Movie Review

Like a Bad ‘Law & Order,’ ‘Righteous Kill’ With Al Pacino, Robert De Niro Lacks ‘Heat’

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:13:52 -0700

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Last fall, Francis Ford Coppola made the comment that Al Pacino and Robert De Niro (along with Jack Nicholson) had lost their ambition. Coppola essentially said they have been phoning in their performances and picking safer movies. “Righteous Kill” could be the case study to that argument.

Left to right: Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in “Righteous Kill”.
Photo credit: Righteous Productions, Inc.

You have Pacino and De Niro together again. They’re both playing a cop, which is a role they’ve both done time and time again. You give them a script from Russell Gewirtz (who scribed the amazing film “Inside Man”). What could go wrong? As “Righteous Kill” proves, apparently many things.

Trilby Glover in “Righteous Kill”.
Photo credit: Righteous Productions, Inc.

Officers “Turk” (Robert De Niro) and “Rooster” (Al Pacino) are partners who have each been with the New York Police Department for 30 years. Their latest case is to catch a serial killer offing the criminals the justice system has let slip through the cracks.

Each serial murder is accompanied with a poem detailing the offenses committed by these lowlifes and why their murder is (sigh) “righteous”. Fellow detectives played by John Leguizamo and Donnie Wahlberg (yes, the older brother of Mark Wahlberg) are also on the case along with Carla Gugino.

She portrays a sexy and sassy officer who’s sleeping with Turk. The story is told as a flashback that’s narrated by video confession by Robert De Niro’s character.

That means you either immediately know he’s the killer or you’ve got a wild twist coming at the end. The story follows most of the murders leading up to the confession and Turk and Rooster’s dedication to serving the public. De Niro’s Turk is a no-nonsense, short-tempered detective.

Carla Gugino in “Righteous Kill”.
Photo credit: Righteous Productions, Inc.

Pacino plays the always calm and wise-cracking partner, Rooster, which makes them the classic buddy-cop dream team. Pacino – who does find his way into comedy as much as De Niro has – does deliver some funny lines. Of all the cop dramas about serial killers, “Righteous Kill” is the funniest.

To get lost in what passes as action when you have two men in their late 60s in the lead, though, you really have to turn on your suspension of disbelief.

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You can’t ask yourself questions like “How are two people this old still on active duty?” or “Would the police really have that much trouble putting together suspects when the connection is so obvious?” or “Why did that woman from the first act show up at the softball field an hour into the movie just to ask a question about Turk’s daughter who was never mentioned until now?”

The plot of this film – with its superfluous characters and unsuccessful twists – feels like a bad episode of “Law & Order”.

If Coppola is right and Pacino and De Niro are just phoning it in, then that means Pacino and De Niro not even trying are still pretty great actors. If it was any other two wrinkly old men trying to sell this story, “Rightous Kill” might actually be a front runner for the Razzies.

Pacino and De Niro seem to make this schlock palatable, but for everyone thinking this is going to be the next “Heat,” you’re going to be left burnt.

“Righteous Kill,” which stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg, Brian Dennehy, Trilby Glover, Carla Gugino and 50 Cent, opened everywhere on Sept. 12, 2008.

By DUSTIN LEVELL
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
dustin@hollywoodchicago.com

In Purely Exploiting Gratuitous Violence, Paul W.S. Anderson’s ‘Death Race’ Remake Kills All Comedic Value

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:23:00 -0700

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – While 2008’s “Death Race” makes no secret about being a remake of 1975’s “Death Race 2000” with David Carradine as the title character Frankenstein and Sylvester Stallone as his archrival Machine Gun Joe Viterbo, what’s perhaps less obvious but still clear is how the film steals from others.

Though the “Death Race” story has a different book cover, Jason Statham’s character as Jensen Ames and then the masked Frankenstein can be directly correlated to (as just one example) Nicolas Cage’s character in 1997’s “Con Air”. We’ve certainly seen this before: a man who’s supposedly in the slammer innocently and has a monster axe to grind.

Navigator Case (Natalie Martinez) arrives from the women’s prison in an action-thriller set in the near future with the world’s most brutal sporting event as its backdrop in “Death Race”.
Photo credit: Takashi Seida

While films today can be rewarded for being quality remakes of compelling yesteryear memories, 2008’s “Death Race” not only disappoints in its unoriginal ripping from other films but ultimately loses face in its mission merely for unadulterated and gratuitous violence.

“Death Race” is yet another film along the lines of so many second-rate Hollywood products we see today feeling pressured to blow stuff up bigger and badder while servicing the human need to fantasize in the utterly ridiculous. All the while, a weak story is slapped on top of what essentially just amounts to an anthology of big booms.

Sometimes films succeed in being pure entertainment and don’t attempt to have underlying meaning or instigate inspirational change. When they do, though, they’re most successful when their fundamental purpose at least has some redeeming value.

Jensen Ames (Jason Statham) drives Frankenstein’s Monster in an action-thriller set in the near future with the world’s most brutal sporting event as its backdrop in “Death Race”.
Photo credit: Takashi Seida

The unfortunately simple message of “Death Race” merely says we’re living in a time and place where financial corruption can allow us to prostitute ourselves to charge $250 to watch one guy violently off another for our viewing pleasure. In the film, 70 million morbid viewers take the plunge.

To keep our sanity and our hope in this day and age, we have to believe our society won’t ever bow that low.

Perhaps the most interesting choice for “Death Race” was to send it entirely astray from “Death Race 2000” in its lack of comedy. The 1975 version was only part violence and very much part comedy, too. This time around, though, there’s also no presidential plotline.

Jensen Ames (Jason Statham) kills time in his prison cell in an action-thriller set in the near future with the world’s most brutal sporting event as its backdrop in “Death Race”.
Photo credit: Universal Pictures

Instead of winning the 1975 death race for the chance to meet the president, the modern version offers the winner the chance to leave prison.

Frankenstein’s Monster is attacked in “Death Race”.
Photo credit: Universal Pictures

The relatively unknown supporting character Frederick Koehler in this “Death Race” is actually one of the most standout and appreciated roles in the film.

While not exactly comic relief, he plays a memorably tense character named Lists who essentially serves as Wikipedia for Statham’s race-to-the-death driving team.

As for the decision to cast Joan Allen in 2008’s version, we can only pray that she doesn’t continue her current line of typecast roles any further.

Playing the warden in “Death Race” is directly akin to her Pam Landy government character in 2004’s “The Bourne Supremacy” and then again in 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum”.

While her character is no surprise based on her past work, the opposite can be said about Tyrese Gibson’s role in “Death Race”. The real-life model plays Statham’s archrival Machine Gun Joe Viterbo as well as an Old Navy model trying to sell ultra-luxury chic on a fine designer’s runway.

With a strangely unnecessary homosexual spin scripted for Gibson’s character that doesn’t make any meaningful sense as to why his sexual orientation would even matter, even though he attempts to sell you on being a man who gets down and dirty you’re still afraid for him to break a fingernail.

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One of the film’s one and only redeeming values is its decision to cast Statham as the title character.

Following his work on 2002’s “The Transporter” and then 2005’s “Transporter 2,” his ability to sell grit continues to get the job done here. Statham will deal his Frank Martin character a trilogy in 2008 with “Transporter 3”.

Famed filmmaker Paul W.S. Anderson (who directed and wrote “Death Race” and also directed 2004’s “AVP: Alien vs. Predator,” 2002’s “Resident Evil” and 1995’s “Mortal Kombat”) continues playing to the darkest parts of the human heart and filling them with sludge.

Anderson in 2009 will next attempt to butcher a film version of “Castlevania” based on the beloved video game.

“Death Race,” which is written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, stars Jason Statham, Joan Allen, Tyrese Gibson, Natalie Martinez, Ian McShane, Max Ryan, Jason Clarke and Frederick Koehler. The film opened everywhere on Aug. 22, 2008.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Death-Defying Audacity Walks Between the Twin Towers in New Documentary ‘Man on Wire’

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:00:49 -0700

Rating: 4.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Where have all the true eccentrics gone? Where are all those people who achieve a Zen purpose just because the challenge is there?

“Man on Wire” is a documentary that tells of such a challenge 34 years ago in another place and time. The story of Frenchman Phillipe Petit and his gang of merry pranksters brings into focus another legendary piece in the puzzle within the twisted history of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers.

Philippe Petit in “Man on Wire”.
Photo credit: Magnolia Pictures

Phillipe Petit is a performance artist whose main specialty is tightrope or high-wire walking. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he conquered two wire-walking feats through his own grit and determination.

These were between the spires of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris and two bridge bays in Sydney, Australia.

But these were merely warm-ups for his next and greatest goal: walking between the buildings of the relatively new Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.

After gathering a team of “experts” (more like stoners and hangers-on), he devises a plan for getting through the more lax building security of the era.

Philippe Petit in “Man on Wire”.
Photo credit: Magnolia Pictures

“Man on Wire” director James Marsh.
Photo credit: Magnolia Pictures

The documentary creates a tension as the story builds. The film cuts between the recreated scenes of the tower entry and operation with flashbacks to the preparation and stunts that led up to the moment.

What a moment it was, too. As thousands of New Yorkers gaped below – egged on by Phillipe Petit’s girlfriend – a solitary figure hung magnificently in the sky between the two mammoth towers. The achievement of his goal had been fulfilled.

The story that looks back at the incident plays like a great caper film.

It’s narrated by the motor-mouthed and still excitable Phillipe Petit. The operation to get into the tower and string the wire was a combination of ingenuity, planning and exquisite timing since the top of the building was still a construction site at the time.

The “gang” helping him included a motley crew of people who had just enough courage and knowledge to complete the task. Director James Marsh gives them sumptuous profiles.

Each of the now-older men take their bows for a mission impossible that somehow got done almost in spite of itself.

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There were sacrifices to be made in such a herculean event and they were able to make them. The actual archival footage is used essentially within the mix of the recreations.

Finding look-alike actors were key to these replays for it enhanced the event seamlessly and sprinkled even more magic onto the telling. A solitary human – suspended on a wire but looking as if he’s walking on air – is still an awe-inspiring sight.

Within the context through the demise of the Twin Towers and the cynical fear created after the downfall, the positive energy affirmation of the dream and the dreamer is still a potent inspiration.

“Man on Wire,” which features actors in recreations of real-life high-wire walker Phillipe Petit, opened on Aug. 8, 2008 in limited theaters.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Hit-or-Miss Mastermind Woody Allen Recaptures Genius With Eccentric ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:01:00 -0700

Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – While legendary writer and director Woody Allen can’t always be equated with sheer genius these days and is more accurately described as a hit-or-miss proposition, the sorely undermarketed and film-festival touring “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” serves as unquestionable retribution for his recently questionable work.

The film, which stars Hollywood sensations Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson and Penélope Cruz, all throughout makes you feel like Allen’s script has something brilliant up its artistic sleeve. While at times you’ll easily predict when sex is on deck, Allen uses “No Country for Old Men” star Javier Bardem literally as his blunt instrument.

Penélope Cruz stars as María Elena in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” from director Woody Allen.
Photo credit: Victor Bello, The Weinstein Company

In the real world, of course, even a man of his charisma couldn’t walk up to a woman with Scarlett Johansson’s magnetism and lure her into a weekend of bliss and eroticism with these simple words: “We’re getting on my plane in an hour for a weekend of drinking fine wine and making love.”

While Bardem can this time because Allen’s script makes Johansson’s risqué character do it, his true treat is scoring a triple play by convincing Johansson’s rule-driven friend – played by the relatively unknown Rebecca Hall – to seek the same interesting slice of life.

Hall’s character is completely out of character in going along with this ride and is in the process of marrying a man who feels to her much like a sedative.

Javier Bardem (left center) and Scarlett Johansson (right center) star in Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”.
Photo credit: Victor Bello, The Weinstein Company

Amid all the wining and dining, Bardem displays his range as an actor. He puts out of our mind his powerfully villainous character in “No Country for Old Men” and completely transforms himself for Allen’s creation into an artistic, charismatic and confident Spanish lover.

The protagonists, of course, wouldn’t be complete without the antagonistic presence of Penélope Cruz. Despite training rigorously with a teacher and a paintbrush for her painting scenes, though, Cruz still admits to having “faked” these scenes.

In fact, Cruz says in real life she’s a “terrible artist” and is nothing like her “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” character. While she gets by with the brush in the film, it’s not her painting that ultimately slathers herself memorably onto you.

Left to right on set: Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and Woody Allen for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”.
Photo credit: Victor Bello, The Weinstein Company

It’s her irate, suicidal and jealous performance that stands out with its emotional and physical carnage. Cruz landed the role of María Elena from director Woody Allen in 40 seconds flat.

Scarlett Johansson’s appearance in the latest Allen work of art is especially his personal joy. Despite appearing in three Allen films in the past three years (“Match Point” in 2005, “Scoop” in 2006 and “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” in 2008), Johansson decisively denies being his latest “muse”.

When the subject has come up repeatedly in press junkets for the film, she always says they take pleasure in “having fun” together. The 72-year-old Allen, on the other hand, liberally confesses that the 23-year-old “Lost in Translation” star has often been the muse for many of his latest films.

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Johansson follows in the shadows of actresses and former Allen lovers Diane Keaton and Mia Farrow. Instead of it being Johansson in 2005’s “Match Point,” Allen initially selected British star Kate Winslet.

While Winslet may have gone on to muse Allen thereafter, she pulled out from the 2005 film to spend more time with her children.

Despite its interesting backstory and compelling film story, the whole work of art that is “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” goes somewhat to poop in its anti-climatic ending. You can feel Allen struggling with how to end this fascinating journey. His decision to waiver somewhere in the grey matter of life is a tragically unfulfilling choice.

Had the ending been rewritten, “Vicky Christina Barcelona” would be one of Allen’s finest works without question. Even without the rewrite, though, it stands as one Allen magnum opus nonetheless.

“Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” which is written and directed by Woody Allen and stars Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, Rebecca Hall, Patricia Clarkson and Chris Messina, opens on Aug. 15, 2008.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ Boldly Goes Animated With Potent Story, Mediocre Animation, Anemic Acting

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:01:00 -0700

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” which is the inaugural animated “Star Wars” project from Lucasfilm Animation and “Star Wars” architect George Lucas, feels and looks every bit as introductory as a foundational attempt could be.

In many ways, the film again typifies what every “Star Wars” film always does. We’re again treated to yet another compelling storyline. Despite public perception that Lucas declared three years ago that the decades-long “Star Wars” saga has come to an end, Lucas now clarifies.

Jedi Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) prepares for battle in “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”.
Image credit: Lucasfilm Ltd.

Lucas merely says the Skywalker family plotline has runs its course.

Upon its completion, he now has a plethora of new stories to impart – and much more money to rake in – about the beloved galaxy so far, far away. In the “Star Wars” storyline, the three-year clone wars took place between “Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones” and “Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith”.

Story aside, though, we’re again deluged with atrociously melodramatic acting (this time solely in the form of voice work). What’s most interesting is that the cheesy acting, which is legendary in the “Star Wars” saga, actually for the first time has found a better home.

Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) engages in battle with an enemy in “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”.
Image credit: Lucasfilm Ltd.

The animated format actually manages to dial down the dreadful acting and makes it more tolerable than the live-action, human format.

In terms of the quality of its animation, which is clearly front and center in “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” the film flirts in a middle ground between amateur and truly elite design work. The quality of the work neither completely underwhelms nor blazes a new path for the future of animation.

The animation ultimately pales in comparison to the world’s best movie animator – Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios – and much more closely resembles modern-day video games. You needn’t put this animation under a microscope to see the awkwardly square designs where decidedly smoother and rounder imagery should appear.

Heroic Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) confronts a foe from the past in “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”.
Image credit: Lucasfilm Ltd.

It’s also no secret that “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” is essentially a feature-length, glorified television pilot for Lucas’ upcoming cable TV series of the same name. The 30-minute TV version, which will also be fully animated, is slated to premier on Oct. 3, 2008 on the Cartoon Network.

Lucas took a chance and cashed in on a big bet when he brought on his own “padawan learner” – Dave Filoni – to direct the feature-length animated film “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”.

This image is Asajj Ventress (Nika Futterman) concept art for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”.
Image credit: Lucasfilm Ltd.

Prior to the brazen Hollywood assignment, the relatively unknown Filoni only had directing experience with seven episodes of the low-profile TV series “Avatar: The Last Airbender”.

Now Filoni isn’t the only relative unknown who Lucas selected as a primary driver of the film.

Aside from original “Star Wars” actors Samuel L. Jackson as the voice of Mace Windu, Christopher Lee as the voice of Count Dooku and Anthony Daniels as the voice of C-3PO, nearly all other characters look like, sound like and act like their “A”-list counterparts but certainly aren’t.

Yoda, for example, is now voiced by Tom Kane rather than the famous Frank Oz.

Anakin Skywalker (who later becomes Darth Vader) is Matt Lanter (instead of Hayden Christensen), Obi-Wan Kenobi is James Arnold Taylor (instead of Ewan McGregor), Padmé Amidala is Catherine Taber (instead of Natalie Portman) and Chancellor Palpatine is Ian Abercrombie (instead of Ian McDiarmid).

Amid the bunch of newcomers and unknowns, Lucas does his greatest service with the introduction of the talented but reckless padawan learner Ahsoka Tano. Rather than being assigned to Obi-Wan Kenobi for her Jedi training, though, Yoda selects Anakin Skywalker to take her on.

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Voiced by TV talent Ashley Eckstein (whose longest TV run has been eight episodes on “That’s So Raven”), Ahsoka Tano is as much the star in this film as any other more recognizable character.

Rotta the Huttlet (voiced by David Acord) is also an endearing character introduction. He’s the ailing baby of Jabba the Hutt.

Pixar, by the way, was actually founded in 1979 as a division of Lucasfilm. It was then spun off and purchased in 1986 by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs.

The Walt Disney Co. then scooped up Pixar in 2006 for a not-too-shabby $7.4 billion. Lucasfilm Animation was founded in 2003 as a division of George Lucas’ Lucasfilm.

“Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” which is directed by Dave Filoni and written by George Lucas and others, stars Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee, Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein, James Arnold Taylor, Tom Kane, Nika Futterman, Ian Abercrombie, Catherine Taber, Kevin Michael Richardson, David Acord and Anthony Daniels. The film opened everywhere on Aug. 15, 2008.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

God’s Vajoojoo Tastes Like Semi-Glorious ‘Pineapple Express’ in Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen Stoner Film

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:01:00 -0700

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – If god had a vajoojoo, Judd Apatow and company think it’d taste something like smoking “Pineapple Express”. There’s no question “Pineapple Express” is ultimately a stoner film, but is it the ultimate stoner film of our decade?

Always the most difficult proposition in a comedy is maintaining its comedic pacing with consistency.

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen, standing) and Saul Silver (James Franco, being carried) are two lazy stoners running for their lives in “Pineapple Express”.
Photo credit: Dale Robinette

A comedy’s goal is to sidesplittingly laugh your socks off from start to finish (and even after the credits roll). So often, though, a semi-successful comedy will instead feel like a humorous rollercoaster replete with some ups and some downs due to the inability to maintain its “A”-game material in a consistent fashion.

“Pineapple Express” falls victim to the comedic consistency trap. While the story has its heart in the right place for a film that’s centered on reefer madness and the script successfully grows ever-more complex and ridiculous, the story needs to be sliced and diced.

For every two comedic lines that successfully land one falls short. While the film certainly has the beginnings of stoner-film greatness, it’s still sometimes stifled by lines that had the potential to be roundhouse knockouts and instead were crippled stumbles.

Saul Silver (James Franco, left), Red (Danny McBride, center) and Dale Denton (Seth Rogen, right) in “Pineapple Express”.
Photo credit: Dale Robinette

That said, everything successful about “Pineapple Express” comes in threes from its writing (Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg) and its primary actors (Seth Rogen, James Franco and Danny McBride).

There’s a lot of talk about James Franco playing against type for this role. Based on his performance, though, this shouldn’t be viewed as Franco playing against type. This should be viewed as Franco having found his type. For Franco, all other roles pale in comparison.

Despite his excruciatingly untalented performances in box-office monoliths “Spider-Man,” “Spider-Man 2” and “Spider-Man 3,” Franco’s drug-dealing, always-high demeanor in “Pineapple Express” proves he indeed has acting chops that have been otherwise been hidden away. All he needed was a little Mary Jane to deliver him from acting evil.

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen, left) and Saul Silver (James Franco, right) are two lazy stoners in “Pineapple Express”.
Photo credit: Dale Robinette

Now a painfully atrocious “Pineapple Express” performance by Rosie Perez – who hasn’t delivered a noteworthy performance since 1992’s “White Men Can’t Jump” (or 2001’s “Riding in Cars with Boys,” but that’s really stretching things) – without a doubt is the trippy film’s biggest buzzkill.

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Gary Cole (her partner in crime) delivers an equally frightful performance. Amber Heard – a name you’ve likely never heard of before – continues trying to make her way in Hollywood after being bolstered by various “hot” ratings from magazines including Jane and Maxim.

Heard plays Rogen’s much younger high school girlfriend who fits with him just as much as a Mormon fits married to a Jew. Though this film is marketed with the burgeoning star power of James Franco and Seth Rogen behind the powerful comedic name of writer and producer Judd Apatow, we are not to forget Danny McBride.

Whether you loved McBride or hated him in “The Foot Fist Way” (or have never even heard of that film), “Pineapple Express” isn’t just the duo its advertising may have made you believe. McBride is the necessary tripod of this trio. Rogen co-wrote the story along with Apatow and Evan Goldberg (who also wrote “Superbad” along with Rogen).

“Pineapple Express,” which is directed by David Gordon Green and is written by Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow and Evan Goldberg, stars Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Rosie Perez, Amber Heard, Gary Cole and Kevin Corrigan. The film opened everywhere on Aug. 6, 2008.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Despite Jet Li’s Would-Be Resurrection, ‘The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor’ Still Flops

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:35:55 -0700

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – The threequel that culminates with “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” is so hackneyed that even the main star of the previous two films – Brendan Fraser – wasn’t enough to sell audiences on a third return. Universal Studios needed to enlist co-star Jet Li to stand a fighting chance and take the mood the Asian way.

Jet Li as the vicious emperor comes back to life in “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” which races from the catacombs of ancient China high into the spectacular Himalayas.
Photo credit: Digital Domain, copyright Universal Studios

If there’s a single success this may have, “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” may finally be the only film that can vanquish the epic, two-week reign of “The Dark Knight” at the box office. Projections target approximately $50 million for its opening weekend.

Brendan Fraser’s Hollywood dossier is currently most memorable for these three films, which progress from mediocre all the way to 2008’s tragedy. Likewise, Fraser in the Indiana Jones-like role (but not nearly as well-scripted as Harrison Ford’s character) is a surefire recipe for mediocrity.

It’s no mystery why the evolution from “The Mummy” in 1999 ($43.4 million opening; $155.4 million total) and then “The Mummy Returns” ($68 million opening; $202 million total) only two years later in 2001 took seven years to yield “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”.

The vicious emperor (Jet Li) conjures the elements in “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” which races from the catacombs of ancient China high into the spectacular Himalayas.
Photo credit: Digital Domain, copyright Universal Studios

The filmmakers, studio and production companies clearly spent seven years flailing about a single question: Do we really want to make a third or should we just let this one go at two? In the decision to green-light the threequel, Jet Li’s star power and villainous character clearly was the film’s attempt for rejuvenation.

Li, though, is more often in irate CGI character than he is in his own skin. When he’s there, he is indeed menacing and ruthless, but the power of Jet Li is best harnessed when the martial master can merely be himself.

Explorers Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evelyn O’Connell (Maria Bello) in “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” which races from the catacombs of ancient China high into the spectacular Himalayas.
Photo credit: Digital Domain, copyright Universal Studios

The third film suffered the unfortunate loss of the always brilliant Rachel Weisz, who was replaced by Maria Bello (she had the charm but lacked the fire), and Luke Ford unfortunately steps in for the first time as Brendan Fraser’s son. Ford has as much acting range as the CGI abominable snowmen.

The big-effect sequences feel like Hollywood’s merely pressured to deliver a blockbuster.

The difference between failed films such as “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” and wildly successful films such as “Iron Man” and “The Dark Knight” is they don’t just do the fancy schmancy. They also have substance, too. Even Fraser himself scoffs in the film at the notion of “another mummy”.

If you find yourself dozing off (like yours truly) and awaking confusingly thinking you’re in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (this Fraser flick clearly rips the “he needs a magical element to avert death” sequence) along with the “weapons blot out the sun” sequence, you’d be among friends.

“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” which stars Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello and Michelle Yeoh, opened everywhere on Aug. 1, 2008.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Neil Young’s ‘CSNY Déjà Vu’ a Concert Film That Mixes Message With Music

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:15:28 -0700

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young (collectively CSNY) have long established their credibility as a rock/folk group of the highest order.

From their debut in 1970 with the album “Déjà Vu” (which is still one of the top-selling albums of all time) to their journey through the 2006 tour that’s chronicled in the new concert film “CSNY Déjà Vu,” CSNY is of a time and place in rock history that represents activism and social change.

The concert film “CSNY Déjà Vu”.
Photo credit: Roadside Attractions

Band member Neil Young is the director of this film. The band travels America from city to city in a “Freedom of Speech Tour” with a basic, anti-Iraq War message. His band mates Crosby, Stills and Nash are along for the ride to help their old friend through the songs defining them and that message.

Interspersed between the concert footage are stories from the road concerning Iraqi war veterans and activists.

Stephen Stills even volunteers to play small fundraisers for any anti-war Congressional candidates who have races in the districts along the route of the tour.

Famous for writing the 1967 song “For What It’s Worth” (“Stop, children. What’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down.”), he trots it out again in context of another war.

The concert film “CSNY Déjà Vu”.
Photo credit: Roadside Attractions

Some places along the concert road provide challenges. Counter protests by talk-show hosts and neo-conservatives greet the quartet in several cities. Undeterred, the band defiantly plays Young’s new song “Let’s Impeach the President” as a climax to every show.

The problem with the film isn’t what it’s communicating. It is the awkward structure and tendency toward redundancy that director Young practices. It is a hodgepodge of songs, old footage of CSNY and stories of the Iraq War that just doesn’t come together with any sense of narrative cohesiveness.

This results in a pacing that softens the anti-war arc by making the film dull and without a proper ending. Despite the large catalog of incredibly memorable songs, there seems to be no fire in the quartet in the umpteenth playing of the hits and the new songs don’t have the same reverberation.

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Whether or not you want George W. Bush impeached, Young’s plainly titled song isn’t distinctive enough to move either side of the argument to action.

Even the footage of the talk-show hosts blathering on in their anti-CSNY mode smacks more of Republican talking-point payoffs than sincere rhetoric. The man at one show who sincerely desires another four years of Bush might want to balance his medication.

While Neil Young and the rest of the boys have legendary status as musicians, this doesn’t give them an automatic pass as filmmakers and subjects. As in any message in a bottle, the clearer the glass that surrounds it the easier it is to read. Young’s nickname is “Shakey,” but in this film, it might as well be “Fuzzy”.

“CSNY Déjà Vu,” which features David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young, opened on July 25, 2008 in Chicago.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

No Matter How Hard You Believe Otherwise, ‘The X-Files: I Want to Believe’ Most Anemic Story Yet

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:01:00 -0700

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Following an addictive TV series that spanned from 1992 to 2002, I wanted to believe “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” would more dynamically pay homage to its television success than Chris Carter’s first film attempt in 1998. In take two, though, it didn’t happen.

Carter – who serves as the writer, director and producer of the 2008 film “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” along with the TV series creator – not only has penned an even more anemic script than his film a decade ago but also manages to serve even less justice to a distinctly original TV series that has catered to people’s fantasies and curiosities everywhere.

Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) are drawn back into the world of the X-Files in “The X-Files: I Want to Believe”.
Photo credit: Diyah Pera

“The X-Files” series creator/executive producer Chris Carter directs “The X-Files: I Want to Believe”.
Photo credit: Diyah Pera

What bewilders the mind most blatantly about “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” – aside from the strong character interactions based on comprehensive character development dating back 16 years now – is that its central plotline hardly feels like something from “The X-Files” at all.

No UFOs. No aliens. Hardly anything supernatural. There’s just a psychic character who – while being a central slice in this story – isn’t such a wild stretch from today’s real world.

In reality, some people actually believe in psychic abilities. This as the one and only “The X-Files”-like plotline is tame in contrast to some of the outlandish theories and concepts typically explored in the TV series.

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully again reprise their infamous roles. This time, though, they’re both not working for the FBI. Scully’s employed as a doctor and Mulder’s just a hermit with a beard who again enjoys sticking pencils in his ceiling. That is, of course, until Carter’s pen starts dipping in Hollywood ink.

Father Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly) – a dark, complex figure with a haunted past – leads a team of FBI agents to a critical discovery in “The X-Files: I Want to Believe”.
Photo credit: Diyah Pera

Then a “mission” tempts them to come out of FBI retirement and back into the “darkness” of their former selves to thwart a serial killer and save people’s lives. Carter dreadfully transitions from Scully “not knowing where Mulder is” to all of a sudden hopping in bed with him, kissing him and even admitting that she loves him.

Unlike stories of yesteryear that flirted their physical and emotional magnetism, this time there’s no foreplay. Though things are still kept “G” rated, they do hop right in nonetheless.

FBI agent Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet, left), Fox Mulder (David Duchovny, middle) and FBI agent Mosley Drummy (Alvin “Xzibit” Joiner) pursue clues in wintry Virginia in “The X-Files: I Want to Believe”.
Photo credit: Diyah Pera

The reason Mulder is called on by an FBI team – led feebly by a miscast Amanda Peet – is because he has experience dealing with cases involving psychics. Despite grave professional differences between the bureau and the former agent, they welcome Mulder back out of urgent necessity. Of course, Scully joins him at the hip.

While the interactions between Duchovny and Mulder typically make for gripping screen time and their individual performances are again the most redeeming value of an otherwise underwhelming film, Billy Connolly’s supporting role as Father Joe is one of the brightest and most unexpected stars of the film.

He’s interestingly scripted as a pedophile Catholic priest who psychically sees visions that assist in current homicides all while internally brewing his own unfortunate condition. Alvin “Xzibit” Joiner as an FBI agent delivers among the most indicated and unconvincing performances seen on screen in recent memory.

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Not to be underestimated, though, there’s another principal star in this film beyond Duchovny, Anderson and Connolly: the snow.

With the only valiant plotline centering around the ominous nature of the psychic and the always interesting professional and personal chemistry between Mulder and Scully, the decision to film in such wintery doldrums gave the film a much-needed personality where it was otherwise lacking.

While some avid followers of the TV series may feel vindicated by this second film and might appreciate some of the inside subtleties you’d only know from following its rich history, non-followers won’t be equally satiated.

Merely from the performances by Duchovny, Mulder and Father Joe in a film that’s deficient of a climatic reveal, “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” ultimately lacks enough meat to earn this critic’s recommendation.

“The X-Files: I Want to Believe,” which is directed by Chris Carter and stars David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly and Alvin “Xzibit” Joiner, opened everywhere on July 25, 2008.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com

Emotions of Sexuality, Gender, Social Order Wrestle During 1800s Paris in ‘The Last Mistress’

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:39:13 -0700

Rating: 4.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Difficult as it is now, in 1835 women in Paris never really had many choices for an eventual lifestyle.

They could hope to marry rich and live in relative comfort or they could toil in a working-class marriage while raising children and working themselves to death. If they didn’t marry, they might be a maid or a governess. If they were really bored and bold, though, they could be “The Last Mistress”.

Asia Argento in “The Last Mistress”.
Photo credit: Yorgos Arvanitis/Guillaume Lavit d’Hautefort/Flash Film

Asia Argento gives a truly fearless performance as the title character. She’s a Spanish temptress named Vellini who’s first seen clinging to an older husband. Her story is told in flashback as related by her lover Ryno de Marigny (Fu’ad Ait Aattou).

His status as a nobleman is in conflict with the illicit affair, which he has recently broken off after getting engaged to a woman of his social class. He tells the story of his mistress during an all-night session with his fiancée’s grandmother.

The obsessive love affair with Vellini began after a duel with her elderly husband.

During the next 10 years, their relationship would take them to Algeria in exile. Still, it never seems to rise above the gratitude of their sexuality. Despite their obsessive physicality, it is Vellini’s lower caste status that eventually dooms their legitimate togetherness.

Asia Argento in “The Last Mistress”.
Photo credit: Yorgos Arvanitis/Guillaume Lavit d’Hautefort/Flash Film

The grandmother – properly satisfied with the story and reputation of Marigny – gives her final blessing. The couple is married under the eye of proper society.

But it is Vellini who appears again in the church during the ceremony with a plan to continue the relationship with her once and future lover.

The cynicism and fire of the film all emerges from the heat of Asia Argento. She uses her body and audacity to tweak the upper-class society that can’t take their eyes off her.

It’s also interesting to note in this current tabloid news era that the film starts with a lengthy gossip session about the affair. It dishes the dirt not unlike the fixation on the celebrity culture. As the story unfolds, though, the truth is much more complex.

The sex act is used as both a revealing and vulnerable obsession between the two lovers.

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They seem to feed on their ravenous hunger for each other by inducing a form of punishment from the desire. There’s a scene in Algeria in which outdoor lovemaking becomes a symbol for abject sadness. It’s one of the most devastating images in the film.

Unlike other 19th-century parlor images in film, “The Last Mistress” gets under the fingernails of the era. It shows the less-than-perfect hygiene and bloodletting of a pre-industrial time. This adds to the unsavory nature of the proceedings and strips the eroticism of the sex scenes. It thereby exposes more than just skin.

In this clash of gender and status systems, women from all sides of the spectrum appallingly receive the short end in the affair. They become just another manipulated prize for the upper stratum of wealth and power. “The Last Mistress,” though, provides counterintuitive retribution.

“The Last Mistress,” which stars Asia Argento and Fu’ad Ait Aattou, opened on July 18, 2008 at the Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema in Chicago.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com