Dick Tracy (1990) **1/2

Dick Tracy was an answer to Tim Burton's Batman. "We can do comic book movies, too. Hell, Tracy was older than Batman. Give the guy a chance. So Disney backed legendary playboy Warren Beatty in making Dick come to the big screen.

The film is a buffet for the eyes with some great backgrounds and set design that just jumps out and screams "look at me!". The costuming is also very good, though they did go a bit overboard with the primary colors. Then there's the wonderful make up effects. Don't forget that Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman are in this, too. So what could be the problem?

The main issue with Dick Tracy is the title character, or we can go deeper and say it was the portrayal of said character. Beatty really doesn't give us much with the role. It's more like "Hey, I'm the guy on the poster, look at me!" The thing is that I got dulled by Dick Tracy. He really doesn't do much except get into traps and get into more traps and get into some trouble to boot. That was ok in the serial world, but as a full length movie it falls flat quick. If your title character sucks, then there isn't much hope for the movie as a whole.

It is a good film for the kiddies to see, unless you're offended by the almost spanking scene. Like I said, it's a colorful piece that is an achievement on that front. It's almost the mirror image of that 1989 Batman movie. This is colorful while that film is dark and gray, but the characters in Batman are actually interesting, whereas in Dick Tracy they're just there. And this must be the film where Pacino began yelling all the time, too. 

The Burning Plain (2008) ***1/2

The Burning Plain opens with a trailer in the middle of the desert that is engulfed in flame. It just sits there, an inferno with a background that John Ford would be proud of. We come to find out that there were two people in the blaze: Gina (Kim Basinger) and Nick (Joaquim de Almeida). They were in the throws of passion when the propane tank exploded. The two were married. But not to each other. Out of the ashes Nick's son (J.D. Pardo) and Gina's daughter (Jennifer Lawrence) develop a romance after satisfying the curiosity of what each lover was like. As time passes we're introduced to Sophie (Charlize Theron), a restaurant manager whose life has turned into a series of meaningless sex acts and self mutilation. 

The funny thing about The Burning Plain is how it surprises you.  You expect the main focus to be Basinger's relationship or Theron's loss of life, but at the central core of the film isn't a couple playing in the desert, put how their children help each other cope and eventually create what was destroyed in that trailer in the desert. That's the most interesting story. Through all the odds and animosity they hold it together. 

Even though it's not a perfect film, it does hold ones interest with a story that spans time and how it will catch up with you . It is more tragedy than romance, so don't go into this expecting Nicholas Sparks garbage. This is actually well written and acted with a sense for detail. A nice film.

Powder Blue (2009) **

Powder Blue is one of those films that takes a group of separate people, tell their story, and then tie it all together in the end. It all started with Magnolia and in the last decade plus everyone wants to do it. The thing about Powder Blue is that it tries to be one of those films, but the structure is haphazard at best. The core character in the film is Rose Johnny (Jessica Biel), your typical stripper with a drug problem who also happens to have a dying son in the hospital. Next we have Jack (Ray Liotta), a guy that just go out of the clink, picks up a briefcase full of bills, and goes out to right the wrongs that have happened in his life. Attach to that Qwerty (Eddie Redmayne) the son of a dead mortician who is drowning in bills. Finally we get to Charlie (Forrest Whittaker) who is driving around seedy areas of town carrying fifty grand for the one person that will shoot him in the heart.

It's a fine cast. That's not really the problem.  It's just that we've seen it all before. The stripper trying to save her kid. The father that regrets a life of not being there. The main core of the film is standard film fodder, leaving the morticians story, which isn't much of a story at all other than finally serving its purpose in the third act of the film. This brings us to Charlie's saga that is pasted to the rest of the film near the beginning and then refusing to intersect again. It's an interesting story, but what it has to do with the rest of the film is a mystery to me. It would have made a fine separate film instead of being an added attraction to the club standard that the rest of the film appears to be.

This is a basic, paint by numbers film that doesn't really do anything above and beyond the norm. There is a very creepy Patrick Swayze in this that blows the mind in his filth and vulgarity that could interest some. Otherwise this is a film that tries to be more than what it is and fails at it. 

Across The Hall (2009) *

Shall I be honest with you? I think I will. There's a plot twist in the middle of the movie. The thing about this plot twist is that I guessed said plot twist reading the back cover of the DVD. This is a better move than my Matchstick Men trailer prediction. So be warned for some predictability.

Across the Hall follows the adventures of Terry (Danny Pino) as he sits in a hotel room across the hall from his fiance June (Brittany Murphy) who is engaging in carnal knowledge behind his back.  Julian is hung up on this girl to the point that he steals his friend Julian (Mike Vogel) gun and plans on using it on the happy couple. It's up to Terry to keep Julian calm over the phone until he can arrive and help defuse the situation.

This was originally a short film expanded into a full length feature. I haven't seen the short but it probably works better than this mess. I'm willing to bet that you can guess the twist from my synopsis above. That's fine. I tried. 

This is low budget suspense at its finest, meaning it sucks. Horrible acting and characters doing stupid things all around. Let's be honest- if a guy comes into your hotel and demands the room across the hall from the woman that he was checking the ledger for you should just take his money and then call the cops because they're just going to show up anyway. It's used as a plot device later in the film (poorly) so let's not spoil it. I could say that the acting is horrendous, but I can't tell if it's the actors or the script. This is expanded garbage that tries to be inventive but outsmarts itself by not remembering that audiences are looking for that twist. This isn't 1980 anymore. It's a new millennium, act like it. If you like to play an easy guessing game then this is the film for you.

St. Trinians (2007) **1/2

St. Trinians is a private school for girls. Bad girls. Very bad girls led by their very bad head mistress (Rupert Everett). They make their own vodka, place bets, cheat, steal, and not quite kill. It's the last resort when your daughter's been tossed from every other boarding school in Britain.

Of course the usual things happen in a movie like this. A new girl (Tallulah Riley) shows up and isn't accepted, then accepted by her classmates. There's a dilemma in which the school's going to be closed unless they pull off a master plan. Hilarity ensues. Typical plot for a story such as this. It is a little comical with all of the Colin Firth references, considering he's in the movie as a minister of education. 

The film also features Russell Brand and Stephen Fry, but since this is a PG-13 film Brand can't rock out with his junk out as with Sarah Marshall and Get Him To The Greek and Fry's character is basic fodder for a game show sequence.

One thing I will say for St. Trinians is that everyone appears to have had fun making the film and it shows on the screen. That helps it a bit, but it still can't dig itself out of the fact that we've since this before countless times. St. Trinians is a nice film for pre-teens and is mildly enjoyable for adults, but it's nothing special.

The City Of Your Final Destination (2009) **

The City Of Your Final Destination is a flat, dull film that spends its entire running time sitting in neutral, refusing to go anywhere at all. Omar (Omar Metwally) wants to write an autobiography of a famed one hit wonder writer, but needs the authorization of the dead writers wife (Laura Linney), brother (Anthony Hopkins), and mistress (Charlotte Gainsbourgh). They send him a letter and refuse. Now this should be then end of the movie because you then write the unauthorized biography like Kittey Kelly. Omar's a nice guy and decides to travel to Latin America from Kansas and plead his case. The wife is quite cold, the brother is on his side, and the mistress falls in love. Conflict ensues. Oh, did I mention Omar already had a girlfriend (Alexandra Maria Lara).

There are two problems with this film. The first is that the script drags like the muffler of a 1983 Chevette. It just sits there like a great gob of slime, jiggling all over but not going anywhere. There are some nice scenes and some really bad ones. The premise of the film is inane in the facts that it wouldn't matter of he had their permission anyway. It's not like they offer up much help in the first place, other than showing him the gondola in the boathouse. And what about that title which has nothing to do with the film, unless you can tack it onto two of the supporting characters. I don't know if The Gondola was already taken or not, other than being a nice sandwich at Avanti's in Bloomington (shameless product placement). It's a weak story that tries to be an epic. An epic what? It's not quite a coming of age story and it's not quite a romance. It's just a movie. A boring one.

The second problem is in the acting. If you're going to cast Laura Linney and Anthony Hopkins in a movie please get a cast that can at least keep up with them. Some of these scenes are an embarrassment for the actors that have to share screen time with either of the two. Linney's character is rather cold so we don't miss her as much when she's off screen, put Hopkins' portrayal leaves us missing him when he's not there and we're left with the hacks. It's very painful to watch.


So other than a couple of decent performances in this film it's an overall waste of time. It's not the worst film I've seen in awhile, but it's not even close to being one of the best either. Weighing it totally, this film is a boring, forgettable piece that will probably be a minor asterisk in the careers of a couple of good actors and the peak for a couple of bad ones.

 

Solitary Man (2010) ****

Solitary Man opens with Ben Kalman (Michael Douglas) at his peak. Life is good and it's only going to get better for the BMW dealer of the greater New York area. He's at the doctor, bragging about his wife (Susan Sarandon) when he finds out that he needs some tests. There's some concern about his health. 

We jump to six years later. Ben is divorced. His dealerships are all gone, lost in a scheme that almost sent him to jail. He's reduced to borrowing money from his daughter and playing gigolo to rich divorced women for their connections. When his current flame (Mary-Louise Parker) gets ill, Ben is recruited to accompany her daughter Allyson (Imogen Poots) to a college interview at a school that just happens to have a library named for him. If things couldn't get any worse for Ben, it's this trip to his old school that really tests the way his life has turned out and the direction he is going. 

Solitary Man is the story of one mans mid life crisis. There seems to be a point in everyones life where they decide to say "Fuck it" and do what they want to do or, in some case, what they think they want to do. It's the life is too short attitude for Ben. The only problem is that his choices have been crap, even though he appears to be living the dream with a good line of bullshit to boot. The question that Ben never asks himself throughout the film is "was it worth it?". Did going to the extreme benefit his life in any way? Was the grass really greener? Ben may be surrounded by people and have a good line of BS, but he's really all by himself. His crisis has created a shell that nobody gets through. Michael Douglas is perfect in this role and the entire film is a great piece of film making that I feared that was a little over burdened by its cast and subject matter. My worries were unfounded  with this good film. It's one of the better things to see in 2010.

Helen (2009) ***

Helen (Ashley Judd) is an accomplished music professor. She has a wonderful daughter (Alexia Fast). She has a great marriage to her lawyer husband (Goran Visnjic). Even with all of these things going for Helen, she feels like her life is spinning out of control. At first it's a chore to get out of bed. That soon turns to it becoming a chore to be alive at all. As Helen crumbles so does her life. She loses her wonderful job. Her ex-husband refuses her a chance to see her daughter. The relationship with her husband crumbles. She is in a perpetual spiral with no way to hit the brakes, allowing everything to go down the drain. The only thing that seems to help is a former student (Lauren Lee Smith) who knows what Helen is going through. She helps her get through the bad times unlike anyone else in her life.

The film is  a very poignant piece displaying the way depression can literally eat away someones life like a cancer. The film is a bleak excursion so don't expect anything light hearted. There is no comic relief in this film. Ashley Judd delivers a high caliber performance as the title character and gets wrapped into the gray cocoon that is Helen's life. She pulls off a very good performance that many people have overlooked because this film didn't get to much exposure upon its release. 

Now while I thought the film was well acted, the story comes up short in many departments. Once again i have to go to predictability and cliched. What was a fresh piece that really hasn't been touched before is tarnished by many of those old age Hollywood throw ins that we can see coming a mile away, particularly the ending. There's also the treatment that Helen gets as she declines into the abyss. This is a woman who is clinically depressed and ready to end it all at any moment, yet throughout the film you never see her talk to a psychiatrist once. There's a woman in a lab coat that comes off more like a bitch than a therapist. Amazingly the only treatment they really push is shock therapy. We know that did R.P. McMurphy good. I would have been happy with a scene where Helen tells a therapist to go to hell instead of leaving that part of treatment out all together. For me that was a big point where the film stumbles on itself.

As a whole Helen is a middle of the road film. There's some great things about it and some failures, too. It's not a fun experience for sure and it does deliver an emotional punch.