The Conversation

Much has been written about the logic of THE CONVERSATION, about its perspectives and its relationship with its own filmed reality. If you're interested in that kind of analysis, Google is a wonderful thing. I'm interested in how the movie feels.

THE CONVERSATION, set in San Francisco, is a wonderfully noir thriller with a hero unlike anything from Hammet's typewriter. Gene Hackman plays Harry Caul, a surveillance expert who suffers from insecurity, indecisiveness, and, crucially, inability to act at the key moment. Caul has recorded a conversation whose implications, he believes, may lead to murder. Since this is noir, his bumbling investigation leads him from clue to betrayal to doubt to clue to betrayal to doubt to, well, it's Chinatown, Jake.

The great thing about this film is its sense of the slow burn. This movie doesn't feature intimidating albinos, digital countdowns, or waving guns. Rather, it features a man who feels doors slowly being shut around him, villains who hold corporate positions, friends who can't be trusted, and more questions than answers. It's the kind of movie that builds dread and desperation in equal measure. By the time it gets to its devastating closing shot, we feel as lost as Caul.

Francis Ford Coppola has made some brilliant pictures in his time. THE CONVERSATION is right up there with them. I enthusiastically recommend it.

Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein

While ABBOT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN has some clever lines for the grownups (Chaney: "You don't understand! When the full moon rises, I turn into a wolf!" Costello: "You and forty million other guys.") and some effective physical comedy for the kids (the bits in the House of Horrors and the Landing), it's a singularly unambitious picture that cheapens Universal's classic monsters.

I understand why Karloff passed on the chance to reprise his role as the Monster in this feature. This movie takes Universal's monsters and makes a mockery of them, reducing any sense of pathos or horror they may once have had and mining them for cheap laughs. One can almost see the paychecks dangling offscreen whenever Chaney's Wolfman and/or Lugosi's Dracula are around, and one has to wonder what went through their minds as they enacted their climactic battle.

Nevertheless, my 6-year-old liked it, and the grownups did chuckle now and again. When you fire up ABBOT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, rest assured that you're going to get what you expect.

Bad Education

I respect BAD EDUCATION's technical excellence, but the movie just didn't capture my imagination.

I can't put my finger on why, exactly. I've enjoyed Almodovar's other works, I recognized that the movie had a good premise and good actors, but I just plain couldn't get into it.

Ah, well.

Zathura: A Space Adventure

I flat-out loved ZATHURA.

ZATHURA is basically a remake of JUMANJI, this time with a Space Mountain (as opposed to Jungle Cruise) flavor. I didn't much care for JUMANJI, feeling that the earlier film's sense of danger outweighed its sense of fun. ZATHURA, on the other hand, gets the mix just right, putting its characters in real danger while flipping the audience a wink and letting us know everything's going to be ok.

Jon Favreau, the movie's director, made a wise choice in minimizing his use of CGI in favor of practical effects. When the house in which the film takes place rocks, rolls, get harpooned, and generally suffers, it's a genuine house up on a gimbal that takes all that punishment. The use of practical effects gives them film a solidity and reality that all the "touchdown" shots in the world can't match. Additionally, that reliance on practical magic makes the computer magic all the more breathtaking when Favreau does pull out all the stops.

Part coming of age story, part Boys' Own Adventure, ZATHURA kept three generations of my family spellbound for a good hour and a half. What more could you ask for?

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story

I saw this one in the wee hours last night. I respected it more than I enjoyed it.

Don't get me wrong. The film has plenty of amusing moments, and I grinned more than once, but it worked more as a thought experiment than as a narrative comic film. The movie itself weaves into and out of the making of an adaptation of TRISTRAM SHANDY, sharing more in common with DAY FOR NIGHT than any period drama. The film helpfully informs us that TRISTAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY was a postmodern novel in a time before the invention of modernism. Further, it makes it clear that very few people involved in the making of the movie have actually gone to the trouble of reading the book. That's amusing as far as it goes, but I think the film still requires a certain familiarity with the subject novel in order to get all of its gags and its insights.

If you're an anglophile, you may very well love this movie. If you have an abiding passion for postmodern literature and film, you may very well love this movie. If you respect and encourage experimentation, you'll respect this movie. And respect is good enough for me.

Dirty Pretty Things

Chiwetel Ejiofor is on his way to becoming a major star. I first noticed him in MELINDA AND MELINDA, where he was easily the most magnetic actor in the film. He played a fine villain in the disappointing SERENITY, and he was extraordinary in DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, which I've just gotten around to seeing. INSIDE MAN is in my queue, and I look forward to seeing him there.

Ejiofor isn't alone in DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, of course. Audrey Tatou plays a character unlike any other I've seen her inhabit - a scared but tough Turkish immigrant trying to make her way in a cold, hostile London.

The movie itself is your standard thriller of conscience - a man is forced to choose between his principles and his desire to do right by those about whom he cares. What sets it apart is its setting, the world of London's illegal immigrant community, and its players, notably Ejiofor and Tatou. Ejiofor is both magnetic and unpredictable, and I'm not surprised that he's gotten more work. I can't wait to see what he does next.

New Police Story

NEW POLICE STORY features all the hallmarks of one of Jackie's Hong Kong pictures. It has ridiculously dangerous stunts, ridiculously beautiful women, and ridiculously ridiculous villains. This is stuff is vintage Jackie the Stuntman stuff - Jackie the Joker is nowhere to be found.

Here's the setup: Jackie's the HKPD's hotshot cop, instructing everything from weapons to martial arts. He leads a crack squad into a bloodbath orchestrated by previously mentioned ridiculous villains, then loses his confidence and descends into alcoholism. Of course, the ridiculous villains are still out there, and eventually Jackie's gonna have to get back on the horse.

NPS surprised me with its depiction of alcoholism. Hey, this is the Drunken Master we're talking about, right? Here, Jackie plays his despair and self-loathing absolutely straight, showing that while a young drunk can be cute, an older drunk is just sad. The guy has some moments of real pathos here, and I bought them; much to my own surprise.

OK, so there isn't much doubt that Jackie will pull himself together and take on the ridiculous villains. What about the stunts? Well, stand by to be dazzled. Though he's clearly using wires now, Jackie's fight choreography and execution are dazzling as always. Additionally, look out for a slide down a burning rope and the first time you've probably ever seen stuntmen ride bikes, rollerblade, or run(!) down the side of a skyscraper. This movie had enough "Wow!" moments to merit repeated replays for family members, nearby friends, and stray dogs.

Of course, it wouldn't be Jackie without ridiculously beautiful -and increasingly age-inappropriate- women. Charlie Yeung, twenty years his junior, plays Chan's fiancee without so much as a nod toward the age difference. Her performance is average, at best, but she sure looks nice.

Finally, there are the ridiculous villains. Seriously, what is it with Chan's Hong Kong ouvre? His villains are all either Australian or Chinese guys with dyed hair and seemingly limitless flows of cash. In this iteration, they happen to be a gang of -get this- XTreme Gamers who rob banks and kills cops for fun. I knew Poochy would turn out to be a malevolent force in the minds of the young. These villains have paper-thin motivations, but they're quite good at things like rollerblading and bicycling, which gives Chan and his choreographers some fun stunt-creation options.

And that's what it's all about, really: finding neat stunts and structuring a movie around them. NEW POLICE STORY does just that, and it does it well. I recommend it to any fan of Jackie's work.

Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit

I saw first saw WALLACE & GROMIT: CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT on a flight out of London. It came about 13 hours into a 24-hour journey, so I was a little punchy, but that's ok. The picture was consistently entertaining, raising chuckle after chuckle. It never quite got me up to full-scale laughter (no airplane movie has done that since GALAXY QUEST), but it wasn't a bad way to spend an hour and a half. Seeing as how the other option was CHRISTMAS WITH THE CRANKS, I didn't complain.

My older boy discovered WALLACE & GROMIT: CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT last week. Since then, I've seen the movie, or parts thereof, uncounted times. Here's what I've learned: this is a great movie. There's a joke or two or three in every frame, with something pitched at nearly every age group.

Perhaps W&G's greatest achievement is its ability to get the horror-comedy mix just right. The scary parts are just scary enough to give kids a thrill, while never going too far. The comedy ranges from sly to broad and never lets up, and the whole affair has a kind heart and a gentle touch.

What a delight.

His Girl Friday

While viewing HIS GIRL FRIDAY, I had forgotten that it was an adaptation of a play. I'm glad I remembered, because I now know that my fervent wish to see this show performed onstage stands a good chance of being fulfilled.

This is the kind of movie that makes you want run out and buy the screenplay so you can savor every line. It's the kind of movie that has such a great story, such wonderful characters, and such excellent dialogue that you want to see how other productions might handle the material. You may suspect that you'll never again see it done as well as Grant, Russell, Bellamy, and Hawks, but you don't mind - this script is just that much fun.

Grant, as one of the biggest movie stars of his century, gets most of the notice in this production. His editor is charismatic, charming, potentially sociopathic, and an absolute riot. But Rosalind Russell's portrayal of Hildy Johnson -well, it's revelatory. Russell dominates every scene she's in, delivering a hurricane of a performance that combines sly wit with calulated manipulation with raw human power. This is, quite simply, one of the best performances ever committed to film.
Ralph Bellamy plays a wonderful Baxter, bringing the kind of hapless innocence to the proceedings that makes us root for him even though we know he never has chance.

Howard Hawks, of course, does what Howard Hawks does: get top-notch work out of top-notch actors, directing with a sure hand and delivering pure cinema gold. What else would you expect from the guy who made BALL OF FIRE, RIO BRAVO, and GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES?

The more I think about this movie, the more I like it. Now, if I can just find a production of THE FRONT PAGE in my town ...

Constantine

CONSTANTINE is internally inconsistent, theologically unsound, and utterly ridiculous. Nevertheless, it's trying so hard to entertain you that you can't help but like it. Case in point: in every thriller, there comes a moment when the hero's had all he can stands, and he can't stands no more. This moment usually involves the hero's arming up, looking resolute, and saying something along the lines of, "Let's get 'em!" When Keanu Reeves's John Constantine has this moment, he whips out this weapon that's a cross between a shotgun, a revolver, and a giant crucifix, all done in solid gold. While I doubt that laughter was the intended effect, you can't deny the earnestness of a production that conceived, created, and shot a giant golden crucifix-shotgun-revolver.

Go in expecting a cheesy good time, and you won't be disappointed.