Morgan Freeman Quite Good (of course) in "Along Came a Spider"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 15 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux


Along Came a Spider (2001)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence and language
DIRECTOR: Lee Tamahori
WRITER: Marc Moss (based upon the novel by James Patterson)
PRODUCERS: David Brown and Joe Wizan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Matthew F. Leonetti
EDITOR: Neil Travis
COMPOSER: Jerry Goldsmith

CRIME/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Morgan Freeman, Monica Potter, Michael Wincott, Dylan Baker, Mika Boreem, Anton Yelchin, Kimberly Hawthorne, Jay O. Sanders, Billy Burke, Penelope Ann Miller, Anna Maria Hosford, and Michael Moriarty

The subject of this movie review is Along Came a Spider, a 2001 crime thriller and police procedural directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Morgan Freeman as Alex Cross. The film is adapted from James Patterson’s 1993 novel, Along Came a Spider, which was the first Alex Cross novel. However, the second Cross novel, Kiss the Girls (1995), was the first to be filmed, in 1997 and also starring Freeman.

When a teacher at a private school kidnaps a Congressman’s daughter right under the Secret Service’s nose, Detective Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) must find the child. The clever kidnapper, named Gary Soneji (Michael Wincott), sucks Alex into the case to make a name for himself. Alex must be sharp as ever in the game against an insane opponent though he still grieves for his partner who was recently killed during a stake out.

Along Came a Spider is a follow-up of sorts to Kiss the Girls, a previous film adaptation of a James Patterson novel, which also featured the Alex Cross, an African-American, Washington D.C. detective and profiler. While the latter film was slow and clunky, Along Came a Spider is brisk and breezy, and maybe a little too much of that at times, but a better effort than its predecessor. It certainly doesn’t seem like one of those numerous Silence of the Lambs copycats.

Director Tamahori (Once Were Warriors) chases Cross around the Washington locales, but the locales are window dressings behind the mind and presence of Cross. Freeman is of course, brilliant and convincing as Cross. Freeman plays him as sensitive, brave, earthy, and a rough neck when he has to be. Freeman, alone as the best American actor before Kevin Spacey exploded, is worth the price of admission, and Tamahori knows this. Tamahori is good, and he realizes how to capture on film the tension and detail of Patterson’s giant novels. Adapting a Patterson police procedural is difficult, but Tamahori and writer Marc Moss distill the novel’s spirit into Cross. The audience then has to read the story through Cross via his actions and personality. A lesser actor would be lost in converting the text of the novel into film; Freeman is up to the task and is the storyteller as much as, or perhaps more so than, Tamahori and Moss.

Although mostly driven by Cross’s character, Spider allows Soneji some good moments of his own. Cross’s tag along partner, Jezzie Flannigan (Monica Potter) slyly dominates quite a bit of the film with her ambiguous and plastic facial expressions. The victim, Megan Rose (Mike Boreem), has an endearing personality. As Rose, Ms. Boreem is the rare child thespian, an actor and not a pretender. She convinces that she is as smart, as brave, and as spunky as the character is supposed to be.

While on the surface Along Came a Spider is a by the numbers hunt and chase story in which the quarry is one of those mad genius criminals, it is a tour de force of Freeman’s screen presence. Not high art in and of itself, it is good Hollywood product. The art is in Freeman’s talent, and worth repeated viewings just for the man.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2002 Image Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Morgan Freeman)

2011 Kansas City FilmFest Begins Wednesday, April 6th

A Five-Day Feast of Films Kicks off at the AMC Theatres® Kansas City FilmFest

AMC Mainstreet 6 Hosts the 15th Annual Film Festival from April 6-10

KANSAS CITY, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AMC Theatres (AMC), a leading theatrical exhibition and entertainment company headquartered in Kansas City, and the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee proudly announce the details about the AMC Theatres Kansas City FilmFest, where you can see 135 diverse short and feature films by both local international filmmakers from 33 countries, including 13 feature-length films, all at AMC Mainstreet 6 from April 6-10.

Opening Night Double Feature: (Wednesday, April 6 at 6:30 p.m. for $20 at AMC Mainstreet 6)

HAPPY NEW YEAR – Stars Michael Cuomo and showed at South by Southwest® Film Conference and Festival

THE DEVIL'S DOUBLE – Latest from Director Lee Tamahori, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival

Special Outdoor Benefit Screening: (Thursday, April 7 at 7 p.m. for $5 at the Kansas City Power & Light District)

COST OF A SOUL – Winner of the Big Break Movie Contest sponsored by AMC independent™ and Relativity Media’s Rogue, with Director Sean Kirkpatrick in attendance and the $5 ticket price benefiting Variety – The Children’s Charity of Kansas City

Special Benefit Screening: (Friday, April 8 at 7 p.m. for $20 at AMC Mainstreet 6)

THE RIDE – Documentary of Phil Keoghan’s cross-continent bicycle trek to raise awareness of and funds for multiple sclerosis; half of the proceeds from the screening will benefit multiple sclerosis

Celebrities in Attendance:
Michael Biehn – Actor in THE TERMINATOR, THE VICTIM
Jennifer Blanc Biehn – Producer/Actress in THE VICTIM
Michael Cuomo – Producer/Actor in HAPPY NEW YEAR
Lorrel Manning – Writer/Director of HAPPY NEW YEAR
Phil Keoghan – Director of THE RIDE and Creator of “The Amazing Race”
Andy Anderson – Writer/Director of DETENTION
Michael Almereyda – Writer/Director of HAMLET and PARADISE

Film Journalists in Attendance:
Elvis Mitchell – Film Critic for Movieline.com and host of “The Treatment”
Jeff Goldsmith – Producer of “The Q&A” and former Senior Editor at Creative Screenwriting
Mark Bell – Owner/Publisher of FilmThreat

The AMC Theatres Kansas City FilmFest also offers a variety of educational seminars, each with a $5 admission charge, so that aspiring filmmakers can learn from the experts about how to finance, produce and exhibit their films. Tickets and schedules for the festival are available at http://www.kcfilmfest.org/. Individual tickets are $10 and festival-long passes are $60.

Review: Someone Likes "Next" (Happy B'day, Nicolas Cage)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 141 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Next (2007)
Running time: 96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violent action and some language
DIRECTOR: Lee Tamahori
WRITERS: Gary Goldman, Jonathan Hensleigh, and Paul Bernbaum; from a screen story by Gary Goldman (based upon the short story “The Golden Man” by Philip K. Dick)
PRODUCERS: Nicolas Cage, Norm Golightly, Todd Garner, Arne L. Schmidt, and Graham King
CINEMATOGRAPHER: David Tattersall, BSC
EDITOR: Christian Wagner

ACTION/SCI-FI/THRILLER

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, Thomas Kretschmann, Tory Kittles, and Peter Falk

Starring Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas), Oscar-nominee Julianne Moore (Far From Heaven), and not-hard-on-the-eyes Jessica Biel (The Illusionist), Next is a sci-fi/action flick based upon the 1954 story, “The Golden Man” by the late Philip K. Dick. Dick was the visionary science fiction author whose novels and stories have been adapted into such films as Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Paycheck.

Next focuses on Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage), a Las Vegas magician with a secret gift that is both a blessing and a curse to him. Cris has the uncanny ability to know what will be the next thing that happens to him because he can see two minutes into the future. Performing under the stage name, Frank Cadillac, Cris uses his extrasensory talent to make a living off cheap stage tricks and off his gambling winnings at the blackjack table. His latest project is to find and meet, Liz (Jessica Biel), a young woman who seems to have a strange effect on his powers.

Other eyes, however, have been taking notice of Cris’ talent and dexterity with the portal of time. Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore), an FBI counter-terror agent is eager to tap Cris’ brain to help thwart a terrorist group’s planned attack on Los Angeles with a nuclear time bomb. Using all her wiles, Callie, with the help of a fellow agent, Cavanaugh (Tory Kittles), pursues Cris trying to convince him to help her. When the terrorists, who are also aware of his powers, kidnap Liz, Cris may be forced to put his reluctance aside to save Liz and stop nuclear destruction in California.

Directed by Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors, Die Another Day), Next is an absurd popcorn flick, but easy to watch and enjoy. Of course, it wasn’t really worth a trip to the theatre, as it’s more like a big-budget, prestige “original movie” from the Sci-Fi Channel. Still, it’s occasionally clever, and Tamahori is actually quite good at making action-filled set pieces that somehow manage to catch the attention of an unwary action movie junkie.

Nicolas Cage isn’t very good here, but neither is he very bad. He’s only cheesy bad, as is the rest of the cast. In fact, it’s a good thing that Jessica Biel is easy on the eyes, because her acting talent sure ain’t the thing that is getting her roles. Nicolas Cage is a movie star and there’s something about him on the big screen that is attractive. Put him and Biel together, and that’s not a bad thing, even when it’s not really that good a thing – as in Next.

6 of 10
B

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

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"Die Another Day" Mixes Bond Tradition with Loud Action

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 35 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux


Die Another Day (2002)
Running time: 133 minutes (2 hours, 9 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for action violence and sexuality
DIRECTOR: Lee Tamahori
WRITERS: Neal Purvis and Robert Wade
PRODUCERS: Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: David Tattersall (director of photography)
EDITORS: Andrew MacRitchie and Christian Wagner
SONG: “Die Another Day” by Madonna-music/lyrics and Mirwais Ahmadzaï-music
Golden Globe nominee

ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLER

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike, Rick Yune, Judi Dench, John Cleese, Michael Madsen, Will Yun Lee, Kenneth Tsang, Samantha Bond, and Madonna (no screen credit)

Die Another Day, Pierce Brosnan’s fourth outing as James Bond, Agent 007, is the twentieth film version of Ian Fleming’s classic secret agent/super spy, and many think that the venerable character is showing his age and signs of wear. The issue is merely one of competition. Over the years stunt coordination and computer technology advanced so much that Bond’s low-fi action looked dated next to bigger and louder explosions of other action heroes, secret agents, and troubleshooters.

By the late Eighties, pumped up action thrillers had run Bond out of town; The Living Daylights and License to Kill were not hits and Bond needed a makeover. Post James Cameron’s True Lies, Brosnan became Bond and his first outing, Goldeneye, exploded out of the gate. It wasn’t very good, being more action movie cum video game than secret agent/spy thriller. Maybe the concept is dated and the character a bit long in the tooth, but the producers can still find away to make an exciting action hit.

Die Another Day is high-octane action movie, and it is better than The World is Not Enough and almost as good as Tomorrow Never Dies, the third and second Brosnan Bond films respectively.

The first half is closer in tone to the old Bond. North Korea captures and tortures Bond for 14 months. After his captors work a deal to free him, his masters at M6 cut him loose because they believe the North Koreans broke him during interrogation. Separated from his future tech arsenal and his agency, Bond has to rely on his wits, his smarts, and his experience. The viewer gets to see just how good Bond is and how dangerous a rogue he can be even without an agency to back him. Brosnan was always convincing as Bond. He could be the suave lover and charming chameleon that he needs to be in order to get into places and into people’s heads. Brosnan could also instantly become the ruthless killing machine that is the mark of an agent with a double “O” license.

Bond also meets a mysterious American, Jinx, played to full sexual tilt by Academy Award winner Halle Berry (Monster’s Ball). Together they pursue the pompous Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), a wealthy jetsetter with the usual world beating schemes. Graves is actually a very good and charming villain, and he has a dangerous sidekick, Zao (Rick Yune).

Much of the second half of the film is borderline, pure sci-fi, but in the hands of Lee Tamahori (Along Came a Spider), the action is intense and has the wall-to-wall ferocity of anime (Japanese animated films) and mania of a comic book. The script by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, the screenwriters of The World is Not Enough, is well written and does a good job straddling two film genres – espionage and action. Though the movie runs a bit long, the thrills of the second half are well choreographed and relentless.

Die Another Day has some excellent small parts: John Cleese, in his best outing as Q, Judi Dench as the dour M, and Michael Madsen, always a welcome sight as a tough guy, who should have had a bigger part.

The movie is part secret agent thriller and part loud cartoon. I would like to see more of the former, but, on the whole, it is a very entertaining film and a near perfect film for people who just love loud action movies.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2003 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Madonna-music/lyrics and Mirwais Ahmadzaï-music for the song "Die Another Day")
2003 Black Reel Awards: 1 nomination: “Theatrical - Best Supporting Actress” (Halle Berry)