Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, Thomas Kretschmann, Tory Kittles, Peter Falk. Written by Gary Goldman, Jonathan Hensleigh, Paul Bernbaum. Directed by Lee Tamahori.
FILM SYNOPSIS: A Las Vegas showroom magician can see a few minutes into the future. When a terrorist group threatens to detonate a nuclear device in Los Angeles, a government agent must convince the magician to help her stop the cataclysm. PREVIEW REVIEW: Nobody plays quirky better than Nick Cage (Moonstruck, Valley Girl, Raising Arizona). And no one is more likable on screen. He proved that when he portrayed a vulnerable arms dealer in Lord of War and a car thief in Gone in 60 Seconds. Who else could play likeable weapons dealers and car thieves? Nor does anyone attempt more interesting screen conceptions (Adaptation, Matchstick Men). But he doesn’t always decide well when choosing roles. Let’s put it this way – he takes chances. Unfortunately, those choices don’t always pan out. Ghost Rider must have looked good on paper. So, I’m sure, did this one. You enter the theater thinking “Maybe someone could really have the power of seeing into the future.†By the end, however, it has become a corny, cartoonish premise so farfetched you feel like you’re watching an action-adventure adaptation of Groundhog Day. Actually, that was a good film because it was a purposely funny parable, one that didn’t take itself seriously. Here, everyone is very serious. Those associated with the production have proven themselves talented. But an actor has to fit a role. Julianne Moore as an infield FBI agent? Who thought that was a good idea? Surely no one did by the last day of filming. And here is a film where terrorists are plotting to blow up LA. But we wouldn’t want to insult real terrorists, so these guys are French. I kid you not. But the lead doesn’t want to help the FBI. So we spend the majority of the movie eluding, not the bad guys, but the good guys. Oh, come to think of it, according to Hollywood, the FBI are the bad guys. Those folks who want to blow up America, they’re just reacting to our capitalistic and imperialistic ways. I forgot. After the lead is held hostage in what looks like a communist debriefing room, his eyes forced open ala A Clockwork Orange, and before the writer has Nick’s character splitting into several clones, running around trying to elude the French terrorists while attempting to save his girlfriend who’s bound to a wheelchair, wearing a vest made out of dynamite, I found myself thinking, this isn’t a movie, it’s a pipe load. Try my suggested video alternative: Groundhog Day. Bill Murray learns how to treat others after being caught in a surreal world where he wakes up each morning to re-live the same day.
Joining a group of former classmates for the funeral of his best friend, Jeremy finds himself caught between his new fiancé and the girl he left behind. Hidden Secrets, an ensemble play-like drama similar in theme to The Big Chill, addresses the need for forgiveness, as well as controversial issues such as abortion, homosexuality, pre-marital sex, and the true meaning of faith.
There are some who don’t want me to badmouth a film containing gospel themes, despite my misgivings. But when you make your living examining the artistic skills of moviemakers, it’s not honest or fair to critique Christian artists on a different scale than their secular counterparts. That said, I’d hate for someone to miss a message that may further his spiritual walk because I had problems with the film’s low-budgeted merits. Having made a few, shall we say, “artistically challenged” church films in my youth, I am aware that even they were used by the Holy Spirit to bring some unbelievers to a spiritual awareness. Therefore, I will tread these waters as carefully as possible.
I remember thinking when The Big Chill was released, how interesting it would be if there was a Christian version about old friends reunited and coming to grips with life’s challenges. Evidently writers Shawn Paul Murphy and Timothy Ratajczak thought so, too. You won’t find the great soundtrack or bawdy performances that made The Big Chill a hit. You will, however, get some interesting examinations of Christians dealing with complex life issues. There’s also a poignant depiction of a Christian who forces biblical laws upon others, while ignoring the whole “love one another” thing.
This film does contain lessons concerning guilt and forgiveness, and a reminder to not browbeat the still unconverted. What’s more, it contains several good lines and heart-felt performances. There. That’s to alleviate the guilt I will feel concerning the following disappointments.
I won’t linger on the rip-off scenario or the pretentiousness of some dialogue. I will examine the score. The background music of The Big Chill became a main character in that film; each ‘60s and ‘70s tune incorporated furthered that story. Here the ever-present sugary background musical riffs unsuccessfully highlight the countless speeches that are delivered like skit-reinforced Sunday sermons.
But here is my real objection. Hidden Secrets is overrun with montages. I counted five. There may have been more. A montage (a sequence of images or quick scenes blended together to compress action) is used to further a story or show the development of a character. They should be utilized sparingly as the gimmick can become redundant and reflect a lack of writing skill.
There were other filmmaking misdemeanors that caused this critic to squirm, but I hung in there for the messages. Alas, a good sermon could address the same issues in a lot less time. “But this is a movie,” you say. “There should be no sermons in a movie.” Exactly.
FILM SYNOPSIS: A petty thief and a young boy trapped in the social service system in New York City set out on a road trip that will change both their lives.
A series of bad deeds lands Daniel (Mark Webber) in community service at an elementary school in New York City, where he bonds with Boone, a cheeky boy whose spirit belies his family situation. When Boone disappears from school one day, Daniel feels a surge of responsibility for the first time in his 20 years.
Daniel snatches the boy from a home for parentless kids and the two flee to Dallas, on a quest to find Boone's only sister. But Daniel is no angel, and the challenges of evading police and paying for gas kick his survivalist mentality into high gear. Although Daniel may be saving a would-be orphan from falling through the system's cracks, he is also breaking the law.
PREVIEW REVIEW: The end justifies the means. Surely that is the theme of those who break all the rules in order to accomplish their goal. Undeniably that is the reasoning of the lead character in Just Like the Son.
Headed down a path paved with self-centeredness, Daniel finally gets what his father has tried to teach him about facing responsibility and finishing what you start. He shows a genuine love for a child who is in desperate need to be loved. But Daniel’s noble intentions are fueled by law-breaking and a steadfastness that generate strife for others. With the six-year-old’s willingness, he snatches the kid from a protective environment, right in front of a worker at the orphanage. Now, that worker would have no idea who that kid-snatcher was or what his intent would be. Think on that, because Daniel doesn’t.
Daniel takes his father’s car without permission, and when funds run low, he steals food from a store, gas from other people’s cars and ultimately gets the kid to serve as a decoy while he pick-pockets a man, stealing his wallet, taking the money and casually throwing the wallet away.
There are times when laws get in the way of justice, but the concept here seems ridiculous. He’s trying to get the boy to his sister. Why doesn’t the dying mother do that? How come a six-year-old and a stranger can do what computers and child-care authorities can’t? With a little detective work, couldn’t Daniel have reunited them with a phone call and a plane ticket? In an age when child abduction has become an epidemic, the kidnapping of a child, even in the name of justice, is not only dysfunctional, but alarming to contemplate.
Mark Webber gives an adequate performance, while little Antonio Ortiz steals the show with his timing and sincerity. Director Morgan J. Freeman keeps the action lively and injects some tender moments, but he’s saddled with a low budget and a faulty premise that reflects an age governed by mixed morality messages. We live in a time and culture where laws seem more like suggestions. And that seems alright with this production.
Unrated at time of screening, the script is fairly clean, punctuated infrequently by a couple of obscenities, a few comic crudities and the implication that the lead spends the night with a girl he’s just met. The lead justifies his frequent crimes not only to himself, but to the boy. The lead is seen smoking dope and drinking.
Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent. Comedy. Writers: Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. Director: Edgar Wright.
FILM SYNOPSIS: The action-packed comedy comes from the makers of Shawn of the Dead. Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is the finest cop London has to offer, with an arrest record 400% higher than any other officer on the force. He’s so good, he makes everyone else look bad. As a result, Angel’s superiors send him to a place where his talents won’t be quite so embarrassing – the sleepy and seemingly crime-free village of Sandford. However, as a series of grisly accidents rocks the village, Angel is convinced that Sandford is not what it seems. PREVIEW REVIEW: At first I was reminded of the staid English comedies of the 1950s, those satirical films released by Ealing Studios, which usually starred Peter Sellers and/or Alec Guinness. Like those pictures, Hot Fuzz contains a premise ripe for understated, mocking humor, with just enough bawdiness to remind viewers this is for grownup people. Alas, it’s a different time and filmmakers and filmgoers seem more entertained the more a film becomes obsessed with crudeness. The humor in Hot Fuzz dwindles into lazy R-rated rudeness – you know, the kind that depends on viewing a drunk urinating in public. This happens not once, mind you, but at least twice. I don’t know, seeing a middle-aged man so drunk that he starts peeing inside a barroom always strikes me as sad, not funny. And rather than use language, the filmmakers pretty well abuse it in this film, the f- and s-words now acceptable speech in nearly film, by nearly every character/actor. Then there are the killings. In Kind Hearts and Coronets, a dark farce about a castoff relative doing in family members in order to inherit the family title, such demises were handled with dark but subtle humor. Here, the killings just shock and revolt (an adulterous couple are decapitated, a man’s head is splattered by a falling cement spike, another spike shoots up through a man’s jaw, a woman gets a pair of garden shears through the neck, the blood spewing). Oh, the deaths are played for laughs, but I still feel guilty laughing at the visual of a gruesome killing. Go figure. Video Alternatives: Each of the following was made by Ealing Studios and contains irreverent but understated humor and reminds us that comedy need not come solely from anatomical and scatological graphicness. Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, and The Ladykillers (the 1955 version – not the Tom Hanks remake of a few years back).
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Adam Brody, Kristen Stewart, Meg Ryan, Olympia Dukakis, Makenzie Vega. Written and directed by Jonathan Kasdan.
FILM SYNOPSIS: Aspiring writer Carter Webb has just been dumped by his true love, Sophia. Heartbroken and depressed, he escapes Los Angeles to suburban Michigan to care for his ailing grandmother and to start work on a book he has always wanted to write. Soon after his arrival, Carter stumbles into the lives of the family across the street: Sarah Hardwicke and her two daughters (Paige, a precocious, effervescent eleven-year-old, and her older sister Lucy, an angst-ridden teenager). PREVIEW REVIEW: Perhaps it’s just because I haven’t seen a film lately without a car crash or a barbarian slicing and dicing Mongol hordes, but I enjoyed being In the Land of Women. It’s the first film I’ve seen in a couple of weeks that could be called a drama. In it, people have real problems, including a woman facing breast cancer while dealing with an adulterous husband, an old woman facing death, and plenty of teen angst. The characters realize that they must draw together in order to cope with said problems. Though the screenwriter found it necessary to make several of his characters a little too quirky, the direction is lively and there are nice performances by all, especially Meg Ryan. Sadly, they are not a group that seeks spiritual fulfillment. It evidently isn’t a film today unless someone uses the s- and f-words. And here most of the objectionable language comes from women and girls. When people, even those made of sugar and spice, get mad or face fearful outcomes, they often release those frustrations through language. But I got the feeling that the s-word was a regular expression in this household. I don’t know, maybe there’s nothing really wrong with that word… See? You see what happens when it’s heard enough. Video alternative: The Bishop’s Wife. Cary Grant, Loretta Young. An angle aids a struggling minister. I marveled at the ending sermon given by the Bishop, played by David Niven. Standing behind his pulpit, the Reverend reminded his parishioners to focus attention on Christ. “All the stockings are filled, except one. We’ve even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. It’s his birthday we’re celebrating. Don’t let us ever forget that. Let us each ask what He would wish for most. And then, let each put in his share.” Wow.
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