By Kam Williams
Summer Starts Now In The Theaters
Although astronomers say Summer won’t officially begin until the solstice on June 21 at the moment the Earth’s orbit is most tilted towards the Sun, Hollywood stargazers are always way too impatient to wait for that date to start spotting the season’s celestial beings. By cultural convention, Memorial Day has been designated as the unofficial start of summer. So, that’s when women are allowed to wear white, men can break out their seersucker suits, and backyard chefs can first fire-up the barbecue.
So, abiding by that unwritten rule, here’s a sneak peek at what will be arriving soon at the cinema, mostly a mix of sequels (Clerks 2, X-Men 3, Fast and Furious 3, Garfield 2, Superman 4 and Pirates of the Caribbean 2), remakes (The Omen, the Lake House, Pathfinder and Pulse), and TV (Miami Vice), radio (A Prairie Home Companion), video game (DOA: Dead or Alive) and book (The Devil Wears Prada, Peaceful Warrior, The Night Listener) adaptations.
Although studio execs don’t like risking blockbuster budgets on unproven commodities anymore, the exception seems to be star vehicles with built-in audiences, such as Jack Black’s Nacho Libre, The Wayans Brothers’ Little Man, Adam Sandler’s Click and Will Ferrell’s Talladega Nights. There are also a couple of director-driven productions, M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water and Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center. Finally, there promises to be no shortage of family-oriented, animated adventures to occupy the kiddies from Monster House to Barnyard to Cars to Garfield’s A Tail of Two Kittens to The Ant Bully.
Memorial Day Weekend
X-Men: The Last Stand (5/26) Final installment of the trilogy features the comic book super-heroes divided over whether to take the cure which will transform them from mutants into normal human beings, or to retain their special powers and remain ostracized by society. Standoff leads to a showdown of epic proportions. Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Halle Berry (Storm), Anna Paquin (Rogue), James Marsden (Cyclops), Rebecca Romijn (Mystique), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Famke Janssen (Phoenix), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman), Daniel Cudmore (Colossus), Aaron Stanford (Pyro) and Patrick Stewart (Dr. Charles Xavier) all reprise their roles.
JUNE
The Break-Up (6/2) Battle-of-the-sexes revenge comedy, set in the Windy City, about an art dealer (Jennifer Aniston) and tour bus guide (Vince Vaughn) who both want to end their relationship, except neither is willing to move out of the condo they share. With Joey Lauren Adams, Jon Favreau and Ann Margaret.
Peaceful Warrior (6/2) Adaptation of Way of the Peaceful Warrior, Dan Millman’s best-selling, New Age memoir about an Olympic gymnast (Scott Mechlowicz) who undergoes a spiritual transformation and decides to re-order his priorities after a life-altering encounter with a chain-smoking, philosophizing gas station attendant (Nick Nolte).
The Omen 666 (6/6) Remake of the apocalyptic horror flick from 1976 about an American diplomat (Live Schreiber) stationed in Europe who, with his wife (Julia Stiles), adopts a child named Damien (Seamey Davis-Fitzpatrick) unaware that the boy just might be the devil incarnate and that all Hell is about to break loose. Supporting cast includes Mia Farrow, Michael Gambon, and Pete Postlethwaite.
Cars (6/9) Disney animated adventure about the adventures of a rookie hot rod (Owen Wilson) who gets a big lesson about life on his way across country to compete in the Piston Cup Championship in California. With voice work by Paul Newman, George Carlin, Bob Costas, Bonnie Hunt, Michael Keaton, Jennifer Lewis, Tony Shalhoub, and real-life race car drivers Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip.
A Prairie Home Companion (6/9) Garrison Keillor plays himself in this fictional story set at St. Paul’s famed Fitzgerald Theater, home to his long-running, nostalgic NPR radio series of the same name. Directed by Robert Altman, the action unfolds both on and offstage on the night of what looks like the final broadcast, given the announcement that the show has been acquired by a corporate conglomerate which has decided to pull the plug on the popular program. Ensemble cast includes Lindsay Lohan, Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, Lily Tomlin, Virginia Madsen, Matthew Modine, John C. Reilly and SNL’s Maya Rudolph.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (6/16) With the cast overhauled again, the action shifts to Japan for the third installment of the high-octane auto franchise. Now Lucas Black stars as a fugitive from justice and gangsters whose hope of paying off a gambling debt rests with putting the pedal to the medal driving in death-defying street races.
The Lake House (6/16) Speed stars Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves reunite
In this remake of Siworae, a surreal sci-fi flick from Korea. This faithful adaptation revolves around the exchange of love letters between a frustrated architect (Reeves) and the lonely doctor (Bullock) who previously resided in his new house and the Twilight Zone discovery that they’re living two years apart.
Nacho Libre (6/16) Over-the-top Jack Black vehicle features the corpulent comic as a chef who decides to don a mask and cape to morph into a professional wrestler to raise enough money to save the orphanage where he works from closing.
Click (6/23) Adam Sandler stars in this sci-fi fantasy about a workaholic architect who discovers that he can fast-forward and rewind his life with the help of his universal remote control. Cast includes Christopher Walken, Kate Beckinsale, Sean Astin, Jennifer Coolidge, David Hasselhoff, Henry Winkler, Julie (the voice of Marge Simpson) Kavner, and John (brother of Chris) Farley.
Garfield’s A Tail of Two Kittens (6/23) Bill Murray reprise’s the title role as the voice of the smart- aleck cat in this mistaken identity, animated comedy, set in England, where the furry feline accidentally inherits a castle which comes outfitted with a court of loyal subjects. Additional voiceovers provided by Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Tim Curry and Bob Hoskins.
Waist Deep (6/23) Meagan Good and Tyrese co-star as a 21st Century version of Bonnie and Clyde as joyriding lawbreakers and lovers who leave no stone unturned in search of his carjacked kid. Cast includes Larenz Tate, gangsta’ rapper The Game and Arnold Vosloo.
The Devil Wears Prada (6/30) Anne Hathaway stars opposite Meryl Streep in this adaptation of the best seller of the same name about a small-town girl just out of college who lands a job in NYC as an assistant to a very demanding, high-powered magazine editor.
Superman Returns (6/30) Brandon Routh takes over the title role for a new chapter in the life of the Man of Steel as he returns from Krypton to declare his undying love for Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) while protecting the planet from the cataclysmic destruction planned by his arch enemy Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey). Back cast includes Frank Langella, James Marsden, Parker Posey, Eva Marie Saint and Kal Penn.
JULY
Little Man (7/5) Keenen Ivory Wayans directs brother Marlon in the title role of this screwball comedy as a pint-sized felon who masquerades as a baby in order to be adopted by the couple (Shawn Wayans and Kerry Washington) he hid a priceless diamond with. Cast includes John Witherspoon and SNL alums Tracy Morgan and Molly Shannon.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (7/7) Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and company return for another round of horror hijinks on the high seas. This time out Captain Jack finds himself trapped in another spooky web of supernatural intrigue, owing a debt of servitude and eternal damnation to Davy Jones.
Pathfinder (7/14) Remake of Ofelas (1987), a Norse adventure set around 1000 A.D. about a Norwegian boy (Jay Tavare), left behind and raised by Native Americans after a shipwreck on the East Coast, who grows up to reclaim his Viking warrior birthright.
Pulse (7/14) Remake of Kairo (2001), the Japanese horror flick about a deadly force which takes control of the lives of anyone who logs onto a sinister website thought to be a harmless marketing hoax. The Blair Witch Internet Project.
You, Me and Dupree (7/14) Three’s a crowd comedy about a couple of newlyweds (Matt Dillon and Kate Hudson) who come to regret allowing their best man (Owen Wilson) to crash on the couch at their crib when he turns into the proverbial guest that wouldn’t leave. With Michael Douglas and Amanda Detmer.
Lady in the Water (7/21) M. Night Shyamalan fractured fairy tale about the efforts of a custodian (Paul Giamatti) to assist the mysterious woman (Bryce Dallas Howard) he rescues from his apartment building’s swimming pool to make the perious journey back to her life as a character in a bedtime story. Cast includes Jeffrey Wright, Bill Irwin, Bob Balaban, and the director in another cameo appearance.
Monster House (7/21) CGI-animated cartoon about three kids who have a hard time convincing any adults that the spooky old Victorian mansion up the block is actually a living, breathing monster. Featuring voice work by Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Nick cannon, Jason Lee, Kathleen Turner, Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara and Kevin James.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend (7/21) Uma Thurman handles the title role in this romantic comedy as a superhero who unleashes her wrath upon the mere mortal (Luke Wilson) who decided to dump her for another woman (Anna Faris).
Barnyard (7/28) Family-oriented animated feature about a motley collection of mischievous farm animals led by a carefree cow (Kevin James) who enjoys playing tricks on humans till a crisis arrives calling for him to summon up the courage to act responsibly. With voice-overs by Wanda Sykes, Courteney Cox, Danny Glover, Sam Elliott, Andie MacDowell, and director Steve Oedekerk.
John Tucker Must Die (7/28) Revenge comedy about a womanizing playboy (Jesse Metcalfe) who gets what’s coming to him when three of his ex-girlfriends (Ashanti, Sophia Bush and Brittany Snow) team up to turn the tables on him by talking the new girl in town into breaking his heart.
Miami Vice (7/28) Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx co-star in the screen adaptation of the citrus-colored TV-series about a couple of cool, crime-fighting detectives who walk a fine ethical line wooing women while working undercover to crack a drug cartel responsible for several murders in South Florida.
AUGUST
The Ant Bully (8/4) Animated morality play about a 10-year-old boy (Zach Tyler) who learns some important lessons about friendship and tolerance when he finds himself magically shrunk to the size of an insect after he deliberately flooded an ant hill with his water gun. Voice cast includes Nicolas Cage, Paul Giamatti, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Regina King and Ricardo Montalban.
Fearless (8/4) Jet Li stars in this bio-pic based on the life of legendary Chinese spiritual guru and martial arts master Huo Yuan Jia (1869-1910), the visionary generally credited with turning karate from a form of fighting into a spectator sport.
Talladega Nights (8/4) NASCAR action comedy featuring Will Ferrell as a race car daredevil who teams with his best friend (John C. Reilly) after the arrival from Europe of a flamboyant French Formula One Champion (Sacha Baron Cohen) intent on also becoming the stock car king.
World Trade Center (8/9) Oliver Stone’s take on 9-11 approaches the terrorist attacks from the perspective of the two NYC transit police (Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena) who were the last people pulled alive from the wreckage at Ground Zero. Cast includes Maggie Gyllenhaal, Stephen Dorff, Maria Bello, William Mapother and Nicholas Turturro.
Accepted (8/11) Slacker teensploit about a high school senior (Justin Long) rejected by every university he applied to, who comes up with the bright idea of opening the prestigious-sounding South Harmon Institute of Technology, so that he and other similarly-situated misfits can trick their parents into believing that they’ve actually gone on to college.
The Reaping (8/11) Faith-based flick features Hilary Swank as an ex-missionary who abandons Christianity after the death of her parents for a new career as an expert proving the scientific explanation of religious phenomena. But the heathen has to reconsider her embracing of atheism when she can’t explain the Biblical plagues suddenly being visited upon Louisiana.
Zoom (8/11) Tim Allen stars in this family comedy as a retired superhero coaxed out of retirement to train a ragtag team of private school kids as the next generation of intrepid crusaders. With Chevy Chase, Courteney Cox, Rip Torn and Cornelia Guest.
Clerks II (8/18) Writer/director Kevin Smith reunites with co-star Jason Mewes for this update of his cult classic which finds the hapless slackers in their 30s and still stuck in New Jersey but suddenly unemployed and shaken out of a middle-age malaise when their convenience store closes. Cast includes Rosario Dawson, Wanda Sykes and Ben Affleck.
My First Wedding (8/18) Rachael Leigh Cook stars in this mistaken-identity comedy as a hesitant bride-to-be who confesses her every sexual fantasy to a carpenter she assumes to be a priest. The instantly-smitten craftsman continues to impersonate a cleric yet starts pressuring her to call off the marriage.
The Night Listener (8/18) Psychological thriller, adapted from the novel of the same name, stars Robin Williams as a loquacious, gay, nationally-syndicated radio talk show host recently abandoned by his HIV+ lifemate, who ventures from NYC to a desolate area of Wisconsin to rendezvous with his biggest fan, a 14-year-old (Rory Culkin) who claims to have been a victim of incest, rape and sexual slavery at the hands of his mom and her series of sleazy boyfriends. With Toni Collette, Sandra Oh and Joe Morton.
Snakes on a Plane (8/18) Disaster flick/crime saga pits a drug kingpin about to go on trial against Samuel L. Jackson as an FBI Agent escorting an eyewitness to court on a flight from Hawaii to L.A. All hell breaks loose at 30,000 feet over the Pacific when a ruthless assassin releases hundreds of poisonous snakes sending passengers and crew into an all-out panic.
Beerfest (8/25) Over-the-top comedy about a couple of brothers who travel to Germany to scatter their grandfather’s ashes during Oktoberfest only to end up participating in a centuries-old rowdy ritual known as the Olympics of beer drinking. Cast includes writer/director/co-star Jay Chandrasekhar, co-collaborator Kevin Heffernan, Mo’nique, Cloris Leachman and Jurgen Prochnow.
DOA: Dead or Alive (8/25) Adaptation of the best-selling video game unfolds as a high-stakes, martial arts test of survival in which four, scantily-clad, voluptuous vixens (Devon Aoki, Sarah Carter, Natassia Malthe and Jamie Pressley) square-off in a fighting tournament staged on an exotic island.
Idlewild (8/25) Musical melodrama, set at a speakeasy in the South during Prohibition, about the efforts of a cabaret singer (Big Boi) and a piano player (Andre’ 3000) to keep their nightclub free of mob influence. Expanded cast includes Terrence Howard, Paula Jai Parker, Faizon Love, Macy Gray, Bill Nunn, Ving Rhames, Cicely Tyson and Ben Vereen.
Material Girls (8/25) Hilary and Haylie Duff star as heiresses to a cosmetic fortune who get a reality check when a financial scandal suddenly strips them of all their wealth. With Anjelica Huston, Brent Spiner, Lukas Haas, Obba Babatunde’, Maria Conchita Alonzo and Olympic sprinter Carl Lewis
The Da Vinci Code
Poor (0 stars)
Ron Howard Adapts Blasphemous, Biblical Best-Seller Into Preposterous Potboiler
Ridiculed by academic scholars as riddled with inaccuracies and criticized by Christian theologians as blasphemous, The Da Vinci Code has, nonetheless, sold a phenomenal 50 million copies since its release in 2003. Furthermore, this controversial potboiler has remained on the best seller list despite author Dan Brown’s having admitted to lifting both his central hypothesis and key plot elements from The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, a book long since exposed as a hoax.
That reliance on fabrication didn’t discourage Brown from prefacing his fanciful interpretation of Biblical history with the guarantee that “all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” Among the “truths” he goes on to reveal are such long-suppressed secrets as the fact that Christ married Mary Magdalene, had a child with her, and that their bloodline has survived to the present day.
Furthermore, this incendiary tome casts doubt on a fundamental tenet of Christianity by alleging that Jesus was just a mere mortal, and that the Catholic Church has, for centuries, gone to great lengths, even murder, to perpetuate the lies its faithful followers so fervently believe in. To that end, the Vatican has supposedly relied on a conservative hit squad, known as Opus Dei, to do all its dirty work.
This adaptation of Brown’s popular page-turner sticks closely to the source material’s preposterous premise. So again, we have a tall-tale which rests upon a litany of pretentiously-presented, pseudo-scientific claptrap woven together in an insinuating fashion designed to appeal to paranoid conspiracy theory enthusiasts and the anti-Christian crowd.
However, because the movie is aimed at an audience with the level of sophistication of seventh or eighth graders, it induced plenty of inappropriate, unprovoked belly laughs from adults at the screening which this critic attended. The upshot is that The Da Vinci Code can’t even be recommended solely for its sheer entertainment value as an escapist summer blockbuster, for this amateurish production is a dull crime caper which runs an hour too long and trades in tiring talk rather than compelling action sequences.
This comes as a surprise, given its $125,000,000 budget and impressive crew, starting with producer Brian Grazer, director Ron Howard and scriptwriter Akiva Goldsman, the same collaborating team which won Academy Awards for A Beautiful Mind in 2002. Here, the talented threesome fails to recapture any of their old magic, simultaneously squandering the services of a talented cast which includes two-time Oscar-winner Tom Hanks (for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump), Oscar-nominee Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Alfred Molina and Jurgen Prochnow.
Hanks stars as protagonist Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor of Religious Symbology summoned to crack the case of the murder of The Louvre’s museum curator Jacques Sauniere (Jean-Pierre Marielle). Langdon links up with Detective Sophie Neveu who conveniently happens to be the victim’s adopted daughter. What the fetching Parisian flatfoot doesn’t know is that she’s also a direct descendant of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
Sophie is played by Audrey Tautou whom you may remember as the endearingly innocent title character of Amelie. Unfortunately, Ms. Tautou displays none of that naïve charm in this outing, appearing overmatched by the English language in a performance which could have used subtitles under her often inscrutable dialogue.
Our heroes’ nemesis is Silas (Paul Bettany), a self-flagellating albino ostensibly assigned by the Pontiff to make sure Sophie’s lineage stays under wraps by any means necessary. The storyline is repeatedly bogged down by preachy pontificating most of which comes courtesy of Langdon. In a most condescending manner, he takes it upon himself to inform us via the doe-eyed Sophie exactly what each Pope-damning revelation and decoded clue means, as opposed to allowing us to interpret them on our own.
Who knows whether Dan Brown was motivated by a distaste for Catholicism or merely by money? Regardless, it seems dishonest for him to foist his debunked heresies on the gullible, unsuspecting public as if they’re the God’s honest truth, especially when he knows full well his work is pure fiction.
Review-proof revisionist history.
Rating: PG-13 for sex, expletives, nudity, graphic violence, disturbing images and drug references.
In English and French with subtitles.
Running time: 149 minutes
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Giuliani Time
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Documentary Reveals Giuliani As Racist And Repressive Mayor 
Rudy Giuliani was catapulted by the 9/11 catastrophe to a secular sainthood which turned the outgoing New York City Mayor into a global hero who was bestowed with countless honors ranging from being named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year to being knighted by Queen Elizabeth. In this rush to canonize him for his handling of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the world came to forget how, for eight years, he had ruled the city with an iron fist, bitterly dividing it along ethnic lines by implementing policies which favored whites and the rich over minorities and the poor.
The film Giuliani Time doesn’t so much tarnish Sir Rudy’s image as simply set the record straight. It takes its title from the phrase which racist cops were reported to have chanted while ramming a broomstick up suspect Abner Louima’s rectum during an interrogation in a precinct bathroom after an unwarranted arrest for a very minor matter.
Using the code words “Zero Tolerance” and “Quality of Life,” Giuliani had given the NYPD the go ahead to intimidate and mistreat not only squeejee guys and the homeless, but anyone who wasn’t white, with such impunity and contempt. The result was a reign of terror in which minority communities were turned into police states where trigger-happy detectives could shoot an unarmed Black man 41 times knowing that Rudy had their back and they’d get off scot-free.
In this very informative biopic, we learn that the source of Giuliani’s penchant for brutality and strong-arm tactics was probably in being raised by his father, Harold, a gun-toting Mafiosi enforcer who broke kneecaps with a baseball bat for a major gambling operation in Brooklyn. His dad even served time in Sing Sing, though Rudy was never one to acknowledge being raised by a mobster.
Giuliani Time includes damning interviews with folks like Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew (1995-1999) who criticizes his former boss for implementing education policies which were “racist and class-biased.” Giuliani’s predecessors David Dinkins and Ed Koch weigh-in, too. The latter refers to Rudy as “a combination of Pinochet and Caligula” because “he accepts no dissent and uses his power to punish.”
Ralph Nader, the ACLU’s Norman Siegel, Reverend Al Sharpton, Attorney Ron Kuby and a host of other luminaries pile on, taking turns to remind us of an administration which deserves to be remembered in history not for the clean-up of the Twin Towers, but for its utter lack of compassion for the impoverished and working classes.
Unrated
Running time: 118 minutes
Studio: Cinema Libre Studio
Mission: Impossible III
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Tom Cruise Assembles Team For Another Adrenaline-Charged Adventure 
In the wake of the success of the Mission: Impossible franchise, many might have forgotten that the films are based on a classic television series which enjoyed an eight-year run between 1966 and 1973. Each episode opened with a memorable scene featuring the head of the IM Force leafing through a top secret dossier as he listened to his latest assignment on a self-destructing audiotape which began with the trademark phrase, “Good morning, Mr. Phelps.”
Phelps would then handpick a team of agents to assist him in executing a carefully-coordinated, covert operation designed to infiltrate the targeted organization and to complete the task without ever drawing any attention. The first two installments of the movie version only paid lip-service to the original’s “team” and “anonymity” concerns, opting instead for a Tom Cruise vehicle which presented his character, Ethan Hunt, as a virtual one-man operation while relying on eye-popping special effects to dramatize high-impact scenarios which were the opposite of subtle.
Those nostalgic for the TV show, however, will be happy to hear that MI: III is not only the best but the most faithful of the screen adaptations to date. Although it remains action-oriented, some major concessions have been made in terms of character and plot development.
J.J. Abrams makes a praiseworthy feature film directorial debut after having made a name for himself on the small screen at the helm of episodes of Lost, Alias and Felicity. In fact, the executives at Paramount were sufficiently impressed with his resume’ to trust him with $150 million, the biggest budget ever bestowed upon a first-time director.
And J.J. does not disappoint. The wunderkind surrounded Cruise with a talented cast, starting with Ving Rhames, who enjoys an expanded role as Luther Stickell, Ethan’s buddy/tech expert. The rest of the members of the IM team are new, namely, jack-of-all-trades Zhen (Maggie Q), and getaway driver/pilot/boat captain Declan (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). Michelle Monaghan plays Julia, Ethan’s clueless fiancée who has no idea what his real line of work is, while Lawrence Fishburne appears as John Brassel, his irascible boss.
Philip Seymour Hoffman, this year’s Best Actor Oscar-winner (for Capote), might be the best of the bunch as Owen Davian, as chilling a villain as you can hope to encounter in the theater. With an understated, elegant air reminiscent of Hannibal the Cannibal, Hoffman sets a taut tone which permeates the picture via goose-bump inducing threats like this one aimed at Ethan: “Do you have a wife or a girlfriend? Because I’m going to find her and I’m going to hurt her. And then I’m going to kill you in front of her.”
The movie opens with a teaser of a later scene in which the diabolical Davian flaps our otherwise unflappable protagonist, kickstarting a thrill-a-minute, globe-trotting adventure across the United States, Europe, and Asia certain to satisfy fans of the action-packed summer blockbuster genre. In 25 words or less, the basic storyline involves a threat to sell a vial of a chemical of mass destruction to the highest bidder, ostensibly terrorists of Middle Eastern extraction.
MI: III is laced with homages likely to remind you of some of the most riveting thrillers ever made, including True Lies, Silence of the Lambs and No Way Out. I suppose, if you’re going to borrow ideas, why not borrow from the best?
Nevertheless, this gripping flick’s script still stands on its own and the plot is thickened by an assassination, a red herring, a kidnapping, a back-stabbing saboteur and a host of other complications tossed in for good measure. While you’re feverishly trying to connect all the dots, just remember that the easiest way to enjoy MI: III is to sit back, and simply enjoy all the spectacular stunt work, chase scenes, f/x, pyrotechnics, gunplay, and comic relief with your brain on idle and a big tub of popcorn in your lap.
Rating: PG-13 for action violence, disturbing image, and some sensuality.
Running time: 126 minutes
Studio: Paramount Pictures
The Proposition
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Blood and Guts In Australian Outback
Set in the spacious, scenic Outback during the 19th C. Bushranger Era, this grisly Australian adventure revolves around the efforts of the authorities to bring the Burns gang to justice. Wanted dead or alive for rape, murder and plundering, this bloodthirsty Irish clan crosses the frontier to elude the authorities.
But when younger brothers Charlie (Guy Pearce) and dim-witted Mike (Richard Wilson) are caught, the Captain (Ray Winstone) who captures them gives them an offer they can’t refuse. The lawman proposes that their lives will be spared if and only if they help track down and kill their psychotic elder brother, Arthur (Danny Huston).
The ensuing moral quandary sits at the center of The Proposition, a mesmerizing Western of Shakespearean proportions which touches on much larger social issues concerning color, class and colonialism on course to its shocking resolution. For this thought-provoking historical drama is not a superficial shoot-‘em-up, but rather a sophisticated inquisition into the mistreatment of aborigines by whites, of the Irish by the British, even of Blacks by other Blacks.
Impressive cast includes Oscar-nominees Emily Watson and John Hurt. A movie made memorable by its stark juxtaposition of breathtaking panoramas and gruesome super-realistic slaughter. Imagine a cross of Sam Peckinpah and Ang Lee.
Rating: R for expletives, ethnic slurs and graphic violence.
Running time: 104 minutes
Studio: First Look Pictures
Suite Habana
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Melancholy Mosaic Paints Super-Realistic Picture Of Present-Day Havana
Suite Habana is a melancholy mosaic of cinematic snapshots, served-up sans any conventional sense of structure by daring Cuban director Fernando Perez. This seamless celebration of the city of Havana chronicles a day in the lives of ten ordinary citizens (ranging in age from 10 to 97) as they go about their regular routines over a 24-hour period.
What makes this enchanting documentary unique is its ability to engage emotionally in spite of an absence of dialogue. Instead, it resorts to poignant visual portraits, each entry underscored by a portion of the picture’s equally evocative soundtrack. Through a curious juxtaposition of these otherwise unremarkable individuals with an arresting array of assorted natural and man-made backdrops, we get an idea of Cuba as a land of contrasting contradictions and dashed dreams.
Everybody here seems to want to be something other than what they already are. This one wants to emigrate to the United States, a doctor moonlights as a clown, a day laborer morphs into a drag queen by nightfall, a senior citizen is resigned to caring for a grandson with Down’s Syndrome, a construction worker would rather be a ballet dancer, an elderly peanut vendor seems sick and tired of hawking her wares on the street, etcetera.
An apolitical enterprise, with no sign of Castro. Simply a bleak peek at a drained and desperate people amidst the decaying ambiance of what must have once been an island paradise.
Unrated
In Spanish with subtitles.
Running time: 80 minutes
Studio: Cinema Tropical
United 93
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Ill-Fated 9-11 Flight Revisited As Hyper-Realistic Profile In Courage
Curiously, all the pre-release buzz about this flick revolved around the question of whether or not 9-11 was still too sensitive a subject to make a movie about five years after the fact. The cynic in me suspects that this brouhaha might have been baked-up by a cagey publicist in search of a little headline-grabbing controversy. After all, a trio of TV docudramas specifically about United Flight 93 have already been very well received.
First came, Let’s Roll: The Story of Flight 93 (2002), followed by The Flight That Fought Back (2005), and then by Flight 93 (2006). So, rather than wondering if this picture might be arriving too soon, any speculation probably should have centered on whether the public would even want to endure yet another chronicling of the same tragic series of events aboard this ill-fated airliner.
Fortunately, United 93 does depart significantly from those earlier offerings in a couple of critical respects, namely, it avoids the tempting trap of trading in sentimentality or in symbols of patriotism. Ironically, by not wrapping itself up in the American flag, demonizing the evildoers, canonizing the heroes, or focusing on their tearful telephone farewells to family and friends, this relatively-sophisticated film actually ends up being a far more effective enterprise, emotionally. For it telescopes tightly on the tragedy, not as a rallying cry for the war on terror, but from the plausible perspective of 40, otherwise ordinary, people simply reacting and responding to the shocking realization that their jet has just been hijacked.
This hyper-realistic approach was the brainchild of Paul Greengrass, the acclaimed British writer/director who adopted the same verisimilitude in making Bloody Sunday (2002) a documentary-style drama recounting the massacre of 13 peaceful, Irish protesters by British troops. Greengrass is credited with imbuing each of his socially-relevant recreations with that trademark dynamic intensity, so United 93 should come as no surprise to those familiar with his earlier work.
As everyone knows, four aircraft were seized by Muslim extremists on 9-11, but only Flight 93 failed to hit its target. It departed from Newark Airport at 8:42 with 44 aboard: 33 passengers, seven crew members, and four hijackers. From the transcript of the plane’s black box voice recorder, as well as from phone calls placed by a dozen victims, we know that the conspirators stormed the cockpit at 9:26 A.M., just two minutes after the captain had been warned of a possible intrusion.
And the nation is also well aware of the valiant attempt of the passengers to retake the plane a half-hour later, once they had learned from operators and loved ones of their captors’ intention to turn the aircraft into a weapon of mass destruction. Armed with cutlery, boiling water and a food cart, they charged up the aisle, inspired by Todd Beamer’s rallying cry of “Let’s roll!” But the Arabs at the controls decided to crash the plane before the passengers could wrest control back.
In crafting United 93, director Greengrass remained painstakingly faithful to these known facts, though he does take considerable liberties in filling in the cracks with likely scenarios. The film unfolds in real-time on that fateful September morning, initially inter-cutting staged shots of terrorists, travelers and air traffic controllers with now familiar TV-footage of the Trade Center and the Pentagon in flames. We also see the rank ineptitude of the FAA, and the utter unpreparedness of NORAD to defend the country from the air.
But once the terrorists take charge of Flight 93, the movie turns terribly claustrophobic, concerning itself solely with the point-of-view of those inside the plane. So, for instance, we only hear the passengers’ half of their phone conversations, and how they came to decide to hatch a plan after cobbling together the somewhat unreliable information they were receiving from the outside world.
It is noteworthy that the cast is comprised of a capable ensemble of accomplished actors augmented by actual airline personnel, including some of the air traffic controllers on duty during 9-11. A gut-wrenching, chillingly profound profile in courage of 40 strangers who bonded under incomprehensible circumstances to face an unspeakable evil.
Cinema verite at its very best.
Rating: R for profanity, and for intense sequences of terror and violence.
Running time: 111 minutes
Studio: Universal Pictures
Poseidon
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Remake Of Classic Disaster Flick Puts Motley Ensemble In Survival Mode
The Poseidon Adventure (1972) was one of the earliest examples of a type of movie which emerged in the ‘70s known as the disaster flick. Along with Airport (1970), The Towering Inferno (1974), Earthquake (1974), Rattlers (1976), Piranha (1978) The Swarm (1978), The Bees (1978), and When Time Ran Out (1980), these high attrition-rate adventures were generally marked by star-studded casts, second-rate special effects and corny dialogue. This campy genre’s popularity plummeted soon after the Zucker Brothers started to parody it (Airplane) and Steven Spielberg figured out how to capture the same sort of peril (Jaws) in a realistic fashion.
Given the technological advances in visual effects and computer-generated imagery over the past 30 years, it should come as no surprise that this remake would be a substantial improvement over the original, especially when you factor in director Wolfgang Petersen, a veteran best-known for a couple of intense aquatic spectacles, Das Boot and The Perfect Storm. His approach was to overhaul the script by drastically reducing the sappy chit-chat in order to transform the picture into a non-stop, nerve-wracking mis-adventure that feels like you’re playing a video game. He’s also changed the names and backgrounds of all the characters, though they’re still little based on readily recognizable caricatures. There’s the former Navy diver (Josh Lucas), the suicidal, just-dumped, gay architect (Richard Dreyfuss), the clueless ship captain (Andre Braugher), the frantic single mom (Jacinda Barrett), her resourceful, 9-year-old son (Jimmy Bennett), a disgraced ex-NYC mayor (Kurt Russell), his recently-engaged daughter (Emmy Rossum), her world-class swimmer fiancé (Mike Vogel), a pompous jerk (Kevin Dillon), the saloon singer (Stacy Ferguson), the Latino stowaway (Mia Maestro), and her bus-boy boyfriend (Freddie Rodriguez).
Like Titanic with all the emotional content excised, this movie achieves in about an hour and a half what it took that blockbuster over three hours to get around to. The story unfolds in the North Atlantic on New Yea’s Eve aboard The Poseidon, a cruise liner headed for New York City. Right at the stroke of midnight, the first mate signals the alarm when he notices the “Perfect” tidal wave head straight for “Das Boot.” The revelers only have time enough to brace themselves for the impact, which is strong enough to flip the ship upside-down. Wolfgang gets very creative at this juncture, displaying passengers and crew dying in every way imaginable, by concussion, by crushing, by falling, by explosion, by drowning, by electrocution, by immolation, etcetera. Hundreds who survive this initial host of horrors follow the captain’s orders and huddle, wringing their hands inside the supposedly waterproof ballroom. Only Dylan (Lucas) has the sense and spunk to disagree, so he rounds up those who’d rather at least try to save themselves than simply sit and await a likely watery fate. Poseidon then kicks into high gear from here on in, never allowing the audience a moment to catch its breath till our entombed ensemble burst through the hull of the flipped ship and reach the ocean’s surface. State-of-the-art f/x, but as cheesy a script as the first one.
Rating: PG-13 for graphically-depicted scenes of disaster and intense peril.
Running time: 99 minutes
Studio: Warner Brothers
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