The Bucket List

STARRING: Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 12/25/2007 DATE SCREENED: 12/10/2007 The Verdict OK - Wait for DVD

A-list actors Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman team up to bring us The Bucket List. Nicholson plays Edward Cole, a rich a-hole whose business model is “two people to a room, no exceptions”. When he himself is hospitalized with cancer, he ends up sharing a room with Carter Chambers (Freeman), an auto mechanic also suffering from cancer. Edward wants nothing to do with Carter at first, as he suffers through surgery and chemo alone while Carter is either watching Jeopardy or talking with his visiting wife. Carter remembers an old college assignment to create a Bucket List, which is a list of things you want to do before you “kick the bucket”.

Edward and Carter both receive the bad news that their cancer is terminal. They have only six months to a year to live. Carter balls up his bucket list and throws it away, but Edward retrieves it from the trash and begins to add things to the list. He convinces Carter that there is still time to complete the list, and he will foot the bill. Carter’s wife is very upset with this idea, as she wants to spend as much time as possible with her husband. But Carter can not resist Edward’s offer.

The film becomes a road trip movie, as Edward and Carter bond over their adventures, which include skydiving, auto racing, and visiting the pyramids. Things get serious when Carter adds a visit to Edward’s estranged daughter to the list. But that’s just a minor bump in the road as the two men enjoy their last year of life.

The movie is very predictable, and I couldn’t help but wonder if the striking writers are even worth what they get paid. Two people who seem like opposites meet… they don’t like each other… they discover a shared interest… they embark on some type of journey that bonds them… they have an argument… things get smoothed over in the end as they have learned some kind of life lesson. How many times have we seen that story? On the other hand, Nicholson and Freeman are worth every penny as actors. They have great chemistry together and keep you from getting bored despite the script. You just can’t help but get some enjoyment from watching them together on screen. But I didn’t enjoy them enough to be able to recommend that you spend your time & money seeing this in the theater. Wait for the DVD.

P.S. I Love You

STARRING: Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 12/21/2007 DATE SCREENED: 11/29/2007 The Verdict NOT GOOD - Wait for cable

Academy Award winning actress Hilary Swank, who will always be the female Karate Kid to me, teams with Gerard Butler in P.S. I Love You. I would have expected any late year film from her to be an attempt to nab her 3^rd Oscar, but there is no way she could have expected any Oscar buzz from this romantic comedy.

P.S. I Love You does have a twist to differentiate itself from the generic romantic comedy we’ve seen countless times before. The twist is that one of the characters is dead. That’s not a misprint, as early in the film Holly (Swank) is devastated when her husband Gerry dies of a brain tumor. Gerry does not come back as a ghost, but knowing how his impending death would affect Hilary, he devised a way to speak to her from the dead.

To the chagrin of her friends and family, Hilary reacts to her husband’s death by spending all her time locked in her apartment crying, watching tv, and ordering in. When they come over to surprise her for her 30^th birthday, there is also a surprise gift from Gerry. He has left a recorded message for Holly that not only wishes her a happy birthday, but tells her that she can expect more letters from him over the course of a year and she must do everything asked of her in the letters. Holly is now able to go on with her life, knowing that she will hear from her husband again. Every letter ends with the line “P.S. I Love You”. Does anyone other than me have a problem with this premise? Not Holly’s two friends, played by Lisa Kudrow & Gina Gershon. A bartender, named Daniel, who befriends Holly does end up having a big problem with it. While he’s falling in love with Holly, she is not able to get over her husband. The tasks she must complete range from doing karaoke to visiting Gerry’s family in Ireland. All the while we also see flashbacks that show how Holly & Gerry met and how they ended up falling in love. Eventually, Holly must decide if she can let go and give her heart to another man, like Daniel, or if she is going to spend her life in mourning over her dead husband.

For a romantic comedy, this movie is not funny or romantic. Lisa Kudrow is amusing at times, but her best lines can be seen in the trailer. I did not find anything romantic about a husband not allowing his wife to let go by ordering her around for an entire year after his death. I actually found the idea offensive. The story of how Holly & Gerry met and fell in love was not based in any kind of reality, and they don’t have any kind of chemistry together. The crowd at the screening had almost no reaction to the film, so I don’t know that any women found it romantic either. Hillary Swank does do her part by giving another very good performance, but there is nothing that she could have done to save this script. So what you have is a film that is well acted but forgettable. Wait for cable.

I Am Legend

STARRING: Will Smith View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 12/14/2007 DATE SCREENED: 12/10/2007 The Verdict GOOD - See it in the theater

This was the year of the ‘threequel’, with the 3^rd installment of Spiderman, Bourne, Rush Hour, and Oceans 11 hitting screens this year. With the release of I Am Legend, we get a ‘three-make’, as this is the 3^rd theatrical version of Richard Matheson’s book “I Am Legend”. Having recently viewed the 1971 version, called Omega Man and starring Charlton Heston, my enthusiasm was dulled for this release. Omega Man was a bad movie filled with huge plot holes. But I always hope for the best from a Will Smith movie, since like Will, I am “west Philadelphia, born and raised”.

Smith stars as Robert Neville, a military scientist who may be the last survivor of a deadly virus. What started out as a miracle cure for cancer in the year 2009, somehow turned into a deadly virus that wipes out 90% of the world’s population. 1% of the population was immune, like Neville, and the other 9% have turned into vampire like creatures that can only come out at night. The creatures began to feed on those that were immune. It’s 3 years later, and Neville spends most of the day time hanging out with his German Shepard, working out, hunting dear, looking for other survivors, or going to the video store where he talks to the mannequins he presumably set up. He spends his nights locked in his home, huddling with his dog in a bathtub. It’s the same routine, day after day after day. Through flashbacks we see that Neville was a married father of a daughter, who worked tirelessly to find a cure before things got out of hand. He told his wife that he would “fix this” and he refuses to give up. Even now he has a basement lab in which he spends time working on a cure. In his daily log, after a close encounter with the creatures he comments that they are completely mindless having lost any sense of humanity. That statement turns out to be only partially correct. In reality, they have a leader who has put together a plan to capture and kill Neville as a response to the creatures Neville has captured in order to test his cures. Neville must work quickly, as the creatures are organized and getting closer and closer to finding him.

The plot isn’t very complicated, and I’m happy to report that all the plot holes from Omega Man have been plugged. I’ve never read the book, so I can only compare it to the previous movie version. Although the movie is very quiet, as the daytime scenes take place in a deserted New York City, every shot and line of dialog is advancing the story in some way. Some may feel that the movie is starting off slow, but everything pays off in the end. And you don’t have to wait long for everything to start paying off as the movie is only slightly more than 90 minutes. Will does a great job depicting Neville as a man who is fighting a growing insanity as he refuses to give up on finding a cure. This is not the usual Will Smith action film. It’s very tense and somewhat scary at times. After all, he is fighting vampire like creatures. It all culminates in a outstanding action sequence, with a much better ending than Omega Man. The crowd at the screening seemed to enjoy themselves, as they oohed and aahed at all the right moments. See this one in the theater.

The Golden Compass

STARRING: Nicole Kidman, Dakota Blue Richards View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 12/07/2007 DATE SCREENED: 12/04/2007 The Verdict OK - Wait for the DVD

Based on Northern Lights, the first novel in a trilogy called His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass seems like the kind of fantasy film that I would really enjoy. With thoughts of the wonderful Chronicles of Narnia in my head, this was my most anticipated December release. The film takes place in a parallel universe in which every person’s spirit is always right by their side as a daemon. The daemon will take the form of a talking animal, but a child’s daemon can change into other animals until the child reaches adulthood. If a person dies, their daemon dies as well.

The film centers around Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) , a young girl with a dislike of authority. Living at a college, she listens in on a meeting of scholars run by her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig). He needs funding to go on a quest to the North Pole to gather a mythical Dust that will allow people to travel to the other parallel universes. She quickly learns that people are not allowed to talk about Dust, but that does not stop her curiosity. Marissa Coulter (Nicole Kidman) takes a liking to Lyra and decides to take her on a trip. Marissa is secretly trying to catch up with Lord Asriel to stop him from finding the Dust. Before embarking on her adventure, Lyra is given a Golden Compass called an alethiometer. If someone can learn how to read it on their own, it will allow you to see the true answer to any question on past or present events. It is supposedly the last one in existence. On her trip Lyra discovers that Marissa is an evil woman. She escapes from her and embarks on her travel to the North Pole on her own. She does get help on her journey from people called the Gyptians, from witches, and even a polar bear warrior. She figures out how to read the Compass, learns all about the Magisterium (the dictators running society), and learns of a plot to kidnap children and separate them from their daemons. It turns out that Lyra is receiving so much help because there is a prophecy about how she will be the one to end an impending war.

There is no real ending to this movie, as it will be continued in the next movie in the series. I would have liked to have had a better ending, and the plot is a bit too complicated for a family fantasy film. I was really disappointed. The movie starts off slow, just plodding from point A to point B, and people around me were falling asleep. It does get better as it goes along, but I was never able to completely escape into this fantasy world. There was just not enough interesting things going on, and the first half of the film bored me. The special effects are great, as each person’s daemon is always in the background and always looked like a real animal. The shape shifting was also smooth.

The standout scene in the film is the fight between two warrior polar bears, which is all special effects. This battle had the crowd cheering. The fight at the end between the people who have kidnapped the kids and a team of Gyptians and witches is also thrilling.

The Catholic League had called for a boycott of the film due to a perceived anti-Catholic theme in the source novels. If you pay close attention, the Magisterium who want to strengthen their dictatorship can remind someone of the Catholic church. But it’s not something that most people will notice.

The reaction of the crowd was very mixed. Some people clapped at the end, but I heard others saying that they wasted almost two hours watching a movie that doesn’t even end. I also had a mother tell her son that he will have to read the book if he wants to know how it really ends. The book supposedly had a great ending, which was not used in the movie. It pains me to tell people to wait for the DVD on this one. I won’t be anxiously awaiting the sequel, but I won’t let this disappointment dampen my enthusiasm for Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, due out in May of 2008!

Juno

STARRING: Ellen Page, Jennifer Garner View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 12/05/2007 (limited) DATE SCREENED: 11/08/2007 The Verdict OK - Wait for the DVD

I thought Juno was just the name of an email service. Now I know it’s the name of a city in Alaska, which was then used as the basis for the name of the title character of the film Juno. 20- year old actress Ellen Page, who wowed me in the film Hard Candy, stars as the 16- year old Juno, a quirky high school student who could never be a part of the “in crowd”. She ends up pregnant, thanks to one night with her nerdy classmate Bleeker (Michael Cera), and is forced to start making the tough decisions about what to do next.

A confident Juno walks into an abortion clinic, but walks out without being able to go through with the procedure. As a classmate protesting outside the building reminds her, the baby does have nails already. She can’t get that thought out of her mind.

Juno decides to put the baby up for adoption, meaning she must tell everyone about the pregnancy. Juno’s parents, played by J.K. Simmons & Allison Janney, are shocked but decide to support Juno in her decision. Bleeker doesn’t seem to care one way or the other. Juno scours advertisement for people looking for babies. After Juno and her father visit Mark (Jason Bateman) and Vanessa (Jennifer Garner), Juno is sure they have found the right couple. Mark is a musician stuck writing commercial jingles, who has similar tastes in music to Juno. Vanessa comes off as a bit too conservative, but also someone with a lot of love she is just waiting to give to a baby.

Juno is forced to grow up as we follow her along in this pregnancy. Mark and Vanessa begin to have marital problems, and Juno must face the realization that she might have to take care of this baby herself. She also has to figure out if Bleeker can be anything more than just a sperm donor.

Juno was probably the most popular film at the Toronto film festival. It reportedly received a standing ovation after one screening. I can understand why, as Juno is such a likeable, quick-witted, character right from the start. Ellen Page is sure to receive some Oscar consideration. The film’s offbeat humor is the type of humor that appeals to the majority of the film festival crowd. And all of the characters seem slightly different than what you would expect. But I personally did not find it funny. It’s just not my kind of humor. The humor doesn’t seem to cross over racial lines. I saw the film at a screening for college students. I was one of the few black people there, and the other black students were seated near me. They were bored to death while the rest of the audience seemed to enjoy it. Ellen Page did wow me for the 2nd time, but I still can’t recommend that people see this one in the theater. Wait for the DVD.

Beowulf

STARRING: Angelina Jolie, Ray Winstone View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 11/16/2007 DATE SCREENED: 11/13/2007 The Verdict GREAT - See it opening weekend in 3-D

Beowulf has been adapted for the big screen numerous times over the years, but 2007 brings us the first Beowulf movie to be animated in IMAX 3-D. Cast members were filmed on a motion capture stage, and the rest of the movie was animated based on their likeness and movements. Like it or not, this is going to be a big part of moviemaking in the future. How soon we get to that future depends on the success of Beowulf.

Beowulf tells the story of a warrior who travels across the sea to help rid a town of an evil monster named Grendel. But ridding the town of Grendel only serves to incur the wrath of his mother, an animated version of Angelina Jolie. Beowulf is seduced into making a deal with Grendel’s mother in order to save the town, but returns with stories of how he killed her. Beowulf is made king, and the town is peaceful for years. At least it’s peaceful as far as not being attacked by monsters. The town becomes a more warlike society with a man like Beowulf as their leader. The pact with Grendel’s mother doesn’t last forever, as years later she sends an evil dragon to attack the town. Beowulf must step down from his throne and fight for the town once again. It’s a simple story, but what more can you expect from a movie based on what is basically a long poem?

The stars of this film are the animators. The animation is amazing. Most of the time I forgot I was watching an animated movie. Even a woman’s breasts have a natural bounce to them. There is still work to be done on the hands and some of the facial expressions, but it’s only a matter of time before that is perfected. If you have an IMAX theater near you, you must see this in IMAX 3-D. It’s like you are right there as the story unfolds. It takes you underwater, surrounds you with rain or snow, and has you jumping and dodging things in the action sequences. Birds fly over your head, and horses seem to come from behind you. You will have never experienced action sequences like those in Beowulf. The fights are not kids stuff, but brutal and bloody battles taking place right in front of you. The final attack by the dragon is so spectacular and breathtaking that I won’t even try to describe it. You will not fully experience this film in a regular theater. Even if you can’t get to an IMAX theater, get to a theater with a digital 3-D projector. It was meant to be experienced in 3-D. If you saw the 3-D ending of Harry Potter and were not impressed, don’t worry. The 3-D in Harry Potter is not even in the same league with Beowulf. I feel like I’ve taken a peek into the future of the movie going experience and that future can’t get here fast enough for me. I can’t wait to see what comes out next in IMAX 3-D. A Transformers movie would be my pick.

Love In The Time Of Cholera

STARRING: Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 11/16/2007 DATE SCREENED: 11/12/2007 The Verdict OK - Wait for the DVD

Enshrinement into Oprah’s Book Club is like a license to print money. Love in the Time of Cholera has now made the leap from book club to the silver screen. A love story endorsed by Oprah is not something that I would generally look forward to, but I did want to see how Javier Bardem would handle the lead in this type of film, right after giving such a chilling performance as the psychopathic killer in “No Country for Old Men”.

Set in Columbia in the time of Cholera (a severe disease prevalent in Columbia in the late 19th – early 20th century) Javier plays Florentino, a man who ends up spending his entire life chasing the beautiful Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno). He falls in love with her while still a teenager, working as a telegraph operator. Although they aren’t allowed to see each other too often, they share letters constantly in which they declare their love for each other. Florentino declares his devotion to Fermina by asking for her hand in marriage. She says yes, but her father (John Leguizamo) will not allow it. He wants his daughter to marry a rich man. When his threats fail to derail Florentino from his mission, he packs up the family and moves them away. Florentino grows up to be a soft spoken man who writes poetry about love, and refuses to be with any other woman because of his belief that he will one day be married to Fermina. When he finally meets up with Fermina she sends him away, saying that what they had is an illusion. When a Dr. comes calling for Fermina, she resists at first, but she eventually becomes his wife. Florentino is devastated, but it is only a test of his resolve. He plans to wait for her husband to die. Florentino’s mother gets him a new job, working for a relative, far away from the city. While traveling to the new job, his virginity is basically taken from him by an aggressive woman. Florentino has an epiphany! Sex can make him temporarily forget about Fermina. Who would have thought? He then proceeds to start a journal of all his sexual conquests as he beds woman after woman, year after year, while waiting for Fermina’s husband to die. Meanwhile, Fermina is in a terrible marriage. She did not marry for love, and it shows. She has money but not happiness. As the years go on she is just more and more unhappy. Florentino is a 70 something year old man, in bed with a college student, when Fermina’s husband finally dies. He sends the woman away and begins to court Fermina once again. It turns out that it’s not too late for love, even when you are in your 70s.

Love in the Time of Cholera is an epic story covering so many years and Columbian locations, at a running time of about 130 minutes. I’ve only given you the basics of the story, as it covers a lot in that running time. I wasn’t bored, but at the same time I didn’t exactly enjoy it. Javeir Bardem proves he is a great actor, playing this role that is completely opposite of his role in No Country for Old Men. There are some funny scenes after Florentino has his sexual awakening, but there just seems to be no reason why he would be so devoted to this one woman. There is nothing in her personality that could drive such a level of devotion. She’s not that beautiful. And what man can wait for a woman for over 50 years, basically counting the days? I never read the book, so maybe something that would explain his behavior had to be left out. Or maybe we are not supposed to think about such things and just consider the movie a fantasy. The film is much more ambitious that the generic Hollywood love story, but still has the typical sappy ending. This is the kind of film couples should watch together on DVD. Women will probably like it, and the guy won’t be completely bored.