DVD Review: CREEPSHOW (1982)

Because The Prezzies don't have ENOUGH topics to cover on this site (Reviews, Mini-Reviews, Actor Spotlights, Awards Speculation, Retro Awards, Anticipated Releases), there will now be the occasional DVD Review here. I have almost 250 DVD movies, and about 30 television seasons, and lately have been trolling Half Price Books for older clearance discs at $2-3 each. The reviews will mostly cover the film itself, since they are older, many younger people may have not seen them, but we'll discuss the Special Features if they apply or are noteworthy. Today, we will take a look at the 1982 camp horror classic, Creepshow.



Creepshow

Released: November 12, 1982

Box Office: $21 million
(Ranked 37th of 1982)

Starring: Hal Holbrook, Leslie Nielsen, Adrienne Barbeau, E.G. Marshall, Ted Danson, Fritz Weaver, Ed Harris, Stephen King

Director: George A. Romero

DVD Issue: 1999

Grade: B



Stephen King and George A. Romero's Creepshow is perhaps the most well-known portmanteau in horror cinema. Grossing a modest $21 million in a 1982 era dominated by E.T., it's success greenlighted the likes of future "tales of terror" popular in the 1980s, such as The Twilight Zone Movie, King's Cat Eye, and Tales From The Darkside. It, along with the cheap double features of the sixties and seventies, inspired Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez to make Grindhouse (Eli Roth's short segment 'Thanksgiving' in the film even uses part of the Creepshow score).

But while Creepshow may have helped revived the genre of anthology horror, movies that pieced together several unrelated tales of the macabre into one feature film, the United Kingdom had quite a run with these type of tales at least a full two decades before that.

One of the first was Dead of Night in 1948, which influenced many radio programs and future television adaptations at the time. The genre picked up in the late sixties and seventies with such fare as Dr. Terror's House Of Horrors and The Vault Of Horror. The most famous of these was 1972's Tales From The Crypt, which later lent its name to the HBO series and its run of knockoffs. The 1972 version starred Joan Collins and Peter Cushing, and featured a memorably stirring tale involving a tunnel of razors and a German Shepherd that can be seen as a precursor to today's Saw franchise.

Creepshow is all about tongue-in-cheek camp. Romero uses comic book fonts to segue from one tale to another, and often implements it into the stories themselves. This gives the film a playful vibe that many films in the 'grunge' era would use 10 years later. King adapts five stories, two from previously published short works, and three written exclusively for the screen. They range from zombies to aliens to (gulp) bugs.

The first two are obviously the weakest, but both have their guilty pleasures. In Father's Day, a demented older woman and her snobbish relatives (one played by a 31-year-old, pre-The Right Stuff Ed Harris) are murdered one-by-one by the abusive father she had killed seven years earlier, now a zombie out for his "Father's Day cake". In The Lonesome Death Of Jody Verrill, King himself plays the dim-witted titular character, who finds a meteorite that turns everything it touches into a grassy substance. King's performance is majorly ostentatious, but engrossingly fun to watch at the same time.

Something To Tide You Over starts off good, albeit without much 'horror' element, but then loses its steam at the end. Leslie Nielsen, fresh off Airplane! and the original Prom Night, devises a murder plot against his cheating wife and her lover Harry (Ted Danson, with Cheers in its first season). He forces them to be buried in sand up to their neck and eventually drown when the tide comes in. Nielsen's Richard takes glee in his set-up, but the segment soon spirals into a zombie revenge plot.

The best, longest and most realized segment is The Crate, based off of a King short story. Hal Holbrook (All The President's Men, Into The Wild) stars as Henry, a college professor who loathes his brash, foul-mouthed wife Billie (early 80s sexpot Adrienne Barbeau). When Dexter Stanley (longtime character actor Fritz Weaver), a colleague of his, finds a box under the laboratory stairs that contains a man-eating primate, Henry seizes this opportunity to put Billie away once and for all. The plot may sound stupid, but unlike the previous three stories, The Crate is actually quite suspenseful and holds a steady pace the entire segment.

Finally we have They're Creeping Up On You, which for me personally, was almost impossible to watch. E.G. Marshall goes to town as a rich millionaire germaphobe with a soulless attitude and a fear of cockroaches. I have my own major fear of certain insects, not so much the cockroaches themselves but seeing their bodies up close (which is why I don't own The Fly, Mimic, Joe's Apartment etc) . So suffice to say, the whole story revolving around his eventual demise by the deed of many, many cockroaches left me very, very uneasy.

The whole film has the fun and charisma of laughably dated makeup/effects by Tom Savini (Friday The 13th, Dawn Of The Dead) and over-the-top acting. But in a way, these kinds of films are long gone and sort of missed. While Creepshow may look garish compared to some of the best special effect efforts of our time, it was a labor of love. Many of the features we see today that look cheap are effectively because they were made strictly for money and a job. Creepshow may be frightening, but it has a lot of heart, something many horror films are missing in this generation.

Featured Review: X-FILES 2

The X-Files: I Want To Believe



Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Billy Connolly, Amanda Peet, Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner, Mitch Pileggi



Directed by Chris Carter



Grade: C-




"I don't believe this."
"You know, that's been your problem from the very beginning."

I certainly wanted to believe. I wanted to believe that this second film installment of The X-Files franchise would be an engaging sci-fi thriller, something that could possibly lend credence to future sequels. If anything, give David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson something to do with their careers and balance out the negativity surrounding most of the recently released tripe in the horror/sci-fi genre. Instead, like the religious beliefs of Anderson's Scully, all that was left for The X-Files: I Want To Believe, was ugly, open-ended doubt.

It's been so long since the television series and first film premiered, that I barely remember said film, 1998's Fight The Future. But there were some indelible images. A kid being consumed by black goo, our heroes being chased by bees, a giant alien spaceship. It was an entertaining movie that combined some of the best elements of the show; aliens and dramatic tension. But I Want To Believe refuses to mix in its' most unearthly lineage, rather opting to put away their metaphysical playthings for a more complex 'human' touch. And that extracts all the interest out of new and casual fans like myself in enjoying this movie.

Years after their last hurrah in the FBI, Dana Scully (Anderson) is a doctor in a Catholic hospital dealing with a crisis of faith, especially over a presumably terminally ill little boy. She gets called upon to dig up her old partner Fox Mulder, a not-so-sought-after fugitive, to help solve an unusual case involving another missing FBI agent. He eventually agrees, and begins to not only earn the trust of Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) the agent in charge of the investigation, but gets Scully involved in the process as well. The main chip the FBI have is Father Joe (Billy Connolly) a former Catholic priest and pedophile who has psychic visions that relate to the missing agent.

In essence the plot is less an exertion of the paranormal and supernatural, but that of a straight crime thriller with mythological subtext. However, therein lies its biggest problem: there seems to be more elements of films such as Zodiac or Stigmata than anything uniquely exciting or worthy of being a nearly two hour stand-alone television franchise vehicle. It drags on very, very slowly from one scene to the next without much of an element of surprise. When something climatic DOES happen, it pops out at you with all the excitement of a broken jack-in-the-box.

As fellow critic Michael Brieaddy points out, the film has very much the same feel that die hard fans of the television show know of. Like Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The X-Files focused just as much on serious issues of people's lives and relationships as they did on the creatures. Not every episode is filled with alien and ghost arcs.

I'm all for serious drama fare. But ten years between films and a six year layoff on the franchise in general does not give them the excuse to build a template for a whole movie series with this much conversation building. Franchises like Batman and Spider-Man has earned the right to space out their action sequences with exposition and tension building and introducing future characters, but for The X-Files, with all subtle references to characters' past lives aside, we need a little refresher course. Had this been a direct sequel to Fight The Future, released in 1999 or 2000 while the show still was on the air, I Want To Believe might succeed without much mythological ado. But it's 2008, and nobody but the resolute fanboys care anymore.

None of the original supporting characters from the series' run appeared in the film (although many actors who served in bit episodic roles are littered throughout), save one. Mitch Pileggi, Assistant Director Walter Skinner, shows up for a brief scene towards the end. His appearance, no matter how canonical within the series of events, seems like an underwhelming attempt at getting longtime fans to clap or holler for another familiar face. But this is The X-Files, not The Brady Bunch Movie.

I may be nitpicking, because the performances were adequate enough. Xzibit never shouted 'Pimp My Ride!', and Connolly stood out as the formerly immoral priest, but really, if you're only making the movie to please a fan base that can't even beat Mamma Mia! in its second week at the box office, why not just resurrect it for cable television (The Sci-Fi Channel would kill for this license), or make a direct-to-DVD film series? Or are Duchovny and Anderson too busy to resort to such low wages? Looking at their resumes, I certainly find THAT hard to believe.

Featured Review: SPACE CHIMPS

Space Chimps



Starring Andy Samberg, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels, Patrick Warburton, Kristin Chenoweth, Stanley Tucci, Jane Lynch, Carlos Alazraqui



Directed by Kirk De Micco



Grade: D



"Let's chimp this ride!"

Space Chimps, the second of three computer-animated tales about non-humans going into space this summer, is by far much less quality than its' predecessor, the stunning and exquisite Pixar offering Wall-E. Sadly, with Fly Me To The Moon yet to be released, this laughable and insulting excuse of a film to 'entertain' children, may not even be the worse of the lot. But it certainly fails to muster any sympathy with a no-budget animation crew and the lamest excuse of a script this side of the nebula, even by kiddie film standards.

Produced by Vanguard and Starz Animation (raise your hand if you knew the premium cable movie channel had its own animation division), Space Chimps looks like a product of a burgeoning technical college animator circa 1994. One can use the excuse of the simple and bare graphics as eye-pleasing to the youngest children who might be scared of some imagery in Wall-E. But let's face it, Toy Story had more depth and complexity in its computer generated scenery than Space Chimps, and the former film was released THIRTEEN years ago. This is just a cheap attempt to cash in on the cartoon market.

We meet Ham III (voice of Andy Samberg), a circus performer and grandson of the famous Ham, revered as the first hominid to successful fly in outer space (possibly because in real life at least half the monkeys launched during the era died). Ham III however, doesn't have the same ambition. But when the space program comes under flak for losing an expensive probe in a wormhole, letting a meglomaniac alien (voice of Jeff Daniels) bent on ruling his home planet with a giant casino inherit it, they use Ham III and fellow more serious chimps Luna (Cheryl Hines) and Titan (Patrick Warburton) as a last-ditch public relations stunt to retrieve the probe.

If there's one minor kudos to be given to the animators, it would be the texture of the monkeys. At least the detail of their fur seem to been given a little time to materialize. But the set pieces and other beings that populate the film are so terrible-looking, it sucks whatever tiny bit of clean and composite animation right out of your brain. The NASA space center and the humans therein are chunky and lifeless looking, while the alien planet the chimps descend upon is again, cheap enough to be made on a Macintosh in 1994.

But if that isn't sad enough, the characters and the script are completely asinine as well. There is a mentor simian named Houston (who looks eerily like a chimp version of actor Gary Cole. Was that intentional?), named specifically for a "Houston, we have a problem" joke. Every other line spoken by Titan is a pun involving 'chimp'. "We'll have to chimprovise!" and "Let's chimp this ride!" are not exactly what constitutes a good movie. Then we're littered with random references to Beverly Hills Cop and David Bowie, just to see if parents are paying attention. Worse yet is a couple of off-color remarks that to adults can insinuate sexual references, but still should have no place in a G-rated film whether the kids get it or not.

Jeff Daniels at least does some liberations with his voice, because his villainous alien character Zartog sounds nothing like him. But that's also to say his new voice is awful, loud and screeching. The same could be said for Kristin Chenoweth's character, nicknamed Kilowatt (again, so named as an eye-rolling pun). Every moment she's on screen, there's a shrillness in her voice that can only be heard by dogs. The fact that Kilowatt claims she's the last of her race on the planet, then towards the end of the movie we see several more just like her in the crowd just proves how poorly conceived this whole project was.

Maybe it's futile to debunk a film that's squarely aimed at the crowd young enough to believe anybody and their grandmothers can go into outer space. But when there's magnificent entertainment for children out there, including Wall-E and Kit Kittredge, there's no reason for Space Chimps to have to pander to the lowest recesses of our toddler's minds. We need to engage them in thoughtful, well-written entertainment. But for Space Chimps, that's 'chimply' not the case.

Featured Review: MAMMA MIA!

Read up on the quickly forgotten dark political satire War Inc. movie review HERE.


Mamma Mia!



Starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried, Stellan Skarsgard, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Dominic Cooper



Directed by Phyllida Lloyd



Grade: C+



"I don't care if you've slept with hundreds of men!"
"I haven't slept with hundreds of men..."

If last year's Sweeney Todd was an exercise in bringing the ultra-dark, consummately Gothic stylings of Broadway to the multiplex near you, Mamma Mia! could be considered the polar opposite. With its flamboyant costumes, beautiful and entirely dreamt up exteriors of Greek isles, and gads of pretty people of European ancestry singing along to the collective works of ABBA, Mamma Mia! is less a movie experience but a theatre revue filmed for a community playhouse.

I'm not here to judge the merits of the actual musical, for I'm sure the stage-to-screen transition lost many elements that made the Broadway/West End/Las Vegas show such a smash hit. But one certainly has to wonder why there's such a fervor for a franchise revolving around cheeky disco-flavored Swedish pop music that is 30 years old. Across The Universe worked because there was a multitude of great Beatles songs to play around with. How can they possibly fit such ABBA gold as "Dancing Queen" and "S.O.S." into a workable storyline?

Sophie (Mean Girls' Amanda Seyfried) is a beautiful young lady living in a resort town in Greece. She's about to be married, but there's still one major aspect of her life she hasn't wrapped up. The identity of her father. After reading through her mother Donna's (Meryl Streep) diary, Sophie finds out it can be one of three men from different parts of the world. Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) are all invited, all show up, and all must play a game of cat and mouse with Sophie's, and especially Donna's, feelings.

It's the kind of movie that you absolutely cannot take seriously. Nearly everyone on the island aside from say, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski (channeling her best Samantha Jones and Nina Van Horn) are young, fabulously gorgeous and have no duties but to group together and dance the day, afternoon, and night away. And if they aren't immaculately good-looking, the older ones like Baranski have the promiscuous spirit and spunk to make up for it.

It's the kind of movie where Streep's Donna can pity herself for living in one of Earth's paradises. Where there's only one black person and he's instantly attracted to the older ladies. Where one of the fathers can be swarmed by a sea of young, attractive ladies, then instantly realize he's gay. Where Pierce Brosnan, a famous Irishman, is tabbed to play an American, and yet cannot hold a tune in any dialect.

Thankfully both productions stay away from such kitsch hits as "Waterloo" and "Fernando" (although Streep hums the latter tune while walking about the village, and the cast sings the former in credit-rolling, non-canonical camp fashion). While it doesn't fit the context of the film's spectrum, "Dancing Queen" is the most joyous and infectious number, giving the village cast a few minutes to drop what they're doing and go on a town excursion with Donna.

The performances and tonal voices range from very good to "if he can't sing, why the heck did they cast him then?". Meryl Streep at some points of Mamma Mia! carries the movie on her back, giving a surprisingly well-rounded singing and acting accomplishment. 'Surprising' shouldn't be a word used for a 14-time Academy Award nominated actress, but Streep at 59, is quite spry and jubilant throughout. Her swan song, "The Winner Takes It All", isn't the most realized piece of pop music, but Streep commands a good acting presentation while pulling off the singing. It's guaranteed she'll add a record-tying 22nd Golden Globe nomination for this film, and it's possible she'll pick up Prezzie and Oscar bids.

Seyfried, Baranski, Walters, Cooper and even Skarsgard hold their own in various degrees, and Colin Firth does okay. His one solo, an acoustic folk version of "Our Last Summer" is suspect, but he gets through it. But the real travesty is Brosnan. His character is the lead of the three possible fathers, and his two big numbers are almost a pain to sit through. The Streep/Brosnan duet "S.O.S." is supposed to be a climax leading into the final act of the film, but his jarring lack of vocal range, best described as not having any whatsoever, pretty much ruins whatever emotion is coming out of Streep. His "When All Is Said And Done" is stranger yet.

It's good to see the movie musical trickling back into contemporary cinema after many years of exile. But whereas some recent musicals, Chicago, Dreamgirls, Across The Universe, Moulin Rouge! and et cetera have attempted to put a modern day film technique on the tried and true classic genre, Mamma Mia! plays like a forgettable MGM picture during the height of the movie musical generation of the 1940s and early 50s. The only changes made is the progressive sexuality and the retro-hip soundtrack. Like the band that provides said soundtrack, Mamma Mia! is just an aberration in the pop culture lexicon.

Featured Review: STEP BROTHERS

STEP BROTHERS



Starring Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Mary Steenburgen, Richard Jenkins, Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, Rob Riggle, Seth Rogen



Directed by Adam McKay



Grade: D+




"Your voice is amazing. It was a like a combination of Fergie and Jesus!"

Step Brothers has officially broken my tolerance and taste for the vulgar. Long after many people turned away from this brand of comedy, I've been there to defend the art of humor in any shape or form. It was my belief that if your film cannot be witty or smartly comedic on its own merits, there's nothing a couple of tasteless, out-of-left field vulgarities and expletives can't usually fix.

Though while Step Brothers derives much of its best and funniest moments from these lewd scenarios, it ends up coming off so vicious, you really have to have no morals at all to laugh without feeling a little shame. For the writers and stars of this movie, it's obvious they were too busy laughing at themselves to realize how threatening and egregious their lines escalate into when seen as a whole 95 minute film. Like Anchorman, Step Brothers is very much a quotable movie, but unlike Anchorman, this picture doesn't have the same good will.

Ferrell and Reilly team up again, akin to their last effort, Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby, they have plenty of chemistry together. But also similar to the previous film, it veers off course and quickly becomes graceless to laugh at, and worse to appreciate as an actual piece of cinema. By the time Step Brothers attempts to steer the characters into a happy ending, it takes away the awkward laughter and replaces it with ugly transitory scenes that don't even make sense.

Brennan (Ferrell) and Dale (Reilly) are two 40 year olds who have been coddled by their parents Nancy and Robert (Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins respectively) for so long, they strut around their houses in their underwear with a sense of entitlement. But when Nancy and Robert get married, Dale and Brennan are forced to co-exist. At first each are threatened by the change in their comfortable lifestyle, but soon enough they become fast friends over a mutual hate for Brennan's younger brother. This ends up being a bigger problem for their exasperated parents. The bad influence Dale and Brennan bring to each other gives Robert incentive to give the men an ultimatum: get jobs or move out.

It's a good subject to mine humor from. There is a whole society of people in this country who refuse to grow up and take responsibility for themselves (at 23, I try my hardest not to end up like that). Such films as Failure To Launch and You, Me & Dupree touched upon the slacker, overgrown teenager infesting their responsible antagonists angle, but Step Brothers put a crude, adulterated take on it.

However, it's one thing to hear the brothers argue and shout obscenities at each other (often with body parts being involved), but how many times do you need to hear them cuss out their parents? Jenkins is played off almost as a bad guy for drawing a hard line on the two, but after 40 years of laziness as a father and the recent trouble the duo had gotten into, he was entirely justifiable. What's so funny about disrespecting EVERYBODY around you, at least after the 14th time?

Besides the viciousness and outrageousness of the characters' feelings towards one another, the supporting characters vary from bad to outright horrible. Adam Scott (Monster-In-Law) plays Brennan's much more successful younger brother, who is made to be a complete jerk. But his character is seen as an annoying jackass, and his scenes usually bring the movie to a complete halt. Even worse is Kathryn Hahn (Crossing Jordan) as his repressed wife, who after witnessing Dale punch her husband, goes off the deep end with a major crush on him. Every scene that involves her, in conjunction with Scott as her husband, totally ruin the chemistry, however vile, between Ferrell and Reilly.

Don't get me wrong, I laughed, and I laughed hard. But for every one-liner that was brilliantly observed or random, there was plenty of them to make you cringe. It ends up becoming like a series of skits, trying to find out what the step brothers can possibly do to be funny. For such a solid premise for a straight comedy, the whole effort was terribly disappointing, which has become an increasing reality for projects with Judd Apatow's name on it. I think he and the other guys involved in his circle need to just sit the rest of this year out and recoup before they even attempt an Anchorman 2.

Advanced Review: THE ROCKER

This is an advanced review for The Rocker, originally to be released July 30th, but now currently pushed back until August 20th. Whenever it does get released, we'll revisit this post.


The Rocker



Starring- Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate, Teddy Geiger, Emma Stone, Josh Gad, Jason Sudeikis, Jane Lynch, Jeff Garlin, Will Arnett



Directed by Peter Cattaneo



Grade: C-



"A lot of elevators play Celine Dion... that doesn't make it right."

Actors who get defined to one television role often have a blessing and a curse. They experience popularity and job security for the duration of their career-making character, but then they also struggle to develop a successful transition away from it. Michael Richards often superseded his titular co-star as Kramer in Seinfeld, but couldn't etch out anything of substance on his own. Bob Denver was known as Gilligan for the rest of his life. Same goes more or less for people like George Wendt, Megan Mullally, James Van Der Beek, Neil Patrick Harris, etc. They just can't escape the shadow of what made them a household name in the first place.

So is the case of Rainn Wilson and his first fully-engaged star-making turn, The Rocker. Stuck somewhere between a vehicle for Wilson, a vehicle for stalwart teen rocker Teddy Geiger, and an earnest if lukewarm attempt to appease every demographic with a slightly risque but never truly offensive PG-13 family message film, The Rocker never reaches that pantheon of hard metal licks. Instead it plays like weak radio-friendly pop rock.

The Rainn man plays Robert 'Fish' Fishman, once the highly touted drummer of 1980's hair metal band Vesuvius (with cheeky cameos by Will Arnett, Fred Armisen and Bradley Cooper), now a loser living in his sister's attic over 20 years later. His nebbish nephew Matt (Josh Gad, of FOX's short-lived Back To You) is playing the prom with his band A.D.D, and when their drummer gets expelled from school, Matt is forced to call upon his uncle for help. Igniting new passion into his life, Fish wheels and deals the local garage band into scoring gigs and going on tour, often in ways he didn't plan for. Along the way, he and his younger bandmates finds lessons in life and begins to grow up.

Everybody who has seen at least 50 mainstream movies know how these kinds of films end up. Each of the band members have ups, they have downs, they face their biggest challenge, the big bad villain (in this case being Fish's old band Vesuvius) gets its long-awaited comeuppance, and Fish gets the girl. All of this at the mere price of logical fallacy and enough pratfalls to make Chevy Chase want to sue.

Whereas Wilson's supporting role in My Super Ex-Girlfriend basically placed him as a jerk with glasses much in the vein as his character Dwight in The Office, Wilson's The Rocker persona almost strives with the singular goal of making him the exact opposite. He wears longer hair (a relic of the 1980's glam he's refused to move on with), doesn't wear glasses, and has a 'wild' personality. The movie itself is centered around a dozen or so gags that cause Fish bodily harm, a broad tactic that is rarely used in The Office.

But the trouble with this of course is, without the Dwight persona, Wilson isn't really all that much interesting. He hasn't had much of a chance to shine elsewhere, but does anybody remember his bit roles in Almost Famous, Sahara or Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal? For the few people that sat through House Of 1000 Corpses and watched him get killed and turned into some kind of mermaid creature, did they really look at his performance and say "Wow, he's going to be a star someday"?

Similarly unimpressive is Teddy Geiger, the 'real' brains behind the fictional band as the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist. He has genuine talent, but his character is so depressing and one-note for much of the movie it's hard to see him as a legitimate actor. I can imagine that after his short-lived success with his album Underage Thinking in 2006 went nowhere, he's looking jealously towards the increasingly manic fandom of The Jonas Brothers, wondering where it all went wrong.

The music in The Rocker is manufactured almost as much as a Disney multimedia franchise, only much less successful. Geiger and the modern A.D.D. band are obviously going for that 'tween rock sound somewhere between The All-American Rejects, Boys Like Girls and any number of the Fueled By Ramen label cohorts. They're all catchy enough, but nothing inspires. Worse that, not a single song is played in its entirety. Seems the writers concocted a verse and a chorus and settled at that. Had they made full-length songs and released them before the film comes out, income-flushed ten-year-olds might be almost as excited to see this as they were for Camp Rock and High School Musical 3.

If Rainn Wilson is ever going to come out of the shadow of Dwight Schrute, he needs a better outing than this. The Rocker seemed like a limp idea that Wilson was able to jump on in an effort to give himself some public face time. Unfortunately, plain and simple, this isn't the kind of movie that will take him to the top of the charts.

TOP 10 NEW DIRECTORS

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This is a list of the 10 best directors who made their first full-length, at least somewhat widely released film, within the past 15 years. So with apologies to Quentin Tarantino, Peter Jackson, David Fincher, Cameron Crowe, Alfonso Cuaron, and Ang Lee lovers (I <3 them too and they would be high on the list), they and other directors missed the cutoff with films that preceded 1993.

I was amazed after I compiled the list just how international the directors are. While not all of them were raised in the respective countries they were born in, we have two Americans, two Brits, two from France, one Australian, one Brazilian, one from Mexico and one from India.

That said, I tried to pick directors over their body of work, not just who is hot at the moment. Many of the honorable mentions in the next paragraph have at least one excellent film, but probably didn't crack the list because of a smaller sampling size to judge or erratic projects that I haven't seen or wasn't widely seen.

The Honorable Mentions:

Marc Forster, Guy Ritchie, George Clooney, Paul Greengrass, Spike Jonze, Darren Aronofsky, Alexander Payne, Kevin Smith, Richard Linklater, Sofia Coppola, Judd Apatow, Danny Boyle

The TOP 10

10. M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN

Shyamalan has a bad rap these days. It almost seems like ancient times that he was the golden boy of Hollywood after The Sixth Sense and the criminally underseen Unbreakable. Even with his worst films, they are derided because of Shyamalan's promise as a director, not because they are outright terrible. There are still some definite pieces of his newer films that he can bring himself back together to make another cohesively commerical and critical hit, but time will tell.

Selected Works:
Wide Awake (1998)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Unbreakable (2000)
Signs (2002)
The Village (2004)
Lady In The Water (2006)
The Happening (2008)

9. GUILLERMO DEL TORO

Like many on this list, del Toro gives us an uncompromised vision of what he enjoys in filmmaking, and yet at the same time usually rewards his audience with a good story. Anyone that can make a sequel to Blade better than it should be deserves some props. It will be interesting to see if del Toro can contend with The Hobbit, following the sterling work of Peter Jackson, but at the same time knowing his unusual penchant for the macabre creatures he dreams up, it should be a treat in its own way.

Selected Works:
Mimic (1997)
El Espinazo del Diablo (The Devil's Backbone) (2001)
Blade II (2002)
Hellboy (2004)
El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) (2006)
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
The Hobbit (2011)

8. FERNANDO MEIRELLES

Finding his way through the movie system of Brazil, Meirelles worked on experimental films and children's television before he and his friends' production company made Domesticas (Maids) in 2001. This afforded him to film Cidade de Deus (City Of God) in 2002, which with it's gritty but almost authentic storytelling became an international hit and earned him a rare Best Director nomination for a foreign film from the Academy Awards. Meirelles got more acclaim on his first English language feature The Constant Gardener, and from there he is all but destined to become a top-line Hollywood director.

Selected Works:
Domesticas (Maids) (2001)
Cidade de Deus (2002)
The Constant Gardener (2005)
Blindness (2008)

7. FRANK DARABONT

This French-born director can be considered Stephen King's personal book-to-screen adaptater, but assuming he's made all of King's most critical films, there's nothing wrong with it. King's books have usually been hit or miss, with many of them ranging from ultra campy to middling, so with Darabont's take on The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, it's easy to see the disparity. As a screenwriter Darabont wrote horror films in the 1980s, including A Nightmare On Elm Street 3, The Blob, and The Fly II.

Selected Works:
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Green Mile (1999)
The Majestic (2001)
The Mist (2007)

6. MICHEL GONDRY

The former music video autuer turned movie director, Gondry's films can be said to veer largely off the mainstream path. The Frenchman has also taken flak for being lost in a world of quirky and surreal imagery, but no heart without a script by Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman. But it's undoubtedly true that he has an unique vision and feel for the camera that many directors would give their entire lives for.

Selected Works:
Human Nature (2001)
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
Block Party (2005)
La Science Des Reves (The Science Of Sleep) (2006)
Be Kind Rewind (2008)

5. MEL GIBSON

All jokes aside, let's face it; the man knows how to make a movie. He commandeered himself to great heights in Braveheart, and then crafted the most widely scrutinized religious movie ever released. Some may claim his filmmaking is sensationalism and bombastic, but even so Gibson has a flair for the powerful and dramatic. His acting and his off-screen troubles have hindered his chance to be a steady director, which may have increased his respectability as a director.

Selected Works:
The Man Without A Face (1993)
Braveheart (1995)
The Passion Of The Christ (2004)
Apocalypto (2006)

4. SAM MENDES

Mendes came out of pretty much nowhere (London stage, but Variety doesn't really report that) to blow critics away with American Beauty in 1999, his directorial debut in film. His films tend to paint a stirring portrait of the behind-the-scenes of everyday life, whether it's in suburban homes or on a foreign battlefield. He has since popped up every three years with films that have gone on to be at least above average in reviews, and looks poised to make a big run at the awards in 2008 with the Leonardo DiCaprio film Revolutionary Road. Mendes also is done filming his first true comedy, Farlanders, set for 2009.

Selected Works:
American Beauty (1999)
Road To Perdition (2002)
Jarhead (2005)
Revolutionary Road (2008)
Farlanders (2009)

3. WES ANDERSON

Some critics of Wes Anderson's works will point out the striking similarities in themes and texture in almost all of his films. Paternal abandonment, greedy children, damaged and forbidden love. Some claim that, like the works of Michel Gondry, Anderson's movies are never as fully realized without the script help of his favorite star, Owen Wilson. But for every critic who has tired of Anderson's so-real-it's-fake French-inspired retro vintage chic world of snappy, obscure pop songs, there are plenty more like myself who enjoy them.

Selected Works:
Bottle Rocket (1996)
Rushmore (1998)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
The Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

2. CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

This lifelong filmmaking Londoner got a running start in 1998 with the short, gritty British neo-noir crime drama Following, and from there patchworked a resume that escalated from small, critically acclaimed thrillers to ones that changed the whole way of how superhero movies should be looked at. His other films are also considered mini masterpieces by most people as well. When Insomnia is the weakest link of your mainstream career, you know you're a good director indeed.

Selected Works:
Following (1998)
Memento (2000)
Insomnia (2002)
Batman Begins (2005)
The Prestige (2006)
The Dark Knight (2008)

1. PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON

If there's been any director that resembles Stanley Kubrick in the department of haphazard scheduling of work but garnering instantly classic praise, Anderson would win hands down. PTA has only crafted 5 full length films in the past 12 years, 2 in this decade. But with each release his films have tended to be more focused, ekeing out some of the best performances of his stars' lives. With it, more kudos and scrutiny. He is also one of the few directors working that gets to write and produce every script he directs, a rarity in films that get a chance to ascend the independent realm.

Selected Works:
Hard Eight (1996)
Boogie Nights (1997)
Magnolia (1999)
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
There Will Be Blood (2007)

Featured Review: DARK KNIGHT

The Dark Knight



Starring- Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Eric Roberts, Anthony Michael Hall, William Fichtner, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman



Directed by Christopher Nolan



Grade: A



"Some men just want to watch the world burn."

The Dark Knight, after months and months of hype, anticipation, reflection on the death of Heath Ledger and so forth, is still nothing short of amazing. It is an exhilarating, exhausting thrill ride that is also as darkly Gothic and rich in storyline as almost any cinematic drama comes. Director Christopher Nolan takes visual cues from all the best heist films and elevates Knight into a class of superhero movies unto itself. His actors take it into something beyond superhero.

It is certainly not the greatest film of all-time, or for me, even a perfect five star/A+ movie. Indeed it is one of the greatest action movies of all-time, if not the best. The acting, the story, just about everything is an achievement in a film that revolves around pyrotechnic sequences. But while the spectacle and effects are downright breathtaking, it doesn't completely excuse The Dark Knight from its minor flaws. Rather, it just pushes them aside and let us enjoy an incredible experience.

We welcome billionaire Bruce Wayne and his crime fighting alter ego Batman (Christian Bale) back after a short ebb in crime. Having put away the most dastardly of villains behind the mask, Wayne finds that the real hero now is Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), a very public District Attorney. Dent is the man that can do no wrong, and his judicial powers of locking up large quantities of the Mob gives the public reason to believe they don't need Batman anymore. That is of course, until The Joker (Heath Ledger), a nefarious madman without a soul, begins to ramp up his murderous mayhem sprees. But neither Batman nor Dent have the right tools to battle with a man who has no motive or conscious, blurring the line between what's right and what's wrong. For that, both will pay some major sacrifices.

The performances of course, is the centerpiece of the film, and they are all stunning. In fact, as good of an actor as Bale is, both in this film and his career resume (The Prestige, 3:10 To Yuma, American Psycho), he is perhaps the WORST one in this movie. His caped crusader voice, gruff and raspy, is one of the few very minor things that kept me from giving The Dark Knight a perfect score. It's rare to see the leading actor, especially one that revolves around a big budgeted costumed protagonist, be so outshone by some of his supporting cast. Bale was solid, and again shows he's much better suited for the part than George Clooney or Val Kilmer was, but the other actors were just that much superior.

The first and most obviously is Heath Ledger in his final major role. The buildup that has surrounded his death and performance nearly choked me to death, but it is easy to see why. As the Joker, he completely immerses himself with the character and becomes one of the darkest, creepiest, and most well-written villains in cinematic history. Nobody in Gotham knows his story, yet the entire world seems to understand that he is the deeply disturbed type that just can't be reasoned with. Ledger gives one of his finest performances here, making the Joker a real, if absolutely wacko, villain, something that Jack Nicholson and Cesar Romero failed to do.

But for all the scrutiny surrounded on Ledger's role, somewhat lost in the shuffle is Aaron Eckhart. As Harvey Dent he is magnificent as the everyday hero, mixing in a bit of cockiness with an increasing weariness of the battle against crime that he's losing. All he wants is for his city to be a safe place, to be able to take his girlfriend, Bruce Wayne flame Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, replacing Queen of Scientology Katie Holmes) out and not be harassed by crime. He is, as the city officials call him a "white knight". After the Joker initiates a terrible disaster that destroys him both physically and mentally (some awesomely sick effects, like a human exoskeleton from the Terminator movies), he himself goes on a spree of terror, infinitely beating the trash out of Billy Dee Williams' Dent in Tim Burton's Batman, and Tommy Lee Jones' Two-Face performance in Batman Forever. Both Eckhart and Ledger deserve Supporting Actor nominations.

Let's not forget Gary Oldman as James Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth, and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox. All are consummate actors who could have phoned in their roles because in the beginning The Dark Knight doesn't seem like the award potential type. But they, and Oldman especially, are just as solid to watch here as in many of their movies. Gyllenhaal herself improves the Rachel Dawes character more than Holmes ever could.

The only plot thread that bothered me was the fate of The Joker. (This paragraph has spoilers, so don't read it if you haven't seen the film). In the original cut of the film, The Joker supposedly kills himself. But out of sensitivity to Ledger's death, the last we see of him is being caught on a high wire and swarmed by SWAT members. But after it was shown how he could so easily escape from jail, wouldn't it be easy to assume he could break out any time he wanted to? It would've helped to have some finality, especially considering the fate of Ledger proving nearly impossible to resurrect the character in this Nolan canon of the Batman series.

But those gripes are just tiny insignificant specks in an otherwise large, masterful film. Christopher Nolan, with Memento under his belt has taken that rich history of dark dramas that get award voters in a tizzy and made it mainstream for the factions of the movie going public that only see box office actioners. He and his actors prove that, like graphic novels are to comic books, action movies can have a brilliant and deep storyline.

All praise aside to the first two Spider-Man films, but The Dark Knight is possibly the richest superhero movie of them all. And that's no joke.

Advanced Review: PINEAPPLE EXPRESS

This is an advanced review for the August 8th release Pineapple Express. We will revisit the review when the film is released to the general public. To see the DVD mini-review of Martin Lawrence's Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, Click Here


Pineapple Express



Starring- Seth Rogen, James Franco, Gary Cole, Rosie Perez, Danny McBride, Amber Heard, Kevin Corrigan, Craig Robinson, Ed Begley Jr, Nora Dunn.



Directed by David Gordon Green



Grade: B-



"Thug life!"

Marijuana smokers rejoice. Pineapple Express becomes the first box office wide release since 1998's Half Baked to make no qualms about it's weed-y roots. Trying to create a new breed of film with over-the-top violence and action coupled with dirty, raunchy humor and gloriously unabashed love for the plant drug, Pineapple Express tries to do too much, and ends up doing way too little.

Opinion-takers at the advanced screening were asking patrons if it was the next Cheech & Chong. Not that Cheech & Chong is such a good movie to want to compare praise to, but Pineapple Express is not only inferior to the former film, but it's a black mark on Seth Rogen's otherwise sterling Apatow-linked career. Freaks & Geeks, Undeclared, The 40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, all great shows and movies. Pineapple Express? Disappointing.

Rogen stars as Dale Denton, a subpoena server who is inexplicably dating a teenager in high school. And he really, really, loves pot. Off the bat he witnesses a drug kingpin (Office Space's Gary Cole) and a saucy little policewoman (Rosie Perez) murder one of the sons of his main rival. They connect Dale to the crime scene thanks to his rare 'Pineapple Express' joint, and thus sets off a chain of who's-working-for-who scenarios involving his pot dealer Saul (Spider-Man's James Franco), two hitmen (Kevin Corrigan, Craig Robinson) and Saul's own middleman Red (Danny McBride). Dale and Saul bond as their adventure reaches its climax.

The humor, both marijuana-related and otherwise, have some extremely funny moments. But for every joke that hits, there are just as many that are extremely awkward to sit through. The cast was obviously going for that semi-improvisational, stream-of-consciousness feel that Apatow ekes so well out of his directed cast, but for Rogen and director David Gordon Green, it just throws the film's pacing out the window. Granted that success rate is much better than most other comedians' films this year, but for Rogen, we the audience expected better. The funniest parts of the redband trailer, as well as the awesome song "Paper Planes" by M.I.A., are literally M.I.A. from the film.

James Franco steals the movie performance-wise, but maybe it's because the rest of the cast fails to inspire. Franco seems genuine as Saul, a stoned loser who just wants companionship. He often has the best lines in the film and we tend to care about him over Dale. Rogen on the other hand is actually sort of annoying and loud, and when the scenes get packed with quick reactionary moments, he exposes himself to still be a green actor.

The other players are one-note at best. Gary Cole has very little personality, playing his drug lord as almost a straight villain. Rosie Perez hasn't been in a film I've seen since God knows when, and I STILL can't understand her when she talks. Kevin Corrigan and Craig Robinson (of Grounded For Life and The Office respectively) are more awkward than funny, and Danny McBride's one good line in the movie-- "Thug life!"-- is in the trailers. The clumsy ending involving Rogen, Franco and McBride, was seriously anti-climatic.

Why is Dale dating a high school girl? Statutory Rape aside, they never explained it, nor does it make a lot of sense, even for a movie like this. If she was ugly, or if Rogen was particularly good-looking, then maybe I'd get it. Or if she was only using him for free drugs, I'd totally understand. But from all accounts none of that was the case, and we are forced to believe that model/actress Amber Heard (Hidden Hills, Never Back Down) genuinely wants to date a scuzzy 25-year-old subpoena server who looks like he's 35. How much of a boner/ego did Rogen get while writing this idea?

For the longest time I was a fan of Seth Rogen, years before he became the warty toad prince of raunchy but pathos-driven R-rated comedy. From Freaks and Geeks to Undeclared, popping up in minuscule roles in Donnie Darko and Anchorman, he was very much under appreciated. Judd Apatow gave him a chance at screen-time in The 40 Year Old Virgin, which led to bona fide stardom in Knocked Up. Now he is no longer the dirty Seth Rogen with a cult fan base but Seth Rogen, the dirty Hollywood multi-tasking entity.

Pineapple Express could have been a resplendent example, setting up a template for more films of the same cloth. But something here did not click at all, at least not from the Rogen Wing of the School of Apatow. Maybe it was the budget. Maybe it was the director (who previously helmed the extravagantly different drama Snow Angels). Maybe they all were affected too much by the stage weed on set. Whatever it was, Pineapple Express failed to rocket to the pinnacle of our funny bones.

Actor Spotlight: JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT

This is the 3rd in a series of Actor Spotlights. To read about the aptly titled The Life Before Her Eyes, starring Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood, or to check out the decidedly Joseph Gordon-Levitt less clunker Never Back Down, click here.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is only 27, but he has transformed himself through a lifetime's worth of roles. As a child he flapped his arms for a last place baseball team. As a teenager he was an elderly information officer for a group of clueless aliens. As a formidable adult, he had become the prince of mentally damaged and deficient independent film characters. In 2009, he rises to the top of the box office in the unusual role of 'Cobra Commander' for the G.I. Joe screen treatment. Yes, at 27, Levitt has come full circle, if in the form of a jagged oval.

But don't let his double surname and road through art houses across America fool you, Levitt is up for anything that gives him a challenge. He's remarked several times about the integrity and longevity of his career in the face of some of his less-successful childhood peers.

"Success is not important to me, nor are power or money. If the script feels good, then I'm in. It's that simple."

Born Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt on February 17, 1981 in Los Angeles, California, Levitt started in local stage productions at age four. From there talent agents booked him in commercials, including Saturday morning staples as Cocoa Puffs and Pop-Tarts. Progressing as a normal late 1980's child actor should, he picked up a dearth of roles in made for television movies, including a Dark Shadows remake in 1990, which was picked up for a 12 episode series.

After popping up in guest appearances on Family Ties and Murder, She Wrote, Levitt debuted in theatres in 1992 with a background role in Beethoven and a minor role in A River Runs Through It. Also in that year he was a regular on his second short-lived television series, the NBC situation comedy The Powers That Be, the creators of which would go on to develop Friends, and co-starring future Fraiser star David Hyde Pierce. Levitt himself would return to NBC in 4 years.

As the typical child actor of his generation went, while recurring on Roseanne, Gordon-Levitt snagged two lead roles in 1994. In Holy Matrimony, a one-joke plot about a reckless Patricia Arquette marrying a young Canadian Hutterite, Levitt plays Ezekiel, the young man who must step in and marry Arquette's character when his older brother dies. Hilarity ensues.

The more widely seen role that year however came in the form of the summer remake of Angels In The Outfield. Replacing the Pittsburgh Pirates of the original with the titular team from Los Angeles (nee California), and packing it with family friendly special effects, Outfield was a hit. Packed with stars and future stars of the time including Danny Glover, Christopher Lloyd, Tony Danza, Matthew McConaughey, and Adrian Brody, Outfield pushed Levitt into the A-list of adolescent actors.

Gordon-Levitt appeared as Demi Moore's son in The Juror, a big budget crime thriller co-starring Alec Baldwin, Anne Heche, and pre-Sopranos James Gandolfini. But it was his third television pilot, third with NBC, that gave him stability.

For six seasons Gordon-Levitt co-starred as 'Tommy Solomon' in 3rd Rock From The Sun, an absurdist situation comedy about a group of aliens who descend to Earth to learn about the culture, only to be stuck there. The show was very much a vehicle for John Lithgow, with a breakout role of sorts for French Stewart, but along with Kristen Johnston, Levitt rounded out the foursome of characters in a way that made a far-fetched plot marginally work for an amazing 6 years.

While in the employ of NBC, Levitt appeared in a couple of hit films during the late 1990s. Halloween H2O saw the return of series original Jamie Lee Curtis, while 10 Things I Hate About You was a teen cult favorite starring heartthrobs Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles, meant to be a companion piece to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. This would be the last mainstream role Levitt would appear in for quite some time.

After leaving 3rd Rock as a regular in it's last season in 2000, Levitt attended Columbia University and took an interest in French studies and the arts. It wasn't until late 2001 that he decided to get back into acting. But if he was to do it, he wanted roles that were interesting to play, not ones that would make him a star.

"The whole concept of celebrity pisses me off. While I'm not a celebrity, it's such a weird concept that society has cooked up for us. Astronauts and teachers are much more amazing than actors."

Aside from voicing the main role of Jim Hawkins in one of Disney's last hand-drawn efforts Treasure Island in 2002, what came forth has been a string of gritty independent film that for the most part has been critically lauded.

Starting in 2001, Levitt got his 'disturbed man' chops in Manic, co-starring Don Cheadle and Zooey Deschanel. His portrayal of an unbalanced teen in a juvenile psychiatric ward earned rave reviews from the festival circuit. By the time it was released in 2003, Levitt was already appearing in the gay Mormon film Latter Days and filming the Anne Hathaway drama Havoc, about hip-hop influenced suburbanites who get caught up with real inner-city gangsters.

2004 saw perhaps his most controversial role, that of child abuse victim and gay prostitute Neil McCormick in Mysterious Skin. It was here that Levitt began to get noticed as an all-out independent film risk-taker.

With Brick in 2006, Levitt earned his most critical reviews to date as Brendan Frye, a teenage detective of sorts who must weave through the corruption that has embodied the cliques at his high school. With old school dialogue, a winning script and all the style of a classic film noir, Brick showed Levitt to be capable of taking a dramatic lead and nailing it on its head wonderfully.

2007 saw more of the same with a similar smaller budget crime thriller The Lookout. Going back to the mentally polluted origins of Manic, Levitt quietly helmed the story of a young man with brain damage and short-term memory loss who gets taken in by criminals who use him to rob the bank he works at.

After his Elmore Leonard adaptation Killshot, co-starring Diane Lane, Thomas Jane and Rosario Dawson, got shelved after two years of release date limbo, Levitt appeared in the MTV film Stop-Loss. Again playing a man with mental problems, this time because of his service in the Iraq War, Stop-Loss received mixed reviews and an even worse fate at the box office.

But for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, it's far from a downslope in his career. Ascending into a more sizable spotlight, he has 6 projects awaiting release or is in production. The first of these is the highly anticipated and possibly award-aspiring Spike Lee directed The Miracle Of St. Anna. As a modern day news reporter interested in the story of four African American soldiers in Italy during World War II, his role isn't large, but it's certainly an integral part of the film.

Later in the year should come two independent romances. The comedy 500 Days of Summer, reuniting Levitt's Manic co-star Zooey Deschanel. In it, Levitt plays a hopeless romantic who falls in love with Deschanel, a scorned woman after years of broken hearts. The drama Uncertainty pits him with Olivia Thirlby (Juno, Snow Angels).

2009 may be the year he breaks out, at least as a mainstream actor. Despite an aversion for celebrity, he will be the titular villain boss and commander of the Cobras in the August 9th, 2009 release of G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, co-starring friend and frequent collaborator Channing Tatum among many others. While most of the stars have had pictures of their characters released, Levitt's is kept under wraps. It's a highly visible role, but Levitt is playing it for other reasons.

"What attracted me to being in G.I. Joe was when they showed me the drawings of the character that I was going to get to play. I love the idea of just getting to play something way, way larger and huger than life. G.I. Joe is not layered or profound at all; it's just a big thrill ride."

Also a cause for excitement is Akira, a live action imagining of the influential 1988 Japanese manga, rumored to be co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The scripting was derailed at first because of the writer's strike and the possible actor's strike may delay it further, but it could have a late 2009/2010 release. Gordon-Levitt also was in talks to star in a romantic comedy titled The Frog King, but as of this writing the project is not in production.

From a kid shilling toaster pastries to wearing a hooded mask in next summer's largest spectacle, with all of his gritty, spirited roles in between, Gordon Levitt has continually been acclaimed one of America's best young actors. At 27, and with an unconventional head on his shoulders, it's only expected of him to produce more films of the ilk for many years to come.

The Prezzies' Top 5 Joseph Gordon-Levitt Performances
1. Brick
2. The Lookout
3. Manic
4. Stop-Loss
5. Angels In The Outfield

Indie Review: KIT KITTREDGE

To see mini-reviews of chick flicks Mad Money and 27 Dresses, click here.


Kit Kittredge: An American Girl



Starring- Abagail Breslin, Julia Ormand, Chris O'Donnell, Zach Mills, Max Thieriot, Willow Smith, Jane Krakowski, Wallace Shawn, Colin Mochrie, Glenne Headley, Joan Cusack, Stanley Tucci.


Directed by Patricia Rozema



Grade: A



"I will decline... and laugh."

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl is the type of film that is immediately pigeon-holed into the kind of territory lost on major critic review, and more importantly, the demographics that define what's popular in the United States. And that's a real shame, for Kit Kittredge is a surprisingly engaging and charming movie that harks back to an old-fashioned kind of story-telling and direction that gives kids a chance to take a breather from the glut of "family friendly" action comedies.

Most G-rated films are vapid, and do nothing to further teach their audience anything new. Producers and filmmakers mistake a G-rating for 'clean' and 'safe', forgetting that just because there isn't any dirty language or violent thematic elements, doesn't mean they can't touch on serious subjects and craft a fine film that while being defined a 'family film', can be seen by anyone. Writer Ann Peacock and director Patricia Rozema do just that.

Based on one of the once popular line of American Girl dolls (in days before Bratz, and mostly for upper-middle class little girls), Kit Kittredge stars Abigail Breslin as the titular character, an intelligent and guile ten year old who dreams of being a reporter. Her family is well-off in Depression era Cincinnati, Ohio, but soon the increasing financial troubles that are spreading around her neighborhood hit home. Kit's father (Chris O'Donnell) loses his job and goes in search of a new one in Chicago, and her mother (Julia Ormand) is forced to bring in boarders and sell eggs to make ends meet.

Here is where Kit gets the bulk of its story. Kit gets involved with a host of quirky but friendly roommates staying at the house, including Miss Dooley (Jane Krakowski), a flirty single dancer, Mrs. Howard and her son Stirling (Glenne Headley and Zach Mills), a stern mother who's husband also leaves the city to find work, Miss Bond (Joan Cusack), a wacky bookmobile driver, and Jefferson Berk (Stanley Tucci), a down-on-his-luck magician. She also befriends two child hobos (Max Thieriot and Willow Smith, daughter of Will), who get discriminated against. When a couple robberies take place and the hobo community is placed at blame, Kit goes on the case.

What makes Kit Kittredge so unique, whether it was rated G or PG or NC-17, is that it's a rare and well done look at a serious issue through a child's eye. It doesn't trivialize the ugly truth of the Great Depression, rather just offers bits and pieces of it through the embodiment of a ten year old child who never had to deal with poverty, let alone understand it at first.

The performances are first-rate for a children's film. Breslin commands her screen-time as Kit, and it's hard to decide if she's acting beyond her years or is just in fact so perfectly in tune with playing a little girl. O'Donnell does a great job as well, playing the downtrodden father who just wants what's best for his family, even in the face of his mistakes. While Cusack and Tucci bring the last act of the film into a bit of a tailspin with some goofy antics, their performances are fun and light. Even Who's Line Is It Anyways?'s Colin Mochrie gets some heartfelt screen time.

For a small, independently financed family movie, Kit Kittredge is a pretty amazing achievement. I noticed a distinct difference in the attitudes and parenting of people who brought children in to see this film and the ones that took them to see Meet Dave. They are the ones that can appreciate an old-fashioned quality film that doesn't give our youth reason to develop ADHD, but rather to be sensitive, thoughtful little people like Kit. In a generation of girls growing up on Bratz and Hannah Montana, she is a proper role model.

Featured Review: HELLBOY 2

For the mini-review of the sequel to 'Step Up', discreetly titled Step Up 2 The Streets, click here.


Hellboy II: The Golden Army



Starring- Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambor, Seth MacFarlane, Luke Goss, Anna Walton, John Hurt.



Directed by Guillermo del Toro



Grade: C




"Now you've pissed me off!"

Guillermo del Toro is a visionary genius of the fantastical and imaginary. Anyone who has seen Pan's Labyrinth, whether they appreciate fantasy or war epics or not, can attest to the wonderful ideas and creatures del Toro comes up with in that brain of his. But with Hellboy II: The Golden Army, those mythical beings, while at times still resonate some amazing imagery, also begin to wear on your senses. At what point do the monsters and beings go from visionary delight, to being strange, random costumes for weirdness' sake?

I admit I have not seen the original Hellboy as of this writing. But I can surmise that at the time, before Pan, before many of the glut of fantasy novels turned big screen film treatments came out, Hellboy was fresh and unique. Iron Man, Hancock and Hulk claim to have the summer's darkest superhero, but that distinction clearly belongs to Hellboy and his close friends. But while the humanity of the movie is not to be ignored, the bizarre aspects are hard to look over either, and for me, not in a good way.

After a short opening with a young Hellboy being read to about the titular Golden Army by his caretaker (John Hurt), we meet him again in the present day during a crisis with his girlfriend, fellow U.S. government operative and superhuman outcast Liz (Selma Blair). She doesn't feel appreciated by him, et cetera, and Abe Sapien, a cetacean being with psychometry powers, discovers a personal secret of hers.

All of this must be worked out during an investigation concerning an auction house melee, to which the three find is part of a larger, ages old mystery concerning said Golden Army. It seems the elf son of the King who disposed of the army wants his revenge, and is out to seek the necessary parts to reignite it. Naturally if he succeeds, mankind is doomed.

Granted del Toro did not create the main characters, who are based from the Dark Horse comics in the 1990s. For better or worse, they are a good group; interesting, complex, and often mimic that of real people with feelings both sensible and irrational. Ron Perlman is enjoyable as the misunderstood and sometimes misguided, fun-loving Hellboy. He has a large personality, and Perlman portrays Hellboy nicely without letting the red makeup sell the character for him. Abe Sapien is a great realization as well. His loneliness yet impeccable pluckiness makes for a solid sidekick.

However, it's the secondary and background characters that get heady. For every eclectic but cool being such as the headless ectoplasmic Johann Krauss (voiced by Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane), there's mutants like The Angel Of Death and The Chamberlain (both played by Doug Jones, who wears the Abe Sapien suit), and the plant creature Hellboy fights with. These kinds of characters scream the work of del Toro; gangly, skinny, grotesque.

As good as it is to see the filmmaker hark back to older days of makeup rather than CGI, at what point do scenes seem wholly original, and not inspired by a glut of other fantasy films? When Hellboy and Abe scour the underground paranormal market, del Toro cuts to many vendors and patrons with capricious looks, showing off his makeup team's effort in bringing unearthly mutants to life. But doesn't the whole sequence feel as familiar as the cantina scene in the original Star Wars?

Hellboy II: The Golden Army is an ambitious undertaking, something viewers don't always see when it comes to sequels, especially ones released smack dab in the middle of the summer season. But for all that's worth, it just doesn't succeed cohesively enough to garner major kudos. Perhaps after feeling lukewarm to the other weekend fantasy films Journey to the Center of the Earth and Meet Dave, del Toro himself can give me an exercise into appreciating the works of the imaginary. I just pray if Hellboy 3 is made, there are no Shrek-like hellbabies running loose.