Black Hawk Down

Grade: B-

Truly stunning visuals and powerhouse imagery make this film work on a “war is hell” level – the battle scenes are often thrilling, frightening, and as real as real can be. While we never get to know any of the soldiers as individuals, the film still manages to bring you into the center of battle – the chaos, the fear, the sheer numbers of soldiers in motion – one cares (to a point) simply because they’re ours. The fact that the military is clearly more concerned about body retrieval than saving the living is a quiet indictment of the insanity of it all, and here is where the film works surprisingly well. Unfortunately, the movie is undermined each and every time anybody opens his mouth – the dialogue rivals “Pearl Harbor” for some of the most inane, cliché-ridden, clunky stuff ever written for a war movie. “Politics don’t matter none when a bullet whizzes past your head” and “It’s what you do right here, right now soldier, that really matters” and “Tell my parents I was a good soldier today” fall into the “I can’t believe they actually just said that” category of some of the worst dialogue to hit the screen in a very long time. Additionally, the movie does a poor job of actual storytelling – we’re in Somalia, and one has the sense that Director Ridley Scott and company are trying to comment on why we’re there and how wrongheaded our government policy was at the time, but the attempt at political commentary falls flat on its face. The film opens with a ten minute history lesson of words flashing on the screen, the films ends with yet another five minutes of the same, and while its clear we are despised (as noted by the hundreds and hundreds of people willing to take to the streets and be killed in a desire to kill the Americans) these people are mere phantoms, and we never understand the reasoning behind their intense hostility. This would have worked far better as a silent movie – the images do a much better job that the screenplay.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0265086/

Gosford Park

Grade: A-

This is a rare thing indeed – a murder mystery so rich in its characters that the actual whodoneit hardly even matters. This is a story about relationships – between servants and the privileged they serve, houseguests and houseguests, servants and servants – it is a veritable chessboard of characters and their intrigues. If one would initially enjoy a scorecard to figure out who’s who and how they all interconnect with each other, Director Robert Altman does a beautiful job of slowly peeling away layer upon layer of these people’s lives, and it is a joy to partake of them all. The entire ensemble cast is picture perfect, although Maggie Smith once again steals the show in yet another riotous upper-crust British performance. Whodoneit? Robert Altman. A film filled to the brim with pleasure, laughter, and many riches.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0280707/

Monster's Ball

Grade: A-

Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton are truly wonderful as a pair of deeply wounded and extraordinarily flawed people. Flawed is perhaps a huge understatement – they are, in fact, in many ways quite pathetic and extremely unlikable. But this is a very real human drama, and one can’t help but empathize with the desperate need these characters have to hang on to someone. It is the trump card for all human vices – prejudice, anger, betrayal, ignorance – and it is powerful to see what people are willing to look beyond in the quest for companionship. While one would like to be more emotionally connected to these people, they are so vacant that in many ways it would be a betrayal of the story to make us care any more than we do. The film reeks of loneliness and isolation – trips in the middle of the night in search of a friendly face in a diner, two minute liaisons in seedy motels with prostitutes, taking inordinate pleasure in the color of one’s drapes. Heath Ledger is also intensely haunting and moving as a tormented son, and Peter Boyle is also strong as the despicable excuse for a father – these are people who clearly come from generation after generation of unhappiness, misery and self-destruction, and while the film provides little more hope than a faint flicker of light and a pint of chocolate ice cream, it is virtually a miracle that there is any hope at all.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0285742/

Kate & Leopold

Grade: C+

This is one of those stay in on a rainy Saturday night and order Chinese food and a video kind of movie. The story is sweet, sappy, and thoroughly predictable, the jokes and gags cute but not especially inventive, and Meg Ryan has now given the same exact performance for at least the fifth time (can you say “When Harry Met Sally’” “Prelude to a Kiss,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” or “You’ve Got Mail?”). It’s gotten really really old. Hugh Jackman is adorable and thoroughly charming, but he sorely needs a better agent to get him some better screenplays. Not a terrible sit, just better suited for viewing in the movie wasteland of October than the overabundance of December.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0035423/

Ali

Grade: B-

What a wonderful actor John Voight is. He keeps turning in these marvelous little gems under tons of make-up, first as President Roosevelt in “Pearl Harbor” and now here as Howard Cossell. Now, he just needs to find better films to bury himself under pounds of latex for. This is a great looking and very well acted film. Will Smith is absolutely terrific as Mohammed Ali – it is a star turn, break our performance, filled with humanity rather than caricature. Unfortunately, this is also one very very unnecessarily long haul of a movie. We get snippets of Ali the media animal. Snippets of Ali the womanizer. Snippets of Ali the deeply committed religious man. But we never get enough of anything to tell us precisely what Director Michael Mann is trying to convey here. Instead, we get long long long runs in city streets here and rural streets in Africa. We get lots of slow motion assassinations as well as slow motion pounding in the boxing ring. We get lots of Michael Mann directing, but not enough of Ali the person. Some moments fascinate, especially as we get to see Ali the flawed but dignified hero, but far too many bore, and the end of the film becomes little more than a poor man’s Rocky.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0248667/

The Shipping News

Grade: C-

Talented actors and beautiful cinematography cannot save a truly dreadful screenplay. This one begins on a completely phony and unbelievable note (a slutty woman gets into the car of a complete stranger, has sex with him and bears his child – just add water, boom, instant storyline), and never regains its equilibrium. The movie is filled with such moments, including severed heads found in coolers and supposedly dead men coming out of comas (really really bad doctors in Newfoundland, huh?). The films also suffers greatly from some embarrassing dialogue, with lines like “This house is sad, it needs to be set free,” and other clunkers that can’t help but make one grimace. Kevin Spacey, Judy Dench, and Julianne Moore try hard, but their various accents sound atrocious and never for a moment does one forget you are watching Kevin Spacey, Judy Dench, and Julianne Moore playing parts – these are the worst performances I have seen from any of them. And what’s up with Spacey’s hairpiece? Each actor is given their moment of agonized revelation, none of which are moving or compelling -- in fact, they are downright irritating (a rape scene in the snow featuring Dench’s character at the age of 12 and her older brother, who also happens to be Spacey’s abusive father -- is especially clutzy, misplaced and melodramatic). The Newfoundland mysticism doesn’t work either, and scenes of Spacey jolting awake from nightmare after nightmare are repetitious and without real meaning. The film does receive some jolts of charm and energy from the local townspeople and some nifty headlines, but not nearly enough to make this anything but a dreary and unmoving experience.

A major disappointment.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0120824/

A Beautiful Mind

Grade: A-

It is invariably dangerous to come to a bio-pic with too much knowledge about the subject on whom the film is based, as Hollywood will without doubt make wrongheaded choices and deletions in an effort to make the film more palatable to the general public. It must be acknowledged that in ignoring our protagonist’s bisexuality and severely rocky relationship with his wife (who divorced him before remarrying him many years later), opting instead for a rather pat Hollywood love story, the filmmakers have lost some of the depth of character that would have added greatly to the final product. All of this said, Director Ron Howard has still given us a powerful and often surprising experience. It is a great pity that Russell Crowe won an Oscar last year for the undeserving “Gladiator,” for he is far more deserving for this extraordinary performance (as he was two years ago for “The Insider”). Subtle, agonized, and quietly triumphant, Crowe is always at his best when playing subdued, internalized characters – this is one of the year’s best performances. Jennifer Connelly is also wonderful as the long-suffering wife, instilling the role with tremendous dignity and pain – it is a pity that her role could have been far richer if the relationship’s full real-life drama were presented here. But with the exception of a dreadful old-age make-up job in her final scene (what, did they spend all the money left on Russell’s terrific make-up work?), it is a beautifully complex performance. The screenplay takes some real risks as well, willing to lead the audience down one path before surprising us with the real story the film means to tell – the result is a quite an emotional stunner. But this film truly belongs to Russell Crowe – he continues to surprise with his amazing virtuosity.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0268978/

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

First Viewing: A
Second Viewing: A+

This is a majestic movie. While one’s initial instinct is to compare it to the recently released “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” – this book adaptation is far more thoughtful, the music far more lilting and dramatic, the performances far richer and the special effects far grander and more thrilling – the truly deserving comparison is to “Star Wars,” with its sweeping storytelling, glorious and unforgettable characters, a complex spiritual and historical landscape, and the creation of a world which we have never seen the likes of before. True, we have heard tell of dwarves, elves, and underworlds in the past, but never before with such depth, scope of purpose, and passion. This story desperately needed the translation of a visionary filmmaker, and Director Peter Jackson more than delivers on his promise. Ian McKellan (who I admit filled me with overwhelming pride during the course of the film, playing a grandly heroic figure and smashing the Hollywood myth that an openly gay actor will be forever limited) and Elijah Wood lead a picture perfect cast – you can literally feel the love and kinship emanating forth from the fellowship. Even the computer generated effects, often the bane of my movie going experiences, seem to fit just beautifully into this fantastical fantasy of a world. If one had to quibble, I fear that Jackson has lost some of the character depth and nuance present in the novels, especially in some of the more ancillary characters – I for one would have been happy to stay and watch an extra thirty minutes of footage detailing more of the history, inter-relationships, and character development Tolkien provides. It is also true that many of the battle scenes begin to bleed into each other, and play on some over-used Hollywood stereotypes (collapses in slow slow motion and the hero repeatedly coming to the rescue in the final moments). But these are minor quibbles indeed, for the film is also as breathless as it is moving. There are three things one makes plans for immediately upon leaving the theater -- to quickly read the rest of the saga, to stand in line the very first weekend Part Two is open…and to see Part One all over again. In his critique, Roger Ebert declared, “I believe in the quest.” It is clear that the entire cast, crew and production team believed in the quest as well. This is a myth for our age – a thrilling, moving, epic achievement.

The mere fact that one even has a desire to sit through a three hour movie again within a week of the first viewing is a statement in and of itself. But to embrace the film even more on the second go around truly says something. What is says is that this movie will be watched, adored, and analyzed for generations to come. Moments of action and bits of dialogue missed during one’s first rapid-fire sitting bring this work into even sharper focus, and the loving care, attention to detail, and faithfulness to the book’s spirit is even more apparent. While the film’s action sequences and special effects continue to astound, it is in the movie’s poignant humanity that it truly shines and finds its heart. “Our hope rests with mankind,” Elrond states halfway through the movie, and it is the fundamentally human themes that run throughout the film -- loyalty, friendship, temptation, redemption – that are the true soul of the work. Yet again, I found myself deeply touched and genuinely moved to tears. I look forward to many more viewings of this great film. One can only assume that, if the other films hold up as well, the combined movies will join the pantheon of the greatest epics ever made.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0120737/

The Royal Tenenbaums

Grade: B+

Wacky, irreverent and downright odd, you can’t help but be strangely fascinated and surprisingly moved by these people. Gene Hackman is picture perfect as always as the film’s unintentionally self-centered and heartless, yet strangely lovable protagonist. The rest of the cast (including the likes of Angelica Houston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Danny Glover and Bill Murray) is solid if uninspired, yet it is the vision of quirky filmmaker Wes Anderson that yet again shines through. This is a world onto itself, with its own rules and perspectives, and this is one funny and extremely warped little movie.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0265666/

Vanilla Sky

Grade: F

Let’s cut right to the chase – this is one excruciatingly, shamefully dreadful movie. It’s one of those movies that takes maybe sixty seconds before you know you’re watching a really BAD movie -- and on that level alone the film never, never disappoints. I have little doubt that the filmmakers believed they were making something deep, moving, and oh-so important (why else would a luminary like Steven Spielberg agree to make a cameo appearance?), but instead this thing is tedious, pretentious, uninteresting and ultimately mortifying. Tom Cruise joins the legion of other good looking actors who feel compelled to provide at least one “I’m ugly, fat, or disfigured but can still act” performances – and manages to be just as bland, weird and thoroughly unlikeable as the film that surrounds him. Kurt Russell is utterly miscast as a prison therapist, and Tilda Swenson shows up in one hell of a strange cameo near the end of the film – what were these actors thinking? Penelope Cruise has been taking a bit of an unfair rap from the critics – she’s no better or worse than anyone else in this thing. Cameron Diaz has a few nice moments as a twisted and obsessed stalker, but her role is completely confused and meaningless as well. Note to the Hollywood community: I am sick and tired of filmmakers (Are you listening Mr. Crowe and Mr. Lynch) who think it’s acceptable to use the “it’s all a dream” excuse to write screenplays and direct movies that are incomprehensible, shoddy, sloppy, full of themselves, and just plain full of crap. Shame on Cameron Crowe and all else involved. Easily one of the worst movies of the year.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0259711/

Iris

Grade: B-

Simple, sweet, elegant in its execution, this story of a couple’s descent into Alzheimers is also never as detailed or interesting as one would hope. Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent are fine here, as are Kate Winslet and Hugh Bonneville as their younger counterparts, although nothing of significance is really added to the story in flashback – we can feel the years of intense love, commitment, and challenge from Dench and Broadbent, what came earlier feels like mere filler for a rather thin screenplay. Iris’ descent is portrayed as taking place exceedingly quickly, which leads us to feel the husband’s anger, frustration and loneliness far more piercingly than hers, and it is powerful to see him equally swept up in the illness. But characters that should be more important to us never really are, the disease feels strangely like a rather Hollywood version, and on the whole the film is an oddly distant British experience.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0280778/

Ocean's Eleven

Grade: A-

Toward the end of this movie, Brad Pitt stands in a row with his comrades overlooking a dancing water fountain and, well, smiles. The last time I saw such a smile was at the very end of “The Sting,” and the smile belonged to Robert Redford. While this one may not be quite as charming, surprising, or charismatic as that 70’s classic, to quote one of Redford’s final lines in that movie, “It’s close.” A solid screenplay and nicely stylized yet unobtrusive direction by Steven Soderbergh allows a star-studded cast to just plain loosen up and have a ball, and we’re right there with them. Clooney, Pitt, Damon, and Roberts are all great, and Elliot Gould and Carl Reiner and just plain priceless. Toward the beginning of the movie, Pitt plays poker with a group of young stars of the WB variety – many in the audience laughed, while other non-TV addicted members of the audience wondered what they were laughing at. I, of course, chuckled out loud, and never really stopped, except to wring the tension out of my hands as I wondered what was going to happen next. The only significant flaw is a 90- second, completely unnecessary ending that bears little resemblance to the slick movie that comes before. The audience clearly agreed, as people started collecting their coats and heading toward the exit en masse before this tacked on moment began. But this is a small quibble in an otherwise delightful gem. Praise Jesus – I was beginning to forget how much fun one can have at the movies.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0240772/

The Business of Strangers

Grade: B+

When, oh when, will Stockard Channing receive the kudos and recognition she so richly deserves? Here, she give one of the year’s best performances as a caustic, strong, isolated woman who has fought her way to the top of the corporate ladder, no doubt losing a piece of her soul in the process. Her insecurity, hostility and bitterness percolate just beneath the surface, and it is a subtle yet uncompromisingly strong performance. Julia Stiles is also fine here as the story’s motivating force – a hostile, judgmental, manipulative young woman equally full of contempt for women who compromise themselves as she is for men who control how the game is played. This is a biting indictment of how woman continue to struggle in the climb to success, and what parts of themselves they must subjugate in order to make it in what is still a man’s world. Men may be the true villains in the piece, but it is the relationship between these two women and our species never-ending ability to destroy and devour our own that truly fascinates.

More Movie Info: http://imdb.com/title/tt0270259/