Michael Clayton

STARRING: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 10/12/2007 DATE SCREENED: 9/26/2007 The Verdict NOT GOOD - Wait for cable

Tony Gilroy takes the director’s chair for the first time with Michael Clayton. Tony has made his mark in Hollywood as a writer. Before writing/directing Michael Clayton, he was best known for scripting all three Bourne movies. There is a lot of advance “buzz” surrounding this film, but I didn’t like the plot of any of the Bourne movies. I know I’m in the minority with that opinion, but I only enjoy them for the action scenes. I have already forgotten the storyline of every Bourne film. Since Michael Clayton is a serious drama, I hoped it would have a story that I could get into.

George Clooney is Michael Clayton, a “fixer” at a large law firm in New York City. He basically has to handle any of the “dirty work” involved in a particular case. The film opens with him being called to assist a client who has been entangled in a hit-and-run accident and is looking for an alibi. This type of personal case is not Michael’s cup of tea, so he leaves after assigning it to someone else. On the drive back home, he pulls over to the side of the road when he is distracted by horses. After exiting the car and walking to the horses, the car explodes.

We are then taken back to 4 days earlier. One of the company’s top litigators, Arthur (Tom Wilkinson), seems to have gone crazy. He is arrested after jumping on a table naked at a meeting. He was working on the defense of a class action suit against a chemical company that is one of the firm’s biggest clients. Michael is good friends with Arthur and goes to bail him out of jail, while trying to cover for Arthur with the other law firm executives. It turns out that Arthur has been gathering evidence that they are on the wrong side of this class action lawsuit. The chemical company’s chief attorney, Karen (Tilda Swinton), is desperate to make sure this class action suit is settled, and hires a “fixer” of her own to watch Arthur. Arthur miraculously ends up dead of an apparent suicide. Michael suspects murder, and picks up the trail of clues that lead to the predicable conclusion.

The plot also has little sidebars that show that Michael has a gambling problem, and family issues involving his son. All of this adds up to a movie that is too long and way too boring. I almost dozed off a couple of times during the film. It seems that Tony Gilroy’s scripts just don’t resonate with me. I’m not a fan of the non-linear style of writing, in which nobody knows what is going on at the beginning and then you go back and try to explain everything. When you structure the story that way, the explanations better pay off, and here they don’t. I ended up wanting the story to be more about the chemical company’s chief attorney Karen, as opposed to Michael. She seems to have some serious issues that are worth more of an exploration. The acting performances are solid, but there are just too many uninteresting things going on for me to care. Wait for cable if you must see this one.

Notes:
Tony Gilroy himself attended the screening and did a Q&A session afterwards. The movie received polite applause at the end, I think more so because people knew he was there. He said he had been working on getting the film made for 8 years, and he loved it too much to turn it over to another director. He also planned to rename the film, but was never able to come up with a better title.

Things We Lost In The Fire

STARRING: Halle Berry, Benicio Del Toro View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 10/19/2007 DATE SCREENED: 9/25/2007 The Verdict OK - Wait for the DVD

Halle Berry follows up the extremely disappointing Perfect Stranger with Things We Lost in the Fire. She is teamed with fellow Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro in this serious drama that the studio surely hopes will garner some Oscar recognition.

Halle plays Audrey, a recently widowed mother of a two, a son named Dory and a daughter named Harper. Her husband, played by David Duchovny, was murdered helping to protect a woman who was being beaten by her husband. Benicio plays Jerry, Aubrey’s husband’s good friend, who has been battling a Heroin addiction. Through flashbacks we see that he would visit Jerry, against Audrey’s wishes, to treat him to dinner and spend time with him. For reasons that never became quite clear to me, Audrey invites Jerry to come live in one of their garages, which had been turned into a guest room. Jerry is determined to honor his friend by staying clean of Heroin. He begins to study real estate and becomes close with Audrey’s kids. Audrey is having a lot of difficulty adjusting to life without her husband. She can be charming one minute, and then snap the very next. Jerry ends up having to prevent Audrey from experimenting with drugs in order to help her cope. As the story moves along we see more flashbacks to show us what a wonderful marriage Audrey had, and what a great guy her husband was.

Eventually, Audrey goes off on Jerry once again for no good reason, and tells him to get out. This leads to his relapse. Aubrey goes to find him, and with the help of her brother and another former addict, they lock him in his room and force him to go through withdrawal. The two of them have serious issues, but they must figure out how to co-exist and provide a stable environment for the two kids, who desperately want Jerry around as a father figure.

Both Halle and Benicio were surely attracted to this movie because the roles give them a chance to really act. Halle has the opportunity to show the complete range of emotions as Audrey, and Benicio really sinks his teeth into portraying the ups and downs of drug addiction. The problem is that the story is only mildly compelling. The movie is almost 2 hours long, and I was bored at times. I don’t like the title of the film, or the feeble attempt at explaining the title. Something was missing in the character development, as I never cared about the characters as much as I should have. There is one unnecessary scene in which Aubrey asks Jerry to help her sleep by coming to bed with her and rubbing her ear, like her husband used to, while she hugs up against them. Now, Halle tries to downplay her beauty in this movie, but the audience couldn’t help but laugh knowing what would happen if a guy was hugged up in the bed with Halle Berry. The acting is top notch, but you can wait for the DVD on this one.

Trade

STARRING: Kevin Kline View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 9/28/2007 DATE SCREENED: 9/19/2007 The Verdict Good - See this in the theater

Trade is based on a 2004 New York Times Magazine cover story about worldwide sex trafficking. Definitely not the kind of subject Hollywood would want to touch, so this movie ended up being financed independently with German funds. Thanks to a successful premiere at Sundance, the film is getting a national release.

In Mexico City, a 13 year old Mexican girl named Adriana is kidnapped after sneaking out early one morning to ride her bike. Her 17 year old brother Jorge, who makes his living robbing unsuspecting male tourists looking for prostitutes, finds out about the kidnapping and is determined to save her. He discovers that a Russian gang has been kidnapping girls and taking them to NJ to sell them to pedophiles over the Internet. We then follow Jorge and Adriana, on their separate journeys to NJ. Adriana is being held with another girl, woman, and boy. One Mexican kidnapper sneaks them over the border, and once there an American helps get them to Jersey. Along the way they are drugged, abused, and their “services” are sold for traveling expenses.

Jorge crosses the border illegally in the trunk of the car of a federal insurance fraud investigator named Ray, played by the only recognizable actor in the film, Kevin Kline. Ray was investigating the same house that Jorge discovered was used by the kidnappers while in Mexico City. Once in Texas, Ray realizes he has a stowaway. He wants to take Jorge to the police, but Jorge is able to convince him that he has to get to NJ to save his sister. It turns out that Ray was in Mexico City on his personal time, in search of his lost daughter. He had a child outside of his marriage while in Mexico many years ago. He only recently found out that the mother sold his daughter, and he has been looking for her ever since. Ray knows it’s too late to help his daughter, but it’s not too late to help Adriana. Everyone ends up in an unnamed city in NJ, where it becomes a race against time to save Adriana before she is sold in an Internet auction. The police won’t help, as they are willing to sacrifice these Mexican girls until they can gather evidence against the ringleaders. It’s up to Jorge and Ray to handle things themselves.

Trade pulled me in from the very beginning. Being that I had never read the NY Times article, I had no idea this kind of sex trafficking was going on between Mexico and the U.S. This film not only has a message about how this type of thing has to be stopped, but is also entertaining as well. You grow to care about all the characters and really root for them. Adriana bonds with another kidnapped woman named Veronica. The things that they have to go through are horrible, and they do have a chance to escape. It’s heartbreaking when they are recaptured by the kidnappers. As the Internet auction got under way, I felt all the tension involved as Jorge and Ray had to execute their rescue plan. It’s easy to see why this film did well enough at Sundance to warrant a national release. Both of the young actors who played Adrianna and Jorge (Paulina Gaitan & Cesar Ramos) did a great job and have bright futures ahead of them. The film is 2 hours long, but doesn’t feel like it. The kidnapping happens right away, and there is always something going on during each person’s journey. I was completely engrossed the entire time. Definitely see this one in the theater. Much of the film is in Spanish, with English subtitles, but don’t let that scare you off.

Sydney White

STARRING: Amanda Bynes View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 9/21/2007 DATE SCREENED: 9/6/2007 The Verdict NOT GOOD - Wait for cable

Syndney White was filmed under the working title of “Sydney White and the Seven Dorks”. The basic idea was to do a modern retelling of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, set in college. “Snow White” becomes “Sydney White”, played by Amanda Bynes. The Seven Dwarfs are replaced by Seven college geeks, loosely based on the dwarf characters. I honestly don’t know how someone actually got the movie financed based on such a flimsy premise, but I walked into the theater hoping that maybe I would be surprised.

Sydney grew up with her father, working with him on various plumbing and construction projects. Her mother passed away when she was young. Sydney is the type of girl that knows how to play sports and use a hammer, more so than how to do hair and makeup. It’s time for Sydney to head off to college, and she plans to honor her mother by pledging the same sorority that her mom was a part of. On her way to the first pledge party, she immediately draws the ire of the sorority leader, Rachel Witchburn, by talking to her ex-boyfriend. But Sydney is a legacy, so she has to be allowed to pledge. It doesn’t take long for Sydney to realize that she does not fit in with this sorority, which is full of the stereotypical stuck-up blonde bitches. Rachel is jealous of Sydney’s growing friendship with her ex, so Sydney is publicly kicked out of the sorority. She ends up at a small broken down house on the end of the block, which houses the students who are so weird that they can not live with anyone else. They bond over Sydney’s comic book collection. The college is basically run by the fraternities and sororities, and Sydney is determined to put an end to it. She rallies her band of misfits and organizes a campaign to run for student body president against Rachel. Through this campaign, Sydney attempts to rally the entire school against the “evil” Greek system led by Rachel.

First I’ll get the positives out of the way. Amanda Bynes is adorable as Sydney White. She’s a joy to watch on screen and certainly has a bright future. But that’s where the positives end. The script she has to work with is garbage. Every other character is just a stereotype. The stereotypes of the geeks are slightly tweaked in order to match the dwarfs. One of them is sleepy all the time, another one sneezes all the time, another one is grumpy all the time, etc… But they are basically the same nerdy characters we’ve seen before. The actions of the sorority girls follow the same movie conventions we’ve seen countless times, most recently in the Bratz movie. The script is completely predictable, as it follows the same “revenge of the nerds” formula that has been around for over 20 years. If you’re the person who has been waiting for a re-telling of Snow White, then this is the move for you. If not, wait for it to come on cable just to watch Amanda Bynes. And only watch it as a last resort.

3:10 To Yuma

STARRING: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Ben Foster View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 9/7/2007 DATE SCREENED: 9/5/2007 The Verdict OK - Wait for the DVD

I’m not much of a fan of Westerns in general, but I can’t help but look forward to any film starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. 3:10 To Yuma is a remake of a 1957 Western of the same title. Crowe brings a natural charisma to any role, and Bale is putting together a nice body of work with Rescue Dawn, The Prestige, and Batman Begins being recent films of his that I have really enjoyed.

Crowe plays Ben Wade, the leader of a group of bandits. Bale plays Dan Evans, a rancher with a wife and two sons, who is being forced off his land to make way for a new train line. The two characters meet when Dan and his sons stumble upon Ben’s band of outlaws right after they have successfully robbed a stagecoach. Ben takes Dan’s horses, but lets his family go about their business of rounding up their cattle unharmed. The lone survivor of the stagecoach robbery needs medical attention, so Dan takes him into town. Although the bandits split the money and disbanded, Ben stayed in town to be with a woman. Dan runs into Ben once again in a salon, and while they talk Ben is surprised and captured by the local sheriff and his men. He needs to be transported to the town of Contention in order to take the 3:10 train to Yuma prison. Dan is desperate for money, so he agrees to a payment of $200 to join a group of locals to help escort Ben to the train station. Ben’s gang gets word of his capture and are determined to rescue him before he can get on that train. Ben is not exactly the model prisoner. He uses any trick he can think of to try and escape. To make matters worse, Dan’s son comes along as well, against the wishes of his father. There are a few fights and gun battles along the way, and it all culminates at the train station with the arrival of the 3:10 to Yuma.

I’ve never seen the original 3:10 to Yuma, so I can’t compare the two. I have seen High Noon, and this film is similar. Both films are basically a countdown to a big shootout. Both films end up with one lone hero being abandoned by a bunch of cowards as the crucial time approaches. But High Noon is the better film. 3:10 to Yuma just drags on way too long. There is some kind of psychological warfare going on between Dan and Ben, as Ben tries to convince Dan to just walk away and let him go. Dan refuses to back down because he wants to be a hero in his son’s eyes. But that storyline didn’t grab me. And their treatment of Ben as a prisoner just didn’t make sense. They were way too nice to him considering the things he was doing. The action scenes were exciting for the most part, and people die when you don’t expect them to, but the final showdown was a bit too far over the top. Too many bullets were flying, with people not getting hit. The very ending was pure Hollywood, which is not a good thing. I hope the original had a better ending. Crowe was great, as always. Bale was just ok. His role doesn’t really require much acting. Wait for the DVD.

The Kingdom

STARRING: Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jeremy Piven View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 9/28/2007 DATE SCREENED: 7/12/2007 The Verdict Good - See this in the theater

When the release date of a movie is pushed back, that's usually a bad sign. Either test audiences did not like the movie, or the movie studio has not figured out how to market it. The Kingdom was originally scheduled for release on April 20th , but the date was pushed back until September 28th. The movie was produced by Academy Award nominated director Michael Mann and stars Jamie Foxx & Jennifer Garner. The marketing department had plenty to work with, so my guess was that test audiences gave the film a bad score.

The Kingdom opens with a cool credit sequence that also chronicles the history of Saudi Arabia and their rise to power through oil. Then the scene switches to a softball game in an American housing compound in Saudi Arabia. People are enjoying themselves playing softball with their families. The fun is interrupted by a terrorist attack. Men, women, and children are shot down and blown up in what is a jarring opening to the film. Jamie Foxx stars as Ronald Fluery. He is the lead FBI agent assigned to make the trip to Saudi Arabia to investigate. His brings along 3 other members of his team, Janet (Jennifer Garner), Adam (Jason Bateman), & Grant (Chris Cooper). The team of agents arrives in Saudi Arabia, where a Saudi officer is assigned to keep watch over them. They are initially locked inside a gym, and only let out for photo opportunities. Jeremy Piven plays an unlikeable American official who's only concern is getting the agents back home as soon as possible. They only have 5 days to solve the case, or they will be sent packing. It seems that the Saudi's have no intention of letting the American team help with the investigation. But this team of FBI agents has not come all this way just to sit on their asses all day. During a dinner with a Saudi Prince, Ronald is able to convince the Prince that they have the skills to solve the crime. The very next day the true investigation is under way. In almost no time at all, suspects are identified, and subsequently murdered in a raid by the Saudi's. Ronald knows that they only killed the low level members of the terrorist cell, but the government spin is that the case is solved and it's time for the agents to come home. Saudi security is called in to escort the FBI agents back to the airport. But on the way, the caravan is hit by a car bomb. In the ensuing chaos, Adam is kidnapped. The rest of the team, along with 2 of the Saudi police, jump into a car and take up the chase. This is when the movie kicks into overdrive and turns into a hard core action film. You get a car chase, shootouts, explosions, and fights as Ronald leads his team into battle to save Adam.

The Kingdom is really a mixed bag. The open scenes and closing scenes were very well done. The parts in between are questionable. It is funny at times, but then at other times it falls flat. Jamie Foxx has good chemistry with the Saudi officer assigned to watch over the Americans, but there was no chemistry among the team of FBI agents. You don't really feel for Adam when he is captured. The action scenes are exciting, but there are boring parts as well. The investigation itself is wrapped up way too quickly to be believable. They basically solve the case in 2 – 3 days. If only it was that easy to hunt down terrorist cells. The audience I saw the film with loved the extended action at the end, as did I. They yelled, clapped, or cheered at all the right moments. But does this movie want to be an action film or a serious drama? Maybe that is considered a marketing problem. It's not clear to me why the release date of the movie was pushed back, since the audience response was positive. The movie was better than I expected, even though Jamie Foxx is capable of better work. Overall, the good slightly outweighs the bad. See this one in the theater.