Screenhead

There is a very short list of actors that I keep on hand…actors who I can count on to deliver an excellent performance no matter how bad the rest of the movie around them is.  This list includes luminaries like Tiffany Shepis, Brad Dourif, Jeffrey Combs, and William H. Macy.

Also on that list is Lance Henriksen, a man who can be counted on, and his skills will be sorely tested in the mixed bag that is Necessary Evil.

This one pits a budding journalist against a sprawling pharmaceutical corporation who’s deeply at work on something that turns out to be a lot more sinister than anyone wanted to give it credit for.  But the journalist and the corporation have a lot more history together than anyone was aware of, and over the course of the movie we’ll discover just what that history is.

Once again, Lance Henriksen will turn in an excellent performance, even if the rest of the movie around him is quite a bit more hit and miss.  See, the really weird thing about this one is that sometimes, it’ll be fun and entertaining and a little scary.  Other times it’ll be weird, hallucinatory and downright incoherent.  The ending might well be the most entertaining part of the whole thing, even if it does sort of kick up the foreboding a skosh for a possible sequel not too far down the line,  an announcement which hit me with a whole busload of mixed feelings.

And that leaves me with one big problem–recommend or not.  Well, I’ll be honest with you–you can do a WHOLE LOT better than this.  But you can also do plenty worse.  And Lance Henriksen fans like myself will be more than happy to know that he’s STILL good.

The Screenhead Ten Scale washes its hands of the whole mess and awards Necessary Evil a five out of ten for averaging out to purely mundane.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Today I’m talking about a movie you probably haven’t heard of.

It was just released this week to theatres, mobile devices, online, and on DVD, and it’s called Rage, a film that will ensure you never look the same way at couture culture again.

It’s about a filmmaker that goes by the name of Michelangelo, a young man out to shoot a film on his cell phone about the fashion industry.  As his subjects slowly reveal bits and pieces about themselves, a series of crises bursts into life around them, and each must come to grips with the disasters in their own way.  But just how much of these are Michelangelo’s doing?  Or is everyone just in the wrong place at the right time?

There’s a mix of no-names bundled in with a bunch of big names–Jude Law’s sharing the screen alongside Simon Abkarian, and Steve Buscemi’s right there with Adriana Barraza.  There are plenty more recognizable names, and they’ll all turn in outstanding performances.

Why?  Because they HAVE TO.  They have literally no choice but to excel since there’s absolutely nothing in the shot but them.  No explosions, no other characters, no action, not even music, really–just the actor and his or her lines.

Rage proves the incredible power a movie can pack when it’s well written, and shows what little the Michael Bays of the world are actually doing.  The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Rage plenty of respect with a nine out of ten for an amazing display that only becomes predictable at all toward the end.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Fresh news out of the “Schaudenfreude Much?” folder for you today, as it seems that an unlikely force is being really badly hit by the economic downturn–Hollywood lawyers.

Citing a decrease in overall film production (for the period between January 2 and July 21 this year, 284 films were released.  That time last year, it was 336.) and in declining dollar value for actor contracts, the Hollywood lawyers that negotiate these contracts and enforce them are having to do lots more work for lots less cash.  Lawyers typically take about five percent of the value of any contract negotiated, and when the contract goes from ten million dollars to two million dollars, that’s a pretty healthy loss for the lawyers.

It’s at this point that most regular folks laugh blackly and say: join the club.  And considering that they’re still making huge money by any realistic standard, it’s reasonable to do so.  And of course, most everyone’s doing more with less these days.  But when you consider that those lawyers are also losing eighty percent of their original revenue in some cases, it’s enough to actually leave you feeling sorry for lawyers.

Never mind, of course, that twenty percent of THEIR pay is still several orders of magnitude above what most people make in a year….

Popularity: 1% [?]

I have to admit, there have not been a whole lot of World War 2 movies coming out these days.  I guess that whole “greatest generation” buzz just kinda wore off in the face of a depression that’s looking like it’ll make the thirties look like the nineties.  This is why I was actually pretty happy to find a copy of great war movie Defiance, featuring Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber.

Craig and Shreiber play the Bielski brothers, a pair of Jews who witnessed the complete destruction of their hometown at the hands of the Germans.  At least they looked like Germans–they seemed to be wearing the right uniform.  But anyway, following the slaughter of all they knew and loved, these simple farmers became freedom fighters, escaping into the woods around their houses, picking up strays as they went.  Eventually, the steadily growing collective built a camp in the woods with shelter for its residence, food storage and dispersal, and even fighting positions.  Sure, there was infighting and privation and sacrifice and everything else, but by and large, they got along well.  In fact, given the state of a lot of OTHER Jews in Europe at the time they were doing pretty nicely indeed.  But of course, this couldn’t last, and eventually the Germans grew tired of the Bielski group’s constant raids and sabotages and killing of German soldiery, so they launched all out war, eventually sending an entire division in a time when every man Hitler could muster was being either thrown at the Russians or at the Americans.

And I’ll be honest with you, this is a GREAT movie.  It’s got a huge runtime by today’s standards—just over two hours in fact—but you will almost barely notice it go by.  There is not a dull moment in this, whether they’re building their camp or blasting Nazis or running from same, there’s always something interesting going on here.

It’s a downright inspirational piece, as people in the midst of a horrible situation grapple with the very worst parts of their humanity, facing greed and rage and the craving for revenge, and yet at the same time, they also struggle to reaffirm their humanity in a time when they’re hunted like animals.

I love how this movie can switch so rapidly and so seamlessly between the most tender feelings humanity can muster for each other and the sheer blinding rage of hatred and warfare and bloodshead.  The dichotomy is just amazing, and watching this is like a blistering mix of themes and flavors all at once, that combines to make a whole far, far greater than the sum of its parts.

We need more movies like Defiance.  We need more characters willing to stand in the breach the way these characters do and willing to face down all the horrors that modern man can generate.  We need a little more uplifting in our movies…but just a little more.  It’s the kind of thing that’s so very easy to overdo.  Maybe Defiance didn’t, but it wouldn’t be hard for anyone else to do it.  It wouldn’t have been that hard for even Defiance itself to overdo it.  But it didn’t, and that’s the great news for all of us.

Basically, Defiance is an amazing movie with top-notch performances, a great cast, and a plotline so uplifting it’s a wonder there isn’t a hole in my ceiling right now just from watching this thing.  It’s definitely worth your time to see this.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I’ll kick this one off with a little warning: I’m extremely biased in favor of Samuel L. Jackson.  Sam Jack is good in pretty much anything, one of only a handful of actors who can say the same, at least as far as I’m concerned.  So when I laid hands on a copy of Lakeview Terrace, I was expecting him to bring a solid performance.  How was the rest of the movie around him?  More on that directly—but first, plot recap time.

When a young interracial couple moves into the neighborhood on Lakeview Terrace in sunny California, they think they’re really moving up in the world.  At least until they run afoul of their next-door neighbor, a racist cop who doesn’t approve of their relationship.  He’s also a stern disciplinarian of a single father, and the police precinct at which he works has a whole host of question marks on his record.  So when this unstable cop goes up against this young couple, in the midst of wildfire season, no less, it’s only a question of who will survive the encounter.

After all…when your psycho neighbor’s a cop…it’s hard to call the cops on him.

That’s at once what’s both awesome and wrong about this whole thing.  We don’t see movies about psycho cop neighbors very often, and for that, Lakeview Terrace gets some originality nods.  It has to—this kind of thing just doesn’t happen very often.  But a lot of SIMILAR things do happen.  Bad cop movies, psycho neighbor movies—these are fairly regular occurrences as suspense thrillers go.

It won’t surprise anyone to find that, once again, Sam Jack has turned in a choice performance.  The guy always does.  I’ve seen him play a good guy, a bad guy, and every kind of guy in between, and it doesn’t matter how big his part is or what he’s out to do: Samuel L. Jackson is one of those rare actors that can be counted on to turn in a fantastic performance no matter how bad the rest of the movie around him is.  Thankfully, Lakeview Terrace isn’t necessarily a bad movie.  Sure, it’s nothing great, but it’s at least a fairly solid title that won’t be a total waste of a rental.  These days, that’s actually a pretty good report.

Sure, it’s not the most original thing on the shelves, but it does deliver in the suspense department, and there’s plenty else to like here besides.  It’s not all sunshine and lollipops—the ending’s a bit on the predictable and abrupt side, and I can’t shake the feeling they only had an interracial couple in here to give the script just a little extra length.

Regardless, the work itself is solid, and Sam Jack throws out a great villain role, easily on par with anything else he’s done.  And I have to admit, I liked the added drama that came from adding the wildfires to the plot—it was a nice touch that added a little more spice to things.

All things considered, really, this is going to be worth the two hours you put into it.  A reasonably scary thriller with one great performer and a handful of decent backup adds up to produce a whole that’s worth your time.

Popularity: 1% [?]

This one’s actually very interesting for me, folks—it represents something that’s been a long time in the making, and only recently managed to show up.  Today I’m talking Maurice Devereaux’s newest, End of the Line, and what’s special about this is how long it took between his efforts.

Particular horror buffs among you may already know what I’m about to discuss, so for you, please bear with me so I can fill everyone else in.  See, way, way back in the depths of 2001, Maurice Devereaux came out with a movie called $la$her$.  And no, that’s not a typo—the S’s have all been replaced with dollar signs to reflect its nature as being about a killer game show.  And it was a terrific movie, despite its clearly ultra-low-budget nature, there was a lot of action in the horror and was a move well worth repeating that had not been done often.  So finally, he’s released another one after a long string of delays, and it’s called End of the Line.

End of the Line features a young nurse working in a psychiatric ward who’s starting to have some deeply unpleasant visions.  But just when she thinks she’s about to head home for the night and sleep off said visions, she boards the last subway car home…and it stops in the middle of a tunnel.

Longtime horror buffs know this is never a good sign.

But it only gets worse when the handful of people on the car with our young nurse are brutally murdered, and a cult of a particularly murderous religion stalks them, convinced that killing people is the only way to save souls!

Fans of Devereaux’s earlier work will recognize some parts of this new one, such as the reappearance of actor Neil Napier as Neil and the cross-as-dagger motif, as well as the overall quality of the piece, which is absolute.

I’ll be straight with you—if you’re into horror movies and a good scary thriller, then this is going to be right up your alley.  Seriously, this sucker’s got a whole lot of punch and an all-too-terrible sense of plausibility, especially in these darker days.  It’s actually almost perfectly timed—three years ago, even A year ago, this would have had nowhere near the punch it does today.  Because just when you think that this is just going to be yet another in a long string of slasher flicks, End of the Line turns into a much more horrible prospect.  I can’t tell you a whole lot about it without spoilering, but the best part about it is that it will spiral wildly out of control, and the ride will be downright exhilarating.

This is an absolute beauty of a horror movie, and frankly, I’m glad that I was here to catch it.  I can recommend it, without reservation, to anyone else who wants a great scary ride, made all the scarier by an overwhelming sense of plausibility and a Next Sunday A.D. setting.  Packed with more twists and turns than the subway line it’s set in, End of the Line is going to bring the scares and keep you on the edge of the seat you’re in, all the way until the rather surprising end.  This one’s definitely another hit for Maurice Devereaux.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Someone once described high school, about ten years or so ago, as having too many characters and not enough plot.  Ironically, about ten years later, give or take, that same person will have described a movie based on a comic book by a man whose time would have to come–The Spirit.

The plot, such as it is, really isn’t much.  A kind of criminal genius–he’s a master of disguise (he changes costume at least five times in the movie) and a genetic engineer, as well as a drug dealer–by the unlikely name of The Octopus is after a rare and powerful artifact containing the blood of Heracles.  It’s been chained to a box containing the Golden Fleece, and The Octopus is desperate to get his hands on it because it will combine with his own drug-laced blood to make him a god, or nearly so.  But it’s left to an undead cop to find it first.  Along the way, said undead cop, now called The Spirit, will hit on literally tons of women that he apparently knew at one point or another.

See what I mean?  This sucker isn’t exactly that long on plot.  I tell you no small thing when I tell you that The Spirit is going to spend more time macking on chicks than he will actually advancing the plot.

I will admit, however, that when The Spirit DOES spend one of its rare moments actually doing something that moves what little plot there is along, it will do so in a smooth, efficient, and wholly capable fashion.  It will offer plenty of action in those segments (watching The Octopus take on a helicopter is a jaw-dropper) even pack plenty of humor into the proceedings, and that’s just awesome.  While relative unknown (I literally could not tell you the last movie I saw him in, because I have not clue one what else he’s done) Gabriel Macht handles The Spirit fairly well, it’s not him that’s the best part of the movie.  And it’s not one of the ladies that The Spirit will CONSTANTLY throw at us, either, though they generally handle their parts competently and look like they’re having a great time doing it.

No, the clear high point of this whole thing is The Octopus, played by none other than Samuel L. Jackson.  The great Sam Jack is handling this one, and man…he’s clearly loving this part.  In fact, thanks to this movie, he’s now on my short list of actors who will ALWAYS turn in a good performance no matter how questionable the rest of the movie around them is.

Yes, The Spirit is a downright beautiful movie.  It LOOKS fantastic.  The characters all look fantastic.  Even the little things like clouds of explosions that look like octopi and The Spirit’s trademark red tie all look fantastic.

But from a narrative standpoint this is a vastly overlong movie that never really should have been.  It may look pretty but that’s not enough to save it from a really, REALLY, weak sauce script.  This is a LOUSY movie.  They spent more time introducing characters than they did advancing the plot, and that’s the first through tenth signs of a really, REALLY bad movie.

Way too many characters, and not nearly enough plot.  It’s high school, and it’s The Spirit.  It’s a fun and pretty little title but it has nothing even resembling substance.  It’s a great rental, but not one you’re going to want to keep around.

Popularity: 1% [?]

You know, I’m not a HUGE car buff–I consider a car to be little more than a way to point A to point B.  Though I do prefer to get their comfortably, quickly, and without spending an arm and a leg in gas costs–just an arm is good enough by me–I’m not terribly enthused by the thought of cars that look like small spacecraft that go from zero to sixty before you even blink.  I only really know what torque is thanks to high school physics, and horsepower to me means about as much in my car as it does in my lawn mower.

Though I will admit, I DO enjoy British television–I’m abundantly glad for BBC America, and even the older stuff you find on PBS is actually much enjoyed by both me and my family.  My personal favorite is Keeping Up Appearances, because that Hyacinth woman is just six different kinds of awesome, and she’d probably have a fainting spell if she were described as such.

So when the boys out at BBC America’s PR firm (at least I guess they are–they sent me the disk and they’re some old friends) shipped me a copy of Top Gear season 10, I was skeptical. Especially when I discovered that this show’s been around since 1977 almost continuously.  Almost continously, of course–there was a brief interval in which the show was retooled, so how they call this season ten is quite beyond me.

Strange semantics in numbering aside, Top Gear is a show that really got me.  Like I said, I’m not much of a “car guy”, thinking of them more as utilitarian objects than as artistic statements, but man.  The show is hosted by three guys who deeply, DEEPLY, love cars, and will introduce us to all manner of cars and car-related content.   The first episode, for example, features an interview with actress Helen Mirren (of The Queen) that caps off with having her take a lap around a test track and then putting her score up on a wall of fame reserved for guests. They call this their “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car” segment.

They then spend a great deal of time looking for the best road in the world, and you’ve never seen British guys display such sheer glee.

It continues on like this for fully ten episodes, including what they call “the Botswana Special”. They’ll attempt to cross the English channel in amphibious cars.  They’ll stage the most ludicrous drag race ever, involving an Aston-Martin taking on a rocket pack and roller skates.  At one point they will engage the Royal Air Force’s Typhoon jet fighter in a two-mile race with the Bugatti Veyron.  What these guys display here is, essentially, a car show for people who don’t really care about cars.  You can almost feel their enthusiasm as they tell you all about their cars of choice, and that’s the mark of a good reviewer in my book.  Yes, this is partially a review show, but it’s also got a lot more than that, as you’ve seen from the preceding remarks.  This show is almost sufficient to INSPIRE car love in those who don’t have it.  Almost—but man, what a good try.

Basically, if you have even the slightest interest in cars, even the SLIGHTEST, you will find Top Gear to be both engrossing and entertaining, with plenty of laughs and surprises as they introduce you to cars you will likely never see and have probably never even HEARD of.  I had my eyes opened by this little chunk of British programming, and I’m glad for the experience.  Chances are good you will be too.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The first time I saw Maria Bello on film was in the movie The History of Violence.  She grabbed at her role and gave it all she got as a loving wife and mother who finds out her sweet loveable husband is at former and brutal hit man.  

So, I am happy to hear that Bello is in final talks to join Adam Sandler’s the all-star comedy untitled film.  I look forward to seeing her in a comedy. With her talent, she’ll bring the comedy to a whole new level.

I have posted about this film a couple of times already because I think this is a sure fire hit. As a reminder, the script centers on high school friends who reunite 30 years later. Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, David Spade, Salma Hayek and Maya Rudolph are part of the ensemble.

Bello will play James’ wife – what a match.

Popularity: unranked [?]

The Merry Gentleman tells the story of Kate Frazier, a young woman running away from a troubled marriage in the hope to find anonymity with a new home and a new job in Chicago. When Kate meets Frank Logan, the two discover unexpected satisfaction in their mutual shared silence.  Haunted by the troubling choices he has made, Frank finds a kindred spirit in the younger Kate, and, for a moment, the two seem destined to redeem and remake each other.  As the holidays and New Year pass against an urban landscape that seems both breathtakingly beautiful and starkly quiet, Kate and Frank’s friendship becomes one of necessity and survival. But, neither lonely soul can escape the lives they have left behind. As events unfold and the painful truth slowly emerges, Frank is forced to face the man he truly is, while Kate struggles to become the woman she needs to be.

The film marks the directorial debut of Michael Keaton who stars alongside Kelly Macdonald, Tom Bastounes, and Bobby Canavale. The Merry Gentleman is a heady mix of suspense, gentle romance and quiet humor blending a hopeful spirit with a surprisingly dark heart. I am excited to see Keaton directing and playing such a complex character.  The movie opens in theaters May 1, 2009.

Popularity: 1% [?]