Movies : September 2004

19 September 2004

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

A delirious mélange of Buck Rogers, Metropolis, The Wizard of Oz, and the art of Bruce McCall, and no doubt quite a bunch of other stuff, bounces along energetically enough to sustain the disbelief over its plot, nonsensical for any time let alone the very, very early forties. A sinister individual is creating endless platoons of gigantic robotic creations in reaction to his disenchantment with the direction of the world, a judgment he made just about the time of the Balkan Wars. Polly Perkins is the intrepid reporter with a special relationship with Sky Captain whose two-seater fighter has some extra modifications and remarkable capabilities which just might be needed to save the world, and my attention to the reality of whatever Gwyneth Paltrow touches in this world is rewarded when she confronts the multistory-high flying robots as they march down a Manhattan avenue with (I’m going to guess) an Argus C3. Back seat pilots! The cold personality projected by Jude Law (your mileage may vary by gender, I’m told) almost warms up with their banter as they travel (in that trainer fighter, yes, across continents, but it’s a bit late to be sniping about range) to the source of the signal controlling the robots. Giovanni Ribisi is the devoted sidekick who never tires of being called boy and Angelina Jolie is the eyepatch-sporting commander of a flotilla of… aircraft carriers loaded with amphibious squadrons. Why not? Almost everything else in this movie is… amphibious. A classic it’s not, but the novelty of an all-CGI movie save for the lead performers becomes less important as the story, over-the-top and simplistic as it is, picks up steam.

107 minutes.

17 September 2004

Silver City

A gubernatorial campaign in Wyoming is disrupted momentarily when the candidate, son of the senator, Dickie Pilager (Chris Cooper) is preparing a commercial in the last few weeks before election day and the fishing pole he’s been handed snags on a body in the lake. The campaign manager (Richard Dreyfuss) contracts with an investigative firm to keep an eye on three disruptive elements, but the head of the firm (Mary Kay Place) is forced by a shortage of staff to assign the new contract to Danny O’Brien (Danny Huston). It’s the least of Danny’s problems that he has little aptitude for investigation (his latest girlfriend has left him and it takes him a while to notice what’s missing) and as he makes his way around the locale he runs into just about every hot button issue in politics these days: rumor-mongering web site authors (Tim Roth), right-wing talk-show hosts (Miguel Ferrer), rich people behind every conglomerate (Kris Kristofferson), exploiters of illegal immigrants (Luis Saguar), oily lobbyists (Billy Zane), rapacious developers, toxic waste dumpers, drug-using siblings of the candidate, indifferent slaughterhouse operators, the usual… With so many characters, characters like the website assistant Karen (Thora Birch) are on and off again quickly, and the satire is clunky, too, clearly straining to parallel but not imitate the current situation. At least Daryl Hannah, as the crossbow-wielding sister, gets to show both her eyes.

128 minutes.

15 September 2004

Evergreen

One doesn’t need to see the logo of the Sundance Institute at the end to recognize the genre: an earnest slice-of-life of ordinary people caught up in circumstances. Kate (Cara Seymour) and Henri (Allie Land) are desperately poor and move in with Kate’s mother (Lynn Cohen) despite the leaky roof and general disorder therein. They are, of course, bus people. Fortunately, their municipality in the Pacific Northwest is accommodating. They check out the local casino for the buffet and befriend a dealer there, Jim (Gary Farmer), who misidentifies his jalopy’s manufacturer. Henri attracts the attention of fellow high-schooler Chat (Noah Fleiss) who hopes that driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee and having a gated house will impress the pants of off Henri. As Kate tries to fit in at the makeup factory, and Henri dissembles about her family’s situation, and Chat’s family has its own problems, the complications pile up. Fairly routine drama and I am disappointed that the hopeful ending doesn’t resolve Henri’s acting out and victimizing Jim.

85 minutes.

05 September 2004

Mean Creek

Inhumanity among the rural young. When Sam (Rory Culkin) picks up the camcorder of middle school bully George (Josh Peck) and gets beaten up, older brother Rocky (Trevor Morgan) decides to enlist his high school buddies Clyde (Ryan Kelley) and Marty (Scott Mechlowicz) in a scheme to get George back. Sam’s friend Millie (Carly Schroeder) thinks it’s just a Saturday boating trip with the guys until they pick up George, who thinks it’s Sam’s birthday, and becomes the voice of conscience to Sam’s of rationality. But too much beer, too much weed, and too much posturing about deep hurts leads to a bad end. Since I’ve never seen Deliverance I may have missed an homage or two but Oregon scenery, a photogenic cast, and a balanced script that gives all the characters a chance add up positively.

90 minutes.

04 September 2004

Tae Guk Gi The Brotherhood of War

When the North attacks, the family Lee is displaced from their home: Jin-seok (Won Bin) had planned to go to college and Jin-tae (Jang Dong-gun) had planned to marry and open a shoe store. But an order to step forward leads to Jin-seok boarding a train of draftees headed for the front, and Jin-tae, unable to stop the army officers, must join himself. The mother Lee and Jin-tae’s fiancée Young-shin (Lee Eun-ju) are left behind with her very young siblings. Given the hope that action deserving of a medal would lead to Jin-seok’s discharge, Jin-tae throws himself into combat. But Jin-seok is not so sure he wants to be protected in this way. As the South’s forces advance and retreat, and Jin-tae (whose capacity for fighting threatens to stray into Rambo territory) starts getting used to the praise and seeks ever-bigger targets, Jin-seok laments what he sees as the needless deaths of comrades and old friends pressed into service with the army of the North. Emotionally manipulative? Very much so. Blood and gore? Assuredly. A first-class act all the way.

148 minutes.

Entries subject to editing at any time. Last edited on: 20-Sep-2004