Review: Original "Ice Age" is Still Cool

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 70 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Ice Age (2002) – computer animated
Running time: 81 minutes (1 hour, 21 minutes)
MPAA – PG for mild peril
DIRECTOR: Chris Wedge with Carlos Saldanha
WRITERS: Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson, and Peter Ackerman; from a story by Michael J. Wilson
PRODUCER: Lori Forte
EDITOR: John Carnochan
Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION/COMEDY/ADVENTURE/FAMILY with elements of drama

Starring: (voices) Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Goran Visnjic, Jack Black, Cedric the Entertainer, and Stephen Root

The subject of this movie review is Ice Age, a 2002 computer-animated film from Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Fox. This adventure comedy and talking-animal story follows a woolly mammoth, giant ground sloth, and smilodon (a saber-toothed cat) who go on a journey to return a human baby to its parents.

As the ice age encroaches upon the land, a mismatched trio of prehistoric critters: Manfred “Manny” the mammoth (Ray Romano, who gives a low key but commanding voice performance), Sid the giant sloth (John Leguizamo, a show stealer as usual), and Diego the saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) become reluctant guardians of a human infant. They embark on an epic, but perilous and sometimes hilarious journey to return the infant to its tribe. Diego, however, has mixed loyalties, as his pack lies in wait to spring a trap for Manny and the baby.

Ice Age, produced by computer animation studio Blue Sky Animation for 20th Century Fox, was the first blockbuster computer animated feature not produced by Pixar (Disney) or PDI (DreamWorks). The film also earned a 2003 Oscar nomination for “Best Animated Feature” (which went to director Chris Wedge). If the film has a secret to its success, it’s actually two things: high quality computer animation and story. Creating computer animation that doesn’t look clunky, but instead looks like eye candy apparently isn’t easy. Pixar remains the gold standard, but after a rough start DreamWorks Animation (formerly PDI) is producing some colorful and unique looking works. Ice Age looks like the work of a studio that has been at computer animated features for a long time, although Blue Sky at the time had been making computer animated shorts and computer-generated characters for films like Alien: Resurrection and Joe’s Apartment. Other than the chunky looking adult humans, the animation in Ice Age is smooth and pleasant to look at, but most of all, the characters have character.

Cute looking characters mean nothing if they leave the audience cold. Manny the mammoth and Sid the sloth especially are lively and engaging. The animation allows both Manny and Sid’s faces to exploit the performances by the respective voice actors. Sid has a physicality that reminds of a really good physical comedian, and Sid is as animated as John Leguizamo’s hilarious and inventive voice performance of him. The saber-toothed tigers seem a bit stiff for the kind of animal they likely were. Their faces aren’t quite menacing, and they pose more than they move.

However, animated films are all sound and fury without a good story. It’s not enough that an animated feature is funny, and Ice Age does have much wry and witty humor (with some clever nods to pop culture and nice comic relief in the form of a character called Scrat). Ice Age is an engaging tale about lost souls coming together and working together to do something that is more important than their individual failures and yearnings. United they are far mightier than they were alone, and the cause (returning the human infant to his father) isn’t so much noble as it simply is the right thing to do. Anyone who believes in family and friendship can identify that, and such a goal moves beyond group alliances.

This is an all-inclusive message that embraces both traditional and non-traditional families (whatever those are). It’s a good message and a heartwarming story that makes Ice Age more than just empty, family entertainment product. Add the fact that it is often quite funny and witty, and Ice Age is a winning picture.

7 of 10
B+

Sunday, April 09, 2006

NOTES:
2003 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature” (Chris Wedge)

Darren Aronofsky Tweets from the Set of "Noah"

Academy Award-nominated director Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan) is working on his next feature film.  Entitled, "Noah," it is set to be released in 2014.  The film is a relling of the Biblical story of "Noah's Ark."  Aronofsky tweeted a photo from the set with the following text, "I dreamt about this since I was 13. And now it's a reality. Genesis 6:14."

"The Dark Knight Rises" at Music Retailers on July 17th

The Dark Knight Rises Soundtrack Due July 17

Composer Hans Zimmer Teams With Christopher Nolan For The Conclusion Of The Dark Knight Trilogy

Album Available For Pre-Order On Amazon And iTunes

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On July 17, 2012, WaterTower Music will release The Dark Knight Rises : Original Motion Picture Soundtrack at all physical and digital retailers. Academy-Award® winning composer Hans Zimmer teams for the fourth time with writer/director Christopher Nolan to create the music for the final installment of his Dark Knight Trilogy. The CD version of the soundtrack will contain an exclusive link to unlock three bonus tracks, while a deluxe version of the soundtrack, with three additional tracks, will be available digitally. A limited edition vinyl configuration is set for release on September 4. Following the success of his experiential app for Inception, which boasted 5 million downloads, Zimmer is preparing to unveil a new iPhone app for The Dark Knight Rises that will provide fans with a more immersive musical and sonic experience into the world of Gotham City. Details for the new Hans Zimmer app will be announced soon.

“I thought after we finished the last one [The Dark Knight], that was it,” said Zimmer. “There was nothing else we could possibly do. At the same time, when I started reading this script, I instantly knew that there was a whole world out there that I hadn’t even touched yet.”

“I have never worked with someone so dedicated to the idea that the real risk is in playing it safe,” said Nolan. “Hans taught me that you sometimes have to go in what appears to be the wrong direction to discover all the possibilities, and that without exploring those possibilities you can never do anything truly exceptional. He sets creative goals for every film that are higher than you ever thought practical…or even reachable.”

Zimmer added, “We’re comrades in arms, the way we try to cheer each other on and try to really do the best work we possibly can. And part of that is you have to be prepared to not hold back. You have to put everything into the movie.”

Hans Zimmer has scored over 100 films, grossing more than 19.6 billion dollars at the box office worldwide. He has been honored with the Academy Award®, 2 Golden Globes, 3 Grammys, an American Music Award, and a Tony Award. In 2003, ASCAP gave him the prestigious Henry Mancini award for Lifetime Achievement for his impressive and influential body of work. He also received his Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in December 2010. Some of his most recent works include Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and Rob Marshall’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ The Dark Knight Rises is the epic conclusion to filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.

The film stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Morgan Freeman. Christopher Nolan directed the film from a screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer. Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan and Charles Roven produced the film, with Benjamin Melniker, Michael E. Uslan, Kevin De La Noy and Thomas Tull serving as executive producers, and Jordan Goldberg co-producing. “The Dark Knight Rises” is based upon Batman characters created by Bob Kane and published by DC Comics.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Legendary Pictures, a Syncopy Production, a Film by Christopher Nolan. Opening in theatres and IMAX on July 20, 2012, the film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. The Dark Knight Rises has been rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language.

The Dark Knight Rises -- Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and The Dark Knight Rises – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Deluxe Version on WaterTower Music will be available digitally and in stores on July 17, 2012.

http://www.thedarkknightrises.com/

Review: "Safe House" is Full of Thrill Rides

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 56 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux

Safe House (2012)
Running time: 115 minutes (1 hour, 55 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence throughout and some language
DIRECTOR: Daniel Espinosa
WRITER: David Guggenheim
PRODUCER: Scott Stuber
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Oliver Wood (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Richard Pearson
COMPOSER: Ramin Djawadi

ACTION/THRILLER

Starring: Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Farmiga, Brendan Gleeson, Sam Shepard, Rubén Blades, Nora Arnezeder, Robert Patrick, and Liam Cunningham

Safe House is a 2012 action thriller and espionage film from Dutch director Daniel Espinosa. Starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds, the film follows a young CIA agent and a former CIA agent turned criminal on the run after their safe house is attacked. Safe House is an excellent action thriller, but that’s all it is.

Safe House is set in South Africa, where Matthew James “Matt” Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is a low-level CIA agent. He is the “housekeeper” (essentially the manager) of a CIA safe house in Cape Town, South Africa. Matt is about to have his biggest guest, Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington), an ex-CIA agent turned international criminal. Not long after Frost is brought to Matt’s safe house by a CIA special operations unit, mercenaries attack the house. Matt manages to escape with Frost in his custody, but things only get worse. Matt suspects that there is a security leak at the CIA from someone who wants something that Frost apparently has. Now, Matt has to keep one eye on Frost and the other on the people trying to kill them both.

Safe House is an expertly directed action thriller. Every chase scene is riveting; each one will hold onto your attention with a steely grip. But that’s it. You don’t really get to know the characters, although many have interesting back stories. Characters are either good guys or bad guys, and many are also corpses-to-be. Denzel doesn’t do anything that you haven’t seen him do before, but Ryan Reynolds really sells the idea that he is a young man dealing with something way beyond his pay grade. He shows fear, desperation, and desperate determination in his eyes. He does this with enough intensity to make you believe that he is a serious actor and not just the latest lucky young white guy in Hollywood.

I really enjoyed Safe House. It’s like the Jason Bourne movies, but more meat-and-potatoes action than smart (which the Bourne movies are). I think Safe House should also be noticed for a small role by Rubén Blades, the fine actor, singer/songwriter, and Latin jazz musician. He should be in more movies. In spite of a thin script, that’s what Safe House does: offer surprises and thrills that make you glad you watched it. If you are looking for more, you will need to watch another movie.

7 of 10
B+

Monday, July 09, 2012

Review: "Crossfire" is a Timeless Social Film (Remembering Robert Ryan)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 123 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Crossfire (1947)
Running time: 86 minutes (1 hour, 26 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Edward Dmytryk
WRITER: John Paxton (based upon the novel The Brick Foxhole by Richard Brooks)
PRODUCER: Adrian Scott
CINEMATOGRAPHER: J. Roy Hunt (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Harry Gerstad
COMPOSER: Roy Webb
Academy Award nominee

CRIME/DRAMA/FILM-NOIR

Starring: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Paul Kelly, Sam Levene, Jacqueline White, Steve Brodie, George Cooper, George Cooper, William Phipps, Tome Keene (as Richard Powers), Lex Barker, and Marlo Dwyer

The subject of this movie review is Crossfire, the 1947 Film-Noir drama and murder mystery from director, Edward Dmytryk. The film earned a best picture Oscar nomination, the first B-movie to receive that honor. Crossfire is based upon Richard Brooks’ 1945, The Brick Foxhole, which dealt with the murder of a homosexual victim. The victim in the film is Jewish.

Edward Dmytryk’s film Crossfire is an excellent crime drama about murder that resulted from unchecked bigotry. The filmed earned five Oscar® nominations including nods for “Best Picture,” and “Best Director.” In the film, police Captain Finlay (Robert Young) is trying to solve the murder of Joseph Samuels (Sam Levene), a man who befriended a group of soldiers at a bar. At first glance, the perpetrator would seem to be the drunk and depressed Cpl. Arthur Mitchell or “Mitch” (George Cooper), as his friends call him. However, Finlay and an Army Sgt. Peter Keeley (Robert Mitchum) believe Samuels was murdered because he was Jewish, so they set about trying to sniff out the anti-Semite who really committed the crime.

The film is very entertaining, and is also a quite-effective mystery. The characters, even the bit players, are excellent, engaging, and intriguing. Robert Ryan earned an Academy Award nomination for his supporting performance as the slyly genial, yet menacing Montgomery. Quite a bit of the credit for this film’s success must be given to the John Paxton’s adaptation of Richard Brooks’ novel. Paxton’s script (which changed the novel’s murder victim from a gay man to a Jewish man) is filled with witty and effective dialogue, most of it brief, yet efficient enough to color and to establish even the smallest character parts.

Dmytryk, a master film craftsman, gives the entire work a finish and polish that makes the film’s defects charming rather than distracting. Crossfire is a movie that has stayed with me, and I often find myself, for a few moments, remembering it.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
1948 Academy Awards: 5 nominations: “Best Actor in a Supporting Role” (Robert Ryan), “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Gloria Grahame), “Best Director” (Edward Dmytryk), “Best Picture” ((RKO Radio), and “Best Writing, Screenplay” (John Paxton)

1949 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Film from any Source” (USA)

1947 Cannes Film Festival: 1 win: “Best Social Film” (Edward Dmytryk)

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Review: "Dirty Pretty Things" is a Pretty Movie Thing (Happy B'day, Chiwetel Ejiofor)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 140 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux


Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
- U.S. release in 2003
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
Running time: 97 minutes (1 hour, 37 minutes)
MPAA – R for sexual content, disturbing images and language
DIRECTOR: Stephen Frears
WRITER: Steven Knight
PRODUCERS: Robert Jones and Tracey Seaward
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Chris Menges
EDITOR: Mick Audsley
COMPOSER: Nathan Larson
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/MYSTERY/THRILLER with elements of romance

Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Audrey Tautou, Sergo López, Sophie Okonedo, Benedict Wong, and Zlatko Buric

The subject of this movie review is Dirty Pretty Things, a 2002 British thriller from director Stephen Frears. This drama about two illegal immigrants in London was released in the United States in 2003 and went on to earn an Oscar nomination.

In Stephen Frears’ wonderful Dirty Pretty Things, Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an illegal Nigerian immigrant, discovers the unsavory side of London life. He works at a posh London hotel that is especially popular with men who frequent prostitutes. Okwe stumbles across evidence of a bizarre murder committed in one of the hotel rooms – a human heart clogging up the commode. Okwe is also involved in an awkward relationship with his roommate, Senay (Audrey Tautou), a Turkish chambermaid who is also on shaky footing with immigration. Okwe’s discovery in the hotel room and his connection with Senay eventually collide, and the manner in which he resolves both problems is this film’s centerpiece.

Stephen Frears’ filmography is a wonderful collection of eccentric and quirky films that are more than surface peculiarity. Most are very good films, and a few a truly great, including this one. Frears’ weaves a picture show of palatable drama that is also a convincing romance (although a sad one), a riveting, gritty, urban drama and a mesmerizing tale of mystery and intrigue. He is however blessed with Steven Knight’s Academy Award-nominated script (“Best Original Screenplay”). Knight gives the film a solid plot that, instead of overwhelming the film, allows the story to expand beyond genre intrigue. His writing also gives the characters (another element that is strong in his script) the chance to play at being more just chess pieces in a thriller.

The cast gives outstanding performances, especially Chiwetel Ejiofor. Although Miramax’s marketing for the film’s U.S. release emphasized the ethereal, haunting beauty of Audrey Tautou and her melancholy character, Senay, this is Okwe’s story. Chiwetel is the foundation of this movie’s success, guiding and holding the film with his hypnotic and penetrating gaze and steady strength. He strides this production like a cowboy in a western epic, holding the dark forces at bay and saving the damsel in distress. All in all, Ejiofor highlights a fine film presentation in which all hands did top notch work. I heartily recommend Dirty Pretty Things.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2004 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Writing, Original Screenplay” (Steven Knight)

2003 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (Tracey Seaward, Robert Jones, and Stephen Frears) and “Best Screenplay – Original” (Steven Knight)

2004 Black Reel Awards: 1 win: “Film: Best Actor” (Chiwetel Ejiofor)

Review: Tom Hanks' Magic Touch Energizes "The Da Vinci Code" (Happy B'day, Tom Hanks)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 109 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Da Vinci Code (2006)
Running time: 149 minutes (2 hours, 29 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for disturbing images, violence, some nudity, thematic material, brief drug references, and sexual content
DIRECTOR: Ron Howard
WRITER: Akiva Goldsman (based upon the book by Dan Brown)
PRODUCERS: John Calley, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Salvatore Totino
EDITORS: Dan Hanley, A.C.E. and Mike Hille, A.C.E.

MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jürgen Prochnow, with Paul Bettany and Jean Reno, Jean-Yves Berteloot, Etienne Chicot, and Jean-Pierre Marielle

The subject of this movie review is The Da Vinci Code, a 2006 American mystery thriller from director Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks. The film is based upon Dan Brown’s 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code, which was a worldwide bestseller.

The French police summon famed Harvard Professor of Religious Symbology, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), to the world renown Paris museum, the Louvre, to assist them in a murder investigation in which the victim, curator of the Louvre, Jacques Sauniere (Jean-Pierre Marielle), has left behind a bloody trail of symbols and clues, including a bloody pentacle Sauniere drew on his own body before he died. However, police cryptologist, Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), also arrives at the crime scene and surreptitiously informs Langdon that the lead investigator, Captain Fauche (Jean Reno), has pegged him as the first and only suspect in the murder.

Together, Langdon and Neveu unveil a series of stunning secrets hidden in the works of Renaissance painter Leonardo Da Vinci housed at the museum, all of which lead to a legendary secret society that has been guarding a secret nearly 2000 years old. Barely escaping the museum with the police hot on the tracks, Langdon and Neveu race from Paris to the French countryside to London, collecting clues as they attempt to crack Da Vinci’s code and reveal a conspiracy that may shake the very foundations of mankind. There, are however, sinister forces determined to stop them – personified in the form of a murderous albino monk, Silas (Paul Bettany).

Ron Howard’s latest film, The Da Vinci Code, is adapted by screenwriter Akiva Goldsman from author Dan Brown’s insanely popular novel of the same name. In fact, at 60 million copies sold worldwide, Brown’s book is the biggest selling hardcover work of fiction in history, and it has courted controversy because of its mix of conspiracy theory and pseudo history about the origins of Christianity virtually since the day it was published. Howard’s adaptation opened the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, where many of those who saw it allegedly panned the movie. By the time it opened theatrically worldwide on May 19th, U.S. film critics were either damning the movie with faint praise or simply skewering it.

Some critics have said that Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou have no screen chemistry, but their characters certainly connect the first time they meet one another in the narrative. Some said that Hanks was miscast as novelist Dan Brown’s cerebral version of Indiana Jones, Robert Langdon, and Hanks is certainly older than the Langdon in Brown’s books (Langdon is also the star of Brown’s Angels and Demons) who is 30-something. However, Hanks is one of the most popular actors of his generation and of the last two decades, not to mention that he is a stellar movie actor. Regardless of the roles he takes, audiences take to Hanks and willingly live vicariously through his characters – seeing the movie through his eyes. He could sell salvation to the devil. So if he’s not like the Langdon of the book, it hardly seems to matter in the context of the movie.

Some critics have said that Howard’s direction is slow and makes The Da Vinci Code clunky. The film is riveting from beginning to end, and Howard, who has a Spielberg-like penchant forgetting audiences to respond favorably to the emotional cues he sets for different points in his films, takes us on an thrill ride that is equal parts intellect-engaging mystery tale and pulse-pounding, action/adventure flick. Some critics have also said that Howard’s film buries us in exposition. Much of the novel amounts to page after page of endless (but interesting) discussion of philosophy, religious history, art history, Middle Ages history, symbols, codes, Catholicism, etc. Goldsman screenplay only retains the exposition that is necessary for the turning the central plot of Dan Brown’s book into a film. Howard takes much of the novel’s historical discussion and turns it into flashbacks for the movie, so (for instance) we see snippets of The Knights Templars’ history rather than just be told about it.

The Da Vinci Code is simply a grand adult thriller that more than retains the spirit of Brown’s both controversial and internationally beloved book. The filmmaking on the part of writer and director is superb. The art direction and set decoration is top notch, all of it filmed in a cool and comforting photography that creates a sense of great mystery – an atmosphere that recalls Raiders of the Lost Ark. The acting is just right, with the performers knowing how to play up or down the fantastical and preposterous notions from Brown’s books – how to make their characters make the outlandish seem worth the effort to unravel it. The best at that is Ian McKellen as the jovial, bon vivant of alternative and wacky history, Sir Leigh Teabing. It all makes The Da Vinci Code one of the truly exceptional film mysteries to come along in many a year.

9 of 10
A+

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

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