Author: Darren Goodhart

It’s the middle of the evening and a lone stranger is sitting on a street bench, munching on a carrot. A pregnant woman runs past him, clearly upset and in pain. A car comes into the scene and a deadly killer gets out clearly in pursuit of the woman. Our stranger, sees that it’s now his time to get involved, and what follows is a deadly chase involving a baby, a senator, a gun trader, a lactating hooker, and a whole bunch of hitmen.

And that’s the gist of Shoot ‘Em Up a new action movie from director Michael Davis, that is clearly a parody of action movies in general and a salute Looney Tunes, John Woo and Takashi Miike in particular. This is one of those movies that clearly divides it’s audiences, with most either wildly loving it or hating it. I enjoyed it, but think it has a few problems, but still thought it was a nice little ride.

One of the biggest complaints that most have about it is the common internet caveat “Where’s the plot?” Well the plot is there, it’s just buried under tons of over-the-top action and parody. I mean make no mistake, there is a story here, but this movie is clearly parody and as part of it’s parody, it buries it even moreso than traditional action films (that get the same complaint) do. There’s motivations for all of the characters, but again, like the plot, they’re at the service of the parody that’s centerpiece.

The action is fast and furious, and sometimes it’s cut a little too much like that. Michael Davis is very fond of the quick cut here, but then again as far as I’m concerned, that’s all part of the parody as well. But here, I think it works to the disadvantage of the film, mostly in the idea that with a few exceptions, you don’t necessarily get that clear a picture of all the action that is going on. Again, I think it’s part of the parody, but here it doesn’t quite translate as well as it should.

Davis has a killer cast at work. Clive Owen is Mr. Smith, our carrot munching stranger at the start, who’s one part stoic action hero and one part Bugs Bunny. Monica Belluci is the lactating hooker who’s here entirely as eye candy and I think she knows that full well (and if you’re gonna have eye candy in a movie, it really doesn’t get much better than Belluci). Paul Giamatti is Hertz, the leader of the hitmen, and he’s all wacky, being a sort of composite Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam, he, more than anyone else is clearly having the most fun in the film. I like Clive Owen, I really do, but his casting is something that I see as another problem in the film. For the type of parody this film is displaying, it almost seems that someone more like a Bruce Willis might’ve better served the part, or at least the Bugs Bunny side of it more.

In a lot of reviews, you’ll see mentions of Looney Tunes and John Woo, and as I mentioned above, I see the work of Japanese cult director Takashi Miike in here too, in particular, this film feels more like an American version of his action masterpiece Dead or Alive, with one of the final action bits here clearly being something that you could easily see Miike do. This is one of those things that wne this eventually comes out on DVD, I hope there’s a commentary from Michael Davis on the disk, because I’d love to hear if Miike was in fact an influence here.

And on DVD is probably where most people are going to see this film- We saw a 10:00 showing of this film last night and I have to say I was expecting a little bit of a turnout, nothing overwhelming, but at least a lot more than the seven or eight people that we had in total in our theatre. I liked it, but I do think it has a few problems, but if our audience was any indication, most probably won’t care if they see it or not.

Nicholas Hume is a man who has everything, a loving wife, two wonderful sons, a secure job- everything is going his way, or as he puts it, there is order in the universe. His eldest son is a hockey prodigy, and one night, coming home from a big game, Nick and his son find themselves the victims of gang violence, resulting in the death of that son, and now tearing apart Nick’s life sending him into a downhill plunge of violence of which there seems no escape.

And that’s the basic premise of the new movie from the original director of Saw, James Wan, Death Sentence based on a book by author Brian Garfield which in itself was a written response to sequels of a movie based on another of his books, Death Wish. As far as I’m concerned though, this feels like it’s a new version of Death Wish for our times now, and ultimately, with just a minor caveat, I think Wan has delivered a pretty satisfying film, one that has some definite weight to it and not necessarily just an excuse for wanton violence on-screen.

Wan’s clearly grown since Saw it’s real evident here, as at least to me anyway, his storytelling is way more matter of fact and far less relying on some of the tricks that he used in Saw. One of the set pieces of the film, a brilliant foot chase that leads to a final conclusion in a parking garage, is just really well done, often times giving the illusion of a single extended shot, it’s just real exciting to watch. But he just doesn’t rest there, as he’s really on his game with his actors as well.

My one minor complaint with the film concerns a transformation of one of the characters that happens a little too fast, though I think some of that can be explained a bit, I just would’ve liked it more had it taken a little more time in the film.

Kevin Bacon plays Nick Hume, and Bacon is really good here. He’s obviously invested himself emotionally in the role, and he’s asked to do some tough physical stuff as well. We’re pretty much with Bacon through the whole film, and we want him to come out on top- which is certainly a good sign of his abilities. Kelly Preston plays his wife and while I can’t remember the names of the actors who plays his sons, they do a nice job, and they are convincing as a family unit. Aisha Tyler plays a police detective who’s involved with the case and she’s solid here. John Goodman creepily plays a gun runner who’s the backbone of this gang and it’s really fun to watch him work here. And again, I can’t remember the names of the actors who play the gang members (although Saw star and co-writer Leigh Whannell is one of them), but they do a great job, not just playing some two-dimensional cut-outs, but actually having their own weight as well, when they see that their own “family unit” is threatened.

There’s a lot of other movies that Death Sentence owes to (particularly Taxi Driver) and really I don’t have a problem with that, and I tend to think that this probably couldn’t have been made any other way, without thinking of those movies, revenge films tend to do that. But still, James Wan has put together a pretty effective piece of filmmaking here that I know I certainly enjoyed quite a bit. Very much recommended.

In the town of Haddonfield, Illinois, something evil and destructive is brewing. Young Michael Myers is the disturbed product of a highly dysfunctional family: an abusive drunk who’s his “father figure,” a stripper mother who harbors no respect from anyone, and a promiscuous sister, who shows him little regard, all he truly has is a baby sister who he does love and a festering and destructive anger, that one Halloween night, comes to a boil in dramatic fashion… and from there a rain of horror falls.

And that’s the opening part of Rob Zombie’s re-imagining of the classic John Carpenter film Halloween, and I use the term “re-imagining” deliberately as a lot of others are referring to it as a remake, and yet there’s some huge differences here. Make no mistake, this certainly does owe to John Carpenter’s legendary original in huge ways, but Zombie has made it his own. Carpenter’s film is very much a product of it’s time, and what Zombie has chosen to do is the same thing, come back with this and make it a product of his time and his worldview, creating a very nihilistic world, with little to no redeeming value in it whatsoever. He’s also chosen to give Michael Myers a very human persona, in his own way- whereas the original keeps Myers as almost this mythic force, Zombie chooses to deconstruct the myth. In John Carpenter’s film, you were always seeing things out of the corner of your eye, in Zombie’s, he shows it to you full one and often lingers over it.

The first hour of the movie is pretty damn good and pretty damn intense. This focuses on Michael’s childhood, his incarceration and his dealings with Dr. Sam Loomis and it’s pretty magnetic stuff. The second hour of the movie comes back to the familiar ground of the first film, and though it’s all covered in about an hour, it actually feels slower in comparison to Carpenter’s original. In particular, the last 15 minutes of the film has a little too much to it, mostly trying for more terror thrills when it could’ve been tied up a little more tidily.

The other thing that bothers me a bit here is that really there’s not a whole lot of anyone to really side with in the film. I tended to think that most of the people were pretty loathsome, and while that pretty much makes sense for the first hour of the film, to me anyway, it decreases the horror of the second hour. The only time when it does veer away from that is with the Laurie Strode character and her parents. But the other thing that happens here is that this is pretty loyal to the events of Carpenter’s original, and I can certainly commend Zombie for wanting to keep it that close, but I think if he would’ve done something a little more different than that, he could’ve come away with something more effective.

The other thing that I commend him with is the music of the film. Tyler Bates provides the film’s music and there’s a good creepy score here that certainly does reference John Carpenter’s original music. It’s quite well done.

Zombie’s got his most eclectic cast yet in this movie- Oh, his regulars are certainly back, Sherrie Moon Zombie, Bill Mosely, Sid Haig and William Forsythe are all here, and you’ve also got other parts filled out by Brad Dourif, Richard Lynch, Clint Howard, Udo Kier, Danny Trejo, Tom Towles, Leslie Easterbrook, Sybil Danning and Mickey Dolenz (of The Monkees). Daeg Faerch is the name of the young actor who plays the young Michael Myers, and this kid is absolutely terrific. Scout Taylor-Compton steps into Jamie Lee Curtis’ shoes to play Laurie Strode, and she sort of reminds me of a cleaner Lindsay Lohan. Tyler Mane plays the adult Michael Myers, and he’s physically quite the change from the original. Big, hulkish and in your face, his presence is certainly one facet of Zombie’s re-imagination. And the always great Malcolm McDowell steps into Donald Pleasance’s shoes to play Dr. Sam Loomis, and he does a great job, certainly playing Loomis in a more down to earth manner, whereas Pleasance’s character was literally a harbinger of doom for what was coming to Haddonfield, convincing you that what was coming was pure and utter evil, McDowell’s Loomis does the same thing of a sorts, but he’s definitely playing this as more a real psychiatrist than what Pleasance did.

Now I am a Rob Zombie fan, I love his first two movies and I still think that this year he’s given me anyway the screen’s best moment with his Werewolf Women of the S.S. trailer in Grindhouse. I’d rank Halloween as third in my order of preference in his films, even though I do think he’s displayed some tremendous growth as a filmmaker here. But, he is re-imagining a genuine horror classic here- and make no mistake about it, John Carpenter’s original film is indeed just that, a true classic. For Zombie to really do it justice he can’t really make any misfires, and yet here he does make a couple. In the end, I still think it’s a worthy view, especially if you’ve seen the original, but it doesn’t carry the same impact as the original- Carpenter literally made your pulse race at the end of the film, but Zombie is just making you wait for the end of his film, and for re-imagining a genuine horror classic, if there’s anything that should be true to the original, it should be the true sense of terror that came out of it. It’s still a worthy effort, it just falls a little short.

FBI Agent John Crawford lost his partner in a revenge killing over an FBI investigation of Yakuza activity in San Francisco. The killing was carried out by am outside source, known only as Rogue. Three years later, Rogue has resurfaced as a war between the Yakuza and the Triads escalates in San Francisco and now John Crawford is out for total revenge.

And that’s the basic premise of the new action movie War featuring two of today’s biggest action stars, Jason Statham and Jet Li. To me this movie sort of plays out like Michael Mann’s Heat but for the short-attention spanned. That’s not a knock on the film in anyway, but there are similarities to Mann’s film, although this one doesn’t quite approach it in the same epic terms. This one plays as more a “B” film, but with some nice set pieces and a flip near the end of the film, that I can say at least I didn’t see coming.

I enjoyed this, but I’ll also tell you it’s hardly the best thing that I’ve seen this year. There’s a lot more that one could ask of this, though it does, at least to me, seem to cross all it’s “t’s” and dot all it’s “i’s.” Director Philip Atwill keeps the movie very fast-paced, but still it could’ve used a little more fleshing out, and probably a little more style and “oomph” to it’s action pieces (though some are very nice, including a final showdown in the San Francisco Yakuza headquarters).

Now I like both Statham and Li, and I can see the attraction to wanting to put them in a movie together (they’ve been in one together before, the science fiction film from Morgan and Wong called The One but that was before Statham’s star was more on the rise). But Statham isn’t hiding his British accent, though he’s distinctly playing an American FBI agent, and Li of course is Chinese, and here he’s playing Japanese- it’s a little goofy, but still having them playing accurate representations of their parts isn’t exactly what this one is about. They’re there mostly for some big-ass action more than anything else. They’re solid here though, with Statham getting a little more of the boost playing the “cop on the edge.”

Like I said above, I’ve certainly seen far better this year, but I still thought this was an entertaining diversion and a nice night out with the friends who I see movies with. Lionsgate didn’t exactly release this one for critical review, and after seeing the film, I sort of wonder why? I don’t think they had anything to be embarrassed by with this, and more than likely they probably would’ve expected reviewers to basically come in and say it’s purely for fans of the stars alone, but had little else to offer- but I guess you never really know. More than likely most will catch this on DVD than anything else, but still I certainly had a good time with it, and again where I saw it, it was shown in a digital projection room and that in itself offers up it’s own sort of fun…

A space shuttle landing disaster has brought an intelligent virus to the planet. This virus mixes with human DNA and changes it’s host, going from an individual mind to a collective. It doesn’t happen all at once, but the process does spread rapidly, but at first, not overtly. A psychiatrist, Carole Bennell is treating a patient who’s husband isn’t her husband any more, and quickly, Carole discovers that the rest of the world is changing around her.

The Invasion is the fourth movie to be based around Jack Finney’s novel, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and it comes to us by way of German director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who’s given us a couple of really terrific movies in the past in The Experiment and Downfall. And The Invasion is certainly ambitious in both trying to be true to it’s source material but also find it’s own path as well. In my own opinion, out of the four movies, this is probably the least (I’d rank Philip Kaufman’s version as the very best- this one starred Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams and Leonard Nimoy), but that’s not saying it’s a bad movie by any means.

It’s a short film, and it does feel heavily edited and that there might be a lot more to it than what’s presented theatrically. At the same time, it certainly didn’t feel like something that was missing anything real important, just details that could’ve fully realized it’s ideals. One main idea that the film presents, and I give it big credit for this, is that it would take something like an “alien invasion” like this for humans to truly come to terms and live in peace, that by our own nature, we can’t have a world peace. And on top of that, it doesn’t quite get in your face about it like so many Hollywood films would’ve. That in itself is really refreshing to see in a movie like this when so many want to fall back on some tired Hollywood cliches of the authority figures being the villains- this one gives a little more food for thought.

At the same time, this certainly gives out the homages as well- particularly to Kaufman’s movie- using names like Bennell and Bellicec, and even going so far as casting Veronica Cartwright (who was in Kaufman’s film) as Carole Bennell’s patient who’s afraid of her husband, and an inadvertent key to eliminating this virus.

What it loses though is the whole idea of plant pods growing humans out of them, and the very dark endings of the other films. This one is resolved a little more quickly and is considerably more optimistic, but still pensive about the idea that it’s in our own nature to be cruel to one another. I don’t necessarily mind that, but have very much preferred the dark endings of the other movies. This one is also more openly blatant about what’s happening to the world, whereas the other films were very much isolated events, but with the prospect of opening up further.

Hirschbiegel has a great cast at work here. Nicole Kidman carries the film as Bennell, and she looks fantastic and she does a great job with the part. She’s backed up with solid support talent with Daniel Craig (this movie was completed before he became James Bond), Jeffrey Wright and Jeremy Northam- all doing solid work here.

At the end though, and I am recommending this film, this doesn’t feel as complete as it could and one wonders if perhaps on DVD this might have a bigger cut coming down the road. I hope it does, but still I think this is worth seeing if your a fan of the other three Body Snatcher films- this probably won’t upset any of them as your favorite, but still it offers an interesting take on the idea nonetheless.

In this screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess’ fairy tale/novel, we see the story of a mystical world in England called Stormhold, that’s guarded by a wall from humans from the outside coming in. A young man named Tristan, who has more to him than meets the eye, has fallen in love with a young girl who doesn’t feel the same for him, and one night, as Tristan is trying to prove his love, a falling star falls past the wall, and Tristan proclaims his love in such a way that he promised to go retrieve the star for the girl who he’s courting, and from there… Tristan enters a world unlike any he’s ever seen before and learns a few lessons along the way.

Now, right off the bat, I’m gonna tell you this sort’ve thing isn’t my normal cup of tea, but with director Matthew Vaughn behind it (Vaughn directed the remarkably cool movie Layer Cake) it got me quite a bit more interested. I certainly respect Neil Gaiman’s talent, and certainly think he’s a fine writer, though I’m mostly familiar with his comic work, his work on the whole just hasn’t grabbed me the way that it does most genre fans. This isn’t saying it’s bad at all, it’s just not my cup of tea.

But with that said, and like last year’s MirrorMask, I’ve gotta say, Stardust is still a very good movie with my only bone of contention being that it’s probably just a bit too long, but other than that, this is a very entertaining piece of work. Matthew Vaughn has perfectly realized this world of Stormhold, and it’s all out there on the screen. And though I’ve never read the actual book, the script and dialogue certainly ring true to what I know of Neil Gaiman.

It’s really a beautiful film to watch, with a lot of great visual effects. My favorite of these being a flying pirate ship that catches lightning from the skies. there’s one scene involving this ship where it’s attempting to “land” in the water that’s just very cool to watch. There’s a lot of great set pieces in the film as well, one of the first that really impressed me was watching a witch (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) setting up a roadside inn and planning to use that to catch the star that Tristan has gone after. There’s a real nice convergence of visual effects, editing, and sound and music that really gives that scene quite a charge.

Good performances around in this film. Charlie Cox plays Tristan, and though I’m not that familiar with this guy, he’s certainly a very engaging personality in this film. Claire Danes plays the “star” that Tristan goes after, Evaine and she does a pretty nice job with the part. I already mentioned Michelle Pfeiffer above, and she’s certainly having fun chewing the scenery here. And Robert DeNiro plays the captain of the pirate ship, who has his “softer” side that’s the sort’ve of thing that I don’t know really works on him that well, considering who he is, but I still give him credit for going all out with it. Look for Peter O’Toole near the start of the film and there’s a great little part that Ricky Gervais has here as well.

We saw a late show of this last night, and honestly I was surprised to see more people in the audience than just the crew I was with. This is a very odd film to picture a mass audience going to, just because it’s different from other fantasy movies in that there’s nothing that’s real kid-centric here (though nothing objectionable as well)- but I don’t know, I’d like to see this do well, but could certainly see it get lost real easily out there too. While it’s subject matter, being this fantasy/fairy tale isn’t exactly my bag, I still honestly think it’s a terrific movie and wouldn’t hesitate in the slightest to recommend it. It’s been tossed out this past week that Matthew Vaughn’s next big project will be a film version of Marvel Comic’s Thor– seeing what Vaughn did here, I really do hope this happens…

In what seems to be right on the heels of The Bourne Supremacy, Jason Bourne is still on the run in Russia and now having flashbacks to his early indoctrination. A British reporter gets wind of everything going on with everything with the CIA and the program that gave us Bourne and is trying to uncover everything, leading to a new category of covert ops called Blackbriar within the CIA, but the CIA is on to that as well and thus begins the cat-and-mouse chase with The Bourne Ultimatum.

Paul Greengrass is back at the helm for this movie after handling the last film in the series. Greengrass gave us what I thought was last years best movie of the year with United 93. For the most part, I think he’s in fine form here, particularly with many of the film’s set pieces. The chases and fight scenes in this movie are absolutely convincing as hell, filmed in Greengrass’ shaky handheld camera style, they’re just a lot of fun to watch.

Unfortunately, there are some points in the movie where it just falls on tired Hollywood cliches- particularly that the people in charge of the CIA are, of course, older white men, that any of the women involved here are automatically good, and that the project that created Jason Bourne is intrinsically wrong by the fact of the remorse that he’s suffering from all of the killing that he’s done.

I look at the creation of Jason Bourne to have a lot of similarities with a comic book character, Captain America, except that Cap’s missions have always been portrayed as noble, whereas in the space of the Bourne films, there’s nothing that shows that any of the missions that Bourne performed before his memory loss had any good to them at all. Now for these movies, and Bourne’s state of mind within these films, that’s fine, but to just leave it at that to me anyway falls into a cliche (and make no mistake, the third film leaves it at that). The end result could still be the same, but ignoring the fact that under this project that Bourne may have indeed done good for the country, just seems to push an idea of governmental pessimism that’s certainly popular for the time, but still becoming now an endlessly tired cliche. Personally, I feel that as a citizen of this country, I want agents like Jason Bourne out there in the world.

No fault at all of the cast, all of whom are very good here. Matt Damon continues to show why he’s as good as he is with his earnest portrayal of Bourne and watching him in the action scenes he’s totally convincing that he can do all of the stuff that he’s doing. Joan Allen and Julia Stiles are back from the previous film and joining in with this film are actors David Strathairn, Albert Finney and Scott Glenn, all of course playing the “bad guys” of the piece, and I think doing a great job, but that little bit of balance that I mentioned above just isn’t present.

This is fine as it is, I know with the exception of a particularly bad audience that we had, I had a pretty good time overall with the film. But one wonders just how much more meaty this could’ve been had there been a little more balance shown to the ideas and execution of the ideas that created the project that created Bourne. This is a good series and it wouldn’t hurt it at all to do that, to gray the line more than to draw it out in pure black and white.

It’s approximately 50 years in the future and scientists on Earth have discovered that soon the sun will burn itself out. Seven years prior to the start of the film, the Icarus project was initiated with the plan being to deliver a tremendous nuclear payload into the heart of the sun and hopefully re-igniting it. Something went wrong though and Icarus I wasn’t heard from again. As the movie starts, Icarus II is in the midst of trying again, closing in on the planet Mercury, when they start to receive a distress signal… from Icarus I.

And in a nutshell that’s the basic premise of Danny Boyle’s newest movie, Sunshine a hard science fiction film that’s in the vein of movies like Solaris, 2001: A Space Odyssey and it’s sequel 2010. And I think it’s a damn fine piece of work.

Boyle’s film, is not only a bit of a thematic throwback, but a technical one as well. It’s beautiful to look at, but it’s not at all a heavily CGI-rendered piece. If CGI is used, it’s in more subtle effects, but nothing as sweeping as you’ve seen in other films.

Now I’m no science whiz, and don’t pretend to be one. I bought into it’s premise though, Boyle and his excellent cast sold it well to me. I’ve read criticisms where people think that this is two thirds a great movie and that it falls a part for them in the third act. I’ve avoided reading why it falls apart, but I think I’ve got a good idea why now after seeing the film. The third act, featuring the discovery of Icarus I also has another event that I think is the one that’s hard for some to swallow, and yet I think there’s enough of a set-up there that it certainly rang true for me. It all builds to nice, if somewhat ambiguous, ending that I think again is true for the type of films that Boyle makes and is also very much in keeping with things like the above-mentioned Solaris (and I’m talking about the Soderbergh/Clooney Solaris, not the Tartovsky original) and 2001: A Space Odyssey) Boyle even goes further in his salutes to these films, even throwing in a nice one to John Carpenter’s first film Dark Star.

He’s got a great cast at work for him here… Rose Byrne, Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis are amongst others in the cast, but I think the real standout here is Chris Evans, who we know best as playing the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies. All of the characters feel like fully developed individuals, and Evans gets a very nice character arc in the film that lets him display some acting muscles that I haven’t really seen him display before. It’s a great ensemble all around, but Evans really does do a nice job here, making me look forward to more serious acting roles from him.

I really enjoyed this, this is the type of science fiction film that really speaks to me, and I applaud Danny Boyle for doing this type of film and adding another genre to his impressive list of credits. We had four of us together on this last night, all of us genre film fans and we all came out really enjoying the film, and I know for two of us, even enjoying it more after the fact, as we talked deeper about it. Very much looking forward to owning this one on DVD and watching it again and again, this one’s up there as one of the best of the summer for me (Ratatouille is still my big favorite though), and it will certainly be one that I’ll be considering as one of the best of the year as well. Highly, highly recommended…