John Hughes, RIP

Don't let him be remembered for "Drillbit Taylor," that's all I'm asking.

Perhaps the landmark filmmaker of the 1980s, John Hughes died yesterday at age 59 in New York City of a heart attack. Creator (writer and director) of such hits as "The Breakfast Club," "Pretty in Pink" and "Weird Science," he made stars of Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall, not to mention providing invaluable career springboards to Ally Sheedy, Andrew McCarthy, Robert Downey Jr., Judd Nelson, John Cusack, Alan Ruck, and even John Candy (who knew Candy and Steve Martin could be such a great "dramedic" duo?). He launched the "Home Alone" and "Beethoven" franchises and lent his talents as a writer to a surprising number of movies (including the aforementioned... aw forget about that one).

I was in college when the majority of his films hit the big screen, but I loved his stuff greatly. Even his near-great films like "Some Kind of Wonderful" had something going for them. I was a huge fan of "Weird Science" and "Breakfast Club" in particular, seeing both in the theater more than once.

When he stepped out of the business (or so it seemed), I missed his point of view tremendously. There weren't many (heck, ANY) writer-directors who could capture the essence of being a teen the way Hughes did. Shermer, Illinois seemed like a modern Oz, where Ferris Bueller could bump into Lisa on his way to a party at Claire Standish's house. It takes a special kind of magic to make that happen, and Hughes had it in spades.

RIP, Mr. Hughes, and thank you.

Movies: In the Loop

Kat and I managed to catch a film recently--the delightfully subversive "In The Loop." Based on a BBC series called "The Thick of It," this film finds a hapless minister (Simon Foster, played by Tom Hollander) making a gaffe on British radio--calling war "unforeseeable"--and landing in the middle of a power struggle on both sides of the Atlantic. Assisted by chilly pro Judy (played by Gina McKee) and an amoral newcomer named Toby (Chris Addison), Foster is the football tossed between pro-war and anti-war factions. He tries to play both sides but... well, suffice it to say he is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is.

On the anti-war side is Assistant Secretary of State Karen Clarke (Mimi Kennedy), whose assistant Liza Weld (Anna Chlumsky, best known for her role in "My Girl") wrote an obscure paper on the pitfalls of going to war. This paper, Foster's harried cluelessness, the machinations of the hilariously obscene Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi)--the Prime Minister's Director of Communications and general troubleshooter--and the ridiculous nature of factional politicking make the movie a joyful chaos of conflicting purposes, double-dealing, betrayal, deceit and the things that make Washington DC and London so much fun to watch. Not to mention Steve Coogan as a local who needs Foster to repair a wall adjoining his property, lest his mother's greenhouse be crushed by falling bricks. Or James Gandolfini as a general who may or may not have political ambitions, but knows how to survive the Washington version of Russian roulette. Or David Rasche as venal Secretary of State Linton Barwick (leader of the pro-war side), whose sleaze is buried under a layer of cold humor and patronizing propriety.

As you can see, there's a lot to like here.

It's about the most foul-mouthed movie I've seen, but it is hilarious to those of us who live in this kind of environment. If you like political satire of a really dark bent, go see it.

UP

Kat and I had visitors this weekend--Brielle's grandparents came to see the girl, and since they had her Friday night, Kat and I decided to go see a movie.

We saw Up, the new release from Disney/Pixar. It's the story of Carl Fredricksen, a blocky 78 year old balloon salesman with one great adventure left to be attempted. It's also the story of Russell, a pre-teen Wilderness Explorer; Doug the Dog; and Kevin, an improbable denizen of Paradise Falls in South America.

It's a really wonderful movie, with dazzling (and entirely appropriate) 3-D effects--by all means, see this in 3-D if you can!!--but what it has in spades is heart. Carl's story begins in great sadness; I dare anyone watching it not to cry at least four times, and that's possibly in the first fifteen minutes.

The way the story unfolds will not tax those who like to anticipate plot points... but it should delight and impress regardless, as the characters (and the actors behind them) make the story come alive. Doug, in particular, has a host of delightful and quotable lines.

Being a Pixar movie comes with very high expectations. Up, very happily, lives up to all of them.
Strongly recommended.

Star Trek (2009): What It Is and Is Not

Saw the new Star Trek last weekend and was absolutely blown away. Once in awhile, you leave a theater feeling like a movie was pretty good--or even great--and you re-think that reaction a day or two later. "Huh... y'know, Wolverine really wasn't good..." stuff like that.

Not so with ST '09. J.J. Abrams and his team have successfully and happily blown up the continuity-waterlogged beast that ST had become, pushing the new series into its own self-declared alternate timeline. The Original Series (OS) shows still happened... but now there are episodes that cannot happen with this new crew. There are layers of tragedy that will shadow certain characters forever, and new possibilities because the original timeline was not salvaged.

So what does this mean? It means that Star Trek now has a blank slate. There is no "it has to be!" about their future adventures, no inevitability about meeting Khan, the planet destroyer, the Tribbles... any of it. Abrams can cherry pick whatever he likes for the next few movies, freed from the shackles of continuity. Long-time fans won't like it, I'm betting, but I am a long-time fan and this is infusing that whole universe with fresh blood.

As many publications and sites have noted, Chris Pine absolutely nails the essence of Kirk. He loves the ladies, he's reckless and a bit of a showoff but he gets the job done. He is the epic hero in ways that Spock is not and cannot be, larger than life and bolder than bold. Pine doesn't impersonate William Shatner-- that would be a thankless and self-defeating task--but he captures what Kirk is all about: he's a leader, a man of action, and the guy whose commands you follow no matter what because he inspires that kind of loyalty.

Zachary Quinto likewise nails Spock, but brings emotional depth to the character that Leonard Nimoy only revealed very gradually (probably because the writers were trying to figure him out back then, whereas Quinto benefits from 40+ years of Spockian analysis). This Spock is as much a rebel as Kirk, though he is quiet and coldly precise in how he defies authority. His emotions are always under tight control--with Quinto, the cost and effort of that control are always there, giving a strong urgency to his performance. It's really something to see.

Overall, I loved the new movie and hope fans will continue to embrace it. If serving the original fans were all that the movie aspired to do, it would be a disappointment and indeed a failure; the franchise needs to pull in new viewers, new fans, if it's going to survive. And frankly, the franchise needed a huge dose of risk-taking and adventurous spirit to overcome the last few mort-tastic entries in the theaters. If anything will take the sour taste of the recent ST:NG movies out of my mouth, ST '09 is the palate cleanser.

Grade: A+

Watchmen

Okay, I know you are dying to know what I thought of Watchmen.
Kat and I saw it Saturday with friends and, oddly, this has been my first chance to sit down and write about it.
The movie is good. Not great, not fantastic, but good. It's faithful to the book especially in its look, though it's undercut by some choices that--while understandable--end up weakening the story in certain ways.
THE GOOD-

• Everyone loves Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach, and with good reason--this is an Oscar-level performance, especially at the end. He deserves enormous kudos for what he does with (and without) a sock on his head.
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan made me care about the Comedian. He pulled this brute's humanity out by the roots and showed something vulnerable, even tragic in this monster wrapped in the American flag. Amazing performance.
• Patrick Wilson comes alive as Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II late in the game, but when he does, it's great. (Also, his reaction to the near-end of the movie feels much more appropriate than what happened in the comic.)
• Billy Crudup sells me (most of the time) on Dr. Manhattan. Although we nicknamed him "Swingin' Blue," the shots of him full-frontal weren't gratuitous and his manners reflected a character who really cannot connect with humanity any longer.
• The production values of the movie could not have been higher, with amazing effects (like Rorschach's mask, the Owlship, Dr. Manhattan) and fantastic sets putting viewers into the sewer that is this alternate 1985.
• Taking out the squid was okay with me.

THE MEH-

• Watchmen is set in a time when the world is literally on the edge of nuclear annihilation. Problem is, we don't feel it. Alan Moore used street-level perspective to get the point across--the news vendor, the teenage kid, the cabbie, the psychiatrist, all of them showed life on the edge of the end. In the movie, we don't get enough of this. I know it's a time-constraint issue but I can only hope the director's cut includes it.

THE BAD-

• The violence was gratuitous. I know they're supposed to be "not the heroes we know," but showing compound fractures, ripping skin and a skull cleaved (over and over again) was overkill. And somewhat nauseating.
• Malin Akerman only sold me on her as Silk Spectre here and there. I can't say for sure if it was performance or script but she didn't register as anything more than a token female presence passed between two of the characters. Her revelation moment landed with a thud and even the byplay with Carla Gugino felt forced. Not good.
• Matthew Goode didn't deliver as Ozymandias. His performance was too muted, too restrained. Was he (or Zach Snyder) thinking that the audience would figure it out? Didn't they know most of the audience knows the story by now? In any case, Ozy should have been more forceful and Goode was just kind of present.
• The music really hammered on this being the 1980s, didn't it?
• The makeup for Nixon especially was terrible. And it didn't help that he was always in the War Room under that harsh fluorescent lighting, which showed how little the actor resembled the ex-president.
  

I doubt this will be one for the ages. My circle of friends (by voice vote) think it will not end up one of the big films of the summer, and indications now are that they are right.

At least this put to bed the notion that Watchmen (the graphic novel) is unfilmable. It CAN be filmed--but this version of it wasn't as great as the source material.

Grade: B-/C+

Max Payne... WTF?

Is it me or does this movie look like a cut-rate Constantine?

I really thought the third-person shooter videogame was about a cop going on a rampage, boosted by painkillers and grabbing ammo wherever he could find it--sort of a "rogue cop" version of Grand Theft Auto. Sort of like Martin Riggs going all-out, y'know?

This looks a lot more like a supernatural "ordinary guy versus demons" kind of thing. Not sure if the story will be worth the time but the effects and sets and all look fantastic (to judge by the trailer).

Anyway, not sure if I'll have time in the next couple of weeks to do any movie-going, so this one might have to wait for Netflix.

later!
Drew

In a World...

Sad news, friends.
Don LaFontaine, aka "The Voice" of countless movie trailers, has passed away.
Ain't It Cool News had a nice tribute here.
I don't think I'll ever watch a movie trailer again without thinking "in a world..." as made immortal by Mr. LaFontaine.
RIP.

Of interest: LaFontaine's website

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Kat and I saw Woody Allen's new movie yesterday and enjoyed it, despite a few "whuh?" moments. In brief, no spoilers, it's about two close friends (Vicky [Rebecca Hall] and Cristina [Scarlett Johansson]) who spend the summer in Barcelona and go on very different journeys of self-discovery (mostly of a romantic nature). Part of the story revolves around Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) and his emotionally volatile ex-wife Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz, who is in less of the film than you might think).

The movie provoked some serious conversation between us at Starbucks afterward, and then later in our condo's jacuzzi. We thought the stars did an excellent job navigating Allen's complex storylines and penchant for ambiguity; I empathized with Johansson's character, having been a bit of a searcher myself earlier in life, while Kat understood Hall's character (even though she made different choices for herself than Vicky ultimately did).

Interesting film--not necessarily on Allen's short list of all-time greats, but still entertaining, thought provoking and insightful all at once.

Star Wars: The Decline and Fall

Hey folks-

Once in awhile, you read something that really touches a nerve. In this case, I read Drew McWeeny's post on Ain't It Cool News about his fanboy love of Star Wars and the break-up a decade in the making. It's really sad but honest as all hell.

McWeeny writes on AICN under the pen name Moriarty. He reviews movies and scripts, while building up his own resume as a screenwriter (he's had a few things produced and seems to be coming along well in the industry, if a remote observer like me can be any kind of judge). Well, it seems he ticked off Lucasfilm and the Bearded One himself with his review of Phantom Menace, way back in 1999 or so, and thus incurred their wrath in ways great and small.

Ultimately, he said (in the above post), he's had enough. Lucas won-- he won't write about Star Wars again.

I think articles like this highlight something I came to believe awhile ago: George Lucas went from being Luke Skywalker to being the Emperor.

Star Wars (the original--I've never called it "the fourth movie" or "A New Hope" and never intend to) was something I saw 23 times in the theaters. Think about that. From the age of 12 on, I used a tiny fortune (or so it seemed to me then) to watch the same movie 23 times.

I can't say the same about Empire Strikes Back-- I didn't like it as much at the time and didn't feel like spending that much money. In retrospect, I think Empire was a better film--better written and much better directed, for all that it built upon Lucas's original.

I hated Return of the Jedi. Did you know Obi-Wan, the Merlin to Luke's prospective Arthur, is a liar? ("from a certain point of view" my ass.) I didn't... and I hated that that was the path Lucas took, snapping up the intriguing bait offered (but not substantiated) by Kasdan and Brackett. Luke and Leia are brother and sister, a tribe of furry teddy bears can overcome the military forces of an interstellar atrocity machine, and Darth Vader is completely redeemed for two decades of evil by tossing his boss down a shaft. What a crapfest. I wanted Luke to find out Vader wasn't his dad--it was Vader who was lying. I wanted Luke to end up with Leia; Han Solo could snuggle up with Chewbacca for all I cared, he wasn't the hero of the story. (Turns out Luke wasn't either.)

Then a whole bunch of years go by and I see Phantom Menace and think... WTF? To see a really bad movie and then be told that the whole series was meant for kids? Please. Pretend all you want but don't talk down to me. (Side note: does anyone else notice Lucas has a penchant for creating tough-looking bada$$ characters and then totally punking them with lame death scenes? Boba Fett, Darth Maul, General Grievous--okay, maybe that last guy wasn't THAT tough-looking but still, he died like a punk. So what gives? Maybe he just has a thing for disposable villains who look good but can't deliver. Personally, I think Vader would have gone the same way--knocked off by Luke in the second movie, maybe--if he hadn't become a fan favorite.)

I saw Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith almost incidentally. Sith came out the day before I got married, back in '05, and I saw it more as a goodbye to my vastly prolonged childhood than anything else. Turns out it wasn't that bad, despite Hayden Christensen. (On the other hand, I guess we know for certain that strength in the Force and being a crybaby are both genetic traits of the Skywalkers...)

The upshot? The movies don't have any real heart and haven't for a long time--they're just the product of an industrial process more concerned with technical wizardry than storytelling. Lucas can construct a dazzling movie but he can't tell a story. It's as simple as that. And his efforts are aimed more at merchandising his properties than doing anything worthwhile with them.

(I should point out, in the interest of fairness, that I have read and enjoyed many of the Star Wars novels put out by Ballantine and Lucas Books. Those authors have turned a sow's ear into a silk purse more than once. Might be nice if the movie folks took a cue from the talented writing group they've assembled...)

Ah well. I enjoyed Star Wars an awful lot as a kid. Maybe it's better to let those memories lie undisturbed and not try to recapture that particular lightning in a bottle. I have better things to do with my time.

Fourth of July and so on

Geez, has it been a week since I last posted? Guess so.
Kat and I had a really good Fourth of July. We didn't get any workouts in during the week but made up for it by... eating a lot at the WSFA barbecue. John and Kathi opened their home to a huge number of us, displaying their amazing generosity once again, and we ate like kings. Can't say enough great things about the barbecue. (And we got to see them make liquid nitrogen ice cream again, which is always a blast.)
A huge thanks to Lee, btw, for making sure we got there-- he's a great friend.
We left the party with our other great friends, Ern and EJ, Paul and Gayle, to catch WALL-E (for the second time for Kat and me). You can see my review here.
I stayed home most of the weekend, puttering around and getting some writing done, while Kat went out and did her Sunday thing. All in all, pretty fun.
Hope you had a great Fourth (for you US citizens in the readership) or otherwise had a fine weekend.

Odds and Ends

Hey folks,
Took a short break from blogging the London trip, partly to give Kat a chance to organize the photos. 900 shots takes awhile to manage.
In the meantime, I'll talk about a couple new things...

ANDROMEDA STRAIN on A&E. Based on the book by Michael Crichton, this new four-hour mini takes the story far beyond the Wildfire Lab and poor Piedmont, AZ. A satellite crash is followed by the deaths of everyone in a tiny Arizona town, save two: an old alcoholic and a colicky baby. Cause of death: near-instant coagulation of a victim's blood.

The Army cannot handle this biohazard, so Project Wildfire is activated by Gen. Mancheck (Andre Braugher). A team, led by Dr. Jeremy Stone (Benjamin Bratt), includes an ex-lover (Christa Miller), a military doctor with whom Stone has clashed before (Rick Schroder), a married biochemist (Viola Davis), and a Chinese expatriate doctor with a shady past (Daniel Dae Kim); they have a super-secret and ultrasophisticated laboratory under the desert, where they will try to save the world from this fast-acting and universally lethal organism.

Trouble is, the Army is keeping secrets of its own, not the least of which is a conspiracy between a presidential advisor and an ambitious colonel to secure samples of Andromeda, while a brazen reporter (Eric McCormack) struggles to unlock the mystery of the Andromeda Strain... and survive the conspiracy's murderous intentions when he gets too close to the truth.

The miniseries is well-acted and moves at an appropriate pace. Suspension of disbelief becomes a bit difficult when time travel and suboceanic thermal vent mining and other bits of weirdness are invoked-- Crichton has become a "kitchen sink" type of science fiction writer of late, and this mini plays into those tendencies-- such that the clean, linear storyline (and climactic race against the clock) are souped up with lots of explosions, teams of killers stalking busybodies, and more.

It's definitely watchable, but re-watchable... not so sure.

CAST:
Dr. Jeremy Stone - Benjamin Bratt
General George Mancheck - Andre Braugher
Dr. Charlene Barton - Viola Davis
Major Bill Keane, M.D. - Rick Schroder
Dr. Tsi Chou - Daniel Dae Kim
Jack Nash - Eric McCormack
Dr. Angela Noyce - Christa Miller
President Scott - Ted Whittall

WRITING- I'm getting a bit done here and there. I have two competing storylines that are taking up my thoughts these days. Gonna have to figure out which one I can ride to victory, so to speak. Lucky for me, neither one's been done in the urban fantasy genre.

Speaking of which, I'm pretty damned sick of vampires and werewolves. I know they're popular but c'mon, there are OTHER supernatural critters out there! Argh.

INCREDIBLE HULK- Just read the novelization last week (I know, I'm spoiling the movie for myself, big deal), but if they make the movie Peter David novelized, it'll kick ass. That's all I'm sayin'. Get the taste of Ang Lee's HULK out of your mouth and go see this. Should be awesome.

That's all I have for now. More London blogging soon!

SPEED RACER Review

As a kid, I was a huge Speed Racer fan.

It was one of the things I anticipated most on summer trips to Gulfport, MS--getting to see Speed Racer in the afternoon. (There was more to these excursions than that, of course, but SR was something my brother and I looked forward to.) The story was pretty simple: Speed races cars, has a girlfriend and pesky younger brother, and ends up in trouble with various evil drivers who try to make sure he never can finish the race. But he wins anyway.

I wasn't sure what to make of the Wachowski brothers putting Speed Racer up on the big screen. Having seen it... I'm still grappling with what to make of the Wachowski brothers putting Speed up on the big screen.

Let's do this right. Summary first, opinion last.

Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is the second son of Pops and Mom Racer (John Goodman and Susan Sarandon). He's a race car driver--how odd that his name matches his career like that! hmm!--whose girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci) and buddy Sparky (Kick Gurry) double as his support team. He's also more-or-less helped by his little brother Spritle (Paulie Litt) and Spritle's chimpanzee Chim-Chim.

A cloud hangs over Speed and the Racer household. Speed's beloved older brother Rex (Scott Porter), who quit the family racing/car building business abruptly, has been dead for two years after a short career full of disgrace. Speed is now being courted by the megacorporations that sponsor international racing; a particularly sleazy corporate boss named Royalton (Roger Allam) is the first to entice Speed to consider corporate sponsorship, against Pops' deep skepticism.

But things are not as they appear. The appearance of the enigmatic Racer X (Matthew Fox) throws Speed for a loop, as corruption in racing rears its ugly head (epitomized by the vicious racer Snake Oiler [Christian Oliver]) and puts Speed's idols in a different light. Speed must make some tough choices--and learns that not everything is what it seems to be, on the track or off.

The movie is a blur of light (very brightly colored light) and sound (mostly roaring motors), with a veneer of plot to keep the various race scenes strung together. It's probably on par with most Elvis movies, where the point was to keep the spotlight on the star amid a whirlwind of activity. Hirsch acquits himself well as a young man struggling with adult responsibilities, though his one expression behind the wheel appears to be intense discomfort. Ricci, as Trixie, is well cast if only for her manga-esque features; she hangs in gamely with the dialogue and plot twists, though.

The cast is generally strong, with Goodman in particular turning in a nuanced performance (mostly) as Pops Racer. He even manages to salvage what could have been a jaw-droppingly dumb fight scene. His strength comes in a couple of scenes where he brings greater depth to Pops than he could have.

The story isn't bad--corruption is pretty good as a driver for action movies--but the explanations for how this dirty business works rushes by pretty fast and seems a bit abstract for its effects on the Racer family. It's sort of like describing how Enron's collapse would affect a telemarketer in Encino. Yeah, there might be a connection but it's not necessarily life and death for the telemarketer, you know?

Speed's car, the incredible Mach 5, has a bunch of gadgets--including spring-loaded jacks, buzzsaw cutters, crampon-spouting tires (which can replace themselves, too), and a bulletproof canopy--and we see Speed use just about every one of them. That was pretty awesome.

Apart from that bit of awesome, however, the movie's race sequences feel like they're suited more to Hot Wheels: the Movie than Speed Racer. The action takes place inside incredibly vast racing arenas, one of them apparently intercontinental, and while that's okay, what makes it tough is that the cinematography makes it hard to tell what's happening. The Mach 5 bounces around like a pinball in many scenes, so that you can't tell if Speed is in trouble... or has the bad guys right where he wants them. Plus there's a "use the Force" moment that's too ridiculous to explain further.

I'd give SPEED RACER one and a half out of four stars. It's too long and hyperactive for little kids--plus there's one really age-inappropriate gesture-- so think twice before you take the little ones. It's not a terrible movie, it really isn't, but it's not above what most film lovers deride as "mindless summer blockbusters" either.

You can see more reviews here.

Don't Forget to See "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"

Kat and I went to the movies Friday night, choosing to see "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." Our friends were all planning to see "Forbidden Kingdom" but a nice break-up comedy called us much more strongly.

We were extremely happy that we went.

Kat has been a fan of Jason Segal's since she discovered "Freaks and Geeks" late last year (buy it on Amazon here). She Netflixed the series, got hooked and... presto, instant fan. So it wasn't a hard sell to see the first movie he's written and starring in, especially since it's gotten great buzz.

What we weren't quite as ready for was how great Kristen Bell and Mila Kunis were in their roles as Sarah and Rachel (respectively). We liked Kristen Bell in Heroes (honest, she was perhaps the only good thing in that botch we call Season 2), but hadn't seen her do comedy, while we knew Mila Kunis from "That '70s Show" and as Meg Griffin in "Family Guy"-- still, very nice to see she's versatile, funny and charming. (As is Kristen Bell. Equal time, ladies!) Fun fact: Mila Kunis shares my birthday of August 14. (So does Steve Martin, btw.)

We also thought Russell Brand was terrific as womanizing rock star Aldous Snow. Segal wrote a terrific rival in this guy. We heard that there was a lot of improv on set, in which case the cast gets huge props for making us laugh (and talk afterward a lot) even more than we might have otherwise. In all, huge amounts of fun.

And yes, you do get to see just about all there is to see of Jason Segal.

If you have AOL, Moviefone has a video of Segal and Bell interviewing each other--it's funny and revealing, with lots of nice byplay between them.

If you're in the mood for something fun, check out FSM.

Watchmen figures!

Hell yes!

http://blog.newsarama.com/2008/04/16/first-look-watchmen-action-figures/

Gettin' me a Rorschach figure first day, man.

Spiderwick Review

Kat and I went to see a sneak preview of The Spiderwick Chronicles last night.

You know how you're nervous that a movie won't live up to the source material? That you'll see a lesser work, "inspired by" something really terrific? Well, it's about ten times worse when you know the writer and are really hoping against hope that Hollywood got it right.

Have no fear-- Spiderwick is not that movie.

Based on the series by Holly Black and Tony diTerlizzi, and featuring Freddie Highmore as Simon and Jared Grace, Sarah Bolger as their older sister Mallory, Mary-Louise Parker as their mom, Nick Nolte as Mulgarath, and David Strathairn as Arthur Spiderwick, the film is truly magical.

The story in brief: the Grace family has moved into an old, run-down country house left to the mother (Parker) by her Aunt Lucinda (the magnificent Joan Plowright), who is in a sanatarium. Lucinda's father, Arthur Spiderwick (Strathairn), was obsessed with fairies--and, she claims, one day they took him away. Now the Graces--Mallory (Bolger) and her twin brothers, Simon and Jared (Highmore)-- are living in the house, since the breakup of their parents.

Simon is a student of nature, Mallory is an ardent student of fencing... and Jared is a student of troublemaking. Angry and sullen, Jared calls his father (Andrew McCarthy) over and over, begging to live with him instead. Jared hears something in the wall and accidentally discovers a long-forgotten room, where he finds Spiderwick's "Field Guild to the Fantastical World Around You." This book assembles everything Spiderwick learned about fairies--and it comes with a warning not to read, lest dire consequences befall.

Jared learns pretty quickly that the warning was a serious one. He meets Thimbletack (voiced by Martin Short), the brownie/boggart guardian of the Field Guide, and learns that the ogre Mulgarath (Nolte) will stop at nothing to have the book for himself. With its knowledge, the ogre can destroy the other fairies and perhaps even attack the human world.

Jared stubbornly refuses to heed the warnings and reveals to goblin spies that the Field Guide has been found. This results in Simon's kidnapping, an attack on Mallory, and ultimately a goblin assault on the house itself. Unless Jared can find Arthur Spiderwick, it seems certain that the Grace family will meet its doom.

The movie begins with a flashback to Arthur Spiderwick's frantic effort to protect his book, then races forward 80 years to the Graces' arrival. Each character is drawn vividly from the very beginning, from Simon's zen-like pacifism and studiousness to Jared's angry tirades, Mallory's exasperated-but-affectionate older sister to Mrs. Grace's weary, slow-motion emotional breakdown. In ten minutes, we know who these people are. Highmore is absolutely fantastic as both Grace brothers, endowing each with their own distinctive speech patterns, mannerisms, even expressions, while Bolger is terrific as the older sister whose love for the brothers is only rivaled by her frustration with them. And Parker shines in a role that is particularly demanding: she's falling apart inside while struggling to keep herself together for the sake of her kids. She doesn't have a lot of screen time to get the point across, but she makes it clear what's going on.

The forward momentum never lets up, with the rapid-fire introduction of many characters in a short span of time. Seth Rogen does a hilarious turn as Hogsqueal, the hobgoblin out to avenge his family on Mulgarath, and Nolte has rarely been more menacing--either in human form or as the voice of the massive ogre.

One of the movie's true wonders is Joan Plowright, who invests Lucinda with luminous heart and soul despite a lifetime of sorrow and misunderstanding. Her story is a tragic one, but though told quickly, she invests her character with the sum of that story's unhappiness and desperate faith. She deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

This is a film made for children along the old Disney model: real danger, real challenges, and kids who have to find the answers for themselves. It is also a classic folk tale, wherein the heroes cannot triumph by superior strength; they must be smart and use the knowledge they've earned, winning by wits rather than muscles. On all these points, Spiderwick succeeds admirably.

Director Mark Waters brings out enchanting performances from his talented cast, but also creates an entire world of magical creatures in and around the huge Spiderwick house. It is a Herculean task to make the real fit side-by-side with the surreal, but Waters manages in terrific style. Likewise, screenwriters Karey Kirkpatrick, David Berenbaum and John Sayles deliver a taut, amazingly faithful adaptation of the books, capturing their essence in only an hour and a half--truly a great feat of screenwriting. If the new Spiderwick books are made into a movie, this team must be reassembled, because they know how to do it right.

Although scary for very young children, I believe this is a film that parents and their kids will watch over and over, enjoying its magic for many years to come.

Strongly recommended.

Spiderwick tonight!

Kat and I are going to see The Spiderwick Chronicles sneak preview here in DC tonight. (We thought it was last night but there was a mixup regarding the date...)

Honestly, we can't wait. We've gotten to know Holly Black just a little (hi, Holly!) and are very eager to see her and Tony diTerlizzi's work translated to the silver screen.

Initial reviews have been fantastic, particularly for Freddie Highmore (perhaps best known as Charlie Bucket in the recent "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" film) and Nick Nolte. We're going to write up a review for SFRevu's February issue, so check back there tomorrow and see what we think.

Cloverfield

Saw Cloverfield yesterday and... man, what a movie.
This is NOT one for those who get motion sick easily. If you can't stand a rollercoaster ride, you aren't going to like an hour and a half of camcorder vertigo.
But if you can take it...
You've probably read about the plot already. Rob Hawkins is about to move to a new job in Japan, but hasn't resolved his issues with long-time friend Beth. At a going-away party, they have a fight and she leaves--just before a colossal explosion wracks Manhattan, followed by the spectacular crash of the Statue of Liberty's head practically at Rob's feet. (This is all captured by Rob's friend Hud, who's manning the camcorder to capture goodbye messages from partygoers.)
Clearly something is very, very wrong.
That something is a gigantic monster smashing its way through New York City. Rob and his friends attempt to evacuate via the Brooklyn Bridge but are sent fleeing when the monster strikes. They consider an alternate route when Rob gets a voicemail from Beth; she's badly hurt and needs his help.
Rob goes to her rescue, with a handful of friends in tow.
What they experience in the midst of this onslaught is horrific, challenging them to find reserves of courage and compassion they never suspected in the course of their previous self-absorbed lives. They are not the heroes of the story, merely the innocent bystanders struggling to survive. It's powerful, evocative filmmaking, done on a shoestring budget ($25m) and an ingenious viral marketing campaign launched to little fanfare (but immediate Internet fascination) last year.
And if that isn't enough to get you to see it, the teaser trailer for Star Trek (J.J. Abrams' next project) is attached.
Not sure how often I'll want to revisit this one, but it's a dynamite film. If you ever wanted to see a mashup of Godzilla and Blair Witch Project-- this one's for you.

NOW PLAYING: Golden Compass review

The Next Epic Trilogy

Kat and I went to see "The Golden Compass" last night at a sneak preview in DC. Not having read the books, I didn't know anything but what the commercials were showing--Nicole Kidman in form-fitting dresses, Daniel Craig bearded and scholarly, a little girl astride a polar bear fresh from a Coca Cola commericial... you've seen the ads, you get the idea.

We were impressed and delighted.

Without going deep into spoiler territory, the summary is this: a little orphan girl raised in a college finds herself in the middle of a covert battle between those who champion the right of all to think for themselves and the forces of the Magisterium, an authoritarian quasi-government with its own horrifying secrets and ambitions.

The girl, Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards), holds the last golden compass; this is an artifact capable of discerning truth for those able to read it. She encounters Mrs. Coulter (Kidman), a deliciously evil woman so despicable she even brutalizes her own "demon" (a physical manifestation of one's soul--part companion and part conscience). Lyra's own demon, Pan (voiced by Freddie Highmore), is not settled into one shape like Coulter's; instead, he is able to change from ferret to bird to rat to cat with quicksilver speed. He is both ally and vulnerability to Lyra, as his welfare is used against her more than once.

Lyra's uncle, Asriel (Craig), is an explorer and self-professed "heretic" in the eyes of the Magisterium. He sets out for the distant North, where he believes the secret of the mystical "dust" can be learned and access to myriad other worlds obtained.

Meanwhile, Lyra must explore the mystery of several missing children, as well as an unsettling prophecy and the need to make friends in strange places. She befriends Scoresby (Sam Elliott), a cowboyish 'aeronaut' with his own flying machine, and ice bear Iorek (voiced by Ian McKellen), a figure who is both tragic and pathetic when first met. However, with Lyra's faith and support, Iorek shows he is a force not to be discounted.

As Lyra plumbs the depths of the mysteries around her and leads an unlikely assortment of allies into battle, she makes some powerful discoveries--and sets the stage for a great conflict, which the film promises with its closing shots.

Kidman and Craig lend not only star power but also terrific acting as Mrs. Coulter and Asrial, respectively. Craig plays against the Bond persona he crafted for Casino Royale, portraying a scholar strait-jacketed by a ruthless enemy organization; he is a man of thought and action, more cerebral than Bond if only slightly less dangerous in a fight.

Coulter is a platinum blonde fiend, whose tyranny and ego are both monstrous in scope as well as practice. There are not many movies where she's been quite this pitch-perfect. Richards, as Lyra, does a magnificent job particularly in her scenes with Kidman, when she effortlessly calls Coulter on her hypocrisies. Richards also does a superb job acting with Iorek (McKellen), whom one imagines was created on a computer, giving the girl little to act with. That she makes her interactions with the bear so warm and believable is remarkable for an actor of any age, doubly so for such a youngster. She'll also make you believe she's discerning the world's secrets while staring into a golden disk.

Sadly, though grace notes (mostly historical allusions) flesh out the supporting cast, there is very little screen time given to the diverse actors backing up the above quartet. This isn't to say they don't give their all-- there just isn't much given to them to do. We hope that their roles will be expanded in the second and third installments, as there are many heroes and villains ready for their turn in the spotlight.

Rated PG-13, the movie has moments of violence but nothing truly terrifying.

Opens Friday, December 7.

What's Goin' On?

Hey everyone,
It's been a great week in many ways. The Bugle's Planet Daily blog launched last week and has been doing very well-- I've got tons of posts in our inventory, which means readers will be eyeballing my stuff for the next few weeks unless our contributors start cranking.

Saw "Knocked Up" with Kat yesterday, then wandered the streets of Old Town Alexandria, mostly thinking about having kids and being a parent. It's in the cards, just a matter of when, not if. The movie's good but goes to places that left me thinking "okay, a little TOO far..." Worth seeing but not necessarily owning, if you know what I mean.

Kat and I are going to visit my mom in Gulfport in a couple of weeks, which will be terrific. Last time I was there was just after Katrina and it was heartbreaking-- imagine your old hometown torn to pieces and a lot of your familiar childhood touchstones gone. Supposedly there's rebuilding going on but it'll never be like it was. But Kat will get to see the place and Mom's very excited. Should be a great visit.

Kat's also going to Philly this week to spend her brother's 21st birthday with him and her cousins. Those wacky kids. I know they'll have a fun time together. Meanwhile, I'll be at home writing.

Check out the BPD, love the one you're with and have a great week!

Spider-Man 3: The Review

Okay, let's get it over with: I did not hate Spider-Man 3.

A number of my friends seemed to be unhappy and I'll admit, if I'd gone to a midnight showing of a two-plus-hour movie, I would've been a little ass-burned by the end too. (Especially if I had only three hours of sleep to look forward to afterward... I mean, jeez!)

Spider-Man is an iconic character. He might not be up there with Superman just yet in terms of universal identification but there are a lot of folks in the US who know that red-and-blue costume. Plus the movies have made him more famous than the past 40+ years of comics. As for this new movie... there were a few things at work here for me going in, as I shall enumerate below:

1. My friends told me going in that it was at best mixed and at worst disappointing;
2. The reviews said as much;
3. My expectations were not very high to start, as I figure by any third part of a trilogy, the creative fires are guttering if not nearly extinguished.

Tobey Maguire gives it his all but Spider-Man ends up struggling for screen (and theme) time, what with Sandman, "New Goblin" and Venom getting origin stories, MJ's career getting flushed down the toilet (after one bad review? sheesh!), the introduction of Gwen Stacy (who never really amounts to being a rival for Peter's affections), and... well, on and on.

To me, the movie's about redemption. Peter suffers the sin of hubris (embodied by his reckless "jerkiness" while wearing the symbiote-- remember, it only *enhances* whatever is there, in this case a big fat head from too much NY/Spidey love), and comes crashing back down to Earth when it's rubbed in his face that it's costing him MJ. MJ suffers a lot here too, realizing that being Spider-Man's girlfriend is NOT all fun and games; like cops' wives, there's times when he won't be there for her and times when she'll worry if he's coming home at all.

On the villain side, Sandman's a small time crook and loser who only wants to see his sick little girl. His motivation is at least somewhat noble; not so Eddie Brock, who's a sleazy jerk eager to grab the spot Peter's worked for on the Daily Bugle staff. If Sandman is trying to do something positive--even through criminal means--Eddie is a dark twin to Peter: the guy who Peter might have been if things had been different. His Venom is a murderous glob of tar and malice with big teeth... and he's the only character who doesn't try to redeem himself in any way.

Lastly, the whole "redemption" theme rests heavily on Harry Osborn, who has gone through some of the insanity his father left him as of the first movie. He's finally gotten clear of it but now has the power to choose: villain or friend? Murderer or partner? It's an interesting bit of story arc and James Franco handles it very well.

All in all, this could be the last installment of Spider-Man on film for awhile and that'd be okay. I'd rather see this group recharge their batteries and come back strong than limp through a bloated Spider-Man 4 (featuring Vulture, Electro, Rhino, Kraven and Carnage, kiddies!!). Sony would also do better with a better film, rather than chase after profits with some reckless sequel in two years.

Just my two cents.