Miracle at St. Anna
September 25, 2008 | 1 Comment
From our Guest Reviewer JadeInTheATL:
Well, I admit I am something of a Spike Lee fan. Not just because we share a skin tone, which used to be a rarity but isn’t so much any more. For some reason, I pretty much see anything that he and Woody Allen release, so even though this means the occasional Curse of the Jade Scorpion or Girl 6, I still tend to venture out during the first run of their films.
Miracle at St. Anna is an attempt at an epic WWII picture. Weighing in at a somewhat pudgy 160 minutes running time, it is a bit fleshy and ponderous, kind of like Serena Williams was at the French Open this year (Glad to see somebody got in shape for Wimbledon and “opened up a can” on the rest of the women!). The first 40 minutes have all of the WWII set pieces. The headquarters commander that has a clue but is too far removed to effectively help; the on-the-scene Captain that hasn’t a clue and gets people killed just because he’s incompetent. D.B. Sweeney playing Henry Fonda in The Battle of the Bulge. There’s even a Tokyo Rose equivalent that is piped in at the battlefield via a P.A. truck to tell our Black troops how the Nazis appreciate them ever so much more than White Americans. Yeah, right.
I spent enough time watching WWII movies and TV shows in the late fifties and early sixties to be familiar with most of the devices here and Spike rings the requisite bells fairly early on. Regrettably, as much as I wanted to like this film, it is just too unevenly paced, and inadequately edited to really work on the screen. Moreover, there are just too many stories going on here. I suspect this could have been a good film if it had been about 45 minutes shorter and lightened by at least a couple of storylines.
Still, there are a couple of interesting things going on here. First of all, I can remember Mr. Lee’s great opening credits sequence to Clockers. In the midst of the popularity of gangsta glorification a la New Jack City, he set an immediate tone hitting us with shot after shot of real crime scene photos that took all of the romance out of violence and informed the viewer of how ugly the consequences of violence are. Similarly, this film is unrelenting in its portrayal of the shock and horror of bullets and bombs tearing into human bodies. I love a good action film with lots of bullets, but I found myself flinching throughout this film. Time and again, a sudden strike of a bullet slams into a person as time dilates. Not a gratuitous splatter fest, mind you, but a realistic portrayal as the camera often circles back to show us the resultant corpse realistically bloodied and soul-absent. Masterfully, Mr. Lee doesn’t let us get anesthetized to the violence, for as we become more invested in individual characters, those are the very ones whose bodies are so graphically violated before our eyes. The woman next to me was covering her eyes during some of the sequences, and there were exclamations all around me in the theater as well. Where Saving Private Ryan shocked us on a grander scale, this may be even more powerful, if less meticulously portrayed, because it is played out on a smaller stage and is revisited many times over the course of the film.
The second interesting exploration is that of belief, religion and faith. There are multiple references to the mysticism of religion, both Protestant and Catholic. From Private Train talking about the Holy Spirit, to a woman attempting to divine the future from floating grease puddles we are treated to a hodge-podge of objectified spiritual snapshots, that I doubt will ring very true to any Believer. Still the pervasiveness of the commentary on belief is something new for Mr. Lee.
Consistently throughout his career, Spike Lee has never been known for subtlety, and this is no departure. Remember that incompetent Captain I mentioned earlier? Of course, since he is commanding Black troops, he’s a foul-mouthed Southerner ably played by Walton Goggins who fans of The Shield will recognize as Shane. To show us fear in battle, there’s a bawling private crying loudly for his mother as they attempt to quietly approach the field of battle. Not whining like Bill Paxton’s Pvt. Hudson in Aliens, I mean bawling like a kid. Every point is belabored. Every nuance pulled to the foreground. The Nazis are portrayed as incredibly cruel, particularly in the pivotal St. Anna sequence. Yet even here, after a general atrocity is committed, it is topped off by an ultimate act of cruelty via a bayonet. Okay Mr. Lee, I get it, I get it!
As for the performances, Michael Ealy is consistently menacing as light-skinned, gold-toothed, predatory Bishop, and Derek Luke is believable as the straight-arrow Sergeant Stamps. Nine year old Matteo Sciabordi as Angelo, who seems to be the moral center of the piece in some ways, is quite good considering that this is his first film role. On the other hand, Omar Benson Miller as Private Train, or, as he is referred to by Angelo, “Chocolate Giant,” is good through most of the film but seems to be asked to drop character from time to time to become the comic relief, sometimes in an almost embarrassing way.
But, returning to my main theme here, most of all, it just seems long and meandering.
Can I recommend this movie? There are some things worth seeing here, and I suspect that the graphic violence works particularly well on the big screen. Valentina Cervi is hot, with a sultry mouth and a smoldering gaze, and she manages to doff her top in a couple of memorable sequences. Still, I struggled to give this movie a second star. I can only hope that there will be a Director’s Cut released that runs maybe 110 minutes. That might be a film worth a look.
JadeInTheATL
Stargate: Continuum
September 19, 2008 | 1 Comment
This is the second straight-to-DVD movie sequel to the TV series STARGATE SG-1.
The first straight-to-DVD movie, STARGATE: THE ARK OF TRUTH, wrapped up the unfinished storyline from seasons 9-10 of the series.
This second movie is a little more accessible to the casual viewer.
It’s a story they’ve done before, but never so well. A time travel paradox causes the SG-1 team to be stranded in an alternate timeline.
This time around, those in charge put the brakes on them correcting the timeline. After all, to everybody else on Earth, this is how history is supposed to be. So we get to see the characters spending some time adjusting to their new universe.
At 98 minutes, this is about 2-1/2 times a regular episode, and the movie has time to show us some nice moments with the characters, and explore the ramifications of the storyline.
The movie has all the major characters, including Jack O’Neill (Richard Dean Anderson). Don S. Davis appears as General Jack Hammond, one of his last appearances before his death in June 2008. Various villains from seasons past make appearances.
CONTINUUM has a bigger budget feel than the TV episodes, and it has another spectacular addition as well: The U.S. Navy let the movie film at their 2007 Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station, nearly 200 miles out on the frozen ocean, above the Arctic Circle. These are some vistas that you can’t get on a soundstage.
DVD Extras: Audio commentary with producer/writer and director, Making of documentary, Stargate Goes to the Arctic, The Layman’s Guide to Time Travel.
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder
September 19, 2008 | 1 Comment
The 1997 Starship Troopers has spawned a 1999 animated series, a 2004 straight-to-DVD Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, and now this 2008 straight-to-DVD Starship Troopers 3: Marauder.
Starship Troopers 2 was a pretty low-budget outing; surrounded by bug aliens, the soldiers retreated into a fortress and the rest of the movie became somewhat ALIENesque.
This time around, either they had a bigger budget, or they really stretched it filming in South Africa. The sets for the human base are pretty impressive, and the CGI is comparable to the theatrical movie.
Casper Van Dien is back as Johnny Rico. Jolene Blalock (The Vulcan on STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE) also stars.
More importantly, some of the dark humor about the fascist overtones of the Earth government are back from the first movie. Along with the retro-future newsreel footage. Do you want to know more?
A military base on a farm planet is attacked. Johnny Rico repels the attack, but, when he punches a superior officer, is sentenced to hang.
Meanwhile, Jolene Blaloch’s ship is forced to set down on a major Bug world.
Rico is sprung to go on a rescue mission.
There’s lots of weird new Bugs.
This movie manages to be a fun science fiction monster movie, with some of the throwback feel of the original movie. And there’s a big dose of political and religious satire.
Also, there’s a nice homage to the original Robert Heinlein novel, with the introduction of the power armor suits (Marauders).
Keeping in mind that a straight-to-DVD movie isn’t going to be equal to a theatrical movie, this is a pretty good third movie, much better than the second one.
Of course, one thing that’s never been explained in any of these three movies is how the alien Bugs travel between different planets. Seems difficult to hold an interstellar war with creatures who have no means of space travel. Yet they seem to have infested the whole galaxy!
DVD Extras: A pretty good assortment: 2 commentary tracks, 2 featurettes, and a music video.
Lost Boys: The Tribe
September 19, 2008 | 1 Comment
The Lost Boys was the 1987 Joel Schumacher-directed vampire movie with Kiefer Sutherland. Now, 21 years later, is this straight-to-DVD sequel, Lost Boys: The Tribe. Director/producer/writers of the first movie aren’t connected to this production (at one point, Schumacher was planning a sequel, The Lost Girls, but it never happened). But the director of this new one, P.J. Pesce, also did a previous straight-to-DVD vampire movie, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3: THE HANGMAN’S DAUGHTER.
In the first few minute it tries a little too hard to justify its R rating, where a bunch of surfer dudes drop the F-bomb about 30 times, and then comes a pretty gory scene.
Later, a brother and sister, 20-something ex-professional surfer Chris (Tad Hilgenbrink from AMERICAN PIE PRESENTS BAND CAMP), and his 17-year-old sister Nicole (Autumn Reeser, THE O.C.), move to Luna Bay (Not the equally fictitious Santa Clara, California of the original). They’ve been orphaned when their parents die in a car accident, and their aunt offers them a place to stay.
Soon, trying to fit in, they go to a lavish house party which involves a lot of beautiful young people, some of them naked women. Nicole falls for the charms of scruffy ex-professional surfer Shane Powers, who looks a tiny bit like Kiefer Sutherland, because he’s played by his half-brother, Angus Sutherland.
As it turns out, Shane and his pals are vampires. Soon, Nicole has taken a swig from the wrong bottle, and is on her way to being a vampire herself. Her big brother tries to rescue her.
Aiding him in this plan is Edgar Frog (Corey Feldman) from the first movie, apparently a part-time vampire hunter for 21 years now, and with a full assortment of stakes, holy water super-squirtguns, etc. He provides the comedy, because, he was a little crazed 21 years ago, and more so now with his years as a grizzled vampire hunter.
Straight-to-DVD is straight-to-DVD; if you’re expecting a theatrical-quality movie, this isn’t it. It starts out a bit rocky, but it gets better as it goes along. It’s a fairly stylish, rather gory vampire horror movie.
It’s got a bunch of pretty young actors, it’s got some comedy though not as much as the first one (mainly provided by The Brother Frog).
One thing that the original had that this does not is an outstanding soundtrack; this has three songs by one band, and then a revamp (sorry, couldn’t resist) of “Cry Little Sister” from the original.
All in all, for a straight-to-DVD vampire movie, this isn’t bad. And it’s fun seeing what Edgar Frog is up to these days.
Stick around through the end credits; there’s a little extra scene not too far into them.
DVD extras: Fairly skimpy. Include 2 short deleted scenes, four mediocre music videos, Edgar Frog’s guide to vampire hunting, and a short Making Of documentary. No commentary.
WarGames: The Dead Code
September 19, 2008 | 1 Comment
It’s been 25 years since Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy took on WOPR in the original WarGames. Now comes this straight-to-DVD sequel, WarGames: The Dead Code.
The original movie was made in 1983. Home computers were still in their infancy. Broderick’s hacker character dialed into computer Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) with his dialup modem and accidentally got a NORAD supercomputer, setting off a chain of events that nearly leads to Armageddon.
So the scriptwriters were given the assignment, update this for the 21st century, where now we have an Internet, laptop computers, cellphones, GPS systems, etc.
The setup is pretty convoluted, so take notes. The hacker, basically a good kid but in need of some quick money, is playing on a website that’s a combination gaming site and gambling site. So you could wager your money on poker, but you could also bet you’ll win some first-person-shooter game or whatever. The site’s avatar is R.I.P.L.E.Y, a 2-D Lara Croft-ish babe. Why “Ripley” is chosen as a hot babe’s name is mysterious, except that doubtlessly the writers have seen a lot of ALIEN movies.
Now, it turns out, the site is a front for a Department of Defense supercomputer that is trying to catch terrorists. The thought is, terrorists or would-be terrorists will play the games that have a terrorist theme (So watch out when you’re playing CounterStrike, always play the Good Guys!), and bet money on it.
This idea is pretty wonky (Can we assume that the Department of Defense is handling the millions of dollars that would inevitable result from the people just there to play poker?). But wait, there’s more. As it happens, our hero has “borrowed” the money to play the game from his former-Syrian neighbor whom he was helping with his computer problems, and the money transfer triggers an alert that it’s Middle Eastern Money. Also, the kid’s mom works in biological research, and has been bringing samples from the lab home with her.
All this ends up basically pointing the finger at the kid as a terrorist. He flies to Montreal on a high school chess club trip (which he’s joined to impress his would-be girlfriend).
Somewhere in there RIPLEY goes HAL-9000, and decides she’s going to really release a biological agent or nerve gas or some damn thing from a drone plane on Philadelphia.
None of this really makes a lot of sense, but it’s directed at a fairly breakneck pace. It’s a competently done thriller. It plays out more like a movie like ENEMY OF THE STATE; lots of running around, trying to avoid government agents and surveillance cameras.
Eventually the movie shows that it is a sequel and not just a remake; we get appearances by two characters from the original movie (though not the actors).
A theatrical movie is a theatrical movie, and a straight-to-DVD movie is its own animal. It’s not really fair to berate this for not being of theatrical quality: If it was, they would have released it theatrically. This is mildly enjoyable, as a homage to the original, but it’s also very silly.
There’s a number of occasions where it would seem that when the Department of Defense realizes things have gone haywire, their problems with RIPLEY could be solved in minutes with the use of a large axe.
Look for the cameo appearance of the coming MMORPG, STARGATE WORLDS.
DVD Extras: Commentary track with director and actor, 15-minute Making Of documentary.
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