Bee Movie

STARRING: Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 11/02/2007 DATE SCREENED: 10/30/2007 The Verdict OK - Wait for the DVD

Jerry Seinfeld has been traveling around the country, talking to seemingly every possible newspaper and TV outlet, to sing the praises of the animated Bee Movie. He has been telling anyone who will listen the story about how he had lunch with Steven Spielberg and mentioned an idea for a movie called Bee Movie. Surprisingly, Spielberg wanted to run with the idea, and Seinfeld could not say no to such an icon. He had to actually write a script. DreamWorks Animation then got on board, and the rest is history. By the way Seinfeld is out promoting the film you would think it’s the second coming of Toy Story.

Seinfeld voices the lead character of Barry B. Benson, a young bee who has just graduated from college and must choose a career. Every career choice somehow involves the production of honey. The bees who are allowed to leave the hive to collect nectar are bred for that role from birth. So that is not an option. But Barry someone wrangles his way into a chance to fly with those bees to watch how they work. Of course, he manages to get himself separated from the group. Just as he is about to meet certain death at the hands of man’s boot, he is saved by the man’s girlfriend Vanessa (Renée Zellweger). It’s love at first sight and Barry decides to break the cardinal rule in his society, which is to never talk to humans. Vanessa and Barry are soon hanging out and having conversations, while the boyfriend is pushed to the sidelines. They take a walk to the grocery store, where Barry discovers that people steal honey from bees and eat it themselves. The movie turns into a courtroom drama as Barry sues the honey industry, demanding that the enslaved bees are freed and the honey is returned to its rightful owners.

Bee Movie attempts to be a movie that the entire family can enjoy. It looks like a cute kids cartoon, but most of the jokes are aimed at adults. The screening I attended was full of parents with their children. There were a few scenes that had the kids laughing early, but as the movie moved into the courtroom phase, it was only adults that laughed. I’m not sure that anyone was completely satisfied. I certainly didn’t laugh much. There is a fumy cameo by Chris Rock as a mosquito. The movie started to feel like it was running long, even at a reasonable 90 minutes, as there is an epilogue after the court decision that feels tacked on. Bee movie is no Toy Story. The animation is great, which is what you would expect from DreamWorks. It’s a “cute” movie that might be good for a family outing, but I think it would be best to wait for the DVD.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

STARRING: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 10/26/2007 DATE SCREENED: 10/18/2007 The Verdict NOT GOOD - Wait for Cable

A famous Irish toast, "May you be in heaven half an hour before the Devil knows you're dead", serves as the inspiration for the film Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Oscar winning actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Marisa Tomei, team with Ethan Hawke in this drama that has been on the Film Festival circuit since early September.

The robbery of a “mom & pop” jewelry store turns out to literally be the robbery of mom and pop’s jewelry store. Two brothers, Andy (Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke), are desperate for money and plan the robbery of their parent’s jewelry store. Andy is the mastermind, and Hank was supposed to carry out the robbery. Nobody was supposed to get hurt, and the jewels were all covered by insurance. Things don’t go according to plan when Hank enlists the help of a local thug with a gun. Two people end up dead and Andy & Hank are left to try and clean up the mess left behind. Actually, Hank is so distraught that the cover-up falls mostly in Andy’s lap.

The plot does not unfold in a linear fashion. The film starts out with the robbery, but then we go back and see the days leading up to the robbery, from both Andy and Hank’s point of view. Then the aftermath of the robbery is seen from Andy, Hank, and each of their parent’s points of view. Through the different frames of reference we watch a family drama unfold along with the main plot. Andy is dealing with a drug problem, hates his dad, and can’t please his wife (Marisa Tomei). Hank is having problems of his own with his “baby mamma”, and is sleeping with his brother’s wife weekly.

I enjoyed seeing the plot unfold from each character’s standpoint. I liked the story of how the brothers got to the point of the robbery. As an added bonus, Marisa Tomei is naked for most of the first half of the movie. She looks better than ever. The sex scenes and scenes of drug use are extremely explicit. I don’t know how the movie managed an ‘R’ rating. The acting was average, not at the level you would expect from Oscar winners.

The problem is that the way things spiral out of control after the robbery is completely ridiculous. It’s like the writers ran out of ideas and just decided to throw in some blackmail and a shootings to add some excitement. What started out good, ended in disappointment. You end up watching a family drama that you don’t care about because the family is full of mean and evil people. I guess that’s what makes the title appropriate, but that doesn’t make for a good moviegoing experience. The film just gets worse and more depressing as it goes on and on. Wait for cable, unless you always wanted to see Marisa naked.

Gone Baby Gone

STARRING: Casey Affleck, Ed Harris View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 10/19/2007 DATE SCREENED: 10/16/2007 The Verdict GOOD - See it in the theater

Ben Affleck oversaw three seasons of Project Greenlight, along with his buddy Matt Damon. It was a reality tv show whose goal was to find the next great filmmaker. The person with the best movie idea would get to make their movie. All the show really accomplished was to produce slightly interesting television, and three bad films by filmmakers we will never hear form again. Ben Affleck takes matters into his own hands with Gone Baby Gone. He produced, co-wrote (based on a novel), and directed the film, with his younger brother Casey Affleck cast in the starring role. I went into the screening with doubts as to whether or not Ben could do any better than the filmmakers he hand picked on Project Greenlight.

Right at the outset of Gone Baby Gone, we see that the abduction of a 4-year old girl, right from her home in one of the poorer neighborhoods in Boston, is the top story on the local news. The family hires private investigator Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck), who works with his girlfriend Angie, to assist the police in the investigation. When they visit the home, Officer Jack Doye (Morgan Freeman) reminds Kenzie that if a child isn’t found within the 1^st day, the child is usually found dead or not at all. With each day the odds of finding the child get lower. It’s now day 3. Unbeknownst to Office Doyle, Kenzie has connections that the police don’t. He grew up in Boston and has maintained friendships among the neighborhood underworld of drug dealers. Although he doesn’t look it, Kenzie is a foul mouthed tough guy who isn’t intimidated by anyone. He finds out that the abducted girl’s mother wasn’t honest about the events on the night of the abduction. She lied to the police, and to all the local news outlets. Two cops, played by Ed Harris and John Ashton, are assigned to work with Kenzie and they interrogate the mother again. It turns out she was involved in a robbery of another local drug dealer. Finally, there is a lead. A typical investigation follows, as one lead may turn up dead, but that points to another lead, and then another. But eventually, things take an unexpected turn. Nothing is as it seems in this movie. The plot twists continue to pile up as Kenzie is obsessed with finding this girl even when everyone else, included the girl’s mother, have long since given up.

Ben Affleck has managed to make a compelling thriller, with twists and turns I didn’t see coming. Casey Affleck is proving to be an up and coming star, with great performances in this film and The Assassination of Jesse James, back-to-back. I spent my college years in Boston, and I felt like I was back again as I watched this movie. I was drawn in completely. I felt all the tension as Kenzie got himself into some sticky situations with dangerous people, most notably two scenes in the home of three child molesters. I wanted him to find the kid and wanted the “bad guys” to be punished. Then the movie throws in a moral dilemma towards the end that had me pondering things long after I left the theater. The film leaves you thinking, and doesn’t try to force and answer on you. Some of the twists and turns do present themselves a little bit too conveniently to be believable, so Ben can get better on the writing side. But as a filmmaker, he knows what he is doing. It seems he should have been making movies himself instead of wasting time trying to find other filmmakers with Project Greenlight. He can finally distance himself from the nickname 'Bennifer'. Definitely see this one in the theater.

We Own The Night

STARRING: Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 10/12/2007 DATE SCREENED: 10/09/2007 The Verdict OK - Wait for the DVD

We Own The Night derived its title from a slogan the NYPD used in the late ‘80s to publicize their anti-drug efforts. The twist is that the film is more of a family drama than a film on the war on drugs. Set in 1988, Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix) manages a hot night club in Brooklyn, and has a hot girlfriend played by Eva Mendes. His big secret is that he has changed his last name to hide the fact that he comes from a family of cops. That’s not a good thing in the nightclub business, especially when your club is frequented by drug lords. His father is Deputy Chief Burt Grusinsky (Robert Duvall), and his brother Joseph Gusinsky (Mark Wahlberg) is a detective, following in dad's footsteps. When a Russian mobster who frequents the club is targeted by police, Bobby is asked by his family to become an informant. Bobby refuses, as he wants nothing to do with his family or the police department. Later, Joseph leads a raid on the club in which the Russian mobster comes up clean, but Bobby ends up being arrested for possession and resisting arrest. This further widens the rift between Bobby and his family.

The night before Thanksgiving, Joseph is shot in the face, right in front of his home. He survives, but is hospitalized. The father suggests that if Bobby had worked as an informant, this may have never happened. While dining with his girlfriend, Bobby gets a visit from the Russian mobster. He wants him to help distribute drugs to his patrons at the club. But the Russian makes a big mistake by telling Bobby that he is the one who had the cop shot. Bobby keeps his cool and says he needs to think about it. He goes right to his father, but his father does not want him involved. Bobby goes behind his father’s back to work with other members of the NYPD. Bobby tells the Russian that he will help him but needs to sample the product. Bobby is eventually taken to one of the secret drug dens. While there, his cover is blown and the police are forced to barge in, in what is one of the most well crafted scenes of that type that I have ever seen. The Russian is arrested and Bobby and his girlfriend are placed in protective custody. Just as Joseph has healed from his injuries and gone back to work with the NYPD, the Russian escapes. This leads to a spectacular car chase scene, as Russians try to assassinate Bobby in a driving rainstorm. Bobby’s father is the one who ends up being shot. The brothers bond and Bobby must step up and join the NYPD, against his girlfriend’s wishes, to help take down this Russian mob.

The film is like a retro action drama. It has the feel and pace of older movies from the ‘70s, with a grittier look than we normally see today. The problem is that the slow pace of movies from the ‘70s does not hold up well today. The movie is almost 2 hours long, and it felt longer. On the positive side, it has two scenes that I won’t forget for a long time. Although we’ve seen raids on drug houses before, and seen car chases in movies ad nauseum, you rarely see them as well done as they are in this movie. You really feel the tension. The final showdown was also well done. The family drama bored me for the most part. The acting performances were just average, and I would have preferred Marky Mark taking on the lead role as opposed to Joaquin.

The audience at the screening didn't have much of a reaction to the film at all. One couple thought it was a family film and brought their baby and two kids. It's definitely not a family film, but a sex scene in the first 5 minutes did nothng to convince the young parents otherwise. There were some claps at the end. I can’t really recommend you spend the time and money seeing this in the theater based on 2 great scenes. It might be worth it if you are a big fan of ‘70s cop movies. Otherwise, wait for the DVD.

The Final Season

STARRING: Sean Astin, Powers Boothe View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 10/12/2007 DATE SCREENED: 9/27/2007 The Verdict NOT GOOD - Wait for cable

Sean Astin acts as the Executive Producer and Star of The Final Season. The film centers around the true story of Kent Stock, who gave up his job and wedding plans to take over as head coach of the Norway High School baseball team. The film was actually shot in Norway, Iowa, a small town of maybe 600 people who believe in the saying that “on the 8th day, God created baseball”. The high school baseball team was their pride and joy, winning 19 state titles.

Kent is an admirer of the school’s legendary coach Jim Van Scoyoc (Powers Boothe). He originally had to take a job as his assistant, just to be able to learn from his idol. After another championship season, the state has decided that the school is too small and must merge with a nearby high school. The neighboring school doesn’t put any importance on baseball, and with the student’s lengthy commutes back and forth every day, the town knows that the baseball team as they know it, along with their local economy that revolves around it, is about to come to an end. Jim is fired as coach due to his protests, and Kent is hired to take over for one final season before the merger.

Kent is an inexperienced coach, so the town does not have any hopes for another successful season. The stands are empty at the first practice, when they were always full in past years. Many of the kids have quit the team. Luckily, a troubled teen named Mitch (seemingly based on Kelly Leak from the Bad News Bears) had just moved to Norway to stay with his grandparents. He has been causing trouble at school, but maybe joining the baseball team is just what he needs to straighten him out.

The returning players have no respect for Kent, or the new kid Mitch. As the team goes through the ups and downs of the season, the coaches and players have a chance to bond, and before you know it the stands are full again for another Norway playoff run.

Does any of this sound familiar? This is nothing we haven’t seen countless times before. Is there anyone who doesn’t know how this movie is going to end? Would anybody care that they threw in a romance between Kent and a woman sent by the state to work on the merger? Sean Astin may have had fun gaining weight and hanging out in a small town playing baseball, but it was not fun for me or the audience at the screening. I think only one person clapped when the film reached its inevitable climax. I couldn’t have cared any less about the “big game”. When a “feel good” sports movie is done well, you can’t help but get involved in rooting for a person or a team, even when you know the ending. When this type of movie is done poorly, you keep looking at your watch hoping the film is about to come to an end. The Final Season falls into the “poorly done” category. If you like baseball you might get some enjoyment out of the film, but wait for cable.