Open Water
August 19, 2004; Regal Falmouth #3
* * * ¾ (out of 4)

I don’t scare easily, especially not in movies. I guess I’ve seen enough horror movies that the “conventional” stuff really doesn’t touch me anymore. I’ve seen my fill of grotesque monsters and gruesome murders, and random over-built jump moments (à la The Village) tend to make me laugh more than jump. But I’ll be damned if I wasn’t shaking coming home from this movie. I haven’t been this scared since I watched Session 9 by myself in a dark room.

Overworked and overstressed, American couple Dan and Sue finally take a break from both their demanding jobs to go on vacation. It’s very obvious from the start that they need the time off, since neither one can put down their cell phone long enough to say hello to the other at the film’s start. Once they arrive in their undisclosed tropical location, they register for a scuba diving trip for the next morning. After 35 minutes of diving, a simple, honest mistake by the boat’s crew leads to Dan and Sue being left behind as the boat heads back for land. Dan and Sue spend the next twenty-four hours (and the remainder of the movie) without food, water, warmth, or rescue, floating in the ocean with no means of escape.

Writer/director Chris Kentis has an ideal what-if scenario here. It’s real, it’s terrifying, and it has happened before. What he presents is a horror movie that drives on real primal fear; not the fear that some sadistic psycho is going to jump out of a closet to cut you up with a chainsaw, but the ear that maybe we humans aren’t as dominant and powerful as we like to think we are. He gives us two people – real people, with no stereotypic characteristics – who get caught in a bad situation, and he shows what happens, from their perspective. In this way, his directing is incredible. Whatever Dan and Sue can’t see, for the most part the audience can’t see either. It plays perfectly on this fear of the unknown, so that when the audience finally sees what is around the couple, it’s just as nerve-wracking for the viewer as it is for the two onscreen.

People have and will complain about a few things. The movie was shot entirely with handheld cameras, but it fits in nicely with the couple on vacation. Even after they’ve been adrift for hours, the shooting style maintains a feeling that this could happen to anyone; there are no Hollywood touch-ups here. The only issue I had might be the script. The dialogue is a bit rough at times, and that is split evenly between the writing and the delivery. Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis aren’t as believable as a couple as I would have liked them to be in the early goings; this improves once the mortal danger kicks in. Neither of them have had a major film role before, and I imagine that it’s a hard transition to jump to effectively being the only two principles in a movie with little to no big-screen experience to draw from.

But the acting’s almost a moot point. Kentis presses all the right buttons here at all the right times. Some will claim that the movie gets boring in between “encounters,” but that emptiness is also relevant to understanding the characters, considering they spend a full day floating in the middle of nowhere.

More than anything else, I commend Kentis and Lion’s Gate for the ending. I should have seen it coming, but it’s the ending that no major Hollywood studio ever would have allowed. It’s risky, but it worked perfectly, and I left the theater in awe, remembering why I want to be in this business.

See this movie. It is the most mortally terrifying movie I have seen in a very, very long time.

FINALLY

These are long overdue, I know. It's been a busy summer, but I am finally caught up. The only omission is Spider-Man 2: The IMAX Experience, but that review couldn't really be much more glowing than my initial Spidey review. I will say that IMAX is THE way to see a movie. If only more directors will pick up on it.

I'll try to get back on track with more timely reviews. School's starting soon, so I'll probably end up with a little more free time than I do now, working two jobs. Enjoy.

Collateral
Monday, August 9; Regal Falmouth #1
* * * ¾ (out of 4)

Collateral is a step in the right direction by nearly everyone involved. It establishes Jamie Foxx as more than the stereotype he played on his TV roles, giving him the momentum to propel a film career (he’ll follow up perfectly with Ray, I imagine). Tom Cruise needs no introduction, but Collateral gives him a role he’s never really played before – a villain. Director Michael Mann has, to this point, made the film that he will be remembered for. Everything goes right here.

Max (Foxx) takes great pride in the service he provides. It’s unfortunate that he has been stuck driving a cab for twelve years. On this particular L.A. night, he picks up a man who makes him an offer he can’t really refuse: one night, Vincent (Cruise) must make five stops before getting back to the airport. If Max drives him, he makes seven hundred dollars, nearly twice his normal nightly take. All seems fine, until Max figures out what these stops are – hits on Vincent’s list, he being a contract killer. Despite his every attempt to get out of his fare, it’s apparent that not only does Max not have a choice in the matter, but after the first hit his only chance at making it out of the night unscathed is to stay with Vincent, even as the LAPD and the FBI begin to breathe down their necks.

Amazing performances from everyone involved. Amazing. From the trailer, I was convinced Tom Cruise hadn’t been this good since Minority Report, but now I will change that to he has NEVER been this good. Vincent has all the charm and charisma that has made Cruise the bankable movie star he is for all those years, but there’s something so much more dangerous about him. There’s stability, a level headedness with which Vincent kills people that makes him both admirable and frightening at the same time. Cruise nailed it.

Foxx is just as good. His Max is a dreamer living in a fantasy world, and he will not admit to himself when he is defeated. His idealisms are so scrambled that he is willing to believe much of what Cruise says. The character is driven much farther than anyone really ought to be capable of that when he snaps it’s unexpected, because it’s something that anyone else would have done much sooner. His breaking point is also completely satisfying, even if the result isn’t what you might want.

The conversation between the two men is astounding. Vincent is so focused on his work as a business that there is no emotional attachment at all. After killing someone right in front of Max, they get back in the cab, and Vincent initiates a conversation as though nothing was wrong. His tone of voice is so assuring and calm that Max begins to emulate the mood. Frightening that one person could have this much charisma.

There are multiple climax points through the movie, and each is perfectly built. I have no real complaints about this movie, except for one or two unexplained points, but they don’t really detract from the high-caliber performances from both stars. Amazing work; don’t miss this one.

Harold & Kumar Go To Whitecastle
Regal Falmouth #7
* * ¾ (out of 4)

Almost every gag in Harold and Kumar has been used previously in Dude, Where’s My Car or one of the American Pie movies. The difference is that no matter how risqué the joke may have been in earlier movies, here they take it three steps further, with no shame or regard for political correctness. Not surprising, considering the movie’s premise.

Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) are roommates. Both are highly intelligent, but are social opposites. Harold is caught in a dead-end job that he hates, and his personality does not allow him to stand up to the bullies at work who make him do all their work as well. Kumar is a medical genius, but a slacker in every sense of the word. His only concerns are getting high, getting laid, and having fun. One night after getting very high, the boys get an urge for a Whitecastle burger, and set out to find the fast food joint to down the need. Naturally, nothing goes quite as planned.

This is an assault on nearly every stereotype in existence. Asians, white trash, African Americans, white punks, Indians, racist cops… everyone is fair game, and the movie takes full advantage of it. It leads to some very funny punch lines, but the problem is there really isn’t much in the way of set-up. It’s just little gag after little gag, and not much in between to connect them.

In fact, there’s very little to Harold and Kumar at all. The plot is paper-thin, and there’s no real attempt to make it anything more than that. It’s throwaway, it’s pretty much pointless, but it’s also obvious that that’s precisely what the filmmakers were going for. If nothing else, it raised Cho and Penn a step or two from the sidekick roles they had in the Dude and Pie movies. Whether they’ll ever go beyond the lowbrow substance is yet to be determined. I think Cho could pull something off, but the jury is still out on Penn.

This is a forgettable, throwaway movie in the vein of American Pie but without the charm or staying power of it. It was fun for a night, but I won’t be too sad if I never see it ever again.

Before Sunset
Patriot Cinemas Nickelodeon
* * * ½ (out of 4)

A friend assured me this would be a good movie. Before Sunrise is her favorite, so she had a reason. On the other hand, I have not seen Before Sunrise, and without her there probably would have been no reason for me to see this movie, and I probably would have missed it. And that would have been a shame. This is a movie with exquisite direction and a fully developed pair of characters that have a completely genuine chemistry; these are not compliments that can be paid very often.

Set (and made) nine years after the first, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) has written a book about his experience with a French woman (Julie Delpy) on a train. On his final book tour stop in France, she seeks out the appearance and invites him to spend the rest of the afternoon with her in order to catch up, and perhaps answer some lingering questions. The afternoon unfolds similar to the first, sparking a flowing and wandering conversation that covers all topics, but is interspersed with questions about that one train ride nine years early, and about whether or not these two have any sort of future together.

My favorite aspect of this movie is the energy exhibited from everyone involved. Written by Hawke, Delpy, and director Richard Linklater, it’s obvious that this is something all three of them wanted to do, and that comes through crystal clear throughout the movie. Hawke and Delpy are incredibly at ease with each other (once the characters get past the initial awkwardness of seeing someone after you spent a night with them nearly a decade earlier), and the conversation flows so smoothly from politics, to religion, and the environment, always circling back to their own lives and experiences and hinting at what that night meant to each of them. Linklater makes a wise choice in shooting the film in real time; from the moment Hawke appears in the bookstore until the moment the film finally fades to black, not a minute more has passed onscreen than in the theater. Not a single word of conversation has been missed. Camera cuts are necessary, but not frequent, leading to some truly impressive shots that last for seven or eight minutes at a time. It’s a wonderful movie in which to just get lost, listening to the two of them and wandering around Paris with them for an hour and a half.

Hawke and Delpy seem happy to return to these characters, and one can only assume they pick up right where they left off at the end of Sunrise. The most interesting moments are when they delve into their personal lives, discussing what that night has done to them, or where they are in their love lives now. The fact that Jesse is married with a son but still writes this book basically in an effort to find Celine is a much discussed notion, and very interesting to listen to.

I’m hooked. I need to find a copy of Before Sunrise to see how this started. Richard Linklater made great choices and shot Paris in all its glory. Before Sunrise seems to be getting a relatively limited release, so don’t miss out on this f you have an opportunity to see it.

Review: I, Robot
Regal Falmouth # 1
* * ¾ (out of 4)

It seems like Hollywood has figured out exactly what the world will look like in fifty years. On the one hand, it’s nice to see all the studios agreeing on something. On the other hand, when I, Robot begins to look exactly like a blend of Minority Report and Demolition Man, it starts to get a little boring. I am starting to get tired of looking at the same designs for cities, highways, cars, and home appliances. Despite drawing pretty heavily from these other futuristic movies, I, Robot manages to be a fun action movie, even if a little less creative than it could have been.

Del Spooner (Will Smith) is a Chicago PD homicide detective with a serious bone to pick with the robots that have now become commonplace in the world. The robots take care of all the more mundane jobs that no human would do if they could avoid it, and also serve as personal assistants, but for some reason Spooner just doesn’t trust them. Naturally, when a report comes in that the father of the robot technology, Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), has been murdered, Spooner investigates, shocked to find a robot (voiced by Alan Tudyk) as the prime suspect. Spooner’s personal relationship with Lanning only further contributes to his paranoia, and he’s soon much deeper into the robot world than he ever wished to go.

Obviously, the plot of this movie bears little to no resemblance to the collection of Isaac Asimov short stories that bears the same name. The only similarities are in a few characters like Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan) serving as Spooner’s sidekick, and in the three basic laws of robotics that this “murder” violates. The source material is, apparently discarded after the basic premise is established – let it be known that no, I have not read the short stories. I am a terrible, naughty sci-fi geek.

While I certainly understand that the lack of attention paid to Asimov’s classic would cause distress in those who have read it, for those of us who haven’t, the movie just becomes another Will Smith July movie. Unfortunately, it doesn’t even meet that standard as well as it should. The action is good for the most part; director Alex Proyas involving himself heavily in the action scenes, but there are moments that he goes a little to far with his swooping “action cam.” It may look cool, but if it causes you to lose sight of the action onscreen, it doesn’t really serve a purpose.

Everyone here is basically playing the part one would expect from him or her. Smith is the wisecracking reluctant hero; Cromwell is the kindhearted old man with a secret, Moynahan is the skeptical sidekick. It all falls into place, but there are pieces missing – humor, chemistry – so the equation starts to fall apart. There’s a fun fight here or there, but not enough leading up to the fights to give Smith another Mr. July crown. Men in Black or Independence Day this is not.

The Village
July 30, 2004; Regal Falmouth #1
* * (out of 4)

The sad part about writing this review is that I know there is a good movie here. I’m aware that I went into the theater with the wrong mentality the first time, that I let the massive promotional machine tell me what to expect, and it is because I didn’t get that that I was disappointed with The Village. Unfortunately, I was so disappointed with it that I have no real desire to sit through it again in the correct frame of mind, and see the movie that I suspect is probably sitting underneath.

The Village is an isolated community that is entirely self-supporting. The residents have cut off all contact with “the towns” outside their borders, and prefer to live with their own, unconcerned with the goings-on in the rest of the world. The only thing that concerns them is the occasional appearance of creatures within the woods that surround their village. When these creatures enter the village, apparently for no reason, the townspeople begin to worry that their way of life may be coming to an end. More than that, after a crime is committed, the noncommunication with the towns must be abandoned in order to gain access to more modern medical treatments. This is the background for a dangerous life triangle between a blind girl (Bryce Dallas Howard), the quiet town skeptic (Joaquin Phoenix), and a mentally disabled man (Adrien Brody).

The promotion behind The Village made it look like a horror movie in the vein of M. Night Shyamalan’s other efforts. What disappointed me is that there is nothing frightening to an audience in this movie. The horror aspect comes from the villagers, and the realization that the way of life they’ve come to know and love may soon be forced to come to an end. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see this during the viewing, and because of it did not enjoy the film at all. Maybe I would on a second viewing, but I have no desire to.

There are other problems. Like most of Shyamalan’s films, this has a stellar cast. Unlike most of his films, I feel he wastes many of them. Sigourney Weaver is ever-present but given nothing to do; Joaquin Phoenix spends much of the film comatose and not a factor; Adrien Brody, though he handles the part of a handicapped man well, isn’t given a chance to show the talent that propelled him through The Pianist. Only William Hurt, as the unofficial leader of the village, and Howard achieve what they need to in order to make the film work. Everyone else felt flat and unimportant. To be fair, Howard performs nicely in her leading role debut.

It seems that as Shyamalan improves his directing skills, his writing begins to suffer. He tries but doesn’t achieve the level of anxiety that he did in Signs nor can you sympathize as much for his characters. It’s obvious to me now that he was making a movie much different than his others, but should have told his distributors to promote it as such. Anyone who gains interest via the preview or promotion is bound to be disappointed. Perhaps when I’m decently removed from my first viewing, I’ll be able to sit down and watch The Village again to see the true movie. But for now, I can’t recommend it.

Review: Bourne Supremacy
Regal Falmouth # 2
* * * (out of 4)

It’s hard to do a sequel to a good movie. Bourne Identity was all sorts of fun, and established Matt Damon as an action movie star, something he hadn’t done yet. After Bourne, Damon dropped out of the spotlight for awhile as far as leading roles were concerned, so with The Bourne Supremacy, a vehicle needed to be created once again to bring Damon back, and also entice people enough to justify a third movie – the planned Bourne Ultimatum. The goals are achieved here, but at a relatively high price.

Jason Bourne (Damon) and Marie (Franka Potente) have been living quietly in India for three years after the events of the first movie. Bourne has been attempting to disconnect from his life as an assassin while trying to remember anything about his life before Project Treadstone. As a CIA field operative (Joan Allen) is trying to uncover who foiled a bust in Berlin, an attempt on Bourne’s life convinces him that Treadstone is back and after him again, so he decides to meet them head-on, leading him closer and closer to the CIA project that has unearthed the dead program.

The biggest problem with Supremacy is that very early on, Bourne’s motivation is eliminated. In the first film, there’s always more reason to run, more reason to survive a bit longer. Within the first 15 minutes of this movie, Bourne’s motivation is destroyed, and the film becomes more about revenge than survival. It changes the character of Jason Bourne, and eliminates much of what made him a good character – trained to be deadly, but compassionate, and with a conscience. Julia Stiles is the only person who gives a real human element after Bourne threatens her life. Her fear is real, and it’s a raw, honest emotion that no one else can come close to in the rest of the movie.

It’s still fun, though. Director Paul Greengrass knows how to shoot his locations well, and he makes a beautiful movie. All the major cities – Berlin, Moscow, and Naples – are shown in all their glory, and no one can convince me that these are substitute mock-ups. Greengrass’s downfall comes in the car chase that serves as the action climax of the movie. It is, no doubt, an awesome and breathtaking chase… if only Greengrass had let us watch it. The camera cuts are too fast and the angles are too harsh to really get a good idea of what’s going on. It’s exhilarating, but nearly to the point of being disorienting and confusing.

Still, I enjoyed this. I like Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne, and even with less character to work with, Damon seems to know where the character is headed at all times. Should Bourne Ultimatum get off the ground, I’d like to see more of the Julia Stiles character, and I’ll be interested to see what direction they take it. I’ve been told this movie is a blatant departure from the book; whether that is good or not, it hands the filmmakers a clean slate for the third movie.