Film ClipsNew Releases
BAD NEWS BEARS Hollywood’s penchant for recycling continues with Bad News Bears, an update whose most surprising feature is that it’s directed by Richard Linklater. Linklater, coming off an Oscar nomination for co-writing Before Sunset and a box office hit with School of Rock, has basically fashioned an offshoot of Bad Santa that’s set in the world of baseball (Bat Santa?) — no surprise, given that Bad Santa star Billy Bob Thornton and writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa are also involved. For those who missed it, the 1976 Bears is a charming film about a beer-guzzling guy (Walter Matthau) who agrees to coach a Little League team even though he has no fondness for kids. The players initially prove to be hopeless, but under the reluctant guidance of their curmudgeonly coach, they eventually rise to the level of contenders. Like the 70s version of The Longest Yard, the original Bears was notable for milking the underdog formula for all it was worth — and sweetening the pot with its decidedly non-PC aspects (such as small kids swearing). Yet although the remake is similar enough to the ’76 version that original screenwriter Bill Lancaster receives a screen credit (though he’s been dead for several years), the underdog angle has since suffered from overexposure (this summer alone has also given birth to Kicking & Screaming and Rebound), and in today’s anything-goes society, the sight of 12-year-olds cussing like sailors on the screen no longer carries any novelty (if anything, the incessant scatological humor in this new take grows annoying). Thornton is funny as the uncouth coach, though his character — harsher than Matthau’s — seems out of place in a movie that’s being positioned as a family film.
STEALTH Stealth is young, dumb and full of fun. It’s exactly the sort of movie you’d expect from Rob Cohen, the director of XXX and The Fast and the Furious — lots of hot young bods, lots of shimmering hardware and lots of improbable stunts that even Batman would have trouble executing. Three charismatic actors, Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel and Jamie Foxx, play Navy pilots who, having been designated the best of the best, are chosen to fly the US’s most sophisticated stealth fighter jets. The trio work exceptionally well as a team, which is why tensions arise when a fourth plane, an unmanned vehicle run by its own computer system, is added to the mix. The pilots’ trepidation proves to be well-founded once the RoboJet (nicknamed EDI) develops a mind of its own and begins carrying out bombing runs by its own authority. The attempt to mesh the movie’s outlandish escapades with real world horrors (Middle Eastern terrorists plotting a strike on American soil and hostile relations with North Korea both figure into the plot) doesn’t quite come off, and the movie’s dialogue runs hot-and-cold (poor Sam Shepard, as the outfit’s commanding officer, gets saddled with most of the clunkers). Yet unlike, say, Michael Bay, Cohen knows how to keep his action fresh — the aerial sequences are especially dazzling — and the Jekyll-and-Hyde persona of EDI, a cross between 2001: A Space Odyssey‘s HAL and Knight Rider‘s K.I.T.T., allows the plane to emerge as a memorable, uh, character. 1/2
Current Releases
BATMAN BEGINS One of the finest superhero films ever made, Batman Begins marks the beginning of a beautiful friendship — between the creative forces who have resurrected a popular franchise and the fans who felt betrayed when that same franchise went belly-up in the late 90s. Never afraid to peer into the darkest recesses of the mind, director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia) has created a brooding picture that has as much in common with his previous works as it does with the storied saga of the Caped Crusader. To dismiss this as escapist fare would be to ignore the myriad adult themes that bulk up the picture, issues ranging from the duality of man to the politics of fear. Christian Bale leads a sterling cast that also includes Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson; their committed performances help make this that rare summer movie in which thought often speaks louder than either action or words. 1/2
BEWITCHED As far as ill-advised Nicole Kidman vehicles that plunder past artifacts of pop culture are concerned, the nicest thing one can say about Bewitched is that it’s better than The Stepford Wives. That’s primarily because of Kidman herself, who manages to harness her maddeningly inconsistent role with such success that the result is an offbeat and original characterization. Otherwise, this initially clever comedy, in which a real witch (Kidman) is cast as a fictional one on an update of the TV series, takes one wrong turn after another beginning around the halfway mark. As Kidman’s unlikely love interest, a miscast Will Ferrell delivers a manic performance that quickly grows tiresome, while Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine are both wasted.
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY Tim Burton helms the second screen version of Roald Dahl’s 41-year-old novel about an eccentric candymaker (Johnny Depp) who takes five children on a tour through his gargantuan factory. In most respects, this surpasses the previous screen incarnation, 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: It’s funnier, faster and more visually stimulating. But Burton, who tends to fluctuate between enfant terrible and rank sentimentalist, allows his maudlin streak to get the best of him via a needless back story that explains Wonka’s affinity for candy, and this plot strand leads to a soggy finale that’s easily bested by the final act of the ’71 model. Depp delivers an engaging surface performance, though I prefer the more measured madness of Gene Wilder’s interpretation.
DARK WATER As far as American remakes of Japanese horror flicks go, this one’s better than either The Ring or The Grudge, trading in cheap thrills for an understated intelligence. Jennifer Connelly plays Dahlia, an emotionally fragile divorcee who moves into a decrepit — and possibly haunted — apartment with her young daughter (Ariel Gade). The horror angle isn’t nearly as compelling as the other topics explored by director Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) and scripter Rafael Yglesias (Fearless), among them parental anxiety, urban decay and the indifference of strangers. Connelly anchors this with a strong performance, though the film is stolen by supporting players Pete Postlethwaite (as the building’s gruff janitor), Tim Roth (as Dahlia’s adept lawyer) and especially John C. Reilly (as the sleazy landlord).
FANTASTIC FOUR Assign acclaimed directors to superhero flicks and you get the likes of the Spider-Man pair, the X-Men duo and Batman Begins. Assign any Tom, Hack or Harry and you get flaccid duds like Elektra, The Punisher and now Fantastic Four. It’s shocking that 20th Century Fox didn’t treat this with the same care as their classy (and successful) X-Men franchise; instead, they handed the directorial reins to Tim Story (Barbershop and the Jimmy Fallon bomb Taxi), resulting in a half-assed cheeseball confection. Among the heroes, Michael Chiklis fares best as the tortured Thing, but Julian McMahon makes a pitiable Dr. Doom, a towering comic book villain (think of him as the forerunner to Darth Vader) reduced to a wimpy matinee crook. The engaging special effects help.
HERBIE: FULLY LOADED The notion of a supercharged Volkswagen beetle seems quaint in this age of monolithic, gas-guzzling SUVs — indeed, the first Herbie picture, The Love Bug, hit theaters back in 1969 — yet given the sort of cacophonous kiddie dreck that routinely fills auditoriums today, this blast of old-fashioned sentiment isn’t half-bad. Lindsey Lohan, whose tight outfits continually threaten to put the kibosh on the film’s G rating, plays a speed racer who finds herself competing on the NASCAR circuit after she discovers that the rusty VW she rescues from a junkyard is magically endowed. The wavering quality of the special effects — more special in some scenes than others — will pass unnoticed by the little ones, while parents will enjoy revisiting their youth via the mix of rock oldies on the soundtrack. 1/2
HUSTLE & FLOW This earned the Audience Award at Sundance, and it’s easy to see why: When a filmmaker is bold enough to make a pimp his film’s protagonist and — more surprisingly — gently coerces his viewers into caring about this morally dubious character’s fate, it’s apparent that there’s real talent in play. Writer-director Craig Brewer, a longtime Memphis resident, drew upon his surroundings to add flavor to his tale about a street hustler (Terrence Howard) who tries to make it as a rapper. Hollywood convention occasionally bumps up against the movie’s more raw aspects, but for the most part, this rarely takes a false step as it details the efforts of its various characters to find purpose in their lives. Howard is commanding in the central role, though the film’s heart and soul rest in the superlative turns by Taryn Manning and Taraji P. Henson as hookers who never allow dire circumstances to deflate their inner benevolence. 1/2
MARCH OF THE PENGUINS It’s awfully hard to resist the charms of this documentary, which is as single-minded in its approach as its protagonists prove to be in their determination to keep their species alive. Originally a French film filled with first-person — uh, first-penguin — narration (yes, it anthropomorphized the animals) and pop songs, this has been refashioned for American audiences as a traditional documentary, with pleasant theme music and soothing narration provided by Morgan Freeman. At the risk of sounding like a xenophobic clod who would endorse “Freedom fries,” I have to say I approve of the changes — hearing a baby penguin exclaim the Gallic version of “Gosh, Dad, it sure is cold with all this ice!” would surely have made me cringe. The French are apparently second to none when it comes to making movies that champion wildlife, and this joins Winged Migration, The Bear and Two Brothers as sterling examples of the form.
MR. AND MRS. SMITH Based on the countless scenes in which Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie strip down to their undergarments, it’s clear there isn’t an ounce of flab on either of those bodies — it’s just too bad the same can’t be said about the film itself. Playing a suburban couple who are actually both skilled assassins, Brad and Angelina gleefully throw themselves into this chaotic action flick in which the sharp dialogue too often gets drowned out by the incessant explosions. The film begins promisingly, with Simon Kinberg contributing a script that’s full of wry observations about the level of secrecy that’s inherent in most marriages, and how the stakes might be raised exponentially when the spousal subterfuge occurs between people who kill for a living. But once the emphasis shifts from the characters to the hardware they employ, it becomes just another noisy spectacle. 1/2
WAR OF THE WORLDS Steven Spielberg, who’s helmed several of the greatest popcorn entertainments of the past 30 years, has now given us a popcorn picture with a difference — this one’s been generously sprinkled with salt, causing a stinging sensation as it rubs against the open wound of our national psyche. Spielberg has crafted War of the Worlds as a fantasy film for a post-9/11 age, a work that, in the same manner as his excellent 2002 Minority Report, views science fiction not as a source of endless wonder and delight but as a realm fraught with cautionary tales about the erosion of our personal freedoms and our sense of despair in an increasingly hostile world. Americanizing and updating H.G. Wells’ novel, this follows a working-class dad (Tom Cruise) and his kids as they attempt to escape the aliens wiping out mankind. Boasting excellent effects, this is a harrowing thrill ride that’s merciless in its methods, though it’s hampered by a warm and fuzzy conclusion that’s simply shameless.
WEDDING CRASHERS Wedding Crashers shuffles around Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn and a “surprise” cameo from one of their frequent screen buddies (Ben Stiller or Will Ferrell? Go on, take a guess), and the result is pretty much what we’ve come to expect from this Hollywood version of a theatrical repertory company: rude, ragged and funny more often than not. Wilson and Vaughn play John and Jeremy, longtime buddies who crash weddings in order to sleep with the emotionally vulnerable women they encounter there. But the pair’s successful operation hits a snag once John falls for a level-headed bridesmaid (Rachel McAdams) while Jeremy finds himself being terrorized by her seemingly psychotic sister (Isla Fisher). Wilson and Vaughn are in exemplary comic form, doing their best to lift a clunky screenplay that’s bogged down by the usual stock characters (overbearing fiancé, creepy gay kid, etc.). 1/2
OPENS FRIDAY:
MUST LOVE DOGS: Diane Lane, John Cusack.
SKY HIGH: Kurt Russell, Kelly Preston.
STEALTH: Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel.
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 2, 2005.
