25 August 2005

Valiant

May, 1944, and a team of Royal Messenger Pigeon Service stalwarts are caught by Axis falcons over the English Channel. After watching a newsreel extolling the pigeons’ herosim, small Valiant (Ewan McGregor) is inspired to fly to London and join up. But the time is dire for England, and Valiant and his cohort of misfits in boot camp are called up early to fly a mission. A British production in the category of totally computer animated productions, the impressive voice cast is used rather tepidly, and the plot is rather worn and unsurprising.

78 minutes.

20 August 2005

Broken Flowers

Would this have played better in an art house with a larger audience? I suspect not. A somnolent Bill Murray finds himself financially well-off through an ill-defined facility with computers and starting with the departure of his current girlfriend (Julie Delpy) the languorously played plot contrives to place him in one-on-one scenes with a succession of other players. His ill-matched neighbor Winston (Jeffrey Wright) provides what energy there is in getting Don (Murray) to explore the meaning of a typewritten note alleging a son from a long-ago fling. Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, and Tilda Swinton (unrecognizable underneath eyeliner and tousled hair) embody the possibilities. No doubt the brief full frontal nudity from the unapologetically named Lolita (Alexis Dziena) will attract some.

106 minutes.

19 August 2005

Red Eye

This is not Lisa’s day. Having attended her grandmother’s funeral and now risking missing her red eye flight back to Miami, she takes a call from her inexperienced assistant Cynthia (Jayma Mays) as manager of a shore-side hotel. Storms delay her flight. But things might be looking up when the guy (Cillian Murphy) behind her in line backs her up when she defends the harried airline employees. Lisa and Jackson share a drink in the airport bar, too, and look, they’re seated next to each other once the plane finally starts boarding. Alas, ’tis not to be. Rachel McAdams might be billed above the title but the director Wes Craven has a possessory credit and Lisa’s day is about to get much, much worse, no matter how many times Jackson might smile toothily at her, the flight attendants (including Suzie Plakson), and fellow passengers. Will Lisa’s pluck save herself, her father, her hotel and its guests? Will Cynthia keep her job? Will a significant portion of the climax look like a commercial for the Jeep® Grand Cherokee? An effective thriller with a winning lead.

85 minutes.

The 40-Year Old Virgin

Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) seems to be fairly satisfied with life. An apartment dweller who bicycles to his job in the stock room at SmartTech, an electronics store, he takes pride in preparing his meals, detailing his tin soldiers, and collecting his action figures. But when he agrees to a late-night game of poker in the store with some of the other employees, his attempt to match the boasts of sexual prowess from the other players reveals his inexperience. David (Paul Rudd), Jay (Romany Balco), and Cal (Seth Rogen) take it upon themselves to reassure Andy and guide him towards the possibilities. As it happens, Trish (Catheriner Keener) is the proprietor of a shop across the street (prosaically named We sell your stuff on eBay ) and when one day she is shopping for a VCR and Andy finds himself on the sales floor… a business card changes hands. A comedy which achieves its R rating not so much through nudity (except for what is seen on some giant television screens) but through explosive bouts of profanity, a face drenched in vomit, and other assorted crudity. Elizabeth Banks plays randy in a sidelined subplot. Eye-tearingly funny in spots and largely sympathetic to its unusual protagonist (dourly played to a T by Carell) with a happy ending and everything.

116 minutes.

07 August 2005

Sky High

A well-meaning effort with no major embarrassments but which ultimately lacks rigor. Will Stronghold (Micahel Angarano) is unusual that he is the son of two of Maxville’s superheroes, Captain Stronghold (Kurt Russell, reliable as always but there is no way he’s class of 1978) and Josie Jetstream (Kelly Preston). Maxville has so many superheroes that through some mystery economics their children have their own high school, set using an anti-gravity technology in the sky so that it can be reached only by school buses which fly. Will’s also unusual in that no superpower has manifested itself in him yet, and as he prepares for his first day as a freshman he dare not let on to his gung-ho father, eager to see the family tradition continue, or to his classmates. That Will ignores the pining of the adoring Layla (Danielle Panabaker) is not unusual, and soon he is set upon by the senior Gwen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, in the hairstyle made famous by Shannen Doherty for Brenda). I like Kim Possible but once you’ve seen a few episodes you know the pattern is fairly inflexible, and the screenplay from the Disney Channel series creators mostly sticks to the tried and true elements of the genre (where to sit in the cafeteria, bullies putting losers in a locker) so the plotting is weak but it’s livened up by small roles for The Kids in the Hall participants (and a couple from The Edge no less).

100 minutes.

The Island

A film set in a future near enough that people still drive HUMMERs, yet Amtrak is still operational and has made capital improvements! That, and the ample mass transit options in Los Angeles, suggests to me that someone in the production has a sense of humor. But I get ahead of myself. Our protagonists, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson), know nothing of this world, spending their days (along with many others) in an enormous complex where their every nutritional and emotional choice is carefully scrutinized after what they have been told was an unspeakable cataclysm that left them as survivors with all but one island contaminated. The high point of their day is the lottery where one of them is picked to go to The Island. But Lincoln’s pal Jones Three Echo (Ethan Phillips) is beginning to be uncomfortable with the seemingly meaningless work they perform, and everyone notices how survivors continue to show up, and between his own nightmares, dissatisfaction with the cafeteria meals and supplied fashions, and the increasingly dangerous proximity he has been sharing with Jordan, Lincoln is ready to learn more in a way that will make the life of Doctor Merrick (Sean Bean) very messy indeed. What is the secret of the island? The answer involves many, many things finding themselves in little pieces through some explosive activity or collision while leaving Johansson’s skin largely flawless. That was probably the pitch, actually, and as such and on those terms it succeeds.

136 minutes.