OBITUARY

R.I.P.
RICARDO MONTALBAN
1920 - 2009



FILMOGRAPHY:

1957...Sayonara
1962...Hemingway's Adventures of A Young Man
1964...Cheyenne Autumn
1965...The Money Trap
1966...Madame X
1966...The Singing Nun
1968...Sol Madrid
1968...Blue
1969...Sweet Charity
1971...Escape from the Planet of the Apes
1972...Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
1973...The Train Robbers
1978..."Fantasy Island"
1982...Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
1985..."The Colbys"
1988...The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
2002...Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams
2003...Spy Kid 3-D: Game Over

The name Ricardo Montalban is synonymous with a long and illustrious career. His name has been the brunt of many jokes and his roles have been odd and memorable, ranging from his most notable role in the popular television series "Fantasy Island" to his role as the evil Khan in "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan". I will best remember him as the seedy villain in one of the greatest comedies of all time, "The Naked Gun". His voice became one of the most recognizable in any medium. You know the face. You know the career. He was a legend and will be missed terribly.

OBITUARY

R.I.P.
PATRICK MCGOOHAN
1928 - 2009



FILMOGRAPHY:

1955...Passage Home
1956...Zarak
1957...High Tide at Noon
1957...Hell Drivers
1958...The Gypsy and the Gentleman
1961...Two Living, One Dead
1962...All Night Long
1967..."The Prisoner"
1968...Journey Into Darkness
1970...The Moonshine War
1971...Mary, Queen of Scots
1974...Columbo: By Dawn's Early Light
1975...Columbo: Identity Crisis
1976...Silver Streak
1978...Brass Target
1979...Escape from Alcatraz
1981...Scanners
1985...Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend
1990...Columbo: Agenda for Murder
1995...Braveheart
1996...The Phantom
1996...A Time to Kill
1998...Columbo: Ashes to Ashes

There is no doubt that most film fans know Patrick McGoohan as the villainous Longshanks from "Braveheart", one of the most sinister and riveting performances of the 1990's. A lot of people will remember him as the lead actor in the 1960's cult series "The Prisoner". Along with "Braveheart", I remember him as the warden from "Escape from Alcatraz" and his repeated role in the popular "Columbo" franchise. McGoohan had a long and successful career playing a wide assortment of characters -- he was never pigeon holed into a particular genre or character type, just one of his many accomplishments.

COOK COUNTY Film Critique

Who knew Tylenol could be this destructive?



This is a late review for me but an early review for most of you. One of the standouts of the 2008 Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival, which was held in September, was a picture about a family of crystal meth addicts called “Cook County”. It was one of the most disturbing and profoundly exhilarating films I have seen in ages and I expect it will be getting more attention once it finds a distributor. I mean – how do you sell a film that is mired down in misery and pain? How do you attract audiences to a picture that will absolutely leave you depressed and disoriented? It’s a chore. But, however it finds its release to the world, I implore you to check it out. It’s one of the most honest and convincing stories of addiction I have ever seen played out on screen and it features some truly miraculous performances that should really put these three actors on the map, some for the first time and some again. Director David Pomes has created a front runner for my favorite film of 2009 and one of the best films I have seen in a very long time.

The film centers around a family of crystal meth addicts in the rural countryside. Bump (Anson Mount) is the mastermind – he cooks it, sells it and uses most of it. He is an absolute addict and his addiction has caused him to go somewhat psychotic. His nephew Abe (Ryan Donowho) lives with him and raises Bump’s young daughter but doesn’t do drugs himself and is desperate to get out of the situation but has no place to go because he doesn’t want to leave the little girl alone. One day, Sonny (Xander Berkeley) comes back around – he’s Abe’s father and Bump’s brother and he’s been in prison for a long while but has been released as long as he cooperates with authorities and helps bring down some of the higher-ups in the meth trade. As we learn, Sonny was the one who brought meth around in the beginning, but now he’s clean and wants to re-connect with his son and start a new life out of prison. Most of the film deals with Sonny’s attempts to pull his son and niece out of the mire, while always holding out hope that his brother might be able to come out with them. However, the film doesn’t skirt the tough issues and the ending of this film is just exceptional, and something for you to look forward to.

This film is gritty and raw and wonderful. We believe every second of this picture and we believe everything that these characters are going through. The rural landscape and the overall sense of dirt and dismay add a whole new level to the picture that makes what’s going on even more disturbing. These are desperate characters who will do whatever it takes. For example – when Bump’s father dies of a meth overdose, he drops a bag in his grave with him. Later, when some friends come over and want a bump, he goes out, digs up the bag with his bare hands and they all partake. This might seem like something out of fictional film, but this is what a lot of meth addicts do without any thought whatsoever. It’s just another day and another fix. The most sympathetic character is definitely Abe and Bump’s daughter and you’ll be wide eyed and riled up with anger when you see what happens in the final few minutes. Even though the film has an arc and people do get what they deserve, to call the ending satisfying is just not right. At least you get a little sense of hope at the end. My favorite scene in the film comes when the filmmaker compares and contrasts living conditions at the meth house and at the home of relatives – we switch from a full fridge to an empty one and so on.

The performances are award worthy. The most exceptional is Anson Mount playing one of the most unlikable characters in film history. He is mean, nasty and just plain psychotic and it never lets up. You get the sense he would do anything or hurt anyone to keep his fix going. His performance is truly frightening and he deserves an Academy Award nomination, for certain. Ryan Donowho is always great at playing very young and very innocent and he does so here. It’s a wonder he didn’t develop lung cancer with as many cigarettes as he smokes in this film. And I have to love the comeback of Xander Berkeley he turns in his best performance to date as Sonny. These three actors chug this film along and make it the remarkable picture it is. Mount’s performance drives the uneasiness of the picture and Berkeley’s drives the hope. Donowho’s performance is there to show you what you can get with either side winning.

I wish I could tell you when this film is going to hit theatres but I can’t. I can’t even be sure that it will hit theatres at all, given the current economic situation and the difficulty in selling a film like this. My one hope is that some brave distributor out there will latch on to this picture and give it the chance is very much deserves. I dare you to watch this film and not marvel at the achievement of Anson Mount’s performance. “Cook County” deals with a subject matter that is very relevant for our times and although the setting is the rural South, it applies to cities all over this country. The crystal meth problem is just enormous and this film definitely shows you the dangers of such a lifestyle. “Cook County” has already solidified a slot on my Best Films of 2009 list. And I cannot see a performance coming along any better than Anson Mount’s performance. It’s the stuff Oscars are made of, though the film is a little too small to get the recognition.

Anson Mount (Bump)
Ryan Donowho (Abe)
Xander Berkeley (Sonny)
Makenna Fitzsimmons (Deandra)
Polly Cole (Lucy)
Rutherford Cravens (Fat Earl)

Director: David Pomes

RATED R

DEFIANCE Film Critique

The only thing they're 'defying' is acceptable fashion.



Let’s forget the fact that “Defiance” is just another in a long line of Holocaust films. Let’s forget the fact that “Defiance” attempts to tell a story that has never really been told before. Let’s concentrate on Edward Zwick, the director. Every film he makes is pretty much the same as the one before. His films are always about ‘a band of brave men and women who do battle with an evil force’. Take “Blood Diamond” or “The Last Samurai” or “The Siege” or “Glory” – the same films – just insert new antagonists and protagonists and an overwhelming dramatic score. Edward Zwick films are supposed to be rousing and supposed to be both solid popcorn flicks as well as cultural lessons. “Defiance” is one of his most disappointing films. I wanted to like it – I really did. I can’t fault the cast and I can’t fault the technical aspects of the production. I think, on the whole, it was reasonably well directed and put together. It just didn’t engage me. I understand that the story told in “Defiance” has never been told before, but that doesn’t make it interesting. How many times have we heard about a brave group of Jewish heroes banning together to stand up against the Nazis? Compared to a film like “Schindler’s List”, what does a film like “Defiance” hope to accomplish, other that mindless amusement. And in that mindless amusement, the film almost feels a little insulting to me.

This particular Holocaust story takes place after the Nazi occupation of Poland. A group of survivors scatter to the surrounding woods, where there meet up with others who have managed to evade the Nazis. Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Live Schrieber) and Asael (Jamie Bell) are the Bielski Brothers, who wind up becoming leaders of the Jewish resistance in the woods, hiding from the Nazis and doing whatever they can to assist the local Russian resistance also hiding out in the woods. The film follows this group of refugees over the course of years as they hide out in the woods, build new lives for themselves and take in anyone who comes along. There is also some sibling rivalry between Tuvia and Zus – Tuvia is looked at as the leader of the Otriad, while Zus is envious and eventually leaves the camp to join the Russian resistance. Of course the Nazis find them out in the end and there is a battle between the Jewish refugees and the Nazi soldiers. Of course some of the most beloved characters in the film perish. And of course there is some unexpected ‘save the day’ moment at the end. I don’t think that is giving anything away – this is an Edward Zwick film and that’s what happens. He always has a way of giving a happy ending to a very tragic circumstance and maybe that is what bothers me. Life is messy. The Holocaust was horrible. No sugar needed.

What bothered me the most about this film was how conventional the story was and how straight-forward the approach turned out to be. To be an original and untold story, it was filled with cliché and syrupy sentimentality that was unnecessary. No one denies how awful the Holocaust was, so portray it as such. Spielberg did it with “Schindler’s List” and it worked. Ultimately, Benigni did it with “Life Is Beautiful”. I don’t want to see the Holocaust portrayed like some movie of the week. I guess I just have a hard time seeing a bunch of Jewish refugees, basically waiting in the woods to die, could be so jovial and so warmhearted and be worried about ‘forest wives’ and things of that matter. I understand they were trying to rebuild their lives and communities, but you have to think most of that was exaggerated or just fabricated. The best moment in the film comes when the Rabbi is praying to god to choose another people and to leave them alone. That seemed more in keeping with what I would expect from a situation like that. And there is this ‘ridiculous’ logic that they can keep traveling through the woods and everything will be all right. Of course they were up against the Nazis, who weren’t exactly the brightest bulbs in the chandeliers. At the end of the day, “Defiance” was just another run of the mill drama/thriller. I didn’t really identify with anyone in the film and I really didn’t grow much affection for any of these characters. I thought they were all ruthless and all a little short-sighted in what they were doing. I am sure they are heroes for doing it and I’m not denying the bravery, but there was also a little selfishness therein.

At least they gave the accents a shot, unlike “Valkyrie”. And they succeeded. Daniel Craig is not an actor I love on screen, but he does a decent enough job here as the leader of the resistance. Jamie Bell, who is always just adorable, does a nice job also in his role, though he’s kind of stiff and wooden throughout. Liev Schrieber is easily the most accomplished in this film and he does a lot with his role. We actually see some depth and development with Zus that we don’t see with the others. I thought his relationship with his brother was interesting and his attitude towards the whole situation was more representative of how I thought it should be. I didn’t, however, really feel enough chemistry between any of the three of them to believe they were brothers. It just seemed like they were family out of convenience, not blood. But I do applaud the decision to go with accents. I think they add so much, especially to a film like this and ditching the accents for a neutral British or English just doesn’t work for me. And I will say that I got a little annoyed that it seemed to take forever for this group of people to make the decision to go wading through the water. You’ve got Nazi soldiers coming up behind you waiting to kill you. Jump in the damned water. I mean – seriously?

I do not recommend “Defiance”. It’s nothing special. It’s run-of-the-mill and just like every other Holocaust film that also wants to serve as a popcorn experience. Just go out and rent “Schindler’s List” again. Or, if you want a better Holocaust film from this year, check out “The Reader” or “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”. This one just doesn’t measure up to those. I am sure there were many acts of ‘defiance’ during the Holocaust and I’m sure many of them make fascinating stories, but I think they need to be handled with more levity and more attention than “Defiance”. I blame Edward Zwick somewhat because he needs to start doing more to separate his films. Just because they’re about different subject matters doesn’t mean they aren’t the same. And now, the worst moment in the film: It comes when Daniel Craig’s character confronts a refugee who has been asking for more food – he thinks soldiers deserve more food. What Craig’s character does makes you lose all respect and sympathy for him. The man makes sense. A soldier might need more food. I don’t think it’s too ‘out there’ a request. To enjoy “Defiance” requires an immense understanding of the whole ‘eye for an eye’ mentality and the idea that anything goes as long as it comes from the person in charge.

Daniel Craig (Tuvia Bielske)
Liev Schrieber (Zus Bielske)
Jamie Bell (Asael Bielske)

Director: Edward Zwick

RATED R

THE READER Film Critique

I didn't know Ann B. Davis was in this picture.



If you could call 2008 anything it might be “The Year of the Holocaust Film”. We have had more films on that particular subject in 2008 than any other in recent memory. For example: “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”, “Valkyrie”, “Adam Resurrected”, “Good”, “Defiance” – and the film I about to critique, “The Reader”. Phew. That’s a lot of misery. And I know I will offend some people by saying this, but – enough. We get it. We understand how tragic and terrible the Holocaust was. We understand how lives were destroyed and how an entire population was wiped out. It is impossible not to feel terrible for it, but must we continue to be beaten over the head with film after film after film about the subject? The biggest problem is that none of these films are bringing anything new to the table. “Defiance” is the same old boring re-telling of one of those single personal stories from the Holocaust, trivialised for entertainment value. Now, I will admit that I gave some of these films favorable reviews, but now it feels like we are being submerged by these films, over and over again. At least “The Reader” dared to be different. The film isn’t so much about the Holocaust, but rather the affect that the Holocaust has on one woman and the boy that loves her. It’s about secrets coming back to find us out and decisions we make that change our lives forever.

The film is set in Germany after World War II, where young Michael Berg (David Kross) meets a beautiful woman named Hanna (Kate Winslet). Hanna helps him out when he is ill and an interesting relationship begins. David is 15-years-old, but fascinated with Hanna. He comes around for visits and they eventually begin a romantic relationship. Despite the large age difference, the two seem to get along extraordinarily well, until Hanna panics and flees, leaving Michael to himself. Flash forward a few years and Michael is at the university studying law. His professor (Bruno Ganz) takes him to watch a trial, which just happens to be a group of women being accused of murdering 300 Jews during the Holocaust, acting as SS guards. When Michael hears that one of the women on trial is Hanna, he is thrown for a loop, unable to believe the woman he knew and loves could do something so monstrous. All the while, we flash forward to present day where an older Michael (Ralph Fiennes) is still coming to terms with the situation, with Hanna and what she meant to his life. The film, as a whole, is about the relationship between Hanna and Michael, especially as to how it changes Michael’s life for the good and for the bad. The film is entitled “The Reader” because their relationship initially begins with Michael coming to Hanna’s every day and reading her a new book. Later, it continues as Michael starts recording books and sending them to Hanna in prison.

As I mentioned earlier, this film isn’t about the Holocaust so much as it is about how the Holocaust affects Hanna and Michael. Hanna does not deny that she locked the doors and allowed 300 Jews to burn to death in a church. She doesn’t deny and she really does make no excuses. Her response is, “What would you have done?” She saw her work as an SS guard as excuse enough to do such a thing. She was tasked with a particular item and she made sure it was carried out. As monstrous as that is, there is a troubling logic behind it that makes you more curious than enraged. Just the idea of the mindset of someone to think like that is engaging. What could cause someone to think that murder was acceptable, especially on such a large scale? That seems to be what a lot of the characters in the film are trying to figure out. The students and the professor are trying to understand what could drive these people to do what they did. It’s the insatiable desire to know and to understand that drives them. But sometimes you have to accept that there is no rational explanation. There are leaders and there are followers. In this case, the followers did so blindly with no remorse for their actions and no second thoughts. They were taught to do their jobs and they did just that. And keep in mind that a lot of these people could have been killed if they didn’t do what they were told. That is not attempting to justify anything, but there are circumstances that a lot of people don’t take into consideration when laying blame on certain people. “The Reader” doesn’t ever try and justify these actions, but it does attempt to paint them in different lights.

The performances are riveting, especially Kate Winslet’s brilliant turn as Hanna. What she does with this role is incredible. When we first meet her, we don’t quite know what to think. She seems loving enough, but she has this cold and calculated way about her. She seems to genuinely love Michael, but she has no problem reminding him that she could drop him any time she wanted. Later, we see Hanna as a monster – a cold and calculated monster who has no regrets for what she did – on the surface. What brings things into perspective is a secret that Hanna has been harboring – a secret that she thinks is even worse than these horrible acts she has committed. These days, it seems rather bizarre to think of something so small as such a terrible thing, but to Hanna it was embarrassing and could never be revealed. Winslet gives her second stellar performance of the year in this role and deserves accolades for it. David Kross is also exceptional as Michael, matching Winslet step for step and baring himself just like she does in a very open and very honest way. The both of them spend most of their time together nude and we never feel like they are being exploited or that they are being taken advantage of by the director. That’s probably because the director is Stephen Daldry, the brilliant filmmaker responsible for “Billy Elliot” and “The Hours”.

In a year with so many films about the Holocaust, it was nice to see one tackle the subject matter in a more intellectual way, a film that tries to get to the bottom of what caused the Holocaust rather than focus on the aftermath. If we can get to the bottom of what made those people do what they did, we might be better able to prevent it from happening again. “The Reader” dares to ask those questions and it dares to explore new territory with a subject matter that most thought could go no further cinematically. I watched with delight last night as Kate Winslet took home the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “The Reader” and genuinely hope the Academy Awards smile on her as well. It really is a remarkable role. Other suggestions would be David Hare for Best Adapted Screenplay and possibly Stephen Daldry for Best Director. I wouldn’t say this was one of the best films of 2008, but it was very well done indeed. I can’t think of any glaring problems with it, but it just didn’t have the same impact on me, emotionally, as other films of the year did. Regardless, it’s a fine achievement.

Kate Winslet (Hanna Schmitz)
David Kross (Young Michael Berg)
Ralph Fiennes (Older Michael Berg)
Bruno Ganz (Professor Rohl)
Lena Olin (Rose Mather/Ilana Mather)

Director:

Stephen Daldry

RATED R

THE UNBORN Film Critique

I didn't know they made exorcisms for bad acting.



What is it about that first film of the new year that produces such dread in me? Maybe it’s because the first real film I saw in 2008 was “One Missed Call” and the first real film I saw in 2007 was “Primeval”. Both of those films ended up making my Worst Films of the Year list. I had higher hopes for “The Unborn”. Was it because of David S. Goyer? Of course not. He directed “Blade: Trinity” and “The Invisible”. It was because it had an inviting trailer and featured one of the greatest actors on the planet, Gary Oldman. And it succeeded. I laughed all the way through the film. It made me giggle in such unexpected ways – surpassing both “Tropic Thunder” and “Pineapple Express”. It was one of the best comedies I have ever seen. And all of this would be great except for one thing – it was supposed to be a horror film. “The Unborn” should have been just that. It is one of the most inept attempts at horror I have seen in a very long while and it features quite possibly one of the worst female performances in horror history. This film proves, beyond the show of a doubt, that David S. Goyer cannot direct, Odette Yustman cannot act, Michael Bay cannot produce and Gary Oldman needs a new agent. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, I give you one of the worst films of the year.

Guess what – Casey (Odette Yustman) was a twin. How do we know? Because she’s got some dead little boy chasing her around and her eyes are starting to look like scrambled eggs. That means she was a twin. Alas, her little bro died in the womb when he got himself choked on her cord. As that dead little boy keeps popping up, old Casey keeps on digging and digging, eventually leading her to an old Holocaust survivor (Jane Alexander) who explains that the dead little boy is really a Dibbuk, some kind of demon that’s been after their family for years and years. Casey’s best friend in the world is Romy (Meagan Good) and dies because she is black. Casey’s boyfriend is Mark (Cam Gigandet) and dies because he’s too hot to live. And Casey’s exorcising zealot is Rabbi Sendak (Gary Oldman) who doesn’t die because he’s Gary Oldman. Casey decides the best course of action is an exorcism and Rabbi Sendak agrees to do it because, if Casey believes she is possessed, she must be. One problem – Casey isn’t possessed. There are people around her who are, but she’s just fine, so I don’t really know what in the hell good an exorcism does to someone who isn’t possessed. But, if that’s the only plot hole you find here, you’re just not paying attention. They are rampant.

I have heard David S. Goyer write some decent dialog before. He must have taken all the bad dialog from all his previous films and thrown them in here. This is one of the worst horror scripts I have ever encountered. Supporting characters spend the entire film asking: “What is going on?”, “How do we stop it?”, “What’s the matter?” They do this to give Odette Yustman 1,001 ways to say, “He’s after me. He won’t stop until I’m dead. I’m so scared. He’s trying to kill me!” You always know when it’s coming because she drops her voice kind of low and looks like she’s trying to read an eye chart from half a block away. And how about the idea to work the Holocaust into this film. The best scene in the film, when I was rolling in the aisles, came when Casey was reading a letter from the Holocaust survivor. We cut to scenes of the old woman smiling like she just let out a secret fart and then we cut back to images of Casey crying as she’s reading it. “You must finish what we started back in Auschwitz…” – are you kidding me? Are you seriously serious with this shit? “The Unborn” is plagued with this kind of dialog. It’s choking in it. Gary Oldman does the best he can with his, but you can’t do much with simple sentences and Hebrew – it just doesn’t happen. And did I mention that Casey's twin was called 'Jumby'. Yeah - seriously.

Now let’s talk about Odette Yustman. Wow. She makes Jessica Alba look like Glenn Close. She doesn’t seem to know her lines, she doesn’t seem to know her role in the film and she doesn’t seem to know what in the hell she’s doing. She walks around with this puppy dog expression on her face and all I want to do is stick her damned head in a toilet and flush out all of her misconceived notions of what acting should be. Gary Oldman is basically wasted in a role that does nothing but give him a paycheck and lessen his street cred to a staggering degree – the man is a legend and he’s playing a Rabbi in a piss poor horror film? Give that role to Yahoo Serious. Cam Giganet is always just wonderful to look at, but the guy’s got about as much talent as a hand full of sand. He walks around, takes his shirt off a few times and occasionally says something. Meagan Good is black and dies, which is basically what she always does. There really isn’t anything else to mention. I could mention the creepy little dead kid, but he’s not nearly as dead as this script or Odette Yustman’s performance. This film was like watching…well…it was like placing a dog turd out in the sun and watching it dry for two hours.

Films like this depress me. I root for the horror genre. I want to see it succeed. How can a film like this find a wide theatrical release while a film like “The Midnight Meat Train” or “Inside” get shafted? This film ruined 2009 for me and it has barely started. I just kept laughing and laughing and looking at the people around me who had the same bewildered expression on their faces. The film ended and there were a myriad of ‘boos’ that struck up immediately. Even a fickle Friday night audience ready for cheap scares couldn’t get behind this picture. And I would be remiss if I didn’t add that this whole PG-13 horror film trend is ridiculous. Horror is horror for a reason. Give me blood or give me nothing. I am sick of getting dogs in masks and creepy little kids with too much eye make-up – I want some blood and some language and some fright. This film would have been much more successful if it didn’t take the “Prom Night” way out. This was the worst film of 2009 and the worst horror film of the past two years.

Odette Yustman (Casey Beldon)
Gary Oldman (Rabbi Sendak)
Meagan Good (Romy)
Cam Gigandet (Mark Hardigan)
Idris Elba (Arthur Wyndham)
Jane Alexander (Sofi Kozma)
James Remar (Gordon Beldon)

Director: David S. Goyer

RATED PG-13

The Worst of 2008 (The Year of Bloodless Horror )

Straight out of the gate, 2008 distinguished itself as another ridiculously bad year for films. No genre suffered as grisly a fate as the horror genre and the first film I saw in 2008 sucked bad enough to still make the list. But there is also some pedigree on this list, like David Mamet and Kevin Smith. As great as they have been in the past, they were just awful this year. And the number one pick for 2008 might be the worst film I have seen in the last decade. Enjoy:

___________________________________


01. Repo! The Genetic Opera

A foul, disgusting, turd of a film that features some truly awful music and some truly awful performances by everyone from the talentless Paris Hilton to the painfully bad Bill Moseley. This film was created to become the next cult sensation, which defeats the whole point of becoming a legit cult sensation. The production quality is poor and the only redeeming quality of the entire film was that it made so little money, we know there won’t be a sequel.

02. Zack & Miri Make A Porno

This one almost topped the list. The more I dwell on this film, the more I hate it. Kevin Smith’s humor is outdated and just not funny. His juvenile gags and jokes fall flat, especially a scene where a man literally has diarrhea splashed all over his face. The two gay characters go beyond to stereotype to just ignorantly offensive and the title of the film is misleading – they never make a porno, just scenes for a porno. The film is ignorant and bad.

03. Prom Night

How can you have a horror film without blood? I knew “Prom Night” would be bad based on the premise and the whole PG-13 rating thing, but this film didn’t even attempt quality. The death scenes were generic and blood-less, the acting was pitiful all the way around and the scene where the woman drops the plate is one of the worst scenes of the year, only because you see it coming a mile away but don’t think their dumb enough to make it happen.

04. One Missed Call

This was the film new film I saw in 2008 and it really kicked the year off with a bang! You have everything from the hysterically awful ‘salad’ scene to the exorcism of a cellular telephone. You’ve got a film with a plotline that is so full of holes – the plotline itself is not possible in the way it plays out. You can ask an audience to believe a lot of things, but no one can ever explain to me why you can’t just turn your damned cell phone off and put it in a drawer!

05. Redbelt

It really does pain me to include a David Mamet film on this list, but “Redbelt” had to be punished. This was a film with a great premise, a great cast and a great director at the helm that just crash landed. When the film ended, we really thought a reel had been missed. I can’t even begin to describe the final few minutes of the film because they are so poorly chopped together. Good intentions but just a bad, bad, bad execution. Bad David Mamet.

06. Pride and Glory

This film is the definition of ‘nothing special’ – a run-of-the-mill cop thriller that follows in the footsteps of every other insepid cop thriller of recent memory. And, even if you tolerate most of the film, the final fight scene between Colin Farrell and Edward Nortion is beyond ridiculous and turns this film into a first class joke. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the over-the-top performance of the year by Mr. Over-the-Top, Jon Voight.

07. Postal

You can always count on Uwe Boll to make this list, but he’s usually higher. Does that mean he’s getting better? No, it just means his competition is getting worse. “Postal” was a hodgepodge of everything wrong with cinema and Boll’s lame attempt to direct a political satire. It’s like casting Leslie Nielsen as Nelson Mandela. The film tried to be the most offensive film of the year and couldn’t even accomplish that. How hard is it to be offensive?

08. Righteous Kill

The reuniting of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino should have been a momentous occasion, a reason for film fans to celebrate. Instead, we get “Righteous Kill”. Really? After this long, “Righteous Kill” is the best you can do? It’s just another formulaic buddy-cop thriller with one of them playing a bad guy and the other one not. But wait! This one has a twist! How original! This just proves that two wrongs definitely do not make a right.

09. The Eye

In these times of despair and confusion, only one thing is for certain – Jessica Alba could not act her way out of a paper sack, especially in a movie where she plays a blind woman. “The Eye” doesn’t want to make people re-think eye transplants. “The Eye” wants to make people pluck out there eyes to keep from seeing this film. Watching Jessica Alba up there trying her best to ‘act’ was precious in itself, but not worth watching this crapola.

10. Meet the Spartans

Yet another in a long line of wretched slapstick comedies from the guys who brought you the previous line of wretched slapstick comedies, minus Leslie Nielsen. This film has nothing. It’s about nothing. It’s for no one. The good thing that came from this film is that it’s the first in this franchise to bomb, which means they might actually think before they rush to greenlight the next one. In a year of amazing comedies, this film merely existed.

The Best of 2008 (Meryl, Milk & Men on Wires)

The Top 10 Films of 2008:

01. Doubt
02. Milk
03. The Wrestler
04. Rachel Getting Married
05. In Bruges
06. Synecdoche, New York
07. Frost/Nixon
08. The Signal
09. Gran Torino
10. Let the Right One In

The 20:

11. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
12. Australia
13. Red
14. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
15. Transsiberian
16. The Fall
17. Son of Rambow
18. Lakeview Terrace
19. Good Dick
20. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Honorable Mentions:

21. Pineapple Express
22. Snow Angels
23. Frozen River
24. The Reader
25. Shotgun Stories

Top 10 Performances of 2008:

01. Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler
02. Meryl Streep - Doubt
03. Clint Eastwood - Gran Torino
04. Sean Penn - Milk
05. Robert Downey, Jr. - Tropic Thunder
06. Debra Winger - Rachel Getting Married
07. Viola Davis - Doubt
08. Emile Hirsch - Milk
09. Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
10. Michael Sheen - Frost/Nixon

Top 5 Documentaries of 2008:

01. Dear Zachary: Letters to A Son About His Father
02. Encounters at the End of the World
03. Man on Wire
04. Standard Operating Procedure
05. Stranded: I've Come from A Plane That Crashed in the Mountains

Top 5 Animated Films of 2008:

01. Wall-E
02. Waltz with Bashir
03. $9.99
04. Kung Fu Panda
05. Fear(s) of the Dark

Overlooked Films of the Year:

01. The Signal
02. In Bruges
03. Dear Zachary: A Letter to A Son About His Father
04. Shotgun Stories
05. Fear(s) of the Dark

Horror Films of the Year:

01. The Signal
02. Rec
03. Frontiere(s)
04. Splinter
05. Dance of the Dead

Comedy Films of the Year:

01. Pineapple Express
02. Role Models
03. Tropic Thunder
04. Hamlet 2
05. Burn After Reading

Will Be Remembered Fondly in 10-Years:

01. Speed Racer
02. Dark Streets
03. Synecdoche, New York

MOVIES MADE EASY AWARDS Winners!

Best Original Score

Jon Brion – Synecdoche, New York
Alexandre Desplat – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
David Hirschfelder - Australia
R.A. Rahman – Slumdog Millionaire
Howard Shore – Doubt
Hans Zimmer – Frost/Nixon

WINNER: Hans Zimmer, “Frost/Nixon”
RUNNER-UP: David Hirschfelder, “Australia”

Best Cinematography

Roger Deakins – Doubt
Frederick Elmes – Synecdoche, New York
Claudio Miranda – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Declan Quinn – Rachel Getting Married
Mandy Walker - Australia
Colin Watkinson – The Fall

WINNER: Colin Watkinson, “The Fall”
RUNNER-UP: Mandy Walker, “Australia”

Best Breakthrough Performance

Rosemarie DeWitt – Rachel Getting Married
Rebecca Hall – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Taraji P. Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Dev Patel – Slumdog Millionaire
Robert Pattinson – Twilight
Brandon Walters – Australia

WINNER: Rosemarie DeWitt, “Rachel Getting Married”
RUNNER-UP: Brandon Walters, “Australia”

Best Comedic Performance

Thomas Haden Church – Smart People
Robert Downey, Jr. – Tropic Thunder
James Franco – Pineapple Express
Richard Jenkins – Step Brothers
Jane Lynch – Role Models
Frances McDormand – Burn After Reading

WINNER: Robert Downey, Jr, “Tropic Thunder”
RUNNER-UP: Jane Lynch, “Role Models”

Best Actress In A Supporting Role

Viola Davis – Doubt
Rosemarie DeWitt – Rachel Getting Married
Taraji P. Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
Debra Winger – Rachel Getting Married
Kate Winslet - The Reader

WINNER: Debra Winger, “Rachel Getting Married”
RUNNER-UP: Viola Davis, “Doubt"

Best Actor In A Supporting Role

Emile Hirsch - Milk
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Tom Noonan – Synecdoche, New York
Michael Sheen – Frost/Nixon
David Thewlis – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

WINNER: Michael Sheen, “Frost/Nixon”
RUNNER-UP: Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Doubt”

Best Actress In A Leading Role

Cate Blanchett – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Nicole Kidman – Australia
Emily Mortimer - Transsiberian
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Kate Winslet – Revolutionary Road

WINNER: Meryl Streep, “Doubt”
RUNNER-UP: Emily Mortimer, “Transsiberian”

Best Actor In A Leading Role

Brian Cox – Red
Clint Eastwood – Gran Torino
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Synecdoche, New York
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn – Milk
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler

WINNER: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
RUNNER-UP: Clint Eastwood, “Gran Torino”

Best Adapted Screenplay

Simon Beaufoy – Slumdog Millionaire
David Hare – The Reader
Peter Morgan – Frost/Nixon
Eric Roth – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley – Doubt
Stephen Susco – Red

WINNER: Peter Morgan, “Frost/Nixon”
RUNNER-UP: John Patrick Shanley, “Doubt”

Best Original Screenplay

Joel & Ethan Coen – Burn After Reading
Dustin Lance Black – Milk
Charlie Kaufman – Synecdoche, New York
Jenny Lumet – Rachel Getting Married
Martin McDonagh - In Bruges
Robert Seigel – The Wrestler

WINNER: Charlie Kaufman, “Synecdoche, New York”
RUNNER-UP: Martin McDonagh, "In Bruges"

Best Director

Darren Aronofsky – The Wrestler
Jonathan Demme – Rachel Getting Married
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Charlie Kaufman – Synecdoche, New York
John Patrick Shanley – Doubt
Gus Van Sant – Milk

WINNER: Charlie Kaufman, “Synecdoche, New York”
RUNNER-UP: Darren Aronofsky, “The Wrestler”

Best Documentary Feature

Dear Zachary: Letters to A Son About His Father
Encounters at the End of the World
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
Man on Wire
The Order of Myths
Standard Operating Procedure

WINNER: Dear Zachary: Letters to A Son About His Father
RUNNER-UP: Encounters at the End of the World

Best Foreign Language Film

The Class (France)
Gomorrah (Italy)
Let the Right One In (Sweden)
The Song of Sparrows (Iran)
Waltz with Bashir (Israel)
Worlds Apart (Denmark)

WINNER: Let the Right One In (Sweden)
RUNNER-UP: Waltz with Bashir (Israel)

Best Animated Feature

$9.99
Bolt
Fear(s) of the Dark
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E
Waltz with Bashir

WINNER: $9.99
RUNNER-UP: Waltz with Bashir

Best Film

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Synecdoche, New York
The Wrestler

WINNER: The Wrestler
RUNNER-UP: Synecdoche, New York

THE WRESTLER Film Critique

Talk about a face only a mother could love.



No one has wrecked themselves quite as seriously as Mickey Rourke. He was once the golden boy – handsome, talented and rising to the top. Then his own self-destructive tendencies took over and ran his career off the rails. He’s a 52-year-old man who most often looks like a 72-year-old man; face and body worn down, voice weathered from years of self-abusive and the hardcore lifestyle. Lately, however, it would seem that he has been on somewhat of a comeback, which seemed to really kick into high gear after his role as Marv in the successful “Sin City”. But, unlike Robert Downey, Jr. who came back and hit the ground running, Rourke has still been waiting in the shadows for just the right role to come along. Enter “The Wrestler”. Never has a film so closely mirrored the rise and fall of its star. Never has one man personified a role so clearly. “The Wrestler” comes to us from director Darren Aronofsky, the visionary filmmaker who brought us the emotional nightmare of “Requiem of A Dream” and then waited six years to bring us the futuristic mind-meld “The Fountain”. This film seems an add choice for the director, but he makes it his own and fits right in with the picture. “The Wrestler” affected me more than I had expected it too. It has an emotional core, carried solely by Mickey Rourke, that resonates. I can’t imagine it not having an affect on an audience.

In the role of his lifetime, Mickey Rourke stars as Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson, formerly the professional wrestling golden boy – akin to Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair. He was at the top of his profession for many years, but now finds himself playing the weekend circuit, battered down and destroyed by years of physical abuse. He works at a grocery store during the week scraping together whatever hours he can. He spends his nights at the local strip bar, where a stripper named Cassidy (Marisa Tomei) listens like no other. He has special feelings for her. And, on the weekends, he wrestles. When Randy suffers a heart attack and is told he cannot wrestle again, he’s thrown into an abyss of uncertainty and confusion. He finds himself alone dealing with a terrifying issue. He eventually decides to reconnect with his daughter, Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood), who doesn’t like him, and start up a new relationship. He retires from wrestling and tries to turn his life around, but his old ways come creeping up and threaten to derail everything. The film ends with one of the greatest 10-minute stretches of recent memory, the final shot saying what Rourke has been expressing the entire film. Some people cannot change, as hard as they try, and it doesn’t mean they’re bad people – it just means they don’t know any better. I can’t imagine an ending summing up a film any better.

Let’s start with the incredible screenplay from Robert Siegel. You start with a simple premise and expand from there, and that’s what he did here. The film never strays from what the title would imply. It is all about Mickey Rourke and I expect Rourke did most of the heavy lifting himself. The soundtrack, composed of 1980’s hair bands and hard rock groups, says so much about the mentality and the past of this character – a man who is stuck in the 1980’s both mentally and physically. He doesn’t fit in and he doesn’t seem to function in mainstream society. The cinematography is nothing fancy – very basic and affective – a far cry from Aronofsky’s previous work. This is just a very simple film with a very simple premise that breaks your heart wide open. You know you shouldn’t feel sorry for the character because he does everything to himself, but you can’t help it. Rourke is that sympathetic and that brutally innocent that you want to protect him before he breaks. And let me just say that the wrestling sequences are the most authentic I have ever seen captured on film. You really get a sense of how these guys prepare for what they do and you even get some special tricks that wrestlers use that aren’t available to the general public. But we also see wrestling portrayed as a serious and dangerous sport. These men are actors and they are brutes – it is a lot of staging, put people hurt themselvesl; blood is shed, bones are broken and damage is done. You always hear that it’s just pretend, but for these men – it gets very serious and very real sometimes.

I could spend a whole paragraph on Mickey Rourke’s performance – I have already devoted a significant amount of time to it. He is phenomenal, the performance of the year and a true revelation. Mickey Rourke is Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson. It’s like they are one in the same. The scene between Mickey Rourke and Evan Rachel Wood in the abandoned building is one of the most tender moments of his career, and then watching their final scene together just breaks you in two. We’re feeling that pain right along with him and feeling just as devastated as he is. He’s a man with one thing going for him – the sport he loves. When he loses that, he reaches out to his daughter. When he loses her, he has nothing left, which makes the ending so incredible. Marisa Tomei is also just wonderful as the stripper who eventually warms up to ‘The Ram’. She has this quiet sincerity to her on screen that works with each role she takes on. I suspect she’ll get another Oscar nomination for her work here and it’s much deserved. Very few actresses are this comfortable with themselves to do what she does in this film, and adds a nice levity to Mickey Rourke’s character also. Evan Rachel Wood is really only in three scenes in the film, but she is very effective, especially her final scene with Rourke.

I love, love, loved this film. Unlike “Revolutionary Road”, this film did not disappoint in the slightest. It lived up to my high expectations and then some. Mickey Rourke is the most deserving Best Actor contender we’ve had in a long while and it will thrill me if he takes home the gold. What a great year 2008 was, if only to usher the return of two of cinema’s greats – Robert Downey, Jr. and Mickey Rourke. I recommend “The Wrestler” for the following awards: Mickey Rourke for Best Actor, Marisa Tomei for Best Supporting Actress, Robert Siegel for Best Original Screenplay, Darren Aronofsky for Best Director and “The Wrestler” for Best Picture of the year. I have read some negative reviews of this film and I honestly don’t know where in the hell they could come from. I can’t imagine anyone not responding to this material in an honest way. I sincerely hope you all get a chance to see it in theatres and enjoy it with an audience. It’s rare when we get the chance to root for a character like this surrounding my our peers.

Mickey Rourke (Ricky ‘The Ram’ Robinson)
Marisa Tomei (Cassidy)
Evan Rachel Wood (Stephanie Robinson)

Director: Darren Aronofsky

RATED R

REVOLUTIONARY ROAD Film Critique

The ship couldn't kill her but the suburbs will!



There was something about that “Revolutionary Road” trailer that just made me all excited – something about the use
of music and the intricately woven scenes that made it seem like it was going to be nothing short of phenomenal. I mean, director Sam Mendes is not one for making inadequate films – his resume speaks for itself. And the film is based on a popular book that was equally impressive in its text and dissection of suburban life, something Mendes already tackled once with “American Beauty”. And say what you want to about “Titanic”, but there are lots of people out there who wanted to see Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet reunite on screen, especially now since they’ve both become so powerful and so sought after as actors. But there is something missing from “Revolutionary Road” – there is something ‘off’. I sat through the film, which is difficult at times, and kept waiting for this one moment that would transform this into the powerful piece of cinema I had hoped it would be. It almost gets there. It reaches for and just misses. There’s a lot to admire about this picture, and I’m
sure it will win its fair share of awards, but I couldn’t help but thing it really went nowhere.

The film is, essentially, about a young suburban couple trying to make their way in the world and how the suburbs and that idyllic life destroys them. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet star as Frank and April Wheeler. Frank works a nothing office job at a corporation in the city, just like his father, and resents every day of it. April stays at home and raises the kids and keeps the house. She wanted to be an actress. He wanted to be anything. They both find themselves living a life they never wanted with people who are not who they thought. One day their next door neighbor and realtor, Helen (Kathy Bates) brings her son, John (Michael Shannon) over for a visit to mean the ‘nice, normal’ young couple. John has recently been released from an insane asylum where we was given electro -shock treatment, causing some chaotic behavior. John ends up taking his aggression out on the Wheelers, attempting to bring out their innermost fears. At the same time, Frank is screwing around in April with a secretary and April is screwing around on Frank with their next door neighbor (David Harbour). When April has the idea to move the family to Paris, everything becomes exciting and new again. When Frank is offered a promotion, it throws that dream into question and their entire worlds become turned upside down. By the end, the suburbs win and idealism is destroyed.

There is nothing really technically wrong with the film, per se. My problem was that we never came to care about either Frank or April because, when you get down to it, they are both miserable and hurtful human beings. And, with that, it is no surprise to us what happens to them. In that, the film was utterly predictable. I felt like the characters of Helen Givings and John Givings were unnecessary and held no significance on the film. You could have taken their scenes out and this story would have played out the exact same way. Michael Shannon has been getting a lot of buzz for his two-scene role here, but I thought his character was useless and the performance was too much. His character basically did nothing but explain to us what we already knew. We see Frank and April have this huge argument. Somehow, because he’s had electro -shock, John knows exactly what is going on and basically screams at them both telling them exactly what they just did and said – exactly what we just saw. We don’t need to be told the same thing over and over again and we certainly don’t need any more screaming in addition to what we’re already being given. Plus, I need to mention – it bothered me that the kids kept popping up and then disappearing. How do they have such miserable lives when they obviously don’t have to take any responsibility for their own children?

All of that said, DiCaprio and Winslet are quite good here. Their scenes together sizzle with chemistry and they are both very strong with these roles. I just felt like I was being given scene after scene after scene of the same old thing. I was left with the feeling that DiCaprio was so insecure and so paranoid that he would destroy himself and that Winslet was so insane and so demented that she should be locked up. It’s weird to say, but I thought they gave amazing performances in terrible roles. My favorite scene between them comes immediately after John and his family have left for the last time and their argument blows up like never before, ending with a ‘chase scene’ through the woods. This brings about an ending, however, that is predictable and benign. I was expecting the film to end that way and I wanted to be surprised. The whole film seemed to be about how young love can’t survive the traditional family dynamic. The whole film seemed to be about how attempting to buck the system will lead to misery. I wanted to see more about why these two individuals hated each other, or didn’t, or whatever. I didn ’t want to see scene after scene of this poor pitiful young people being driven to madness by shrubbery and day jobs and cooking scrambled eggs. Neither of them seemed bad off and I never really understood what they had to be so miserable about.

This was definitely one of my bigger disappointments of the year. Sam Mendes is usually always a hit with me, but I think he missed the mark here. I noticed several of those trademark “American Beauty” moments that popped up here and there, but those definitely belonged in “American Beauty” and not here. I read one review of the film that called it ‘difficult to watch’ and ‘impossible to sit through’, and I would almost tend to agree. There is so much screaming and so much fist shaking and misery that you eventually become immune to it and just want silence. When Kate Winslet was pleading with Leonardo DiCaprio to leave her alone, we were hoping he would. And maybe the whole ploy with this film was to make the audience uncomfortable and really make us hate these characters, but you cannot have us dislike characters so thoroughly and then expect an ending like that to mean anything. “Revolutionary Road” is a real waste of ideas that could have gone somewhere. It’s like all the ingredients were there for this elaborate cake, except someone forgot to add flour. It’s like I kept waiting and waiting on this ‘something’ to happen and it never did. I don’t feel cheated so much as I feel like its trailer wrote a check that its content couldn’t cash. It’s a real shame.

Leonardo DiCaprio (Frank Wheeler)
Kate Winslet (April Wheeler)
Kathy Bates (Helen Givings)
Michael Shannon (John Givings)
Kathryn Hahn (Milly Campbell)
David Harbour (Shep Campbell)
Jay O. Sanders (Bart Pollack)

Director: Sam Mendes

RATED R


AND A HALF

FROST/NIXON Film Critique

Can you connect yourself to me in six degrees?



Two of the biggest plays to hit Broadway stages in recent years were turned into feature films in 2008. “Doubt” was the first and it was my favorite film of the year. The other was “Frost/Nixon”, directed by the underestimated Ron Howard and starring the two men who made the play such a success, Frank Langella and Michael Sheen. The film has all the pedigree you could hope for in a motion picture: directed by Ron Howard, written by Peter Morgan who penned “The Queen” and featuring an incredible ensemble cast that would leave any casting director envious. There has also been a lot of buzz about this film being one of the frontrunners at the Academy Awards this year. I could see that. The film is simply fantastic. As a fan of the play, I was wondering how Howard was going to translate that to screen, but he’s done a commanding job of making us feel every bit of drama and every bit of comedy that the play produced so brilliantly. The result is a film that paints two intricate portraits of two very different men who, oddly enough, seem to have quite a bit in common. “Frost/Nixon” is one of the best films of 2008.

The film begins not very long after President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) resigns the Presidency of the United States. He has just been pardoned by Gerald Ford and the American people are angry. A continent away, David Frost (Michael Sheen) is interviewing the Bee-Gees one day and then deciding he wants to be the first reporter to get an exclusive interview with Nixon. What happens next is astonishing. Using his own money, Frost finances the interview with Nixon, a man who seems determined to get these dark and terrible secrets off his chest and on the record. Frost hires a crack team of investigators to assist, including James Reston (Sam Rockwell) and Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt), who work to criminalize Nixon once and for all. Once the tapes start rolling, nothing goes as planned and Frost must come to the realization that he might not have given the former President enough credit. What we see is Richard Nixon, a brilliant and crafty veteran of politics who makes questions his own and never gives the answers the other side wants. In Nixon’s corner, watching out for his safety, is Jack Brennan (Kevin Bacon), his friend and associate. By the end, as you already known, Nixon confesses some wrong-doing in the Watergate ordeal, changing his perception forever and giving Frost the career boost he needed. No spoilers – it’s all on public record.

What a fine crafted film this is. The film cuts back from live action scenes to documentary-style interviews with the main characters in the film, which is exactly what they do in the stage play. I just assumed Howard would try and find some way around this but instead he embraced it and it helps the film tremendously. We get the sense that we’re watching a re-cap of some epic battle between two icons. The cinematography by Salvatore Totino might be easy to dismiss, but he does some nice things here, especially in the way he photographs Nixon, especially in the shadows. Nixon is built up to be this giant of a man – this titan of politics. The music from Hans Zimmer is some of the best of the year and the art direction and production design fantastic. But the real credit here goes to Ron Howard who continues to show that he has far more up his sleeve that some of his lesser fare would indicate. “Frost/Nixon” is the best film he’s done since “Apollo 13” and it’s a different kind of film for him, which was nice. Luckily, for Howard, he had a terrific play from Peter Morgan that Morgan was able to translate effortlessly to the screen. Credit both Howard and Morgan for this achievement.

But, in regards to this film, there is one man receiving more attention than anyone else and that man is Frank Langella as Richard Nixon. He took home the Tony Award for this role on Broadway and there is heavy talk of his taking home the Oscar as well. Langella is electric here in one of his best roles to date. Langella is not so much doing a Nixon imitation as taking what we know about Nixon’s voice and mannerisms and making them his own. You can’t watch this performance and call it an imitation and the trailers really don’t do his performance justice as they rarely do. Michael Sheen will probably be close to overlooked for his role as David Frost, just as he was overlooked for his role as Tony Blair in “The Queen”. There, Helen Mirren stole the show. Here, it’s Frank Langella. His performance here is astonishing and he is slowly setting up his reputation as one of the superior leading dramatic actors working today. Sam Rockwell is convincing here in his role as James Reston, Oliver Platt provides some limited comedy relief as Bob Zelnick and Kevin Bacon is fine as Jack Brennan. And it was very nice to see the great Toby Jones at it again, this time as super agent Swifty Lazar.

What a fun and entertaining film this was, from start to finish. You know what the outcome is going to be, but you are still on the edge of your seat. Langella and Frost have a nice chemistry that really helps their scenes together, especially Nixon’s late night call to Frost that has become pure speculation and here say over the years. “Frost/Nixon” might wind up the big winner at the Academy Awards. I cannot say it’s the best film of the year, but it’s certainly one of the best. And, in this day and age when we’re receiving film after mediocre film about politics and power struggles, it’s nice to see a film that simply hopes to recreate a moment in time and let the audience enjoy. “Frost/Nixon” has that rare quality where you feel like you’re watching history – not some grand cinematic achievement, but real history. My recommendations would be Frank Langella for Best Actor, Michael Sheen for Best Supporting Actor, Peter Morgan for Best Adapted Screenplay, Ron Howard for Best Director and “Frost/Nixon” for Best Picture. It should be opening in much wider release, so I suggest you check it out.

Frank Langella (Richard Nixon)
Michael Sheen (David Frost)
Sam Rockwell (James Reston, Jr.)
Kevin Bacon (Jack Brennan)
Oliver Platt (Bob Zelnick)
Matthew Macfadyen (John Birt)
Toby Jones (Swifty Lazar)
Rebecca Hall (Caroline Cushing)

Director: Ron Howard

RATED R


AND A HALF

OBITUARY

R.I.P.
PAT HINGLE
1924 - 2009



FILMOGRAPHY:

1963...The Ugly American
1968...Sol Madrid
1968...Jigsaw
1968...Hang'Em High
1970...Bloody Mama
1970...WUSA
1970...Norwood
1973...Nightmare Honeymoon
1973...One Little Indian
1976...Independence
1977...The Gauntlet
1979...Elvis
1979...When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?
1979...Norma Rae
1980...Running Scared
1983...Sudden Impact
1985...The Falcon and the Snowman
1985...Brewster's Millions
1986...Maximum Overdrive
1987...Baby Boom
1988...The Land Before Time
1989...Batman
1990...The Grifters
1992...Batman Returns
1994...Lightning Jack
1995...The Quick and the Dead
1995...Batman Forever
1995...Truman
1997...Larger Than Life
1997...Bastard Out of Carolina
1997...Batman & Robin
1997...A Thousand Acres
1999...Muppets from Space
2000...Shaft
2006...Talladega Nights
2006...Waltzing Anna
2008...Doing Time

Pat Hingle was a character actor, one of the best kind. He appeared in numerous films and television shows, but is most remembered as Commissioner Gordon in the first four of the "Batman" films. He was also John Adams in "Independence", a bartender in "The Quick and the Dead" and the narrator of "The Land Before Time". He was not as visible in films of late, his most notable role being in "Talladega Nights" in 2006. He will be missed and is a fond memory of my childhood.