jdcorcor Reviews

The World's Fastest Indian (2005)

A Tour de Force on bald tires

[9/10 · 2 February 2006]

Anthony Hopkins is simply astounding. The man can disappear inside of characters so diverse and capture you so completely, that you have to wonder if his well of talent has a bottom.

This film is at turns charming, bawdy, fascinating, riveting, nerve wracking, hilarious, heartwarming and heartbreaking. As Burt Munro -- an aging New Zealand man losing his hearing, short on money, living in a shed surrounded by weeds, considered a lovable if eccentric oddball by all who know him except one small boy, and obsessed with making a 45 year old motorcycle capable of breaking the land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats -- Hopkins takes us along for the ride every minute of this movie. The fact that this film is based on the true story of Burt Munro makes it all the more captivating, but a lesser actor than Hopkins might very well have lost us along the way. It is no wonder that the children of the real-life Burt Munro were moved to tears by Hopkins' portrayal.

There's a clever ongoing bit about the taste of Burt's hot tea, and you will also wonder a bit about how his lemonade might taste. Every scene is a jewel in this movie, and the cumulative effect proves that extraordinary films do not have to cost bazillions of dollars and take two years of computer-generated special effects to WOW their audience.

Burt is challenged by every imaginable obstacle standing between him and his speed dream: his failing heart may give out any minute, the journey around the world to transport the 1920 Indian motorcycle to the USA seems insurmountable, he has no machine shop or whiz-bang tools and equipment to work his engineering miracles, etc. What he DOES have is an indomitable spirit that will never, ever stop trying. Whether he's battling young ruffians who diss his ancient motorcycle or banking, bureaucrats and red tape, he is a wrinkled but worthy warrior.

The supporting cast is as beautiful and bizarre as it gets, and the audience becomes inordinately fond and just about every one of them except for a nasty foreign cabdriver (Carlos Lacamara), but hey, somebody had to be disliked. Great actors in small roles abound, including Diane Ladd as Ada, a frontier gal that's been lonely a while, Saginaw Grant as Jake, an "Indian" with a really distasteful solution to Burt's prostate problems, and Paul Rodriguez as Fernando, a human and humane used car salesman. Perhaps the best scene -- and heart -- stealer is Chris Williams as Tina, a cross-dressing front desk night clerk at a fleabag hooker hotel. You gotta love him. Or her, as the case may be. Stellar performance, and Hopkins' Burt treats Tina with such dignity it defines friendship.

Don't miss this fine, fine film. And if there is justice in the boffo box office world, The World's Fastest Indian will be a true Oscar contender in 2006.

Lord of War (2005)

Bite the bullet: Guns HAVE changed politics more than votes...

[8/10 · 5 October 2005]

Gulp. What stays with you long after seeing this movie, is the "based on actual events" caveat. Even if this has been Hollywoodized to the max, the core story – that of Yuri Orlov, Ukrainian immigrant boy who learns running guns is easy money and that he has a real knack for it, then grows up to be a conscience-free worldwide leader in arms dealing, etc. – is bone-chilling because grains of truth exist.

Writer/Director Andrew Niccol keeps ratcheting up his incisive view of the world, surgically cutting away our illusions, and his scalpel cuts deeper as his talents mature. On his journey from "The Truman Show" to "Lord of War," Niccol has maintained his connection to individual people too often sacrificed at the altar of profit and exploitation. He has a profound ability to reveal the conscience and humanity of man subverted and supplanted by the coldness of commerce (or technology, as in his 1997 "Gattaca"). More and more "civilization," less and less civility. Barbarism dressing in Armani, the Wolf in Grandma's nightgown waiting patiently to devour us with the gusto of a gourmand.

Nicolas Cage is perfect as Yuri. Goal-oriented, focused, determined to succeed. He is neither overtly cruel nor ruthless, just a businessman with utterly no remorse or self-recrimination about what he does for a living and how crushing and devastating it may be to the insignificant, disposable "little guy." Without a moral compass or conscience. In other words, an Enron executive. Or Tyco. Or Adelphia.

Case portrays Yuri as the epitome of a rationalizer He genuinely believes that he's only doing what someone else would do if he were no longer in the picture. Just a link in the chain. Simply the middleman. Think of all the clichés that those aiding and abetting evil in all its manifestations use to justify their role in the process. "If not me, someone else will do it." "The law of supply and demand." "To the victor go the spoils." "I didn't pull the trigger…" Or whatever. From corporate greed that impoverishes the worker whose pension plan paid for their jets, jewels and vacations, to arms dealers whose stock in trade mows down third world children by the townful.

That is a far, far more deadly stone killer than an over-the-top fictionalized movie-made murdering weirdo, as this one could live next door to any one of us (in a very upscale neighborhood, of course). His toxic product is totally indifferent to age, race, gender, religion, nationality, economic status, or any other distinguishing characteristics of mankind. Just a tool, he would no doubt tell you as he glanced as his Rolex before dashing off in his Jaguar or Bentley. And he'll arm either side, both sides, any side…it's of no concern to him. Terrifying, I tell you.

Jared Leto, as Yuri's younger brother Vitaly, will break your heart. It's as if Vitaly is the sin-eater, absorbing all the guilt to which Yuri is impervious. He is a sponge, while Yuri is stainless steel. Unable and yes, unwilling, to break the bonds of brotherhood, Vitaly too aids and abets the evil that masquerades as business, just business.

Bridget Moynahan is fragile and wistful as Ava Fontaine, super model and Yuri's dream girl. Her vulnerability and gullibility feed one another, as she too becomes one of Yuri's goals in life. Well played by Moynahan, but the audience just doesn't buy her complete ingenuousness. 'Waaaaaay too much money there, Ava.

Dictators and despots fast become Yuri's close personal friends, and competing arms dealers his enemies. His threshold of tolerance for violence grows with his wealth, and you wait to see how long this can escalate, how much of a blind eye he can turn. There are arms fairs and shiploads of weapons, all of which pass beyond the control of agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke), much to his aggrieved frustration. You may find, as I did, that the Valentine character is fairly wasted and impotent throughout the movie, and that no doubt is intentional. The somewhat heavy-handed slap-you-upside-the-head message being that good is usually, thoroughly, stomped into the blood-soaked earth by evil. Perhaps the most telling line of dialog in this flick is when Simeon Weisz says, "Governments are changed more often by bullets than votes." This is a difficult movie to digest after you've seen it. While watching, you are knocked senseless by the violence, the inhumanity, the ugliness. Most of all by the fear of the reality that lies beneath its surface. But it is superbly done, as punishing as it may be. The dialog is inventive and original in most instances – brutally so -- but the lines are crafted in such a way as to BECOME the future axioms and thereafter clichés that will be repeated over and over in the context of war, politics, global violence, and the trappings of same.

Not an easy movie to watch, but perhaps every person on the planet should. Don't expect light entertainment: Just bite the bullet and watch. And learn.

Serenity (2005)

Outcasts, Iconoclasts and Classy callgirls fight the galactic Man, passive-aggressively and otherwise!

[8/10 · 4 October 2005]

Joss Whedon faltered back in 2002 when his "Firefly" sci-fi TV series was canceled (despite his "Buffy" and "Angel" success track record). But Firefly lives again in this Sci-Fi movie hybrid of that very same television series mix-mastered with vintage Star Wars-type screen action/adventure fantasy. The good news is that the Sci-Fi Channel is now running the original 11 "Firefly" episodes from which this movie sprang, and each should feed the popularity of the other.

Like the series, this movie is witty, it's wry, and it has frisky characters passively and otherwise resisting the MAN, in this case the galaxy-dominating Alliance. Its lethal agent and weapon of mass destruction is portrayed by Chiwetel Ejiofor, and he is splendid, deadly and single-minded.

Our antihero, Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (a rough and ready Nathan Fillion), takes a licking and keeps on ticking. Picture a slightly skewed, sexier cowboy-take on Hans Solo with a Millennium Falcon that's a bucket of bolts. His strong right hand is Zoe (stunning Gina Torres) – Luke Skywalker as a tawny-skinned, assertive Amazon instead. Mal's prickly love interest is a gorgeous, bona fide companion (read high class call girl) with equally high self esteem, the elegant Inara (Morena Baccarin channeling an exotic young Elizabeth Taylor). The Wookie role of muscle-bound primate Jayne is tough guy Adam Baldwin. Jewel Staite is the R2D2 of the piece as Kaylee, a dewy-eyed, naïve engine mechanic. Alan Tudyk is a funny and appealing geek of a pilot, Wash, who is married to Zoe, I guess making him our C3PO as the less than macho member ("Oh God Oh God We're all going to die" is sure to get a laugh from his delivery). The comparisons are not quite spot on, just convey that feeling. Gaining passage with the crew are a brother and sister desperate to stay beneath the Alliance's radar, Dr. Simon Tam (Sean Maher) and his disconnected, perhaps demented little sister, River Tam (Summer Glau), whose mental abilities are far beyond ordinary. Watch out for when that egg cracks open. Simon's medical skills pay his fare and allow his sister's peculiarities to be tolerated, despite Jayne's desire to ditch them at the first opportunity.

"Serenity" is not only the title of this movie, but it is (a) the name of the spaceship "boat" on which our ragtag bunch of planet hopping jacks-and-jills-of-all-trades travel, (b) An underlying theme for which they all hunger, and (c) a twist on what the Alliance purportedly seeks to achieve in the universe. We learn right out of the gate that the earth was recreated on various planets throughout the cosmos via terraforming after intergalactic war decimated our planet. The rebels lost but continue on in the attitudes of anti-establishment, independent separatists living on the fringes of society. The all-powerful Alliance now rules with a real iron hand in a phony velvet glove to keep the people calm and at peace, etc. Some terraformed New Earths have prospered while others struggle in reverted societies similar to our Old West. There is a mix of cultures and time periods in play, from civil-war era to high-tech gov centers bursting with lasers and mind control. There are saloons juxtaposed against stratospheric space battles, dusty desert landscapes versus full-bore mega-communication satellite complexes. What a mix.

In a nutshell, the Alliance wants what Serenity has: River, the government-engineered, expensive prototype modified human who is carrying around in her mind-reading teenage brain all kinds of secret information they inadvertently made available to her. Her brother, the shy and stiff young doctor, is devoted to keeping her hidden and safe while he seeks a cure for her neurosis, psychosis and other screwed-up-Sis problems. Look for well-played lesser characters that are striking and memorable, if brief, in both Ron Glass as the sage Shepherd Book and wacky whizkid David Krumholtz as Mr. Universe. There are disturbing, soulless creatures called "Reavers" that have lost their humanity to such an extent they tear other humans limb to limb, and worse. They will surely keep you on edge in addition to the eerily calm and completely fear-inducing Ejiofor, whose character remains nameless throughout.

Let's hope this fast-moving, fast-talking, establishment-kicking feature film helps the TV series comes back to life once more, as 11 episodes are simply not enough. Both "Serenity" and "Firefly" deserve a closer look on the big and little screens.

Be Cool (2005)

Chili Palmer switches careers & discovers Wiseguys set to music

[6/10 · 2 March 2005]

No one is cooler than Chili Palmer as portrayed all in black by John Travolta, but this movie may leave you cold. Whatever you do, don't go expecting the skewed wit and acerbic pace of Get Shorty. Even though this is technically a sequel, the Elmore Leonard feel is just not there. Yes, everyone is over the top, situations are ridiculous, and there are some chuckles elicited by the various nutballs portrayed. Yes, there's a stellar cast and they will draw a big box office with fans from practically every demo. But no, this is not on a par with Get Shorty, one of my all-time favorite black and bizarre comedies. What's the old cliché – A sequel has to be twice as good to be liked half as much? John Travolta's chin dimple has never looked better, however, and you'll see it plenty in lots of CU beauty shots.

In this installment, Chili is disenchanted with making movies, and opens the film ragging on the stupidity of sequels. Hmmm. That sets a self-deprecating tone that continues throughout the movie with characters making fun of themselves, their industry, their insider view and their insulated world. Chili is drawn into the record business when his friend Tommy Athens (James Woods) pitches his life story as a music label entrepreneur, including an undiscovered PYT who's got the whole package: talent-out-the-door girl singer/composer, killer looks, style, etc. This rare find, Linda Moon (portrayed fetchingly by Christina Milian), is unfortunately tied into a 5-year contract with two low-lifes, Raji -- a white guy desperate to be black (Vince Vaughn) and Nick Carr (a bleary eyed Harvey Keitel), who get Linda cheesy gigs without dressing rooms, where talent gets ready in bar kitchens. Note: Vince Vaughn took Jamie Kennedy's B-Rad (Brad Gluckman, wannabe gangsta) character from "Malibu's Most Wanted" and made him lethal. Funny guy.

(WEE BIT OF A SPOILER OR TWO HERE in the plot summary:) While lunching with Chili, Tommy gets whacked by Russians (with more than a bit of a muddled plot about extortion ~ did he pay it or didn't he?), and dies owing gangsta rap mogul Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer) a cool $300,000, leaving his record label broke and disheveled. Chili the eye witness becomes a target of the Russians, too, and for a variety of reasons, becomes saddled with repaying Tommy's debt to Sin. So, Chili takes up with Tommy's widow, the willowy Edie (Uma Thurman), takes over Linda Moon's career, takes umbrage with the Russians, takes down Raji's gay bodyguard/driver(played hilariously by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), and takes on a whole new career. There are crosses and double crosses, and roaming bands of gangsta thugs and Russian mobsters. Hit men get hit, stars make cameos just about everywhere from the Staples Center to an Aerosmith concert, and everyone has fun with tongue-in-cheek. Or in the case of The Rock, with arched eyebrow and flashing, toothy smile.

There are treats here and there, and you patiently wait for them to appear. Chili and Edie get to dance together (thrown in, no doubt, as an homage to their Pulp Fiction light fantastic), The Rock does a kickass Samoan routine, Robert Pastorelli makes his last appearance as Joe Loop, masticating and malfunctioning hit-man, and Steven Tyler portrays himself -- the sexiest ugly man on the planet. What is it about that guy?!?!? There are a few standouts in small roles: Andre' Benjamin (a/k/a Andre' 3000) as Dabu, Sin's bumbling brother-in-law who can't handle a gun without it going off accidentally and who can't carry off the gangsta personae no matter how hard he tries. He is an oddly appealing goofball with wonderful delivery and we should all hope to see more of him. Kimberly J. Brown as Tiffany, Edie's all-purpose Girl Friday conveys an entire character with much personality in just a few brief minutes on screen.

Although it's certainly no Get Shorty -- much to my disappointment -- I'm sure the box office will be boffo.

The Stepford Wives (2004)

Take off the rose-colored glasses; the original was NOT better, just different.

[16 June 2004]

Frank Oz directs a tongue-in-rouged-cheek redux that stumbles a tad as it doesn't quite commit fully to either a black comedy or an over-the-top satire, doesn't quite reach "thriller" quality, doesn't quite step up to the plate. BUT it's inevitable: When remakes are released of 'classic' movies – from Ocean's 11 to the Stepford Wives – we don our rose-colored glasses and wax poetic about how much better the original was. In this case: Wrong. Different, yes; better, no.

This remake is true to the premise of the original, but takes a fresh, skewed approach, going for camp and parody where the original was a drama; going for speedy, full-bodied character development right out of the gate where the original dragged its characters along woefully, with hangdog looks and dour expressions substituted for dialogue that told their backstory.

Uber-urban couple Joanna and Walter move to the Connecticut 'Burbs this time

after Joanna has a complete nervous breakdown when her big city career implodes. She's a power woman on a power trip, and her cord gets unplugged big time. So, Joanna's wrassling her own identity crisis when she meets the blissful, beautiful, subdued society of Stepford.

Despite an peculiar speech pattern, Nicole Kidman is splendid as Joanna, as she struggles to come up for air in Stepford. Instead of enshrining Joanna as the Feminist Goddess fighting deadhead domesticity as in the original, this version shows her warts and all, and the audience seemed to feel she got what she deserved initially. There is a sweetness in Joanna trying to find her softer feminine side, her nesting and nurturing instincts, even when her hyper type-A personality kicks into gear, resulting in hundreds of cupcakes screaming 'compulsive overachiever.' Her new best friend Bobbie (Bette Midler) is, refreshingly, NOT a sympathetic character, and (perhaps inadvertently) Director Oz has crossed her with Miss Piggy, as an egocentric, combative, acerbic writer who wallows in a slob-sty lifestyle with her pig of a husband, the ever-idiotic Jon Lovitz. The injection of a gay couple into Stepford is an interesting twist, and Faith Hill is utter perfection as the Stepford wife with her wiring going awry. Christopher Walken is a bit underused, but as always, reliably weird and oddly ominous as the head honcho of the sexist men's club, which property is dead on from the original movie.

Matthew Broderick is, as Joanna succinctly states, her 'goofy Walter,' all wide-eyed and struggling to assert himself as his emasculated testosterone gets refueled in Happy Man Land. Glenn Close is a wasp-waisted dervish as the untiring, endlessly organizational, insidiously irritating Claire, who leads the women of Stepford in their goosesteps.

The good news is that, unlike the sluggish, drably introspective original, this Stepford Wives is glamorous and richly imbued with vibrancy. The bad news is that -- OK, social commentary opinion ahead, feel free to tune out -- sadly, the kneejerk ridiculing and debasing of all things traditional and June-Cleaver-like is overt and heavy-handed in Hollywood, and wrapping it up in glitzy, star-laden movies like this may be "fun" but it has more than a bit of a nasty, mean spirited undertone. In today's world of latchkey kids, rampant divorce, domestic violence, lack of honor and integrity, shirked personal responsibility, crude and rude antisocial behavior, etc., we could use MORE family tranquility, dedicated husbands and wives, and respect for the sanctuary of a welcoming home with an unselfish, loving, committed father and mother who embrace the most important job in the world: raising better children which leads ultimately to a better world. The burgeoning trend of 'stay at home Moms' in America seems to be an uplifting, promising development in improving the quality of society through improving the quality of family. It's unfortunate if movies like The Stepford Wives slap these folks down for their 'old fashioned' values.