movieblog

Theron Fights Blue Collar Sexism While Traveling Up North Country

By RONALD CLARK

Sally Field in "Norma Rae." Julia Roberts in "Erin Brockovich." Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in "Thelma & Louise." Kelly McGillis and Jodie Foster in "The Accused." And Meryl Steep in "Silkwood." And what do these excellent films have in common? They represent Hollywood's compelling take on how empowered, working class women deal with sexism, sexual harassment, socioeconomic stratification, the legal system, labor unionization and corporate America, often with tragic results. And Academy Award winner Charlize Theron joins this impressive list with another Oscar worthy performance in "North Country" from Warner Bros. Pictures, which is the latest flick from Niki Caro, the celebrated New Zealand director who gave us "Whale Rider" back in 2003. And is the case with many of these films, it starts with a fist.

Instead of Theron playing such a conflicted character like the real-life Aileen Wuornos, supposedly America's first serial killer (and the tabloid media-fueled anti-darling) from "Monster," she plays the fictionalized whistleblower Josey Aimes. It is the early 1980s. And after enduring a severe beating from her lowlife man, Aimes decides to finally get out of the relationship before she gets killed. Her broken body bloodied, battered and blackeyed, Josey carts her moody teenaged son Sammy, played by Thomas Curtis from "Sweet Home Alabama," and precocious daughter Karen, played by newcomer Elle Peterson, to her parents home for shelter. This does not sit well with her insensitive father Hank, played by Richard Jenkins ("The Witches of Eastwick," "Sea of Love," "Blue Steel," "Alex Haley's Queen," "The Indian in the Cupboard"). In typical father/daughter angst, he fronts her off and blames the domestic violence on her and not the louse who pummeled her. Dad, and just about everyone this industrial, Minnesota mining town, see Josey as the neighborhood hussy, because of her illegitimate pregnancy. She just can't catch a break.

Josey's mom, played in a subdued performance by Oscar winner Sissy Spacek ("Carrie," "Coal Miner's Daughter," "The Straight Story"), is supportive, but while baking Rice Krispy treats at the local church cookout, the womenfolk badmouth her daughter. After going through a series of menial jobs, from waitress to hairdressing, the struggling Josey bumps into the headstrong Glory, played by Oscar winner Frances McDormand ("Fargo") to apply for a job at the local strip mine, for better pay and, most importantly, true independence. And that is when everything goes downhill.

Josey endures the worst kind of groping, homophobic comments (apparently, independent women are lesbians if they speak up for themselves), and sick bathroom obscenities imaginable, including having their Port-a-Potties tipped over by the macho miners who seems to always have sex on the brain. It doesn't matter if she's at the bar or at the mine. She even manages to get felt up by the company doctor. Josey even has to put up with the unwanted advances of former high school boyfriend Bobby Sharp, played by Jeremy Renner ("S.W.A.T."), whose misogynist treachery will reveal itself later. Pay attention to the obligatory flashback sequences and it all make sense later. But throughout this ordeal, Josey gets sisterhood support from the iron willed Big Betty (played by Rusty Schwimmer, "If These Walls Could Talk," "Amistad," "Twister"), and Peg (Jillian Armenante, "Judging Amy").

Josey, finally fed up with the ongoing sexual harassment, has a showdown with the miner's owner Don Pearson, played by Swedish actor James Cada from "The Straight Story." Although initially he says his door is always open to her as a valued employee if she has a problem, it is, of course, just lip service. Being indirectly warned of the consequences of her actions, in the form of accepting her so-called 'resignation,' Josey, with quiet resolve, decides it is time to get the law involved. Local legal eagle Bill White, played by a slightly unassuming Woody Harrelson, ("Cheers," "Natural Born Killers," "The People vs. Larry Flynt"), decides to take the case. White, who is a friend of Glory’s husband, Kyle (played by English actor Sean Bean, "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "Henry VIII," and the recent "Flightplan"), takes on the mine with a class action lawsuit, designed to stamp out the flames of sexual harassment there for good. Now the gloves are off. And will the entire town turn against Josey?

Based on the real-life exploits of small-town miner Lois Jenson’s fight against Eveleth Mines, Jenson’s harrowing story was later chronicled in the book "Class Action: The Story of Lois Jensen and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law" by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy. The title of that book says it all and Theron, in a restrained, but fervent, role that should get an Oscar nod, takes us into Josey's world with an unflinching eye.

Although the film can occasionally come across as your standard courtroom drama, with the blue collar heroine striking a blow against the system, still and all, traveling down the winding roads of "North Country" is not easy. But it is a trip that we all still must take.

And Another Thing...

By RONALD CLARK

On Sunday, July 24, 2005 to be precise, my fellow blogger LIQUIDMETALGUY wrote in his lament "One more thing...":

"I also just wanted to post a note: The [Detroit] Free Press said, in print, that they would print a review from here in every Friday's paper throughout the summer, did they not? So far, the last couple of weeks have had no reviews from this blog. Maybe they don't actually care what we think. Merely an observation."

Well, the summer's been officially over for a while now, folks. And, needless to say, I couldn't agree more with LIQUIDMETALGUY's observation.

As webloggers, also known as bloggers, we add an independent, hip and fresh voice to the Entertainment section to the Detroit Free Press. Unfortunately, I believe this independent, hip and fresh voice is being utilized only for the sole purpose to attract back a desperately needed demographic the Freep and the Detroit News lost since the controversial joint operating agreement between Knight Ridder and Gannett went into effect in 1989 and the 1995 Detroit newspaper strike displaced many writers and workers.

It is also equally unknown if Terry Lawson, the Freep's main movie critic, long time freelancer John Monaghan, who is often listed as the Freep's special writer, or even the current Gannett-owned editorial powers that be (who now control the paper), even read our entries in the first place. If you remember, Knight Ridder used to own the Freep.

If you don't already know, the world of local, southeastern Michigan and metro Detroit mass media was thrown for a loop when, according an advertisement in the Finance of Yahoo!: "Knight Ridder sold its partnership interest in the [Detroit Newspaper] Agency to the two newspaper publishers. The partnership will manage the business operations of the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, including production, advertising and circulation.

"Gannett now owns the Detroit Free Press; MediaNews Group has acquired The Detroit News from Gannett. Gannett is now the general partner in the Detroit newspaper partnership and MediaNews the limited partner. The terms of the transactions were not disclosed."

In other words: It's all about business.

Nevertheless, I encourage all regular, recent and new bloggers to continue to send in their online reviews. Whether you are from right here in the southeastern Michigan and Detroit metropolitan area, or if you are one of our Canadian friends from Windsor, please continue to send in the blogs. Even if they're replete with myriad typographical and grammatical errors (and this mini-editorial probably has them, too), it lets the Freep know that, even in the entertainment section for movies, there is an independent voice out still there on the information superhighway.

Who knows? They may actually print one of our reviews by 2006. Now let's see if they will actually print this. Just merely an observation.

Certain DOOM

By LIQUIDMETALGUY

"Come on! It's an R-rated movie version of 'DOOM'! How can we NOT see it?!"

Unfortunately for us, the makers of "DOOM" know that that is exactly what everyone who ends up seeing this movie is going to say. That is why they can parade out this garbage that is not even a bad adaptation of the video game, but something much worse: though it is still very bad, it is not even an adapatation of the video game in the first place.

I am very confused with Hollywood. Why take so long to adapt franchise video games or other materials when they end up ignoring the source material in the first place?

Case in point are the terrible "Resident Evil" films. Why even bother calling them "Resident Evil" in the first place? They bare little to no resemblence to the trend-setting games they are supposedly based on. The "RE" games shold have ushered in a new genre if done correctly: elegant horror. Instead, we get an ultra cut-up, rip-roaring, beat-thumping sci-fi action thriller. How many people remember all of that from the game? No one because absolutely none of that is in the game. The game is slow and creepy and elegant and very scary and serious. There are no fast cuts and edits. There is no techno music. The only music in the actual game is classical music, for God's sakes!

So, they turned the "Resident Evil" series into something it never was and never should have been, and now, they have turned "Doom" into something it never was nor should have been: a copy of "Resident Evil".

The video game of "Doom" dealt with gateways to hell and actual demons and other creatures from hell. There is absolutely none of that within the movie. No hell, no gateway, no demons. Rather, we get reanimated corpses, and mutations and conspiracies and corporate cover-ups. There are too many similiarities between "Doom" and "Resident Evil".

The fact that there is no hell or demons is very strange because you have several characters referring to "facing your own demons" and calling the place "hell" and all of that. Apparently, the filmmakers thought it was all metaphorical language in the game.

Sure, the video game may lack a strong plot for a movie, but there are actually talented writers out there who could do something with it. Sadly, those screenwriters are not the ones who actually worked on "Doom". We have the usual rag-tag bunch of army commandoes who, though displaying some actual character moments at times, such as one commando who cuts a cross into his arm each and every time he takes the Lord's name in vain, is quickly abandoned. The commandoes themsleves are the usual bunch of bodies that a movie needs to kill off inventively and, in this case, not so quickly.

So much of the movie is played out in dark corridors, where we see numerous shadows playing in the distance. Is it tedious and boring? Absolutley. It is scary? Not in the least. I am not scared of shadows, particularly, shadows in the distance, while our heroes are armed with huge guns.

Director Andrzej Bartkowiak takes a lesson from the James Cameron school of filmmaking and takes his time showing us the scary creatures, much like Cameron did in the phenomenal "Aliens". However, Bartkowiak is hardly Cameron. Whereas Cameron utilized this method to evoke extreme tension and thrills, here, Bartkowiak ellicits only yawns. The film is not scary at all. Nor are there even any cheap, shock scares. Nothing.

The movie is so full of itself and trying to be so cool and so hip, that it collapses in on itself. The video game took itself seriously. It was not tongue-in-cheek scares but honest-to-God, genuine, distrurbing imagery and game-play that stayed with you hours after playing the game. You will start to forget about the mess that is "Doom" the instant you walk out of the theater - perhaps even earlier.

None of the actors really do anything for their characters, though you can pick out the better ones because they at least try. Top of that list would ber Karl Urban ("Ghost Ship", "The Two Towers", "The Return of the King") the actual lead in the movie though "The Rock" receives top billing. He actually has some dark secrets and torments in his past that he manages to portray quite readily. However, even his character becomes a muddled mess in the embarassing inconsistencies and glaring plot holes in this film, which are suprisingly large even according to cheap, cheesy, C-grade sci-fi film standards.

Cutie Rosamund Pike (Bond girl from "Die Another Day") is quite watchable but even she has little to do than scream on cue.

And the less said about "The Rock" the better. I mean, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to take a film seriously that stars something called "The Rock" in it.

And once again, taking yet another cue from "Resident Evil", the score of "Doom", by Clint Mansell, is filled with heavy, room-shaking beats and guitar riffs which is about as ham-fisted as you can get. Not even the music is scary. The music here is meant to get you pumped up and excited because, apparently, the filmmakers have never played the game at all.

To be fair, there are some rather passable moments in the film. At least there is some tonal connection to the games and the movie is rated-R. For the longest time, fans worried that the film would be PG-13 but, upon actually seeing the film, why not? They didn't get anything else right, so why bother with the rating?

Even the gore itself is a little slapsticky and over the top and not in a good kind of way.

The makeup and visual f/x aren't bad but again, they are nothing new. I was not surprised at all when I saw Stan Winston's name in the credits for creature effects since the creatures look so similar to the aliens in Cameron's aforementioned film, which had creature effects by Stan Winston.

The BFG, a huge gun that packs quite a punch, sure is cool, but it is hardly used enough at all. And plus, I think it is quite sad and pathetic when the highpoint of a movie is...a gun.

And finally, the POV-sequence in the movie, which comes directly from the game itself, is perhaps the most passable thing in the movie to be called entertainment. But even that is rather silly - done more so to be clever and to wink at the audience, not for scares.

I also have a problem with the humor in the film because there is quite a lot. In fact, there is probably more than I think but I missed it because I was too busy laughing AT the movie to notice. The video game was serious and scary. Why is the movie not? I suppose though, that this stems from some critics having problems with scary films not being "funny" enough. If you don't understand that, then you are not alone. I remember certain critics, who shall remain nameless, who had problems with the recent remake of "The Amityville Horror" because it didn't have hardly any humor in it.

That is like saying I didn't enjoy that romantic comedy because it didn't have enough science-fiction elements in it. Or saying that I didn't like that drama because it didn't have enough action in it. I go to scary films to be scared -not to laugh. Case in point: when I was watching "Doom" I nearly laughed out of my seat.

"DOOM" remains a mess of a disaster of a movie. Not only does it completely disregard its source material completely, it doesn't seem to care and no one involved in the movie seems to care either, because they don't even give us a good movie anyway. I don't mind if they added anything to the movie - they would have to in order to pad it out to feature-length. But to completely disregard nearly everything about the video games is incomprehensible. Why bother calling the movie "Doom" in the first place?

This movie is to be avoided at all costs. Any poor soul who chooses to see it will sorely regret it. For that decisison will spell certain doom.

Tony Scott, Keira Knightley Fall Like Dominoes

By RONALD CLARK

The sensational "Domino", Tony Scott's latest dark action adventure dramedy from New Line Cinema, romanticizes the true life exploits of the late Domino Harvey, a superbad English supermodel turned bounty hunter who cleaned up the mean streets of L.A. in the 1990s. But the most shocking element of the biopic was not the highly stylized violence or visually dazzling cinematography; these things you would expect in a Tony Scott flick. It is the fact the she is the daughter of legendary 1960s "Manchurian" Candidate actor Laurence Harvey and his third wife and widow, British Vogue supermodel Paulene Stone, rechristened Sophie Wynn in the movie, played coolly by the timeless beauty Jacqueline Bisset.

Through a chopped up, kaleidoscope colored, psychedelically inspired narrative, with many flashbacks, hyper-edited at a breakneck pace reminiscent of Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers", we see the young, raucous Domino rebels against her upper crust pedigree, as she manages to get tossed out of the best private schools, at one point sucker punching a dilettante debutante who yelped she had the body of a 10 year old boy. Needless to say, the nose got crushed.

Fast forward to circa 1994 or whereabouts, as the razor edged Domino, played up to the wild nines by a neo-punk rock wild child Keira Knightley in one of her best gigs to date, tries out for the bounty hunting gig, much to the chagin of jarring bail bondsman Claremont Williams, played by Spike Lee mainstay Delroy Lindo, and his head bounty men: the hardcore Ed Mosbey, played by comeback king Mickey Rourke, fresh from "Sin City"; loco Vietnam vet turned chopper Choco, played by Edgar Ramirez; and the wily Afghan explosives wildman Alf, played by Rizwan Abbasi. At this point, the last vestige of normality is thrown out of the window.

Including the much ballyhooed scenes where Domino gives out lap dances to trigger happy gangbangers, which never happened in real life, she and her posse of reward grubbing urban mercs encounter sleazy reality TV producer Mark Heiss, played by the always creepy Christopher Walken, and played out teen matinee idols Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green from "Beverly Hills 90210" as so called celebrity hostages, in an attempt to cash in on the dangerous tales of Domino and company. Don't ask.

Then there is Claremont's main squeeze Lateesha Rodriguez, humorously played by stand up comic Mo'Nique, who works at the DMV, and her twin cousins, Lashandra, played by the Grammy Award winning raspy funkster Macy Gray, and Lashindra, played by Shondrella Avery, working a
hairbrained, blackmailing scam that backfires, or something like that, on the side. At one point, the infamous sleazebag talk show host Jerry Springer appears, playing himself. Lateesha breaks it down on his show multicultural style, as she talks about the emergence of a new generation of racial groups, like Blacktinos and Hispanese. Again, don't ask. But wait, it gets even more outlandish.

A tripped out Domino is later grilled by FBI criminal psychologist Taryn Miles, played straight by Lucy Liu. Throw in the eminent, and equally grizzled, rough hewn troubadour Tom Waits as an eccentric preacher and you have one of the most bizarre flicks around. Once you get past bloody limbs, broken bones, shotgun blasts, the flurry of submachine guns and hypersexual hyperbole, "Domino" is a colorful and lightning quick assault on the senses.

Scott was reportedly inspired by the real Domino Harvey after reading about her in the British tabloids. The director extensively interviewed her and took a decade to bring her story to the big screen. Along with screenwriter Richard Kelly of "Donnie Darko" fame, Scott further adds a macabre touch to the film. But, apparently, some of the research gets lost along the way, so Domino becomes heavily fictionalized and flashy, as Scott and Kelly really play fast and loose with the facts. But the end result still holds water, albeit spiked. Also most unfortunate was that the real Domino Harvey struggled with a nasty drug addiction to methamphetamines and heroin. This, too, was glazed over in the flick. The real Domino Harvey later died at the age of 35 from an accidental overdose of Fentanyl, according to an official Los Angeles County Coroner report.

As the cinematically unrestrained brother of Oscar winning director Ridley Scott ("Alien", "Blade Runner", "Gladiator"), the adrenaline rush jockey Tony Scott carved out his niche early in the 1980s and 1990s with a series of blockbusters, including: Eddie Murphy's "Beverly Hills Cop II"; the post-Cold War submarine nailbiter "Crimson Tide" with Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman; the Tom Cruise/Kelly McGinnis fighter jet drama "Top Gun" (later cementing the Jerry Bruckheimer & Don Simpson era), "Enemy Of The State" with [again] Gene Hackman and Will Smith, and "The Hunger", the cult, 'lesbian chic' vampire gothic noir sexploitation romp with Susan Sarandon, David Bowie and Catherine Denueve. However, the flying-by-the-seat-of-his-pants director had not been churning out great popcorn escapism for a while, sans Denzel Washington in his brilliant "Man On Fire". But "Domino" will hopefully change that.

With that said, I am in total agreement with fellow reviewer LIQUIDMETALGUY when I say Scott literary knocks down the dominoes in "Domino".

Tony Scott, Keira Knightley Fall Like Dominoes

By RONALD CLARK

The sensational "Domino", Tony Scott's latest dark action adventure dramedy from New Line Cinema, romanticizes the true life exploits of the late Domino Harvey, a super-bad English supermodel turned bounty hunter who cleaned up the mean streets of L.A. in the 1990s.

But the most shocking element of the biopic was not the highly stylized violence or visually dazzling cinematography; these things you would expect in a Tony Scott flick. It is the fact the she is the daughter of legendary 1960s "Manchurian Candidate" actor Laurence Harvey and his third wife/widow, British Vogue supermodel Paulene Stone, rechristened Sophie Wynn in the movie, played coolly by the timeless beauty Jacqueline Bisset.

Through a chopped up, kaleidoscope colored, psychedelically inspired narrative, with many flashbacks, hyperedited at a breakneck pace reminiscent of Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers", we see the young, raucous Domino rebels against her upper crust pedigree, as she manages to get tossed out of the best private schools, at one point sucker punching a dilettante debutante who yelped she had the body of a ten year old boy. Needless to say, the nose got crushed.

Fast forward to circa 1994 or whereabouts, as the razor edged Domino, played up to the wild nines by a neo-punk rock wild child Keira Knightley in one of her best gigs to date, tries out for the bounty hunting gig, much to the chagin of jarring bail bondsman Claremont Williams, played by Spike Lee mainstay Delroy Lindo, and his head bounty men: the hardcore Ed Mosbey, played by comeback king Mickey Rourke, fresh from "Sin City"; loco Vietnam vet turned chopper Choco, played by Edgar Ramirez; and the wily Afghan explosives wildman Alf, played by Rizwan Abbasi. At this point, the last vestige of normality is thrown out of the window.

Including the much ballyhooed scenes where Domino gives out lap dances to trigger happy gangbangers, which never happened in real life, she and her posse of reward grubbing urban mercs encounter sleazy reality TV producer Mark Heiss, played by the always creepy Christopher Walken, and played out teen matinee idols Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green from "Beverly Hills 90210" as so-called celebrity hostages, in an attempt to cash in on the dangerous tales of Domino and company. Don't ask.

Then there is Claremont's main squeeze Lateesha Rodriguez, humorously played by stand up comic Mo'Nique, who works at the DMV, and her twin cousins, Lashandra, played by the Grammy Award winning raspy funkster Macy Gray, and Lashindra, played by Shondrella Avery, working a
hairbrained, blackmailing scam that backfires, or something like that, on the side. At one point, the infamous sleazebag talk show host Jerry Springer appears, playing himself. Lateesha breaks it down on his show multicultural style, as she talks about the emergence of a new generation of racial groups, like Blacktinos and Hispanese. Again, don't ask. But wait, it gets even more outlandish.

A tripped out Domino is later grilled by FBI criminal psychologist Taryn Miles, played straight by Lucy Liu. Throw in the eminent, and equally grizzled, rough hewn troubadour Tom Waits as an eccentric preacher and you have one of the most bizarre flicks around. Once you get past bloody limbs, broken bones, shotgun blasts, the flurry of submachine guns and hypersexual hyperbole, "Domino" is a colorful and lightning quick assault on the senses.

Scott was reportedly inspired by the real Domino Harvey after reading about her in the British tabloids. The director extensively interviewed her and took a decade to bring her story to the big screen. Along with screenwriter Richard Kelly of "Donnie Darko" fame, Scott further adds a macabre touch to the film. But, apparently, some of the research gets lost along the way, so Domino becomes heavily fictionalized and flashy, as Scott and Kelly really play fast and loose with the facts. But the end result still holds water, albeit spiked. Also most unfortunate was that the real Domino Harvey struggled with a nasty drug addiction to methamphetamines and heroin. This, too, was glazed over in the flick. The real Domino Harvey later died at the age of 35 from an accidental overdose of Fentanyl, according to an official Los Angeles County Coroner report.

As the cinematically unrestrained brother of Oscar winning director Ridley Scott ("Alien", "Blade Runner", "Gladiator"), the adrenaline rush jockey Tony Scott carved out his niche early in the 1980s and 1990s with a series of blockbusters, including: Eddie Murphy's "Beverly Hills Cop II"; the post-Cold War submarine nailbiter "Crimson Tide" with Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman; the Tom Cruise/Kelly McGinnis fighter jet drama "Top Gun" (later cementing the Jerry Bruckheimer & Don Simpson era), "Enemy Of The State" with [again] Gene Hackman and Will Smith, and "The Hunger", the cult, 'lesbian chic' vampire noir gothic sexploitation romp with Susan Sarandon, David Bowie and Catherine Denueve. However, the flying-by-the-seat-of-his-pants director had not been churning out great popcorn escapism for a while, sans Denzel Washington in his brilliant "Man On Fire". But "Domino" will hopefully change that.

With that said, I am in total agreement with fellow reviewer LIQUIDMETALGUY when I say Ridley Scott and Keira Knightley's dead bang performance literary knock down the dominoes in "Domino".

No Knocking Down This Domino!

By LIQUIDMETALGUY

Let me preface this review by stating that I completely understand that a movie such as "Domino" is not for everyone. Indeed, even the people who will enjoy it (such as myself) need time to acclimate themselves to it.

Having said that though, now I can tell you that if you are the kind of person who will like this film, and if you give yourself enough time to get use to it, you will have a very enjoyable time in this ultra-wild, take-no-prisoners assualt on the senses.

I will try to carefully avoid calling "Domino" a movie because that may not actually be technically accurate. Sure, it has nearly all of the characteristics of being a movie, but to completely call it a movie and then judge it on those "guidelines" is to deny something about "Domino" in the first place and may be unfair in the long run.

I admit that for the first 20 or so minutes, I could not make heads or tails out of what I was seeing. However, as I grew into it, I began to take the "film" as much more of a character-study piece, all wrapped up in the eye-candy of visual whirl by ultra-flashy director Tony Scott.

The film's (again, I hesitate to use that word) very distinctive style is highly reminiscent of Scott's previous film, the excellent "Man on Fire" which although was better than this one, and is more emotionally engaging, had a very similar style of excess in nearly every aspect of the word: fast motion, slow motion, desaturated frames, freeze frames, reverse stock, over-saturated frames. You name it, Scott does it. Scott also borrows some of the actors he used in "Man on Fire" as well as the same man who provided the music, to the extent that there is a reprise of the "Man on Fire" theme contained within "Domino" itself.

But it does provide an excellent test. If you liked "Man on Fire" you will like this movie.

It doesn't take away from the film, because it is so infused into the structure of the film, but it will take some getting use to. However, once you do get use to it, the end result comes on like a powerful rush and you become completely engrossed in what is occuring onscreen.

Since "Domino" is far more a character piece than film, it needs to have great characters and great actors and thankfully, it does. Kiera Knightley carves out her role nicely and fiercely, as a young woman who really thinks she knows what she wants, and will do anything to get it. In the title role of Domino, Knightley completely exudes an iron will and is not afraid to do anything, including giving a lap dance in her underwear in kitchen full of men.

She imbues Domino with a very grounded strength and it's nice to see a "proper" woman such as Knightley, seen in so many period pieces, getting down and dirty and taking a serious chance with this role and this movie but it definately pays off.

Mickey Rourke also excels as Ed Mosbey, the bounty-hunter who gives Domino her chance to make it in their world. Sure, the character of Mosbey is a little sleazy and gruff and very hard around the edges, the end result you would get from the world his character comes from, but Rourke manages to flesh him out as more of an ordinary joe and it works. He's just a guy who goes to work. So what if his job includes a large aresenal of weapons and throwing people to and fro?

The rest of the cast is an exceptional bunch of over the top characters in equally over the top performances. The characters are all very odd and interesting and their dialouge is funny and odd at the same time. Leave it to screenwriter Richard Kelly (writer and director of a little film called "Donnie Darko") to fashion such an off the wall, wild romp. Not only will the visuals make you dizzy, but so too, will the characters and the story.

Some will say that there is no story here and while that could be true, perhaps the way the story is told is the story itself. It is over half way through the "film" that what we come to know of as a story actually comes about, but even the structure of the film is as dizzying and electric and alive as the way it is visually portrayed to us.

Other interesting aspects of the film include crossing the line between reality and fantasy, as in having actors play characters in the movie and then by having other actors play themselves in the same movie. Also of interest is the choice of songs which is odd but it works. When something violent happens on-screen (and believe me when I say it does) Scott chooses an off-beat song, with a pop-beat to it, which you wouldn't think to go with what is ocurring but, for whatever reason, it works.

Despite lacking in overal tonal emotion and having a super-clean-cut point, "Domino" is a visceral ride of a visual set-piece, a dizzying array of colors and movement and a rush to experience, with mostly likeable, over-the-top characters and actors that makes you come out feeling...alive.

Perhaps that is the point of the "movie." For as Domino herself says more than once throughout "I choose life."

An American Were-Bunny in London with Wallace & Gromit

By RONALD CLARK

In a decade where computer generated imagery, or CGI, animation seems to dominate the animated cartoon landscape, it is still nice to know that stop motion claymation retains its charm. And with the recently publicized split of Pixar, home of the Oscar winning "Shrek" and "Toy Story" series, from Disney, the big Hollywood studios now have to rely on a great story and plot to hold the tots', and adults', attention. That is where Academy Award winning British animator Nick Park and the good people at the famed Aardman Animations studios save the day with Wallace and Gromit (the English, Plasticine descendents of Gumby) in their latest adventure, "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit", the first GREAT Aardman film co-produced with us Americans over at DreamWorks SKG Animation. And just in case you were thinking about it: No, "Chicken Run" from 2000 does not count.

Our story begins harmlessly enough in the humble, northern English country home the bow-tied, Stilton cheese and crackers-obsessed amateur inventor, featuring the astounding voice work from Peter Sallis, and silent partner mutt share, complete with a wall covered with the pictures of their bug-eyed customers. In previous adventures like "A Grand Day Out" and "The Wrong Trousers", W&G always struggled with getting just enough coppers to get by.

Now they are the proud owners of Anti-Pesto Control (get it?), where W&G use humane methods to weed out the rabbit infestation gobbling up all of the customers' prized vegetables. Their secret weapon: The Bun-Vac 6000, a mega-vacuum that sucks the bunnies out of their holes into a giant, clear tank. W&G then transport the bunnies back to Anti-Pesto Control HQ, where the cute and fuzzy, cottontailed horde sumptuously dine on carrots, much to the chagrin of the now-middle aged Wallace. His trademark Winsleydale cheese and crackers diet have been replaced with a healthier veggie diet by man's best friend. I'm sure that People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the American Humane Society will be grateful for that.

Nonetheless, the simple townsfolk are grateful, especially since the 517th Annual Giant Vegetable Competition is afoot, complete with the coveted gold carrot trophy. The event in hosted by the Lady "Totty" Tottington, playfully snooty-ed up with great voice work from the always reliable Helena Bonham Carter.

Tottington, herself somewhat of a veggie and animal lover, appreciates W&G’s humanitarian approach, while it is despised by the ingrate, white hunter wannabe aristocrat Victor Quartermaine, also whimsically voiced by Ralph Fiennes. Quartermaine, whose slicked back, pompadour toupee would make Elvis Presley shriek like a hound dog, wouldn't be happier to blast the bunnies into oblivion and marry the Lady Tottie -- for her cash, of course.

But W&G still have to find a much more effective way to stop the bunny bomb. Being the inventor he is, Wallace creates another cool machine, the brainwashing Mind-O-Matic, designed to weed out the rabbits' veggie desires and, as an added benefit, to stomp out his own cheddar jones. But, in true Tinseltown plot twist fashion, the experiment goes awry.

To add insult to injury, the town is besieged by a mysterious monster with an enormous appetite for veggies, who has only been seen by the town vicar, a man with a serious nun wrestling fetish, a la Monty Python. Sensing a theme here, folks?

For movie buffs, they will see the love for the classic, 1930s Universal Studios monster flicks Park and Aardman have, as "Dracula", "Frankenstein" and "The Wolf Man" are referenced in this delightful cartoon. There is even a nod to the original King Kong/Fay Ray skyscraper scene. This is as far as the cultural references go, unlike previous child’s fare like Disney’s "Aladdin", where Robin Williams managed to through in everything from Nixon to hip hop.

However, the zippy animation and breathtaking voice-over acting from Bonham Carter, Fiennes and Sallas draw the kids, and grownups, in. Even the end credits are sweet, with floating bunnies rubbing each other's noses. And I must confess, I have a particular preference for the everso silent Gromit, whose canine sensibilities embody Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, with just a dash of Harpo Marx. Silence, in the case of Gromit, is truly golden.

Originally seen a crowning cartoon gem on the British Broadcasting Corporation, and here stateside on BBC America, W&G and other Aardman claymation creations [like the Academy Award winning shorts "Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers" from 1993, where Gromit’s nemesis was a penguin masquerading as a chicken, and "Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave" from 1995] took moviegoers on a truly animated trip without the use of CGI. And in the Oscar nominated "Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out" from 1989, W&G holiday on the moon where they match wits with an intergalactic bucket of bolts. In the world of TV commercials, Aardman have also put their signature touch on Serta beds with those leaping sheep we see in our dreams on strike. During the 1980s, Aardman helped MTV usher in the decade with the revolutionary Peter Gabriel "Sledgehammer" music video. Not bad, eh?

If you want a taste of some non-W&G Aardman fare, also check out the Oscar winning "Creature Comforts" from 1989, where a documentary crew conducts hilarious interviews with a cavalcade of colorful animals from the London Zoo. All of these films are now available on DVD. Finally, for more Aardman stuff, log on to atomfilms.com for the misadventures of "Angry Kid". Trust me, it is weird but good.

And if it is still playing this Holloween, please go see "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"!

Beware, kiddies: It's an American Were-Bunny in London, indeed. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Samuel L. Jackson, Eugene Levy & You Should Leave "The Man" Alone

By RONALD CLARK

Hopefully, by the time this review posts, "The Man," released by New Line Cinema, would have finally left your local area multiplexes' dollar matinees, been quietly released on home video or DVD, and then unceremoniously burned to a crisp by the folks who run your local metro Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.

In yet another failed attempt to recast Toronto as the supposed mean streets of the Motor City, Eugene Levy and Academy Award/Golden Globe nominee Samuel L. Jackson team up in this wretched, formulaic buddy cop comedy. The 'plot,' if there is one, centers on the antics of ghetto fabulous, undercover AFT Special Agent Derrick Vann trying to bust some global gunrunners in this ersatz Detroit and, in an apparent case of mistaken identity, winds up arresting, and later partnering with, dorky Milwaukee dental supplies salesman (and wannabe tourist) Andy Fiddler, who just happens to conveniently be in town for an annual convention.

If this doesn't sound rib-tickling to you, then you are be correct, sir and madam. As usual, the action does not place on Woodward Avenue, but on Yonge Street, instead. The only thing they got right were the state of Michigan license plates. And that is the film in the proverbial nutshell. That is it. Nothing more.

Haphazardly directed by Les Mayfield, who has helmed some of the worst films out there [including Martin Lawrence in "Blue Streak," "Encino Man" with Pauly Shore and Brendan Fraser, and remakes of the classic "Miracle on 34th. Street" and "Flubber" (a.k.a. "The Absent-Minded Professor") with Robin Williams], he should be held ultimately responsible for this bomb, which I guarantee will be nominated for the dreaded Razzie.

Oh, boy.

Because of "The Man," I have now empirically surmised why Samuel L. Jackson is often referred to as 'The Hardest Working Man in Hollywood': He, apparently, will act in anything. Instead of criticizing rap stars for trying to become matinee idols, he should further tweak his script-hunting techniques. As for the Hamilton, Ontario-born Levy, many Gen-X, late night TV veterans will recognize him as one of the original cast members of the groundbreaking sitcom "SCTV," enjoyed simultaneously on both the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and NBC from the late-1970s to the mid-1980s. Generation-Y moviegoers know him as the straightlaced dad from the "American Pie" films. Nonetheless, these talented performers NEVER should have signed on to this 13-car pile up.

You can rent better films from Jackson, including the recently released "Coach Carter," at your local video store. There are a ton of great Jacskon gems out there, too numerous to mention. In terms of Levy, I highly recommend renting the celebrated Christopher Guest-directed indies "Waiting For Guffman" (1996), "Best In Show" (2000) and "A Mighty Wind" (2003).

All in all, "The Man" is a car wreck. Samuel L. Jackson, Eugene Levy -- and especially you -- should leave "The Man" alone.

David Cronenberg Studies 'A History of Violence'

By RONALD CLARK

It should come as no surprise the creepy, Canadian director David Cronenberg, internationally known as the so-called 'King of Venereal Horror' or 'The Baron of Blood', has finally graduated from cult flicks [featuring exploding head telekinesis in "Scanners," Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum (complete with Goldblum doing his best Vincent Price impersonation) in the slimy techno-remake of "The Fly," having James Woods and Blondie's Deborah Harry transform 1980s cable TV into a warped religious experience in "Videodrome," "Robocop's" Peter Weller talking about bug butts in William S. Burrough's graphic "Naked Lunch," remaking Jeremy Irons into creepy identical twin gynecologists in "Dead Ringers," and Christopher Walken going all ESP in Stephen King's "The Dead Zone"] to creating a film that truly deals with the innermost recesses of brutality in the aptly titled "A History Of Violence," his most consummate, and, most notably, NORMAL, film to date.

And it is not a bad one, either.

"A History Of Violence" opens with a bloody motel massacre somewhere in small town Indiana, perpetrated by two thugs. They mercilessly blast a mother, presumably a maid there, and her daughter to smithereens as we suspensefully edit jump-cut to another little girl screaming at the top of her lungs. After obviously having a nightmare, little Sarah (Heidi Hayes) cries out and daddy dearest Tom Stall, played by the always reliable Viggo Mortensen (of "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy and "Hildago"), and soccer mom lawyer Edie Stall, potrayed with earnest by Maria Bello ("Payback," "Permenant Midnight," "Auto Focus"), console her and tell her that monsters don't exist, that there only in her dreams. Oh, really?

But all is not well in Mayberry.

As the owner of Tom's Diner (yes, folks, that is what it is called), the local yokels gather round and weave homespun Midwestern yarn, until the two trigger-happy thugs from earlier try to stick him up. Big mistake. With Zen-like meticulousness, Tom punks out the killers with the some of the most dynamically brutal moves around. And Tom's only self defense weapon: a coffee pot! But our hero does manage to get stabbed in the foot after he dispenses the thieves with the quickness. It must be noted that some of the recent televised trailers don't do the fight choreography justice. Trust me: it is vicious!

After the town and the local press goes nuts over its hero, the stoic, reserved, and recuperating Tom does not give any interviews, so the audience is clued in almost immediately that Tom is hiding something, a secret he has kept locked away for two decades. Of course, the plot twist occurs when the enigmatic, and badly disfigured, Philadelphia Mafia boss Carl Fogarty, played with a glinting hard-edged iciness by Oscar nominee Ed Harris ("The Right Stuff," "The Abyss," "Apollo 13," "A Perfect Mind," "Pollock"), blows onto Main Street U.S.A. with his goons. And man, Fogary's one-eyed face is truly messed up! And you'll soon find out why. With only merely mentioning an additionally important plot twist with Tom's missus and his moody, brooding teenaged son Jack (Aston Holmes), this reviewer cannot reveal anything else without totally giving it away.

I can also add that Oscar winner William Hurt, in the role of Philly mob capo Richie Cusack, gives one of his most chilling performances ever, which is indeed a far cry from his previous, ostentatious work from films like like "Children Of A Lesser God," "Kiss Of The Spider Woman," "Body Heat," "The Accidental Tourist" and "The Doctor."

Common thematic elements of the Cronenberg touch, like neurosis, bone-crushing gore and introspection, still abound in the film, but Cronenberg does it in an environment devoid of science fiction and horror, supposedly a first for him. But the salient, intense, psychosexual imagery, reminiscent of his 1996 film "Crash," remain largely intact.

With that said, study up on Cronenberg's "A History Of Violence," unless blood, bullets and bone-crushing madness makes you pale.

Lord of War disappoints

By CANADACHICK

I thought the ending of Lord of War was a cop out. No way would anyone continue to sell arms after watching his brother die and losing his whole family.

The boys are back-- "Duke" boys, that is

By GEG

From beginning to end, "The Dukes of Hazzard" is one summer movie I wanted to see again and again. The film version of the popular 80s action/comedy series, it is the same story-- still a great one.

Good 'ol boys Bo and Luke Duke (Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville) are cousins. With the help of their Uncle Jesse (Willie Nelson), sexy cousin Daisy (Jessica Simpson) and friends like mechanic Cooter, they fight the system in Hazzard County. In the film, Bo and Luke set out to save their farm and their town from evil Boss Hogg (Burt Reynolds) and Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane. The only way to do that is with their secret weapon-- the orange 1969 Dodge Charger known as The General Lee.

I've been a fan of "The Dukes of Hazzard" since watching the episodes in syndication. I always wanted a toy car like The General (and I do!) because it is one of the coolest cars ever! The General Lee is the main reason I ever watch the show because it is always jumping through things. Heck, I even want a car like that.

Like the series, the film has something for everybody. For the men, Daisy Duke-- and those short shorts. For the women, Bo and Luke Duke. For the kids, The General Lee. For the rest, you have car chases, amazing stunts, and terrific humor. It is entertainment for all of us-- including families. See "Dukes of Hazzard" once, see it again. I know I will-- and you, too.

"Stealth" files high and lands well

By GEG

Summer is the season where action movies make their mark, and "Stealth" is one of them that is a hit. Directed by Rob Cohen (the "XXX" movies and "The Fast and the Furious"), the movie stars Josh Lucas ("Sweet Home Alabama", "The Hulk"), Jessica Biel, and Oscar winner Jamie Foxx ("Ray") as three highly skilled military fighter pilots up against an fighter jet that flies automatically and soon begings to think on its own after lighting strikes it during a previous mission with the human trio.

Though the plot is complicated and complex, it makes for a great popcorn, action movie for the summer.

Best Movies of 2005-- at the Moment

By GEG

Despite declining box office numbers, 2005 has been a good year in movies. The films are about births of well-loved characters, whether as heroes or villians. Another is about remaking much-loved classics for the old and new audience. While others are something for everybody. Either you love them or hate them, these movies are worth seeing.

"Batman Begins": People say this is the best "Batman" in the film series, and I agree. This is a prequel returning the Caped Crusader to his dark roots. Knowing WHY Bruce Wayne became Batman, it is the HOW that is the key to the film.

"Mr. and Mrs. Smith": Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a bored, suburban married couple, right? Wrong! They are assassins hired to kill each other, and that is where the fun begins. Full of action/adventure, suspense, comedy, and romance, this is also a must-see. In the meantime, check out 1985's "Prizzi's Honor" starring Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner.

"Sin City": This dark, violent, intense, somber movie has an all-star cast featuring Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba. Blending the feel of both film noir and comic book, it is divided into three stories. It is a tale about a city with complex yet interesting characters-- a city where the line between good and evil has been crossed and blur.

"Constantine": Keanu Reeves saves the world again in the film version of the DC Comics "Hellblazer". Gone to Hell and back, anti-hero John Constantine battles evil in modern-day Los Angeles in an effort to earn his way to Heaven. No Neo, but he is here to keep humanity safe.

"The Longest Yard": In this remake of the 1974 classic, ex-pro quarterback Adam Sandler gets sent to prison for drunk driving. There, he is enlisted by the warden to set up a team to play against the guards. With the help of cellmates Chris Rock and Burt Reynolds (the star of the original), Sandler and his inmate team are going to crush and kill-- but not kiss -- the guards. People who have or haven't seen the original will love this one eve better.

"Sahara": First, there was Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. Now, it is Matthew McConaughey as Dirk Pitt in this entertaining action/adventure comedy. Together with buddy Steve Zahn and love interest Penelope Cruz, they get into trouble, fight the bad guys, and save the day. A formula for success.

"Fantastic Four": Another successful film adaptation from both 20th Century Fox and Marvel Comics about four people who develops amazing abilities after a freak accident in space. They must learn cope with their new powers and deal with one another as they face their first battle with their arch-nemesis, Dr. Doom.

With "The Dukes of Hazzard" out today, the films of 2005 continues to get better. Like summer, it is just heating up-- and getting started.

Y'all Don't Come Back now, Ya' Hear?

By RONALD CLARK

What do "Charlie's Angels", "The Honeymooners", "Starsky & Hutch" and "Bewitched" all have in common: They were all classic, and I use the term 'classic' loosely, television shows recently turned into unbelievably derisory films. As Hollywood continues to run out of immaculate visions for a potentially huge box office heaven, industry A-listers, ranging from Cameron Diaz to Cedric the Entertainer to Ben Stiller and even still relatively fresh Oscar winner Nicole Kidman, continue to compromise their star power for the greater glory of capitalizing on Nick-At-Nite/TV Land retro kitsch. Whats next? Jim Carrey playing Gomer Pyle? Well, Warner Bros. Pictures have sunk to a new low this summer by re-hashing "The Dukes of Hazzard."

Created by Gy Waldron and narrated by the late country music legend Waylon Jennings (who also sang the TV theme song), this Emmy Award-nominated CBS TV series ran from 1979 to 1985 and concentrated on the southern comforts of the loveably stereotypical rednecks Bo and Luke Duke, played respectively by John Schneider (who is currently on the WB's pre-Superman teen drama "Smallville") and Tom Wopat. As they cried "Yee-Haw!" at the top of their lungs, Bo and Luke ripped and roared around the backroads of the fictional Hazzard County, dirt-jumping overpasses in the General Lee, their trademark, bright orange, HEMI-powered 1969 Dodge Charger R/T with the Confederate flag painted on the roof and the numbers 01 on the race car-welded doors. Uh-huh. This is very politically incorrect, at least on this side of the Mason-Dixon line. And if this TV classic sounds like a rip off of "Smoky And The Bandit": Well, hell, it is.

When they were not blowing stuff up with their dynamite-laced bows and arrows and running moonshine for the sage Uncle Jesse (the late Denver Pyle), they hung out with their vivacious cousin, the luscious Daisy Duke, originally played by Catherine Bach, complete with her Levis 501, cut-off, hip-hugging short-shorts. The namesake shorts also managed to revive the once-trendsetting 1970s fashion statement and inspired a 1992 rap song from one-hit wonder Duice about them. Yikes! Along the way, this hillbilly clan tried to keep one step ahead of the law. And the law in Hazzard Country was the vanilla ice cream-suited and 10 gallon-Stetsoned Boss Hogg (the late Sorrell Booke) and his dipstick enforcers, Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane (James Best) and his deputy, Enos (Sonny Shroyer).

Apparently, the premise of the original Dukes was enough to instigate director Jay 'Broken Lizard' Chandrasekhar, the jacked-up comic mastermind behind the moronic "Super Troopers" and "Club Dread", to go full bore into this insane exercise.

The plot, and I also use the term 'plot' loosely, centers on Boss Hogg (now played by, of all people, Burt Reynolds!) and his scheme to use the annual cross-country rally to distract Hazzard County's down home citizenry long enough to strip-mine the land. OK. Now we have to throw in the obligatory eco-friendly, tree-hugging message. But instead of calling on the Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society or another venerated environmental group, you call on two rednecks in a gas-guzzling muscle car to save the day. Now that makes perfect sense.

And to make sure the nimble-minded Luke (now played by a Lynyrd Skynyrd-whiskered Seann William Scott, Stifler from the "American Pie films") and Bo (the now Allman Brothers-inspired Johnny Knoxville of MTV's "Jackass" fame) do not take the trophy home this time around, Boss Hogg brings in some NASCAR pro to beat them to the finish line.

And let us not forget to mention the kissing cousins also trying to save Uncle Jesse's (Willie Nelson) family farm, like you didn’t see that one coming from around the bend. My God, why is Willie Nelson in this? Does the IRS need any more of Nelsons money that he has to star in such drivel? The same goes for the once-reliable Emmy winner and Oscar nominee Burt Reynolds, who did one of the best films of the 1970s, Robert Aldrich's "The Longest Yard" from 1974, who later starred in a terrible remake this year with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock. And before I forget, the dimwitted Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane (M.C. Gainey, "Con-Air") and Deputy Enos (Michael Weston, "Coyote Ugly") still do the bumbling dirty work for Hogg.

At least I hope that was the complete plot, since I was too infatuated with the bubble-headed pop princess Jessica Simpson, as she plays, and equally manages to truly dumb down, Daisy Duke, who was clearly the most intelligent character in the original television series. In her failed attempts to channel the spirit of the character Catherine Bach once portrayed, Simpson manages to make this new Daisy Duke character into a sluttier, white trailer trash stereotype. And knowing Simpson, this probably was not that hard to do. To add further insult to injury, Simpson also butchers Nancy Sinatra's classic 1960s hit, "These Boots Are Made For Walking", in a badly mixmatched promotional song and music video for the film. It doesnt get any better than this.

Notably, for a PG-13 rated film based on a cult classic TV series, "The Dukes of Hazzard" film has a lot of Jackass-imbued profanity and just enough sexual innuendo to give Hugh Hefner a cold sore. At one point, the Duke boys are on a college campus trying to feel up some blonde co-eds in wet towels. Dont ask. Throw in 1970s celebrity stalwarts Lynda Carter (best known as TV's "Wonder Woman", who currently stars in "Sky High", Disney's teen-angst superhero spoof), who plays the Uncle Jesse-smitten Pauline, and Joe Don Baker, of "Walking Tall" fame, playing the fictional Georgia Gov. Jim Applewhite, and you have still got squat for a plot.

I would dare deduce no one from Warner Bros. Pictures, screenwriter John O'Brien, who also did the treatment for the "Starsky & Hutch" remake and "Cradle 2 the Grave", and Jay Chandrasekhar’s camp tried to invite the original, surviving cast members for much-appreciated, and badly needed, cameos in this cimematic pile-up or get personal input from them, otherwise this might have turned out to be a decent flick.

This sentiment is not entirely lost on character actor Ben Jones, who played Cooter, the handy mechanic who souped up the General Lee for Bo and Duke and was the main confidant to the Duke clan, in the original TV series. Jones, who was also a former Congressman, rightfully sounded off about the silver screen Dukes debacle on his website, Cooter’s Place, considered the best Dukes of Hazzard fansite on the Net. Go to http://www.cootersplace.com/news_movie.asp to read his official statement. If you truly need your "Dukes of Hazzard" fix, Warner Bros. has released several seasons of the series on DVD. Watch those discs instead of this film.

Nonetheless, you have been warned: The good ol' boys and Warner Bros. should be lynched for "The Dukes of Hazzard" remake. Y'all DON'T come back now, ya' hear?!

The Dark Knight Truly Returns in "Batman Begins"

By RONALD CLARK

In DC Comics, only one true superhero stands out as brooding, tortured, mysterious and deadly. And it is not Superman. Ever since the late Bob Kane, with help from his largely uncredited partner Bill Finger, created and perfected Batman around the 1930s through the 1940s, various film and TV adaptations have yet to truly capture the sinister, vigilante essence of the Dark Knight Detective.

For Baby Boomers in front of the boob tube, it was the classic, campy, tongue-in-check, technicolor antics of Adam West and Burt Ward as the Dynamic Duo in the 1960s. And for Generation Xers, it was the animated cartoon version seen on "Challenge of The Superfriends", a toned down version of the Justice League of America. It wasn’t until 1989 that they finally got it right. Sort of.

With the warped, gothic director Tim Burton at the helm, and equally armed with an extraordinary cast that included the deadpan Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader, the scene-stealing Jack Nicholson as the Joker and the high-pitched Kim Basinger, what Batman could have become came to light on the silver screen. Burton understood Batman's disturbed soul, due to the fact he was more than likely inspired by Frank Miller's gloomy graphic comic novel, "The Dark Knight Returns", from 1986. Also fortified with a soundtrack from Danny Elfman and Prince, Burton's version was a hit.

Unfortunately, money-hungry Warner Bros. Pictures studio execs, hoping to milk the Batman gravy train, allowed the Dark Knight to slip into self-parody and excess. Burton was out and Joel Schumacher was brought in for the sequels –- and the rest is history. Schumacher's misfires included Val Kilmer's pouty cowl, Jim Carey's humorless Joker, Tommy Lee Jones' over-the-top Two-Face, George Clooney's sado-masochistically leather-molded nipples, Arnold Swartzenegger's lukewarm Mr. Freeze, Uma Thurman's thorny Poison Ivy and Alicia Silverstone's burlesque Batgirl, not to mention 'Holy-I-Can't-Act!' Chris O'Donnell as Robin the Boy Wonder.

These problems threatened to destroy the franchise. And after almost a decade had passed, it would take British ingenuity to save Warner Brothers and Batman. The outcome was Christopher Nolan’s "Batman Begins", which is undisputedly the best of the Batman bunch.

Still haunted by the death of his slain parents, the troubled Gotham City millionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale, "American Psycho", "The Machinist") winds up in an unknown gulag, purposely teaching himself the psychological elements of battling the forces of evil. Saved by the mystifying Henri Ducard (played by Oscar nominee Liam Neeson, in one of his better roles to date), he trains Wayne in the martial arts, for his soon-to-be future entrance into the assassination society known as the League of Shadows. When Ducard informs Wayne that he too must kill, Wayne beats it, not realizing how deep the roots of the League are.

Now back in Gotham City, and aided by his trustworthy butler Alfred (Academy Award winning legend Michael Caine), Bruce Wayne starts to forge his Dark Knight alter-ego. Wayne adopts the outwardly persona of a near-alcoholic, rambunctious party boy, à la Paris Hilton, all the while hiding his true motives, unbeknownst to his childhood friend Rachel Dawes (the currently Tom Cruise-enamored Katie Holmes, formerly of the WB's "Dawson's Creek"), who is now a stun gun-wielding District Attorney.

Using bats, the flying terrors of the night, as his insignia (and which haunted him as a child), Wayne also enlists the assistance of the whimsical Lucius Fox (portrayed by yet another Oscar winner, the spectacular Morgan Freeman), the inventor and scientist extraordinaire at his family's WayneCorp. Armed with the latest in body armor and the armor-plated, soon-to-be Batmobile, which looks a hybrid between a Hummer H2 and a Lamborghini, Batman is ready to take crime head on. But has Batman bitten off more than he can chew?

Wayne returns to a crime-ridden Gotham City run by the powerful Mafioso Carmine Falcone (played by Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson, "In The Bedroom", "Shakespeare In Love") and the insidious shrink Dr. Jonathan Crane, who, of course, winds up being the Scarecrow (played in a snarky way by actor Cillian Murphy, "28 Days Later", "Girl With A Pearl Earring", and "Intermission"), one of Batman's earliest supervillians. The psychotic Scarecrow plans to infect the city's water supply, once he evaporates it, with psychotropic drugs, and turn the populace into raving lunatics. Granted, this is more of the work of the Joker, but who cares?

On top of all that, the lethal Ra's Al Ghul (celebrated Japanese Oscar nominee Ken Watanabe, "The Last Samurai", "Tampopo"), a top League of Shadows principal, comes a-calling to collect on Wayne's debt to them. And before he becomes Commissioner Gordon, and daddy to Batgirl, an intense Det. Jim Gordon (played by an unobtrusive Gary Oldman) must hold court over the criminal elements that have engulfed the city and forge an uneasy alliance with the Dark Knight.

Unparalleled in its explosive, ominous, highly stylized look, Nolan avoids going over the top with the cityscapes of the fictional Gotham, as he uses Chicago as the metropolitan stand-in. The look is urban without being truly scary. As far as Batman's costume is concerned, it is still that black PVC body armor, but is not gaudy. In fact, it is functional. When you see it, you will know what I'm saying. But it is the portrayals of Batman by Bale and Oldman as Jim Gordon that truly make the film. You get the impression they know more about one other than they realize. Bale embodies Batman, both physically and psychologically, given the fact the actor has never read the comic book. And given his previous inebriated state playing an anorexic factory worker in "The Machinist", this muscular Bale is a shock to the system. However, Holmes is totally unbelievable as the love interest and as a lawyer. Holmes did her best acting in "Pieces of April" from three years ago and her talent is wasted here.

But the real joy of the film is the fact that the main roles are held by seasoned, internationally renowned British actors. Bale is from Wales. Wilkinson, Sir Caine and Oldman are English. And both Murphy and Neeson are Irish. And most of the people in the cast are also Academy Award nominees or winners. That is certainly a casting coup. In short, Americans messed up Batman and the British liberated him. God save the Queen and the Caped Crusader.

This is nothing short of a comic-book-to-film miracle, thanks to the English-born Nolan, who has already directed the much lauded "Memento" in 2000 with Guy Pearce and followed up with the outstanding American remake of "Insomnia", opposite Oscar winners Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Hilary Swank two years later. This Batman, to me, sets the standard and we hope we see more from Nolan and Bale, as they hopefully reunite to bring Batman back.

Thus, the Dark Knight truly returns in "Batman Begins".

"Stealth" should remain undetected

By RONALD CLARK

Mix in "Top Gun" with "2001: A Space Odyssey" and you have the makings of one of the worst moves this year: "Stealth". And if you notice in many of the TV and movie theatrical trailers, recent Oscar Winner for Best Actor Jamie Foxx is prominently displayed. However, this is clearly false advertising on the part of Sony’s Columbia TriStar wing, because before his Academy Award-winning turn in the Ray Charles biopic "Ray," he starred in this CGI-laden garbage and virtually doesn’t have many lines in this movie.

The premise is a simple, sci-fi action, adventure retread. Somewhere in the near future, a group of hot shot Navy fight pilots on-board the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln fly around in state-of-the-art stealth (as in 'invisible to radar') bombers, as they blow up some of Asia and the Middle East, all in the name of curbing international terrorism. All of a sudden, their joined-at-the-hip camaraderie is threatened by an artificial-intelligence controlled stealth jet codenamed EDDIE, who strangely and coincidentally, talks just like the cold, manic HAL 9000 computer from, you guessed it: Stanley Kubrick’s "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Lieutenants Ben Gannon (Josh Lucas of "Undertow," "Hulk," "Sweet Home Alabama," "Wonderland," "A Beautiful Mind," and "American Psycho") and Jessica Biel (the WB’s "7th Heaven," "Ulee’s Gold," "Blade: Trinity," and a remake of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre") try their damnest to duplicate the romantic chemistry that Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis made famous almost two decades in "Top Gun," but fall flat. At one point she’s in a bikini, but that’s as far as the sexuality goes. And the multi-talented Foxx rounds out the token minority factor as Lt. Henry Percell. The acting’s uninspired, but the special effects kick, once you get past the undecipherable techno-babble. And everything else’s a blur.

As his best, Harvard-educated director Rob Cohen can do exceptional films like 1993’s "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story". At his commercialized worst, he’s become known for popcorn drivel such as the Vin Diesel clunkers "xXx" and "The Fast and the Furious". In fact, after such stinkers as "The Skulls," "Dragonheart" and "Daylight," one would expect Cohen to improve. This, apparently, isn’t the case. But the biggest disappointment comes in the form of screenwriter D.W. Richter, who wrote the treatments for "Brubaker," Stuart Rosenberg’s critically acclaimed, Robert Redford prison epic from 1980, the 1978 remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" with Donald Sutherland and John Badham’s Broadway-inspired re-envisioning of "Dracula" in 1979 with Frank Langella and Sir Laurence Olivier. But, then again, Richter did also write the treatment for John Carpenter’s "Big Trouble in Little China" back in 1986.

If you want your action at the speed of Mach 1, might I suggest renting the 1983 high-tech helicopter thriller "Blue Thunder" with Roy Scheider, directed by the previously mentioned John Badham, and/or its TV counterpart, the Donald Bellisario-produced "Airwolf" with Jan-Michael Vincent from 1984 to 1986, as well as Clint Eastwood in "Firefox" from 1982.

All in all, "Stealth" should remain undetected by the general moviegoing public.

Willie What In The? ! !

By DAGWOOD

I just took the kids to see Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and wow, what a disapointment! I actually love Tim Burton movies too.
Remember the old movie? I always loved it and had hoped that one day someone would remake it with the same plot and better special effects. Well, at least I got half of my wish. The special effects were great, but they changed the plot so drastically that it ruined the whole point of this wonderful story. Frankly, I didn't want to go see a movie about Willie Wonka's Dysfunctional life. I wanted to see that story about the little poor kid with the big heart who overcomes his poverty stricken life with integrity and honor. Here they had an opportunity to make a really great film, but were too preoccupied with overstating Depp's Character. The real hero, Charlie, was totally upstaged by a bunch of superfluous flashbacks about Willie Wonka's life.

Burton added a lot of stuff to the movie that took away the audiences need root for Charlie Bucket, so when Charlie inherits the chocolate factory at the end of the movie, I didn't really care.
The original movie, however, made the whole tour of the chocolate factory a big test for all the kids. Wonka wanted to see which one would be worthy of inheriting his factory. The most humble kid, Charlie Bucket, made a mistake during the tour, but passed the test with flying colors at the last minute by being honest. That's what choked people up at the end of the original movie. The underdog won.
In the remake, Charlie Bucket wasn't the underdog at all. He was just the last kid left. The character didn't earn the factory and he didn't earn the audience's sympathy or respect. The movie was in my opinion, slow, and anti-climactic.

One more thing...

By LIQUIDMETALGUY

I also just wanted to post a note: The Free Press said, in print, that they would print a review from here in every Friday's paper throughout the summer, did they not?

So far, the last couple of weeks have had no reviews from this blog. Maybe they don't actually care what we think.

Merely an observation.

Escape TO "The Island"

By LIQUIDMETALGUY

Is "The Island" a large, loud, nearly inescapable summer movie? Yes. Is if fun, filled with a creepy premise, creepy and also beautifully filmed images, tons of action, hot stars with surprising perfromances? Yes. So what is the big deal all about?

Perhaps too much of the movie's story has already been given away (it has) but that doesn't really diminish what we see. In fact, perhaps it could even add to our excitement as we sit and watch with anticipation as to when our hero (a very likable and watchable Ewan McGregor) finally puts two and eight together and finds out what is really going on.

Perhaps it is also better to go into the movie expecting more of a sci-fi thriller than an all-out action movie. What I particularly enjoyed is that, though the film is a sci-fi thriller, right about in the mid-point, there is a massive 25-minute action sequence that does not stop. It may seem like it is, but it is merely changing form - not stopping.

After which, the sci-fi thriller aspect resumes. I enjoyed the action sequence myself (you've never seen a car chase until you see an armored truck flip over frontways a few times) but how well it integrated into the entire schematic of the movie which is, essentially, a chase movie.

As previously mentioned, McGregor brings a naive, child-like quality to his role which is very endearing. And Scarlett Johansson makes you like her, somehow, without her even really doing anything. Sean Bean is as suave and evil as ever and Djimon Hounsou is magnificent as the unapproachable head of security. He has such a screen presence that you can't take your eyes off of him.

I also have to say that the film was wonderfully shot which, considering a lot of todays film, is a feat in and of itself. Bay clearly has an artists eye and his framing and composition are dead on. Everything is so bright and lush and gorgeous. I even enjoyed his new attempts at a different editing style.

From this, though, I have to say that I don't understand why Bay has been put under such scrutiny. I also laughed at other certain reviews that didn't quite like the film and also malinged Bay, yet in that same review, remarked how beautiful the film looked.

Bay may be the film's director, but he did not write the script. But he did put the images on the screen. So, to take the aforementioned review, the critic states that the film is not all it could be and blames Bay, but then he praises the actual look of the film. I thought even a person who just merely watches movies knows what job what person does. The screenwriter creates the story and characters, the directors puts it on the screen.

Bay was also highly malinged for "Pear Harbor" yet no one wrote about the film's writer, Randall Wallace, had also written a film called "Braveheart." How on earth do you go from "Braveheart" to "Pearl Harbor?" I have no idea and I gues no one else did either since no one wrote about that aspect. Everyone blamed Bay. Why? I guess it was easy.

Too bad. "The Island" isn't a perfect film at all but it is a very enjoyable summer movie that at least attempts to have some type of message. Perhaps all the critics and nay-sayers need a vacation. Perhaps, on an island.

"Fantastic Four" Not-So-Fantastic

By RONALD CLARK

As the Marvel Comics Hollywood hype machine continues to churn out our favorite superheroes for the silver screen (so far, the Uncanny X-Men, the Amazing Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, and the Punisher have graced our multiplexes and DVD players), did anyone mention to the good folks at 20th Century Fox that flash doesn’t equal substance? This is the ultimate case with “Fantastic Four,” the latest Marvel title to be given the Tinseltown treatment.

Originally created in 1961 by the pioneering team of Marvel founder Stan Lee and the revolutionary illustrator Jack Kirby, the blue-spandex clad champions of justice saved Earth daily by going head-to-head with the likes of Galactus, also known as the intergalactic devourer of worlds (and giver of life to the Silver Surfer, another timeless Marvel superhero), and the bionic, megalomanical Doctor Doom, using the Big Apple as their primary place of operations. But the only thing this post-9/11, CGI-laden version got right is New York City – sort of.

In this 2005 revision, a new Dr. Doom, this time in the form of cursory, middle-aged, corporate CEO Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon, F/X’s “Nip/Tuck”), takes professional pity on former college buddy Dr. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd, USA Network’s “Horatio Hornblower,” “King Arthur”), a dishonored, and broke, former NASA rocket jockey. Von Doom makes the desperate scientist/astronaut Richards an offer he can’t refuse: Go back into outer space and continue his work in the field of cosmic radiation, provided they head out to Doom’s space station on the next shuffle outta here and coincidentally observe a cosmic storm. I just like saying “cosmic” a lot.

And for all of those who are familiar with the comic book, we all know what happens next. The nerdy Dr. Richards, his burly co-pilot Ben Grimm (Emmy Award winner Michael Chiklis, F/X’s “The Shield,” ABC’s “The Commish”), Dr. Richards’ exotically estranged Girl Friday Sue Storm (Jessica Alba, FOX’s “Dark Angel,” “Honey”), and her cocky brother Johnny Storm (Chris Evans, “Not Another Teen Movie”) are suddenly bombarded by cosmic rays and the result is pretty cool – at least for three of them. Gruffudd’s Dr. Richards in now Mr. Fantastic, whose ability to stretch like rubber is trippy. Alba’s Sue becomes the Invisible Girl, who can not only turn invisible, but can telepathically hurl force fields. Neat-O, man.

Evans’ Johnny Storm is – you guessed it: the Human Torch, who can immediately bust into flames, fly like Superman and is hotter than hell. And Chiklis’ Grimm craps out as the Thing, the rocky, orange-hued man-mountain who possesses superhuman strength and has one of the greatest catchphrases in all of comic book lore: “It’s clobberin’ time!” Well, the Human Torch does spout off: “Flame on!” but it’s not quite the same. It’s too bad that the acting, script and screenplay take a beating as well. Of course, the same cosmic rays turn Von Doom into the iron-faced, supermetallic Dr. Doom, but who cares at this stage of the game.

Lackadaisical, romantic triangle clichés abound, as Alba’s Invisible Girl is on the outs with Mr. Fantastic and shacking up with Doom. Trust me: It goes nowhere. And in the politically incorrect, interracial dating department, Chiklis’ disfigured Thing finds solace in the arms of blind, black girlfriend Alicia Masters (Kerry Washington, “Ray,” “Save The Last Dance”), who, it must be noted, is originally a white girl in the comic. And it’s not the first time such a multicultural casting faux pas was pulled off in a Marvel Comics film. Two years ago, Ben Affleck’s “Daredevil” squared off against Michael Clarke Duncan’s Kingpin. There’s only one problem: The Kingpin, who’s also a nemesis of Spider-man’s, is white. Go figure. Since “Blade” is supposedly the only black and/or minority superhero in the so-called Marvel Universe that’s bankable at the box office, the studios may feel pressured to add minority actors in ethnocultually non-specific roles.

I would mention the possibility of Earth being destroyed if our heroes don’t save the day, but guess what: all potential summer blockbusters begin and end this way, so I’ll mercifully spare you.

This mess of a superhero epic was haphazzardly helmed by Tim Story, who became notorious this year for directing “Taxi,” the failed Jimmy Fallon/Queen Latifah buddy-cop comedy, who also got some props for doing “Barbershop.” Well, he ain’t getting none here. Unlike Sam Raimi’s gothically whimsical take on “Spider-Man,” Ang Lee’s understated interpretation of “Hulk” and Bryan Singer’s commercialized thump on the first “X-Men” film, Story lacks any imagination when converting the Fantastic Four from page to screen. He should have gotten more help from Michael France, a supposed Marvel adapter who also screwed up “The Punisher” and “Hulk.” Finally, writer Mark Frost, best known as one of the co-creators of David Lynch’s groundbreaking, and delightfully weird, “Twin Peaks” TV series, must also take the blame in mucking up this Marvel mainstay.

You may want to pass on this one and seek out the campy, infamously bootlegged, Roger Corman-produced version from 1994 directed by Oley Sassone on e-Bay.

In the end, “Fantastc Four” is not-so-fantastic.

Fantastic Four (stars?) - Not Quite

By LIQUIDMETALGUY

Having just seen "Fantastic Four", I have discovered that there is yet another approach to the filming of a comic-book inspired movie, and that approach would probably have to be called something like: almost-serious.

It in and of itself is a very difficult task. It's sort of like saying to yourself "I want to get a B+ on this next test. Not an A, or a D, but a B+" and then going out and doing it. "Fantastic Four" takes a similar approach, in that certain scenes play seriously well, while other scenes are more of a wink, wink, nudge, nudge approach.

It's an odd roller coaster of ups and downs as literally, one scene will play as a serious, hard-hitting, sci-fi fantasy/reality, while the very next scene will play more like a Satruday morning cartoon, a goofy fantasy.

That said, nearly all of the entire movie is still very fun and very enjoyable. Yes, there have been better movies made, even better comic book movies made, but as these films go, this one remains quite entertaining, and as summer movies come, isn't that what we want?

Perhaps we can spare the filmmakers some leeway, as this is the first "episode" of "Fantastic Four" and we need to know of their origins first. And, though I greatly appreciated the better "Batman Begins", which is more serious than some dramas out there, Batman's story is far more serious and darker (even in comic form) than Fantastic Four, and perhaps an approach as serious would ruin the integrity of the piece that made it the most read comic in the first place.

The performances in "Fantastic Four" aren't bad either. Best is Michael Chiklis as "The Thing" and Chris Evans as "The Human Torch." Evans brings in a fun, always watchable flippancy to becoming a super hero, and his dialouge is clever and delivered with a sharp tongue. By contrast, Chiklis brings a solid (no pun intended) grounded approach to becoming a being made quite literally out of rock. The two contrast each other nicely, making for wonderful scenes of both friendship and fighting.

Ioan Gruffudd makes for a believable Mr. Fantastic, but I don't see specifically why it was him who was chosen. This script doesn't give much weight to Mr. Fantastic as a character so Gruffudd's talents are wasted here.

Same goes for Jessica Alba, who continues on the track to being Super-Tease of the year. Yes, she is deliriously beautiful and I would pay to see her in anything (and nothing). She does a good job but she does't make the role her own. Why couldn't any other young and attractive up and comer helm the role as well?

This is also the second movie Alba stars in this year in which nudity is central to her role and yet she bares no skin. I find it odd that she keeps choosing (?) these roles, yet doesn't committ. Why pick the role in the first place? In "Sin City", she really wanted the role of the stripper, and as faithful to the comic as the movie is, Alba was given a choice to appear nude or not. Guess which one she picked? Now, I'm not saying she should be naked in all her films, but why would you really want the role of a stripper and then choose to keep your clothes on? It's like Spielberg deciding to make "Saving Private Ryan" a "safe" movie so every age can watch it.

I know that "Fantastic Four" is more of a kids movie, as its PG-13 rating suggests, but Alba's character has to strip off her clothes in order to be completely invisible. Far be it for me to recommend yet another type of rating system, with all the faults in the current one, but I find it odd how dark "Batman Begins" was to earn a PG-13 and yet how light "Fantastic Four" is and yet still earns a PG-13.

And what played beforehand? A trailer for "Into the Blue" staring none other than Jessica Alba in a skimpy swimsuit. She is a shoe-in for Super-Tease of the year, given her recent magazine spread.

Julian McMahon (two stars from the F/X network!) is also quite good as Dr. Doom. He has a sleazy, liquid quality to the way he moves and talks, infusing his own being, seemingly, with a very evocative, sexy kind of evil.

For a comic-book movie, the visual effects need to be good and here, they are not bad. They more than get the job done but in terms of sheer reality, they fall a little flat. This is especially true after the amazing work we've seen in "Star Wars: Episode III" and "War of the Worlds" with completely photo-realistic visual effects.

The movie is, at times, at odds with itself, as it dips from serious entertainment, to child's play type entertainment. But that does not diminish the overall sense of fun and enjoyment the film is infused with. Perhaps they should have called this film "The Really Good Four" and save the fantastic for the next outing.

Soylent Red is People!

By IP568

'Soylent Red is People!'

Recently saw the new version of "War of the Worlds." In short, this is an epic remake of the nifty 1953 version done by George Pal (later of "The Time Machine" with Rod Taylor, 1960). The FX are spectacular, of course, but the film just doesn't quite pull it off.

The story is shot through the eyes of Ray, Tom Cruise's character, so it lets a lot of action occur off stage. This tactic can do a lot for a story, but in Cruise's case, it doesn't work. His costars, including young Dakaota Fanning, are excellent, but ... we've seen it all before. Cruise looking desperate and put-upon. Fanning running the different shades of panic and dispair. Tim Robbins as a crazy pedophile (ok, this may just be good type-casting). A cast of hundreds of real extras and thousands of CGI people being vaporized -- neat, but again, we've seen it before, especially in the 1953 version.

This latest Spielberg version is just too full of logic and continuity holes to hold together. The alien Tripods have been buried here on Earth for tens or hindreds of thousands of years until they are activated today. WTF? Were the aliens waiting until we could fight back to launch their invasion, instead of easily taking-over 50,000 years ago? The aliens themselves ride lightening/EMP bolts down from space, arriving underground with the baggage of several thousand Gs. Can you say Puree of Alien? As in the 1953 version, the Tripods have protective force fields that deflect anything thrown at them. But when the aliens catch colds and start to die, they also conveniently manage to turn-off their shields so the remaining National Guard troops can take them out with Stingers and small arms fire. The EMP strikes fry all auto and machine electronics but leave cordless phones and video cameras running.

Even though this is a war movie, we get Hollywood's Guns are Bad! rap. When Cruise goes on the lam with his kids he takes his .357 with him, although he hides it from the kids because, you know, guns are 'bad.' When his car is hijacked and his family nearly killed, another character takes his gun and promptly murders a third with it (yes, guns are 'BAD,' even when you are trying to save your kids from being killed).

The aliens' death rays are wonderful eye candy, turning people into (antiseptic) flaming ash while leaving their clothes intact. Another WTF? Very 'green' and all. There are a lot of annoying gripes. A local ferry boat captain in one battle scene is wearing the cap of a US naval officer. That's a negative. Couldn't Spielberg do better than that?

As pure popcorn munching, the movie is fun and the tension holds up at a certain visceral level, but the mind is never engaged -- a requirement for the best movies. The major sets are great: a downed 747, horribly empty of bodies because everyone was vaporized in flight by that neat antiseptic death ray which, like the evil Neutron Bomb, kills people while leaving structures intact (apparently the Aliens like our architecture). The scene of the first Tripod breaking through the street and incinerating people is also a wonderful realization of set design. The cast does ok (although Fanning's wonderful horror expression is starting to get overused in movies), but again, with so many CGI people being vaporized, it all starts to glaze over. With the camera on Ray 100% of the time, his costars don't get to do very much. When Ray grabs some hand grenades, you know what he's gonna do: bring-down a Tripod that is trying to turn him into Soylent Red with which to fertilize Alien Kudzu (I am not making this up). It's kinda neat to see mashed humans being sprayed across the landscape like the operation of Lawn Doctor's evil twin, but human blood to fertilize plants from the planet Koosbane? Cummon! When the action finally moves to Boston, Spielberg is too lazy to recreate a view of Boston and we get action in what appears to be downtown Los Angeles. Maybe he just got tired.

My Freeper Rating: Hype: 9/10. Movie: 7/10. Spielberg could have done far better than remake a 52-year-old film that was pretty neat in its day. But then, most movie goers never saw the 1953 version. Their loss.

Romero's LAND OF THE DEAD a Rare Adult Horror Treat!

By RIDGEMAN

Overall, this fourth installment to George Romero's zombie series is an old school, effects-light action piece with solid characterization and some very funny moments of dark humor. Beautifully shot (although at times too darkly lit), LAND seems to be a step back into more corporate, but sensibly produced adventure films of the early late 1960’s/early 1970’s. And the more I think about it, the happier I might be for the end result. It’s not perfect unlike the first two entries of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and DAWN OF THE DEAD) but it does have perfect moments where the Romero magic of old is evident.

Strongly cast with superior performances by Simon Baker, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper, LAND OF THE DEAD is more of a three-character personality piece – an odd Mexican standoff that occurs almost in real-time. Very little of what is onscreen is new – I think Romero chose to simply show three individuals in pursuit of the most basic creature comforts. Under any extreme condition, people fight because they’re hungry, pissed or greedy, and that’s basically all there is to it. Some things never change, except for the outcomes.

There is also truth to the pre-release spoilers that in LAND, Romero chose to make the zombies sympathetic, but that won’t come as news to anyone who saw his earlier films. The magic here comes when Romero shows both the living AND dead stuck in a societal loop, desperately maintaining old patterns of behavior in scenes where the spirit lives on, even as the flesh rots away. There is something oddly poetic about watching the zombies in LAND continue to go through their post-mortem rituals, and equally sad as the humans desperately cling to dreams of routines past, hoping for better lives that will probably never happen.

I think the best part of this film though is not the setting or the themes or political subtext, but the memorable dialogue. To this day, lines from the original DAWN OF THE DEAD ring through my head – comments about power and control and adult ideals that sound real and honest, and LAND has that as well.

Oddly enough, some of the best scenes in LAND occur between characters when guns are being used, passed around, loaded, etc., providing a telling sign that Romero really knows what’s at stake, even in a fictional world of his own making. No macho posturing or posing here – pulling a trigger in a Romero film means far more than hitting a target and leads to serious consequences. In a film littered with casualties, there remains a sincere value to human life, something missing from mainstream Hollywood features.

LAND is a traditional adventure in the best sense, clinging to some very old fashioned values which most ticket buyers may find surprising. As he grows old, I’m sure Romero finds that the world a very different place than the 1950’s, when he came of age. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t done asking questions or above providing a semi-happy ending on occasion, something to which Romero is certainly entitled.

Few directors have been so successful at creating such grand adventures with so little resources. LAND OF THE DEAD may not be the second coming of zombie films, as most had hoped and few will receive. It IS however a return to material by the master who knows the limits of his canvas and continues to respect his audience. As horror fans, are we really entitled to ask for anything more?

This time...it's WAR!!

By LIQUIDMETALGUY

"War of the Worlds" has nearly everything one could hope for in terms of a summer movie blockbuster: A huge, big-name star with the looks and the talent (and now the always watchably bizarre behavior), an A-list, incredible director, a heavy-working screenwriter adapating a classic work of sci-fi, the biggest effects house in the entire world, and a very short filming time (which could be a good thing - forcing those involved to focus tightly on the story and the actual movie itself, much like "Terminator 2", the first film to cost $100 Million and yet had a ridiculously short production schedule).

And so, with all those elements, the end result pays off, right? Not exactly.

The complex and highly negative dynamics of Cruise's onscreen family are quickly brought to the forefront in a very easy fashion, with director Steven Spielberg and writer David Koepp showing no worries at providing us with so much information and in such a rapid pace (which is also evident in Spielberg's camera which never seems static in a single shot in this entire part of the film).

I don't really have any problems with the performances in this part of the film though throughout the piece, other characters will degenerate into confusing and annoying barricades to truly enjoying the film. Except for Cruise himself, who is nearly always performing at the top of his game. His Ray Ferrier at the beginning of the film is simply a big kid who has kids and doesn't know what to do with them and realizes that they will be better off with someone else, and doesn't understand why they can't be.

It is difficult to explain and describe where exactly "War of the Worlds" missteps and what the misstep actually is but trust me when I say it is there. Perhaps it is the lack of building up tension in the film itself before the street cracks open and all hell literally breaks loose. Sure, we have a few scenes in which we see, on a television news report, that there are some weird-goings-on but they never amount to much.

And suddenly there is a storm and then all the power goes out and then bam, all hell is breaking loose. Instead of having smaller, scarier, more intense (and more realistic?) scenes in between the much bigger set pieces, all we have are the set pieces which seem unconnected to the film itself because of its lack of smaller scenes to help tie it all together.

Instead of starting at 0 and moving up to 60, where we know we can't stop, the film starts at 0 and then jumps to 55, leaving no room for the audience to orient themselves to what is going on.

And the opening and closing narration, though elegant in both their rhetoric and in their delivery by Morgan Freeman, it frames the movie as just that - a movie. It takes us out of the suspension of disbelief and essentially tells us twice that we are watching a movie and thus it creates a barrier to total enjoyment of the story itself.

The visual effects in these sequences, however, is nothing short of astonishing. George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic outdo themselves yet again as they provide incredibly detailed scenes of destruction on a scale never before achieved. Their work is all the more impressive when you realize they had over 500 effects shots to complete in about 7 months which is amazing.

Though the visual effects remain constant high points, the way Spielberg goes about shooting those sequences is less than stellar. He has managed a truly incredible and regrettable feat: to make aliens attacking humans seem like a boring, mundane event. There just didn't seem to be a clear enough juxtaposition between the boring, banality of every-day life and the terrifying newness of having aliens attack that same banality. Instead of a clever mixture of the two, we get two separate elements that bump into one another, but never merge into each other.

At about this point, Dakota Fanning's character degenerates into a crying, whining mess and ruins any attempt to truly enjoy the movie. I understand that aliens are invading and thus one would get upset but her character is at least 10 years old if not older. At some points, she asks to be treated nicer (by her dad) making the related point that she is old enough and mature enough to make such a demand.

Yet minutes later, she is again reduced to a crying mass of tears and snot and that is basically her character in the film. Not only is her character poorly written, is shows us that Dakota Fanning is still a child actor and with the same limitations that that entails.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie (if merely for the visual effects and Cruise) but not nearly as much as I thought I would. I mean, the previous Spielberg/Cruise collaboration was the amazing "Minority Report." Though the action scenes here are exciting and thrilling, it doesn't seem like enough or rather, perhaps it is too much of the wrong stuff.

And I still do not understand how Spielberg could make a movie featuring manevolent aliens when he himself still does not believe that. He decided to make "War of the Worlds" because it could tap into present-day (post 9/11) fears which is true and blatantly obvious within the movie, to the extent that movie almost stops so that these points could be made.

Though human beings may have won the war waged in the story the actual movie itself has to be considered more a stalemate. And considering Spielberg and Cruise's impressive track records, even a stalemate seems more a surrender.

Gruesomely entertaining!

By LIQUIDMETALGUY

I belong to a very small group of people who do not exactly praise Romero's original "Dawn of the Dead" the zombie movie considered to be a classic, so it was with more than a little trepidation that I approached his newest zombie flick in over 20 years, "Land of the Dead."

Thankfully, I found that my fears and apprehension were all unfounded. "Land of the Dead" is an incredibly enjoyable film, and not only do "zombie purists" get what they crave, in terms of amazing gore and blood (the film had its own gore unit - the sure sign of a great film) but also Romero's sharp and sly stab at our culture today. Sometimes these commentaries are contained within a single shot, other times they are distributed throughout a few scenes and you need to watch all of the scenes before you know what the movie is going to ultimately say about it.

However, impressively enough, none of the sharp commentaries EVER seem forced. In fact, so well are they integrated into the movie's overall plot and story, that I think it would suffer if these scenes were missing.

The characters are all a lively bunch and the actors that portray them do so with equal energy. Simon Baker as the hero is an interesting choice and his portrayal is also very intersting. Sure, he has the loner, anti-hero thing down but it's not just that. He also has morality issues to deal with but that's not it either. It's yet another credit to Romero and his script and his actors that the characters are all so densely layered.

Despite the aforementioned gore, which is truly a showstopper in its pure saturation of the entire movie and the new and gruesome ways in which people die (KNB EFX had their work cut out for them, or maybe ripped out for them?) the film is also funny. Very funny. Leave it to Romero to make a zombie film that manages to be both scary and funny at the same time yet neither one defeats the integrity of the other.

Romero also manages to change the concept of the zombie yet again, after changing the concept over 30 years ago in his original "Night of the Living Dead." Though he still prefers slower moving zombies, who is to say that zombies that run (as in the 2004 remake of "Dawn of the Dead") is yet another example of the zombies evolving?

Despite my inital misgivings, "Land of the Dead" is a very fun, enjoyable and incredibly smart film. It knows what it wants to do and does all of it in spades. This one is to be dug up over and over again.

Bon Appetit!