Movies
Magnolia
Starring Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly,
William H. Macy, Jason Robards, Philip SeymourHoffman,
Philip Baker Hall; Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Hard Eight, Punch-Drunk Love) follows
a set of sad, twisted and/or dying characters, whose lives are bizarrely connected,
through a miserable, rainy day in the San Fernando Valley. As situations and
circumstances become more and more outrageous, the characters seem to become
more and more believable. The exceptional cast delivers extraordinary performances
that compel you to commit your hope, disgust or pity to each flawed, damaged
or struggling individual. No one plays a moral dope like Reilly, a beautiful
wreck like Moore or a poignant nerd like Macy. But the performance you won’t
forget comes from Cruise, as sex guru Frank T.J. Mackey, who advises would-be
Lotharios at his self-help seminar to “seduce and destroy.” And you
will never use the cliché “raining cats & dogs” again.
One note of warning: It’s three hours long with naturalistic dialog and
jumps from story line to story line in rapid succession. Miss a moment, and you
might miss the point.
- Reviewed by Bob Dirkes |
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Big Fish
Starring Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange
Directed by Tim Burton
As my father has grown older, he has started to embellish stories of his youth
and it often is difficult to separate fact from fiction. That’s the basic
premise of Big Fish, a wonderful movie by Director Tim Burton that chronicles
the life of Edward Bloom (played by Albert Finney as a senior and Ewan McGregor
as an adult). Bloom’s tall tales begin with the story of an encounter with
a giant, a trek through a haunted forest, visit to an idealized southern town
and eventually Bloom’s courtship of his wife, affectingly played by Jessica
Lange. Because it’s a Tim Burton movie, the visual effects are first-rate
and so are the cameos by Danny DeVito, Steve Buscemi, Alison Lohman and Helena
Bonham Carter. Although Big Fish did not attract a basket full of Oscars, I believe
this movie will become a family classic much like the Wizard of Oz and It’s
a Wonderful Life.
- Reviewed by Mike Nikolich |
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Secret Window
Starring Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello
and Timothy Hutton
When Mort the successful author (Johnny Depp) can’t seem to shake a horrific
case of writer’s block all movie long, this David Koepp adaptation of a
Stephen King novel starts theater goers down the darkened forest path toward
quirky, edgy, isolated horror that makes you glad you’ve brought someone
to grab onto. Sony Pictures’ location for most of the shoot does little
to brighten things: Mort’s dingy cabin deep in the woods where he’s
taken a sleepy, solitary refuge after seeing he’ll soon face a messy divorce
from his cheating ex-wife Amy (Maria Bello of TV’s ER). With severe writer’s
block, lurking anxieties about what might happen if he failed to disprove a charge
of plagiarism from a hostile whacko, a divorce from a sexy ex-wife, what else
could go wrong? Depp’s strong performance and a delicious plot twist make “Secret
Window” a good mind bender. You can return to a little normalcy once back
in your own neck of the woods by enjoying some warm milk and cookies before hitting
the sack.
- Reviewed by Dave Reiners |
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The Recruit
Starring Al Pacino, Colin Farrell
“
Nothing is what it seems,” intones Al Pacino near
the beginning of this spy thriller, and for the rest of
the film you're left guessing what
is real and what isn't. Colin Farrell plays a young computer genius who is recruited
to the CIA by Al Pacino, an instructor at “The Farm,” the CIA's training
base in Virginia . Farrell believes his father was once a CIA agent, actually
working as a NOC (no official cover), which meant when he was caught in South
America , he was killed. He is thrown together with another young recruit played
by Bridget Moynihan, and the twists and turns really get going. Farrell is sent
out on a training mission to select, pick up, and have sex with a willing woman
at local bar; Moynihan is sent out to distract him from that mission. After a
particularly grueling training incident, Farrell is washed out of the program – or
is he? Pacino says he made it happen so he can be the NOC, and then things really
get going. Things keep getting more tense and more confusing, until both Farrell
and you, the viewer, don't know who to trust and what the truth is. Pacino gets
one of his scenery-chewing soliloquies at the end, where one more twist awaits.
A very taut, intense popcorn movie that's a lot of fun – if you like that “Three
Days of the Condor” type thing.
- Reviewed by Ken Krause |
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Star Wars – Episode
II, Attack of the Clones
My disclaimer upfront is that I am not a Star Wars
fan. However, Star Wars fans will not be disappointed
by Attack of the Clones, Episode II in the trilogy.
The story picks up with Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), now a senator, resisting
the creation of a Republic army to battle an evil separatist movement. Viewers
also see the continued rebelliousness of Anakin Skywalker and his resentment
of the direction of Obi-Wan Kenobi, his Jedi master. Anakin’s anger consumes
him as exhibited by his total annihilation of the Sand people after his mother
dies in their custody. The seeds are sown for his transformation to the dark
side and Darth Vader that will eventually take place in Episode III. A steady
fixture in all the Star Wars movies, Jedi master Yoda saves the lives of Anakin
and Obi-Wan from the evil Count Dooku, who forges an alliance with the Dark
Lord of the Sith, a foreshadowing of events. A forbidden love also develops
between Padme and Anakin, which will result in the births of two Jedi children,
Luke Skywalker and Princess Leah. In this film, one learns of the origins of
the storm troopers seen in the original Star Wars movies. Episode II exemplifies
the exquisite filmmaking of George Lucas and portrays the historic developments
in filmmaking and technology now available versus what Lucas had to work with
in the original Star Wars movies. In fact, the conundrum in the future will
be whether to watch the films in the sequence of their original releases to
the big screen, or chronologically.
- Reviewed by Philip Anast |
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Forbidden Planet
Starring Leslie Nielsen, Anne Francis, Walter Pidgeon
We all know actor Leslie Nielsen for his comedic roles in movies such as Airplane,
but if you like B-movie sci-fi the way I do, you’ll appreciate Neilsen’s “serious
role” in my favorite film, 1956’s Forbidden Planet. This visually
arresting movie was decades ahead of its time, with and a soundtrack that feels
other-worldly, and the plot holds your attention as it explores what lies in
our hidden subconscious thoughts. Nielsen and our space travelers find themselves
stuck on planet Altair with a broken ship, and they encounter the planet’s
only two inhabitants, a scientist and his daughter who are quite isolated. It
set the high mark for sci-fi effects at the time, and it still holds up as a
classic in today’s world of CG effects. The (over)acting has all the 1950’s
cheese you could want, so there are a few laughs as well. There are also some
parallels between this movie and Shakespeare’s The Tempest…but rather
than analyze that, just get your ray-gun blaster handy, and plug in this DVD
for some old-school entertainment.
- Reviewed by Lawren Markle |
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Northfork
Starring James Woods, Nick Nolte, Duel Farnes Directed
by Michael Polish
If you can handle the first half hour of droll set-up in this understated, quirky
film by the Polish brothers of Twin Falls, Idaho fame, you will be justly rewarded.
This movie – about teams of eviction agents hired in 1955 to convince stubborn
landowners to move away for a new dam – is a thinking man’s treatise
on the role of religious beliefs in America, and one of the best such films I’ve
ever seen. The eviction agents, including James Woods as part of a father-son
team, do penance to get to their version of heaven (1-1/2 beachfront acres on
the yet to be created lake). The agents have their work cut out for them – they
have to evict a goofy true believer who has transformed his house into an ark,
and another character who nails his own feet to his porch in a weird crucifixion,
yet still has the strength to shoot at the eviction agents. Nick Nolte has a
boffo role as the protector priest of an orphaned angel. Weird but wonderful,
this is truly a cinematic epiphany.
- Reviewed by Tim Boivin |
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