AWN Blogs

I kept asking myself throughout this film if I would like it if it weren’t animated and the answer is no. The animation adds novelty that’s intriguing, but the various stories are only teenage male fantasies of sex and violence that kind of repeat themselves.

The six segments are strung together by the presence of an evil green orb. The first is a futuristic noir tale where a gruff cabbie picks up a lot of trouble when he saves a female scientist’s life. The second finds a teenage boy transformed into a he-man then transported to a primitive world where he must save a beautiful woman from being sacrificed. In the third, a cocky space pirate gets a strange surprise when the green orb influences the testimony of the witness he paid off. The fourth segment is a horror tale of the orb’s murderous rampage upon a WWII fighter plane. The fifth follows two stoner aliens and their robot as they try to influence Earth politics as well as woo an Earth woman. The last segment features a quiet female warrior who sets out to kill the leader of an evil army.

Why do this musical in the late ‘70s? It was probably dated then and it sure is dated today. Claude Bukowski (John Savage, TV’s CARNIVALE) rides into New York on a bus from the Mid-West. He meets up with hippies George Berger (Treat Williams, THE DEVIL’S OWN), Jeannie (Annie Golden, IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY), Hud (Dorsey Wright, THE WARRIORS) and Woof (Don Dacus, only feature film). Claude is headed into the Army and the band of hippies tries to show him a drug-filled good time. George makes an effort to get Claude to meet rich girl Sheila (Beverly D’Angelo, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION), who is wooed by the group’s style.

The musical embraces the carefree, rebellious attitude of the 1960s. However, the film seems to play more juvenile than thought provoking. The characters are bums, who don’t work and cheese off their parents when they get in trouble. If that’s not hypocrisy, then what is? I really think that the same exact material could be used as a damning critique of the hippie movement. It never sold the flower power message in a positive light for me.

In the same year, we get a nuanced rethinking of both THE ILIAD and King Arthur. Not that TROY and KING ARTHUR are bad films, but like it has been said – when you have the choice of printing the facts or the legend, print the legend.

TROY tries to be GLADIATOR in many ways. In an effort to build more character moments, they forgot the grand drama and spectacle that made films like BEN-HUR great. So strangely enough they fall into a weird middle ground between being grand epics or emotional historical adventures like BRAVEHEART. But in the end, I enjoyed TROY enough to encourage people to check it out.

On a peace mission to Sparta, Trojan prince Paris (Orlando Bloom, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN) woos Spartan queen Helen (Diane Kruger, WICKER PARK) away from her husband Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson, DARK BLUE). This upsets Paris’ father Priam (Peter O’Toole, MY FAVORITE YEAR) and brother Hector (Eric Bana, HULK). But more so it upsets Menelaus, who calls on his brother Greek king Agamemnon (Brian Cox, L.I.E.) to invade Troy. To succeed at this feat, the Greek King calls on his greatest warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt, 12 MONKEYS), who despises Agamemnon. During the invasion of Troy, Achilles falls for the Trojan royal niece Briseis (Rose Byrne, WICKER PARK).

This indie flick has been described as BLAIR WITCH PROJECT meets JAWS. I’m amazed at what was accomplished with a small budget and a director with only one other feature under his belt. Chris Kentis (GRIND) shows a lot of promise as a filmmaker to watch.

The film begins with Susan (Blanchard Ryan, SUPER TROOPERS) and Daniel (Daniel Travis, film debut) getting ready for a Caribbean vacation. We quickly find out that Susan has a very time consuming and demanding job that made the trip a last minute venture. The film works equally as a thriller and a character piece. The leads are very well observed and the dialogue is so truthful you’d think you’re watching a documentary. As the events play out that lead to Susan and Daniel being stranded out in the ocean, we really get a natural tension that is great.

I will freely admit that I have little faith in remakes. I will also admit that this remake when I first heard about it made me angry. I’m quite a fan of the original and thoughts of Van Sant’s PSYCHO went through my head. I also hated the idea of changing the setting to the original Gulf War. Brainwashing just seemed more feasible when Communists were involved.

However, what I got was an ode to current political paranoias like the original one was on fears of the 1950s. Director Jonathan Demme (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) has constructed a tight thriller with a lot to say about the current geo-political climate. Ben Marco (Denzel Washington, TRAINING DAY) is a decorated military officer who has been having dreams about an incident in Iraq just prior to the first Gulf War, which lead to Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber, A WALK ON THE MOON) being decorated as a war hero. Now Shaw is the vice-presidential candidate and things don’t seem right to Marco, who tries to convince anyone who’ll listen that he isn’t crazy.

I was quite surprised with this film. It takes a more historical look at the King Arthur legend. In the film, Arthur is a Briton who fights for Rome. His knights of the round table have been assigned a duty of fifteen years and have become famous for their fighting skills. A day before they are to be set free – Rome asks them to go on one more mission to save a favorite boy of the Pope who is trapped in a part of the country where the Saxons have taken over.

The mission is futile and dangerous. Rome is pulling out of Britain, because such a far off outpost is too hard to defend. They’re pretty much leaving it to the Saxons, who are lead by the vicious warrior Cerdic (Stellan Skarsgard, BREAKING THE WAVES). Lancelot (Ioan Gruffudd, HORNBLOWER series) hates the mission and butts heads with Arthur over it. On the journey Arthur meets with Guinevere (Keira Knightley, BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM), a female warrior of the Woads, who are lead by Merlin (Stephen Dillane, THE HOURS), who wants Arthur to help keep the Saxons out.

SCRUBS star Zach Braff steps out from TV to direct and write this Sundance Film Festival discovery. Braff plays Andrew Largeman, a struggling actor in Los Angeles who travels back home to New Jersey for his mother’s funeral. Largeman hasn’t been home for nine years and hasn’t cried since he was child. He hasn’t felt much emotion at all for a long time because ever since he could remember he has been on lithium and various other mood-altering drugs proscribed to him by his psychiatrist father Gideon (Ian Holm, THE SWEET HEREAFTER).

Largeman has stopped taking his meds, because he feels that he has been living in an emotionless fog for way too long and needs to find himself. When home he meets up with old friends including Mark (Peter Sarsgaard, SHATTERED GLASS), who works digging graves and spends most of his time in a different kind of drug-induced haze. Largeman then meets the eccentric, young woman Sam (Natalie Portman, CLOSER), whose infectious personality puts a smile on Largeman’s face for the first time in ages.

This is how I like to describe this film. It’s like that guy (and trust me you know this guy) at the party who tells a joke and gets a big laugh so he/she continues to rehash the same joke for the rest of the evening hoping to stay the center of attention. This sequel to MEET THE PARENTS is a product of the first film’s success.

The plot of meeting the future in-laws is a logical step to go, but no one found a strong enough story to tell. The only strength of the film is just the joy of seeing Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand together on the screen. Gaylord “Greg” Focker (Ben Stiller, REALITY BITES) has made some decent progress winning over his fiancée Pam’s (Teri Polo, BEYOND BORDERS) father, Jack Byrnes (DeNiro). Greg, Pam, Jack and Pam’s mother Dina (Blythe Danner, HUSBANDS AND WIVES) set out on the road to Florida to spend the weekend with Greg’s parents Bernie (Hoffman) and Roz (Streisand).

I saw this film in the theaters and remember liking it, but I kind of forgot about it. Now after rewatching it about seven years later, I’ve rediscovered a darkly funny film that made me laugh out loud. What’s so great about the film is that it works equally as a satire of hitmen movies, as well as high school reunions. A peculiar combo that works surprisingly well.

Martin Q. Blank (John Cusack, HIGH FIDELITY) is an assassin for hire who started out in the business of murder in the Army. He’s returning to his hometown for his 10-year high school reunion. In a “what’s my life all about” crisis, he tries to give up the profession and rekindle a romance with his old flame Debi Newberry (Minnie Driver, GOOD WILL HUNTING), who he left broken hearted when he ditched town. To aid him in his emotional crisis, he’s in constant contact with his shrink Dr. Oatman (Alan Arkin, SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS). Rounding out the cast is rival hitman Grocer (Dan Aykroyd, GHOSTBUSTERS), Martin’s high school friend Paul Spericki (Jeremy Piven, JUST WRITE) and Martin’s assistant Marcella (Joan Cusack, IN & OUT).

Takeshi "Beat" Kitano is a film legend in most parts of the world, but he is little known to the general public in the U.S. Cult fans will know him as the teacher in BATTLE ROYALE, which is an amazing film. ZATOICHI is a huge franchise in Japan with 26 films and a TV series. Actor Shintaro Katsu played the blind swordsman until his death. Kitano boils down the series to its essence and creates a pulp samurai/yakuza flick that fans of Quentin Tarantino will love.

Zatoichi (Kitano) is a blind masseur, who often finds himself in quick and deadly swordplay. He ends up fighting for the side of justice. This time around two geishas – O-Sei (Daigoro Tachibana, film debut) and O-Kinu (Yuuko Daike, JU-ON 2) are seeking revenge on the gang that slaughtered their parents when they were children. Boss Ginzo (Ittoku Kishibe, FIFTEEN) hires master swordsman Hattori Genosuke (Tadanobu Asano, ICHI THE KILLER), who only takes the job to help save his sick wife O-Shino (Yui Natsukawa, SPY SORGE). Throughout the film, Zatoichi stays with Aunt O-Ume (Michiyo Ookusu, ZATOICHI: THE BLIND SWORDSMAN'S PILGRIMAGE) and her unlucky, loaf of a brother Shinkichi (Gadarukanaru Taka, WARM WATER UNDER A RED BRIDGE), who give a good look at how the yakuza (gangster) affect the lives of the villagers.