Yesterday, The Walt Disney Company released a statement regarding the disappointing box office of its recent release, John Carter. The film made a little over $30 million during its opening weekend, March 9-11, 2012. The film, which reportedly had a production budget of $250 million, is largely based upon A Princess of Mars (1917), the first novel in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom novel series. Disney's statement read:
“In light of the theatrical performance of John Carter ($184 million global box office), we expect the film to generate an operating loss of approximately $200 million during our second fiscal quarter ending March 31. As a result, our current expectation is that the Studio segment will have an operating loss of between $80 and $120 million for the second quarter. As we look forward to the second half of the year, we are excited about the upcoming releases of The Avengers and Brave, which we believe have tremendous potential to drive value for the Studio and the rest of the company.”
There are a number of theories as to why the film failed to meet expectations. One is that there was a disconnect between the film's director, Andrew Stanton, a two-time Oscar-winner at Pixar Animation Studios for Finding Nemo and Wall-E, and Disney's marketing division. So because of disagreements between the two or a lack of cooperation, if you read it that way, the film's marketing never piqued the interests of large numbers of potential moviegoers. And big-budget event films like John Carter need lots of tickets sold to be profitable theatrically.
So far the film is doing okay outside of the North American market. I guessing that Disney probably spent about $400 million making and marketing the film, so they're announcing a loss to their shareholders and the public because there is no way that this film can make a profit theatrically. It would probably need to make around $800 million worldwide to do so.
I have been too busy to see the film at the theatre, but I will see it on DVD or on television. Most people who see it will probably see it via some kind of home entertainment. Who knows? Over time, it may make Disney a pretty penny and become liked enough to make frequent appearances on the networks and channels that seem to have Disney franchises like Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure on heavy rotation.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Review: "Inside Man" is Slick Entertainment, Nothing More (Happy B'day, Spike Lee)
Inside Man (2006)
Running time: 128 minutes (2 hours, 8 minutes)
MPAA – R for language and some violent images
DIRECTOR: Spike Lee
WRITER: Russell Gewirtz
PRODUCER: Brian Grazer
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Matthew Libatique (director of photography)
EDITOR: Barry Alexander Brown
COMPOSER: Terrence Blanchard
DRAMA/CRIME with elements of a thriller
Starring: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Carlos Andrés Gómez, Kim Director, James Ransone, Bernard Rachelle, Peter Gerety, Victor Colicchio, and Cassandra Freeman
Inside Man is a 2006 crime drama from director Spike Lee. Lee was basically a director-for-hire of this story of a peculiar bank heist, which was originally going to be directed by Ron Howard.
Four people dressed in painters outfits march into the Manhattan Trust Bank and take 50 customers and employees hostage, and then put the bank under a surgically planned siege. Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) and Detective Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are dispatched to the seemingly airtight heist by their precinct captain, with Frazier acting as the hostage negotiator. Frazier is hopeful of resolving the situation quickly, but Dalton Russell (Clive Owen), the bank robbers’ leader, is exceedingly clever, uncannily calm, and totally in command. Not only does he manage to disorient his hostages, but he’s also managing to confuse the police and stall for time.
Meanwhile, the bank’s chairman of the board of directors (ostensibly the owner), Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), has used his vast and considerable political connections to arrange a meeting between Madeline White (Jodie Foster), a shadowy power player, and Russell – much to the chagrin of Detective Frazier. White is vague with Frazier about what she and Russell discuss during their brief meeting, but it seems as if looting a bank full of money isn’t Russell’s only objective. Detective Frazier needs to unravel this puzzle though, because he’s running out of time to keep this standoff from turning ugly and bloody for both hostages and hostage takers. The police high command is about to unleash Emergency Services Unit (ESU) Captain John Darius (Willem Dafoe) and his tactical unit to go in and settle the situation – to kill if necessary - and Frazier still isn’t sure just who is pulling the invisible strings of this strange case.
Inside Man may be Spike Lee’s most purely enjoyable film to date, being that it is almost totally free of his usual political drama and social commentary. The film is clever and Spike expertly extracts the unexpected turns and labyrinthine twists of writer Russell Gewirtz’s script. Lee adds the big time gloss to Gewirtz’s screenplay, his first produced for the big screen (He’d previously written for the late ABC TV series “Blind Justice.”). Lee makes the plot’s crafty tricks practical for a movie aimed at a broad audience.
Gewirtz’s script is rife with good characters, but it is obviously up to the director to set the tone and the actors to create by giving flesh to the concepts. There’s a natural humor to the characters, especially in their dialogue, and Lee allows that to play out, which brings the right amount of levity to this crime drama – a nice touch since this bank heist/hostage situation really isn’t about blood, guts, and guns. Lee also makes the most of the match of wits or chess game between Clive Owen’s Dalton Russell and Denzel Washington’s Keith Frazier.
This is the fourth collaboration between Spike and Denzel, after Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X, and He Got Game. Lee also seems familiar with Clive Owen, as he comfortable taps into Owen’s understated air of menace – the charming rogue. Jodie Foster makes the most of her part and creates an adversary that engages the audience as much as she engages the other characters. Foster’s Madeline White is a charming reptile; like the actress, the character has a natural intelligence that is obvious the first time someone meets her, but Foster adds the twist of making Madeline the perfect trouble-shooting witch.
Still, Inside Man is a bit too clever for its own good. Gewirtz never really taps into the raw emotional power of the devastating secret at the heart of his heist story, and Lee seems more in love with the shiny bauble the plot is, with all its unexpected shifts and revelations in the narrative, than he is with the consequences of malfeasance and with genuine evil. As a police procedural and heist film, Inside Man is as crafty as its colorful cast of cunning and wily characters makes it, and that’s craftiness by the carload – enough to keep your mind fighting with the puzzle for just about all of this film. The last 20 minutes or so of Inside Man is a bit of a stumble, as the filmmakers avoid the meat of an ugly subject matter, but getting to the end was still fun to watch.
Once upon a time – not that long ago – Spike would have readily ignored the genre aspects of this story in favor of tackling the issues of bigotry, public corruption, and appalling evil this story raises. Oh, well. At least he proved that he can be a very capable director-for-hire.
6 of 10
B
Thursday, June 15, 2006
NOTES:
2007 Black Reel Awards: 1 win: “Best Director” (Spike Lee); 3 nominations: “Best Actor” (Denzel Washington), “Best Film” (Brian Grazer and Jonathan Filley), “Best Original Score” (Terence Blanchard)
2007 Image Awards: 1 win: “Outstanding Directing in a Feature Film/Television Movie - Comedy or Drama” (Spike Lee); 1 nomination: “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Denzel Washington)
MPAA – R for language and some violent images
DIRECTOR: Spike Lee
WRITER: Russell Gewirtz
PRODUCER: Brian Grazer
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Matthew Libatique (director of photography)
EDITOR: Barry Alexander Brown
COMPOSER: Terrence Blanchard
DRAMA/CRIME with elements of a thriller
Starring: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Carlos Andrés Gómez, Kim Director, James Ransone, Bernard Rachelle, Peter Gerety, Victor Colicchio, and Cassandra Freeman
Inside Man is a 2006 crime drama from director Spike Lee. Lee was basically a director-for-hire of this story of a peculiar bank heist, which was originally going to be directed by Ron Howard.
Four people dressed in painters outfits march into the Manhattan Trust Bank and take 50 customers and employees hostage, and then put the bank under a surgically planned siege. Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) and Detective Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are dispatched to the seemingly airtight heist by their precinct captain, with Frazier acting as the hostage negotiator. Frazier is hopeful of resolving the situation quickly, but Dalton Russell (Clive Owen), the bank robbers’ leader, is exceedingly clever, uncannily calm, and totally in command. Not only does he manage to disorient his hostages, but he’s also managing to confuse the police and stall for time.
Meanwhile, the bank’s chairman of the board of directors (ostensibly the owner), Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), has used his vast and considerable political connections to arrange a meeting between Madeline White (Jodie Foster), a shadowy power player, and Russell – much to the chagrin of Detective Frazier. White is vague with Frazier about what she and Russell discuss during their brief meeting, but it seems as if looting a bank full of money isn’t Russell’s only objective. Detective Frazier needs to unravel this puzzle though, because he’s running out of time to keep this standoff from turning ugly and bloody for both hostages and hostage takers. The police high command is about to unleash Emergency Services Unit (ESU) Captain John Darius (Willem Dafoe) and his tactical unit to go in and settle the situation – to kill if necessary - and Frazier still isn’t sure just who is pulling the invisible strings of this strange case.
Inside Man may be Spike Lee’s most purely enjoyable film to date, being that it is almost totally free of his usual political drama and social commentary. The film is clever and Spike expertly extracts the unexpected turns and labyrinthine twists of writer Russell Gewirtz’s script. Lee adds the big time gloss to Gewirtz’s screenplay, his first produced for the big screen (He’d previously written for the late ABC TV series “Blind Justice.”). Lee makes the plot’s crafty tricks practical for a movie aimed at a broad audience.
Gewirtz’s script is rife with good characters, but it is obviously up to the director to set the tone and the actors to create by giving flesh to the concepts. There’s a natural humor to the characters, especially in their dialogue, and Lee allows that to play out, which brings the right amount of levity to this crime drama – a nice touch since this bank heist/hostage situation really isn’t about blood, guts, and guns. Lee also makes the most of the match of wits or chess game between Clive Owen’s Dalton Russell and Denzel Washington’s Keith Frazier.
This is the fourth collaboration between Spike and Denzel, after Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X, and He Got Game. Lee also seems familiar with Clive Owen, as he comfortable taps into Owen’s understated air of menace – the charming rogue. Jodie Foster makes the most of her part and creates an adversary that engages the audience as much as she engages the other characters. Foster’s Madeline White is a charming reptile; like the actress, the character has a natural intelligence that is obvious the first time someone meets her, but Foster adds the twist of making Madeline the perfect trouble-shooting witch.
Still, Inside Man is a bit too clever for its own good. Gewirtz never really taps into the raw emotional power of the devastating secret at the heart of his heist story, and Lee seems more in love with the shiny bauble the plot is, with all its unexpected shifts and revelations in the narrative, than he is with the consequences of malfeasance and with genuine evil. As a police procedural and heist film, Inside Man is as crafty as its colorful cast of cunning and wily characters makes it, and that’s craftiness by the carload – enough to keep your mind fighting with the puzzle for just about all of this film. The last 20 minutes or so of Inside Man is a bit of a stumble, as the filmmakers avoid the meat of an ugly subject matter, but getting to the end was still fun to watch.
Once upon a time – not that long ago – Spike would have readily ignored the genre aspects of this story in favor of tackling the issues of bigotry, public corruption, and appalling evil this story raises. Oh, well. At least he proved that he can be a very capable director-for-hire.
6 of 10
B
Thursday, June 15, 2006
NOTES:
2007 Black Reel Awards: 1 win: “Best Director” (Spike Lee); 3 nominations: “Best Actor” (Denzel Washington), “Best Film” (Brian Grazer and Jonathan Filley), “Best Original Score” (Terence Blanchard)
2007 Image Awards: 1 win: “Outstanding Directing in a Feature Film/Television Movie - Comedy or Drama” (Spike Lee); 1 nomination: “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Denzel Washington)
-------------------------
Monday, March 19, 2012
Disney's Oscar-Winning "The Muppets" Now on DVD and Blu-ray
The Biggest Muppet Adventure Ever Comes Home!
Disney's The Muppets
The Must-Own Movie For The Entire Family Debuts on Blu-ray ™ Combo Pack, Digital and On-Demand March 20, 2012
Debut Release Offers Fans the Full Movie Soundtrack with DVD Release and as part of a ‘Wocka-Wocka’ Pack for the Ultimate Muppets Experience!
One of the year’s best-loved family comedies and among the best reviewed films of 2011, Disney’s “The Muppets,” starring Jason Segel, Academy Award®-nominee Amy Adams, and favorite celebrity couple Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy -- debuts March 20 on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack, DVD, Digital Download and On-Demand formats. A must-own movie the entire family can enjoy, Disney’s “The Muppets” in-home release includes the DVD and music soundtrack packaged together and also offered as the ultimate Muppets experience, a ‘Wocka-Wocka Value Pack,’ which contains the movie on Blu-ray high definition, DVD and Digital Copy (three discs), plus a download card which allows fans to own all the songs from the film’s hugely popular soundtrack.
Disney’s “The Muppets” Blu-ray Combo Pack, with its flawless picture and pitch perfect sound, comes with a fantastic slate of bonus content including the laugh out loud “The Longest Blooper Reel Ever Made (In Muppet History––We Think).” The exciting release also includes the hilarious featurette “A Little Screen Test on the Way to the Read Through,” which follows Jason Segel, Kermit, The Great Gonzo, Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy and others as they get ready for the first day of production, and much more fun.
“Blu-ray is a great way to bring the Muppets into your home without having to worry about cleaning up after us,” said Kermit the Frog, commenting on the announcement. “And the behind-the-scenes extras are a revealing tell-all look at what it took to bring our movie to the big screen. It’s a must-see for fans of bloopers, flubs and slip-ups – which pretty much describes our act.”
Miss Piggy is equally thrilled at the movie’s Blu-ray release, “Now you can watch moi whenever you want! Ooh! Lucky vous!”
Additional fun-filled features on Disney’s “The Muppets” Blu-ray include a groundbreaking industry first -- ‘Disney Intermission,’ a hilarious all-new feature that allows viewers to press Pause on their remote control and watch as the Muppets take over the screen and entertain until the movie resumes playing. The release also includes “Explaining Evil: The Full Tex Richman Song,” an extended version of the rollicking rap song by villain Tex Richman (Academy Award® winner Chris Cooper) who provides the hilarious backstory of why he hates the Muppets. Audio commentaries with screenwriter and star Jason Segel, director James Bobin and screenwriter Nicholas Stoller are also included.
With the Muppet’s signature irreverent comedy, songs and dancing, Muppet fans of all ages will cheer as the gang reunites to put on a benefit show to save the crumbling Muppet Studios from being razed by nefarious oil baron Tex Richman. New fans and long-time devotees will find the rainbow connection when they bring Disney’s “The Muppets” into their very own homes.
Release Formats & Suggested Retail Pricing:
3-Disc Blu-ray with Soundtrack (‘Wocka-Wocka Value Pack’) = $49.99 U.S./$56.99 Canada
2-Disc Blu-ray = $39.99 U.S./$46.99 Canada
1-Disc DVD with Soundtrack = $34.99/$41.99 Canada
1-Disc DVD = $29.99 U.S./$35.99 Canada
High Definition Digital = $39.99 U.S./$44.99 Canada
Standard Definition Digital = $29.99 U.S./$35.99 Canada
On-Demand = check with your television provider or favorite digital retailer for pricing
Disney's The Muppets
The Must-Own Movie For The Entire Family Debuts on Blu-ray ™ Combo Pack, Digital and On-Demand March 20, 2012
Debut Release Offers Fans the Full Movie Soundtrack with DVD Release and as part of a ‘Wocka-Wocka’ Pack for the Ultimate Muppets Experience!
One of the year’s best-loved family comedies and among the best reviewed films of 2011, Disney’s “The Muppets,” starring Jason Segel, Academy Award®-nominee Amy Adams, and favorite celebrity couple Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy -- debuts March 20 on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack, DVD, Digital Download and On-Demand formats. A must-own movie the entire family can enjoy, Disney’s “The Muppets” in-home release includes the DVD and music soundtrack packaged together and also offered as the ultimate Muppets experience, a ‘Wocka-Wocka Value Pack,’ which contains the movie on Blu-ray high definition, DVD and Digital Copy (three discs), plus a download card which allows fans to own all the songs from the film’s hugely popular soundtrack.
Disney’s “The Muppets” Blu-ray Combo Pack, with its flawless picture and pitch perfect sound, comes with a fantastic slate of bonus content including the laugh out loud “The Longest Blooper Reel Ever Made (In Muppet History––We Think).” The exciting release also includes the hilarious featurette “A Little Screen Test on the Way to the Read Through,” which follows Jason Segel, Kermit, The Great Gonzo, Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy and others as they get ready for the first day of production, and much more fun.
“Blu-ray is a great way to bring the Muppets into your home without having to worry about cleaning up after us,” said Kermit the Frog, commenting on the announcement. “And the behind-the-scenes extras are a revealing tell-all look at what it took to bring our movie to the big screen. It’s a must-see for fans of bloopers, flubs and slip-ups – which pretty much describes our act.”
Miss Piggy is equally thrilled at the movie’s Blu-ray release, “Now you can watch moi whenever you want! Ooh! Lucky vous!”
Additional fun-filled features on Disney’s “The Muppets” Blu-ray include a groundbreaking industry first -- ‘Disney Intermission,’ a hilarious all-new feature that allows viewers to press Pause on their remote control and watch as the Muppets take over the screen and entertain until the movie resumes playing. The release also includes “Explaining Evil: The Full Tex Richman Song,” an extended version of the rollicking rap song by villain Tex Richman (Academy Award® winner Chris Cooper) who provides the hilarious backstory of why he hates the Muppets. Audio commentaries with screenwriter and star Jason Segel, director James Bobin and screenwriter Nicholas Stoller are also included.
With the Muppet’s signature irreverent comedy, songs and dancing, Muppet fans of all ages will cheer as the gang reunites to put on a benefit show to save the crumbling Muppet Studios from being razed by nefarious oil baron Tex Richman. New fans and long-time devotees will find the rainbow connection when they bring Disney’s “The Muppets” into their very own homes.
Release Formats & Suggested Retail Pricing:
3-Disc Blu-ray with Soundtrack (‘Wocka-Wocka Value Pack’) = $49.99 U.S./$56.99 Canada
2-Disc Blu-ray = $39.99 U.S./$46.99 Canada
1-Disc DVD with Soundtrack = $34.99/$41.99 Canada
1-Disc DVD = $29.99 U.S./$35.99 Canada
High Definition Digital = $39.99 U.S./$44.99 Canada
Standard Definition Digital = $29.99 U.S./$35.99 Canada
On-Demand = check with your television provider or favorite digital retailer for pricing
Review: "The Whole Nine Yards" Surprises (Happy B'day, Bruce Willis)
The Whole Nine Yards (2000)
Running time: 98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Lynn
WRITER: Mitchell Kapner
PRODUCERS: Allan Kaufman and David Willis
CINEMATOGRAPHER: David Franco
EDITOR: Tom Lewis
COMPOSERS: Randy Edelman and Gary Gold
CRIME/COMEDY
Starring: Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, Rosanna Arquette, Michael Clarke Duncan, Natasha Henstridge, Amanda Peet, Kevin Pollack, Harland Williams, and Carmen Ferland
The Whole Nine Yards is a 2000 crime comedy starring Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry. The film focuses on a struggling dentist living in Montreal and his neighbor, a former mob hitman living under an assumed name.
Nicholas “Nick” or “Oz” Oseransky (Matthew Perry) is an American dentist living in Canada, struggling with his practice and suffering his monstrously selfish wife Sophie (Rosanna Arquette) and her tiresome mother (Carmen Ferland). His troubles start to pile when a hit man, Jimmy “The Tulip” Tudeski (Bruce Willis), moves into the neighborhood under the witness protection program.
Sophie figures Jimmy has a bounty placed on his head by whatever group he betrayed to the authorities. She forces Nick to go to Chicago and rat out Jimmy to Janni Pytor Gogolak (Kevin Pollack), a mob boss who has a score to settle with The Tulip. Sophie assumes that Gogolak will pay her husband a finder’s fee for locating The Tulip. But things are never so easy as one, two, three. Everyone, from Sophie to Jimmy and from Janni to Jimmy’s sexy wife, Cynthia (Natasha Henstridge), has a plan of his own, and poor Nick’s just a pawn. Will he survive them?
The Whole Nine Yards is both surprisingly funny and good; in fact, it’s probably one of the best crime comedies since Get Shorty. The film’s strength and quality lies in two things: the cast and the writing. Most of the stars are pretty good character actors, and they usually don’t get credit for being so, Bruce Willis especially. He’s a big time movie star and can generally carry a quality action flick. Put him in a quality ensemble piece, and he soars because he can play well off his colleagues. Amanda Peet has a sexy energy that livens the film, but the big surprise is Matthew Perry. He’s a funny guy, an expert at mixing sarcastic asides and pratfalls. He’s also quite good at playing the ordinary joe barely making it in extraordinary circumstances.
Mitchell Kapner’s script is light and breezy, but tightly written. It goes by quickly and smoothly, but it gives the cast a lot of room to play to their strengths. The sarcasm is nice, but Kapner’s feat is that he uses ugly violent crime and murderous characters to make a good comedy – a farce about mobsters, hit men, and cops, who despite the obvious differences in their respective professions, often act like the same people.
7 of 10
B+
---------------
As a Sequel, "The Whole Ten Yards" is an Incomplete Pass
The Whole Ten Yards (2004)
Running time: 98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13
DIRECTOR: Howard Deutch
WRITERS: George Gallo; from a story Mitchell Kapner (based upon characters created by Mitchell Kapner)
PRODUCERS: Allan Kaufman, Arnold Rifkin, Elie Samaha, and David Willis
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Neil Roach (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Seth Flaum
COMPOSER: John Debney
CRIME/COMEDY
Starring: Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, Kevin Pollack, Natasha Henstridge, Frank Collison, Johnny Messner, Silas Weir Mitchell, Tasha Smith, and Ellisa Gallay
The Whole Ten Yards is a 2004 crime comedy. It is also a sequel to the 2000 film, The Whole Nine Yards, a title derived from the popular expression that means completely and everything.
Many critics have already asked, “Why is there a sequel to 2000’s The Whole Nine Yards?” It’s a legitimate question. Nine Yards was a nice crime comedy and caper film with some really neat characters, but half the really good ones bit the bullet or were looking at jail time by the end of the film. Who knows why The Whole Ten Yards exists, but it’s a fairly decent film with a lot of belly laughs, although its plot is almost nonexistent and the script lumbers around like a shooting victim on weak legs.
Lazlo Gogolak (Kevin Pollack) is just out of prison, and he’s looking for his son Yanni’s killer. Yanni (also played by Pollack in the first film) was one of those funny characters that got whacked in Nine Yards. Lazlo knows the killer is Jimmy “The Tulip” Tudeski (Bruce Willis), but he also knows Jimmy is hiding somewhere. So Lazlo finds the next best thing, Jimmy’s former neighbor and the second husband of Jimmy’s ex-wife Cynthia (Natasha Henstridge). That would be hapless fall guy Nick Oseransky or Oz (Matthew Perry), as his friends call him.
When Lazlo kidnaps Cynthia, Oz runs to Jimmy for help and inadvertently leads Lazlo and his band of merry killer idiots to Jimmy’s hideaway in Mexico where he lives with his wife Jill (Amanda Peet), Oz’s former assistant and a budding contract killer. Things aren’t going well for Jimmy and Jill. They’re trying to have a baby, but Jimmy may be shooting blanks. Jimmy also has something Lazlo wants, and Lazlo has something Jimmy wants. Everyone’s playing everyone, and poor Oz, just like the last time, is caught in the middle.
There are numerous hilarious, laugh-out-loud scenes in The Whole Ten Yards. Ten Yards, however, is totally a character driven piece. The plot and story are crippled and confusing, and the story has too much subterfuge for its own good. Even as a character piece, this film feels stretched thin. The actors have to be “on” all the time, or the film will fall apart; thus, a lot of the comedy routines and scenes feel like they go on too long or they’re too over the top. Perry frantically bounces off the walls, but he mostly succeeds in making both his character endearing and the film viewable. Amanda Peet maintains the sexy energy she had the first time. Willis is good, but a lot of his scenes are poorly written and/or staged.
Poor Natasha Henstridge is wasted, as is Kevin Pollack. The Whole Ten Yards is not so much a wasted opportunity as it is a wasted effort. As funny as it can be in moments, it’s largely forgettable and you do have to wonder why it’s here. Still, it’ll make a good rental when you “just want something to watch.”
5 of 10
C+
Sunday, March 18, 2012
"If a Tree Falls..." Just One Story About the ELF
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (2011)
Running time: 86 minutes (1 hour, 26 minutes)
Unrated by the MPAA
DIRECTOR: Marshall Curry with Sam Cullman (co-director)
WRITERS: Marshall Curry and Matthew Hamachek
PRODUCERS: Sam Cullman and Marshall Curry
EDITORS: Marshall Curry and Matthew Hamachek
COMPOSER: James Baxter
Academy Awards nominee
DOCUMENTARY
Starring: Daniel McGowan, Bill Barton, Kirk Engdall, Jacob Ferguson, Jim Flynn, Greg Harvey, Tim Lewis, Lisa McGowan, and Jenny Synan
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front is a 2011 documentary film that delves into the origins of the radical environmental group, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). Nominated for a best documentary feature Oscar, the film focuses on Daniel McGowan, an early ELF member, who would face life in prison after being arrested on December 7, 2005.
The film introduces the viewer to McGowan and explains his situation, as he awaits trial for his involvement in acts of arson that burned down a tree farm in Oregon and a research building at the University of Washington in 2001. Daniel recounts how he came to embrace environmental activism and how that led him to Oregon. There, he met like-minded individuals who believed in more direct confrontation when protesting for environmental causes. “More direct confrontation” often meant property damage, especially large scale acts of arson.
The film also explains the origins and motives of the ELF, as well as the methods they used against their adversaries. Their use of economic sabotage and what they considered guerilla warfare would get the ELF branded as eco-terrorists. The second half of the film details the F.B.I. investigation of McGowan and his associates and how law enforcement was able to discover their identities and arrest them. The film also examines larger questions about environmentalism, the effectiveness of activism, and the use of the word, “terrorism.”
As a film about Daniel McGowan, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, is a quality documentary drama. The filmmakers allow McGowan to tell his story, and he is both honest and articulate. This allows the viewer to get a sense of the man, his times, the places, and the events before, during, and after the ELF. Director Marshall Curry shows off his storytelling skills in the moments when the consequences of McGowan’s actions hit home – on him, the young woman who would become his wife, and his parents and siblings. His feelings of dread, boredom, helplessness, and fear, and also his family’s tears and grief can feel like a punch in gut.
The film’s title, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, is honest. This is “a story” about the ELF, not an all-encompassing take on the organization. Curry and his cohorts’ use Dan McGowan as a vehicle to tell a story about the ELF, but ultimately, this documentary is less about the group than it is about McGowan.
That is a bit disappointing, but who knows when and if any one filmmaker will be able to pierce the secretive organization’s veil wide enough to make a great film about the ELF. Although this is a good documentary, focusing on McGowan isn’t enough either to answer question about labeling activists as terrorists or to make If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front a great documentary. There just seems to be too much missing from it.
6 of 10
B
NOTES:
2012 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Documentary, Features” (Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman)
Friday, March 16, 2012
85th Academy Awards Set for February 24, 2013
Academy Sets 85th Academy Awards® Date
Beverly Hills, CA (March 14, 2012) – The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, and the Oscar® telecast will be presented on Sunday, February 24th.
The ceremony will take place at the Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network to more than 225 countries.
Beverly Hills, CA (March 14, 2012) – The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, and the Oscar® telecast will be presented on Sunday, February 24th.
The ceremony will take place at the Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network to more than 225 countries.
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