April 2010 Archives

Crazy Heart. This one really hit home. Such a good movie.

Read my rundown of the week's releases here.

This review first ran at www.SixSeeds.tv

In film, there's subversive and there's reset-the-genre subversive. A new superhero movie turns the genre on its head, starting with a title that many TV stations won't allow uttered on-air. Kick-Ass. With violence cranked up, irony maxed out, and the addition of a swearing, lethal ten year old girl, this entertaining and engrossing film rewrites the rules. But is that a good thing?

Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is a typical, practically invisible high school kid. He's not good at sports, not particularly smart, and doesn't have cool friends or a cute girlfriend. He isn't special in any way. Living in the kind of neighborhood where mugging is a common occurrence and going to school requires passing through a metal detector, Dave keeps his head down.

Meanwhile, across town, a revenge-addled father (Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy) teaches his pony-tailed daughter to take a bullet in the Kevlar vest. By shooting her at close range. It's just one of many "I can't believe they just did that" shocking scenes.

Mob boss Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) runs the town, but Big Daddy lives to bring him down. D'Amico's son Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, McLovin' in SuperBad), loves comic books and wants to join daddy's business. He'll soon find a way to combine the two.

One day Dave looks around him, wakes up, and wonders why no one does anything to stop the reign of violent and evil men. He doesn't phrase it in such philosophical terms. He simply ponders why no one ever puts on a superhero costume and fights crime. He's shocked, deep in the core of his being, that people stand by and watch, doing nothing, as bad men have their way with society. So he buys a wetsuit and a couple of batons and sets out to put himself between the thugs and their victims. He becomes Kick-Ass.

Turns out, without a superpower, superhero work hurts. Hurts a lot. The closest thing Dave has to a superpower is the ability to take a beating. It's one thing he's good at. The film shows his continued abuse in graphic detail.

Eventually, his paths cross with crazy Dig Daddy and his highly-trained daughter, Hit Girl. Only about ten years old, Hit Girl has learned to be a killing machine in a purple wig. She wields knives, kicks windpipes, and shoots pistols with deadly accuracy. And she swears like a sailor.

Played by Chloe Mortez with chutzpa and convincablility of someone twice her age, Hit Girl makes the film both absorbing and somewhat horrifying. She slashes throats. She impales with long knives. She delivers kill shots to the head with the accompanying red mist out the other side. It's hard to keep count, but the tiny tot dispatches dozens upon dozens of bad guys in gruesome and violent ways.

Perhaps a first in movie history, she is on the receiving end as well. That's right. The audience is held spellbound as grown men beat up a little girl.

All this is done with flawless directing and fight scenes that make you hold your breath. One done in strobe light is particularly amazing. Another scene shows Hit Girl's view as she stalks bad guys with the help of night vision goggles, a view which looks suspiciously like a video game. Heck, it probably is footage from the actual video game version of the movie, which is likely being shipped to stores as I type. The title character achieves fame through a video on MySpace, also the conduit for contacting crime fighters, as opposed to a light in the sky.  The movie feels unbelievably fresh and modern.

There are other aspects of the movie to make parents deeply uncomfortable, including extended segments about masturbation, some nudity, and teen sex. There's some drug use and constant foul language, much of it coming out of the prepubescent mouth of Hit-Girl. However, the high level of violence is the hardest to take. The audience doesn't just see the guy put into the industrial microwave. We see his head explode. In fact, we see many heads explode and throats cut, blood spurting in all directions.

Leo Partible, contributor to The Gospel According to Superheroes: Religion and Pop Culture, says such movies are "expressions of rage and fear we all have." Dave's crazy outrage that "nobody does anything" is the only morally sane position. Comic book Fanboys love the violence and envelope-pushing themes. The question for the movie is whether it will appeal to the non Fanboy demographic. "It might be too intense for women, for the demographic of women who will go to a superhero movie," Partible said.

The movie was too intense for major movie studios. Perhaps fearing to produce such a violent film with such a young girl, multiple studios turned it down. The director found independent financing.

So, should you see it? Your children should not see this film, including teens. Rated R, the film crosses many lines. Yet, it's a wild and exhilarating ride. Despite its many immoral elements, it has a very modern and moral core. Like the majority of superhero movies, it's about standing up to evil. Indeed, Kick Ass is an excellently made film and one that people will be talking about for a long time. There's virtue in knowing what formulates the thinking of your friends and neighbors. For those adult viewers who shrug off violence and graphic content, this is the movie hit of the spring.

This review first ran at www.SixSeeds.tv

The year is 1957. TV is black and white. Families gather around the radio. And baseball is king. Far from the glamour and thrill of New York's Yankee Stadium, in Monterey Mexico, a group of boys play baseball in the dirt. Using a ball of string for a baseball and a crooked, carved tree limb for a bat, they play for the love of the game. Along with their priest, Padre Estaban, they gather around the radio to hear the play by play from distant Major League teams.

Cesar, a fellow baseball lover whose dreams of the Major Leagues were dashed by anti-Mexican discrimination, returns to Monterey to nurse his wounds. The boys need a coach and Cesar needs respect, so they form a little league team and cross the border to Texas to play the Americans.

"The Perfect Game" is the true story of a dirt-poor, scrawny Mexican little league team that came out of nowhere to win the Little League World Series and of the pitcher Angel Marcias, who pitched the only perfect game to ever occur in the Little League World Series.

If things had turned out just a bit differently, Cheech Marin, who plays priest Padre Estaban in the film, might have met the players on the field instead of on a movie set. "I was playing in the same tournament that they were," he told me in an interview last week, "I mean, we got knocked out in the first game, so I didn't ever encounter them. But if we had kept winning and they kept winning I would have played this team."

Marin, who grew up as a huge baseball fan in LA listening to the Dodgers on the radio, remembers the 1957 Little League World Series vividly. "I was in little league when this story happened. They were exactly the same age as I was.  I remember it like was yesterday. This was big news because I so identified with the kids because they were Mexican and they were little. And I was both of those."

Indeed, the surviving members of the 1957 team visited the set in and met the cast of the film. "Seeing them in present day," director William Dear said, "They were heroes: gracious, quiet and unsung heroes. We were at lunch once in Monterey with Angel, Pepe, and a few other players. A person came up behind Angel and just stood there quietly. Angel finally noticed him. He wanted an autograph and Angel was very gracious and gave him an autograph. These people, fifty years later, are regarded as heroes. They don't have big heads. Everything about them rang true."

Jake T. Austin (Wizards of Waverly Place) played Angel Marcias. Austin, a die-hard Yankees fan, also enjoyed meeting the original team, now in their sixties. He called Angel Marcias "A great guy. He's a dreamer and a very down to earth person, even though he accomplished so much. He was very excited and supportive of the whole film in general."

"They were cool," Marin laughed, "We kind of ask each other different questions than the kids ask, 'How's your health? How you doing? What do you do when you get cold at night?' And when I told them I was in little league at the same time, oh, such bond."

Marin plays a priest, a man who gives the children hope, encouragement, and spiritual blessing. The role of faith in the film is deeply respected, with the boys refusing to play in one game until their gloves are blessed. Was it difficult for Cheech Marin, of "Cheech and Chong" to play a priest? Not at all. "I just had to pick the tone I wanted to play", he said, "Very sympathetic and encouraging. He's an authority figure, but a soft authority figure. He didn't have to domineer the boys. I think I've played four priests. I'm looking for cardinal or pope next. Maybe I'll play Russian Orthodox or Greek Orthodox, grow a beard. I discovered this little niche of being The Mexican Barry Fitzgerald. The Mexican priest, not the Irish priest. The Irish priest drinks a wee bit."

The lovely film should thrill baseball lovers and appeal to baseball novices. It's the tale of an ultimate underdog, battling racism and poverty to chase dreams, with a bit of family drama and romance thrown in. Squeaky clean, it's rated PG for some thematic elements, most noticeably the racism the Mexicans encounter. William Dear was sold the moment he read the script "It was the father-son story and the story of accomplishment, the story of underdogs [that affected him]. I like the story of an underdog, the story of against all odds, getting to realize a dream."

From my weekly breakdown of entertainment options at Comcast.net:

Exit Through the Gift Shop (in limited theaters)
Dudes who chiseled marble statues in Pompeii probably whispered that dudes who carved vases were sell-outs. This documentary shines the camera on a man whose mental oddities compel him to always shine the camera on everyone else. What he finds as he looks through the lens is a fascinating underground world of "street artists," people who walk the fine line between graffiti and art, imposing their vision on walls throughout L.A. and the world.
Our Take: Once you get over the discomfort of watching people so sure of their own genius that they don't think private property laws apply to them, the film sucks you into a world in which there are many posers among a few brilliant artists. A British artist, who goes by Banksy, has rightly achieved international fame. The surprising end of the film leads one to ruminate on the very nature of art and questions that cannot be easily answered. Or perhaps it's just a huge case of sour grapes.

Read the rest of the On Demand and In Theater options here.

So Mickey Rourke is the new It Boy, er, It Man. Anyone see this coming?

There was a time when movie going audiences were familiar with the old Greek myths, Bible stories, and other foundations of our Western Civilization. A new movie, "Clash of the Titans," attempts to revive this interest in the ancient stories, but ultimately falls short.

 Perseus (Sam Worthington of Avatar) lives as a simple fisherman with his adopted family until the war between humanity and the gods threatens them. Turns out, the fisherboy is really a son of Zeus, leader of the gods. Hades, god of the Underworld, tells the uppity city of Argos that unless they sacrifice their beautiful princess Andromeda, he will send the fearsome monster Kracken to destroy the city.

 Obviously, this is a bum deal for Argos.

Perseus sets out, along with some soldiers and a semi-mortal maiden Io, on a quest to defeat the Kracken. Unfortunately for him, this requires a visit to some witches and a pas de deux with the monster Medusa, condemned to permanent bad hair days.

The primary problem with this film, and there are several, begins as a serious voice intones the history of the Greek gods and their spat with their human creation. It feels like sitting in a college mythology class being taught by a professor would rather discuss his passion for Ancient Greece with his colleagues than waste time with undergrads. One wants to ask what will be on the midterm.

The story centers around an ancient theological issue: Can mankind rise up against gods who wantonly kill and abuse them? Are they obligated to love the gods? What court do you enter when you have a claim against the gods?

 I'm sure the debate over this theological tidbit really twisted togas in Ancient Greece. Not so much now.

The audience came for a reason and it isn't theology. We were promised a Kracken. Where's the Kracken?

Unfortunately, by the time the battles come around, you no longer care much who wins.

The movie is a remake of a wildly popular 1981 film, but it feels much more like a 1950s epic, the kind you watch on a Wednesday midmorning when you're home sick and the only other choice is The Price is Right. Heavy, dark makeup and dramatic overacting - note the small role of a crazed Hades loving priest - feel very retro. Roles are played straight, without a touch of irony, out of a 50s era book of standard characters: the noble soldier, the noble princess, the wicked king turned monster. Characters aren't developed and feel flat. In contrast, the recent film Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief puts modern flesh on ancient stories.

When the battles finally come, they're a disappointment as well. They would have been impressive five years ago, but in the post-Avatar world, they're merely acceptable. The film is being offered in 3D, but there's no reason to pay the extra money for a 3D ticket. The 3D element feels tacked on.

Costuming in this movie, whether of the witches or the ferryman at the river Styx, can be creepy enough to rule out elementary school children though the actual action never gets as exciting or dangerous as the costuming suggests. There are a few swear words, the worst something that refers to a female dog. It's a chaste film, except for one odd but fairly tame line that gets the biggest laugh of the night. All these elements add up to a PG-13 rating for fantasy-action violence, some frightening images, and brief sensuality.

Sam Worthington, as Perseus, is the best thing about this movie and we watch his future roles with interest. The rest of the film is not what we were all hoping to see. They should have just let sleeping Krackens lie.

This review ran at SixSeeds.tv

Nicolas Sparks, the prolific and high-selling author of The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and Dear John, releases his latest movie today, "The Last Song." I spoke with Sparks about Miley Cyrus, this story of first love, and how he builds his popular stories.

Disney superstar Miley Cyrus headlines the film. She plays Ronnie, a recent high school graduate who travels with her younger brother to visit their father Steve (Greg Kinnear) in his fantastic house on the beach. Furious at him for the divorce of her parents and his subsequent desertion, Ronnie can barely stand to be in the same room as her once beloved dad.

She's troubled.

We know this because she wears black.

Once Ronnie meets Will (Liam Hemsworth, as the tabloids breathlessly tell us, Cyrus's real-life boyfriend), things begin to change. Will plays competitive beach volleyball, works at an auto shop, volunteers at the aquarium, and stays up all night protecting sea turtle eggs from raccoons. That, plus the three hours a day he obviously spends in the gym keeping his sixpack intact, keep him busy. But not too busy to fall for Ronnie.

"I've always kind of taken it that love is love, regardless of whether it's your first time or fifth time, whether you're seventeen years old or eighty years old," Sparks said, "Love feels wonderful. Makes you feel wonderful things."

Of course, this being a Nicholas Sparks film, you know there's trouble on the picture-perfect horizon. Like a turtle egg-eating raccoon, tragedy lurks in the dunes. Will's snobby parents, Ronnie's edgy friend, and a dark secret threaten to separate the happy couple. Of course, that's nothing compared to the three-hankie news revealed in the second half.

Perhaps the most moving part of the movie has nothing to do with the Artist Formerly Known as Hannah Montana. Bobby Coleman, aged 11 or so in the film, is Ronnie's younger brother Jonah. As a little boy still young enough to adore his father, yet broken up by fears of losing him again, he works quite well. His scenes will wrench tears even out of the most determined anti-emotional movie-goer.

Cyrus, in her first big-girl role, wavers between her cartoonish Disney persona and occasional genuine emotion. In her Disney show, she played a goofy, Lucille Ball-ish character composed mostly of pratfalls and one-liners. In this film, she's expected to portray emotions from anger to first love to overwhelming grief.

There's no blonde wig in the world that will fix that.

Clearly, she made an impression on Nicholas Sparks.  "Miley is a 17 year old girl," he said, "Who also happens to be an uber -celebrity. She's charming, she's intelligent. And she's very passionate about acting and about becoming a good actress. She's fun. She's funny. She makes me laugh. She's got a good sense of humor."

Despite the melodramatic tones, this is not one love story, but two. It's a story of first love between Ronnie and Will, to be sure, but also a love story between Steve and his children. Sparks said, "This is a story about family. It's a story about forgiveness. It's coming of age. It's a story about first love. It's a story about father-daughter relationships."

What is it about Nicholas Sparks stories that makes them so popular? I suspect in part, it's because the lives of the characters complicated but the characters themselves aren't. The people in his stories are invariably good. Will is a stand-up guy, the kind every father would love to have their daughter bring home. He even calls Ronnie's father "Sir." Steve, despite his mistakes in the past, is kind and loving and desperately wants his children's love. Even Ronnie, with all her anger, is a good girl at heart. Blaze, a hard-bitten girl who tries to frame Ronnie, only needs to be understood before she turns around. Heck, her thuggish boyfriend Marcus would probably be a good guy as well, if only we got to know him better.

It's a soft-focus view of the world, one informed by Spark's Christian faith. "When you see the way [Steve] deals with his daughter, it's very much with the lessons of Christ in mind," he said, "It's very much turn the other cheek. Forgiveness.  Love. His love for his children is very much like God's love for all of his children. You have to do these things very subtle when you're writing a screen play."

The film is appropriate for family viewing, as Sparks intended. "It deals with some heavy issues, he said, "It's certainly a very chaste film. I thnk there's some kissing. It's PG, it's not even PG-13. It's a very family friendly film. At the same time, you deal with elements. Divorce or a rebellious teenager. You're dealing with real life issues."

Contrast "The Last Song" to last year's "Crazy Heart," not a PG film, in which burned out country musician Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) hurts the people he loves, acting out his own brokenness and, yes, evil. Bad Blake's redemption, when it comes, feels truer.

I want to like Nicholas Sparks, but I find him unsatisfying. Faith, redemption, family, decency are all there on screen. I like his focus on families and on parenting. He creates characters who truly want to live good lives, instead of the selfish, self-focused characters we so often see. I like that he's uncynical and clearly believes that love that can last a lifetime.

I just wish he'd let his characters be unappealing or even ugly at times, so they could change for the better. Then, maybe, we'd have something.

I have to admit, I CAN NOT WAIT for this movie. Maybe it's because my kids, hubby, and I have been watching the original A-Team addictively on Hulu. It's good to stick with the classics.