In “Morning Glory” Canadian Sweetheart Rachel McAdams plays an eternally optimistic television producer. That’s how we know this is a work of fantasy. Like unicorns or a good Matthew Lillard movie, there’s no such thing an eternally optimistic television producer. She may be completely fictitious but she’s also perky, precocious and fighting for the survival of her morning television show.
After being fired from the producer’s chair of “Good Morning New Jersey,” Becky (McAdams) moves up to the big leagues, executive producing a network morning show in New York City. The trouble is the network is IBS—it can’t be a co-incidence that their name is an acronym for Irritable Bowel Syndrome because their ratings are in the toilet—and the show is Daybreak, a telecast so lowly rated one observer says “half the audience has lost their remotes and the other half are waiting for their nurse to turn them over.” It’s her job to whip the show into shape, despite the protests of its two high maintenance hosts, former Miss Arizona Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton) and the “third worst person in the world,” Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford).
“Morning Glory” is a screwball romantic comedy that has a sit com-ish edge, but is rescued by the charm of its leads. It’s a pleasure to see Harrison Ford grumping it up in his first all out comedic role in some time (that is, if you don’t count the ill-advised Indiana Jones reboot) and Diane Keaton has some good bitchy fun here but it is McAdams who really saves the day.
Her effervescent screen presence keeps us interested even when the script is content to rely on predictable, feel-good story turns. “Morning Glory” often feels like a collection of good ideas that don’t quite hang together. The Patrick Wilson love interest angle feels tagged on and near the end the movie becomes a series of montages as various story threads are a little too conveniently wrapped up, but through it all McAdams shines.
There are echoes of “Broadcast News” throughout. That movie played up the romance a bit more than “Morning Glory” does and twenty-three years ago when the Albert Brooks comedy first addressed the trend of the show business-ification of hard news to pander to ratings the hard news side won. This time around Mike Pomeroy, a seasoned journalist with impeccable credentials, is told by the upstart Becky, “Your side lost” and asked to bring along a camera to his prostate exam. “Broadcast News” had interesting things to say about television and how TV is changing. “Morning Glory” doesn’t have that same kind of insight but it does have Rachel McAdams, which for this lightweight comedy, is enough.
Movies like “Extraordinary Measures” are what happens when other films like “Lorenzo’s Oil” and “Patch Adams” sneak away for a dirty weekend. Starring former hunks Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser, this red-haired step child of a movie, born, probably, out of passion, is, however, destined to be ignored in favor of other, more legitimate films in the Ford / Fraser family.
Based on a true story “Extraordinary Measures” centers on John (Fraser) and Aileen (Keri Russell) Crowley, parents of three young children, two of which have a deadly form of muscular dystrophy called Pompe. Desperate to prolong the lives of their afflicted kids they seek out the help of Dr. Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford), a researcher with a viable theory about enzyme treatment for the rare genetic disorder. Together the ego-centric scientist and the earnest, yet determined father go into business, first building a private lab in Nebraska, then merging with big pharma, to create a cure for the disease.
We have “The Mummy” and “Indiana Jones” to thank (or not) for “Extraordinary Measures.” Without the success of those two franchises there is no way Ford and Fraser could have gotten this cliché ridden clunker off the ground. It’s also further proof that the world has gone crazy. How strange a place is our culture when someone can raise 30 million dollars to make a movie like this, but the real life Crowleys had trouble raising even seed money to find a cure for their kid’s disease? Seems like skewed priorities.
At its best “Extraordinary Measures” comes off as an overwrought TV movie-of-the-week. At its worst (which is most of the time) it plays like a parody of a “Disease-of-the-Week” television movie.
Ford skates through much of the muck unscathed—although there could be a drinking game involving how many times he unnecessarily mentions going to the bathroom—but Fraser really gets conked on the head by the Cliché-O-Tron.
It’s bad enough he has to say lines like, “I want to find a miracle as much as you do,” and “perform” the standard slumping-to-the-floor-in-uncontrollable-sobs scene, but the height of ridiculousness comes when director Tom Vaughan stages a scene where Fraser tries to get Ford’s attention by shimmying up a wall to bang on a small window even though there is a HUGE glass door located a few feet away.
“Extraordinary Measures” is a movie that was likely made with the best of intentions, but clearly no extraordinary measures were made to make the script coherent or the performances big-screen worthy.
A HARRISON FORD STORY FOR YOU: On January 14, 2010 Richard hosted a screening of Extraordinary Measures the new medical drama starring Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell. Backstage before the intro Ford jokes to Richard, “If you say nice things about me in the intro I’ll say nice things about you.” Richard nodded enthusiastically. “What would you like me to say?” Ford continued.”Say whatever you want,” Richard joked back, but if you can use the words ‘brilliant’ and ‘beloved.'”
On stage Richard read the intro for Ford: “Our guest tonight is a master carpenter, a licensed pilot and ranked #1 in Empire magazine’s “The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time” list… his films have grossed approximately $5.65 billion worldwide… he has a species of Central American ant and spider named after him in honor of his conservation work (Peidole harrisonfordi) (Calponia Harrisonfordi)… but you know him better as CIA man Jack Ryan, as Indiana Jones, as Rick Deckard and Han Solo… tonight in Extraordinary Measures, a film he executive produces, he plays the gruff Dr. Robert Stonehill, a real life doctor who saved countless lives with his discovery of a treatment for Pompe disease… Would you help me welcome one of our favorite movie stars… Harrison Ford!”
Returning the favor Ford began his speech with, “Before I talk about my film I want to thank Richard for his ‘brilliant’ introduction… I know he is the most ‘beloved’ film critic in Canada… what he doesn’t know about films ain’t worth knowing…” then continued into his regular speech about film’s ability to create a “common humanity” before wrapping things up with another joke about his “real” reason for making the film. “I’m in this,” he said, “as always… for the money…” Awesome. Thanks Han Solo…
“Cowboys & Aliens,” the latest movie from “Iron Man” director Jon Favreau, is the kind of sci-fi film John Ford might have made, or maybe the kind of story H.G. Wells would have told if he wrote a western. There’s great scenery shots, lots of galloping horses, chiselled jaws, majestic vistas and yes, giant mysterious aliens.
Based on a 2006 graphic novel of the same name “Cowboys & Aliens” is set in the Old West in 1873. Daniel Craig plays a classic western character — Jake Lonergan, a stranger in town — with a twist. Waking up in the desert, he’s a stranger to everyone, including himself — his memory has been wiped clean. Odder still, a mysterious metal bracelet around his wrist. In the nearby town of Absolution, New Mexico he begins to find some clues as to his past courtesy of Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), the settlement’s most prominent citizen. Their inevitable showdown is sidelined by what may be a cowboy movie first — an alien invasion. Soon the stranger starts to regain his memory and his wrist jewellery reveals its real purpose.
You should know going in that the ratio of cowboys to aliens is about 10 to 1. If I had to categorize this movie I’d call it a western sci fi rather than a sci fi western. It’s splitting hairs I know, but the onus here is on the horse opera. And Favreau and cast pull it off. Until giant spaceships swoop in, pulling awestruck citizens into their metal bosoms, the movie plays as a credible western.
Even when the alien craft first appears, the reactions of the town folk feel real. They’re obviously stunned, and decide that these creatures must be what demons look like. It’s an old testament via the old west explanation for something they don’t understand and it works well. So does Daniel Craig and an increasingly craggily faced Harrison Ford. Craig brings an interesting edge to the stereotypical stranger role and Ford gives the movie some old school heroics.
“Cowboys and Aliens” gets a little flabby in the middle — unlike its buff leading man — and takes a bit too long to get to the extraterrestrials, but has
enough Wowee moments to fill a ten gallon hat.
The word espionage is most commonly used in relation to spy stories. It conjures up images of James Bond, exotic locations and wild action scenes. But in many movies espionage has little to do with shaken not stirred martinis and Bond girls, and more to do with corporate secrets and intrigue.
This weekend, Paranoia explores the world of big business espionage as Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth) finds himself doing dangerous double duty in the billion dollar world of high tech.
As an entry level employee, his boss Nicholas Wyatt (Gary Oldman) promises him a corner office, among other things, if he will spy on rival tech giant Jock Goddard (Harrison Ford).
That movie is set in the world of bits and bytes but corporate espionage comes in as many styles as that ergonomically designed chair in the CEO’s office.
As the title would suggest, the movie Duplicity is ripe with lies and underhanded dealings. Julia Roberts and Clive Owen are former government spies now working in the private sector. Despite being intimately involved, they work for rival shampoo companies. It’s a romantic comedy about undercover activities. Imagine if Rock Hudson and Doris Day had starred in Mission Impossible and you get the idea.
Genetics is the currency in New Rose Hotel, a 1999 Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe film based on a short story by William Gibson. They play corporate moles hired to influence a Japanese bio-engineering expert to defect from one corporation to another. To seduce Dr. Hiroshi (Yoshitaka Amano) they hire a prostitute (Asia Argento) to win his affections. The plan doesn’t work, and neither does the movie, really, but it’s worth a look for the flamboyant performances from Walken and Dafoe.
Finally, back in the world of high tech espionage, the Ben Affleck thriller Paycheck is a good little movie released at the wrong time. Wedged between Gigli and Jersey Girl, it came out at the height of Bennifer and the nadir of audience interest in Affleck as an actor.
Based on a Philip K Dick short story, Affleck plays Jennings, a genius programmer hired by corporations to reverse engineer new products, recreating them anew. His work is so secretive that after he’s done, his memory is wiped clean. The chicanery really begins when his employer (Aaron Eckhart) pulls a double cross, leaving Jennings with no money, no memory and a world of trouble.
