Review: "Faster" is One Angry Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 20 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Faster (2010)
Running time: 98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence, some drug use and language
DIRECTOR: George Tillman Jr.
WRITERS: Tony Gayton and Joe Gayton
PRODUCERS: Tony Gayton, Liz Glotzer, Martin Shafer, and Robert Teitel
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Michael Grady
EDITOR: Dirk Westervelt

CRIME/ACTION

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Carla Gugino, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Maggie Grace, Xander Berkeley, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Mike Epps, Moon Bloodgood, and Tom Berenger

Released during the 2010 Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Faster is a hard-boiled revenge thriller starring Dwayne Johnson (formerly The Rock). The title, “Faster,” really doesn’t fit this movie, nor does it indicate just how mean this flick is.

The day he is released from prison, a convicted bank robber, known only as “Driver” (Dwayne Johnson), hits the streets. He is on a mission to take revenge on the men who killed his brother, Gary (Matt Gerald), and got him sent to prison for 10 years. Tracking Driver are two detectives, the professional Cicero (Carla Gugino) and a burnout known as “Cop” (Billy Bog Thornton). Meanwhile, an unknown person, someone on Driver’s hit list, hires a flamboyant and egocentric hit man known as “Killer” (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) to stop Driver.

Faster is one angry movie, but while some of it is quite good, the movie mostly feels undeveloped. Director George Tillman, Jr. helms the film with what seems like a ham-fisted determination to shock the audience with each moment of violence or bloody payback. It works… sometimes. Faster is a blunt instrument that punishes the audience for its bloodlust and love of retribution. What the film lacks are those fine touches that can transform a crime film from mere action movie to hard-boiled classic. These touches include a deeper insight into the hero, a clearer adversary, and a better use of the setting, among other things.

For most of Faster, Dwayne Johnson is a huffing, puffing force of nature, so much so that you might miss the moments in this film when Johnson, without a word of dialogue, conveys so much of Driver’s pain and grief. Hiding behind the depiction of a murderous badass is a quieter portrayal of a man struggling with spiritual issues like redemption and especially forgiveness.

Faster wastes good characters in Carla Gugino’s Cicero and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s evangelist character. Billy Bob Thornton and Oliver Jackson-Cohen actually get some time to develop their characters, although Jackson-Cohen’s Killer seems out of place here.

I’ve said this many times before about many other movies (as have other critics and reviewers): Faster is good, but it could have been much more than the one-note action flick that it is.

6 of 10
B

Friday, March 04, 2011

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Oscar Nominee Diane Lane Cast as "Martha Kent" in New Superman Movie

Diane Lane Cast as Martha Kent in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ New Superman Movie

 

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures announced today that Oscar®-nominated actress Diane Lane will play Martha Kent, the only mother Clark Kent has ever known, in the new Superman movie to be directed by Zack Snyder.

 

Snyder stated, “This was a very important piece of casting for me because Martha Kent is the woman whose values helped shape the man we know as Superman. We are thrilled to have Diane in the role because she can convey the wisdom and the wonder of a woman whose son has powers beyond her imagination.”

Lane will star with Henry Cavill, who was recently announced as the new Clark Kent/Superman.

Lane earned an Academy Award® nomination for her performance in the 2002 drama “Unfaithful.” She most recently starred in the family hit “Secretariat.” She next stars in the HBO feature “Cinema Verite,” opposite Tim Robbins and James Gandolfini. Lane’s long list of film credits also includes “Nights in Rodanthe,” “Hollywoodland,” “Must Love Dogs,” “Under the Tuscan Sun,” “Perfect Storm,” “My Dog Skip,” “Chaplin,” “The Cotton Club” and “A Little Romance,” to name only a portion.

Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Deborah Snyder are the producers of the film. The screenplay is being written by David S. Goyer based on a story by Goyer and Nolan. Thomas Tull and Lloyd Phillips are serving as executive producers.

Slated for release in December 2012, the new Superman movie will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Review: "Megamind" More Than Mindless Superhero Action

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 19 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Megamind (2010)
Running time: 96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)
MPAA – PG for action and some language
DIRECTOR: Tom McGrath
WRITERS: Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons
PRODUCERS: Lara Breay and Denise Nolan Cascino
EDITOR: Michael Andrews
COMPOSERS: Lorne Balfe and Hans Zimmer

ANIMATION/SUPERHERO/COMEDY/ACTION with elements of romance

Starring: Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross, Brad Pitt, J.K. Simmons, Ben Stiller, Justin Long, Bill Hader, and Amy Poehler

It is not a rousing tale of a superhero family-that-plays-together like The Incredibles. It lacks the heartwarming, cuddliness of Despicable Me. Still, Megamind, a 2010 computer-animated movie from DreamWorks Animation, is a top notch superhero movie. It takes a different path, turning the ups-and-downs of friendship, dating, relationships, and career into a movie that mixes action comedy, romantic comedy, and superheroes.

Megamind (Will Ferrell) is a super-intelligent, blue-skinned alien who was sent here as a baby by his parents before their world was destroyed. Metro Man (Brad Pitt) also came to earth as a baby. Megamind grew up to be a supervillain, and Metro Man became a superhero and the defender of Metro City. Megamind and Metro Man have fought each other for years, and Metro Man always wins.

Then, one day, Megamind actually kills Metro Man. Metro City becomes Megamind’s playground, but he soon finds his life boring and pointless with a superhero to fight. Megamind creates a new superhero he names Titan (Jonah Hill), but instead of using his powers for good (and for fighting Megamind), Titan turns bad. Meanwhile, Megamind falls in love with Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey), a reporter he used to kidnap to irritate Metro Man. Now, Megamind and Roxanne have to save the city.

Not only is the animation sleek, gracefully, and colorful in Megamind, but it is also spectacular. As befitting a good superhero movie, there are big action set pieces, and the explosions, fights, and mass destruction look nearly as awesome as anything found in a Transformers movie. From a technical point of view, this film should have gotten an Academy Award nomination for animated feature film and at least sound editing.

Perhaps, what held this movie back from greater acclaim is that quite a bit of Megamind seems recycled from other films, even if those similarities were unintentional. It seems like the odd man out, especially because before Megamind debuted, movie audiences had already seen a 3D animated film about a supervillain, the aforementioned Despicable Me. While Despicable Me is a heartwarming tale of a reluctant surrogate father and three cute little girls, Megamind is actually an adult-leaning film about mid-life crisis and relationship disappointments.

Megamind rises above any faults because of its voice cast. They tackle the various comic tones of the screenplay with wit and, occasionally, with style and substance. I think Will Ferrell is a brilliant comic actor with impeccable timing. Truthfully, Megamind would be pedestrian filler material, but Ferrell’s voice performance offers so many textures and layers that add richness to Megamind the character.

Tina Fey’s sparkling, witty turn creates a winning Lois Lane-like star reporter in Roxanne Ritchi. Brad Pitt proves, as he did in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), that voice-acting for animated characters is not his thing. Jonah Hill is surprisingly good as the spurned nerd-turned-villain, and J.K. Simmons is pitch perfect as the Warden of Metro City Prison.

The advertising campaign for Megamind failed the film because it emphasized the fantastic action scenes, special effects, inventive mechanical creatures and devices, while ignoring the heart of the story. Megamind is about the search to be accepted, to belong, and to be loved. It is a Woody Allen-like take on the superhero movie, and is, in fact, much better than Allen’s recent relationship comedies.

8 of 10
A

Thursday, March 03, 2011

 

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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: "Don't Be a Menace" Says "Negro, Please" to Hood Movies

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 18 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996)
Running time: 89 minutes (1 hour, 29 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong language, sexuality, some drug content and violence
DIRECTOR: Paris Barclay
WRITERS: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, and Phil Beauman
PRODUCERS: Eric L. Gold and Keenen Ivory Wayans
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Russ Brandt
EDITORS: Marshall Harvey and William Young

COMEDY

Starring: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Tracey Cherelle Jones, Chris Spencer, Suli McCullough, Darrel Heath, Helen Martin, Lahmard J. Tate, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Kim Wayans, Vivica A. Fox, Omar Epps, Faizon Love, Bernie Mac, Antonio Fargas, LaWanda Page, and Damien Dante Wayans

The early 1990s saw a torrent of gritty urban movies, with the Oscar-nominated Boyz n the Hood being the best known. The Wayans family of comedians and comic actors, best known for the FOX Network sketch comedy series, In Living Colour, spoofed the black coming-of-age, growing-up-in-the-hood movies with the 1996 film, Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood.

The film follows the naïve, virginal Ashtray (Shawn Wayans), a young man sent to live in South Central Los Angeles with his father (Lahmard J. Tate), who seems to be no older than Ashtray. Ashtray falls in with his gang-banging cousin, the psychotic Loc Dog (Marlon Wayans). Ashtray gets an education in life on the streets from Loc Dog and his friends, the politically conscious Preach (Chris Spencer) and the wheel-chair bound Crazy Legs (Suli McCullough). After falling in love with Dashiki (Tracey Cherelle Jones), a young woman who has seven children by seven different men, Ashtray has to choose between the straight life and life in the inner city with Loc Dog.

Like the Wayans’ I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood spoofs a genre associated with African-Americans. I’m Gonna Git You Sucka was a send-up of 1970s blaxploitation movies, but Sucka was a love letter to black exploitation films like the Shaft franchise.

Don’t Be a Menace, however, attacks the genre it spoofs. This movie’s three writers, Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, and Phil Beauman, mine urban flicks such as Friday, Dead Presidents, and Juice, but especially Boyz n the Hood and Menace II Society to launch an all-out assault against “hood” films. Their self-important attitudes, reliance on violence and the worst aspects of black poverty to entertain, and their self-pitying messages to the broader society are all fodder for the Wayans’ brand of savage satire and mean-spirited parody.

Don’t Be a Menace also goes after black pop culture, especially low-brow entertainment, prison-inspired fashion, and the glorification of violence, promiscuous sex, and drug and alcohol abuse. Even certain aspects of African-American culture, politics, and religion get a swift kick from the Wayans. Pompous preachers, hypocritical Black separatists, and assorted sectarians are mocked. Everything moves to a soundtrack filled with the same kind of raunchy R&B, hip-hop, and rap that fills the soundtracks of straight urban movies.

The performances are good, with Tracey Cherelle Jones, Chris Spencer, and Suli McCullough managing to shine in what is really a Wayans fest. Don’t Be a Menace was the first time Shawn Wayans really got to show what he does best – play the straight man with deadpan perfection, while still showing his ability to be crazy when he has to be. Marlon Wayans, a brilliant physical comedian and gifted comic actor, comes close to owning this movie. I don’t know if he is just fearless or shameless, but Marlon is good.

That’s why it is a shame that Don’t Be a Menace, in spite of some really funny set pieces and some truly inspired dialogue, largely feels flat. It is as if Paris Barclay’s script and the screenplay are not on the same page. There are moments when everything comes together and delivers comedy gold, but that doesn’t happen often enough to make this movie truly great as it should be. Back in 1996, we needed Don’t Be a Menace as an antidote or counter to a rash of hood movies, and it was good enough at what it did that the film’s spoofing is still sharp.

7 of 10
B+

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

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Complete List of Winners at the 2011 Oscars

The 83rd Academy Award Winners:

Best Picture
“The King's Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers

Actor in a Leading Role
Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”

Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale in “The Fighter”

Actress in a Leading Role
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”

Actress in a Supporting Role
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”

Animated Feature Film
“Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich

Art Direction
“Alice in Wonderland” - Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara

Cinematography
“Inception” Wally Pfister

Costume Design
“Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood

Directing
“The King's Speech” Tom Hooper

Documentary (Feature)
“Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs

Documentary (Short Subject)
“Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon

Film Editing
“The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Foreign Language Film
“In a Better World” Denmark

Makeup
“The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Music (Original Score)
“The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Music (Original Song)
“We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Short Film (Animated)
“The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann

Short Film (Live Action)
“God of Love” Luke Matheny

Sound Editing
“Inception” Richard King

Sound Mixing
“Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick

Visual Effects
“Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
“The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin

Writing (Original Screenplay)
“The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler

Happy Birthday, Mr. Rollins

Or is that your father's name, Phil?  Hope you see this.