New Releases
THE DUKES OF HAZZARD Airing from 1979 to 1985, the TV series The Dukes of Hazzard was created for people who had trouble following the plotlines of Three’s Company. Inspired by the glut of so-called “hick flicks” that dominated drive-ins throughout the 1970s, the hit show was primarily an excuse to showcase good ol’ boy shenanigans and plenty of car collisions. This film version follows suit, and the entire enterprise, appropriately enough, can be summed up in the sort of blurb found in TV Guide: “Bo (Johnny Knoxville) and Luke (Sean William Scott) try to prevent the corrupt Boss Hogg (Burt Reynolds) from seizing all the land in Hazzard County for his own devious purposes. Daisy: Jessica Simpson. Uncle Jesse: Willie Nelson. 97 minutes. (Repeat)” An extended sequence in which Bo and Luke drive through downtown Atlanta suggests the movie could have worked as a clever reimagining in which the coarseness of the Old South repeatedly bumps up against the sensibilities of the New South, but this promise quickly dissipates to allow more room for the usual mix of lame slapstick humor and smash’n’crash auto theatrics. But let’s be honest: If you’re a fan of the original series and/or Johnny Knoxville, you’ll probably get your money’s worth, so just ignore the critics and zoom on over to the nearest multiplex. 1.5 stars.
MURDERBALL An award-winning audience favorite at Sundance, Murderball is a movie that’s easier to admire than adore, and its makers wouldn’t have it any other way. Though its focus is quadriplegic men who play wheelchair rugby, this documentary refuses to traffic in easy pathos and cheap sentiment: Its emotional moments are earned the hard way — that is to say, honestly — and its most startling declaration is that many of its subjects didn’t turn into crude, caustic men angry at the world once they received their life-altering injury. On the contrary, some of these guys were jerks since Day One, long before they found themselves leading their lives sitting down. The movie’s poster boy (literally; he’s in all the ads) is Mark Zupan, an intense wheelchair warrior who earned his injury in a car accident; the other major character is Joe Soares, a team coach who somehow manages to be even less appealing than Zupan. Clearly, Murderball’s goal isn’t to make us feel uplifted by the everyday struggles of these men; instead, it neatly averts the audience condescension that’s invariably generated by documentaries of this ilk by forcing us to view its characters as equals, as guys — sometimes likable, often not — who are macho jocks first and physically impaired men second (as Zupan declares, he’d rather have someone punch him during an argument than back down because of his condition; he’ll punch them right back). The movie loses steam whenever its attention turns to the on-the-court rivalry between the US and Canadian teams; far more compelling are the personal glimpses at people whose broken bodies are no match for their brawny spirits. 3.5 stars.
MUST LOVE DOGS Many of the elements that have made the contemporary romantic comedy such a grueling (and formulaic) experience are present in Must Love Dogs, and yet the movie nonetheless will work for those willing to surrender themselves to its dreamy passion. The film’s success begins and ends with its leading players, but it’s important not to undervalue director Gary David Goldberg’s script (adapted from Claire Cook’s novel), which adds some interesting quirks to a familiar framework. Diane Lane, so beautiful it almost hurts to look at her, plays Sarah Nolan, a recent divorcee who takes a chance on meeting single men who contact her through an Internet dating service. John Cusack, so adorable that even heterosexual guys might feel inclined to give him a big hug, portrays Jake Anderson, one of her prospective suitors. Over the course of the film, they date and dally with other people, yet they find themselves repeatedly drawn to each other. Elizabeth Perkins (as Sarah’s sarcastic sister), Christopher Plummer (as their suave dad) and especially Stockard Channing (as the dad’s girlfriend) excel in key roles, yet the movie firmly belongs to its stars: Lane as a warm and empathic woman who’s generous to a fault and Cusack as a sensitive artist-type (he builds wooden boats by hand) who watches Dr. Zhivago incessantly. You either buy into this fantasy or you don’t — me, I happily wallowed in it. 3 stars.
SKY HIGH Better than Fantastic Four but nowhere near the league of The Incredibles, Sky High is yet another feature film that centers on a family of superheroes. Cribbing as much from X-Men and the Harry Potter series as from the aforementioned pair, this live-action Disney romp stars appealing Michael Angarano as Will Stronghold, the son of superhero legends The Commander (Kurt Russell) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston). As a freshman at Sky High, a high school populated exclusively by kids with special powers, Will is expected to emerge as a hero ahead of his time; instead, his lack of powers finds him relegated to the “Hero Support” classes, where he and other underachievers learn the basics to becoming a sidekick. As long as Sky High tweaks the superhero genre, it remains on solid ground, thanks to knowing dialogue and smart casting (Russell and Bruce Campbell certainly have the square jaws required of superheroes, and former Wonder Woman Lynda Carter appears as the school principal). But whenever the movie gets distracted by the conventions of the typical teen flick (the Heroes are the popular kids and the Sidekicks are the nerds — get it?), it becomes a pale imitation of Mean Girls, Clueless and half the John Hughes oeuvre. 2.5 stars.
Current Releases
BAD NEWS BEARS Hollywood’s penchant for recycling continues with this update of the 1976 film about a beer-guzzling guy (Walter Matthau) who turns a team of Little League misfits into contenders. 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). Alas, the underdog angle has since suffered from overexposure, and in today’s anything-goes society, the sight of 12-year-olds cussing like sailors no longer carries any novelty (if anything, the incessant scatological humor in this new take proves annoying). Billy Bob Thornton (in Bad Santa mode) 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. 2 stars.
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. 3 stars.
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. 2 stars.
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 characters to find purpose in their lives. Howard is commanding as the lead, though the film’s heart and soul rest in the superlative turns by Taryn Manning and Taraji P. Henson as hookers who never allow circumstances to deflate their inner benevolence. 3.5 stars.
THE ISLAND Set in the not-so-distant future world of 2019, this dud from Michael Bay casts Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson as survivors of a global catastrophe that has decimated most of the world’s population. Like everyone else still left alive, they exist in a carefully controlled environment, but once they determine that not everything’s kosher about the set-up, they make their great escape. The film’s trailer reveals more than I’m willing to expose, but suffice it to say that cloning proves to be the film’s hard-charging issue. But once you push past the topicality, the picture is both simplistic and derivative — it feels like a clone of a dozen earlier, better movies — and the product placements are so shameless that the brand names (MSN, Xbox, etc.) should have received the above-the-title star billing. 2 stars.
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. 3 stars.
STEALTH Stealth is young, dumb and full of fun. This action flick about a renegade jet powered by a super-computer is exactly the sort of movie you’d expect from Rob Cohen, the director of XXX and The Fast and the Furious: lots of hot bods, lots of shimmering hardware and lots of improbable stunts that even Batman would have trouble executing. 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. Yet unlike Michael Bay, Cohen knows how to keep his action fresh — the aerial sequences are especially dazzling. 2.5 stars.
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. 3 stars.
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.). 2.5 stars.
OPENS FRIDAY:
THE DUKES OF HAZZARD: Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott.
MURDERBALL: Documentary.
This article appears in Aug 3-9, 2005.
