one of the burglars peruses around with the little girl, mimicking the actions of her father from the home videos they are watching in the living room.

Director Katkin partially succeeds in delivering a cheap but genuinely creepy horror film in the first half by wallowing in torture and masochism, he missteps from then on last and falls prey to script conventions. Still, If I Die Before I Wake is worth a look if only for the unflinching terror inflicted on the innocent suburban family.

6 out of 10

Dr. T & the Women (2000)

A Healthy Diagnosis

[7/10 · 10 April 2001]

Women are constantly portrayed in films as being abused and unloved by the men in their lives. Robert Altman's answer to this is Dr. T and the Women, a smart romantic comedy that takes a 180 degree turn on that familiar theme and instead gives us Richard Gere as an OB/GYN who's surrounded by women and plagued by one problem: he loves them all too much.

Gere stars in the titular role, and the women are played by both veteran and newcomer actresses alike, all wealthy Dallas socialites, some of whom are his patients and other his family members. His office is constantly filled with haranguing, whining women who seem totally dependent on Dr.T's medical diagnosis as an approval of their lives. Things take a turn for the even more chaotic when his wife (the fabulously (the ditzy Farrah Fawcett) is diagnosed with a complex that quite literally translates to "loving her too much."

Richard Gere gives such a disarming, winning, and quietly graceful performance as Dr. T that it's perfectly juxtaposed with the overwhelming and frantic women. The women characters, though not particularly deep or pensive, serve only as foils to Helen Hunt's independent, thoughtful, and meaningful character, for whom Dr. T. unavoidably falls for. Screenwriter Anne Rappe pays careful attention to detail, in both observations on women and the wealthy, and though there are sometimes one too many plot lines flowing at once, most of them are concluded nicely and with out trite neatness in the end.

Handled with an easygoing charm, Altman delivers another satisfying, thoroughly entertaining, and not quite as complex film. Richard Gere's turn as the overbearring Dr. T is his most likeable performance yet, and he serves well as the balancing point of the hectic, erratic women who fill his life with turmoil, but ultimately happiness.

7 out of 10

Men of Honor (2000)

Men of Horror

[3/10 · 8 April 2001]

Why are two talented actors who should know better starring in a rehash, made-for-TV-plotted film that manages to wallow in cliches and stale scenes from the onset until its thoroughly predictable, melodramatic end?

Men of Honor takes the underdog-denied-a-chance-for-greatness-due-to racism-classism-or-other-ism theme and tries to make it seem fresh by incorporating this contrived and overused device in a Navy diving setting. Cuba Gooding stars as a Navy recruit who can't get a chance cause he's black and goes up against the harsh, callus Robert DeNiro who attempts to stop Gooding from realizing his dream.

Cuba Gooding Jr. and Robert DeNiro should have known better than to star in such an eye-rolling premise that offers no suspense or unpredictably. Will Cuba triumph over evil? Will DeNiro follow the advice of a bigot general in charge? Will Charlize Theron ever stop drinking? Will Cuba's love interest find herself making him choose between his career and life? Will anyone care?

One day Hollywood will attempt to combine all the lackluster and overworked ideas and themes so horribly that it might make an action movie that involves a serial killer trying to reach his dream of killing more people than ever and thereby being the best but being held down by and then coached and trained by a hard-ass retired cop who ends up being a softy. Until then, the closest we have is Men Of Honor, a contrived, feel-good exercise in unoriginality and hack work. The film's only attribute is that it wasn't put through MTV-editing.

3 out of 10

Exit Wounds (2001)

Exit to Excitement

[7/10 · 6 April 2001]

Steven Segal has returned to the genre that made him a star, but Exit Wounds is clearly a step in what was his uniformally B-movie, cheesy action excursions, especially in the late 1980s. This time, however, thanks to some dynamite, truly exciting actions sequences and a much more playful, less serious and stoic performance, Segal has come up with an action film that makes up for the bevy of stinkers he's made.

Exit Wounds brings back the whispering Segal as a cop who's demoted from big city police work to urban peacemaker after a botched-up attempt on the Vice Preisdent's life. There, he discovers a ring of corrupt cops involved in a bevy of shady dealings with a reputed drug lord, played by DMX.

The cast has fun with the material, and it's actually very entertaining to see Segal actually make light of his own tough guy persona, as when his character is required to take anger management classes - self-mocking humor is always a plus in any movie in showing it is not supposed to be taken seriously. DMX's performance really showcases no acting prowess for the rap star, as his role is underwritten and he does nothing more than look rough and cute (this was probably a smart move on the screenwriter's part, since his line delivery at times borders near B-movie grade.)

Action is by far the most frequent genre in which story takes a backseat to action sequences, and sometimes, it works, as it does here. The action sequences are also well-orchestrated and sometimes over-the-top, but the opening scene is so well executed with a storm of bullets flying and tearing through cars that it matches Michael Mann's bank shootout in Heat in ferocity. The screenplay may sometimes step in a quagmire of cliche, but at other times actually breaks them, especially the standard love-interest cliche. Here, that device is curtailed quite violently and effectively. The ending also is a nice twist that the audience probably won't see coming.

Exit Wounds is not only Segal's best action film to date, it's also a grand collection of exciting shootouts, breathtaking stunts, and very entertaining if somewhat lacking in character development and originality. Still, it's a much more vibrant work of chaotic action than some of the lifeless junk produced by so called action mavens like John "Explosions and Doves" Woo.

7 out of 10

Wonder Boys (2000)

I Wonder, Wonder...

[7/10 · 6 April 2001]

Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys begins as an unkempt Michael Douglas stumbles through his equally messy home, perfectly setting up his character. He plays a once successful writer now turned college professor whose love life, professional life, and craft are falling apart while his editor comes to check on the book he's been writing for 5 years. Enter Toby Maguire, one of his less than normal students, who becomes attached to the seemingly washed up Douglas and editor (Robert Downey Jr.)

Wonder Boys is full of great performances, but Tobey Maguire comes out ahead, hitting all the right notes with his touching, pensive turn as a student who trudges on writing regardless of derision from his peers. Douglas is also playfully aloof as the pot-smoking Professor Tripp, and turns in one of him most likeable performance in years. Katie Holmes and Frances McDormand round out the fine cast, but again, it's Maguire who comes up with a breakthrough performance that ensures his place as a serious up and coming young actor.

Under the steady direction of Curtis Hanson, the film moves along at a leisurely pace, much like L.A. Confidential does. Still, this laidback storytelling is one of the film's charms, and it works for the most part, thought not as successfully as the Coen brothers employed the effect in the Big Lebowski - at times it seems to drag here. And though it may seem that there is no focus point or message, choices are what the film ultimately divulges is important.

While Wonder Boys may move in strides, the sheer talent of the cast manages to help move the story along and there's plot twists and some scenes of sheer brilliance that comes totally unexpected. For a movie about writers, it certainly captures the struggle of creating and choosing what do next in life as well as literature in an unexpectedly offbeat, sometimes hilarious way.

7 out of 10