Category: Film Review

Real-deal swashbucklers are hard to find these days, and outside of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and a few period pieces with some sword-play elements, I can think of few recent efforts from this most venerable of genres. That’s why Martin Campbell’s rousing and fully entertaining The Mask of Zorro should be rediscovered, as it provided a welcome blast of widescreen fun in the theaters during the summer of 1998, becoming a big worldwide box office hit, and has really yet to be replicated since (the lackluster sequel didn’t come close to matching the charms of its predecessor). Starring Anthony Hopkins as the original and now retired Zorro/Don Diego de la Vega, the incident-packed narrative cooked up by credited screenwriters John Eskow, Ted Elliot, and Terry Rossio finds Hopkins trying to track down his long lost daughter (Catherine Zeta-Jones), while training his hot-headed successor (the perfectly cast Antonio Banderas), and trying to foil the villain (Stuart Wilson), a devious politician who has one too many delusions of grandeur. Shot with a striking sense for action in bold and beautiful 2.35:1 widescreen by the great cinematographer Phil Meheux (The Long Good Friday, Campbell’s Bond reboot Casino Royale), the film’s numerous set-pieces are absolutely dazzling and remarkably CGI-free, stressing real stunts, real explosions, and some seriously superb sword fights.

The road to the big screen for this particular incarnation of the character was a long one, with producer Steven Spielberg at one point considering the helming duties, before courting directors Robert Rodriguez and Mikael Salomon for the job, with Sean Connery initially cast in the role that eventually went to Hopkins. Campbell was then offered the film, who ended up passing on the Pierce Brosnan Bond adventure, Tomorrow Never Dies (he had rebooted the series with Goldeneye a few years before). Producer David Foster and writer/director David S. Ward were both brought in for uncredited rewrites. Shot on location in Mexico City, the film conveys an epic sense of sweep while still retaining the proper intimate moments between the characters, mixing action and romance in equal measure, and allowing for Banderas to totally steal the show with his patented brand of roguish charm. Zeta-Jones, who was lit like an absolute goddess in tons of soft light, is nothing less than radiant in her part, which was written with zest and wit and with plenty of opportunity to surprise. James Horner’s robust musical score supplied terrific accompaniment in every scene, while the physical production itself is truly a marvel to look at, with production designer Cecilia Montiel and costume designer Graciela Mazón both delivering hugely impressive work in their departments. Bottom line: This is just a really, really fun movie. An Amblin Entertainment production.

Days of Thunder is basically Top Gun with race cars, and while it didn’t do nearly the same box office as the Naval aviation saga, it returned director Tony Scott to the chair of a big-budget studio action picture after his more artsy effort, Revenge, and showcased his clear eye for visceral intensity within his action sequences. Again collaborating with iconic producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, Days of Thunder is shamelessly corny and ridiculously entertaining in equal measure, a movie with some of the best race car scenes ever captured on film, truly demonstrating to the viewer just how dangerous stock-car racing can be.  Cruise essentially replicated the character of Maverick but instead of being in a cockpit for most of the movie he’s in the driver’s seat of his car, taking a character that the audience is familiar with and shaping it with some new and interesting beats and flavors.  Scott shot the hell out of every single racing sequence and all of it is 100% real (remember – CGI was still a few years away).  And it truly feels it.  There is an authenticity to the race sequences that feels vital, and the blunt-force impact of Ward Russell’s classically masculine widescreen cinematography cannot be ignored, as it conveys the grit, smoke, and fire of the track, as well as the richly textured, sun-dappled, and heavily atmospheric imagery that Scott would become so famous for. This is a gorgeous film in nearly every instance.

The film also marked the big American break out performance of Nicole Kidman, who would hook up with Cruise off-screen, resulting in one of the most celebrated Hollywood couples of all time; their chemistry in Days is palpable and their courting sequences are genuinely cute. The dynamite sound work on Days of Thunder is a sonic clinic on the process of layering effects, dialogue, and music, mixing the revs and roars of the engines with the screams of the crowd and the interaction of the race teams.  One of the film’s signature moments has to be Cruise’s entrance to the race track; pulling up on a motorcycle, rocking a leather bomber jacket, and cutting through some classic Tony Scott fog-machine-produced-mist, Cruise was in pure bad-boy mode in Days of Thunder. And then there’s the opening credits, which are perfectly edited to Hans Zimmer’s pulsating musical score (his first solo feature job), with Scott and Russell’s camera catching quick glimpses of race track life, which really sets the stage. The macho supporting cast includes John C. Reilly, Robert Duvall, Michael Rooker, Cary Elwes, Fred Thompson, and J.C. Quinn, while legendary Chinatown scribe Robert Towne is credited as the screenwriter. Few movies have conveyed the same sense of speed and danger that Days of Thunder managed to achieve, and as a result, this is a great flick to watch with some friends while drinking some beers on a Saturday afternoon, with the surround sound cranked way up.

Major League is such an important film to me for so many reasons – it’s one of the funniest films ever made, it’s one of the best sports comedies ever made, and it was the first R-rated movie I saw on the big screen; I was eight years old. I can still remember my father telling me, “Son, this film has a word in it. A certain word that begins with the letter F. And I don’t want to hear this word out of your mouth after you see this movie.” Ha! To say that my mind was blown would be an understatement; I can still remember the feeling I had while watching the locker room blow out with all that fuckin’ cursing and hollering and feeling like I was privy to something extra-special, something adult, something that separated the little kids from the grown-ups.

I wore my viewing of this film like a badge of honor, proudly exclaiming to my buddies that I had seen this movie, Major League, and there was tons of swearing and things I could never understand at the time. And I love that when it hit TV, I could rationalize to my mother how it was OK for her to tape it for me, because I had already seen it despite the cussing, so what was the big deal if I viewed it again and again? I also love how my theatrical experience was my dad’s second viewing of the movie, having seen it the previous evening with my mother on opening night. He knew how funny it was, and he needed his kid to see it. I can’t wait to experience this with my own child and make it a regular occurrence.

Written and directed by the prolific David S. Ward (screenwriter of The Sting, The Milago Beanfield War, and Sleepless in Seattle, and director of Cannery Row and The Program), the film’s all-star cast is really spectacular, with everyone getting a chance to round the bases: Tom Berenger as the old and tired catcher, Charlie Sheen as the hot-shot pitching phenom with a penchant for hit batsmen, Dennis Haysbert as the mysterious slugger with a special friend named Jobu, Corbin Bernsen as the slick but underachieving third baseman, Wesley Snipes as the flamboyant center fielder, the great Chelcie Ross as the veteran starting pitcher with a chip on his shoulder, bitchy Margaret Whitton as the nefarious team owner, the smarmy Charles Cyphers as Whitton’s henchman, crusty James Gammon as the salt-of-the-earth head coach, and the ridiculously funny Bob Uecker as the alcoholic radio announcer.

Everything about this movie works, from the big scenes on the baseball field, to the smaller, more romantic moments between Berenger and the radiant Rene Russo, who had one of the greatest runs during the 90’s that I can think of, appearing in a string of well-received blockbusters and always bringing her A-game. And I love the club house vibe in this film, as the screenplay really struck comedy gold whenever the action was set with the team as a group, with the entire cast conveying true chemistry with one another. Shot for $11 million and grossing $50 million, the film was a solid success with theatrical audiences, but REALLY found its footing on VHS and DVD, while neither sequel came remotely close to capturing the same sense of vulgar glee and smart comedic riffing. “This guy here is dead!” “Cross him off then!”

Thirteen Days didn’t deserve to bomb at the box office the way it did, as it’s one of Roger Donaldson’s best films, and a riveting true life tale that everyone should be familiar with. Released in 2000, the film was met with excellent critical reviews, but it was likely too talky to break out with the younger action crowd, and not sold hard enough to more adult minded audiences. David Self’s focused and extremely well researched screenplay was an adaptation of the book, The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis, by Ernest May and Philip Zelikow, and showed a steadfast determination to historical verisimilitude as well as cinematic dramaturgy. And while some people took exception to the filmmakers beefing up the role that political consultant Kenneth O’Donnell played during all of this, Kevin Costner’s forceful performance was in perfect tandem with the two true stars of the movie, Bruce Greenwood as President John F. Kennedy, and Steven Culp as Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. Greenwood and Culp clearly studied the mannerisms of the men they were portraying via archival footage and photographs, because they both seemed totally at ease and naturalistic while playing these towering individuals.

Everything about this movie, from a production standpoint, feels 100% authentic, from the fabulous production design by Dennis Washington and his entire art direction team, to the appropriately classical cinematography by ace lenser Andrzej Bartkowiak, who made good and clever use of black and white processing in some key historical segments, while never pumping anything up too visually, which was important as this film relied on the spoken word more than anything else. The fabulous supporting cast is too large to list; let’s just say that every single face sitting around all of the various board rooms and elongated desks feels weathered, tired, nervous, and perfectly cast. Conrad Buff’s extremely taut editing kept the film moving at a fast pace without ever sacrificing coherence, and considering that this is a film that consists almost entirely of men in suits speaking in large rooms and offices, the fact that it’s as energetic as it is speaks to Donaldson and Buff’s understanding of the fluidity to multi-character storytelling. The contemplative and hopeful musical score by Trevor Jones pulled everything together without any bombast, opting for quiet in all the right moments, while still feeling robust when needed. Thirteen Days is a movie I’ve seen countless times, and yet I look forward to each viewing as if it were the first.

I absolutely LOVE this movie and I feel it’s a shame that more people haven’t seen it. It’s unclassifiable, it’s overwhelmingly gorgeous, it has a great message, Billy Bob Thornton was wonderful in the title role, and the directing from Michael Polish was straight-forward effective and extremely sincere. Was it the odd-sounding title or the barely noticeable advertising? I’m not too sure that people are into “honest charm” anymore – this is a movie that would have felt at home back in the 1950’s. But at the same time, it recalls such classics as Field of Dreams, telling a story of obsession, dedication, and perseverance against great odds, set against the backdrop of something totally fantastical yet oddly tangible. Thornton plays a daydreaming Texas rancher who decides to plunk all of his money into the construction, and hopeful launch, of his own private rocket up into outer space, thus realizing his life-long dream of becoming an astronaut. But once the government catches wind of a private citizen trying to procure rocket fuel, all hell breaks loose, a media storm is created, and a celebrity is created overnight. The Astronaut Farmer is one of the least cynical movies that I can think of, and it seems a minor miracle that it was actually funded by a major studio; it feels like the sort of movie that a writer would be laughed out of pitch over if they suggested it today.

The supporting cast is superb – Virginia Madsen as Thornton’s loving and supportive wife, Bruce Dern, Tim Blake Nelson, co-writer Mark Polish, Jon Gries, J.K. Simmons, and an uncredited Bruce Willis – with everyone getting a chance to create a fully-fleshed character that contributes something important to the narrative. And on a technical level, the film is absolutely radiant, with Michael Bay-esque saturated colors being employed by Polish and his creative cinematographer M. David Mullen; the artists playfully subvert expectations and use the dusty backdrops in ways you might not imagine, while taking full advantage for the possibility or two for a glorious sunset in anamorphic widescreen. The slick and peppy editing by James Haygood keeps the entire film moving along gracefully, with scenes playing out for maximum emotional impact without ever becoming cloying. Toss in a warm musical score from Stuart Matthewman and truly spectacular production design by Clark Hunter and art director James F. Oberlander and the aesthetic package is completely sealed. Despite not making a dent in the box office and sort of being shrugged off by most critics, I think The Astronaut Farmer is one of the best family films that families have probably never seen together, and I absolutely can’t wait for my son Owen to experience this wonderful little movie. Hopefully a Blu-ray upgrade occurs in the future. It’s literally impossible not to smile after watching this gem.