Review: 1984 "Dune" Retains its Cult Cinema Charms

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 62 of 2021 (No. 1800) by Leroy Douresseaux

Dune (1984)
Running time:  136 minutes (2 hours, 16 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13
DIRECTOR:  David Lynch
WRITER:  David Lynch (based on the novel by Frank Herbert)
PRODUCER:  Raffaella De Laurentiis
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Freddie Francis (photographed by)
EDITOR:  Antony Gibbs
COMPOSER: TOTO
Academy Award nominee

SCI-FI

Starring:  Kyle MacLachlan, Francesca Annis, Jürgen Prochnow, José Ferrer, Kenneth McMillan, Sting, Paul Smith, Everett McGill, Sean Young, Patrick Stewart, Siân Phillips, Dean Stockwell, Max von Sydow, Linda Hunt, Richard Jordan, Brad Dourif, Virginia Madsen, and Alicia Witt

Dune is a 1984 science fiction film written and directed by David Lynch.  It is based on the 1965 novel, Dune, written by author Frank Herbert.  Dune the film focuses on a young nobleman who becomes the leader of a band of desert warriors as he attempts to free their planet from the clutches of a despotic galactic emperor.

Dune opens in the far future in the year 10,191.  The known universe is ruled by Padishah Emperor Shaddam the Fourth (José Ferrer). The most valuable substance in the universe is the spice, “melange.”  It is a drug that extends life and expands consciousness, and it is vital to space travel.  An “orange spice gas” gives the navigators of the “Space Guild” the ability to fold space, which permits safe and instantaneous interstellar travel.  The spice is only found on the desert planet, Arrakis, which is also called “Dune.”

The Emperor appoints a noble family of the “Landsraad” (the empire's noble houses) to mine and produce spice on Arrakis.  He fears the growing popularity of Duke Leto Atreides of the House Atreides and also the secret army Leto is supposedly amassing.  He appoints the House Atreides as the new stewards of Arrakis, replacing the current controllers, the House Harkonnen, let by Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Kenneth McMillan), who is also Leto's enemy.  Ceding control of Arrakis to Duke Leto is just part of a plot by the Emperor and Baron Harkonnen to destroy the House Atreides.

However, Paul Atreides (Kyle MacLachlan), the son of Leto and his concubine, Lady Jessica (Francesca Annis), is the focus of both the Space Guild and the Bene Gesserit, a powerful sisterhood.  For there is a prophecy concerning the “Kwisatz Haderach,” a messiah who will liberate Arrakis and its people, the “Fremen.”  The Bene Gesserit are afraid that Paul is this messiah.  On Arrakis, Paul will find his destiny, and he will find “Muad'Dib,” if he survives the conspiracies against him.

Until recently, I had not watched Dune in its entirety since I first saw it in a movie theater back in Fall 1984.  In spite of its many fault, I still like it.  The film has wonderful, unique, and even eccentric production values, which I can also say about its special effects and sound.  People like Kit West (mechanical special effects), Carlo Rimbaldi (creature creation), Barry Nolan (special photographic effects), Albert J. Whitlock (special effects), Bob Ringwood (costumes), Anthony Masters (production design), (Freddie Frances), and the Grammy Award-winning rock band, Toto (score) all do the work that makes Dune look, feel, and sound like no other film in American cinematic history.  Regardless of my conflicted feelings about the film, dear readers, I want these find artists, craftsman, and technicians to get at least some praise for their work on Dune.

I have read that the producers behind Dune hoped to make it the first of a film series that would be like “Star Wars for adults.”  In a few ways, Dune is as good as Star Wars.  The difference is that Star Wars is an original film story, and its plot, characters, and settings are simple, straightforward, and are narrowly focused for a two-hour film.  Dune is the adaptation of a complex science fiction novel that is packed with plots and subplots.  Dune the novel has settings that span a universe, including several planets, environments, and human habitats.  Star Wars' back story is briefly mentioned, while Dune's back story spans time in blocks – from decades to millennia – and is very important to the story in the present.

Watching Dune the movie the first time, one can feel that a lot of important parts of the story have been left out.  When I first saw Dune, that was obvious to me, although I had, at the time, never read the novel, but I was aware of it and its sequels.  [I would read the original novel about twenty years after I first saw the film]  Dune the movie has a narrator, Princess Irulan, the Emperor's daughter (played by a young Virginia Madsen), and multiple characters speak in voice-overs.  Frequent narration and constant voice-overs basically tell you that this film has too much story for its own good.  In fact, when Dune was first released, movie theaters handed out an information sheet that explained terms and names that would be featured in the film.  My copy of this Dune fact sheet has been lost to time, but I have never received such a sheet for any other film that I've seen in a movie theater.

[I must also note that I liked writer-director John Harrison's “Frank Herbert's Dune,” a three-part, television miniseries adaptation that aired on the Sci Fi Channel in December of 2000.]

As I said, however, there are things about the film that I really like, and even Kyle MacLachlan's amateurish performance as Paul Atreides does not keep me from enjoying Dune.  Actually, several actors deliver good performances in the film, even in small roles.  I watched Dune again in preparation for Warner Bros' new version, directed by acclaimed filmmaker, Denis Villeneuve, for which I have high hopes.  However, I suspect that I will return to David Lynch's Dune again.

6 of 10
B

Tuesday, October 19, 2021


NOTES:
1985 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Sound” (Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, Kevin O'Connell, and Nelson Stoll)

The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "Rush Hour 3" Serves the Franchise Well

TRASH IN MY EYE, No. 3 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

Rush Hour 3 (2007)
Running time:  91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of action violence, sexual content, nudity, and language
DIRECTOR:  Brett Ratner
WRITER:  Jeff Nathanson (based on the characters created by Ross LaManna)
PRODUCERS:  Roger Birnbaum, Andrew Z. Davis, Jonathan Glickman, Arthur M. Sarkissian, and Jay Stern
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  J. Michael Muro
EDITORS:  Mark Helfrich, Billy Weber, and Don Zimmerman
COMPOSER:  Lalo Schifrin

ACTION/COMEDY/CRIME

Starring:  Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Hiroyuki Sanada, Youki Kudoh, Max von Sydow, Yvan Attal, Noémie Lenoir, Jingchu Zhang, Tzi Ma, and Roman Polanski

The subject of this movie review is Rush Hour 3, a 2007 action movie and crime comedy from director Brett Ratner.  It is the third film in the Rush Hour movie franchise.  In Rush Hour 3, Lee and Carter head to Paris, after an attempted assassination on an ambassador, to protect a French woman with knowledge about the Triads’ secret leaders.

Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker return for the long-awaited third installment of their wildly popular comic action film franchise, Rush Hour.  While Rush Hour 3 is funny and action-packed, the stars and director seem to be trying too hard.

After his dear friend, Ambassador Han (Tzi Ma), is shot, Hong Kong Police Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) finds himself guarding Han’s daughter, Soo Yung (Jingchu Zhang), from the Triads who want Han and the information he has on them destroyed.  There is, however, another complication when Lee discovers that Kenji (Hiroyuki Sanada), someone from his past who is greatly important to him, suddenly appears and is associated with the Triads.

LAPD Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) leaves the doghouse of traffic detail to help his old friend, Lee.  Soon, the duo is in Paris looking for two elusive women, the sexy Geneviéve (Noémie Lenoir) and the mysterious “Shy Shen,” who may hold the secrets that the Triads guard so jealously.  But in Paris, Lee and Carter are out of their element and always in trouble and/or danger.

Rush Hour 3 has its moments – in fact, plenty of them, but there seem to be an equal number of times in which the pratfalls, explosions, gunfire, banter, sex, etc. seem forced.  The sad thing is that neither director Brett Ratner nor his two stars need to be so over the top.  With two strong comic actors – Lee being the great physical comedian and Tucker personifying the fast-talking streetwise comic – the Rush Hour franchise has the perfect opposites-attract pair.  It’s not that hard to build an action comedy around them with only the thinnest scenario.

Instead, Chris Tucker’s witty banter often turns to babbling, and Jackie Chan’s fighting and gymnastic scenes usually make him look like a tired windup toy or a beat-up action figure caught in a wind tunnel.  It is okay to refry the same old shtick; Ratner and writer Jeff Nathanson just overcooked it and let some of the fun get scorched.  Still, seeing Chan and Tucker back together is good, and the movie is not exactly bad.  In fact, Rush Hour 3 is good enough to make a fourth film worth the wait.

5 of 10
B-

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Updated:  Friday, March 28, 2014

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

Review: "Solomon Kane" Raises a Little Cain

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 53 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Solomon Kane (209)
Running time:  104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence throughout
DIRECTOR:  Michael J. Bassett
WRITERS:  Michael J. Bassett (based upon the character created by Robert E. Howard)
PRODUCERS:  Paul Berrow and Samuel Hadida
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Dan Laustsen (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Andrew MacRitchie
COMPOSER:  Klaus Badelt

FANTASY/ACTION

Starring:  James Purefoy, Max von Sydow, Pete Postlethwaite, Alice Krige, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Patrick Hurd-Wood, Philip Winchester, Anthony Wilks, Ben Steel, Rory McCann, Tomas Tobola, Mackenzie Crook, and Jason Flemyng

Solomon Kane is a 2009 dark fantasy and action film, starring James Purefoy in the title role.  The film was produced by a consortium of production companies from the countries of the Czech Republic, France, and the United Kingdom.  Solomon Kane first opened in France in December 2009, but did not open in theatres in the United States until September 2012.

The movie features Solomon Kane, a pulp magazine-era fictional character created by Robert E. Howard (who also created Conan the Barbarian).  Solomon Kane first appeared in publication in the August 1928 issue of Weird Tales in the short story, “Red Shadows.”  In Howard’s original stories, Kane traveled through Europe and Africa, vanquishing evil.

Solomon Kane the movie acts as an origin story for the character, and opens in North Africa, in the year 1600.  English mercenary Solomon Kane (James Purefoy) leads the crew of his ship into battle against the occupiers of a fortress town.  It is there that Kane learns that his soul is bound for Hell.  He renounces violence and lives in seclusion before being forced out into the world at large again.

Kane meets William Crowthorn (Pete Postlethwaite) and his wife, Katherine (Alice Krige).  They are Puritans, and with their three children, are planning to immigrate to the New World.  After the Crowthorns’ daughter, Meredith (Rachel Hurd-Wood), is kidnapped by the followers of a sorcerer named Malachi (Jason Flemyng), Kane is once again forced to fight in order to save the girl and perhaps gain the redemption of his soul.

I think Solomon Kane’s writer-director Michael J. Bassett wanted this movie to be like the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Instead, what Bassett created is like a straight-to-DVD, sword-and-sorcery movie, with only a few moments that suggest LoTR’s epic fantasy.  Solomon Kane isn’t bad, but it isn’t particularly good, mainly because it is inconsistent.

For instance, James Purefoy gives a mostly good performance as Solomon Kane.  However, the screenplay is clumsy and repetitive when it comes to developing Kane’s character.  Plus, I think Purefoy is miscast as Kane.  I would prefer someone taller, leaner, and certainly more dour and gaunt than the pretty Purefoy.

The main villains, Malachi and the Masked Rider (Malachi’s henchman), are superb adversaries, but the two, especially Malachi, are mostly relegated to the background.  Bassett is so determined to focus on Kane’s story that he misses how two great villains can create the kind of potent conflict that invigorates a drama.

Solomon Kane is a fantasy film that has the action, brutality, and violence of other films like it, but lacks the flair of other supernatural action films like Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters and Underworld.  The pacing is sometime dry and stiff, which makes the movie feel a bit too long, but if you like the supernatural action genre, Solomon Kane is worth watching – as a rental.

5 of 10
C+

Friday, August 09, 2013

Review: "Judge Dredd" Simply a Stallone Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 9 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux


Judge Dredd (1995)
Running time: 96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)
MPAA – R for continuous violent action
DIRECTOR: Danny Cannon
WRITERS: William Wisher and Steven E. de Souza; from a story by Michael De Luca and William Wisher (based on characters created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra)
PRODUCERS: Charles M. Lippincott and Beau E.L. Marks
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Adrian Biddle
EDITORS: Harry Keramidas and Alex Mackie
COMPOSER: Alan Silvestri

SCI-FI/ACTION

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Armand Assante, Rob Schneider, Jurgen Prochnow, Max von Sydow, Diane Lane, Joan Chen, and Balthazar Getty

The subject of this movie review is Judge Dredd, a 1995 science fiction movie starring Sylvester Stallone. The film is based on the comic strip Judge Dredd, which appears in the British science fiction comics anthology, 2000 AD. The title character, Judge Dredd, first appeared in 2000 AD #2 (March 5, 1977) and was created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. Judge Dredd the movie is set in a dystopian future, where Dredd, the most famous judge, is falsely convicted of a crime.

In the 3rd millennium, much of Earth is a desert wasteland. Most humans reside in one of the huge Mega-Cities. There, the justice system is maintained by a corps of Judges who are police officer, judge, jury, and executioner – basically a cop with instant field judiciary powers. In Mega-City One, the most famous is Judge Joseph Dredd (Sylvester Stallone), best known as simply Judge Dredd.

Dredd’s brother, Rico (Armand Assante), and the corrupt Judge Griffin (Jurgen Prochnow) hatch a plot to frame Judge Dredd for the murder of the muck-racking journalist, Vardas Hammond and his wife. After the prison transport ship that is taking him to a penal colony crashes, Dredd and another prisoner, Herman “Fergie” Ferguson (Rob Schneider), return to Mega-City One to set things straight and stop a conspiracy.

The people behind Judge Dredd the movie basically took characters and situations from the Judge Dredd comics series. Then, they used them to make a Sylvester Stallone movie, specifically a Sylvester Stallone science fiction/action movie. Once you accept that this is not really a Judge Dredd the comic strip movie, then, you can decide if you like this Sylvester Stallone science fiction/action movie.

I do like it. Sure, it is a moronic 1980s action movie, feeling a bit behind the times because of its mid-1990s release date, but it is harmless fun. There are some things that stand out as being good about Judge Dredd. For one, it has a sense of humor. The second thing is Armand Assante’s performance. He does a slight impersonation of Stallone, without mocking him, but it is enough to convince viewers that his character, Rico, is the brother of Dredd – as played by Stallone.

The production values: art direction, sets, costumes, etc. are unexpectedly good and surprisingly colorful. The visual effects are also good, although dated. These unexpected things make Judge Dredd a bit of a surprise. I remember not liking this movie the first time I saw it, but now, I have to admit that I enjoyed it.

5 of 10
C+

NOTES:
1996 Razzie Awards: 1 nomination: “Worst Actor” (Sylvester Stallone, also for Assassins-1995)

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Review: "Strange Brew" is a Strange Blend (Hapy B'day, Max von Sydow)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 89 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Adventures of Bob and Doug Mckenzie: Strange Brew (1983)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada
Running time: 90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTORS: Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas
WRITERS: Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas and Steve De Jarnatt
PRODUCERS: Louis M. Silverstein
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Steven Poster
EDITOR: Patrick McMahon

COMEDY with elements of sci-fi

Starring: Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis, Max von Sydow, Paul Dooley, Lynne Griffin, Angus MacInnes, Tom Harvey, Douglas Campbell, Brian McConnachie, Len Doncheff, and Mel Blanc (voice)

The subject of this movie review is The Adventures of Bob and Doug Mckenzie: Strange Brew, a 1983 Canadian comedy film. Also widely known as Strange Brew, the film stars Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas (who also both direct the film) and features Max von Sydow as a villain.

Brothers Bob (Rick Moranis) and Doug Mckenzie (Dave Thomas) are two beer-guzzling Canadians who luck upon a goldmine – an unlimited supply of beer – when they land jobs at the Elsinore Beer brewery. However, the two “hosers,” end up helping the beautiful Pam Elsinore save the brewery from her conniving Uncle Claude Elsinore (Paul Dooley) and the diabolical Brewmaster Smith (Max von Sydow), who plans on using his own concoction, a strange brew of Elsinore Beer to control the world. Hijinks ensue in this very loose, nutty, and slightly surreal reworking of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

The Adventures of Bob and Doug Mckenzie: Strange Brew or just Strange Brew (for the movie’s American release) was born out of a skit, “The Great White North” that appeared on “SCTV,” (1976-84) a Canadian sketch comedy television series that also aired in the U.S. (1981-85). The skit featured Bob and Doug, two brothers meant to parody Canadian culture. Eventually, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas’ characters actually became icons of the very culture they were mocking, and the “brothers” appeared in commercials and made cameo appearances on TV and in films. Before the act’s popularity faded, they also released two comedy albums, The Great White North: Bob and Doug Mckenzie and The Great White North: Strange Brew. Moranis and Thomas also played a variation of Bob and Doug when they provided the voices of the characters “Tuke and Root,” talking moose in the 2003 Disney animated feature, Brother Bear.

The SCTV skit also became the movie Strange Brew, which is unabashedly one of those intentionally “stupid movies” that are supposed to illicit laughter because they’re actually funny in their stupidity. Strange Brew is sometimes hilarious, often funny, and mostly entertaining. Actually, it is a bit surreal – almost a mixture of comedy and light drama – a farcical thriller. It’s a strange comedy/sci-fi/horror blend like Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Strange Brew has long had cult status, and it’s a must see for serious fans of film comedies. The brothers are likeable, and the supporting cast is decent and also notable for an appearance by famed actor, Swedish-born actor, Max von Sydow.

6 of 10
B

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Christopher Plummer Wins Best Supporting Actor Oscar

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

WINNER - Christopher Plummer for Beginners

Nominees:
Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill for Moneyball
Nick Nolte for Warrior
Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

2012 Academy Award Nominations: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Nominees:

Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn (2011)

Jonah Hill for Moneyball (2011)

Nick Nolte for Warrior (2011)

Christopher Plummer for Beginners (2010)

Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011)

Review: First "Conan the Barbarian" is Still a Beast of a Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 137 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Conan the Barbarian (1982)

Running time: 131 minutes (2 hours, 11 minutes)

MPAA – R

DIRECTOR: John Milius

WRITERS: Oliver Stone and John Milius; from a story by Edward Summer (based upon the stories by Robert E. Howard)
PRODUCERS: Buzz Feitshans and Raffaella de Laurentiis
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Duke Callaghan
EDITOR: C. Timothy O’Meara
Golden Globe Award winner

FANTASY/ACTION/ADVENTURE

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Earl Jones, Sandahl Bergman, Ben Davidson, Cassandra Gaviola, Gerry Lopez, Mako, Valérie Quennessen, William Smith, and Max Von Sydow

Young Conan (Jorge Sanz) saw his father (William Smith) murdered by a band of marauders who attacked their village. Conan’s mother (Nadiuska) took on the marauder’s warlord, Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), in a sword duel before Doom beheaded her. Doom’s soldiers subsequently sold Young Conan into slavery. The intense labor he endures as a slave (pushing a giant grinding wheel) transforms the adult Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) into a sinewy, muscular giant. Before long, opportunistic men further transform him into a skilled gladiator, who can outfight any man and probably kill at will.

Conan however becomes a thief. His companions are two mercenaries – the comely warrior woman, Valeria (Sandahl Bergman, who won a Golden Globe in 1983 for “Most Promising Newcomer of the Year in a Motion Picture – Female, an award the Globes stopped giving over two decades ago), and the sword fighter, Subotai (Gerry Lopez). The trio is captured by a grieving monarch, King Osric (Max Von Sydow), whose daughter joined a powerful snake-worshipping cult. His offer of riches to rescue her puts Conan on the path to avenging the murder of his Cimmerian tribesman and family. Osric’s daughter, The Princess (Valérie Quennessen), plans to marry the leader of this cult, which rules the land far and wide, his name – Thulsa Doom, the villain who murdered Conan’s mother. Revenge won’t come easy, Doom wields powerful magic, and his army is many and strong.

Before the age of computer generated effects, filmmakers of fantasy films relied on in-camera effects, hand drawn animation, makeup effects wizards, and mechanical puppets and creature effects to transport viewers to worlds that looked like ours, but were filled with warriors, kings, princess, monsters, and powerful wizards. There were no computer-generated combatants to fill imaginary epic battlefields (as in The Lord of the Rings). Stuntmen and fight coordinators who specialized in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, animal wranglers to handle horses, prop masters and weapons makers, etc. had to use their wits and skills to create believable battle scenes. Often, the actors and actresses had to get down and dirty and perform their own stunts – do their own fighting.

To direct this kind of film, a producer would have to find a director who is a man’s man, one who made movies for guys – guys who love movies (as the TNT slogan goes). Filmmaker John Milius has spent his career writing or directing (and sometimes both) tough guy adventure epics. His resume includes script writing for Apocalypse Now and Clear and Present Danger. He also wrote and directed the semi-cult classic, Red Dawn.

Milius took on the ultimate action hero actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, early in the actor’s movie career in the film, Conan the Barbarian. The two work magic. Schwarzenegger isn’t a great actor in the classic tradition of playing a diverse body of characters and burying oneself in those roles. He is, however, a movie star – an actor who really looks like nothing else but an actor when the camera starts filming. Arnold as Conan has more than a ring of truth to it because Arnold has The Presence.

Milius puts it all together. Conan the Barbarian is a fine epic flick filled with burning villages, screaming peasants, murderous marauders, and devious women wielding sex and offering their supremely well-built bodies to men all-too-ready to get laid at the drop of a loin cloth or at the peek of boob flesh. Milius (who co-wrote the script with Academy Award winning director Oliver Stone of Platoon and JFK) gives up little fights, man on man tussles, and superbly staged battles of testosterone-fueled men stabbing, slicing, cutting, and gutting one another; of horses racing, falling, and dying on top of their riders; and of death on the battlefield.

In addition to Schwarzenegger, the rest of the cast also performs well. James Earl Jones is madness personified as the murderous, egomaniacal, and insane Thulsa Doom. Sandahl Bergman as Valeria and Gerry Lopez as Subotai hit the right notes as Conan’s thieves-in-arms. Milius’ crew of technicians, craftsman, and stuntmen also give him a superior effort. Basil Poledouris’ score is picture perfect; very few movies about men with swords fighting each other ever had music so good. Milius takes the Poledouris’ music and mixes it with the rest of his ingredients to create a truly entertaining guy’s fantasy flick. Conan the Barbarian isn’t perfect, but as a sword and sorcery epic, it’s perfect enough.

7 of 10
A-

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

NOTES:
1983 Golden Globes: 1 win: “New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture – Female” (Sandahl Bergman)

1983 Razzie Awards: 1 nomination: “Worst Actor” (Arnold Schwarzenegger)

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Spielberg Tries Visionary Take on Philip K. Dick's "Minority Report"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Minority Report (2002)
Running time: 145 minutes (2 hours, 25 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violence, brief language, some sexuality and drug content
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
WRITERS: Scott Frank and Jon Cohen (based upon a short story by Philip K. Dick)
PRODUCERS: Jan De Bont, Bonnie Curtis, Gerald R. Molen, and Walter F. Parkes
CINEMAPHOTOGRAPHER: Janusz Kaminski
EDITOR: Michael Kahn
COMPOSER: John Williams
Academy Award nominee

SCI-FI/ACTION/MYSTERY/THRILLER with elements of drama

Starring: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Max von Sydow, Lois Smith, Peter Stormare, Tim Blake Nelson, and Anna Marie Horsford

When I saw director Steven Spielberg’s film, Minority Report, I realized that I was seeing a work by the man who directed Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Raiders of the Lost Ark when he was younger. This film is fun, inventive, and quite exciting, just like the aforementioned. This isn’t the work of the oh-so-serious director of such allegedly adult fare as Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, important films by a grown up director. In fact, Minority Report maintains it exuberance, unlike the fantastic A.I. Artificial Intelligence, which loses steam at the end.

In the year 2050, a Pre-Crime Unit arrests people for murders they will commit, but haven’t yet done so. “Precogs,” humans with the ability to see into the future predict the crime and through a series of high tech machines show it to officers in the Pre-Crime Unit. The officers sweep in and arrest the would-be murderer before he murders. One day, the precogs see a murder committed by the unit’s best officer, John Anderton (Tom Cruise). Determined to prove his innocence, John has to avoid the clutches of his comrades in arms and an ambitious federal agent (Colin Farrell) who are determined to bring him in before he murders his intended victim, a man Anderton doesn’t even know exists.

Visually, Minority Report gives you an eyeful of gadgets and future tech, and a view of a future world. At times, it’s a bit jumbled; some of the ideas about the future seem dead on – rampant, out of control, targeted advertising and public monitoring of civilians; other ideas seem a bit much – the highway system for one. However, when Spielberg puts it all together it makes for a delightful futuristic gumbo of action, thriller, and crime drama.

The script is very good. It’s an engaging story, one of those professional jobs that tie everything together because most of the major film players are related by their fictional pasts. It makes for a good murder mystery, and the execution keeps the mind humming. Although the visuals are sometimes over the top, the story is quite subtle in delivering its philosophical and social viewpoints. It’s smart eye candy.

Watching this film, I get the idea that Spielberg is absorbing some of famed director Stanley Kubrick’s style. The film occasionally has Kubrick’s cool intellectual detachment, which Spielberg showed in A.I., but Spielberg remains true to himself. He knows how to manipulate an audience. He can still control your emotions and keep the heart pumping and the mind attentive. That’s good because it means he still has the magician’s touch he’ll need for the next Indy movie.

I certainly enjoyed Minority Report. It’s an excellent science fiction film, the kind that relates not only to a probably future, but also to how humans might live in that future. And like the best sci-fi, this film makes a subtle connection to our present lives. This is good work, the most thoughtful SF since The Matrix.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2003 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Sound Editing” (Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom)

2003 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (Scott Farrar, Michael Lantieri, Nathan McGuinness, and Henry LaBounta)

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Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock Headline New Stephen Daldry Movie

Cameras Roll on “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” as It Heads from the Page to the Big Screen

Hanks and Bullock Headline the Cast under the Direction of Stephen Daldry

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Principal photography is underway on Warner Bros. Pictures’ feature film adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s acclaimed novel “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.” The film stars Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks, and is being directed by Stephen Daldry (“The Reader,” “The Hours”) and produced by Scott Rudin (“The Social Network,” “True Grit”).

“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” also stars Thomas Horn, making his acting debut as 11-year-old Oskar Schell, an exceptional child with an off-kilter world view and a daunting mission ahead of him.

Oskar is convinced that his father (Hanks), who died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, has left a final message for him hidden somewhere in the city. Feeling disconnected from his grieving mother (Bullock) and driven by a relentlessly active mind that refuses to believe in things that can’t be observed, Oskar begins searching New York City for the lock that fits a mysterious key he found in his father’s closet. His journey through the five boroughs takes him beyond his own loss to a greater understanding of the observable world around him.

Shooting entirely in New York, Daldry directs the film from a screenplay by Eric Roth (“Forrest Gump,” “The Insider”). Celia Costas (“Doubt,” “Closer”) serves as executive producer with Mark Roybal (“Doubt”) and Nora Skinner (“The Reader”).

Also starring in the film are James Gandolfini as Ron, a new friend of Oskar’s mom; Zoe Caldwell as the boy’s grandmother; Max von Sydow as the man renting a room from Oskar’s grandmother, who befriends Oskar and accompanies him on his quest; and Viola Davis and Jeffrey Wright as a couple whose own tenuous relationship has a profound effect on Oskar.

The behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Chris Menges (“The Mission,” “The Killing Fields”); production designer K.K. Barrett (“Where the Wild Things Are”); and costume designer Ann Roth (“The English Patient”).

“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” is currently scheduled for release in 2011 and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Review: Braveheart + Gladiator = Russell Crowe's (Pre) Robin Hood

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 87 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Robin Hood (2010)
Running time: 140 minutes (2 hours, 20 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violence including intense sequences of warfare, and some sexual content
DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott
WRITERS: Brian Helgeland; from a story by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris and Brian Helgeland
PRODUCERS: Russell Crowe, Brian Grazer, and Ridley Scott
CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Mathieson
EDITOR: Pietro Scalia

ACTION/DRAMA/HISTORICAL

Starring: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Max von Sydow, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Oscar Isaac, Danny Huston, Eileen Atkins, Mark Addy, Matthew Macfadyen, Kevin Durand, Scott Grimes, Alan Doyle, Douglas Hodge, Lisa Seydoux, Jonathan Zaccai, and Jack Downham

Back in 2000, Ridley Scott unleashed his Roman costume drama/action movie, Gladiator. The film was a big box office hit and turned its lead, Russell Crowe, into a major movie star. Gladiator went on to win several Academy Awards, including “Best Picture” and a “Best Actor” Oscar for Crowe. Scott and Crowe have worked together since then, but those films have not been as successful as Gladiator.

Scott and Crowe distilled the manly man of honor essence of Gladiator and put it into their recent film, Robin Hood, but this movie is not like other Robin Hood movies. The Scott/Crowe Robin Hood isn’t a reinvention or re-imagining or anything like that. It is a kind of prequel, essentially asking the question of what would have turned a man into an outlaw like Robin Hood. This is the story of how, when, and why Robin Hood came to be, and the story goes like this…

It is 1199, and as the Third Crusade comes to an end, Richard the Lionheart (Danny Huston) continues his war against Philip II of France (Jonathan Zaccai). In the siege of Chalus Castle, Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) is a common archer. Following the death of Richard, Robin and two other common archers, Alan A’Dale (Alan Doyle) and Will Scarlet (Scott Grimes), and the soldier Little John (Kevin Durand) make an attempt to return home to England after 10 years away. The quartet arrives at the site of an ambush of the Royal guard. There, Robin makes a promise to a dying knight, Robert Loxley (Douglas Hodge), to return a sword to his father, Sir Walter Loxley (Max von Sydow), in Nottingham.

Impersonating Loxley, Robin returns to England to find the land beset by the ill rule of Richard’s brother, now King John (Oscar Isaac). Robin and his companions travel to Nottingham where he meets Loxley’s now-widowed wife, Lady Marian (Cate Blanchett), and Sir Walter, who is old and blind. Walter asks Robin to continue to impersonate his son in order to keep his family lands from being taken by the crown for taxes. In fact, Prince John sends his henchman, Sir Godfrey (Mark Strong), an English knight secretly aligned with the French, across England to collect taxes from everyone by any means necessary. Robin fights back, but soon discovers that England has bigger problems than out of control tax collectors. Now, Robin Longstride must lead the fight to save the country.

Robin Hood is a rousing adventure combat movie. It isn’t Ridley Scott’s best work (or anywhere near that), nor is it Crowe’s best work. Neither, however, seems on automatic. Crowe is a superb actor and consummate craftsman; it may seem as if he is in cruise control mode here. Crowe just makes it look easy, and perhaps, Scott does the same in this movie. The truth is Robin Hood is very well made and quite entertaining, except for a small dry spell in the second hour of the movie.

Perhaps, it is easy to take this film and the people behind it for granted. I marveled at the high-quality performances throughout. Cate Blanchett gives a strong turn and fashions a forceful character out of the well-worn, almost stock character, Maid Marian. Mark Strong is, as usual, strong as the villain – in this case, the conniving Godfrey, and Oscar Isaac is award nomination-worthy for his creation of the unashamedly jealous King John.

I thought of Gladiator and Braveheart while watching this new take on Robin Hood. I certainly like its depiction of how lowly, common men sacrifice their lives and spend years away from their families to fight wars started by a small circle of vain royalty. After expending so much blood and sweat, they get nothing in return and even have to fight to find a way home on their own. That much is relevant to our modern times. Scott, Crowe, and screenwriter Brian Helgeland get it right. That injustice is reason enough to turn a man into an outlaw, and reason enough for me to enjoy Robin Hood.

7 of 10
B+

Friday, October 29, 2010

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Review: Leonardo DiCaprio Elevates "Shutter Island"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 14 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Shutter Island (2010)
Running time: 138 minutes (2 hours, 18 minutes)
MPAA – R for disturbing violent content, language and some nudity
DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese
WRITER: Laeta Kalogridis (based on the novel by Dennis Lehane)
PRODUCERS: Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Bradley J. Fischer and Martin Scorsese
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Richardson, ASC (D.o.P)
EDITOR: Thelma Schoonmaker
DRAMA/MYSTERY/SUSPENSE/THRILLER

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Max von Sydow, Jackie Earle Haley, Ted Levine, John Carroll Lynch, Elias Koteas, and Curtiss Cook

Shutter Island is the fourth film uniting Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese (The Departed) and multiple Oscar-nominated actor, Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator). Based on the best-selling novel by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone), Shutter Island is a psychological-mystery thriller set entirely on a fortress-like island housing a hospital for the criminally insane. As I watched this engaging, haunting tale, I certainly understood what the term, “riveting” means when applied to movies. I also watched an outstanding actor take a good film and make the story work on so many more levels than it could have without him.

Shutter Island is set in the year 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are summoned to Shutter Island to investigate the disappearance of Rachel Solando. Solando, who drowned her three children, disappeared from a locked room within the impenetrable Ashecliffe Hospital. Teddy and Chuck arrive at the remote, windswept isle and find the situation tense, and an eerie, volatile atmosphere suggests nothing is quite what it seems. Psychopathic patients surround them and the brilliant Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) psychoanalyzes Teddy and Chuck’s every move, even as he presses them to find Solando.

As the investigation moves forward, a hurricane bearing down on the island escalates. Teddy’s suspicions about both the facility and the investigation begin to grow as he uncovers hints and rumors of sordid medical experiments and secret wards within the hospital. But the more he digs into this mystery, the more Teddy realizes that he may never leave Shutter Island alive.

Without giving too much more about Shutter Island, I can say that both Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio deliver their usual high quality work. For Scorsese, Shutter Island is a chance to make an existential terror film in the tradition of the films of producer Val Lewton (Cat People). In a way, Shutter Island is less about story and more about genre. This movie is an exploration of the conventions of genres like Film-Noir and the detective thriller, and it also plays on the styles and themes of old Hollywood thrillers that focus on the psychology of the characters.

As good as Shutter Island is, what makes it a great film is Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance. DiCaprio sells the viewer on everything about Teddy Daniels, his habits, facial ticks, demeanor, belief system, conflicts, dilemmas, struggles, and even Teddy’s sharp, off-kilter sense of humor, founded in part on a world view shaped by his time as a serviceman during World War II. I am not trying to diminish Scorsese’s contribution; it is no coincidence that DiCaprio has delivered great performances in all four of the movies that he has made with Scorsese. Whatever one might say about Scorsese, he is an actor’s director, and he finds ways to get intense, terrific performances from all his actors – from the most talented to the ordinary.

But Shutter Island is ultimately all about Teddy Daniels. Its success as a taut, riveting thriller that grabs the viewer and holds him until the very end rests in DiCaprio. Because he has us enthralled by his performance, DiCaprio also has us as engrossed with this mystery and as we are absorbed with Teddy. Shutter Island’s resolution will no doubt leave many viewers with questions, but there is also no doubt that this is one of those occasions when the lead actor is so good that he makes even a terrific movie unforgettable and special.

9 of 10
A

Monday, March 15, 2010

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