Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Ghostboy is one of our semi-regulars. When he pops up, he’s always got a lot to say, and he says it well. Check out these three sneak peeks:
Howdy,
Those who know me will know that I've been quite antisocial lately. This is due partially to the fact that I've been editing my film and finishing two new scripts and also watching lots and lots of movies and writing reviews of them. Thus, here are three upcoming movies, as seen threw my critical perspective. In order of release (and, coincidentally, quality)...
Life Or Something Like It
'Life Or Something Like It' is one of those bad movies that I walk out of laughing, wanting so badly to tear it a new one in my review, but knowing that I'm just too nice to be that mean to it. Aside from being utterly predictable and manipulative, it's completely harmless.
Angelina Jolie seems to have taken a cue from Kevin Spacey by following her Oscar win with a series of completely uninspired performances in equally forgettable movies. Well, 'Tomb Raider' wasn't exactly forgettable, but you get the idea. Here she plays Lanie Kerrigan, a local news reporter in Seattle. Lanie is a completely self absorbed career girl who keeps reminding everyone how perfect her life is, what with her pefect job, her hunky pro-baseball player boyfriend, and of course her perfectly coifed platinum hair.
One lovely morning, Lanie's boss tells her she's up for a prime spot as a morning show host in New York. He also, for laughably pointless reasons, assigns her a grungy cameraman (Edward Burns); he must have wanted to play matchmaker, because the way these two bicker it's painfully obvious that they'll end up together. One of TV crew members at one point tells them to "get a room already." It'd be nice if they did, because it might have saved Burns from actually having to say "I've loved you since the moment I saw you" at the end of the film.
But of course, I haven't even made it to the plot yet. Lanie interviews a homeless man (Tony Shalhoub, still slumming it after '13 Ghosts') who claims to be a prophet. He predicts lottery numbers, ballgames, stock quotes, and the fact that Lanie will die within a week. The news comes as a shock to her, but she's able to blow it off until all of the bum's other predictions start coming true. Suddenly she finds herself (say it along with me, I know you can) questioning what's really valuable in her life. This leads to her drunkenly leading a bus drivers' strike in a 'rousing' rendition of 'I Can't Get No Satisfaction' while live on the air. See, folks, she's letting go and learning how to live.
There is supposed to be some suspense as to whether or not the prediction comes true. Being that this is a big Hollywood romantic comedy, we know that she will live. Considering that the first shot in the movie is of her lying on a gurney, surrounded by paramedics, we also know that the movie will throw us a red herring where we think she will die. Thus, there is virtually nothing to keep the intelligent moviegoer rooted in his or her seat.
I certainly can't reccomend the film, but I can't say I really detest it either; I smiled often enough, and there are a few clever exchanges of dialogue. Jolie and Burns are both fairly likeable, and Stephen Herek proves once again that he either is a talented directer who is slightly lazy or a hardworking director who just doesn't have enough talent to turn a lackluster script into something special.
I don't really think anything else needs to be said about the film; it's trivial fluff that impressionable young ladies may find inspirational. As for me...well, Angelina Jolie is going to have to do a lot better than this to make me remember the days before 'Tomb Raider,' when I actually looked forward to seeing her on the big screen.
About A Boy
The directorial debut of Paul and Chris Weitz was the first 'American Pie,' a funny enough film that in no way left me thinking they were the ideal choices to bring Nick Hornby's nuanced comic novel 'About A Boy' to the big screen. Perhaps their sophomore film, 'Down To Earth,' displayed a growth in style and comedic maturity, but, like the rest of America, I never bothered to see it (I did see 'High Fidelity,' however, and fell in love with it, and suspect that it will be the benchmark by which any adaptation of a Hornby novel is judged).
It's always nice to see filmmakers expand their horizons, however, and the Weitz brothers have with 'About A Boy' a minor success in that area. They show a lot of wit in their composition and they handle the ups and downs of the story fairly well, although it must be said that, unlike the novel, there are far more ups than there are downs. This is a lot closer to 'Bridget Jones' Diary' than to 'High Fidelity;' it's also one of those movies where the comedy is funnier and the drama more dramatic because the characters have British accents.
Hugh Grant has become the trademark of such films, and here he plays yet another loveable cad, this time going by the name of Will. Will is 38, umemployed and living quite comfortably off the residuals of a Christmas song his father wrote. His character is summed up quite well in one of the funniest scenes (which I'm not spoiling since it's in the trailer), when some friends ask him to be the godfather of their newborn child. He declines, explaining that he'll "forget all her birthdays up until the eighteenth one when I'll get her drunk and, let's face it, try to sleep with her." Yes, he really is that shallow, but Grant can always make such characters endearing.
Which is lucky for us but not for the women he constantly dates and dismisses. His latest ploy is dating single mothers, a plan which eventually leaves him not in the bed of some lovely lady with a two year old but instead at the home of 12 year old Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), just as he discovers his mother's suicide attempt. She survives, but is far too flaky to be of any sort of use in raising Marcus; he can see this, and seeing as how he's the class outcast and has no friends, he seeks out Will to possibly be a surrogate dad, or at least to just keep him company.
Will doesn't care for this notion until he realizes that he and Marcus actually get along quite well; a little further along in the plot, he realizes that the reason they get along so well is because they're at about the same level of maturity. And so they begin to hang out a lot, primarily watching TV, which leads to a funny confrontation in a restaurant where Will's interest in the boy is horribly misconstrued.
One would expect the plot to highlight the development of both Will and Marcus as they learn from each other. Thank god the Weitzes lay off on the sacharine, but the last third of the film doesn't quite achieve it's attempts to be heartfelt, and in that failure it also forgets to be funny. Will eventually stops lying to women when he meets and loses Rachel (Rachel Weisz), the first girl he's ever really liked, but he gets her back again before he has much of a chance to experience any personal growth. Marcus at least gets to gain the approval of his school, but his triumph seesm dictated far more by plot than by circumstance. At the climactic talent show, I had serious reason to fear that he would surprise the audience with an embarassing performance of Mystikal's 'Shake Ya Ass.' He doesn't, but the performance that does ensue isn't as fulfilling a denoument as it should be.
But 'About A Boy' falls quite short of the mark set by 'High Fidelity,' but it's still an enjoyable effort, and it certainly shows that the Weitz brothers have no need to fall back on gross-out teen comedies. The film may be a bit pat, predictable and lacking almost all of the edge of Hornby's novel, but it's got just enough sardonic insights on life that it probably will fool you into thinking it's smarter and funnier than it really is. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.
The Sum Of All Fears
It's a nice sign of America's recovery from 9-11 that all of the terrorist-themed movies that were delayed after the attacks are now finding their way into theaters; on the flipside of things, every one of those films has been, at best, less than stellar.
'The Sum Of All Fears' was never actually delayed, but many feared that it wouldn't be released at all. Thankfully, Paramount Pictures has stood by it, because it is definitely a good film, and possibly an even better one in light of the events last year; it's more effective because we've had a taste of what the movie depicts. It preys on our fears of the story becoming a reality, and is one of those films you wish the leaders of various countries might sit down and watch and, hopefully, get as caught up in as the rest of us.
This fourth entry in the series of films based on Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series sees Ben Affleck taking over (quite capably, I might add) the character previously played by Harrison Ford and Alec Baldwin. Ryan is reinvented here as a young CIA operative, content with doing all his spywork from behind his desk. The film takes place in the near future, just as a Russia finds itself under a new presidency. Ryan has previously done research on this new Premier, and when a shocking attack is launched on a Russian province, CIA administrator Bill Abot (Morgan Freeman, good but underused) calls on him to provide information on this potential nemesis. Ryan is convinced that the Russian government had nothing to do with the attack, but due to bureaucratic complications from the Russians, the President (James Cromwell) doesn't believe a word Ryan says.
All of this is intercut with several other plotlines, involving a missing nuclear missile and a fascist group with sinister motives. And amidst all the political crises, Ryan tries to develop a relationship with his girlfriend without letting her know what exactly he does for a living. There's a cute scene where he calls her and tells her he won't be able to make to dinner; when she asks him why not, he explains that he can't say. Freeman advises him to go ahead and tell her because she'd never believe that he was on a plane to Russia to examine nuclear weapons facilities.
The film slowly ties it's various plotlines together for the first hour; it does so slowly and calmly, and impatient audiences might wonder why what seems to be a political drama has been marketed as a thriller. It is a thriller, however, and one of the more intense ones in recent memory. Screenwriters Paul Attanasio and Daniel Pyne and director Phil Alden Robinson (whose last major film was 'Field Of Dreams') play their cards perfectly; the first half of the film is so subtle that we hardly think about what it's building up to until it happens.
What happens is clear if you've seen the trailers; if you haven't seen the trailers, you can probably still make a good guess just by the evasive way I'm writing about it. I knew full well what was in store, but when it happened it still shocked me. It's a remarkably powerful moment, and afterwards the film shifts gears and becomes an incredibly unnerving thriller that eventually grows almost unbearably tense. The plot does lean heavily on coincidence and lucky timing, but it whisks forward so quickly that any logistical errors are barely noticeable.
Were this a slam-bang action movie, it would be innappropiate, especially now. But it isn't; the closest it gets to action is when Affleck is forced to accompany covert spy John Clark (Lieve Schrieber, taking over for William Defoe) on a mission to a missile factory. I liked the way both men carry guns in the scene, but cleverly manage not to use them. This is a film that trusts the audience use their brains through its first half and then takes unexpected and complete control during that last hour. During the first hour, some people may be checking their watches; during the last, they may be wanting to hug the person sitting next to them.
And that's it for this time. I'm sure I've typed more than enough words - I was going to include a 'Scorpion King' review, but multiple tornados were wreaking havoc in Dallas tonight and I was unable to make it to the screening. I hope you're all not too disappointed...
I'm outta here...
"Moriarty" out.
