Author: Darren Goodhart

Outlaw-with-a-code Dominic Toretto finds himself teamed up again with FBI Agent Brian O’Connor after someone close to both is struck down in a dangerous deal.

That’s it. Basically all you need to know going in to see Fast & Furious. But I figure those going to see this are probably those that are familiar with The Fast & The Furious franchise in the first place. This is the first movie since the first in the series to re-team stars Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in their respective parts, though both have appeared separately in the other movies (the second one teaming Walker with Tyrese Gibson and the third featuring Diesel in a cameo part at the movie’s end).

Let’s face it, this series is a B-movie series featuring A-list stunts and state of the art effects. I’ve said it before about the series, it doesn’t try to be high art by any means, but more high state-of-the-art. Director Justin Lin knows this, and did it very well with the third in the series, Tokyo Drift and now he gets to demonstrate that again with the original stars of the franchise.

This won’t “wow” anyone with it’s less-than-pithy dialogue or it’s somewhat simplistic characters, and that’s not really the point, it’s more to deliver some high-octane thrills, but to it’s credit, there are things that get you involved with it’s characters, and further, this movie does have continuity with the others, including Tokyo Drift with a stunning opening scene that sets up the relationship that was alluded to at the end of that movie, and almost indicating that this film could very well be taking place concurrently with that one.

If you enjoy the series, and I have a ball with it, then I truly think this is a good addition to it. As a fan of video games like the Need For Speed series and Rockstar’s excellent Midnight Club series (Midnight Club: Los Angeles is just about the closest thing out there to having a Fast & Furious game- despite there being a real Fast & Furious game), this series is made for that crowd, and for the car crowd and just for those that enjoy some pretty high testosterone fun. The only actual race in the movie, was especially fun for me being a fan of these games.

Anyway, it’s really well made, stars Diesel and Walker deliver the goods as far as this milieu is concerned and it’s just a lot of fun. It won’t change anyone’s world and it won’t go down as one of the best movies of the year, but it’s a great diversion for those that love this stuff, and I do and I can certainly recommend this to fans of the series.

In 1959, in a small New York school, a group of grade school children are preparing a time capsule to be buried, all with drawings of what they think the future will look like, except for one little girl, Lucinda Embry, who had the idea for the time capsule, instead of a drawing, she’s put in a sheet of numbers that on it’s surface seems incomprehensible. In 2009, Caleb Koestler, the son of an MIT Astrophysics professor, John Koestler, gets to be the lucky recipient of what Lucinda wrote down, and his father soon starts to see a pattern to the numbers, all displaying times of extreme disaster and indicating the number of lives lost to each disaster. John now seeks to stop the moments that he believes are yet to come, and all the while, some mysterious figures are keeping an eye on him and his son…

That’s the basic premise to Knowing the newest movie from director Alex Proyas and star Nicolas Cage. In the past, Alex Proyas has given us movies like The Crow, Dark City and I, Robot and has certainly demonstrated with the last two that he’s a big fan of an old school type of science fiction film but with some new twists to it, and that’s what Knowing is, most definitely. My expectations were relatively low on this, primarily for Cage more than anything else, as with him you just never know what you’re going to get, either something that seems more to concentrate on his penchant for quirkiness and to see what new hairstyle he’ll bring to a part, or something more serious… and thankfully, with Knowing it’s something more serious.

In some ways, I saw a lot of parallels to what’s happened over the last four seasons of Battlestar Galactica in this film, with the biggest difference in that Galactica had a long time to make sure that every “t” was crossed and every “i” was dotted. Knowing tries to do a lot of the same in two hours, and I can see why there are some critics out there that have huge problems with the film. But I gave into it’s premise, and really thought that Proyas delivered another old school sci-fi treat here (and at it’s core, there is an explanation as to why it all went the way it does).

The best thing that Proyas does though, is that when some of the upcoming disasters start to happen, he ramps up the visuals and the action some notches above what you expect, just as he did with the dazzling end of Dark City and those moments are real grabbers when they happen. The movie is a little slow-building getting to where it’s going, but when these moments happen, they’ll snag you, or at least they did me. The other thing he does here, is that he’s not afraid to have this go very dark, with no easy solutions at all to it’s ending.

Proyas is also really well aided with a great score from composer Macro Beltrami, who also really steps up to the plate when the big moments happen.

Cage is pretty good here, and with the exception of one scene that falls into a little bit of cliche, he’s pretty rock solid in the film delivering one of his better performances in a while. Rose Byrne heads up the mostly unknown supporting cast, and they’re all fine, but this is Cage’s movie no doubt about that and we’re (mostly) seeing this through his experiences more than anyone else’s.

In the end though, I think Alex Proyas has delivered another very cool old school science fiction film with a rock solid performance from it’s lead actor. To me, this is something like the recent remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still or M. Night Shymalan’s The Happening totally done right and of course, I’m giving this a solid recommendation for being this sort of film and not afraid to buck a few Hollywood conventions.

A vicious criminal, Krug, is being transported, and along the way, he’s sprung by his brother Frances and his girlfriend Sadie. Krug, wondering where his son is, is told that he’s at the hotel where the gang is holed up. We’re then introduced to the Collingwood family, father John, a Doctor, his wife Emma and their daughter Mari, who’s a trained swimmer and they’re getting ready to go enjoy a vacation at their out of the way vacation home. Mari is immediately antsy and wants to go into town and meet up with her friend Paige. Once there, the two girls then get involved with Justin, little realizing that he’s the son of Krug, and then the action gets started…

The Last House On The Left is a remake of the original 1972 movie of the same name (which in itself is a bit of a remake of an old Bergman film) and I have to say, this new version is one of the better remakes that I’ve seen, a very effective terror/revenge movie that technically ups the ante considerably of the original. The original was Wes Craven’s very first movie, produced by Sean Cunnigham, who you know best as the originator of the Friday The 13th series, and both act as producers on this remake. My expectations were relatively low going into this movie, but I have to say, I came out plenty impressed.

Now, for the most part, if you’ve seen the original, this follows along a lot of the same path, but the remake is a better fleshed-out piece. The 1972 original is a classic in it’s own way, not necessarily for the story that it told, but more for the shock that it delivered at the time, doing some pretty taboo things that just weren’t seen in a movie of that period (it’s also very well known for it’s trailer, which introduced the classic line “It’s only a movie, it’s only a movie”). The original was made for about $90,000 in the day and it was purely designed as the type of B-movie that would play with other films regionally around the country. It’s not high art by any means, but still for fans of the genre (like myself), it brought in thrills in it’s own way for a pretty disturbing experience, and part of that disturbing experience included a very hokey cornball quality to the family scenes.

This remake dispenses with the cornball quality as well as with a couple of the major taboo scenes, to better focus on making the whole thing a more cohesive experience- it an audience of today is watching the original, then they’re seeing things that take some pretty huge leaps in logic in how they get from point A to point B. This remake fills in those leaps quite admirably, and credit for that has to go to the screenwriters and director Dennis Iiadis, as well as to Craven and Cunningham for having the sense to let this be updated in the way it has been.

One of the biggest things that I have to give them credit for here is the relationship between the parents, John and Emma which is actually a lot more grounded in reality than what other films might want to do. They also tend to up the ante with both girls, making them more fighters in this adversity than what they were in the original- it’s not forced by any means, and feels pretty natural to the situation that develops.

This has a pretty good cast to it, with maybe the most well-known to today’s audiences being actor Garret Dillahunt who plays Krug (you might be better familiar with Dillahunt through Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles where he’s played the cyborg Cromartie and now the A.I. known as John Henry). The best casting though goes to actors Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter who play the Collingwood parents, and they’re just terrific here. I also have to give notice to Sara Paxton, who played their daughter Mari.

The Last House On The Left is a pretty visceral experience that’s not for everyone by any means. I went into this more wanting to see the differences from the original and I was pleasantly surprised at how this remake drew me in and kept me with it on it’s own merits all the way through. If you enjoy this sort of terror/revenge movie (I wouldn’t call this or the original “horror” at all), then I’d certainly recommend it without too much hesitation- really well done on it’s own and when compared to the original, a worthy remake that takes that original and obviously goes forward with today’s audience definitely in mind.

Watchmen the film adaptation of the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons that takes a realistic approach to super-heroes and follows the state of the world if such characters were to come to pass as well as studying the motivations behind the minds that actually put on the masks. When the novel starts, though it’s not indicated in the movie, it’s 1985. Unless they’re working for the government, super-heroes have been outlawed by a bill called the Keene Act. Richard Nixon is in his fifth term as the president of the United States, and the world stands at the brink of nuclear war. Edward Blake, known also as The Comedian has discovered something, and is brutally murdered over that discovery. The masked vigilante, Rorschach is starting to put the pieces of this puzzle together and in the process, warning other masked avengers about a “mask killer” out there…

… and there’s just so much more here in what could be the richest textured “comic book” movie made thus far. Watchmen to me anyway, is an unqualified success at what it has set out to do, and so far leads the way as one of the best movies for 2009.

Now I’m no stranger to the graphic novel, and I’ve re-read it for the first time in over 20 years this past week as prep for the film and I’ve got to say, it still holds up tremendously well, and is just as relevant in 2009 as it was when it was originally on sale in the late 80s. Having just seen the movie last night, I can certainly tell you that there have been some changes made in it’s adaptation to the big screen, but the heart and soul and spirit of the graphic novel are all still there and in the process, this takes another step to advancing movies about comic book characters in different directions, much like what The Dark Knight did last year. I mean it’s a great comic book movie, no doubt about that, but at the same time, I’d also hold this in the same regard as I do movies like Boogie Nights, magnolia, The Player, Short Cuts or Grand Canyon.

This is director Zack Snyder’s third movie after the re-make of Dawn of the Dead and the adaptation of Frank Miller’s 300 and he’s certainly proved that he’s no flash in the pan, making highly commercial films that have their own passion about them… though the question could be asked about just how commercial Watchmen could be beyond it’s pre-sold audience, and I just think that all depends on what the audience wants to see out of something like this, because really, everything you need to understand Watchmen is there on screen, no doubt about that, but does the audience really want to have to put the pieces together or follow something as richly textured as this for the sake of seeing a “comic book” movie?

Well, I certainly hope so.

Snyder’s done his best to remain true to the book and at the same time make something that can run in theatres wanting to show it multiple times per day. There’s moments of great weight here, in particular Doctor Manhattan’s reflection of his life after and interview gone sour, and there’s just as many visceral moments that show cool action and adventure. There’s a story that shows the results of both conservative and liberal actions that these powers could take, and it’s all backed up with a rich back story, much of which is well presented in one of the better opening credits scenes that I’ve seen in a long time.

Snyder’s got a great cast here, and you can tell that they’ve all thrown themselves into the parts. The core characters are played by Patrick Wilson (Nite-Owl), Malin Ackerman (Silk Spectre), Billy Cruddup (Dr. Manhattan), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian), Matthew Goode (Ozymandias) and Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach). All are excellent, though in my mind’s eye, Goode isn’t quite who I would’ve chosen as Ozymandias, but still he does a terrific job here. Real standouts for me are Wilson, being the heart and soul of the film, and Cruddup and Haley, who are both saddled with having their true faces covered up most of the film, but are still able to really elicit some good mesmerizing performances. I’m even just as impressed with some of the side casting, like Carla Gugino as the original Silk Spectre, Stephen McHattie as Hollis Mason, the original Nite-Owl and Matt Frewer as Moloch one of the arch-enemies of the heroes. There’s no big stars here, just some solid talents who’ve really devoted themselves to giving their best on-screen.

I hated seeing this come to an end, I really did and when that ending came, it left me hungry for just what Zack Snyder’s director’s cut will be when he finally gets the chance to release that on DVD (already reported that it will have the animated Tales of The Black Freighter incorporated into it, I would also expect that there would be plenty of live action scenes as well, in particular those centered around the newsstand where the Black Freighter story gets told). I don’t think it’s necessary to read the book in order to appreciate this film as long as you’re prepared to take in something that’s as full as this is. But if you do enjoy the movie, by all means, read the book afterwards and be able to appreciate just how much of this that Zack Snyder and company gets right. Watchmen is one terrific movie, already leading the way for me as one of the best that I think I’ll see in 2009 and of course, it’s highly, highly recommended. Don’t miss it.

Since World War II, the United States government has been recruiting various people with psychic abilities to be a part of The Division. Now something that The Division needs has been tracked to Hong Kong, and there The Division contacts an ex-patriate named Nick Gant in trying to find it. Nick has the power of telekinesis and is basically know as a “mover” (with other psychics having powers that label them as “sniffers,” “watchers,” “shadows,” “pushers” and so on). Nick knows nothing, so The Division moves on, but immediately after that meeting, Nick is then contacted by a 13-year old “watcher” (someone able to see the future) named Cassie and informed of what his role is to be in this story… and then hijinks ensue…

… and not at a particularly exciting pace either… I’m not going to be recommending the new movie Push today, and before I get into the specifics of the story itself, one of the main reasons that Im not recommending this is something that’s just in my case, and that was a matter of poor presentation at the theatre that I went to see it at. First the sound was screwed up through the opening portions setting the whole idea of these psychics and The Division up. To solve that, the movie was stopped and then it started up again, this time with the sound working. Then, because this takes place in Hong Kong, there were portions of the film that were subtitled, and the way it was projected, you couldn’t see the subtitles as they were cut off at the bottom of the screen. So there’s a few strikes against this right from the start, thanks to poor presentation.

But sometimes, a movie can rise beyond that, unfortunately, in Push’s case, things are too slowly paced and convoluted to make this one anything to get excited about. This gets a lot of comparison to last year’s Jumper, and it’s easy to see, on the surface, they’re essentially about the same thing: people with “gifts” being hunted by shadowy organizations. And one of the traps this immediately falls into is just simplistically making The Division the bad guys of the piece. There’s no explanation given really to what they do other than just hunt down and recruit these psychics, and so just by reason that they’re the “authority” here, they’re evil. Now one thing that this has in it’s favor over Jumper though is that the psychics on the run here are generally much more likeable than the protagonists of Jumper having something a little more noble to be fighting for, unfortunately, it’s handled in such a way that things either happen to slow or too conveniently for you to either give a damn or think they’re just cool.

The cast is, for the most part, pretty good here. Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning play Nick and Cassie respectively, and they do a good job, there’s just not much that they’re really asked to do. The same can be said of Djimon Hounsou who plays Henry Carver, one of The Division agents pursuing this object (a serum that augments psychic abilities). Cliff Curtis, a real capable guy, is also one of the ex-patriates located in Hong Kong, and he’s solid, but if you want to see a better movie with him and Evans, I’d suggest Danny Boyle’s Sunshine over this one. The one person of the main cast who’s a real drag here is Camilla Belle, who’s another of the psychics living in Hong Kong, and she looks good but she’s just boring and especially when a particular plot turn happens, there’s nothing there to really get excited about with her (Belle was also in last year’s 10,000 B.C. where she also served as a drag on the story). Actually, the best parts of the cast are actors playing side roles, one of The Division’s other “movers” who’s just got a lot of fire in him when doing the physical stuff, and a whole group of Hong Kong psychics who really just chew up scenery when doing their thing, are way more fun to watch than the main cast.

In the end, this whole idea seems like it’s by someone who’s watched Heroes and X-Men and thinks they can do a better job with it and due to poor pacing primarily and convoluting the plot to make this appear complex, it instead just gets bogged down to the point that you just don’t care. This wasn’t really a good start to seeing new movies for 2009…

So even though this has been out for a few weeks now, finally I’ve gotten the chance to go see it, and I have to say, I was very suitably impressed, this really deserves the accolades that it’s been getting.

Slumdog Millionaire tells us the story of Jamal Malik a young man who’s had a hard life and has found himself on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and he’s worked his way up to the final question. but because of his background, Malik is suspect of cheating on the show, and before the nest show with his final question takes place, Jamal is being held by the police and questioned about his process. From there we see that the questions that Jamal can answer have some sort of significance with periods of his life involving both his brother Salim and a young girl who he’s fallen in love with named Latika.

Slumdog Millionaire is the latest film from British director Danny Boyle, who’s past credits ahve included Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and last year’s Sunshine. Boyle basically does something a little different with each film he makes, though there are consistencies of style with each film.

Slumdog is pretty riveting right from the start, and what it does to really draw you in is give you something as familiar as a show like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (even if it’s the Indian version) and then give you that parallel to Jamal’s life, with often that parallel having some pretty hefty significance.

Danny Boyle has a talented group of young actors working here with literally three actors each playing Jamal, Salim and Latika at different periods of their lives. All our great, but I have to give special notice to the youngest of these actors with the earliest portrayals.

I’m late to the party on this one, but definitely wanted to see it before the big Academy Awards show, and I totally think this is well worth seeing, and deserving of every bit of praise that it’s been getting. Before seeing this, I was pretty much rooting for David Fincher and Benjamin Button but now after seeing this, I’m pretty cool with either Danny Boyle or Slumdog Millionaire taking down the big awards. Very good stuff here and highly recommended.

(and now since seeing this, things are looking better for Slumdog Millionaire at the Oscars, as Danny Boyle has just won the Director’s Guild Award)

In 1941, in Nazi occupied Eastern Europe near the Belarussian Forests, four Jewish brothers, Tuvia, Zus, Asael and Aron Bielski flee to the forests to hide after discovering their parents killed after a hunt for Jews. The brothers survive by their wits and very soon, they take more in with them, beginning construction of a community deep within the forest, hidden from the Nazis. The oldest brothers, Tuvia and Zus soon come to a conflict between themselves as to whether they hide from the Nazis or join the fight with Russian resistance fighters, with Tuvia staying with the camp and Zus going off to fight, and eventually their paths cross again, as the settlement works hard to survive, soon growing ever larger.

This true story is the basis for the film Defiance from director Edward Zwick, who’s past films have included Glory, The Siege, The Last Samurai and Blood Diamond and it’s a truly inspiring story (at least what’s shown here), and just something to me anyway in that I haven’t heard more about this before.

Now while this starts off telling you it’s a true story, they do play around with the actual facts, giving just a little play to the fact that the Bielskis were always in trouble with the law and that their group did some pretty awful things in order to survive, and I have to wonder if Zwick actually filmed more around this or not. Now as I said above, I knew little of these facts, sand originally came away from this thinking a few nobler things about the Bielskis, and I’m still going to recommend the film, but it does make me wonder if there was more that was shot that wasn’t as rosy. I hope there was and hope further that it might be on the eventual DVD release down the road making for a movie that isn’t quite as black and white as this is.

What’s here makes for a good and inspiring movie, and had they shot this with more of the real things done by the Bielskis, I think it could’ve made this even more effective, though nowhere near as affirming as what a Hollywood picture would be.

Daniel Craig and Liev Schrieber head up the cast as respectively Tuvia and Zus. These guys are great together, they have some real chemistry and I’d actually hope that maybe down the road they might team up again in another film. Craig is always solid gold, but after finding out a little more of the real facts, I have to give more praise to Liev Schreiber here, as his Zus is a lot closer to what was there for real.

Initially, coming out of the film, I truly thought it was exceptional stuff. But after finding out a few more of the facts, I’d really wished Zwick and crew would’ve done more with that. I’d still recommend seeing this, but take the words “This is a true story.” with a grain of salt and maybe use this as the entryway to find out more of what really happened.

Randy “The Ram” Robinson is a pro wrestler who’s best days are 20 years past, and now he ekes out a living doing small local shows and working for a store. At one of his shows, he sustains a load of brutal injuries and then has a heart attack and suddenly starts to realize his own mortality. The problem though, Randy is all alone and he desperately doesn’t want to be as he tries to connect with a stripper, Cassidy who’s better days are behind her and his own estranged daughter, who he knows next to nothing about.

The Wrestler is the long-awaited fourth movie from director Darren Aronofsky, winning huge kudos for it’s poignant story and more for it’s performance by lead actor Mickey Rourke playing Robinson. And it’s highly deserving of all of the kudos it’s getting, absolutely no doubt about it.

Aronofsky’s movies are always a visual treat, and with The Wrestler he does something brand new for him, shooting the movie with the raw look of a documentary, but doing it in such a way where often the camera is right behind Rourke as he’s walking into a scene, giving us to the chance to sort’ve be in The Ram’s shoes. And yet at the same time, though we are behind Rourke, his presence is still just as strong as though you’re facing him.

Aronofsky has joked in the past that he’s Barton Fink with this movie (people who’ve seen Barton Fink will know that Im referring to the ideal that the title character was a high-minded writer who was brought to Hollywood to work on something less than his perceived talents), and it is just joking… he treats his subject matter with the same sort of respect that he did with movies like Requiem For A Dream and Pi.

Enough can’t be said about Rourke’s performance, though I have to say, I don’t necessarily see it as a comeback (though people said the same thing when he played Marv in Sin City as well, and that wasn’t that long ago) as I really thought he never left. But still, it’s tremendous work and you can’t help but feel for the guy throughout the movie, he’s obviously got a big heart, and like all of us, he’s made mistakes that he deeply regrets. He’s physically impressive, though also very much broken down. Aronofsky supposedly threw him through the proverbial ringer with this movie and it shows with this heartfelt performance. I think just as impressive though is Marissa Tomei as Cassidy, showing that that Supporting Actress Oscar that she won a few years ago wasn’t just a flash in the pan, and given the right material, as she is here, she’s just as impressive as Rourke.

It’s just terrifically well-made all around. Aronofsky makes all the right choices and ends this film in the best possible way. Word is very good of Rourke getting a Best Actor Oscar nomination for the film, and it’s totally deserved and I hope he wins it. Again, I think this is one of the better releases of 2008, and though the Oscar nominations aren’t out as of yet, it’s not sounding like this will be there for the awards for Best Picture and Best Director, and I just have to wonder how well this placed against the front runners. Regardless of that, this is still a fantastic movie and I can’t recommend it enough…

As an old woman named Daisy lies in her deathbed, she relates to her daughter, the story of the most important man in her life, a fellow named Benjamin, who began his life in the oddest of ways, displaying all of the effects of old age on an infant’s frame. As Benjamin grows older, he physically gets younger, leading to a perspective on the world wiser than can be expected…

And to say more about the story of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button would be to say too much. This story is better experienced by actually watching it unfold. And when you do watch it unfold, you’ll be experiencing yet another in a string of masterpieces from director David Fincher and easily one of the very best movies of 2008.

Fincher’s well known for the exacting control he takes on his movies (and if you’ve ever watched any of the special edition DVDs of Fight Club, Panic Room or Zodiac then you know what I mean) and Benjamin Button is no exception. This is a long movie, nearly three hours long, and yet it’s all so well paced and written so well that it never feels that way, for me, the time flew right by.

Originally based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald (which I haven’t read and I do know that liberties have been taken with the story), this screen adaptation is truly a magical experience. It’s the sort of movie that I’d like to watch as a double or triple feature with movies like Forrest Gump and The World According to Garp.

Brad Pitt plays Benjamin and Cate Blanchett plays Daisy and the performances are just excellent (Daisy is a dancer and it really looks like Blanchett learned her stuff here- and it’s not just in the steps but in her gait and how she carries herself in the non-dncing scenes). It’s easily, at least for me, the most heartfelt thing that Brad Pitt has ever done, and you feel his genuine kindness and sense of wonder about the world in most every scene.

This movie would be my actual pick to win a Best Visual Effects award for the year. Now I really like movies with big splashy effects as much as the next guy, but admire stuff more that’s just not so obvious. And here, the effect of aging is just seamless, and though it’s amazing to see, it doesn’t detract whatsoever. One scene in particular, where Benjamin is literally around the age of 18 is just about as convincing as it can be, you’ll swear that somehow or another, David Fincher has this amazing time machine and he was able to go and pluck Brad Pitt from that point in his life to play in this movie.

Right now, this is looking like a big contender at Oscar time, probably being pitted against Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon and The Dark Knight (these movies have been grabbing the nominations from the Writer’s Guild, the Producer’s Guild and the Director’s Guild) and even without having yet seen either Milk or Slumdog (and I do hope to before the Oscars come around) and whatever awards it garners, it’s totally well deserved. Don’t miss this one for a moment, it’s a terrific experience and as I said above, easily one of the best movies of 2008.

In 1977, British talk show host, David Frost conducted a series of interviews with disgraced former President Richard Nixon on television, and this movie, which is an adaptation of a stage play, seeks to go further than the surface, talking about the events that led to these interviews and more importantly the motivations behind both men in doing them- Frost sees it as a way to get back some former notoriety, while Nixon looks at it as a way of getting exoneration to an extent and being able to get yet another place in the sun politically. It’s a great examination of a historical side story, as well as a test of wills of two men who wanted so badly to fit in.

And it’s one hell of a good movie. This latest film from director Ron Howard is at least for me, my favorite of his since he did Ransom (my own personal favorites of Howard’s movies are Ransom, The Paper and of course, Apollo 13 which I can watch again and again). It’s an extremely well-paced work that lays the story out in chronological order, peppered with reflections from the side players (well, the actors playing the side players) about the event, done in an almost documentary style fashion, giving it much greater sense of event than how it actually played out, at least from my recollection of the time.

I can’t say enough about how well written this movie is, and it damn well should be considering that this is about an interview event, so it needs to capture you right from the start and fortunately it does.

Of course, much has been said about the performances of both of the leads, Michael Sheen as David Frost and Frank Langella as Richard Nixon, and the praise is well deserved. Sheen’s got a little more of a twinkle in his eye than the real Frost does and Langella is a much more physically imposing presence than the real Nixon was, but still it’s tremendously good work from both men, and it’s especially proven in one scene before the final interview takes place about a phone call between Nixon and Frost, that’s the best scene in the movie loaded with great scenes, and it just makes you wonder did this really happen this way? And it has some great support work from Oliver Platt, Matthew Macfadyen and most especially Sam Rockwell and Kevin Bacon who are just about as standout as the leads themselves.

The best thing this movie does though is it makes you want to find out more about the time or see the key moments of the real interviews again, and that’s just what a movie about a historical event should do. This is one of those that I’m looking forward to seeing again when it comes out on DVD and hopefully there’ll be a nice package made around it when it does hit. Highly, highly recommended and easily one of the best of 2008.