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(03/23/06 5:00am)
"Jarhead" is not a war movie. It's even less of a war movie than "Three Kings," "Apocalypse Now," "The Deer Hunter" or "Full Metal Jacket" (which it most resembles). "Jarhead" is a movie about military indoctrination, conflicting moralities and under British director Sam Mendes' deft direction, it's a poignant statement about the current state of our military and its follies in the deserts of the Middle East.\nBased on former Marine Anthony Swofford's book about his experiences in bootcamp, Kuwait and Iraq in the first Gulf War, "Jarhead" nimbly avoids preachy politics, instead focusing on the effect the military, during wartime, has on the mind of the individual. Jake Gyllenhaal, capping off a red-letter year which included an Oscar-worthy performance as Jack Twist in "Brokeback Mountain," embodies Swofford with a bewildered fire in his eyes, a man forever scarred by his actions and lack of action in a war he doesn't fully understand.\nPeter Sarsgaard adds yet another mildly disturbing character to his cannon as Swofford's friend Allen Troy, but it's Jamie Foxx who steals the show during his limited screen time as Staff Sgt. Sykes, a performance combining the intensity and sharp tongue of "Full Metal Jacket's" Gunnery Sgt. Hartman with the undeniable compassion of Tom Hank's Captain Miller in "Saving Private Ryan."\nBoth single and double-disc versions of "Jarhead" are available, with the single-disc containing a glut of mostly curious deleted scenes with director commentary, more of Swofford's fantasy sequences from the film and two full-length commentary tracks, one from Mendes and the other from screenwriter William Broyles Jr. and Anthony Swofford himself. The double-disc collector's edition contains all features found on the single-disc, as well as the documentaries "Jarhead Diaries," "Background" and "Semper Fi: Life After the Corps." The diaries are personal accounts of life on the set from the cast and are mostly disposable. "Background" concerns stories of the real Marines who starred as extras in the film, and "Semper Fi" is a series of interviews with former Marines, some yawn-inducing and some emotionally affecting, in which they discuss their lives after leaving the Corps.\nThere are individual scenes in "Jarhead" that boast the weight of most entire films, such as Swofford's mental breakdown at the expense of a timid fellow soldier or a climactic scene in which Swofford and Troy finally have an Iraqi in their cross-hairs after months upon months of training and waiting. Roger Deakins' cinematography is also of particular note, as his camera perfectly captures the bleakness of the desert by day and the haunting quality of the desert by night, oil wells burning like surreal signal fires.\nWith "American Beauty" and "Road to Perdition" already under his belt, Sam Mendes joins the likes of P.T. Anderson, Wes Anderson, Spike Jonze, Sofia Coppola and Darren Aronofsky as 40-years-or-younger directors with as of yet spotless track records.
(03/23/06 5:00am)
Does anyone remember "Crash?" It won the Best Picture Oscar three weeks ago. No? Don't worry. You'll soon see it overflowing bargain bins next to "Shakespeare in Love," "The English Patient" and "Million Dollar Baby." But what doomed it to end up there? How did this self-described "little film about race in America" end up winning the Best Picture Oscar over such substantial cinematic offerings as "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "Munich?"\nThe Oscars chickened out. They saw Fox News calling out their deceptive "liberal agenda" and turned tail, running at the thought of the same majority that re-elected George W. Bush turning against their storied institution. Or maybe they just liked "Crash" better, but we doubt it. The Academy played it safe, unlike last year with the mediocre but topical "Million Dollar Baby," a winner timed to coincide with the removal of Terry Schiavo's feeding tube. Truth be told, "Crash" was the safest choice of all the films nominated this year. With two nominated films featuring homosexual characters and the other two taking a prominent liberal stance on social/national issues, "Crash" was the warm glass of milk to those films' shot of Everclear.\nIf one spoke candidly, off the record with the majority of Academy voters who chose "Crash," chances are they would tell you there was a method to their madness. In hopes to assuage the American viewing public (the same public that helped "Narnia" top the $250 million mark), Academy voters (the same voters that gave Michael Moore an Oscar) chose the film with racial themes that would've shaken your grandma up in the '60s, but by today's standards seem about as genial as those in "Driving Miss Daisy." \nAnyone who's seen "Crash" has no doubt about what writer/director Paul Haggis was telling you as he attempted to shed every ounce of his white guilt. His message of "we're all racist people with the capacity to change, if only for a little while" is about as subtle as a kick in the stones, and only makes us wish he would've taken a page from other films that have handled racial issues so much more adroitly. \nSpike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" and Tony Kaye's "American History X" are textbook examples that Haggis should've examined -- where racism isn't beaten over our heads and we're reminded that people have the capacity for permanent change, yet so rarely does anyone do the right thing.\nHaggis' hyperlinked weaving of his cast throughout the mean streets of Los Angeles has been done bolder and better by filmmakers the Academy chose to ignore. Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" was infinitely more interesting than "Crash;" Paul Thomas Anderson holds the crown for crafting the best L.A. character mosaic, "Magnolia." No matter which way you turn, "Crash" has been done better in countless films -- each of them expertly juggling racism and a plethora of other controversial issues.\nCould "Crash" have been made a better film actually worthy of its Oscar? Of course. All films (with some possible exceptions) could be improved with the benefit of hindsight, and one could endlessly quibble about whether or not the cast of "Crash" was worthy of the SAG award, especially after featuring tired archetypes such as the bad cop, the thug gangster, the foreign shopkeeper and the bitchy housewife.\nThe one aspect that could've been changed to make it a better film is the one aspect it relies upon most: its heavy-handed finger-wagging at the public about our innate racist tendencies. This moral worked to poignant effect in films like "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (released when public facilities were still labeled White or Colored), but in 2005 it just seems like lukewarm table scraps. With all its unrealistic banter ("Hey Ma, I'm sleeping with a white girl.") and race-card statistics, perhaps a "Crash" TV mini-series would've made more sense -- yet it still would've pulled punches. In the real world racism is a loaded gun, not one filled with blanks.\nSo was "Crash" the year's best film? No. Just consult the Golden Globes, the Independent Spirit Awards, the American Film Institute, the British Academy Awards, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Berlin Film Festival and the Film Critics Circles of New York, Los Angeles ("Crash's" own city!), San Francisco or Dallas. They'll tell you different, as will the dozen other films that should've filled "Crash's" slot as a Best Picture nominee. Whether it be a portrait of small-town violence, the colonization of Jamestown, a giant gorilla, a Depression-era pugilist or a bored Marine in the desert, 2005 was full of real contenders that were overlooked in favor of a two-hour sugar-coated lesson on race relations. \nDo us a favor, though. When you're walking through Best Buy a year or so from now and you see someone snatch a copy of "Crash" out of the $5.99 bargain bin, save them the cash by letting them know that we're all just a little bit racist, and if we try really, really hard we can overcome it -- then hand them a copy of "Brokeback Mountain"
(03/23/06 3:17am)
Does anyone remember "Crash?" It won the Best Picture Oscar three weeks ago. No? Don't worry. You'll soon see it overflowing bargain bins next to "Shakespeare in Love," "The English Patient" and "Million Dollar Baby." But what doomed it to end up there? How did this self-described "little film about race in America" end up winning the Best Picture Oscar over such substantial cinematic offerings as "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "Munich?"\nThe Oscars chickened out. They saw Fox News calling out their deceptive "liberal agenda" and turned tail, running at the thought of the same majority that re-elected George W. Bush turning against their storied institution. Or maybe they just liked "Crash" better, but we doubt it. The Academy played it safe, unlike last year with the mediocre but topical "Million Dollar Baby," a winner timed to coincide with the removal of Terry Schiavo's feeding tube. Truth be told, "Crash" was the safest choice of all the films nominated this year. With two nominated films featuring homosexual characters and the other two taking a prominent liberal stance on social/national issues, "Crash" was the warm glass of milk to those films' shot of Everclear.\nIf one spoke candidly, off the record with the majority of Academy voters who chose "Crash," chances are they would tell you there was a method to their madness. In hopes to assuage the American viewing public (the same public that helped "Narnia" top the $250 million mark), Academy voters (the same voters that gave Michael Moore an Oscar) chose the film with racial themes that would've shaken your grandma up in the '60s, but by today's standards seem about as genial as those in "Driving Miss Daisy." \nAnyone who's seen "Crash" has no doubt about what writer/director Paul Haggis was telling you as he attempted to shed every ounce of his white guilt. His message of "we're all racist people with the capacity to change, if only for a little while" is about as subtle as a kick in the stones, and only makes us wish he would've taken a page from other films that have handled racial issues so much more adroitly. \nSpike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" and Tony Kaye's "American History X" are textbook examples that Haggis should've examined -- where racism isn't beaten over our heads and we're reminded that people have the capacity for permanent change, yet so rarely does anyone do the right thing.\nHaggis' hyperlinked weaving of his cast throughout the mean streets of Los Angeles has been done bolder and better by filmmakers the Academy chose to ignore. Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" was infinitely more interesting than "Crash;" Paul Thomas Anderson holds the crown for crafting the best L.A. character mosaic, "Magnolia." No matter which way you turn, "Crash" has been done better in countless films -- each of them expertly juggling racism and a plethora of other controversial issues.\nCould "Crash" have been made a better film actually worthy of its Oscar? Of course. All films (with some possible exceptions) could be improved with the benefit of hindsight, and one could endlessly quibble about whether or not the cast of "Crash" was worthy of the SAG award, especially after featuring tired archetypes such as the bad cop, the thug gangster, the foreign shopkeeper and the bitchy housewife.\nThe one aspect that could've been changed to make it a better film is the one aspect it relies upon most: its heavy-handed finger-wagging at the public about our innate racist tendencies. This moral worked to poignant effect in films like "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (released when public facilities were still labeled White or Colored), but in 2005 it just seems like lukewarm table scraps. With all its unrealistic banter ("Hey Ma, I'm sleeping with a white girl.") and race-card statistics, perhaps a "Crash" TV mini-series would've made more sense -- yet it still would've pulled punches. In the real world racism is a loaded gun, not one filled with blanks.\nSo was "Crash" the year's best film? No. Just consult the Golden Globes, the Independent Spirit Awards, the American Film Institute, the British Academy Awards, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Berlin Film Festival and the Film Critics Circles of New York, Los Angeles ("Crash's" own city!), San Francisco or Dallas. They'll tell you different, as will the dozen other films that should've filled "Crash's" slot as a Best Picture nominee. Whether it be a portrait of small-town violence, the colonization of Jamestown, a giant gorilla, a Depression-era pugilist or a bored Marine in the desert, 2005 was full of real contenders that were overlooked in favor of a two-hour sugar-coated lesson on race relations. \nDo us a favor, though. When you're walking through Best Buy a year or so from now and you see someone snatch a copy of "Crash" out of the $5.99 bargain bin, save them the cash by letting them know that we're all just a little bit racist, and if we try really, really hard we can overcome it -- then hand them a copy of "Brokeback Mountain"
(03/23/06 2:40am)
"Jarhead" is not a war movie. It's even less of a war movie than "Three Kings," "Apocalypse Now," "The Deer Hunter" or "Full Metal Jacket" (which it most resembles). "Jarhead" is a movie about military indoctrination, conflicting moralities and under British director Sam Mendes' deft direction, it's a poignant statement about the current state of our military and its follies in the deserts of the Middle East.\nBased on former Marine Anthony Swofford's book about his experiences in bootcamp, Kuwait and Iraq in the first Gulf War, "Jarhead" nimbly avoids preachy politics, instead focusing on the effect the military, during wartime, has on the mind of the individual. Jake Gyllenhaal, capping off a red-letter year which included an Oscar-worthy performance as Jack Twist in "Brokeback Mountain," embodies Swofford with a bewildered fire in his eyes, a man forever scarred by his actions and lack of action in a war he doesn't fully understand.\nPeter Sarsgaard adds yet another mildly disturbing character to his cannon as Swofford's friend Allen Troy, but it's Jamie Foxx who steals the show during his limited screen time as Staff Sgt. Sykes, a performance combining the intensity and sharp tongue of "Full Metal Jacket's" Gunnery Sgt. Hartman with the undeniable compassion of Tom Hank's Captain Miller in "Saving Private Ryan."\nBoth single and double-disc versions of "Jarhead" are available, with the single-disc containing a glut of mostly curious deleted scenes with director commentary, more of Swofford's fantasy sequences from the film and two full-length commentary tracks, one from Mendes and the other from screenwriter William Broyles Jr. and Anthony Swofford himself. The double-disc collector's edition contains all features found on the single-disc, as well as the documentaries "Jarhead Diaries," "Background" and "Semper Fi: Life After the Corps." The diaries are personal accounts of life on the set from the cast and are mostly disposable. "Background" concerns stories of the real Marines who starred as extras in the film, and "Semper Fi" is a series of interviews with former Marines, some yawn-inducing and some emotionally affecting, in which they discuss their lives after leaving the Corps.\nThere are individual scenes in "Jarhead" that boast the weight of most entire films, such as Swofford's mental breakdown at the expense of a timid fellow soldier or a climactic scene in which Swofford and Troy finally have an Iraqi in their cross-hairs after months upon months of training and waiting. Roger Deakins' cinematography is also of particular note, as his camera perfectly captures the bleakness of the desert by day and the haunting quality of the desert by night, oil wells burning like surreal signal fires.\nWith "American Beauty" and "Road to Perdition" already under his belt, Sam Mendes joins the likes of P.T. Anderson, Wes Anderson, Spike Jonze, Sofia Coppola and Darren Aronofsky as 40-years-or-younger directors with as of yet spotless track records.
(03/09/06 5:00am)
Johnny Cash died in September of 2003, only four months after his beloved wife June Carter Cash passed. While his death was attributed to complications from diabetes, some would argue he died of a lonely heart. To the credit of director James Mangold's "Walk the Line," it is Johnny and June's mutual love and admiration that pilots the film, even when it occasionally veers into movie-of-the-week territory.\n"Walk the Line" chronicles Johnny's childhood, ever-present daddy issues, stint in the military, failed first marriage, drug addiction and early struggles in the music business. Joaquin Phoenix, our generation's excuse for a method actor, plays Cash with a muted fire in his eyes. His performance was nominated for an Oscar this year and outshines that of the fellow nominees Terrence Howard and David Strathairn. Reese Witherspoon recently nabbed an Oscar for her portrayal of Cash's second wife June, and while it is certainly the best acting of her career, it's still overshadowed by Phoenix's brooding performance.\nMuch has been made of the fact that Phoenix and Witherspoon actually sang the songs in the film, but as with American Idol, vocal talent alone does not a legitimate performance make. Anyone who's heard Cash's infamous prison recordings of 1968 and 1969 knows that he was a sometimes rollicking, often somber musical force to be reckoned with and the songs in the film don't quite harness that same power. \nAlso troubling are moments where the film verges on biopic melodrama (a nasty side effect of tribute films that nearly strangled 2004's "Ray") but these are few and far between and the stolen quiet moments between Joaquin's Johnny and Reese's June are the film's finest.\nThe one-disc version of "Walk the Line" offers a satisfactory feature-length commentary track from Mangold, as well as 10 wisely cut deleted scenes also featuring Mangold commentary. A double-disc Collector's Edition is also available, containing the same features as the single disc, while also boasting several documentaries that most serious Cash fans will find of value. \nThe two featurettes, "Folsom, Cash and the Comeback" and "Ring of Fire: The Passion of Johnny and June," are standard DVD fare, mainly existing to honor the now-deceased Cash, but the longer documentary "Celebrating the Man in Black" goes into a bit more depth concerning the making of the film and the American cultural importance of the couple and features interviews with the likes of musicians John Mellencamp, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson. There are also three extended musical numbers with Phoenix and Witherspoon which come off as overkill seeing as how the movie has one too many to begin with.\nStructured in the form of an extended flashback before Johnny's famous 1968 concert immortalized on the "At Folsom Prison" LP, "Walk the Line" is a respectable tribute to the Man in Black and the woman who was his muse and support system for so many years. One can't help but wish, though, that the film had been made to honor Johnny and June while they were still alive.
(03/08/06 9:00pm)
Johnny Cash died in September of 2003, only four months after his beloved wife June Carter Cash passed. While his death was attributed to complications from diabetes, some would argue he died of a lonely heart. To the credit of director James Mangold's "Walk the Line," it is Johnny and June's mutual love and admiration that pilots the film, even when it occasionally veers into movie-of-the-week territory.\n"Walk the Line" chronicles Johnny's childhood, ever-present daddy issues, stint in the military, failed first marriage, drug addiction and early struggles in the music business. Joaquin Phoenix, our generation's excuse for a method actor, plays Cash with a muted fire in his eyes. His performance was nominated for an Oscar this year and outshines that of the fellow nominees Terrence Howard and David Strathairn. Reese Witherspoon recently nabbed an Oscar for her portrayal of Cash's second wife June, and while it is certainly the best acting of her career, it's still overshadowed by Phoenix's brooding performance.\nMuch has been made of the fact that Phoenix and Witherspoon actually sang the songs in the film, but as with American Idol, vocal talent alone does not a legitimate performance make. Anyone who's heard Cash's infamous prison recordings of 1968 and 1969 knows that he was a sometimes rollicking, often somber musical force to be reckoned with and the songs in the film don't quite harness that same power. \nAlso troubling are moments where the film verges on biopic melodrama (a nasty side effect of tribute films that nearly strangled 2004's "Ray") but these are few and far between and the stolen quiet moments between Joaquin's Johnny and Reese's June are the film's finest.\nThe one-disc version of "Walk the Line" offers a satisfactory feature-length commentary track from Mangold, as well as 10 wisely cut deleted scenes also featuring Mangold commentary. A double-disc Collector's Edition is also available, containing the same features as the single disc, while also boasting several documentaries that most serious Cash fans will find of value. \nThe two featurettes, "Folsom, Cash and the Comeback" and "Ring of Fire: The Passion of Johnny and June," are standard DVD fare, mainly existing to honor the now-deceased Cash, but the longer documentary "Celebrating the Man in Black" goes into a bit more depth concerning the making of the film and the American cultural importance of the couple and features interviews with the likes of musicians John Mellencamp, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson. There are also three extended musical numbers with Phoenix and Witherspoon which come off as overkill seeing as how the movie has one too many to begin with.\nStructured in the form of an extended flashback before Johnny's famous 1968 concert immortalized on the "At Folsom Prison" LP, "Walk the Line" is a respectable tribute to the Man in Black and the woman who was his muse and support system for so many years. One can't help but wish, though, that the film had been made to honor Johnny and June while they were still alive.
(03/06/06 7:36am)
8:02 p.m. Priceless montage bringing together hosts of Oscar past. Crystal and Rock in a tent! Steve Martin's spooky kids! LETTERMAN!!!
(03/02/06 5:00am)
John Schlesinger's "Midnight Cowboy" was the first modern film to win Oscar's Best Picture prize. Before 1969, Oscar was still honoring musicals and old world celebrations like "Oliver!," "The Sound of Music," "My Fair Lady" and "West Side Story." After "Midnight," films like "The French Connection," the first two "Godfather" films, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "The Deer Hunter" became prime Oscar bait. If Schlesinger's tale of awestruck Texan Joe Buck and his common trials and minor triumphs in New York City boasts one major accomplishment, it's that it goaded popular cinema into wising up and joining the real world, ushering in a decade of brutally honest films before the '80s hit us like a candy-coated hurricane.\n"Midnight Cowboy" pre-dates "Brokeback Mountain" by 36 years in terms of demystifying the American cowboy mystique, but while "Brokeback" employs a sexual lifestyle choice as its focus, "Midnight" centers on Joe Buck as a traditional man forced to literally whore himself out to make ends meet. \nJon Voight offers a wonderfully understated performance (not unlike Heath Ledger's in "Brokeback") as the naïve Buck and Dustin Hoffman stuns as his physically handicapped and impoverished friend Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, who's line "I'm walkin' here" has since entered the realm of famous cinematic quotations. The film's ending is among cinema's most somberly heartbreaking and offers a sort of cautionary coda to the entire decade of the 1960s, the same way David and Albert Maysles' "Gimme Shelter" did to Michael Wadleigh's "Woodstock."\nExtras on this two-disc set include a feature-length audio commentary by producer Jerome Hellman, two retrospective docs ("After Midnight - Reflections on the Classic" and "Controversy and Acclaim") and "Celebrating Schlesinger," a tribute to the film's late director. Hellman's commentary leaves much to be desired, as it's mostly technical jargon and tossed-off personal musings. The documentaries are rather standard, with most of the cast and others involved sharing their experiences with the film, but the featurette honoring Schlesinger borders on poignancy, making it all the more regrettable that he was not alive to contribute to this DVD edition.\nDespite some occasionally pesky color problems and the obvious lack of Schlesinger's presence and involvement (both of which bring this DVD's grade down from a solid A to an A-), this new edition of "Midnight Cowboy" not only has the potential to expose a classic film to a new audience, but to remind us all that taking cinematic risks pays off in ways more vital than raking in box office dollars.
(03/02/06 12:13am)
John Schlesinger's "Midnight Cowboy" was the first modern film to win Oscar's Best Picture prize. Before 1969, Oscar was still honoring musicals and old world celebrations like "Oliver!," "The Sound of Music," "My Fair Lady" and "West Side Story." After "Midnight," films like "The French Connection," the first two "Godfather" films, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "The Deer Hunter" became prime Oscar bait. If Schlesinger's tale of awestruck Texan Joe Buck and his common trials and minor triumphs in New York City boasts one major accomplishment, it's that it goaded popular cinema into wising up and joining the real world, ushering in a decade of brutally honest films before the '80s hit us like a candy-coated hurricane.\n"Midnight Cowboy" pre-dates "Brokeback Mountain" by 36 years in terms of demystifying the American cowboy mystique, but while "Brokeback" employs a sexual lifestyle choice as its focus, "Midnight" centers on Joe Buck as a traditional man forced to literally whore himself out to make ends meet. \nJon Voight offers a wonderfully understated performance (not unlike Heath Ledger's in "Brokeback") as the naïve Buck and Dustin Hoffman stuns as his physically handicapped and impoverished friend Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, who's line "I'm walkin' here" has since entered the realm of famous cinematic quotations. The film's ending is among cinema's most somberly heartbreaking and offers a sort of cautionary coda to the entire decade of the 1960s, the same way David and Albert Maysles' "Gimme Shelter" did to Michael Wadleigh's "Woodstock."\nExtras on this two-disc set include a feature-length audio commentary by producer Jerome Hellman, two retrospective docs ("After Midnight - Reflections on the Classic" and "Controversy and Acclaim") and "Celebrating Schlesinger," a tribute to the film's late director. Hellman's commentary leaves much to be desired, as it's mostly technical jargon and tossed-off personal musings. The documentaries are rather standard, with most of the cast and others involved sharing their experiences with the film, but the featurette honoring Schlesinger borders on poignancy, making it all the more regrettable that he was not alive to contribute to this DVD edition.\nDespite some occasionally pesky color problems and the obvious lack of Schlesinger's presence and involvement (both of which bring this DVD's grade down from a solid A to an A-), this new edition of "Midnight Cowboy" not only has the potential to expose a classic film to a new audience, but to remind us all that taking cinematic risks pays off in ways more vital than raking in box office dollars.
(02/23/06 5:00am)
Despite what VH1 would have you believe, the '80s weren't so bad after all. At a time when the ass-end of new wave collided with the embarrassingly hedonistic hair metal scene, the demure Paul Simon released his best set of songs since he and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water LP. Frustrated that his songwriting skills hadn't translated so well to the studio since 1975's Still Crazy After All These Years, Simon drew upon his newfound fascination with traditional South African rhythms and vocalizations while enlisting a group of musicians and singers from South Africa to help record Graceland, the most enduring album of Simon's 35-year solo career.\nMusically, Graceland is mostly upbeat, briefly featuring flourishes of zydeco, accordion, synthesizer, sax and even the pennywhistle on "You Can Call Me Al." Mostly, though, the record relies on adept percussion and a steady undercurrent of rhythm guitar. Graceland features many once-prominent South African musicians, such as guitarist Chikapa "Ray" Phiri and bassist Bakiti Kumalo. The album not only popularized world music in the age of Apartheid, but also injected the South African band Ladysmith Black Mambazo (featured on "Homeless") into the American mainstream.\n Simon's lyrics are uniquely poetic throughout, equaling the wordplay in such Simon & Garfunkel classics as "The Sound of Silence" and "A Simple Desultory Philippic," and nearly matching the understated power of "The Only Living Boy in New York." "You Can Call Me Al" was Graceland's biggest hit, and while that track's surreal imagery of 'roly-poly little bat-faced girls' is iconic, the wide-eyed wonder of "The Boy in the Bubble" and "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" as well as the humble introspection of "Under African Skies" and the title track resonate much deeper.\nWarner Brothers Records issued a remastered and expanded edition of Graceland in July 2004, complete with a demo version of "Homeless," an unreleased (yet ultimately ineffective) take on "Diamonds On the Soles of Her Shoes" and an extremely early rendition of the album's closing track. These additions only serve as curiosities, however, since the original LP stands on its own as not only the best set of post-1960s songs Paul Simon ever penned, but also as one of the most lasting and influential records of the 1980s.
(02/22/06 11:12pm)
Despite what VH1 would have you believe, the '80s weren't so bad after all. At a time when the ass-end of new wave collided with the embarrassingly hedonistic hair metal scene, the demure Paul Simon released his best set of songs since he and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water LP. Frustrated that his songwriting skills hadn't translated so well to the studio since 1975's Still Crazy After All These Years, Simon drew upon his newfound fascination with traditional South African rhythms and vocalizations while enlisting a group of musicians and singers from South Africa to help record Graceland, the most enduring album of Simon's 35-year solo career.\nMusically, Graceland is mostly upbeat, briefly featuring flourishes of zydeco, accordion, synthesizer, sax and even the pennywhistle on "You Can Call Me Al." Mostly, though, the record relies on adept percussion and a steady undercurrent of rhythm guitar. Graceland features many once-prominent South African musicians, such as guitarist Chikapa "Ray" Phiri and bassist Bakiti Kumalo. The album not only popularized world music in the age of Apartheid, but also injected the South African band Ladysmith Black Mambazo (featured on "Homeless") into the American mainstream.\n Simon's lyrics are uniquely poetic throughout, equaling the wordplay in such Simon & Garfunkel classics as "The Sound of Silence" and "A Simple Desultory Philippic," and nearly matching the understated power of "The Only Living Boy in New York." "You Can Call Me Al" was Graceland's biggest hit, and while that track's surreal imagery of 'roly-poly little bat-faced girls' is iconic, the wide-eyed wonder of "The Boy in the Bubble" and "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" as well as the humble introspection of "Under African Skies" and the title track resonate much deeper.\nWarner Brothers Records issued a remastered and expanded edition of Graceland in July 2004, complete with a demo version of "Homeless," an unreleased (yet ultimately ineffective) take on "Diamonds On the Soles of Her Shoes" and an extremely early rendition of the album's closing track. These additions only serve as curiosities, however, since the original LP stands on its own as not only the best set of post-1960s songs Paul Simon ever penned, but also as one of the most lasting and influential records of the 1980s.
(02/09/06 5:00am)
My obsession with award shows typically hits a fever pitch at this point in the year, around the time Oscar nominations are announced and I pick a couple of movies to support and one contender to denounce. Now that I have my heavy-hitters to talk up ("Munich," "Brokeback Mountain") and an equally reviled counterpart to bash ("Crash"), I decided to host my own lonely award show. It's sort of like Eric Cartman and his backyard tea party. If only Keira Knightley would show up to play Polly Prissy Pants.\nConsidering my recent preference of DVD viewing over multiplex outings, I've not seen every film up for award contention, be it Oscars or Razzies (no "Walk the Line," "Capote," "Good Night and Good Luck"). I have, however, spent a good deal of time in the theater and an immense sum of money at Best Buy and Blockbuster combing over last year's cinematic offerings, and I'm ready to hand out the awards.\nMost Overhyped Movie Actually Worthy of the Hype: "Brokeback Mountain." Regardless of the much ballyhooed romance between the film's male leads and the copious political banter concerning Hollywood being a liberal clearinghouse, Ang Lee's heartbreaking, personal film is among the top few of 2005 and worth every award it is honored.\nBest Case for More Remakes: "King Kong." Peter Jackson instilled his version of "Kong" with every ounce of fervent fanboy love for the original that existed within his newly gaunt frame. Lifelong obsession with the original film should be a requirement when hiring directors of all remake films.\nBest Case for More Comic Book Movies: "Batman Begins." I hope Christopher Nolan holds onto the helm of this franchise, because it's the only way it will ever return to the Tim Burton glory days. "Begins" made the X-men series look like a hack-job, setting a high standard for comic-based films.\nMost Annoying Movie (the nails-on-a-chalkboard prize): "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Throughout its length, Garth Jennings' adaptation of Douglas Adams' book is like the worst of Monty Python filtered through a muddy lens of bad puppetry, clunky one-liners and a musical score by KidsSongs.\nMost Temporarily Frightening Villain: Tripods -- "War of the Worlds." They were eventually destroyed by the common cold, but in the brief time that they were around, nothing could stand up to their vaporizing death rays and human blood harvesting.\nNaughtiest Nude Scene: Alexis \nDziena -- "Broken Flowers." When the 21-year-old Dziena (playing an underage teen) appears before Bill Murray in full-frontal and rear exposure, audiences are not sure whether to laugh, gawk or gasp. Murray's priceless reaction relieves all tension\nBiggest Hollywood Mistake: Uwe Boll's career. How did Hollywood react in the aftermath of the cinematic bowel movements known as "House of the Dead," "Alone in the Dark" and "BloodRayne"? By welcoming "In the Name of the King and Hunter: A Dungeon Siege Tale," directed by Boll. Three more Uwe-bombs are in the works.\nMost Shocking Onscreen Death: Marie-Josée Croze -- "Munich." Eric Bana and Daniel Craig enter a houseboat, screw their cap guns together, pop some heat into a female assassin and wait for her to die as she takes the time to pet her cat. When she takes a seat, blood spewing from her neck, Hanns Zischler drapes her gown open for humiliation's sake. This is Spielberg at his most stunningly heartless.\nBest Documentary that Oscars failed to nominate for Best Documentary: "Grizzly Man." "March of the Penguins" was cute, but Werner Herzog's harrowing chronicle of madman/naturalist Timothy Treadwell, who died in 2003 at the claws and jaws of the grizzly bears for whom he cared for so deeply, cuts to the heart of man's desire to become one with nature.\nMost Inept Directorial Decision: Michael Bay -- "The Island." Scarlett Johansson expressed a public desire to appear topless in her romp with Ewan McGregor. Bay denied her the opportunity, insisting on a PG-13 rating. "The Island" was budgeted at $126 million, and took in $36 million in domestic box office. Michael Bay fails at life.\n Unfortunately Overlooked Movie: "Jarhead." Sam Mendes' surreal look at the existence of soldiers during the first Gulf War went nearly unnoticed by mainstream audiences, either due to adverse politics or general disinterest in parallels between that war and our own. Hopefully the film will be afforded renewed life on DVD.\nMost Overrated Oscar Dark Horse (the honorary "Million Dollar Baby"/ "English Patient"/ "Shakespeare in Love" award): "Crash." Add one part "Magnolia," one part "Amores Perros," one part "Short Cuts," a mostly mediocre cast and a wholly unrealistic screenplay and you get a final product that in no way equals the sum of its innumerable parts.\nBest Picture That Has No Chance of Winning the Best Picture Oscar: "Munich." "Brokeback" is the odds-on favorite, but "Munich" is the year's best film, with Steven Spielberg, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, composer John Williams and scribe Tony Kushner working at the top of their respective fields.
(02/08/06 11:46pm)
My obsession with award shows typically hits a fever pitch at this point in the year, around the time Oscar nominations are announced and I pick a couple of movies to support and one contender to denounce. Now that I have my heavy-hitters to talk up ("Munich," "Brokeback Mountain") and an equally reviled counterpart to bash ("Crash"), I decided to host my own lonely award show. It's sort of like Eric Cartman and his backyard tea party. If only Keira Knightley would show up to play Polly Prissy Pants.\nConsidering my recent preference of DVD viewing over multiplex outings, I've not seen every film up for award contention, be it Oscars or Razzies (no "Walk the Line," "Capote," "Good Night and Good Luck"). I have, however, spent a good deal of time in the theater and an immense sum of money at Best Buy and Blockbuster combing over last year's cinematic offerings, and I'm ready to hand out the awards.\nMost Overhyped Movie Actually Worthy of the Hype: "Brokeback Mountain." Regardless of the much ballyhooed romance between the film's male leads and the copious political banter concerning Hollywood being a liberal clearinghouse, Ang Lee's heartbreaking, personal film is among the top few of 2005 and worth every award it is honored.\nBest Case for More Remakes: "King Kong." Peter Jackson instilled his version of "Kong" with every ounce of fervent fanboy love for the original that existed within his newly gaunt frame. Lifelong obsession with the original film should be a requirement when hiring directors of all remake films.\nBest Case for More Comic Book Movies: "Batman Begins." I hope Christopher Nolan holds onto the helm of this franchise, because it's the only way it will ever return to the Tim Burton glory days. "Begins" made the X-men series look like a hack-job, setting a high standard for comic-based films.\nMost Annoying Movie (the nails-on-a-chalkboard prize): "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Throughout its length, Garth Jennings' adaptation of Douglas Adams' book is like the worst of Monty Python filtered through a muddy lens of bad puppetry, clunky one-liners and a musical score by KidsSongs.\nMost Temporarily Frightening Villain: Tripods -- "War of the Worlds." They were eventually destroyed by the common cold, but in the brief time that they were around, nothing could stand up to their vaporizing death rays and human blood harvesting.\nNaughtiest Nude Scene: Alexis \nDziena -- "Broken Flowers." When the 21-year-old Dziena (playing an underage teen) appears before Bill Murray in full-frontal and rear exposure, audiences are not sure whether to laugh, gawk or gasp. Murray's priceless reaction relieves all tension\nBiggest Hollywood Mistake: Uwe Boll's career. How did Hollywood react in the aftermath of the cinematic bowel movements known as "House of the Dead," "Alone in the Dark" and "BloodRayne"? By welcoming "In the Name of the King and Hunter: A Dungeon Siege Tale," directed by Boll. Three more Uwe-bombs are in the works.\nMost Shocking Onscreen Death: Marie-Josée Croze -- "Munich." Eric Bana and Daniel Craig enter a houseboat, screw their cap guns together, pop some heat into a female assassin and wait for her to die as she takes the time to pet her cat. When she takes a seat, blood spewing from her neck, Hanns Zischler drapes her gown open for humiliation's sake. This is Spielberg at his most stunningly heartless.\nBest Documentary that Oscars failed to nominate for Best Documentary: "Grizzly Man." "March of the Penguins" was cute, but Werner Herzog's harrowing chronicle of madman/naturalist Timothy Treadwell, who died in 2003 at the claws and jaws of the grizzly bears for whom he cared for so deeply, cuts to the heart of man's desire to become one with nature.\nMost Inept Directorial Decision: Michael Bay -- "The Island." Scarlett Johansson expressed a public desire to appear topless in her romp with Ewan McGregor. Bay denied her the opportunity, insisting on a PG-13 rating. "The Island" was budgeted at $126 million, and took in $36 million in domestic box office. Michael Bay fails at life.\n Unfortunately Overlooked Movie: "Jarhead." Sam Mendes' surreal look at the existence of soldiers during the first Gulf War went nearly unnoticed by mainstream audiences, either due to adverse politics or general disinterest in parallels between that war and our own. Hopefully the film will be afforded renewed life on DVD.\nMost Overrated Oscar Dark Horse (the honorary "Million Dollar Baby"/ "English Patient"/ "Shakespeare in Love" award): "Crash." Add one part "Magnolia," one part "Amores Perros," one part "Short Cuts," a mostly mediocre cast and a wholly unrealistic screenplay and you get a final product that in no way equals the sum of its innumerable parts.\nBest Picture That Has No Chance of Winning the Best Picture Oscar: "Munich." "Brokeback" is the odds-on favorite, but "Munich" is the year's best film, with Steven Spielberg, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, composer John Williams and scribe Tony Kushner working at the top of their respective fields.
(01/26/06 5:00am)
Terrence Malick is somewhat of a hermit among the filmmaking community, what with only directing three films during the past 32 years. Good thing each one of them was a genuine artistic achievement worth fawning over, or else we might have forgotten about him by now. Malick's fourth film, "The New World," is another event in and of itself, combining a sense of visual wonder and subtle, moving drama that towers over all the Jesus lions and Queen Latifahs clogging today's cineplexes.\nThe particulars of "The New World's" focus on the initial colonization of North America in 1607 by European settlers, including the much-fabled John Smith (Colin Farrell), his stalwart Captain Christopher Newport (Christopher Plummer), and their half-hearted and ultimately failed attempts to peacefully coexist with the natives, or "naturals," of the territory that would later become coastal Virginia. Malick, being a notorious perfectionist, insisted that the vast majority of location photography take place in the same areas of Virginia in which the story exists, and true to his prior form, all visuals offered here are aesthetically stunning.\nThe actors uniformly stretch Malick's sparse, self-penned screenplay to its limits, with Farrell ("Alexander") turning in a career-best performance, demystifying the legend of John Smith. August Schellenberg and Wes Studi ("The Last of the Mohicans") elicit audience sympathy for the native tribe, Christian Bale ("Batman Begins") offers an adept study on tobacco farmer John Rolfe, and the 15-year-old newcomer Q'Orianka Kilcher brings the famed Pocahontas to vibrant life.\nMalick's past works loom large over "The New World," if only because they establish such a great deal to live up to. The frailty and fragility of human life in 1973's "Badlands," the wide-eyed reverence for love and nature in 1978's "Days of Heaven," and the extensive soul-searching and internal monologues of 1998's "The Thin Red Line" (possibly the best WWII film ever made) are all devices touched upon to varying degrees in "The New World," often in grand scope and to monumental effect.\nContemporary audiences may find Malick's use of internal monologues disrupting, but they're altogether necessary, given the minimal spoken-dialogue, and they achieve the same literary quality as the narrations in "The Thin Red Line." "The New World" represents an unbiased re-telling of a story told so sanitarily in high school history books, crafting a tale of two disparate societies, equal in historical validity, who are simply not sure what to make of one another.\nYanked from theatrical schedules two-weeks-ago due to a series of small edits deemed necessary by Malick, "The New World's" award hopes were seriously dashed by a late release. No matter, since Malick could seemingly care less about awards and accolades (he didn't even show up to the Oscars when "The Thin Red Line" was nominated for both Best Director and Best Picture). Regardless, along with a moving score by James Horner and sublime cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki, Terrence Malick has made his fourth masterwork in 32 years.
(01/26/06 12:21am)
Terrence Malick is somewhat of a hermit among the filmmaking community, what with only directing three films during the past 32 years. Good thing each one of them was a genuine artistic achievement worth fawning over, or else we might have forgotten about him by now. Malick's fourth film, "The New World," is another event in and of itself, combining a sense of visual wonder and subtle, moving drama that towers over all the Jesus lions and Queen Latifahs clogging today's cineplexes.\nThe particulars of "The New World's" focus on the initial colonization of North America in 1607 by European settlers, including the much-fabled John Smith (Colin Farrell), his stalwart Captain Christopher Newport (Christopher Plummer), and their half-hearted and ultimately failed attempts to peacefully coexist with the natives, or "naturals," of the territory that would later become coastal Virginia. Malick, being a notorious perfectionist, insisted that the vast majority of location photography take place in the same areas of Virginia in which the story exists, and true to his prior form, all visuals offered here are aesthetically stunning.\nThe actors uniformly stretch Malick's sparse, self-penned screenplay to its limits, with Farrell ("Alexander") turning in a career-best performance, demystifying the legend of John Smith. August Schellenberg and Wes Studi ("The Last of the Mohicans") elicit audience sympathy for the native tribe, Christian Bale ("Batman Begins") offers an adept study on tobacco farmer John Rolfe, and the 15-year-old newcomer Q'Orianka Kilcher brings the famed Pocahontas to vibrant life.\nMalick's past works loom large over "The New World," if only because they establish such a great deal to live up to. The frailty and fragility of human life in 1973's "Badlands," the wide-eyed reverence for love and nature in 1978's "Days of Heaven," and the extensive soul-searching and internal monologues of 1998's "The Thin Red Line" (possibly the best WWII film ever made) are all devices touched upon to varying degrees in "The New World," often in grand scope and to monumental effect.\nContemporary audiences may find Malick's use of internal monologues disrupting, but they're altogether necessary, given the minimal spoken-dialogue, and they achieve the same literary quality as the narrations in "The Thin Red Line." "The New World" represents an unbiased re-telling of a story told so sanitarily in high school history books, crafting a tale of two disparate societies, equal in historical validity, who are simply not sure what to make of one another.\nYanked from theatrical schedules two-weeks-ago due to a series of small edits deemed necessary by Malick, "The New World's" award hopes were seriously dashed by a late release. No matter, since Malick could seemingly care less about awards and accolades (he didn't even show up to the Oscars when "The Thin Red Line" was nominated for both Best Director and Best Picture). Regardless, along with a moving score by James Horner and sublime cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki, Terrence Malick has made his fourth masterwork in 32 years.
(01/19/06 5:00am)
It's long been a cliché to call David Lynch's ("Blue Velvet," "Wild At Heart") work dreamlike, but I suppose if there were any better adjective, my hours spent watching and re-watching his films would have already rendered it obvious. I'll suggest 'phantasmagoric' as a more vivid word, and one that works quite well when discussing "Eraserhead," Lynch's 1977 film debut.\nAttempting to tease a conventional plot out of the film is basically pointless, because while "Eraserhead" deals with fear of fatherhood, fear of commitment, fear of non-acceptance, and a hundred other commonplace fears, it's impossible to truly categorize it as simply a film about fear. \nBig-haired Henry (Jack Nance) is a man seemingly without purpose until he and his girlfriend, Mary (Charlotte Stewart), have a deformed baby and eventually split up, leaving Henry to raise the mutant child and deal with his hallucinatory existence at the same time. Those are the bare bones, but to view "Eraserhead" multiple times is the only viable way to comprehend it, if it can be comprehended at all.\nIn the technical arena, "Eraserhead" is a curious marvel of sound design and eerie visuals. Lynch and company, on a grant from the American Film \nInstitute, delivered a haunting film with a tight budget, though the transfer is still occasionally muddy and muffled. To best experience Lynch with money to burn, check out 2001's wondrous, Oscar-nominated "Mulholland Drive," but to see what the man can do on a shoestring, "Eraserhead" is the ticket.\nThe only extra attached to this release is an 85-minute documentary on the making of the film, complete with extensive, invaluable input from Lynch himself. The struggles to get the film made, as well as the necessity of filming it in stages over a five-year period, make the finished product all the more fascinating, even if it remains frustratingly devoid of any discernible literal meaning.\nLynch's later work seems to make more, if only a little more, sense after digesting the imagery in "Eraserhead." The glossily nightmarish feel of "Mulholland Drive," the dystopian plodding of "Lost Highway," as well as the Reagan-era suburban surrealism of "Blue Velvet" and the Twin Peaks series, should all come further into focus after viewing the director's first major work. While "Eraserhead" might lend itself to as much comprehensive interpretation as a Dali painting or a series of Rorschach tests, it's essential viewing for fans of heady art films and certainly for Lynch fans who have not yet found the means to experience it.
(01/19/06 2:15am)
It's long been a cliché to call David Lynch's ("Blue Velvet," "Wild At Heart") work dreamlike, but I suppose if there were any better adjective, my hours spent watching and re-watching his films would have already rendered it obvious. I'll suggest 'phantasmagoric' as a more vivid word, and one that works quite well when discussing "Eraserhead," Lynch's 1977 film debut.\nAttempting to tease a conventional plot out of the film is basically pointless, because while "Eraserhead" deals with fear of fatherhood, fear of commitment, fear of non-acceptance, and a hundred other commonplace fears, it's impossible to truly categorize it as simply a film about fear. \nBig-haired Henry (Jack Nance) is a man seemingly without purpose until he and his girlfriend, Mary (Charlotte Stewart), have a deformed baby and eventually split up, leaving Henry to raise the mutant child and deal with his hallucinatory existence at the same time. Those are the bare bones, but to view "Eraserhead" multiple times is the only viable way to comprehend it, if it can be comprehended at all.\nIn the technical arena, "Eraserhead" is a curious marvel of sound design and eerie visuals. Lynch and company, on a grant from the American Film \nInstitute, delivered a haunting film with a tight budget, though the transfer is still occasionally muddy and muffled. To best experience Lynch with money to burn, check out 2001's wondrous, Oscar-nominated "Mulholland Drive," but to see what the man can do on a shoestring, "Eraserhead" is the ticket.\nThe only extra attached to this release is an 85-minute documentary on the making of the film, complete with extensive, invaluable input from Lynch himself. The struggles to get the film made, as well as the necessity of filming it in stages over a five-year period, make the finished product all the more fascinating, even if it remains frustratingly devoid of any discernible literal meaning.\nLynch's later work seems to make more, if only a little more, sense after digesting the imagery in "Eraserhead." The glossily nightmarish feel of "Mulholland Drive," the dystopian plodding of "Lost Highway," as well as the Reagan-era suburban surrealism of "Blue Velvet" and the Twin Peaks series, should all come further into focus after viewing the director's first major work. While "Eraserhead" might lend itself to as much comprehensive interpretation as a Dali painting or a series of Rorschach tests, it's essential viewing for fans of heady art films and certainly for Lynch fans who have not yet found the means to experience it.
(01/12/06 5:00am)
Jim Jarmusch, the writer/director of such indie darlings as "Stranger Than Paradise," "Down By Law" and "Dead Man," tries his hand at quirky self-exploration in "Broken Flowers" with intriguing results. Bill Murray ("Lost in Translation," "Caddyshack") stars as Don Johnston, a fifty-something former Casanova who was once rich in women and technology money, but now faces a lonely existence in his cold, modern abode. One random day he receives an anonymous letter from an old flame telling him he has a 19-year-old son who is now looking for him. This news sparks his Ethiopian amateur sleuth neighbor (Jeffrey Wright) to assist Don in seeking out all five women he dated approximately 20 years ago.\nDon's search to find his son's mother before his son finds him becomes a cross country jaunt through blue-collar towns, white-collar neighborhoods and everything in between. Possible maternal candidates include NASCAR driver widow Laura (Sharon Stone), animal communicator Carmen (Jessica Lange), disenchanted manufactured house salesperson Dora (Frances Conroy) and feisty trailer bait Penny (Tilda Swinton). Don's other girlfriend from the time, Michelle, has since met her fate.\nMurray has brought a unique humanity to nearly every role he's tackled since Herman Blume in "Rushmore." Murray's performances as Steve Zissou, Bob Harris, Raleigh St. Clair and even his take on Hamlet's Polonius have all been note-perfect, and 'Flowers'' Don Johnston is a welcome addition to the Murray canon. It's the type of career path Adam Sandler sadly failed to follow post-"Punch-Drunk Love," but while Sandler obviously needed coaching to achieve his excellent turn under Paul Thomas Anderson's direction, Murray feels right at home with challenging roles in more artistic films. No comic actor these days is more effective at conveying resigned vexation in the most strenuous of circumstances and fascinating us in the process.\nExtras are slim on this disc, but what's there is notable. Jarmusch explains his philosophy on filmmaking over a series of shot set-ups, a few extended scenes come and go, but an extended reel of Murray cracking up everyone on set with his between-takes antics is a candid look into the mind of a comedic force of nature, who's career choices in the last seven years have elevated him from lovable goofball to iconic elder statesman.\nOriginally titled "Dead Flowers" after the Rolling Stones' classic country romp, "Broken Flowers" is a somber, comically touching tale of one man hesitantly revisiting his libido-driven past in order to move on from his stagnant present. Jarmusch's delicate direction and poignant screenplay, along with another standout performance from Bill Murray, make 'Flowers' a genuinely affecting road-trip fable.
(01/12/06 5:00am)
Not since Boris Karloff's performance in 1935's "Bride of Frankenstein" have audiences felt such sympathy for an intimidating movie monster. Andy Serkis and WETA Digital surpass those heights in Peter Jackson's ("The Lord of the Rings Trilogy") latest three-hour-plus opus, and Naomi Watts deserves praise for portraying Kong's muse so delightfully and convincingly. The effects and action are top-notch, and while the film's first third drags on occasion, the thrillingly exhausting middle third on Skull Island, as well as the emotionally draining final third back in New York City, represent modern filmmaking at its finest. \nPeter Jackson simply set out to honor the 1933 original and erase all memory of the horrible 1976 remake with his own "Kong," but he ended up crafting a memorable marvel of action, emotion and pure heart that deserves to be called one of the top few films of 2005.
(01/12/06 1:15am)
Not since Boris Karloff's performance in 1935's "Bride of Frankenstein" have audiences felt such sympathy for an intimidating movie monster. Andy Serkis and WETA Digital surpass those heights in Peter Jackson's ("The Lord of the Rings Trilogy") latest three-hour-plus opus, and Naomi Watts deserves praise for portraying Kong's muse so delightfully and convincingly. The effects and action are top-notch, and while the film's first third drags on occasion, the thrillingly exhausting middle third on Skull Island, as well as the emotionally draining final third back in New York City, represent modern filmmaking at its finest. \nPeter Jackson simply set out to honor the 1933 original and erase all memory of the horrible 1976 remake with his own "Kong," but he ended up crafting a memorable marvel of action, emotion and pure heart that deserves to be called one of the top few films of 2005.