Not to be confused with “The Undefeated,” last year’s Sarah Palin infomercial, “Undefeated” is a sports documentary that recently won the Best Documentary Oscar. One is a humane and inspirational story about the power of people to make foster change in the lives of others. The other one isn’t. Guess which is which.
The movie’s name is a bit misleading. The Tennessee high school football team the Manassas Tigers aren’t exactly the most triumphant team in the league. Underfunded and underprivileged the squad was on the skids as a team-for-hire before pot-bellied volunteer coach Bill Courtney (Phillip Seymour Hoffman would likely play him in the Hollywood version) stepped in and guided them through the 2009 season. Under his tough love tutelage they are transformed into a solid, successful team, learning how to win, not just in the gridiron but also in life.
The synopsis sounds like something we’ve seen many times before. Perhaps Dennis Hopper played the coach… or was it Denzel Washington? Either way, the spectre of déjà vu hangs heavy over the movie, except that this isn’t a Hollywood film with Mark Wahlberg or James Caan, it’s a portrait of real life on and off the field.
Directors Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin understand that the human aspect of the story is far more important than whether the team goes undefeated or not. Like the classic sports doc, “Hoop Dreams,” “Undefeated” offers up an intimate portrait of the players. It’s not as deeply felt as “Hoop Dreams” but it avoids the melodrama so frequent in sports docs and will certainly make you cheer for the characters.
Despite a slight familiar feel “Undefeated” trumpets the value of self-respect, team work and discipline and entertains while doing so.
There is one sure fire way to know that “Unknown” is an action film and not some sly spy documentary starring a man who looks a lot like Liam Neeson. It comes late in the movie and it’s a blink-or-you’ll-miss-it moment when Neeson, playing Dr. Martin Harris, studies his passport. His date of birth is listed as 1964. Fiction. Pure fiction and off by about twelve years. Unfortunately that’s not the only thing off about this dull excuse for a psychological drama.
The fifty-nine-year-old actor plays Dr. Harris, a biochemist who travels to Berlin with his wife Liz (the thirty-two-year-old January Jones) to attend a convention. Everything changes following a car accident. When he wakes up from a four day coma his identification and identity is gone. His wife doesn’t recognize him and worse, she’s with another man who claims to be Dr. Martin Harris. Alone in Germany he recruits an illegal Bosnian immigrant (Diane Kruger) and a private eye (Bruno Ganz) to get to the bottom of this mystery.
A couple of years ago, Neeson tore Paris apart searching for his kidnapped daughter in an enjoyably trashy Euro-thriller called “Taken.” “I’ll tear down the Eiffel Tower if I have to,” he said, veins bulging in his forehead. The trailer for his latest flick, “Unknown,” promises more of the same, but instead delivers almost two hours of Neeson shouting “I am Dr. Martin Harris!” at anyone who’ll listen as the movie limps from one dreary set piece to another. It’s endless minutes of co-incidences, Cold War references and dramatic pauses.
Neeson, as usual, is convincing, or I should say, as convincing as this script will allow him to be, but is let down by a script that has him delivering melodramatic lines like, “Do you know what it feel like to become insane?” and a co-star in January Jones who is quickly proving that Betty Draper may be a career high for her.
Despite a car chase or two “Unknown” isn’t an action film, nor is it Euro-trashy enough to be as fun as “Taken” or interesting enough to succeed as a psychological drama.
“Unstoppable,” the new true-life drama from Denzel Washington and “Star Trek” star Chris Pine is a heavy metal movie. It’s a story about 10,000,000 pounds of screeching, screaming metal careening out of control through the Pennsylvania countryside. No, it’s not the Mötley Crüe northeastern reunion tour, it’s about a runaway train and two brave men who bring the beast to a stop.
Story wise “Unstoppable” is pretty high concept. Due to human error (or perhaps just plain laziness) an unmanned half-a-mile long string of trains loaded with hazardous materials is let loose, barreling along the main rail track toward Stanton, Pennsylvania. It is, essentially, a missile the size of the Chrysler Building. Along the way it plays chicken with a trainload of kids and Denzel. Can they stop it before it causes a huge environmental catastrophe? Only Denzel knows… and he’s only half-way sure.
It doesn’t take long to identify “Unstoppable” as a Tony Scott movie. There’s his favorite star, Denzel, endlessly swirling cameras and about 75 edits per minute.
With the exception of Denzel, his trademarks have occasionally overwhelmed his movies. His high sense of style has frequently come before good old solid storytelling but with “Unstoppable” there isn’t much story to overpower so his wild flourishes really carry the day. The giant set pieces involving the train and the various attempts to stop it are exciting, edge-of-your-seat sequences. Add in Denzel playing a riff on his now patented old pro on the job / hero role (the one he’s been perfecting in movies like “Inside Man” and “The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3) and some good charismatic work from Chris Pine and you have a fun Saturday afternoon matinee movie.
“Up in the Air,” the third film from director Jason Reitman, takes the best elements from his first two films, “Juno” and “Thank You for Smoking” and molds them into one seamless package.
George Clooney is Ryan Bingham, a high flying “termination engineer” who fires people for a living. Hired by independent companies, he flies from city to city doing the dirty work when it comes to mass lay offs. He’s perfectly suited to the job and with the recent global economic downturn, cousin, business is a boomin’. He’s a road warrior who loves the perks of the job, the air miles—his goal is to hit the 10,000,000 mile mark—the status cards and life in airports. On the road 322 days a year (“That leaves 43 miserable days at home,” he says.) he says all the stuff that people hate about traveling—the recycled air, the artificial light and warm sushi—are the things that remind him that he is home. Other than his job he’s commitment free, other than the odd woman he meets in an airport or hotel bar, like Alex (Vera Farmiga), a fellow road warrior who gets “turned on by Elite status.” His carefully constructed life may come crashing down, however, when his boos (Jason Bateman) hires Nathalie (Anna Kendrick), a know-it-all IT expert who has an idea that may ground him permanently.
It’s possible that George Clooney is the only actor working today who could make Ryan Bingham likeable. He uses every ounce of his considerable charm to make this man who treats commitment like a disease and fires people for a living bearable, much less likeable but he does. If he didn’t the movie wouldn’t work on the level it does, it would simply be a smug (and timely) social satire on how some people have found ways to benefit from the recent economic downturn. Instead it’s a heartfelt portrait of a man who tries his best to isolate himself from the pain and hurt of real life (and his job). Clooney, in what may be his strongest outing yet, combines bravado and vulnerability in one very appealing package.
Jason Reitman has found a balance in style between the heartfelt clarity of “Juno” and the biting satire of “Thank You for Smoking. He’s pitch perfect with the tone, mixing cynical with witty, creating one of the nerviest movies of the year. Opening a comedy about firing people when job market is on red alert takes some stones, but Reitman wisely attacks the subject head on, using vignettes of recently terminated people as a sad comment on the times we live in. Those scenes add some profound emotional heft to the story while Clooney and leading lady Vera Farmiga do the rest with a wonderfully acted relationship between two sharks that leads Bingham to an existential epiphany.
Clooney and Farmiga aren’t the only high fliers in the cast; Anna Kendrick, a young actress best known for her role in Twilight shines as the overly meticulous IT expert who has a thing or two to learn about people.
It’s hard to believe that “Up in the Air” is only Reitman’s third film. It’s the feel bad feel good movie of the year, so self assured, so strong in style and performance that it should get much notice at awards time.
Kathryn Heigl is gorgeous. She’s a blonde bombshell in the tradition of Jean Harlow, a collection of curves, fiery lips and bundled blonde hair that looks as though she just slithered out of a 1950s film noir. She’s also smart, produces her own films and is out spoken about all the right causes. She should be the total package, but the trouble is, on screen, I find her cold. She emanates ice, and not in the classic Alfred Hitchcock cool blonde way. That coldness could work for her in some roles but it is a little hard to swallow in the rom coms she makes between seasons of Grey’s Anatomy.
Her new film, The Ugly Truth, feels like an updated Doris Day / Rock Hudson battle of the sexes; a look at how men and women perceive one another. Heigl is Abby Richter, the terminally single producer of a morning television show. In an effort to boost sagging ratings the station manager hires controversial correspondent Mike Chadway (Gerard Butler). “He is everything that is wrong with television and society,” says Abby. His proudly male chauvinist schtick about how women don’t understand what men want—he’s equal parts Dr. Ruth, Dr. Phil and Hugh Hefner—despite Abbey’s disdain, connects with her audience. They are, in the grand tradition of romantic comedies, oil and water, but despite their differences Abby turns to Mike for hints on how to connect with Colin (Eric Winter), the proverbial good looking doctor next door. Maybe, just maybe, though, love is closer than either of them think…
Movies like The Ugly Truth live or die based on the charm of their stars. Butler can pull off the charismatic rogue role but Heigl grates. It would have been interesting to see Reese Witherspoon or maybe a 1980s vintage Meg Ryan in the same role to judge whether their appeal could rescue this otherwise sad excuse for a rom com.
It’s not just that it is predictable. Originality isn’t a trademark of the genre, so the set up and pay off are expected before the opening credits roll. This one has a few more four letter words than usual but plays out pretty much how you might imagine.
So, if it isn’t the inevitable happy ever after story line that drags The Ugly Truth down, what is it? Well, how about the Three’s Company level dialogue? The lame jokes, writing style and battle of the sexes subject seem to harken back to a different time. Like when Jack, Janet and Crissy were still roommates and bell bottoms were considered cool at the disco. The jokes have been given a makeover but the underlying themes seem twenty years or more of date.
There are a few laughs sprinkled throughout however—the women in the audience I saw this with seemed to find some of Mike’s observations like “For men self improvement stops with toilet training,” hilarious—but if there were any fewer laughs this would simply be a romance, not a romantic comedy. Another scene involving vibrating underwear and a restaurant got some laughs but I thought it was funnier the first time I saw it in When Harry Met Sally.
The Ugly Truth is neither ugly—Heigl and Butler see to that—or truthful—the hackneyed take on relationships sees to that.
The phrase “golden age of animation” conjures up images of Mickey Mouse in a sorcerer’s costume, Snow White and Bugs Bunny. The words remind us of a long ago time before jaggedly illustrated television cartoons like Rocket Robin Hood or The Flintstones replaced elegant hand drawn art. As fuzzy and nostalgic as my memories of those cartoons are, though, I’d argue that we’re in a new golden age right now, a gilded era of fantastic animation spearheaded by a group of picture wizards based not in Hollywood, but the out-of-the-way city of Emeryville, California. In each of their ten feature films Pixar has raised the bar so high few—live action or animated—have been able to match their skill with imagery or story. Their latest, Up, is a crowning achievement and the first animated film chosen to open the Cannes Film Festival.
The movie is a touching comedy adventure involving 78-year-old retired balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen (voice of Ed Asner). After the passing of his wife Ellie and the impending destruction of the home he shared with her, Carl decides to belatedly make their dream of exploring South America a reality. He ties 10,000 balloons to the house in an attempt to float to Paradise Falls, a place he’s only ever seen on a map. Once in flight Carl discovers he has a stow-a-way, an eight-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell (Jordan Nagai). Reluctantly Carl brings Russell along for the ride and together they share adventures in the Venezuelan jungle.
Finding Nemo screenwriter Bob Peterson has crafted an epic but personal story about rediscovering humanity, dealing with the loss of a loved one and finding a sense of purpose. It’s a subtly complicated story that gently introduces adult themes into an art form generally aimed at kids. Binding together elements of everything from A Christmas Carol to The Wizard of Oz and Fitzccarraldo, Up manages to be somewhat familiar and yet startlingly original all at the same time.
By mixing high tech state of the art computer generated images with the most old fashioned form of communication—superior storytelling—Pixar has created a film filled with that certain something generally missing from lesser animated efforts like Aliens vs. Monsters—a sense of wonder. The screen is filled with imagination, something that should appeal to all members of the family.
It’s also by turns hilariously funny and achingly tender.
Up is probably the most emotionally manipulative movie Pixar has ever made. Near the beginning Carl and Ellie’s life together is played out in a tour de force sequence that will bring a tear or two to your eye. When was the last time a cartoon made you cry?
Add to all that great voice work from old pros Ed Asner and Christopher Plummer and some good, deep genuine laughs and you’ve got the best movie of the year so far.
Today technology touches people’s lives in ways unimaginable even twenty years ago. Cell phones keep us connected. Blackberrys make it possible to send and receive e-mails twenty four hours a day. X Boxes increase reaction skills and you can get almost anything you want on the internet from rare books to lawnmowers to jewelry and even, as a new techno thriller called Untraceable suggests, murder.
Diane Lane stars as agent Jennifer Marsh of the FBI’s Cyber Crimes unit. She is investigating a twisted cyber terrorist who rigs up elaborate death traps involving sulfuric acid, heat lamps and nasty chemicals to off his victims and plays streaming video of their suffering on a site called www.killwithme.com. The more people visit the site the faster the victims die.
Think of it as Saw with an url or Se7en in Cyber Space. It may also make you never want to go on-line again.
Untraceable is a well enough constructed thriller. Directed by Fracture’s Gregory Hoblit (whose father was an FBI agent) it’s certainly better than many of the women-in-peril films we’ve seen lately but is sometimes done in by clichéd dialogue and implausible situations. Why, for instance, would an FBI computer expert allow her 8 year-old daughter to download games on her work computer?
More interesting than the movie’s predictable twists and turns is the suggestion that the internet is the Wild West, a place where people feel no responsibility for their actions. Untraceable points the finger of guilt directly at users who anonymously and impassively sit at home watching the snuff site, feeling no remorse, even though they are hastening the victim’s death. The suggestion is that the internet, while powerful, has created a community of voyeurs desensitized to real life who can even view murder as entertainment. The idea isn’t developed well enough, Hoblit chooses to stick with the thriller elements of the story rather than the social commentary, but for those willing to dig a bit deeper it raises good questions about how we use the internet.
Despite the missed opportunities for social comment, Untraceable is a good attempt at blending old school thriller techniques with a high tech premise.
A parody of the spy genre in general and blaxploitation movies specifically, Undercover Brother should have been way funnier that it actually is. I’ve come to expect a lot from Eddie Griffin, I think he’s very amusing in an over-the-top-I-have-no-fear kind of way, although in this movie despite some flashes of inspiration he falls kind of flat. His rougher funnier edges have been smoothed, when the director Malcolm D. Lee (Spike’s cousin) should have been trying to push the limits of outrageousness. There are some nice moments, but save your 13.50 at the box office, this one is definitely a rental.
An affair by a bored housewife has consequences for her family that she never imagined. Diane Lane is utterly convincing as Connie Sumner, a beautiful forty-something who chances upon a young sexy French man (Oliver Martinez) in a wind storm. She begins an affair with him, keeping it a secret from her husband Edward (Richard Gere). To tell you more would give away too much of the plot, but just be aware that there are dire consequences for everyone involved. Diane Lane carries this movie with a strong, appealing performance that makes me wonder why we don’t see more of her on the big screen. Adrian Lyne paces the movie nicely as it changes from an illicit romance to a thriller. Only the very end seems false. Lyne has a perfect out twenty minutes before the end, but inexplicitly chooses to drag things out.
