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Movie Reviews From A Family Perspective
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titles released after July 2005.
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Oceans Thirteen
Oliver
Twist
Other Boyleyn Girl, The
Over Her Dead Body
Over The Hedge
George
Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Ellen
Barkin, Al Pacino, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Eddie Jemison, Shaobo Qin,
Carl Reiner, Elliot Gould. Warner Bros. Pictures. Action adventure. Written
by Brian Koppelman & David Levien. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Opens
6/8/07.
REVIEW: Though the script is non-linear, sometimes challenging to follow, director
Steven Soderbergh maintains a lively pace incorporating a gleeful sense of
humor with funny gags and several edgy twists. Sadly, while the film avoids
most crudity, there are three profanities (the misuse of God's name, or Christ's).
And lest you think I'm condoning a movie about thievery, let me assure you
that the scenario is so far-fetched, it can't be taken seriously.
That said, these are characters who live outside the law, and in the last two outings, they pulled off an elaborate crime, as well as other felonies, without paying a price. And they're all really cool while doing it. If you find a movie that glorifies crooked behavior objectionable, even if it is done so tongue-in-cheek, you might want to pass on this one.
Video Alternative: To Catch A Thief. A reformed burglar (Cary Grant) must capture a copycat or go to prison. Beautiful Grace Kelly aids him. I use this film as an alternative to a lot of caper films of today due to the fact that although the lead character had been a thief, he now sees the error of those ways. But even more than that, my suggestion comes from the fact that it is one of the most elegant movies ever made.
Not only are Mr. Grant and Ms. Kelly about as good-looking as humans can get, but the film itself is quite stunning. The look, the sound, and the use of Monaco's location are elements each superior to just about any film I can think of. Add to that Hitchcock's tight, sophisticated direction and the audience finds itself totally immersed in the story.
While Hitchcock presents some rather sexy encounters between his stars, he's suggestive but never vulgar. It proves more alluring than today's graphic handling of screen sexuality. There's something more captivating here, more mesmerizing than any other of Hitchcock's films. I'm not saying it's a better film than Vertigo or North By Northwest, but it is certainly one of his most hypnotic efforts. A few minutes and you're hooked, unable to click the remote. This hasn't come from just the fine performances. Nor from the camera work. It is that indefinable something that makes an auteur superior to a mere director.
Ocean's 13 is rated PG-13 (there are a couple of sexual innuendoes, but mostly the filmmakers avoid crude language; seven or so obscenities, mostly the s-word; also contains several minor expletives; two uses of God's name followed by a curse, and one misuse of Jesus' name; there is always an element of danger, but the film avoids graphic violence; there are a couple of sexual innuendos and one long scene wherein a woman seems incapacitated by an aphrodisiac, causing her to be very assertive, attempting to lead to sexual gratification).
Running
Time: 2 hrs. 2 min.
Intended Audience: Adults
Ben
Kingsley, Jamie Foreman, Barney Clark, Harry Eden, Leanne Rowe,
Edward Hardwicke, Mark Strong. Drama. W- Ronald Harwood. D- Roman Polanski.
Opening 9/30/05
Synopsis: Director Roman Polanski and writer Ronald Harwood re-imagine Charles
Dickens’ classic story of a young boy who gets involved with a gang
of pickpockets in 19th Century London.
Orphaned at an early age, Oliver Twist (Barney Clark) is forced to live in a workhouse lorded over by the awful Mr. Bumble, who cheats the boys of their meager rations. Desperate yet determined, Oliver makes his escape to the streets of London. Penniless and alone, he is lured into a world of crime by the sinister Fagin (Ben Kingsley) -- the mastermind of a gang of pint-sized pickpockets. Oliver's rescue by the kindly Mr. Brownlow is only the beginning of a series of adventures that lead him to the promise of a better life.
Review: The trouble with Dickens is that several of his works deal with the abuse of children, a wide-spread travesty during that period in Merry Ole England. Though the artistic and technical merits here are substantial, and the injustice worth noting, the drudgery our young hero must suffer and the endless cruelty depicted becomes too sadistic to be called family entertainment – especially if you’ve already seen every adaptation, including one in musical form.
PG-13 (cruelty to children, a boy is placed in peril several times; beatings; a hanging, a woman is beaten to death – this happens off screen, we see her blood; children steal in order to survive; the boys are seen, unsupervised, drinking and smoking).
Vid. Alt. Great Expectations (the 1946 version). John Mills heads an all-star English cast, including Jean Simmons and Alec Guinness. Yes, it is an old film and, yes, it is in black and white, two turnoffs for today’s teenager. But if you can get them to sit still for 10 minutes, most will be hooked. Directed by one of the greats, David Lean (Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia), this Dickens tale is brought to life in one of the best movies ever made. Several Oscars went to this classic about an orphan and his mysterious benefactor.
Left Behind: World At War Based on the last part of the book “Tribulation Force” by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, “Left Behind: World At War” is an End Times political thriller with Christian themes. Aimed at a Christian market, the producers have also designed the sequel to witness and entertain those outside the church.
Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jim Sturgess. Columbia. Historical Drama. Written by Peter Morgan. Directed by Justin Chadwick. Opens 2/29/08.
FILM SYNOPSIS: The Other Boleyn Girl tells the story of two beautiful sisters, Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary (Scarlett Johansson) Boleyn, who, driven by their family’s blind ambition, compete for the love of the handsome and passionate King Henry VIII (Eric Bana). While both women eventually share the king’s bed, only one will ascend to the throne for a brief and turbulent reign that ends tragically with a swing of the executioner’s sword.
REVIEW: Is it a sign of the times that the telling of English history must be done with a soap opera treatment and star two American babes in order to draw today’s movie crowd? Okay, maybe calling Ms. Johansson and Ms. Portman babes is unfair. I like both and both are very talented. Short, but talented. And they are what hold this melodrama together. Without their intense effort, the script would become laughable. As it is, the screenplay is more like a condensed year’s worth of All My Children. Indeed, there are moments when Portman’s Anne is more Erica Kane than historical figure.
I’m sure Shakespeare took many themes from the tales of good King Henry. The life of the portly sovereign is not a mere page in history; it’s an entire set of annals. But as we have seen from other treatments (Anne of the Thousand Days, or Shakespeare’s play King Henry the Eighth), it was rife with decidedly dramatic detail. Here, it’s lavish, but lightweight. And while the eyes of the female leads constantly fill with tears, a true emotion never spills forth.
As we all know from high school history, or in my case, movies, Henry was a bit of a glutton. Before he was even done with his mutton leg, he was on the phone to Domino’s. And when it came to the ladies, well, they were as disposable as “finger-lickin’ good” chicken bones. And because he feared excommunication for the act of divorce, he just had their heads whacked off. To further hedge his bets, he formed his own church, one that didn’t frown so much on divorce or the whacking of wives.
The film is colorful, the attempt sincere, but I suspect the presentation will be more satisfying to devotees of daytime serials than students of history.
PG-13 (a couple of crude sexual remarks; a couple of minor expletives, but I caught no harsh or profane language; well, it’s not shown in graphic detail, but Anne eventually meets the sharp end of an axe; blood is seen to indicate miscarriages and we see the dead, bloodied body of Anne; there are several sexual scenes, but to maintain a PG-13, none of them are overly graphic; desperate to have a boy child, Anne suggests incest with her brother; this is not committed, but perceived to have been committed).
Running Time: 115 min.
Intended Audience: Older teens and adults.
Eva Longoria Parker, Paul Rudd, Lake Bell, Jason Biggs. New Line Cinema. Comedy. Written & directed by Jeff Lowell.
FILM SYNOPSIS: Devastated when his fiancée, Kate (Eva Longoria Parker), is killed on their wedding day (crushed by a falling ice sculpture), Henry (Paul Rudd) reluctantly agrees to consult a psychic named Ashley (Lake Bell) at the urging of his sister Chloe (Lindsay Sloane). Despite his skepticism over her psychic abilities, Henry finds himself falling hard for Ashley, and vice versa. But there is a big snag. Ashley is being haunted by Kate’s ghost, who considers it her heavenly duty to break up Henry and Ashley’s fledging romance, if it is the last thing she does on this earthly plane...
REVIEW: I am grateful when a studio delivers a film during the first two months of the year that catches the imagination and tickles the funny bone. I’ve come not to expect it. Alas, Over Her Dead Body is not one of those welcome surprises. Despite the promise of the title, this is one of those films studios stuff into movie theaters in January and February while talented movie makers and real movie stars complete summer blockbusters and year-end award contenders.
The concept of ghosts haunting numbskulls has been around since Topper. Here, that concept and the story structure suffer from what I call TV-itis. TV-itis is an ailment which numbs the part of the brain that distinguishes between wit and sit-com klutziness. The writing may be okay for home entertainment, where phone disruptions and children’s needs don’t necessarily cause viewers to lose sight of the storyline. Once these projects are given the big screen treatment, however, audiences can clearly see through the plot holes and the absurdity that’s meant to pass as comic calamity.
Here’s a symptom of TV-itis found in Over Her Dead Body. The comic sidekick is thought to be gay. But maybe he’s not. Maybe he just pretends to be for five years so he can be the best friend of the woman he secretly loves. Oh, I know that doesn’t make since. That’s TV-itis at its most insidious.
Here’s another example of how TV-itis has stricken writer/director Jeff Lowell. When the sidekick’s arm catches on fire during a cooking mishap, he plunges it into a huge pot of boiling water, then rants around the room like Ralph Kramden. That’s what I said, his arm catches on fire. Seeing a human being on fire – that’s always classic.
Much of the film’s humor runs in that vein. The ghost causes one embarrassing situation after another, making everyone in the story think the other female lead is nuts. And how does the victim of this supernatural harassment handle these embarrassing moments? Well, think back to each episode of I Love Lucy. Trouble is, Ms. Lake is no Lucy. And I suspect the crudeness of the situations here would have been discarded by Lucy’s writing staff.
Ms. Longoria Parker attempts to rise to the big leagues by playing an obnoxious ghost (the most unlikable screen character of recent memory). It’s quickly apparent that whatever helped her on Desperate Housewives is missing on the big screen. She actually sucks the energy out of a scene rather than adding to it. She looks as if she’s more concerned with her tan than with trying to insert some semblance of plausibility or comic thrust into the storyline.
As this review is already more time consuming than the film deserves, suffice it to say, my theory that no one sets out to make a bad movie has once again been tested.
PG-13 (a couple of lewd comments and several gay jokes; several minor expletives (damns, hells, craps) and one or two obscenities – the s-word; I may have heard one GD and there are several uses of the expression “oh my God.” Some visual slapstick, including seeing what appears to be a woman falling off a building – it’s the ghost, unharmed; we see a man’s arm catch fire during a cooking mishap; to put it out, he pushes his arm down a huge pot – the water boiling – this is played as a visual joke. The couple go off on a weekend; sexual discussions and it is implied they sleep together. The lady is seen undressing, down to her underwear. One character is supposed to be gag – several jokes about being homosexual; several sexual discussions; some social drinking; one of the female leads is a psychic and the ghost makes fun of religion – calling it hocus pocus; an exorcism is played for laughs, but the mocking attitude comes across as offensive).
Running Time: Ten amusing moments scattered throughout another 80-some.
Intended Audience: Those suffering from the effects of TV-itis.
DVD Alternative: Topper with Cary Grant, Constance Bennett and Roland Young, and directed with style and class by Norman McLeod. Unsettled ghosts return to earth to dominate then befriend a meak businessman. I realize it’s really old (made in 1937), and in black and white to boot. I mention it because a few weeks ago a young publicist told me she loved it. So, maybe there are those who will watch a clever and funny film despite its age.
Want a stupid one, but funny due to its star? Try The Ghost and Mr. Chicken with Don Knotts. Remember, I told you it’s stupid. Or Ghostbusters. The first one has some objectionable material, but there are also a few positives – there’s a reverential discussion about Jesus and the movie is funny.
Voices: Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, William Shatner, Avril Lavigne, Nick Nolte. DreamWorks/Paramount. Animated family comedy adventure.Based on the popular comic strip by Michael Fry and T Lewis. Directed by Tim Johnson (Antz) and Karey Kirkpatrick (Chicken Run”). Opens 5/19/06.
Woodland varmints are led to believe that the “gateway to the good life,” where peculiar creatures called humans live to eat rather than eat to live, lies just beyond the hedge in a place called Suburbia. Though leery of this other world, they are tempted by a mischievous con-artist raccoon to investigate. Sure enough they discover that their over-indulgent human neighbors live in a land of plenty – a land that needs exploiting.
All the elements came together on this one. It is suburb, loving work by DreamWorks, their computer animators, the cast and filmmakers. Buoyed by a nifty storyline, one containing positive messages about the importance of family and community, OVER THE HEDGE does what a family film should – it gives us solid entertainment. I’m not suggesting it is in the category of Finding Nemo or Toy Story, but it has some sharp slapstick wit aimed at kids, and also embraces older guardians who probably would have preferred to go to THE DA VINCI CODE this weekend.
I must tell you, I was highly influenced by the kids in the audience. I can’t remember kids laughing so outrageously at a family film. They loved it. (There really isn’t a better sound than children laughing.)
PG (after waking from hibernation, one character says she has to go wee-wee. That’s about as rough as the language gets. The writer found a way to make kids laugh without crudeness. Though the filmmakers are always aware of their intended audience, there are a few moments that the littlest audience members may be spooked by: a bear threatens to kill our lead character and the foraging animals must escape the Verminator – an overenthusiastic exterminator. Parents should be there to reassure. Although they are stealing food from the humans, the animals learn life lessons about caring for others, sharing and sacrificing.)
© 2008 Good News Tucson™