Superman Returns (PG-13)
Note: Other reviews may well spill the beans on the surprise that is in store for viewers of this film. Be careful what you read and hear! And if you wait too long to see this film, someone will surely mention it. So if it matters to you, don’t wait to see this movie.
That’s not to say this film is great – it’s not great. But it’s good in a big-screen kind of way. They certainly spent the money. The scene with Superman and the out-of-control plane is worth the price of admission.
Brandon Routh stars as Superman. He’s no Christopher Reeve, but who can help that. Brandon has that wooden shell going on that hurts his performance.
And Kate Bosworth is no Margot Kidder or Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane. Since this movie shows Superman coming back after an extended absence (with Lois a mother now), they really should have tried to get Terry Hatcher for the role. Even at her age, she could have pulled it off.
If someone believes it would be too creepy to have an older Hatcher with a young Routh, keep in mind it’s Superman, not SuperBOY, so there was no reason not to cast an older actor to play Superman. Since he comes from another planet, his age would not affect his abilities.
Star Trek certainly showed the power of having older, familiar actors on the screen. Audiences cheered the on-screen entrances.
To cut to the chase, these two stars have very little chemistry. You WANT them to have it, but it just isn’t there.
Kevin Spacey (older actor) does a good job of “trying to conquer the world,” and his screen time allows the 2 1/2 hours to go by relatively quickly. But it’s the mega-dollar special effects that make the movie worth seeing. That, and the surprise that you’ll soon hear about no matter where you try to hide.
Two gripes I’ve always had with this Superman thing:
First off, he doesn’t wear a mask, like Batman or Spiderman (or any bank robber). How on earth is anyone fooled into not immediately seeing the Clark Kent/Superman resemblance? Makes no sense whatsoever.
But my biggest gripe with the Superman series was when Superman flew counterclockwise around the world to make it spin backward, thus turning back time for a second chance to save Lois Lane. Once he proved he could do that, he could always do it again. And again. Right?
Makes the whole plot rather pointless, doesn’t it?
This movie really just sets the stage for a whole line of Superman movies with the young, new stars of the day (just like the Spider-Man and Batman lineup that is cleaning up at the box office).
– See it on The Big Screen
Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift (PG-13)
Here we go again with another episode of The Fast and The Furious, and as the title gives away, we’re off to Tokyo for some drifing action.
For those that don’t have cable, drifting is the new thing in car racing, where you get your car sideways and move around the track with as much smooth, lateral, tire-smoking motion as possible, thus racking up points for style. (The scoring is very subjective, similar to figure skating.)
But in this movie, you drift around parking garages or wildly winding roads while being filmed by a sea of young Japanese spectators using cell phone cameras. The goal is still to win the race in the end, as simple drifting would not work in a film like this.
Of course, there’s a bit more to the story (a bit) with two guys wooing the same girl, and one of them happens to be connected (mob style).
Three things I really like about this movie:
1: Everyone knows you can’t just pick up a guitar for the first time and play like a pro. You can’t pick up a bowling ball and throw strikes ten times in a row. And you can’t jump in a car and drift for the first time and not blow. Not unless you practice, practice, practice. Here (for once) Hollywood gets it right!
This film stars Lucas Black as the high school boy racer who has racing running through his young veins. When he gets shipped off to Tokyo (to keep from going to jail in the U.S.), he sees drifting for the first time. Though he thinks he can race anyone, anywhere, anytime and win – turns out he sucks when he drifts for the first time. And the second time. Etc. Realistic. Bravo.
2: The film actually attempts to show the cultural side of Tokyo. Sure, the lights of Tokyo at night make any film pop like the Vegas Strip, but to take the time to show the endless Pachinko machines, the crowded streets and trains, the food. Kudos to the filmmakers for stopping to smell the roses.
3: Bow Wow’s appearance was kept to a minimum. Good move.
In my opinion, drifting is not as exciting as straight street racing, but the change in venue pumps some needed life into this series. If you loved the thrill of the first two movies, see this one in a theater. For the rest of you…
– Wait for Rental
District B13 (R)
Imagine a movie that stars and is totally driven by two professional stuntmen (Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle) with an eye for action movies. They play the good guys. And further imagine that it comes from the makers of The Transporter, La Femme Nikita, and The Fifth Element. The film pounces on the screen like the movie ONG-BAK: The Thai Warrior, which I’m sure few people saw when it came out. The music pulsates in a Fast and Furious style throughout.
You probably already know if this movie is for you or not. Count me in.
The plot is just like the movie Escape From New York (for the older folks out there). For those who don’t know what that means – this story is about a crime-ridden Paris in 2010 that is walled off by the government to keep the vermin in and the good people out. A new breed of neutron bomb (clean bomb) is stolen by the thugs and finds its way into the walled city, so a crazy tough guy (or two in this case) has to retrieve it.
That’s one plot thread. The other thread is that a sister of one of the good guys (she’s played by Dany Verissimo – more on her in a minute) is taken by the thugs and turned into a drugged-up sex slave on a dog’s leash. It’s a hard “R” film to be sure. What Miss Verissimo does with her panties in the scene pictured above would make Basic Instinct’s Sharon Stone blush.
Now it’s up to the two good guys (stunt men on steroids) to run, jump, escape in manners that would make Jackie Chan envious, and generally rack up a body count that rivals the beach scene in Saving Private Ryan. Great stuff, if action is your game.
The movie is in French (English subtitles), but there are l-o-n-g stretches of action where there is little time for such a trivial thing as dialogue.
Oh, yeah – the spunky (to put it mildly) gal (holding the gun in the photo above) that plays the kidnapped sister (Dany Verissimo)? She’s caused quite a stir. In real life, she’s the daughter of the financial director of Air France. She was kicked out of the house at 17 (bad girl), wanted to become an actress but instead wound up in the French porn industry (oh no!), and did a number of (too raunchy by U.S. porn standards) hard-core films using the name Ally Mac Tyana. Now she’s finally an actress on the silver screen in the good old USA.
Never give up on your dreams, folks!
This film is in limited release, but worth a trip to the theater to get the vibe from the young audience that will be in attendance.
– See it on The Big (Silver) Screen
The Da Vinci Code (PG-13)
Unless you’ve been in solitary confinement for the last 12 months, you know all too well about the buzz of the long-anticipated movie version of the book titled, The Da Vinci Code.
Tom Hanks plays the lead role as a man out to find the infamous “Holly Grail.” He’s quickly teamed up with Audrey Tautou, an actress with an accent too thick for a mainstream American film. The movie runs at a pretty good pace, but you won’t lose your breath when the secrets of the story are revealed.
This would make a wonderful DVD rental. And then you could use the DVD subtitle feature to understand what the hell the French chick is saying.
– Wait for Rental
Mission Impossible III (PG-13)
Tom Cruise, Maggie Q. and Ving Rhames (pictured above) team up as a group of IMF agents to save the world – or at least save Tom Cruise’s wife (played by Michelle Monaghan). IMF stands for Impossible Mission Force. Yeah, someone on the movie screen chuckles at that too. Who wouldn’t? But make no mistake, the cast is full of top-notch actors, and the 2-hour 20-minute movie has well over two hours of solid action. It’s a serious, complicated thriller. And be sure to sit toward the rear of the theater so you don’t get motion sickness.
Philip Seymour Hoffman masterfully plays the bad guy who kidnaps Cruise’s wife in order to control the situation. But like all movies of this genre, if you make the awful mistake of making the lead star mad, the next thing you know, your future in MI IV looks mighty bleak!
There’s more to the story than just a good kidnapping. But this is a movie about secret missions. When you need to know more, they’ll reveal it!
Good story. Plenty of good stunts. This is the summer movie of 2006. (OK, so maybe “Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest” holds that fate). But this one is certainly worth a trip to the theater until Pirates comes out in July.
– See it on The Big Screen
United 93 (R)
Feeling that pit in your stomach again…
We’ve all seen documentaries and intense dramas before, but this film hits closer to home than any others you’ve seen. Everyone remembers where they were when the planes struck the Twin Towers, and watching this intense film brings that feeling back in waves.
With no “stars” to hold your attention on the screen, the director (Paul Greengrass) painstakingly uses real timelines and factual data to recreate the chaos of the day. Armed with that rich material, there’s no need for a Hollywood star.
United 93 was the last of the four (known*) hijacked planes to attempt a suicide mission, and was the only one that failed the mission due to the U.S. citizens onboard who were warned by loved ones on the ground (by cell phone) that the planes were being used as missiles.
The drama is made even more intense because we know the final outcome of the flight. As people rush through the airport to make the plane (we’ve all done that) and the jet door is closed behind those who, in their minds, “just made it,” we all feel in our stomachs that it’s really the closing of a tomb for those aboard. It’s a strange sensation to be as omniscient as a god who knows what’s in store for the poor souls onboard.
The all too often used handheld camera effect is supposed to give this movie a documentary “you are there” feel, but I long for the bygone days where directors used stationary tripods to shoot scenes. This is yet another movie where sitting further away from the screen will help.
We had long since dismissed hijackers as a real threat in 2001, and no one was caught more flat-footed than the military. The old adage that the White House was protected by missiles, antiaircraft batteries, or quick scrambling jets was rendered a hoax on 9/11. The White House has no such protections.
*Were it not for the intelligent, quick decisions by Ben Sliney (the National Operations Manager for the FAA on 9/11/2001) to immediately land the nearly 4,500 planes over American airspace, who knows what might have happened? Some terrorists may have simply landed with everyone else in the air as the planes were quickly rerouted, and then they vanished. Ben Sliney plays himself in the role onscreen.
In the end, we learn this from 30 years of recent U.S. history; regardless of the party in charge, the inept U.S. Government will continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. But in the case of hijackings, “we the people” will unlikely allow a hijacking to succeed again. The U.S. Government is depending on us.
This film will be more intense in a theater full of your peers.
– Wait for DVD
The Hills Have Eyes (R)
This movie sucks on so many levels, I hardly know where to begin.
Oh, let’s start here. How long does it take for a wimpy liberal to begin to defend himself in the face of impending death? How many beatings does it take before a family unit snaps to attention and sees what’s happening to them? How many rapes and killings have to occur to your immediate family members before you actually put up some sort of fight?
Apparently, there is no limit to what wimpy people will tolerate. These red-blooded American people are not portrayed as Amish or French! Even those groups would scoff at such a pathetic display of self-defense.
The movie has an extended family (with their infant along for the journey) driving precariously through the desert in an RV towed by a truck. They become stranded in the desert in what used to be a nuclear test site area. The family is not portrayed as a bunch of retards. The attackers are presented as retards! They are descendants of irradiated parents who were once miners in the area. Yet the retarded attackers are by far the smartest folks in this movie.
Simple field mice will bite if cornered. Yet this pitiful family can only whimper as death approaches. They can’t even shoot loaded firearms that they own. Gun owners who watch this pitiful display of inaction and unnecessary suffering, rape and death will spit in disgust.
That was the most positive part of this review… Now on to the worst parts of this movie.
An hour into this film, the scenes are so loud, obnoxious, dirty and violent that audience members filed to the exits, leaving only (how shall I put this?) groups of mostly young males and a smattering of couples who either refuse to leave any movie, period, or they have known each other for so many years that they are comfortable with each other being uncomfortable while watching scenes of rape and mayhem. Another way to put it is that the nearly sold-out theater was only 1/2 full after the one-hour mark. And no one moved to fill in the now vacant better middle seats. Some may have wanted to move back.
This movie is so ugly that the taboo of killing a pet dog is crossed. Even the pet canary is violently ripped apart and its insides emptied into the mouth of a rampaging retard.
Oh, and the tiny baby? Well, this family of wimpy, no-action-taking, no-intelligence-showing losers allows the tiny baby to get snatched by the retarded, blood-drinking, radiation fiends. And we’re not talking about a high school cheerleading squad of victims here. That might have actually been a GOOD movie. Certainly more plausible. This stranded family includes a teenage boy and two fully grown men, with ample retaliatory means at their immediate disposal.
I’m through with this garbage film. And after further reflection, this is the worst movie I’ve ever seen.
– Avoid
Hostel (R)
Quentin Tarantino co-produces and brings us Hostel, directed by Eli Roth, not Tarantino. This is the latest in what is said to be a banner year of horror movie releases in 2006. The budgets are low, but the yield in revenues is usually big for Hollywood.
But Hostel (the name derived from the low-priced travel hotels frequently used by backpackers) is not just a slaughter fest like Friday the 13th. This movie does have a solid story behind it, and it builds nicely to the scenes of slaughter.
Two college-aged American backpackers set out for Europe and meet up with an Icelander who shares the same need to conquer women and experience the legal drugs offered in the various European countries. Plausible so far.
Receiving a tip from a stranger they meet, the three backpackers decide to head to a small Slovakian town where there is a hostel filled with Eastern European women who will do anything for American men. The pictures this stranger shows them (taken using his cell phone camera) certainly seem to support his story of having been there himself. The women are hot.
So off the young backpackers go on the very next train to Slovakia.
Very plausible.
As they get off the train, the town looks suspiciously dead to the backpackers, but a tip is a tip, so they continue on to the hostel. Once there, it seems they have entered a hedonistic heaven, ripe with very attractive women, every bit as beautiful as the tiny cell phone photos had revealed.
The ensuing scenes of seduction, drugging and kidnapping of the backpackers one by one, as easily as reeling schools of fish into a fishing boat, are very plausible. Turns out there is another money-making scheme here. One that rivals the drug and prostitution trade. Rich men pay loads of money to torture and kill other people, using crude implements to do so. The hostel simply provides the victims.
So, is the paid torture part plausible? Human trafficking is certainly real in sketchy countries. And a secret society could probably pull this death camp idea off for a while, but cell phone use would put a crimp in any long-term growth. Torture camp guys probably reminisce about the pre-cell phone, good old 1980’s.
I applaud the movie for not being afraid of cell phone use. As I’ve said before, in most scary movies, one cell phone call to the authorities and the whole thing crumbles. Here, there’s a lot of cell phone use, yet if any of the calls had been international to home (Hey, Mom! I’m in Slovakia!), eventually the whole scam would be squashed.
There were also some foreign traveling women lured to the hostel as well. How were they lured there? Hot guys? Beautiful scenery of the dead little town? I can’t imagine. Perhaps we’ll have to wait for Hostel 2 to find out.
For horror fans, this will be a great rental.
– Wait for Rental
King Kong (PG-13)
“Careful with her neck, King Kong!”
That’s what was running through my head every time King Kong ran through the jungle, fighting off dinosaurs, all the while violently whipping and jerking a helpless woman (Naomi Watts) in his massive ape hand. No human could possibly sustain such crash test dummy punishment for any amount of time. Yet even her make-up seemed unfazed through most of it.
Naomi Watts and Jack Black star with a big gorilla in the latest high-tech version of King Kong. Yeah, the CGI effects are better than the 1933 original and the 1976 remake featuring Jessica Lange, but they are still not entirely believable.
First of all, the scenes as the ship approaches the island were about as cheesy as I’ve seen in a good few years. (Reminded me of the first Star Trek movies whenever the ship hit something.) There is a poorly animated scene of a jungle man using poles to “vault” through the island trees, which looks straight out of the Jungle Book cartoons. The the first few scenes showing us Kong were not all that convincing to me either. As the movie trudged along, either I got used to the fake-looking graphics or they became more convincing, which is good because you’ll spend over an hour in the jungle with dinosaurs (à la One Million Years BC) with special effects running the show.
But even the best computer graphics won’t help counter the basic physics of the human body. As Kong yanked the young maiden off the sacrificial platform, surely her frail arms pulled out of their sockets before her restraining ropes pulled free! As Kong flips and twists a huge log (covered with men) around like a tree limb, the eight or so would-be rescuers cling to that sucker like ants (or a bunch of Spider-Men). No one has that kind of grip. Not even Bruce Willis! A 40’ fall doesn’t quite kill them, either.
But it’s Naomi Watts that is the indestructible Gumby of the movie. Kong could have used her as a ball ping hammer and she would have come out just fine. Rambo – maybe. Naomi Watts? Nope. This stuff bothered me too much to take the film seriously.
Unless you are under the age of eleven, you’ll know how this one ends. So a three-hour version seems overdone. For the adults out there, I can’t quite recommend a trip to the theater on this one. It’s a good rental. Wait and watch it at home on the two-disc, four-hour director’s cut version. How painful that will be.
Until then, you might want to rent the 1976 version.
– Wait For Rental
Syriana (R)
This movie gives us a glimpse of a side of the Middle East that we don’t usually see. A side many may not want to see.
George Clooney stars as Bob Barnes, a longtime CIA agent in the middle of a chess game between the Saudis and the U.S. government in weapons and oil trading. You’ll likely not follow the storyline any more than you could in real life. A lot of shady work on both ends and if anything, this movie illustrates that regardless of which side you work for, you can’t trust the U.S. Government or the Saudis.
Matt Damon plays a U.S. energy consultant with big ideas that would be helpful to the Middle East giants, if they’ll listen to him. What’s good for this group may not be good for that group, so expect torture and killings as part of the deal, both in this movie and in real life. Most of the movie takes place in the Middle East.
The stakes of the drug world may be high, but multiply that a thousand times to see the stakes of the oil world. A lot is going on here, and it’s told in a “puzzle piece at a time” pacing that keeps this movie from being too much like a CNN documentary. Be aware there’s also heavy use of the shaky camera technique that is supposed to add to the realism but generally just drives most viewers crazy after 20 minutes.
You’ll take from it what you want. Perhaps the ruthlessness of the players in the political/oil business will surprise you. Perhaps the awe-inspiring amount of sand will intrigue you. (How do they keep the endless modern highways free of drifting sand, anyway?)
This is certainly a well-acted film, but for most folks, not worth a trip to the theater.
– Wait for DVD
Memoirs of a Geisha (PG-13)
Now and then there is a long film that doesn’t feel like a long film. Forrest Gump was one. I didn’t want that movie to end. Memoirs of a Geisha is another. This is no more a movie about prostitution than Forrest Gump was about a guy who runs a lot. Both films are love stories from start to finish.
At 2 hours, 24 minutes, one might think that this film is a no-action picture that would bore everyone to tears. No, so. First of all, there is plenty of action, tense moments, and real antagonists to keep you involved in the storyline from start to finish. And no subtitles to wear you out.
Based on the best-selling book of the same name, the movie brings us the story (set in 1928 Japan) of two sisters from a small fishing village who are sold off and end up at a geisha house. Chiyo (played by Suzuka Ohgo) with her beautiful blue eyes, is immediately brought into the Geisha house, while her sister is immediately rejected and winds up in a brothel on the other side of town.
Although Chiyo doesn’t know it that first night, the fact that she was chosen by the geisha house saves her from working in the brothels. The life of a geisha was one of professionally entertaining men by singing, dancing and playing instruments, much like a hired wedding band would do. Japanese men didn’t hire geishas for sex; they hired them for company and entertainment. They went to brothels for sex.
Gong Li plays Hatsumomo, the mean-spirited lead Geisha who Chiyo has to serve and learn from. Since Chiyo is so beautiful, Hatsumomo treats her harshly in a Cinderella story sort of way. This dark spiritual path is broken only when the nine-year-old Chiyo has a chance meeting with a man called The Chairman (Ken Watanabe). He gives her a frozen ice dessert – and hope.
Now I know some critics have taken this scene lightly and find it preposterous that such a simple encounter could change a life in such a drastic way. But how many top athletes would credit a simple childhood autograph from a professional as the spark that started their dream to rise to the top? How many poor people in the world would be lifted up spiritually by a simple gift that was totally unexpected and well out of their reach? I would say a lot, especially in an Asian society, where gifts are not taken lightly.
This is the spark that pushes Chiyo to learn the skills of a professional geisha, and it is here that Ziyi Zhang takes over the acting role as the adult version of Chiyo. She, along with Michelle Yeoh (best known to American audiences in the Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies), attempts to bring Chiyo’s geisha skills to the top of her field in order to topple the vicious Hatsumomo. For Chiyo, there is more in her drive than just that. Those familiar with Asian films will be quick to mention that most end in tragedy for the heroine.
Unless you have read the book, you’ll never know where this movie is headed from one minute to the next. The ups and downs will certainly keep you guessing, and that’s before WWII starts and throws another curve to the Japanese lifestyle.
Although there are no shoot-outs, car chases or kung-fu kicks here (and no actors flying through the air with hidden wires either), if you like well-filmed love stories with smart acting and a great cast, this is a move that begs to be seen on the big screen.
(Book VS. Movie)
I must admit, I too usually find the book versions better than the movies that follow, and I’m sure most would agree. After viewing this movie and reading the original novel, the movie version is more emotional.
While the last third of the novel is richer in storyline than the last third of the movie (if for no other reason than running time constraints), it’s the first two thirds of the story where the movie excels over the original story. The acting drives home the emotions more so than the narrated pages of storyline in the novel. Bravo to director Rob Marshall, who takes a correct, different path to the same end. Here, the movie version most certainly wins.
– See it on The Big Screen
Flightplan (PG-13)
Jodie Foster has lost her child during a transatlantic flight in the thriller, Flightplan.
This interesting setup gives us a film we have not seen before, with Foster playing an engineer that actually helped design the massive new jet that she and her young daughter board to fly back to America. They are coming home from Germany with her husband flying in a casket down below them in the baggage area.
Obviously, Foster is in quite a saddened state, which is how we start to sway back and forth as to whether or not Foster actually did board the plane with her daughter in the first place. After all, according to the flight crew, there is no record from the gate crew of her daughter getting on the plane, nor is her daughter’s luggage in the overhead compartment. No one on the plane remembers seeing her daughter at all!
There are a few other components that keep the viewer busy for 90 minutes, and the massive, ultra-modern plane is certainly something to feast one’s eyes on. But as you drive home, you realize the plot really made little sense at all.
In the end, it just isn’t satisfying enough to warrant a trip to the theater.
– Wait for Rental
A History of Violence (R)
A History of Violence got a lot of advance advertising before its release, which is surprising to me. More about that later.
This is the movie about a man named Tom Stall, a seemingly quiet family man living in a rural town in Indiana and working in his quiet little diner. Quiet until a couple of thugs walk in at closing time and attempt to rob the place. Tom Stall not only stops the robbery, but also quickly ends the lives of the two out-of-towner no-counts. This causes our accidental hero to be covered on the national news, and the next thing you know, Tom is getting a visit from a menacing man (played by Ed Harris) and his henchmen who are certain that they know Tom. And as far as they are concerned, he’s really Joey – Joey the mob hitman from New Jersey who had vanished without a trace many years earlier. When Ed Harris removes his sunglasses, we see the scarred face of a man who means business.
This starts a new showdown – one that pits these two men against one another. It also puts a strain on Tom’s family, who is suddenly wondering who Tom really is. A professional killer? Or just… a dad?
The reason for the surprise in the advertising is that this film was directed by David Cronenberg. For those of you that don’t know this guy, he directed the following movies (usually shown on TV between 2 and 4 a.m.):
Rabid
Scanners
Videodrone
Naked Lunch
Crash (1996 movie)
ExistenZ
These are hardly what Hollywood would tout as big moneymakers. This is a sick group of films to be sure, but they certainly have their cult following, myself among them.
His most famous movie was the remake of The Fly starring Jeff Goldblum. But most people fail to realize that A History of Violence was directed by Cronenberg as they buy their tickets and enter the theater. Soon they are more than a little shocked at the fact that Cronenberg doesn’t think the way a normal person thinks. He doesn’t want his actors to act the way normal people act.
Quite frankly, behind closed doors, a lot of people are weird in ways that would make the majority of us shake our heads. Cronenberg thrives on those types of people. It’s the only people he knows how to film. You will shake your head at the actions on the screen – I guarantee it.
Then there’s the sex and gore. Not loads of it, but Cronenberg loves showing the harsh reality of how easily human flesh rips and tears when shot, and how close we are to dogs when it comes to sex. Expect it in most of his movies.
There is one scene in particular where Tom and his wife have rough sex with such indifference that you’d think you were watching an episode of Wild Kingdom.
People in the audience will laugh at the implausibility of such a scene, but again, it simply illustrates how narrow the line is between what the wild animals do outside our houses and what may or may not occur inside our homes.
So to end this review, Cronenberg gives us a sugar-coated pill that within minutes dissolves and reveals itself to be the same harsh heroin that he was pushing 30 years ago in his previous films. Like ‘em or hate ‘em – you’ve been warned.
– Wait for Rental
Red Eye (PG-13)
Wes Craven has done it right! Like Domino’s Pizza, this movie delivers!
Before you go thinking this is just another slasher Wes Craven horror movie, where nubile young women in their underwear are butchered with a bloody hunting knife, only to have their shirtless boyfriends call out their name and visit the same fate minutes later, hold on and listen a minute. This story by Wes Craven, who also directs the movie, is a tense, thrilling, roller coaster ride of a movie! Well done, Mr. Craven.
Rachel McAdams stars as Lisa Reisert, a first-rate middle manager for a high-class Miami hotel. Seems everyone knows her, even government VIPs, so she’s quite good at getting the reservations and special arrangements right the first time for her clients.
So if you’re a bad guy like Jackson (played by actor Cillian Murphy) and you have a master plan to “off” a VIP who will be at the hotel, Lisa is your gal. She’s the one to get close to. She’s the one to abuse into doing your dirty work. Lisa is set up big-time and ends up ever so coincidentally sitting right next to Jackson once they board the plane. First together in the line at airport check-in. Then having an innocent drink together, then this. Wow, what a small world!
Craven films the movie using a lot of cuts, angles and action, which keeps us on edge as if we too are hurrying through the airport to catch our plane. And he does this without the MTV shaky-cam that most of us have learned to dread. Bravo, Mr. Craven! Bravo!
In fact, he’s so skillful that we are truly immersed in the minutes that pass by (85 short minutes to this one) as Lisa realizes she alone holds the lives of her father and other innocent people in her hands as a cruel man sitting next to her tells her what to do next.
Sure, it has illogical moments, especially in the final act. My, how the world has changed since the handheld cell phone was invented. Directors have a tough time finding ways to disable their use, as problems are solved all too easily with them. If phones always worked, movies would only be 30 minutes long, and all car chases would be extinct! Can’t have any of that, can we?
But like many roller coaster rides, the end might not take your breath away, but the thrill of the first hill and surviving the double loop is well worth the wait to get on.
Ride this one.
– See it on The Big Screen
The Skeleton Key (PG-13)
Oh, that Voodoo that you do-do so well!
Actually, this movie concerns Hoodoo (a real-life practice of spells) which is based on black African folklore mixed with American Indian botanical knowledge and European folklore. A thorough mix of hogwash and BS, but that’s precisely the point of this movie. It comes right down to, “Do you believe?”
This is an especially important question for a Hospice caretaker named Caroline Ellis (well played by Kate Hudson), who finds herself taking care of an old man who suffered a stroke in the attic of an old mansion located in a poor area of New Orleans that is full of such Hoodoo believers. But only if you believe that Hoodoo works can the spells work on you. Non-believers (tourists?) are unaffected.
Seems easy enough, right? I don’t believe in ghosts, therefore none have yet disturbed me that I’m aware of. But if I suddenly saw a few ghosts, my opinion about them might indeed change. And then would they be real? Real enough to hurt me? That’s the philosophical question one would have to contemplate.
If you’ve read my previous reviews, you know I don’t give away surprise storylines. You’re not supposed to know what Caroline is up against any more than she does. This is not a scary movie in the sense that you will jump out of your seat and cower in horror. It’s a suspenseful movie where you’ll root for certain people on the screen to prevail, especially Caroline, who is a very likable character. You don’t wish her any harm, and yet even when she realizes things are a bit dicey, she sticks around in hopes of saving the old man she is in charge of.
Whenever Caroline goes into the attic, we fear the outcome may not be in her favor. Yet she can’t seem to stay out of the attic! Shake your head if you must at this ill-founded curiosity that seems to overtake even the most level-headed of movie characters, but you’ll definitely want to stick around for the ending. If you ache to go to the movies, this is a good choice. But it’s not a “big screen” must.
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