smCOLUMN SEVENTY-SIX, OCTOBER 1, 2002
(Copyright © 2002 Al Aronowitz)
SECTION
SIXTEEN
MOVIE REVIEW
sm
COLUMN
SEVENTY-SIX, OCTOBER 1, 2002
(Copyright © 2002 Al Aronowitz)
MOVIE COMPARISON: SIGNS vs MINORITY REPORT
With reviews of FULL FRONTAL, K-19, and UFAITHFUL
1. FILM: SIGNS
2002
- USA - 106 min. - Feature
M. Night
Shyamalan begins with an excellent premise, a 500-foot crop circle that
mysteriously appears in Bucks County, PA. The plot twists numerous times
building from previous sci-fi horror classics, blatant rips of Hitchcock, The
Thing From Another World, Night Of The Living Dead, even Children
Of The Corn. Mel Gibson's
role as former padre Graham Hess is poorly acted, with Shyamalan spending more
time on the facial close-ups than head turning character development. The
psychology of a man who has lost his wife is lost on Gibson, who at this point,
looks good for a middle-aged actor, but fails to resonate with the kind of
brilliance the equally overused Michael Douglas somehow gave us in Wonder
Boys or Gibson himself gave us in 1993's The Man Without A Face. It
is a rarity when the Martin Sheens, the Michael Douglases, the Mel Gibson types
are able to dig into their soul and give us a run for our $8.75, Hollywood
needing to find new leading men. We'll discuss this with the Liam Neeson/Harrison
Ford film K-19 further down this review. Joaquin Phoenix uses his rugged
good looks to show Chris O'Donnell, someone with similar attractive features,
how it is done. As John Belushi has taken over for late brother Jim, so too
Joaquin has gone steps beyond his brother River. Phoenix's passive fury steals
the show, as does Abigail Breslin, who might as well be the little girl, Carol
Ann, of Poltergeist. Cherry Jones as Officer Caroline Paski could be the
detective in Bill Pullman's murder mystery thriller, 1993's Malice,
bringing up the question: why are directors today copping old riffs and
recycling them with such vigor? There's no Ann Bancroft breathtaking scene as
the drunk mother-in-law. Indeed,
Shyamalan
attempts that and turns his Hitchcock cameo into a full-length movie
moment---while James Newton Howard's soundtrack is an amalgam of old Alfred's
music pouring over the opening credits. Is it a fun movie? Sure. Have we seen it
all before? Absolutely! Is it a classic?
Where the
initial eeriness of the cornfields and the glimpses of the
spaceman/spacemen---especially the scene on the roof---have all the makings of a
very special flick, the film, like its star, opens strong, and follows Mel
Gibson down the path of/to parody. This is not as compelling as The Sixth
Sense, in which the equally redundant Bruce Willis tutors that year's
Macaulay Culkin clone Haley Joel Osment (cloned again in A.I.)---and what
subliminal message is M. Night sending when he uses the younger brothers of two
very famous actors in one film?
Is it a family
affair? The dysfunction is strained with none of the trauma of Unbreakable,
of The Sixth Sense, or of A.I.
There are scary moments, my pen went flying ten feet in front of me to the silver screen itself, but those moments won't translate to DVD and television. ##
* * *
VERSUS:
2.
FILM: THE
MINORITY REPORT
Colin Farrell
is the hunk of the year, and had he and Joaquin Phoenix ran into Olivier
Martinez in Unfaithful, or those three hooked up with David Duchovny for Full
Frontal, that Julia Roberts film would not be the bust that it is. But we'll
pit that against K-19 after this report on CD Rom Cruise and Steven
Spielberg.
The Minority
Report was the opportunity for Tom Cruise to show he's got the
right stuff, my God he's been in front of a camera long enough, and he has a
deeper voice and serious disposition, but what Spielberg has done is create a
sequel to Max Von Sydow's brilliant Dreamscape film. This is Dreamscape Part II, and that movie had
all the elements for sequel city (and could have done much for the career of one
Dennis Quaid had the sequels marched forth). But rather than Tom Cruise dip into
people's dreams, he dips into their future thanks to the three psychics, sort of
like the Three Wise Men underwater while Cruise is the saviour.
Isn't it telling that George Lucas has failed to give us a real Star
Wars in his last two attempts (talk about horrible acting, Yoda and
Christopher Lee had a field day outplaying everyone, and Yoda is a computer
generated image, shades of The 13th Floor)---and is Spielberg
starting to lose his edge? It
is all about marquee value stars and lots of glitz, but who wants to make a new
classic? Signs and Minority Report are great action packed summer
films but M. Night Shyamalan in copying Night Of The Living Dead (along
with a moment from The Blair Witch Project while they are in the cellar),
is not re-writing history, he is forgetting what made his contribution via The
Sixth Sense so important to our culture. David Koepp's A Stir Of Echoes
ran parallel to Sixth Sense, and then his script for Spiderman
removed the dual personality of Peter Parker---an arrogant super hero cracking
jokes in his real persona while the mild mannered nerd photographer was his
alter ego. Hollywood is re-writing original science fiction and gearing it
toward the quick buck. It makes a Batman flick with Arnold Terminator look great
on paper and leaves the audience unsatisfied. And for ticket prices pushing the
10-dollar mark, that is hard to swallow.
The report on The
Minority Report and Signs is that both Shyamalan and Spielberg need
to get some new life into their projects.
##
* * *
3. FILM: FULL FRONTAL
Sex, lies and
Erin Broke-oh-vitch! Talk about a film that promises much and goes nowhere. This
is a tough one to take. It makes Roman Coppola's CQ look like a
masterpiece by comparison, and that was a near-dud. The grainy filming is not
cool, it is annoying. Julia Roberts' considerable acting talents go to waste,
and what could have been a brilliant movie about porn that could've blown away
Marky Mark and Burt Reynolds is yet another
parody. Yawn. They should pay
the audience to see these things. ##
* * *
4. FILM: K-19
Male bonding galore. Why do we need Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson acting like they are portraying Russians? They come off like it’s an audition for a high school play. And you know it is a sad story, so when you walk in the theater the sense of dread is already in the air, there's no hope because like The Perfect Storm you already know the ending is going to be a bummer. Would have made a better documentary. ##
* * *
5. FILM: UNFAITHFUL
This may be the
biggest disappointment because it is so good and fails to deliver the knockout
punch that Fatal Attraction gave the audience (and Glenn Close who somehow
managed to avoid typecasting after her over-the-top performance.
The real
chemistry in the film is between Olivier Martinez and Richard Gere. Those two in
the room together are on fire, in a way that makes the cheating wife, already a
reprehensible creature because she has the perfect family and destroys it on a
whim, an annoyance. When Richard Gere is sitting on the lover's bed was the time
to turn the tables.
Had Martinez
and Gere had their own affair as revenge and the wife-gone-psycho, the film
would be a masterpiece. But Hollywood can't go there, can they? A middle-aged 52-year old Richard Gere looks better
today than in his hunky American Gigolo role, and Martinez is the French
Gigolo. It is perfect.
Director Adrian
Lyne decided to put her obsession with urine all over this flick. The son takes
his turn at the toilet, Gere gets to relieve himself, Diane Lane as the wife and
Martinez have intercourse in the toilet, Lane puts her foot on the toilet in the
lover's apartment, the lover pours the tea into the glass in a most phallic way.
It's absolutely revolting. What was the point with dirty water? That something
clean like a good marriage was violated? We get that. We don't need it thrown in
the face, and the failure to turn the tables on Glenn Close II, and the overuse
of negative symbols, holds UNFAITHFUL back from being the masterpiece it
could have been.
A little
courage in filmmaking would find great reward.
(Copyright © 2002 Joe Viglione) ##
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