Awesome movie quote: Major League (1989)

"How's your wife and my kids?"

Happy Birthday: to Minnie and Kelly

Minnie Driver: my favorites of hers are Good Will Hunting and Grosse Pointe Blank

Kelly Lynch: my favorites of hers are Roadhouse and Three of Hearts

Awesome movie quote: Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

"It's all in the reflexes."

Happy Birthday to Hackman, Bale and Dutton

Gene Hackman - has been in too many movies to name (explored in the Caine/Hackman theory), my favorites are Unforgiven and The Conversation

Christian Bale - quickly building an impressive resume of great films, my favorites are American Psycho, The Prestige, and The Machinist

Charles S Dutton - ny favorite roles of his are in Alien3 and Gothika 

Awesome quotes: Megamind (2010)

"I'm shaking in my custom made baby seal boots"

Happy Birthday: Elijah Wood

What do you get Frodo Baggins for his birthday?

Review: Kiss the Girls (1997)

People in the Movie:  Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Cary Elwes

Director:  Gary Fleder

Pigeonhole:  Mystery / Suspense / Thriller

The Basics: Based on the popular book by James Patterson.  Alex Cross (Freeman) is a street wise Washington DC homicide detective, who is also a doctor of forensic psychology.  His niece Naomi (Gina Ravera) is a college student in North Carolina, gets kidnapped, so Alex immediately responds.  Upon his arrival and making contact with the local police, he discovers that multiple women in the area have been kidnapped; several are still missing, while some are now dead.  The case quickly turns when one of the women, Dr. Kate McTiernan (Judd), escapes her captor and now is aiding Alex’s investigation to free the other girls and catch the killer who calls himself Casanova.

Recommendation:  A good little mystery, with Freeman’s performance making it worth a viewing.  ‘R’ rating is for violence and language.

My Take:  It is always difficult to reconcile when an excellent book like Kiss the Girls is made into a movie and basic elements are changed in such a way as alter the overall feel of the story, yet in this case the film can still stand as enjoyable, mainly because of casting.  Beyond Freeman and Judd, Cary Elwes, a very underrated actor in my opinion, shines a Detective Nick Ruskin.  If you did not know his background (he is from England), he plays his character so well that you could genuinely believe that he was a born and raised a Southerner with his mannerisms and drawl.

**spoiler alert**

The bad: Where this movie succeeded in giving us a story with the smart detective Cross, the tough survivor Kate, and the southern detective Ruskin, it failed to develop Casanova.  This serial killer is highly intelligent and has eluded the police and FBI for some amount of time, while continuing to kidnap more women right under their noses.  While Fleder took great lengths to hide the killer’s identity until the end, we still do not know much about him, when all is said and done.  Casanova’s torture and assaults on his victims was much more detailed in the book, and while the on screen violence would not have been needed, his obsession to collect and interact with the “exceptional” women was better laid out.  In addition, we are given almost no information about the other victims besides Naomi.  The audience should have been made to feel truly afraid of Casanova, but this just did not happen.  When it is finally revealed that Casanova is Ruskin, I think the director felt that was enough of a shock (it wasn’t) to satisfy the need to know how and why Casanova was able to pull off these crimes, like he did. 

On the fence: It is worth noting the Alex Cross character in the book is younger, more athletic, and engages the suspects physically (chasing them on foot and fighting), as well as the mental chess match.  He is also a bit of a player, and becomes romantically involved with Kate in the book.  Obviously that would not have worked on screen with Freeman and Judd, at least not in a believable way.

The good: Morgan Freeman took the Cross character and made it his own.  He came off as the smart detective, as well as the worried uncle, and while different from the book’s character, still a great on screen performance.  Ashley Judd also brought the right mix of toughness, vulnerability, and drive as a doctor who survived and escaped from Casanova.

Overall the story unfolds well as a police/investigative style drama.  A few red herrings are thrown in, and the subplot with the Gentleman Caller serial killer working on the west coast is also explored as well as to be expected in a screenplay under 2 hours.

   

Final Thought/Extras/For Fun:  Denzel Washington was slated to star as Alex Cross but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.  While Freeman made Cross his own, Washington could have brought more of the Alex Cross from the book to life, in my opinion…

Review: Unfaithful (2002)

People in the Movie:  Diane Lane, Richard Gere, Oliver Martinez

Director:  Adrian Lyne

Pigeonhole:  Drama

The Basics: Connie Sumner (Lane) appears to have a good life; a seemingly loving husband Ed (Gere), a house in the New York suburbs, a comfortable lifestyle, the “American Dream”, as it were.   This must not be enough, however, because one afternoon in New York City, she has a chance encounter with Paul Martel (Martinez).  He is young, sexy, and French.  They quickly fall into an erotically charged, passionate affair which has undesirable consequences for all.

Recommendation:  I recommend seeing for Diane Lane’s performance.  The other characters are good, but she drives the movie.  This is an adult drama that deals with the fallout of an extramarital affair, so the subject matter should drive the maturity of the potential audience.  ‘R’ rating is for sexual situations, language, and brief violence.

My Take:  This is a very good film in the sense that it is believable enough to make yourself question, “What would I do given a similar set of circumstances?”  I believe Lane’s on screen actions and expressed feelings throughout the movie seem genuine, which makes the story unfold in a very convincing manner, and make Connie seem like a person we can relate to, or even “know”, rather than disliking her.  Paul is portrayed exactly as the guy that husbands fear their wives will cheat on them with.  He is intelligent, dark, mysterious, and he has an accent.  Paul, we later learn also is married, too, and having relations with other women in addition to Connie.  Gere’s character Ed comes off well; he is a family man, clearly loves his wife, and takes care of his family, as well as running a business.  His is also not naïve when his wife’s behaviors and actions don’t add up.  So when Ed hires a private detective to check up on Connie’s activities in the city, we are not surprised.

**spoiler alert** Adrian Lyne puts the audience on a compelling roller coaster of adultery and the aftermath, for a seemingly nice suburban couple.  Connie meets Paul by accident during a small wind storm in downtown New York, and he quickly begins his flirtations.  Connie is verbally reluctant to engage him, yet, returns after their initial meeting to begin the affair.  The first sexual encounter is shown masterfully as Connie riding home on a train recollecting the spectrum of feelings during: guilt, shyness, enjoyment and passion.  She becomes so invested in the relationship that when she later catches Paul with another woman, she explodes on him in anger, only to have him state “she is not special to me”, and turns it around into another passionate sexual moment with Connie.

The audience really sympathizes with Ed’s plight.  His early concern about Connie’s behaviors quickly crescendos to anger and embarrassment when the private investigator he hired produces a series of pictures showing Connie and Paul together.  Ed confronts Paul at his apartment about the affair, which Paul seems to brush off in the sense that Paul feels Ed’s anger should be with Connie, not with him.  Ed spots a snow globe in the apartment that he recognizes as a gift from him to Connie, and now fully enraged, grabs it, hits Paul and kills him.  Ed cleans up the evidence, wraps Paul’s body in a rug and disposes of it at a dump.

The body is later discovered and Connie is questioned by the police as her phone number was found at Paul’s apartment, although there is no other evidence of the affair.  Connie then finds the pictures from the private eye, and she sees the snow globe, so she knows it is Ed that killed Paul because of her betrayal.  They confront each other about what has happened, at which point Ed offers to turn himself in.  Connie refuses and says they will get through it.

The movie ends ambiguously with them sitting in their car at an intersection in front of a police station.

I think Lyne gives us a great slice of the human condition regarding marital fidelity and beyond.  How would each of us react when confronted with the evidence our significant other was cheating?  How would each of us react when confronted with the evidence that our significant other may have killed another person in a moment of passion, because of our actions?  What consequences are we prepared to face?   

Final Thought/Extras/For Fun:  Diane Lane was nominated for 10 Best Actress awards for this film, and won 3… Check out IMDb for all the actors who either read for, or were considered for all the different roles…  

Awesome Quotes: Good Morning Vietnam

"Lt. Steve sucks the sweat off a dead man's balls..."

Happy Birthday: Tobe Hooper

Director of the horror classics Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist

Happy Birthday to 2

John Belushi - best known for Animal House, Blues Brothers, and SNL

Michael Ontkean - best known for his role on Twin Peaks, but also had great part in Slap Shot

Review: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

People in the Movie:  Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist

Director:  Niels Arden Oplev  

Pigeonhole:  Thriller / Mystery

The Basics: A Swedish film based on the popular book by Steig Larsson.   Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist) is a journalist/publisher who is tasked by 82 year old Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube) with investigating the disappearance of his grand-niece Harriet in 1966.  Vanger believes she was murdered by a family member, and is basically seeking the truth about what happened (before he dies, specifically).  With the assistance of a highly intelligent computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rapace), she and Blomkvist piece together a decades old mystery revealing many hidden secrets.

Recommendation: I highly recommend this film, and it is one of the best films of the 2000’s, to date.  ‘R’ rating is for graphic violence, rape, nudity, sexuality, and language.      

My Take:  This is yet another example of why foreign films, in my opinion, are better than most American films.  Foreign producers and directors will put any element into a film and not be scared of it.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a violent film, but that element is used in a matter-of-fact way, and by that I mean it depicts violent acts that exist in the “real world”, and this film does not glorify or justify it, as is often seen in its American counter-parts.  Rapace portrayed such a believable character on screen; you could almost literally feel her pain, hate, and anger blistering through the camera lens.

**spoiler alert** Beyond the great actors, the film is driven by an excellent detective style story.  The back stories for both Mikael and Lisbeth are done in such a way as to connect you to them.  To open the movie Mikael has lost a libel case involving a corrupt Swedish businessman that he had reported on in his publication Millennium.  He is ordered to pay a large fine and go to jail for a short term.  Mikael seems ok with this; his reporting on the matter was the truth.   Lisbeth is a thin, boyish looking, pierced, tattooed, black leather wearing young lady with jet black hair.  She is currently under a court ordered guardianship dating back to a criminal act as a child (we later learn this was setting fire to her abusive father).  Her current guardian suffers a stroke and her new guardian very soon after their first meeting attacks and rapes her.  However, Lisbeth returns this act with one of her own; she zaps him with a stun gun, sodomizes him with an implement, and tattoos on his stomach that he is a sadist, rapist pig.  She also shows him a video of his attack on her (she had hidden a video camera in her bag the day of the attack) and she will reveal this to the authorities if he makes any future move against her.  

The mystery surrounding Harriet kicks open a door into the lives of a wealthy, secretive, highly dysfunctional Vanger family that, among other things, were Nazi collaborators.  While Mikael and Lisbeth piece together the fateful day of Harriet’s disappearance with old pictures, interviews, and internet research, they discover her case may also be linked to series of brutal unsolved murders that reach back just as far back.  A serial killer is discovered, and Mikael almost dies at his hands, however, Lisbeth not only rescues him, but she chases down the murderer who in turn dies crashing his car in his attempt to escape. 

Mikael is later able to track down Harriet who is still alive.  She had escaped to Australia after being attacked; she was in fear for her life, and she is able to reunite with Henrik.  The film concludes as Mikael preparing to serve his jail term, he receives information from Lisbeth backing up his writing about the corruption case.

The cinematography creates a great visual environment, and the music plays well with the ongoing scenes.  Lisbeth develops to an exceptional on screen heroine.   Her glare and appearance only add to how she seems to draw power from all the bad things that have happened to her.  All in all, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a great film that will stand the test of time, and will carve a niche in film history.         

Final Thought/Extras/For Fun:  The title of the book in Swedish translates to: Men Who Hate Women… This is first story of the ‘Millennium Series’, followed by The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked a Hornet’s Nest… American versions of the films are forthcoming, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo opening 12/20/11…

Friday the 13th - 30 years of summer camp slaughter

Friday the 13th came and went this weekend (it’s coming up this April as well,) and I was happy to spend the day with a good friend of mine: Jason Voorhees. 
Jason has been one of my favorite movie monsters since I was a kid watching horror movies with my brother over pizza on Friday night.  He’s no talk, all kill, but a mama’s boy at heart.  His victims virtually come to him to be butchered, and he does so with a sense of creativity which is nothing short of artistic.  

I’m sure most of you know the story of our artiste de carnage, but for those of you who are just coming into horror, allow me to provide a short biography.  Jason Voorhees was born with a cranial malformation which hindered his intellectual growth and made him blind in one eye. When he was a child attending a summer program at Camp Crystal Lake, he was left unattended by the camp counselors and swam out into Crystal Lake and disappeared.  Reports of the time claimed Jason had drowned and died, but this later proved to be untrue.  
On Friday the 13th weekend, Jason’s mother went on a killing spree, targeting Camp Crystal Lake counselors who, to her, represented those who caused her child’s “death,” (it is never truly known whether Jason’s mother knew he was alive.)  Her rampage was ended when an employee of the camp decapitated Mrs. Voorhees in self defense. 
It was later discovered that Jason had witnessed his mother’s death, and in his anger, began his own rampage.  Jason was not classifiable as a “serial killer” due to the fact that his victims varied in age, race, gender, and social status.  To put it simply, anyone who entered the Crystal Lake area was in danger of being slaughtered.  
Jason’s initial murder spree was brought to an end when he was killed by 12 year old Tommy Jarvis, again in self defense.  After the incident, Tommy spent time in various institutions for emotional recovery.  While in a half-way house for emotionally disturbed teenagers in the area of Crystal Lake, a spree of copycat killings occurred, prompting many to believe that Tommy Jarvis had assumed the guise of Jason Voorhees to murder those around him.  This proved to be untrue, and the copycat killer turned out to be a paramedic who’s son was murdered at the facility.  
Official records end at this point, but local legends surrounding the Crystal Lake area state that Jason Voorhees was resurrected by an electric shock directly to his heart, which essentially made him a zombie.  Around this time, another series of brutal murders occurred in the Crystal Lake area, but none of them were officially attributed to Jason Voorhees, as he is still listed as deceased.
To this date, the whereabouts of Tommy Jarvis are still unknown, and he is wanted for questioning in regards to the series of aforementioned murders.

For the most part, all the 13th movies follow the same pattern.  Teenagers go to Crystal Lake to party and have sex and get killed one by one by Jason until the sole survivor finally puts him down.  The fun of these movies comes from the various and creative ways Jason finds to kill people from simply hacking them with a machete, jamming a broken liquor bottle in their throat, impaling them with a pitchfork, crushing their head in his bare hands, bashing them against a tree to break their spine, or other such imaginative methods.  There are no debates of psychology or social or moral commentaries to be found in these films.  They are pure entertainment meant to stimulate our bloodlust.  
In my opinion, the best entries in the series are the original (obviously,) #3, #4, #6, #7, Freddy Vs. Jason, and the remake made a few years ago.  
Like I said, April will bring us another Friday the 13th, so it would be a great time to introduce Mr. Voorhees to your friends and family.  

Fun Facts: The title “Friday the 13th” was conceived and pitched before a script was even written. 
Jason’s iconic hockey mask does not appear until #3 in the series.  He originally wore a potato sack with a slit cut out over his good eye, which was kept in place by pressing it to the actor’s face with two sided tape, which would cause burns around his left eye when removing it every night.  The hockey mask was brought in as a way to hide Jason’s face without requiring the actor to repeat this discomfort. 
According to composer Harry Manfredini, and contrary to popular belief, the iconic “chi chi chi, ah ah ah,” in the film’s score is actually spoken as “ki ki ki, ma ma ma.”  This was based on Betsy Palmer’s performance as Mrs. Voorhees, particularly in the scenes where she seems to be speaking in Jason’s voice “Kill her, Mommy.” Manfredinin recorded himself saying ki and ma into a microphone and added an echo effect to created the sound effect. 

Happy Birthday: hodge podge, 8 to note

Jim Carrey - my favorites of his are The Mask and The Number 23

James Earl Jones - Mr Voiceover himself, but great roles in Soul Man and Hunt for Red October

Kid Rock - Detroit rocker

Muhammed Ali - his mama name him, Clay, I call him Clay

Betty White - still funny

Susanna Hoffs - of the Bangles

Al Capone - Chicago gangsta', best played by Robert DeNiro

Andy Kaufman - was he serious, or was it all an act?

Happy Birthday: John Carpenter

to a great writer and director ... one of my all time favorite movies is Halloween

Quick Look: Red Riding Hood (2011)

An interesting re-telling of the folk tale/fairy tale with Amanda Seyfried playing the title role (she is called Valerie in the film).  The story takes place in a village called Daggerhorn that is on the edge of a dark forest (could it be any other way, really?) and a werewolf has terrorized the residents there for years.  They appease it by sacrificing livestock so that it will not attack humans.  This "truce" is broken one night when Valerie's sister is attacked and killed by the werewolf.  It is soon realized that the werewolf must be someone living in Daggerhorn.
Stir in the relationship elements that Valerie is in love with Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), a woodsman, but she has been betrothed by her parents to Henry (Max Irons) the son of the more-well-to-do-blacksmith in town, it makes for added tension throughout as the story unfolds.  The most interesting character of the film has to be Father Solomon (Gary Oldman), a werewolf hunter.  He has an unidentifiable European accent (I would compare it to one he used for Dracula), silver claws implanted in his fingernail beds, and he espouses the idea of providing his "protection" by any means necessary- which wins him no friends.
The major recurring theme in Red Riding Hood seems to be about having and keeping secrets from friends, family and lovers.  Even though I would note a fair amount of the acting was cheesy (if not completely over the top -thank you Gary Oldman), this dark fantasy has a nice story-come-to-life feel, and visually keeps your attention.  I would recommend this for a quick glance.  I also must note I watched the theatrical version, there is an alternate version (I believe the ending is different) that is available on DVD/Blu-Ray.

Happy Birthday: to 4, how about some coffee Johnny?

Lloyd Bridges: my favorites role of his was in Airplane!  "how about some coffee Johnny?"

Mario Van Pebbles: actor and director, my favorite being New Jack City

Martin Luther King, Jr..

Drew Brees - too bad about the Saints loss to the Niners yesterday

Happy Birthday: to 5, and no more wire hangers

Faye Dunaway - great parts in Mommy Dearest (NO MORE WIRE HANGERS!!!) and Chinatown

Mark Addy - best part was in The Full Monty

Carl Weathers - of the Rocky movies and Predator fame

LL Cool J - good parts in Halloween: H20, and Mindhunters

Jason Bateman - good part in Juno

Quick Look: The Devil Inside (2012)

I saw this movie this week, and I am somewhat surprised by the amount of negative reviews it has gotten.  I found it entertaining, and maybe because I did not go into with large expectations, I was not otherwise disappointed.

The movie is faux-documentary style, showing scenes as hand held guerrilla style video shots, stationary camera interview type shots, and news clips.  The story focuses on Isabella Rossi (Fernanda Andrade) travelling to Rome where her mother has been incarcerated in a mental institution for the last 20 years for 3 murders she committed in her home in Connecticut during an attempted exorcism.  The interviewer/documentor's name is Michael (Ionut Grama).  Isabella wants to learn if her mother, Maria (Suzan Crowley) is mentally ill or if there is a possibility she is possessed by a demon.  Isabella meets 2 priests studying in an exorcism class named Ben (Simon Quarterman) and David (Evan Helmuth), who we soon learn are performing exorcisms outside of the Catholic Church's authority.  Isabella, Ben, and David (with Michael filming) go back to the asylum to examine Maria, with very disastrous results to all involved.
As far as The Devil Inside goes, there is no new ground broken with the film's production (being the POV style), nor with the possession/exorcism story-line.  While the option of disbelief about demon possession is thrown out there, there is little doubt that the audience is led to believe the cases we are shown can be nothing but demon possession.  The ending also has drawn a significant amount of criticism, in fact several reviewers have called it the "worst of the year", and/or possibly the "worst of all time".  I disagree, in fact, I would state the ending is fitting to the film.  The hard feelings from certain reviewers may come from the fact that the plot is not tied up with a neat little "Hollywood bow", and that the film does shamelessly plug a movie tie-in website.
For reference the site is:
http://www.therossifiles.com/site/

My feeling is that if you like the POV horror style movie, and/or you like exorcism plots, you will like The Devil Inside.  There is enough shock and scare, as well as some nice shots around Rome to keep your interest, not to mention it is only 87 minutes long, so the movie does not bog down with unnecessary filler.

Review: Legion (2010)

People in the Movie:  Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black

Director:  Scott Charles Stewart

Pigeonhole:  Action / Apocalyptic

The Basics: God has decided to end the human race, and dispatches a legion of angels to carry this out.  The Archangel Michael (Bettany) forsakes heaven and decides to aid a small group of humans holed up in a diner on the edge of the Mojave Desert, against the impending onslaught.  Amongst this group is a pregnant female carrying next savior of humankind, provided that they can survive. 

Recommendation: If you can ignore the gaping plot holes, you could give it a once over.  There are a few decent action sequences, but with the star power in the cast it was disappointing.  ‘R’ rating is for violence and language.

My Take: Established actors Quaid, Charles Dutton, as well as Bettany having several good roles (recently, no less) brought me to this film.  However, other than having those actors in the film, some gunfire, and few explosions, not much more went right.  The movie appears to have the ingredients, but the final product was not that good. 

**spoiler alert** So what’s wrong with this movie?  First, I have an issue with how the angels sent by God to destroy the humans were portrayed.  The angels have to possess “weak minded” humans to fight against other humans.  There is no explanation for this element – having to possess a human body versus why they would not just swoop down and attack.  And if the human the angel is occupying is shot/killed, that human vessel is no longer viable, which again does not make sense much to me (plus there is no explanation as to what happens to the occupying angel).  The humans that are occupied by angels and attacking other humans seem more like demons.  Their actions, mannerisms, and language are just evil, in a word.  This is not what I would expect from angels from heaven; I would have expected almost more of a merciful type behavior, and killing.  The audience does not see what these angels look like outside of their human “hosts”.  Michael, and later Gabriel did not have to occupy humans, and I took it for granted (because it was not explained) this is because they were Archangels.

Second, the pregnant waitress Charlie (Andrianne Palicki), the future savior’s mom, was about useless as a character.  The exercise of even carrying the baby was held with disdain; she is seen smoking and it is spoken her plan (prior to this day) is to give the baby up.  There is no development of Charlie even after Michael reveals the importance of the child.  We do not know much about her, we do not know anything about the circumstances of the pregnancy, nor do we see a shift in her attitude after the reveal.  She seemed to plod along half-heartedly throughout.

Third, why waste talent like Quaid and Dutton?  Quaid plays a diner owner named Bob Hanson.  He is beaten down by his dead end life, and the only thing left for him, it appears, is to dispense advice to his son Jeep (Black).  Dutton plays Percy, a short order cook in the diner, who is missing his arm, an element not explained.  He did not stick around long enough to learn anything about him, or why and how he got to this location.  I can only suspect their names lending validity to the film, or that more scenes of theirs hit the cutting room floor.

Finally, the climax: Gabriel comes down from heaven and kills Michael, and then is about to kill Charlie.  Michael then returns from heaven having been “reinstated” as an angel, and kills Gabriel.  What?  So let’s sort this out… God wanted all humans exterminated, but left the door open for a human savior?  Gabriel kills Michael basically on orders from God, then Michael returns to kill Gabriel?  Sorry, this does not make sense even with their dialogue.

The movie ends with Jeep and Charlie going to human settlement where the survivors there have fought off the angel attack.  No further explanation is offered for that.  The last shot of the film shows Jeep, Charlie, and the new baby riding in an SUV loaded with guns.  So is the battle still going on?  I suppose the door may have been left open for a sequel, but this movie left much to be desired.    

     

Final Thought/Extras/For Fun: The tattoos on Michael are in a language called Enochian, supposedly recorded language of angels from the 16^th century… Kate Walsh from Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice has a small role in the film… 

Happy Birthday: 5 today

Orlando Bloom: many hit movies of recent; Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, and one of my favorites - Kingdom of Heaven

Patrick Dempsey - my favorites of his are Can't Buy Me Love, Mobsters, and Scream 3

Julia Louis-Dreyfus - better know for her role on Seinfeld, but had a great part in Christmas Vacation

Robert Stack - highly underrated actor with great parts in Airplane! and Beavis and Buthead Do America

William B Davis - best know as the "Smoking Man" on X-Files

Happy Birthday: to Oliver Martinez & Rob Zombie

Oliver - my favorites of his are Unfaithful and Taking Lives

Rob Zombie - director of House of 1000 Corpses, The Devils Rejects, and Halloween 1 and 2 ( recent remakes)

Happy Birthday: Joey Lauren Adams

of Mallrats and Chasing Amy fame...

Happy Birthday: to 2 rock/movie stars

Elvis Presley - know for his music/rock films such as Jailhouse Rock, Blue Hawaii, Love Me Tender, and Viva Las Vegas

David Bowie - has been in several good films - Labyrinth, Twin Peaks:FWWM, and The Last Tempation of Christ

Happy Birthday: to 5

Nick Cage: my favorites of his are Gone in 60 Seconds, 8MM, and Windtalkers

David Caruso: My favorites of his are Session 9 and Jade

Linda Kozlowski: remember the Crocodile Dundee movies?

special birthday shout out to TV stars :

Dustin Diamond of Saved by the Bell fame

Erin Grey from Bucks Rodgers and Silver Spoons

Review: After.Life (2009)

People in the Movie:  Liam Neeson, Christina Ricci, Justin Long

Director:  Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo

Pigeonhole:  Horror (-ish)

The Basics: Anna Taylor’s (Ricci) life seems to be in a rut, and mistakenly believing her boyfriend Paul Coleman (Long) is about to dump her, she leaves a restaurant in a fury, gets into a car accident, and dies.  Anna “wakes up” and begins talking to Eliot Deacon (Neeson), the mortician who is preparing her for interment.  He explains he can communicate with the dead to assist them in their transition.  Anna spends the movie at first denying she is even dead, then attempting to accept it.  All is not what it seems, and Paul, convinced that something is amiss begins to look a little deeper at Anna’s death.          

Recommendation: When all was said and done, I was disappointed.  The cast is there, the story concept is there, but the on-screen product just failed to bring it together.  There are a few serviceable elements that make it entertaining enough to give it a look.  ‘R’ rating is for nudity and language, and a scene of sexuality.

My Take: Certain actors will draw me to a film, and with the three headliners I believed this film was worth a look.  The story basics – a woman who is in a transition to the “after life” with the assistance of a kindly older man - seemed like a decent enough concept.  I also think everyone has thought about to themselves at one time or another, “what will happen when I die?”  Equally interesting is the notion of the person who can see or communicate with dead people, like Neeson’s character can supposedly do.

**spoiler alert** The clues that Deacon is executing a nefarious plan, rather than being a mild mannered, comforting funeral director, are not very subtle.  He continually injects Anna with a fictional drug to make her appear to be dead, when outsiders come to look at her body.  The fact that Anna can interact with objects in the physical world also somewhat of a give away, although there is good scene where she is holding a scalpel to Deacon’s throat, and she appears unable to stab him, making the audience question whether she is alive or dead (at least at that point).  So, what we really have in this film is a serial killer on the rampage, mixed with the elements of a drama of people accepting loved one’s deaths.

I think if the director had firmly chose one direction or the other – either an intelligent serial killer mystery or a supernatural thriller involving a man who helped the recent dead in their journey – then the movie would have been much more satisfying.  However, this movie felt like the director attempted to mix both, with oil and water results.  We are revealed to elements of the serial killer story too easily, and then we are quickly led down a path of scenes and elements that attempt to take to audience down the supernatural road.  It’s almost as if two storylines were haphazardly spliced together, and this, in my opinion, is what drug the movie down.

I will note that one element I thought was absolutely brilliant was the character of Jack (Chandler Canterbury).  He is a student in Anna’s class, maybe 10-12 years old, with a noticeably bad home life.  His mother appears to be near catatonia, and Jack is a bit of a social misfit.  Jack sees Anna walking in the funeral home one night, after being informed she was dead.  Jack asks Eliot about this, at which point Eliot begins to convince the boy that he also has the same ability to see and speak to the dead like Eliot does.  Essentially a serial killer mentoring a new one.  This is later highlighted when the audience later sees Jack burying a sick bird- still alive- in the ground, believing that he is helping the bird, just as Eliot has taught him.  And I will state that if I was picking a “best performance” out of this movie, it would be Liam Neeson’s.

I think Justin Long did a fairly good job as the boyfriend; he does a nice roller coaster of handling Anna’s death with denial then acceptance then denial building into obsession that Deacon was keeping Anna alive at the funeral home.  The end of the movie is actually quite fitting both Paul and Anna.

     

Final Thought/Extras/For Fun: Christina Ricci spends almost half of the movie nude…  Kate Bosworth was originally cast as Anna…

Happy Birthday: Robert Duvall

He has done great roles in so many movies it is tough to list just a few: MASH, Godfather 1,2, The Eagle has Landed, Apocalpyse Now, Falling Down, The Apostle...

Thanks for the checking us out in 2011

Thanks for the views to the Movie Corner, my brother and I appreciate it.
2012 will have more reviews, quotes and tomfoolery.
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James and Bob

Classic movie quote: Duck Soup (1933)

Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) - "Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don't let that fool you: he really is an idiot."

Happy Birthday: Tia Carrere

of Wayne's World and True Lies