Review: "TOMIE" is Weird as Sh*t - Happy Halloween

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 153 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Tomie (1998)

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Japan

Running time:  95 minutes

Not rated

DIRECTOR:  Ataru Oikawa

WRITER: Ataru Oikawa (based upon the manga by Junji Ito)

PRODUCERS:  Yasuhiko Azuma, Youichiro Onishi, and Shun Shimizu

CINEMATOGRAPHERS  Akira Sakoh and Kazuhiro Suzuki

EDITOR:  Ryûji Miyajima

COMPOSERS:  Hiroshi Futami and Toshihiro Kimura

HORROR/THRILLER

Starring:  Miho Kanno, Mami Nakamura, Yoriko Douguchi, Tomorowo Taguchi, Kouta Kusano, and Kenji Mizuhashi

Tomie is a 1998 Japanese horror film from director Ataru Oikawa.  It is the first entry in the Tomie film series, which totals eleven films as of 2011.  It is also based on the manga (Japanese comics), Tomie, which was published from 1987 to 2000 and was created by Junji Ito.  Tomie the movie focuses on a traumatized young woman who is haunted by the name, “Tomie.”

Tsukiko Izumisawa (Mami Nakamura) is seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Hosono (Yoriko Douguchi), about her problem sleeping at night.  She also has repressed memories of some trauma in her past.  Detective Harada (Tomorowo Taguchi) believes it has something to do with the murder of her friend, Tomie (Miho).  Trouble is that going back a century’s worth of records, Harada finds Tomie as the name of several victims of horribly violent crimes.  Is this Tomie the same one involved with Tsukiko?  And what about that guy with a severed human head in a plastic grocery bag?

Tomie was the first in a series of popular Japanese horror movies starring the mysterious Tomie and her machinations, and the film is based upon the Junji Ito comic (manga) of the same title.  Tomie isn’t as intense as that most popular Japanese horror film, Ringu, but it’s fairly suspenseful in its own right.  Actually, Tomie is more a suspense film than a horror or a thriller.  Director/screenwriter Ataru Oikawa drenches his film in shadows and the atmosphere bleeds creepiness and weirdness.  It’s an atmosphere that can have the viewer always hanging on for what’s going to happen next.  What makes the film as effective as it ever gets is Oikawa’s use of a real world setting.  He shot the film as it if were just a pedestrian TV drama.  That banality coupled with the pulp madness that surrounds the Tomie character and the eventual revelation of what she is makes the film turn out to be something much better than it seemed a third of the way through its running time.

Tomie is not for every body, but Tomie is perfect for the horror flick fan on the prowl for something real different.  The film also has a frankly bizarre musical score.

6 of 10

B

★★★ out of 4 stars

The text is copyright © 2024 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: DreamWorks "ANTZ" Can Still Dance

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 11 of 2024 (No. 1955) by Leroy Douresseaux

Antz (1998)

Running time:  83 minutes (1 hour, 23 minutes)

MPAA – PG for mild language and menacing action

DIRECTORS:  Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson

WRITERS:  Todd Alcott and Chris Weitz & Paul Weitz

PRODUCERS:  Brad Lewis, Kenneth Nakada, Aron Warner, and Patty Wooton

EDITOR:  Stan Webb

COMPOSERS:  Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell

ANIMATION/FANTASY/ADVENTURE/COMEDY

Starring:  (voices):  Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Sylvester Stallone, Anne Bancroft, Danny Glover, Jennifer Lopez, Paul Mazursky, Grant Shaud, John Mahoney, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtain, and Christopher Walken

Antz is a 1998 computer-animated adventure comedy film from directors Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson.  It was produced by DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, and Pacific Data Images and released by DreamWorks Pictures.  Antz was also DreamWorks Animation's debut film.  The movie focuses on a neurotic ant who bucks the system of his ant colony in order to pursue an ant princess, which sends them both on a perilous journey.

Antz opens in an ant colony, the home of a race of anthropomorphic ants (walk and talk like humans).  The focus is on Z (Woody Allen), an anxious and neurotic worker ant who chafes at the state of conformity in the colony. While at the local bar one night, Z has a chance encounter with the Queen Ant's daughter, Princess Bala (Sharon Stone), and he falls in love with her.  Z doesn't know that Bala is struggling with her suffocating royal life, although her mother, the Queen Aunt (Anne Bancroft), is the ruler of the colony.  Bala also has misgivings about her planned marriage to General Mandible (Gene Hackman), the cunning and arrogant leader of the colony's ant military.

Z wants to see more of Bala, but as a worker ant, he can't get near her.  He convinces Corporal Weaver (Sylvester Stallone), a soldier ant, to switch places with him.  This causes a series of events that finds Z and Princess Bala on a perilous journey outside the colony.  Meanwhile, General Mandible uses this turn of events to serve his own plans.

I am about to watch DreamWorks Animation's most recent release, Orion and the Dark, which was animated by the French production company, Mikros Animation.  So I decided that it was time to finish my review of DreamWorks' first animated feature film, Antz.

Early in Antz, I was not impressed by the CGI-animation.  It looks stiff and not imaginative, but as the film progresses, especially once the story leaves the colony, Antz begins to show some visual inventiveness.  The film's technical prowess improves as the story demands more complicated and involved action set pieces.

I like the voice cast, which I would call stellar; nine members of Antz's voice cast have won or been nominated for an Oscar – some several times.  However, I'm not that crazy about Woody Allen as the lead character, Z.  It's not that he doesn't do a good job; he does, but Allen is playing a character type that is familiar from his own films, such Hollywood Ending (2002) and Scoop (2006).  At times, Woody doing Woody doesn't really serve this film well.  As much as I like Sharon Stone, I can think of other actresses who could have given a better performance as Princess Bala.  I can say, however, that Gene Hackman is convincingly menacing as General Mandible.

So I'm glad that I finally watched Antz.  2023 was the 25th anniversary of its initial wide theatrical release (specifically October 2, 1998).  It is not as good as even recent DreamWorks Animation productions like The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.  Still, Antz is what kicked off a line of fine animated feature films.

6 of 10

B

★★★ out of 4 stars

Thursday, February 15, 2024

NOTES:

1999 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Best Special Effects” (Ken Bielenberg, Philippe Gluckman, John Bell, and Kendal Cronkhite

The text is copyright © 2024 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island" Started a Thing

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 61 of 2022 (No. 1873) by Leroy Douresseaux

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) – Video
Running time:  77 minutes (1 hour, 17 minutes)
Rated TV-G
DIRECTOR:  Jim Stenstrum
WRITERS: Glenn Leopold; from a story by Glenn Leopold and David Doi (based on the Hanna-Barbera characters)
PRODUCER:  Cosmo Anzilotti
EDITOR:  Paul Douglas
COMPOSER:  Steven Bramson
ANIMATION STUDIO:  Mook Animation

ANIMATION/FANTASY/FAMILY and ACTION/COMEDY/MYSTERY

Starring:  (voices) Frank Welker, Scott Innes, Billy West, Mary Kay Bergman, B.J. Ward, Tara Strong, Cam Clarke, Jim Cummings, Mark Hamill, Jennifer Leigh Warren, and Ed Gilbert

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is a 1998 straight-to-video, animated, comic mystery film.  It was the first animated movie in what became the Scooby-Doo straight-to-video series from Warner Bros. Animation.  In Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, the Mystery Inc. Gang reunites and visits a remote island with a dark secret.

As Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island opens, the five members of Mystery, Inc.:  Fred Jones (Frank Welker); Daphne Blake (Mary Kay Bergman), Velma Dinkley (B.J. Ward); Shaggy Rogers (Billy West), and Scooby-Doo (Scott Innes) have gone their separate ways.  They apparently became bored of mystery solving because culprits were never real ghosts, aliens, and monsters, but were practically always people in costumes.

Daphne Blake now has her own television series, “Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake,” in which she investigates claims of supernatural occurrences.  Fred Jones is her cameraman and producer.  Shaggy and Scooby are security guards, and Velma owns a book shop, “Dinkley's Mystery Book Shoppe,” which is also known as “Mystery Inc. Books.”

Daphne decides that she wants to hunt down a real ghost rather than investigating ghosts that turn out to be fakes.  So Fred calls the gang back together, and the reunited Mystery Inc. embarks on a road trip scouting haunted locations across the United States for Daphne's TV show.

That is why they end up in New Orleans, Louisiana, where they meet a curious local, Lena Dupree (Tara Strong).  She tells them that they can find real ghosts at her place of employment, a mansion and hot pepper plantation on Moonscar Island.  Skeptical at first, Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby follow Lena to the island hoping to find a real ghost instead of a villain in a costume.  What they find is more than they expected in a spooky place that might as well be called “Zombie Island.”

I remember that I first heard about Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island probably about a month or so before it was released in September 1998.  It was big news in the world of the American television animation industry and in home entertainment.  I bought a copy for the elementary school age son of a close friend of mine, who was a huge Scooby-Doo fan, then.  [He is now an adult in his late twenties (as of this writing), and I don't know if he still loves Scooby-Doo.]

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island was billed as the first time that a Scooby-Doo cartoon would find Scooby and Shaggy and company facing real supernatural entities.  The advertising for this straight-to-video (VHS) release declared, “This time, the monsters are real.”  However, as early as a 1980 episode of the “Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo” animated TV series, the stories featured real aliens and a real vampire.

That aside, it is nice to see Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island pit the characters against real ghosts, real zombies, and other real supernatural creatures.  My problem with Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is that the writers open the movie with some nice character development, but by the time the characters reach Moonscar Island, the story devolves into Scooby and Shaggy running around and screaming or we get tedious scenes of Scooby chasing one or more of the cats that belong to Moonscar mansion's owner, Simone Lenoir (Adrienne Barbeau).

That animation is average to above average, with the best sequences being those with the zombies.  The film's direction presents an inconsistent pace to go with the inconsistent story, so sometimes even a haunted mansion and a zombie island seem like boring places.  Still, I am glad that I finally watched Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island.  I've been putting it off for at least two decades.

I will say that it is an important film because it launched the Scooby-Doo straight-to-video series, of which I am a big fan.  So Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is a must see for fans of all things Scooby-Doo and Mystery Inc.

6 of 10
B
★★★ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, July 7, 2021


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "TARZAN and the Lost City" is Entertaining in Spots

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 117 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Tarzan and the Lost City (1998)

Running time:  84 minutes (1 hour, 24 minutes)

MPAA – PG for adventure violence

DIRECTOR:  Carl Schenkel

WRITERS:  Bayard Johnson and J. Anderson Black (based upon the stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs)

PRODUCERS:  Stanley S. Canter, Dieter Geissler, and Michael Lake

CINEMATAGRAPHER:  Paul Gilpin

EDITOR:  Harry Hitner

COMPOSER:  Christopher Franke

FANTASY/ACTION/ADVENTURE

Starring:  Casper Van Dien, Jane March, Steven Waddington, Winston Ntshona, Rapulana Seiphemo, and Ian Roberts

The subject of this movie review is Tarzan and the Lost City, a 1998 fantasy and adventure film from Village Roadshow Productions and Warner Bros. Pictures.  It was the first Tarzan movie shot entirely in Africa.  The film is loosely based on the Tarzan stories that were written by the character’s creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs.  In Tarzan and the Lost City, Tarzan returns to his African homeland to save it from destruction.

John Clayton, Lord Greystoke (Casper Van Dien) is about to marry his love, Jane Porter (Jane March), in London, when he learns through a kind of psychic connection with a lion that his old African homeland is in danger.  You see, Clayton is also Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, the famous jungle king who was orphaned on the Dark Continent (Africa) as an infant and raised by apes.

Tarzan puts off his wedding, much to Jane’s chagrin, and returns to Africa to stop the pillaging and animal poaching by the explorer, Nigel Ravens (Steve Waddington).  Raven has embarked on a quest to discover the lost city of Opar, said to by the birthplace of civilization.  While Tarzan begins his gorilla war against Waddington, Jane arrives in Africa and joins Tarzan in his bid to stop Waddington from finding Opar and looting it of its secrets and treasures.

Tarzan and the Lost City was the first Tarzan movie filmed entirely in Africa, and that gives the film a sense of realism, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.  Tarzan, who first appeared in the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is a fantasy.  He’s larger than life, and he belonged to an era when people still romanticized the mythical great white hunter and the idea that a smart white man could, just on his superior intellect and physical superiority, conquer the mysterious and unexplored jungle worlds.

That said, this is a mildly entertaining flick, a few steps above a TV movie, and Christopher Franke’s score (which recalls strains of John Williams’ Raiders of the Lost Ark music) gives this film the feel of an epic adventure.  Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers) is a credible Tarzan, and he almost, but not quite, copies the famous yell of the most famous film Tarzan, Johnny Weissmuller.

5 of 10

C+

Original:  Saturday, May 27, 2006

Update:  Saturday, August 02, 2014

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: Kurt Russell is the Soul of "Soldier" (Happy B'day, Kurt Russell)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 7 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux

Soldier (1998)
Running time:  99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence and brief language
DIRECTOR:  Paul Anderson
WRITER:  David Webb Peoples
PRODUCER:  Jerry Weintraub
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  David Tattersall (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Martin Hunter
COMPOSER:  Joel McNeely

SCI-FI/ACTION with elements of a thriller

Starring:  Kurt Russell, Jason Scott Lee, Jason Isaacs, Connie Nielsen, Sean Pertwee, Jared Thorne, Taylor Thorne, Mark Bringleson, and Gary Busey

The subject of this movie review is Soldier, a 1998 science fiction and action film from director Paul W.S. Anderson.  The film focuses on a discarded soldier who defends crash survivors on a waste disposal planet from the genetically-engineered soldiers ordered to eliminate them.

At the beginning of director Paul Anderson and writer David Webb Peoples’s sci-fi action film, Soldier, the military industrial complex chooses it soldiers from the cradle, from where they are taken and turned into barely human killing machines.  The best of the lot is Todd 3465 (Kurt Russell).  Todd 3465 or Sergeant Todd is an efficient, effective soldier who does nothing but follow orders to the letter.  [This is funny now, but at the time of this film’s release, I thought that Russell seemed to be one of a relatively small number of Hollywood actors who could convincingly play a heterosexual man a/k/a “a real man.”)

After one of his genetically engineered replacements defeats him and leaves him for dead, the military dumps Todd’s body on a remote planetoid, Arcadia 234.  There, Todd encounters a peaceful community of castaways who teach him about a life without the destruction of war.  Later, Todd’s super-soldier replacements arrive on the planet for military exercises.  Now, Todd must take up the colonists’ defense, after the soldiers are ordered to kill the settlers.

While Peoples’s script hints at multiple layers and subtexts, Anderson’s direction is too busy to bother with stories and ideas.  Peoples, the writer of Blade Runner and Unforgiven, is an excellent screenwriter, but his vision is often supplanted by the director’s goals.  Ridley Scott unleashed a visual feast with Blade Runner, while delivering Peoples’s ideas through pictures rather than spoken words.  Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven was a kind of apology to his gunfighter pictures, but he managed to deliver his sermon by mostly keeping Peoples’s work intact.

Anderson (Mortal Kombat and Event Horizon), at the precipice of being a hack or a halfway decent director-for-hire, looses Peoples in a series of standard action film clichés and direction-by-numbers staging.  Still, Peoples basic story is so strong that it shines through even the bad shots like those that have Russell standing in the foreground while explosions in the background tear the world apart.  Russell, however, doesn’t get the directorial shaft like his co-stars do.

Caine 607 (Jason Scott Lee, Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story), Todd’s genetically engineered opposite, is ripe for metaphoric play as Todd’s counterpart.  His screen time barely registers; our only solace for how good the Todd/Caine dynamic might have been is their end battle.  Sandra (Connie Nielsen, Gladiator), a beautiful colonist who draws Todd’s stares, is lost in the haze of soft lens shots.  She is certainly beautiful, and Anderson never lets us forget that.  He traps Sandra in a snow globe; he softly lights every close-up of her and turns her into a porcelain doll.  She seems like a good character, but this is an action movie and we can’t be bothered with girls’ stories.

What really carries the movie is the mostly silently relationship between Todd and Sandra’s small son, Nathan (Jared Thorne).  Todd rarely speaks, and when he does, it’s mostly “yes’s” and “sir’s.”  It was the way he was both reared and trained, an unquestioning soldier who silently went about his brutal duty.  Nathan cannot speak because of a serpent’s bite.  His placid face is silent, and the only thing one can read from his piercing gaze is need.  Nathan needs Todd to protect him, and Todd needs Nathan to help him to gain some measure of being a human.  Todd can learn to defend Nathan both as a soldier and as a father, while Nathan can learn to defend himself, yet remain a peaceful human.

Russell is boyish as Todd, and he never lets Todd lose the boy that learned to be a killing machine; watching Russell’s stone face is also like watching the boy Todd through the shadows that linger on Todd’s face.  Russell’s cinematic presence speaks loud volumes of his character; the story is in him, and the audience must ever watch him to learn it.  Russell built his body solidly and strongly, eschewing the artificiality of bodybuilding.  It gives him an earthy ruggedness that hints at a man of base origins.  His facial expressions mirror the youthfulness of Nathan’s face and makes them counterparts.  Nathan is Todd, a blank slate ready to mold as Todd was, and perhaps it is Todd who will mold him, but not with the brutality with which the military molded him.

There is much to the Todd/Nathan relationship, as there is to this entire movie.  However, Anderson, like the serpent that stole Nathan’s speech and like the military machines strangled Todd’s voice, silences this movie with a heavy handiness that reveals someone determined bring a product to the market and not a story to the audience.

It is a testament to Russell’s star presence and acting ability that this movie is still worth watching.

6 of 10
B

Updated:  Monday, March 17, 2014


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Bride of Chucky" Revived the Franchise

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 130 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Bride of Chucky (1998)
Running time:  89 minutes (1 hour, 29 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong horror violence and gore, language, and some sexual content, and brief drug use
DIRECTOR:  Ronny Yu
WRITER:  Don Mancini (based upon characters he created)
PRODUCERS:  David Kirschner and Grace Gilroy
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Peter Pau
EDITORS:  Randolph K. Bricker and David Wu
COMPOSER:  Graeme Revell

HORROR/COMEDY

Starring:  Jennifer Tilly (also voice), Brad Dourif (voice), Nick Stabile, Katherine Heigl, Gordon Michael Woolvett, Alexis Arquette, John Ritter, and Kathy Najimy

The subject of this movie review is Bride of Chucky, a 1998 horror-comedy from director Ronny Yu.  This was the fourth movie in the Child’s Play film franchise, and the first released since 1991’s Child’s Play 3.  With Bride of Chucky, the franchise changed in tone, emphasizing black comedy and parody (of itself and other films).  The franchise also started to use the name “Chucky” in the film titles, instead of Child’s Play.

Chucky, the doll possessed by a serial killer, discovers the perfect mate to kill and revive into the body of another doll.  The fourth film in the Child’s Play series, Bride of Chucky, takes the inherent humor of the series and moves it up about three notches.  So how does Chucky (voice of Brad Dourif), the murderous doll, come back from the dead for a sequel after being killed again and again?

Chucky, of course, was once a human and the mass murderer, Charles Lee Ray, who used some kind of magic (voodoo) spell to transfer his spirit from his mortally wounded body into that of a “Chucky” doll.  Ray’s plan was to transfer his spirit into another body, but that failed over the course of three Child’s Play movies.  Now, in Bride of Chucky, Charles Lee Ray’s girlfriend, a wannabe killer named Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly), bribes a policeman to steal the “Chucky” doll (from Child’s Play 3, in which is was almost completely destroyed) from the evidence room in which it’s hidden.  After dispatching the dumb pig, Tiffany uses voodoo to revive Charles Lee Ray’s spirit and bring the Chucky doll back to life.  However, Chucky isn’t showing Tiffany the love and respect she thought he’d give her as a reward for reviving him.  Pissed off at her antics, Chucky kills Tiffany and uses the same voodoo that transferred his spirit from his dying human body into the Chucky doll (as seen in the first Child’s Play) to transfer Tiffany’s spirit into a bridal doll.

After some initial disagreements, the murderous doll couple, Chucky and Tiffany, band together and coerce two teen lovers-on-the-run, Jesse (Nick Stabile) and Jade (Katherine Heigl) to transport them to the New Jersey graveyard where Charles Lee Ray is buried.  Jesse and Jade are unaware of Chucky and Tiffany’s diabolical plan.  The evil dolls want to use a Satanic voodoo amulet on Ray’s corpse to transfer their spirits in the young lovers’ bodies.

Bride of Chucky doesn’t take itself seriously, but the movie isn’t the kind of comedy that pokes fun of slasher movie conventions and clichés.  Bride of Chucky is less like Scream and more in the vein of something like The Evil Dead.  Chucky creator Don Mancini’s script is a funny and as sarcastic and caustic as Mancini’s earlier Child’s Play scripts.  However, it is director Ronny Yu who seems to take most delight in turning up the comedy even more and transforming this entry in franchise into a gleefully insane and mean-spirited delight.  He seems to go out of his way to offend the sensibilities of even the most tolerant horror movie fans.

It’s that “don’t give a fuck” attitude, probably best exemplified in the delightful voice work of Brad Dourif as Chucky and the special effects work on the doll that makes this film series unique, and Dourif, Mancini, Yu, and the effects crew raise their game for this film.  Although there are times that this film goes too far in terms of violence and seems a bit too bloody, Bride of Chucky is a slasher movie delight, and for this horror fan, damn fun to watch.

7 of 10
B+

Updated:  Monday, October 07, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Small Soldiers" is Hugely Entertaining (Remembering Jerry Goldsmith)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 60 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Small Soldiers (1998)
Running time:  110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some menacing violence/action and brief drug references
DIRECTOR:  Joe Dante
WRITERS:  Gavin Scott, Adam Rifkin, and Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio
PRODUCERS:  Michael Finnell and Colin Wilson
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Jamie Anderson
EDITORS:  Marshall Harvey and Michael Thau
COMPOSER:  Jerry Goldsmith

FANTASY/SCI-FI/ACTION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY

Starring:  Gregory Smith, Kirsten Dunst, Jay Mohr, David Cross, Denis Leary, Kevin Dunn, Ann Magnuson, Phil Hartman, Jacob Smith, Wendy Schaal, and Dick Miler and the voices of Tommy Lee Jones, Frank Langella, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, Bruce Dern, George Kennedy, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Clint Walker, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Christina Ricci, and Harry Shearer

The subject of this movie review is Small Soldiers, a 1998 science fiction, fantasy, and action film from director Joe Dante.  The film depicts a small war between two groups of action figures brought to life by new technology.  Small Soldiers remains one of my all-time favorite films.

Joe Dante directed Gremlins, the tale of toy-like creatures besieging a small town.  He returned to a similar toys-come-to-life theme in the 1998 DreamWorks film, Small Soldiers.  When computer chips manufactured for military use end up in a line of action figures, the toys come to life with minds of their own.  One group, the Commando Elite, is composed of military action figures, kind of like an extreme version of G.I. Joe.  The second group is a collection of monsters and creatures called the Gorgonites.  The Commando Elite, led by Major Chip Hazard (voice of Tommy Lee Jones), are programmed to destroy the Gorgonites, led by the wise Archer (voice of Frank Langella), who are programmed to lose to the Commando Elite.

Alan Abernathy (Gregory Smith) is manning the counter of his father, Stuart’s (Kevin Dunn) old-fashioned toy store, The Inner Child, when he spots a shipment of Commando Elite and Gorgonite toys on a delivery truck.  He convinces the delivery driver to give him a case of each toy set, but he doesn’t know that once he opens the box, he’s also activated the toys, which are actually intelligent because of the military chips in them.  Then, the Commando Elite begin hunting Archer.  When Alan unknowingly takes Archer (who’s hiding in Alan’s bag) home with him, Chip Hazard and the rest of the Elite mark him for annihilation along with the Gorgonites.  Soon Alan’s neighbors, including a classmate to whom he’s attracted, Christy Fimple (Kirsten Dunst), are marked for death as collaborationists with the Gorgonites.  Now, Alan, Christy, both their families, and two developers from the toy manufacturer (Jay Mohr and David Cross) must not only defend themselves from the Commando Elite, they must also stop the toys for good.

The characters in Small Soldiers aren’t that well developed, but they’re more broad archetypes than caricatures.  Gregory Smith’s Alan is the outsider boy, one with a bit of a rebellious streak, and he’s more spirited and strong-willed than his slight build would suggest.  Kirsten Dunst’s Christy Fimple is the all-American girl-next-door who is much wiser and more open minded than her contemporaries.  They make a good screen couple, and Smith and Ms. Dunst act as if they’ve done this before.  Tommy Lee Jones’ voice over performance as Major Chip Hazard is surprisingly good and really sells the film.  His Hazard voice is a mixture of tongue-in-cheek humor, sarcasm, laid-back disdain, and menace.  The rest of the cast fits in well, but really don’t do much until the final act.

Small Soldiers was a moderate box office success.  The film is a bit old for the small children who would play with toys like the Commando Elite and Gorgonites, and would certainly not interest the older teens and twenty-something males who see war action/adventure films.  Still, it’s a good satire of the violent mentality that says we must hate, fight, kill, and destroy those who are supposed to be our enemies or those we were taught or programmed to believe deserve destruction.

The film really is fun (I’ve seen it twice.), and Joe Dante has the knack for never taking his films too seriously.  He can both make his point and make entertaining films with fantastical settings or creatures.  Dante fills Small Soldiers with references to other films that augment the tale he’s telling.  Like his other films, the aforementioned Gremlins and Piranha and The Howling, he takes the ridiculous and gives it humor and bite, and Small Soldiers surely is an edgy little comedy about a small war and the small-minded reasons for fighting it.

8 of 10
A

Updated: Sunday, July 21, 2013

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Review: Characters Grow in "Star Trek: Insurrection"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 218 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
Running time: 103 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)
MPAA – PG for sci-fi action violence, mild language, and sensuality
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Frakes
WRITERS: Michael Piller; from a story by Michael Piller and Rick Berman (based upon the TV series “Star Trek” created by Gene Roddenberry)
PRODUCER: Rick Berman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Matthew F. Leonetti (director of photography)
EDITOR: Peter E. Berger
COMPOSER: Jerry Goldsmith

SCI-FI/ACTION/DRAMA with elements of mystery

Starring: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, F. Murray Abraham, Donna Murphy, Anthony Zerbe, Gregg Henry, Daniel Hugh Kelly, and Michael Welch

The subject of this movie review is Star Trek: Insurrection, a 1998 science fiction-action movie from director Jonathan Frakes, who is also a Star Trek cast member. Insurrection is the ninth film in the Star Trek film franchise.

The television cast of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (1987-94) blast into its third Trek feature film, Star Trek: Insurrection. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) leads his crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E to a mysterious world where metaphasic radiation has altered the aging process of its 600 inhabitants. The Federation (of which the Enterprise is a representative) has been secretly studying the inhabitants of the planet, humanoids known as the Ba’ku.

Data (Brent Spiner) was part of the research team on the planet, but he inexplicably rebels against them and attempts to destroy the secret research station. As Picard and company try to unravel why Data went berserk, they slowly unravel a conspiracy involving Vice-Admiral Dougherty (Anthony Zerbe), a shady Federation high official, and Ad-har Ru’afo (F. Murray Abraham), an alien leader determined to harness the planet’s power – even if it means the destruction of the Ba’ku.

Star Trek: Insurrection is an entertaining Star Trek flick, not great, but entertaining, still. As Capt. Picard, Patrick Stewart once again soars with the character, giving him more dramatic punch than in the TV series. Jonathan Frakes also improves on Commander William T. Riker, making him an affable fellow and a stout warrior (too bad we won’t get a Trek series with him as the lead). This film is notable for Oscar winner (and multiple nominee) F. Murray Abraham playing a Trek villain. Abraham is a great all-around actor who infuses his roles with drama, and his presence always enriches those films in which he appears – as he does with Star Trek: Insurrection.

6 of 10
B

Sunday, October 22, 2006

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Review: "Halloween H20" is a Standout in the Franchise

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 82 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
Running time: 86 minutes (1 hour, 26 minutes)
MPAA – R for terror violence/gore and language
DIRECTOR: Steve Miner
WRITERS: Robert Zappia and Matt Greenberg; from a story by Robert Zappia (based on the characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill)
PRODUCER: Paul Freeman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Daryn Okada
EDITOR: Patrick Lussier
COMPOSER: John Ottman with Marco Beltrami and Jeremy Sweet

HORROR/THRILLER

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, Adam Arkin, Michelle Williams, LL Cool J, Adam Hann-Byrd, Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, Janet Leigh, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nancy Stephens, and Chris Durand

The subject of this movie review is Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, a 1998 slasher film from director Steve Miner. Although he is only credited as one of the executive producers, Kevin Williamson, the screenwriter of the hit horror movie, Scream, contributed as a writer on Halloween H20.

Halloween H20 is also the seventh film in the Halloween horror film franchise that began in 1978 with the highly influential John Carpenter film, Halloween. Halloween H20 takes place 20 years after the events depicted in Halloween and its sequel, Halloween II (1981). Once again, the cursed brother-sister duo of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode must struggle against one another. Halloween H20 ignores the third (which did not involve Michael Myers) through the sixth installments of the franchise.

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later opens in 1998. As Halloween approaches, Michael Myers (Chris Durand) reappears. Meanwhile, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is living in Summer Glen, Northern California under the assumed name, “Keri Tate.” She is the headmistress at the posh, secluded, private boarding school, Hillcrest Academy High School. Laurie also has a boyfriend, Will Brennan (Adam Arkin), but her life isn’t quite perfect. She is a functioning alcoholic, forever fearful that Michael will come coming looking for her. Her son, 17-year-old John Tate (Josh Hartnett), is tired of dealing with his mother’s paranoia. On Halloween night, however, John will discover that his mother has to face her fears one more time.

I have to keep it real. I really like Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. I have seen it in its entirety three times, and I still watch bit and pieces of it whenever it is shown on television. It never fails to thrill me, and it is easily the best Halloween film since the first two. I give a lot of the credit for this movie’s quality to director Steve Miner and the various screenwriters.

Miner is a veteran film director, having helmed several horror films, including House (1986), Lake Placid (1999), and two installments of the Friday the 13th franchise. Miner uses some of the techniques that Carpenter used in the original film. He builds intensity with musical cues, eschews gore in scenes of violent death, uses darkness and shadow to create an atmosphere that suggests fear and mystery, and turns every setting into a place of danger, regardless of the time of day. Halloween H20 is quiet and ominous rather than frantic and clumsy, which some of the Halloween films are.

I don’t know which writers contributed what to the screenplay, but clearly (to me at least) the respect for the original films comes first for Kevin Williamson. Halloween H20 is smooth and also stripped down to its raw essence: Michael Myers’ relentless drive to kill his sister and Laurie’s naked fear of Michael finding her and killing both her and her son.

Without John Carpenter and actress Jamie Lee Curtis, the Myers character had not been able to carry this franchise. With Myers alone, each Halloween was simply another bad slasher flick – a movie that was little more than product turned out, like a cheap fast food hamburger, to separate a sucker from his money. With Miner doing his best work, Curtis returns and makes Halloween H20: 20 Years Later one of the best horror movies of the 1990s. It is scary, thrilling, a little funny, and sometimes a nail-biter. The people that control this franchise should have stopped here.

8 of 10
A

Thursday, November 01, 2012

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"Ringu" a Gooseflesh Generator

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 145 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


Ringu (1998)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Japanese
Running time: 96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)
Not rated by the MPAA
DIRECTOR: Hideo Nakata
WRITER: Hiroshi Takahashi (from the novel by Kôji Suzuki)
PRODUCERS: Takashige Ichise, Shin'ya Kawai, and Takenori Sentô
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jun'ichirô Hayashi
EDITOR: Nobuyuki Takahashi
COMPOSER: Kenji Kawai

HORROR/MYSTERY with elements of a thriller

Starring: Nanako Matsushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rikiya Otaka, and Katsumi Muramatsu

The subject of this movie review is the 1998 Japanese horror film, Ring, which is better known under the title, Ringu. The film is directed by Hideo Nakata and is based upon Ring, a 1991 novel by Kôji Suzuki. Ringu was released in the United States and the United Kingdom in 2000.

In this film, there is an urban legend in Japan that if you watch a peculiar videotape, you will die a week later. After watching a mysterious videotape, a group of teenagers die gruesome deaths. One of the teenagers was the niece of reporter Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima), who had been trailing the urban legend of the cursed videotape for her newspaper. But her niece’s death troubles her and makes her believe that there may be some validity to the story. She tracks the tape to a mountain resort and watches it, and immediately after gets a phone call promising death in seven days. Reiko panics and fears for her life, so she calls on the help of her ex-husband Ryuji Takayama (Hiroyuki Sanada), who may actually already know something about the strange girl on the tape. Time becomes of the utmost purpose when the divorced couple’s young son, Yoichi (Rikiya Otaka), watches the tape, so they must uncover the secret of breaking the tape’s curse to save all their lives.

Ringu was the subject of a 2002 remake from DreamWorks Pictures called The Ring. Both films are based upon Kôji Suzuki novel, Ring (the first in a horror trilogy). Both films are similar, although Ringu is not as oblique as The Ring. Director Hideo Nakata drenches his films in deep and penetrating shadows, and haunting reflections suddenly appear dreamily in reflective surfaces when you least (but should) expect it. Even the daylight is filled with a sense of the haunted and the foreboding, and the most benign everyday sounds, such as a phone ringing, hints at evil. Nakata, more than Gore Verbinski did in his remake, creates the overwhelming suggestion that around every corner and just over one’s shoulder is doom and gruesome death.

Nakata’s best feat, however, may be in that he surrounds the cast with a sense of normal, everyday life. There is the illusion that everything is normal, and that what goes on every day happens this very day. But just beneath the normalcy is another real world of horror and creeping evil. That’s the scariest kind of horror of all.

8 of 10
A

Review: "Rush Hour" is Decent Entertainment (Happy B'day, Chris Tucker)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 112 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Rush Hour (1998)
Running time: 97 minutes (1 hour, 37 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of action/violence, shootings, and for language
DIRECTOR: Brett Ratner
WRITERS: Jim Kouf and Ross LaManna; from a story by Ross LaManna
PRODUCERS: Roger Birnbaum, Jonathan Glickman, and Artur Sarkissian
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Adam Greenberg
EDITOR: Mark Helfrich
COMPOSER: Lalo Schifrin

ACTION/COMEDY/CRIME

Starring: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Tzi Ma, Tom Wilkinson, Ken Leung, Julia Hsu, Elizabeth Pena, Philip Baker Hall, Rex Linn, Mark Rolston, and Chris Penn

The subject of this movie review is Rush Hour, a 1998 action comedy film from director Brett Ratner. The film stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker and was the first in a franchise of three films (thus far).

In the action/comedy, Rush Hour, the Fastest Hands in the East meet the Biggest Mouth in the West when two detectives from different worlds come together. They quickly discover that they don’t like each other, but are forced to work together to save the life of a little girl.

Hong Kong Detective Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) comes to the United States to assist in the investigation of a kidnapped girl. The girl, Soo Young (Julia Hsu), and her father, Consul Han (Tzi Ma), the head of Hong Kong’s U.S. consulate, are close friends of Lee. However, the FBI doesn’t want Lee to participate in the investigation. Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) of the LAPD also wants to get in on the investigation, but the FBI only wants him around to be escort Lee and keep him away from the investigation. Neither Lee nor Carter is willing to be relegated to the sidelines, and they begin their own mission to rescue the Soo Young. However, they’re up against the mysterious Hong Kong crime lord Juntao and his vicious henchman, Sang (Ken Leung), so Lee and Carter are getting all they can handle and more.

Rush Hour succeeds because of the chemistry between the two leads. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker seem like a natural fit. Perhaps, one of the reasons the pairing works is because each actor has several scenes alone, which allows each actor to do the things that audiences expect of him – martial arts from Chan and brash, edgy, streetwise comedy from Tucker. In that way, when they are together, we can enjoy them instead of pining for what we expect from them as solo performers.

The film is written and directed as if it were a cheap knockoff of Beverly Hills Cop and Lethal Weapon. Without Chan and Tucker, Rush Hour would have been little better than a direct-to-video action movie, but with them, it is a highly entertaining action/comedy.

6 of 10
B

Friday, August 03, 2007

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Review: "Half Baked" is All Good (Happy B'day, Dave Chappelle)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 20 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Half Baked (1998)
Running time: 83 minutes (1 hour, 23 minutes)
MPAA – R for pervasive drug content, language, nudity, and sexual material
DIRECTOR: Tamra Davis
WRITERS: Dave Chappelle and Neal Brennan
PRODUCER: Robert Simonds
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Steven Bernstein
EDITOR: Don Zimmerman, A.C.E.

COMEDY

Starring: Dave Chappelle, Jim Breuer, Harland Williams, Guillermo Diaz, Rachel True. Laura Silverman, and Clarence Williams III, Tommy Chong, Rick Demas, Snoop Dogg, Jon Stewart, Stephen Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Willie Nelson, Jason Blicker, Dave Nichols with (uncredited) Janeane Garofalo, Bob Saget, and Steven Wright

Before Dave Chappelle and Neal Brennan created the popular “Chappelle’s Show” for the Comedy Central cable network in 2003, the duo collaborated on the script for the hilarious pro-marijuana comedy, Half Baked. Although it appeared a good four years before the Chappelle Show likely began production, the film was an introduction to some of the kind of humor that Dave and Neal would feature on the show.

Dave is Thurgood Jenkins, a pot smoker since he was 15-years old. He lives with his three friends Scarface (Guillermo Díaz), Brian (Jim Breuer), and Kenny Davis (Harland Williams), with whom he was introduced to weed, in a ratty apartment in which the boys spend their non-working hours puffin.’ However, when Kenny is arrested for (accidentally) killing a police officer (a diabetic horse he overstuffed with junk food), the trio has to find a way to raise Kenny’s enormous bail so that the can get out of prison before someone invades the sanctity of his virgin butthole, i.e. save him from the trauma of homosexual rape.

Thurgood comes across a scheme to sell high-quality cannabis he steals from a pharmaceutical research lab, and he, Scarface, and Brian do quite well in their little enterprise. However, they earn the ire of Samson Simpson (Clarence Williams III), a drug dealer who wants a cut of their take. Thurgood must also keep his bud-selling enterprise a secret from his new girl friend, Mary Jane Potman (Rachel True), a young woman who hates drug dealers because her father was one and is currently in prison. Can Thurgood keep his new sweetie off the trail of smoke, and can he and his buddies save Kenny’s ass?

Half Baked is simply flat out funny. I liked everyone in the sometimes droll and often vulgar laid back comedy. In fact, Chappelle actually does not steal the show from his cast, especially the hilarious and talented trio of Díaz, Breuer, and Williams. Clarence Williams also shines in a very small part, one of the few times his versatile comedy skit talent comes to life on screen.

Half Baked also features several amusing cameos, but even without them, this movie is… dope and doped up. The film deserves its “R” rating, as it’s actually a “hard” R because of the frequent drug references and a prison shower scene featuring several fully nude men and the threat of prison rape. Still, that should not dissuade mature audiences looking for grown up juvenile comedy, and it might actually attract some folks.

8 of 10
A

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Review: "Batman and Mr. Freeze: SubZero" is a Truly Good Batman Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 49 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero (1998) – straight-to-video
Running time: 70 minutes (1 hour, 10 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Boyd Kirkland
WRITERS: Randy Rogel and Boyd Kirkland (based upon characters appearing in DC Comics and Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger)
PRODUCERS: Randy Rogel and Boyd Kirkland
EDITOR: Al Breitenbach

ANIMATION/ACTION/DRAMA/FANTASY with elements of sci-fi

Starring: (voices) Kevin Conroy, Michael Ansara, Loren Lester, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., George Dzundza, Robert Costanzo, Bob Hastings, Mary Kay Bergman, and Marilu Henner

Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero is a 1998 direct-to-video animated film that is based on the critically acclaimed Batman animated television series, Batman: The Animated Series. This film serves as sequel to the episode “Deep Freeze” (Episode #84) and the 1993 Batman animated feature film, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.

I can only guess that Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero was meant to be some kind of animated tie-in to the 1997 critical disaster and fan and box office disappointment, Batman and Robin. However, where the latter failed, the former proved to be the better version of Batman and “his family” taking on a super criminals.

Directly released for home video in 1998, this Annie Award winner for “Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Home Video Production,” finds Victor Fries a.k.a Mr. Freeze (Michael Ansara) desperate to discover an organ donor to save his wife’s life. Barbara Gordon a.k.a. Batgirl (Mary Kay Bergman in a high quality voiceover performance) fits the rare blood type needed, so Mr. Freeze and an unscrupulous doctor kidnap her. It’s up to Batman and Robin (Kevin Conroy and Loren Lester) to discover who kidnapped Barbara, why, and where have they taken her, because time is running out.

SubZero, of course, falls in with the popular 90’s animated version of Batman, the popular cartoon TV show, “Batman: The Animated Series” (which actually changed names twice) and its theatrical spin-off, Batman: The Mask of the Phantasm. Like the series and movie, the show has a retro 1940’s and art deco sense to its art direction, with a touch of “the world of tomorrow.” The drama, action, and voice acting is better than the drama, action, and acting in the Batman live action series that began in 1989 and ended in 1997. It’s appropriate for kids and will be a treat for adults who don’t mind watching quality animation that isn’t comedy based. Michael Ansara’s voice performance as Mr. Freeze is particularly distinctive and noteworthy.

7 of 10
A-

April 4, 2005

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Review: "A Night at the Roxbury" is Sometimes Funny (Happy B'day, Will Ferrell)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 154 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

A Night at the Roxbury (1998)
Running time: 98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sex related humor, language and some drug content
DIRECTOR: John Fortenberry
WRITERS: Steven Koren and Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan
PRODUCERS: Amy Heckerling and Lorne Michaels
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Francis Kenny
EDITOR: Jay Kamen
COMPOSER: David Kitay

COMEDY

Starring: Chris Kattan, Will Ferrell, Dan Hedaya, Molly Shannon, Richard Grieco, Loni Anderson, Lochlyn Munro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Dwayne Hickman, Meredith Scott Lynn, Colin Quinn, Elisa Donovan, Gigi Rice, Jennifer Coolidge, and (uncredited) Chazz Palminteri

The subject of this movie review is A Night at the Roxbury, a 1998 American comedy film starring Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell. The film is based on the long-running “Saturday Night Live” skit called “The Roxbury Guys,” which also featured Kattan and Ferrell. Amy Heckerling, the director of such films as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Look Who’s Talking, and Clueless, is one of the film’s producers, and she also apparently directed some of this film.

Doug (Chris Kattan) and Steve Butabi (Will Ferrell) are the Roxbury Guys, a long-running skit Kattan and Ferrell performed while they were “Saturday Night Live” cast members. The Butabi Brothers go club hopping, always trying to get in the hottest spot, the hottest spot being, The Roxbury. In A Night at the Roxbury, one of many films adapted from Saturday Night Live skits, the Butabi boys want to open their own club, one as hot as The Roxbury.

Of course, they face many obstacles. Their father Kamehl (Dan Hedaya) wants Steve to marry Emily Sanderson (Molly Shannon) so that he could merge his plastic plant business with Emily’s father’s lamp shop. Doug doesn’t like Emily, and Kamehl doesn’t think much of his son Doug’s intelligence. It doesn’t help that the boys live at home with their parents, so Kamehl is always in their business. They finally get a break when they meet The Roxbury’s owner, Mr. Zadir (Chazz Palminteri), who likes the boys and wants to go in business with them. Zadir’s assistant, Dooey (Colin Quinn) hates the Butabi boys and runs interference to keep them from having that meeting crucial with Mr. Zadir about opening a club. Meanwhile, Emily and Kamehl set a date for the wedding, and Doug severs his close relationship with his brother over the wedding. Will the Butabi Bros. get back together in time to open their dream club?

A Night at the Roxbury is only funny when Kattan and Ferrell are onscreen, and then it’s mostly for their silliness, not for their acting. The film just seems to meander through its plot, and one can’t help but get the feeling that this film is going nowhere, so the Butabi’s desperately need to be on the screen for this film to be tolerable. For all its dilly-dallying, the film suddenly drops its ending in your lap, but other than a few laughs, this is, at best, a temporary distraction. It is a testament to the leads’ styles, that they elicit laughs from mediocre material (material that is surprisingly mediocre when one considers that Clueless director Amy Heckerling and comedy superstar Jim Carrey made substantial uncredited contributions to this film), and their comedic gifts make A Night at the Roxbury worth watching.

5 of 10
C+

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Review: "Pleasantville" is Pleasingly Pleasant

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 156 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux on Patreon

Pleasantville (1998)
Running time: 124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some thematic elements emphasizing sexuality, and for language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Gary Ross
PRODUCERS: Robert J. Degus, Jon Kilik, Gary Ross, and Steven Soderbergh
CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Lindley
EDITOR: William Goldenberg
COMPOSER: Randy Newman
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/DRAMA/FANTASY

Starring: Tobey Maguire, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Reese Witherspoon, Jeff Daniels, Jane Kaczmarek, Don Knotts, Paul Walker, and J.T. Walsh

The subject of this movie review is Pleasantville, a 1998 comedy-drama and fantasy film from writer/director Gary Ross, who would go on to write and direct the Oscar-nominated, Seabiscuit (2003). Pleasantville stars Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon as a brother and sister transported into their television set where they find themselves in the world of a 1950s black and white situation comedy.

It’s premise, especially the device that initiates the premise, is something straight out of pulp science fiction or pulp comics (in particular, EC comics), but Pleasantville ends up being a film poignant and delightful and thought provoking and entertaining. The film begins in the 1990’s with a brother and sister pair. David Wagner (Tobey Maguire), single, lonely, and unhappy, escapes his melancholy reality by watching the nostalgic 1950’s era soap opera, “Pleasantville.” After his TV breaks, a very strange repairman (Don Knott) gives him an equally strange remote control, but his sister, Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon), who is David’s exact opposite (happy and more far more sexually active than her brother), argues with David over watching the TV. During their struggle for the peculiar remote control, it transports the pair into the television to Pleasantville.

Suddenly, David and Jennifer are Bud and Mary-Sue Parker, and they find themselves completely assimilated into the new world. They are now black and white instead of color, and they have new 50’s era clothes. They also have new and different parents Betty (Joan Allen) and George Parker (William H. Macy), more pleasant than the old models. While David decides to blend in with this new world, Jennifer is sexually aggressive with the sexually naïve teenage boys of this “Leave it to Beaver” like world. David/Bud and Jennifer/Mary-Sue’s antics begin to change the world, and one thing leads to another and suddenly there is a vivid, red rose in this black and white world. Soon, the denizens of Pleasantville start to break rules and to break with long held traditions and before long, life is growing ever more colorful in Pleasantville. But not everyone is happy, including Bud and Mary-Sue’s Pleasantville dad and the town council, and they plan to do something about it.

There is so much to like about this movie, especially the wonderful cast. Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon perfectly portray the squabbling pair of siblings, playing them at just the right pitch to make this movie work. However, it is the adult or older actors that sell Pleasantville’s ideas and messages. The themes of conformity, rebellion, marital discord, infidelity, betrayal, loyalty, and mob violence and group-think come to life in the stand out performances of William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels and the late J.T. Walsh. It’s fun to watch Ms. Witherspoon’s antics, and Maguire has that young everyman quality that draws audiences into living vicariously through him, but the older actors shape and structure the elements that define this film.

Many Oscar® watchers had pegged this film as an early favorite to receive some big nominations, but it only earned three Academy Award nominations in the so-called technical categories. I get the feeling that many people were put off by the film. The very things that make it so intriguing – from its ideas to its concept start to fall apart about midway through the film. Slowly, but surely, the structure becomes shaky the longer the film runs. At 124 minutes (2 hours and 4 minutes) this film seems about 20 minutes too long. The last third of the film seems especially too preachy, too obvious, and heavy-handed.

Still, director/screenwriter Gary Ross created an enduring and charming gem; though flawed, it harks back to simply notions and an idealized simpler time in a fictional golden age. But the film does seem to ask, was that time really idealized and just how much is actually fiction about the good old days.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
1999 Academy Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Jeannine Claudia Oppewall and Jay Hart), “Best Costume Design” (Judianna Makovsky), and “Best Music, Original Dramatic Score” (Randy Newman)

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Review: "Shakespeare in Love" is Always a Delight (Happy B'day, Gwyneth Paltrow)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 215 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Running time: 122 minutes (2 hours, 2 minutes)
MPAA – R for sexuality
DIRECTOR: John Madden
WRITERS: Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard
PRODUCERS: Donna Gigliotti, Marc Norman, David Parfitt, Harvey Weinstein, and Edward Zwick
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Richard Greatrex
EDITOR: David Gamble
Academy Award winner

ROMANCE/COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson, Ben Affleck, Judi Dench, Martin Clunes, Simon Callow, Imelda Staunton, Nicholas Le Prevost, and Joe Roberts with Rupert Everett

When Gwyneth Paltrow won the Oscar for “Best Actress in a Leading role” at the 1999 Oscar ceremonies, few were surprised. When the picture in which she starred, Shakespeare in Love, won the “Best Picture” Oscar, jaws around the world dropped; after all, the film to beat was Steven Spielberg’s oh-so-important, Saving Private Ryan. Well, Shakespeare in Love did beat it. Years later, I still would pick Ryan over Shakespeare, but Shakespeare in Love is a much better movie going experience. The film also won Oscars for “Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Judi Dench), “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration,” “Best Costume Design,” “Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score,” and “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.”

What’s the story that captured the hearts and imaginations of moviegoers, film critics, and award givers? It’s 1593, and young playwright William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is a mess. He’s out of ideas, suffering writer’s block, entangled in too many romantic or lustful intrigues, living far way from his wife and children, and he’s out of money. As he struggles to finish his new play, a comedy with the awkward title, Romeo and Ethel the Sea Pirate’s Daughter, he accidentally discovers his muse in a new actor, Thomas Kent (Gwyneth Paltrow). When Kent runs away from his admiring stare, Will Shakespeare chases after him and discovers that Kent is a she, Viola de Lesseps (Ms. Paltrow), the daughter of a wealthy commoner. It’s love at first sight for the both of them, but Viola’s father (Nicholas Le Prevost) has promised his daughter’s hand in marriage to a penniless nobleman, Lord Wessex (Colin Firth).

However, the engagement doesn’t temper their love and they carry on a clandestine affair that leads to the stage. Will gives the part of Romeo to Viola, but her gender remains a secret to him, while the other actors and the backers of the newly renamed Romeo and Juliet believe their Romeo is played by Thomas Kent. (In Elizabethan England, women are not allowed on stage, boys and young men with high voices play the parts of women.) Soon Will and Viola’s affair and secret will be painfully revealed to the world and to her angry husband-to-be.

Shakespeare in Love is light and frothy, but quite entertaining; it is very likely a delight to those familiar with William Shakespeare and his plays. However, the film gives Will such a contemporary spin that even the least informed about Shakespeare may very well like this. Now, for those without a clue, they will have to rely on the filmmaking and storytelling. As a romance, the film often works like a romance novel, or at best, historical fiction: lots of heat, lots of hot lovemaking, and a bit too much overwrought dialogue that too many times comes close to being pure purple prose.

The acting by the leads Ms. Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes is good, but not great. Fiennes’s performance ranges from overdone and pretentious to flamboyant and yearning. Seriously, Ms. Paltrow’s performance is hardly award-winning material, but that’s never stopped Oscar. Still, there’s something about the two of them that makes this work. It’s that intangible element or chemistry that takes everything shoddy or overdone about this film and makes it such a tasty confection, that you’ll come back again and again, even if you keep thinking that there seems to be an awful lot of air packed into this movie ice cream.

There are some very good performances: Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Geoffrey Rush, and Simon Firth. The music is quite good, sweet and pleasant to the ear. The production values give the viewer the sense that they have been transported to somewhere else, another world if not another time. Then again, that intangible something may be director John Madden who brought the ingredients together and made a dessert that deserves encore performances.

7 of 10
A-

NOTES:
1999 Academy Awards: 7 wins: “Best Picture” (David Parfitt, Donna Gigliotti, Harvey Weinstein, Edward Zwick, and Marc Norman), “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Gwyneth Paltrow), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Judi Dench), “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Martin Childs and Jill Quertier), “Best Costume Design” (Sandy Powell), “Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score” (Stephen Warbeck) and “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard); 6 nominations: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Geoffrey Rush), “Best Cinematography” (Richard Greatrex), “Best Director” (John Madden), “Best Film Editing” (David Gamble), “Best Makeup” (Lisa Westcott and Veronica McAleer), and “Best Sound” (Robin O'Donoghue, Dominic Lester, and Peter Glossop)

1999 BAFTA Awards: 3 wins: “Best Film” (David Parfitt, Donna Gigliotti, Harvey Weinstein, Edward Zwick, and Marc Norman), “Best Editing” (David Gamble), and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Judi Dench); 12 nominations: “Asquith Award for Film Music” (Stephen Warbeck), “Best Cinematography” (Richard Greatrex), “Best Costume Design” (Sandy Powell), “Best Make Up/Hair” (Lisa Westcott), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Joseph Fiennes), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Geoffrey Rush), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (Tom Wilkinson), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Gwyneth Paltrow), “Best Production Design” (Martin Childs), “Best Screenplay – Original” (Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard), “Best Sound” (Peter Glossop, John Downer, Robin O'Donoghue, and Dominic Lester), and “David Lean Award for Direction” (John Madden)

1999 Golden Globes: 3 wins: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical,” “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical” (Gwyneth Paltrow), and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard); 3 nominations: “Best Director - Motion Picture” (John Madden), “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Geoffrey Rush), and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Judi Dench)

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Review: "The Big Lebowski" is Surreal, Screwy, Unforgettable

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 130 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Big Lebowski (1998)
Running time: 117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)
MPAA – R for pervasive strong language, drug content, sexuality and brief violence
DIRECTOR: Joel Coen
WRITERS: Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
PRODUCER: Ethan Coen
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roger Deakins
EDITORS: Tricia Cooke and Roderick Jaynes (Joel and Ethan Coen)
COMPOSER: Carter Burwell

COMEDY/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tara Reid, Flea, John Turturro, Peter Stormare, Torsten Voges, David Thewlis, Marshall Manesh, Jon Polito, Ben Gazzara, Leon Russom, Ajgie Kirkland, Aimee Mann, and Sam Elliot

For their seventh film together, the Coen Brothers (co-writer/producer Ethan and co-writer/director Joel) tackle the screwball comedy in The Big Lebowski. Coming off their Oscar win for writing the brilliant Fargo, it was a daring project that could have turned off the audiences that were coming as a result of seeing Fargo. I don’t think the Coen’s gave a damn. They have a vision of how to tell a story using film as their medium, and they build a movie around their vision.

In the film, Jeffrey Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), known by everyone as The Dude (in fact, that is the name he prefers), receives a visit from a few thugs looking for money owed to their boss by the missus, Bunny (Tara Reid). Truth is they have the wrong Lebowski; there is another Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston), a millionaire, and Bunny is his trophy wife. One of the intruders takes a whiz on The Dude’s rug, so naturally The Dude seeks recompense from Bunny’s hubby, the other Lebowski. This case of mistaken identity ensnares to The Dude in a web of abduction and competing interests with The Dude and his temperamental homeboy, Walter Sobchak (John Goodman), right in the middle.

The Coen’s are without a doubt two of the premiere creators of surreal films. They embrace classic Hollywood style with a post modern skewed view. The Big Lebowski is part Woody Allen and part David Lynch in the brothers’ approach to character and story. The abduction of Bunny uncoils into a delightful mixture of wacky comedy and film noir whodunit. As in all their films, there is always a sense of dread, however small, and as usual Joel can weave a thriller out of the most benign and ordinary events. It’s as if what seems really obvious and ordinary is also the unknown, and the unknown is so far “out there” and potentially dangerous.

Perhaps the thing that really makes a Coen film is the cast. Without good character actors, the brothers couldn’t sell us their strange brews. Amidst a stellar cast of players, Jeff Bridges and John Goodman, especially Bridges, carry this film. They have great chemistry together, and Bridges, one of the finest actors of the last two decades can carry two films at once on the broad back of his immense talent. This movie is almost totally from his point of view, and we have to buy into his character. If we don’t believe that he is who he says he is and that he believes what he believes, The Big Lebowski would be just a failed mainstream pic playing at being indie cool. The Big Lebowski is bravura work from two great American filmmakers, and they once again show their savvy by picking just the right guy to make this movie really soar.

8 of 10
A

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Review: First "Blade" is Still Cool

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 23 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Blade (1998)
Running time: 120 minutes (2 hours)
MPAA – R for strong, pervasive vampire violence and gore, language, and brief sexuality
DIRECTOR: Stephen Norrington
WRITER: David S. Goyer (based upon characters created in the comic book Tomb of Dracula by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan)
PRODUCERS: Robert Engelman, Peter Frankfurt, and Wesley Snipes
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Theo van de Sande (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Paul Rubell
COMPOSER: Mark Isham

HORROR/ACTION/FANTASY/MARTIAL ARTS

Starring: Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson, N’Bushe Wright, Donal Logue, Udo Kier, Arly Jover, Traci Lords, Kevin Patrick Walls, and Sanaa Lathan

Blade (Wesley Snipes) is a vampire hunter. Born Eric Brooks, his mother died from a vampire attack, and Eric, still in the womb, underwent a change in his DNA, which made him part human and part vampire. He has all the vampires' strengths but none of their weakness. As a adult, Blade seeks revenge on all vampires.

Blade’s war on the vampire nation focuses on Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), an ambitious bloodsucker who plans to resurrect the vampire god, La Magra. Blade rescues Dr. Karen Jenson (N’Bushe Wright), a doctor attacked by one of Frost’s henchmen, and she joins Blade and his fellow soldier/father figure Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) in the battle to stop Frost and his world ending plans.

Directed by Stephen Norrington, Blade is an exhilarating, action thriller/horror. Before The Matrix, Blade featured sped up motion and high tech chop socky. With a pumped up electronica soundtrack and the visual panache of a music video, Blade didn’t have to lean on its skimpy story. It is amazing eye candy: cool, fast paced, violent, gory; it is a part arcade game, part music video, horror movie, action movie, and all around good time.

The performances are decent. Snipes is dead on monotone as the super vampire killer, and Dorff is the delightful, eternally young and sexy bad boy. Kristofferson is cardboard gruff and Ms. Wright is earnest, if not a bit over reaching, in her determination to act like the serious doctor/scientist.

A review can’t really do this very fun film the justice it deserves. Blade is not smart. It’s perfect action movie entertainment that delivers much more than it initially seems to offer. Reading this won’t do it. Blade and Deacon Frost are all bad boy cool with a very good movie as the backdrop. Just see the damn thing for yourself.

7 of 10
A-

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