For Colored Girls

For director, writer and producer Tyler Perry’s latest, he chose someone else’s stuff as the basis. Here, it’s Ntzoke Shange’s seventies stage play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf.

Described as a “choreopoem,” the stage play dealt with seven women identified by a color (red, blue, yellow, etc.) who explained the hardships of being women of color. This film gives them all names and new characters, many of whom alluded to only in the text, to interact with on-screen.

Jo is an icy magazine editor whose assistant Crystal suffers at the hands of her boyfriend. Sisters Tangie and Nyla are at odds with each other, and the former especially with their mother Alice. Meanwhile, Nyla’s dance instructor Yasmine is raped, Juanita struggles with a wandering boyfriend and Kelly deals with her infertility.

The choreopoem aspect is not just figurative; the text is actually many poems as one. Much of the text is preserved on-screen and it’s quite noticeable when the actresses break into verse. But while that may have been a problem for a few other critics, it was a minimal distraction for me.

The cast gives some fine performances. A few highlights include Kimberly Elise as Crystal and Janet Jackson as Jo. Phylicia Rashad, as a new character named Gilda, also gives a memorable character life.

On screen, the film actually succeeds as a melodrama. One strong point, for instance, is the scene where Crystal’s boyfriend’s paranoia turns really nasty. It’s disturbing, yes, but it’s quite effectively so.

However, as a proper version of Shange’s play, I don’t know if it’s an accurate enough transfer from stage to screen. But for its fine cast, the film is quite a worthwhile one.

Fair Game

Jethro's Note: In between two reviews, I made an "experimental entry." Unfortunately, I found out too late I can't delete it. (Grrr). So, I'm putting this film I saw after them since it was released at the same time.

In 2008, a film called Nothing but the Truth came out just as its production company went belly up. It was the fictionalization of the scandal involving the outing of a certain CIA agent. Now, two years later, a film about the real people involved, Fair Game, has arrived.

In 2003, CIA Agent Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) lived a quiet life with her husband, U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson (Sean Penn). Against his advice, the U.S. Government went to war with Iraq over alleged stockpiles of nuclear weapons. He wrote an op-ed criticizing the Government for that decision, and a few days later, the words “CIA” and “Valerie Plame” are in the same sentence of another news article.

After this, Plame is demoted to a desk job, leaving her contacts for a big assignment in jeopardy. Her boss treats her like nothing, while she gets threats from anonymous creeps. Wilson, meanwhile, is slandered by the right-wing media. In short, their world has gone to hell.

The film’s screenplay, by Jez and John Butterworth, is a composite of Plame and Wilsons’ individual memoirs. The former, which provides the film its title, has rows of blacked out words on every page (due to CIA censorship). Fortunately, the film does not leave the audience in the dark too often, resulting in a concise storyline.

As Wilson and Plame, Penn and Watts are the stars of the show. They’re quite believable to the point that one can’t help but feel angry at the creeps harassing them at every turn. Sure enough, the audience will understand the betrayals they’ve encountered.

Its director and cinematographer is Doug Liman, who also did The Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Unlike those two spy thrillers, this one is more down to earth. If this wasn’t down to earth, it wouldn’t be the compelling film that it is.

Conviction

The court shall now begin its assessment of the case "Jethro T. Cat V. Conviction." Jethro T. Cat shall act as all legal functions except executioner. You may precede, Jethro.

(OK, I admit, that was a silly way to start a review.)

The latest true life drama designed solely for Oscar credit is Conviction, which overall, has some good actors with a script that needs improving.

In 1983, Boston Housewife Betty Ann Waters' (Hillary Swank) brother Kenny (Sam Rockwell) was convicted of robbing and killing local woman Katharina Brow. Betty Ann's gut instinct tells her that he's innocent, and she decides to prove it. First, she'll get her GED, and then go to college to be a lawyer. And then, with help, she'll find the smoking gun that'll clear her brother.

The script that needs improving is by Pamela Gray, who wrote the Meryl Streep vehicle Music of the Heart. The script, for example, presents Betty Ann as too much a stock determined type with little motivation. Minnie Driver, as Betty Ann’s sidekick Abra, is much like many other sidekicks in this type of film. And then the only thing that seems to properly indicate the passage of years is how much older Kenny gets throughout the film (the makeup for which is actually a strong-point).

Rockwell, as Kenny, actually makes for a good character. In his earlier years, he’s quite a likable wild guy. And then, as the legal system decides to mess with him further, he’s quite convincingly despondent. And Juliette Lewis, as a key witness in the trial, is also quite memorable even if the film forgets about her until the end. In fact, they’re probably the best characters the film has to offer.

Its director is Tony Goldwyn, who’s had far more of a career on-screen than off (such as the villain of Ghost). My verdict on the final result is that if Goldwyn, because much of the film rests on the director, spent the time getting to the inevitable result, a bit more compelling, than the film would definitely feel less like stock Oscar material.

The Defense and Prosecution both rest!

Megamind

In the next two months, there'll be seven big 3d films on the big screen. The first one out the gate is Dreamworks's Megamind, which 3d or not, is still worth the time.

Megamind (Will Ferrell) and Metroman (Brad Pitt) are Metro City's equivalent of Lex Luthor and Superman, respectively. In fact, like Supes, both were rocketed to Earth from doomed planets. It just happened that Metroman landed in a nice mansion while Megamind landed in prison. During one routine clash between the two, Megamind decides to introduce Metroman to his new death ray.

Except that this time, it actually works. Metroman is gone.

Without Metroman, Megamind is blue in every sense of the word. So he decides to actually empower some random bloke into a superhero who'd give him his reason for living back. Except that he empowers Hal (Jonah Hill), cameraman of ace reporter Roxanne (Tina Fey), who as Titan, is not just super, but a truer villain than Megamind. Oops...

The use of 3d here is quite super. Whether it involves characters or buildings flying at the screen, or Megamind's flying Brain-Bot mascots, the 3d here has many ways to show itself.

Without the 3d, the film is also super. The voice actors help a lot, including Ferrell as the likable "bad guy" or Hill as the dorky nice guy turned sour. And David Cross, as Megamind's "Minion" (that's his name), also made a nice character come alive. In live-action, the acting here probably won't work well, but animation is a different story.

In terms of this year's animated films, its better than Shrek, but Toy Story and Despicable Me are probably (slightly) better. But still, this is quite the film to start the holidays with.

JETHRO'S NOTE: The other 3d films coming out this year are Tangled, The Nutcracker, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of The Dawn Treader, Tron Legacy, Yogi Bear, and Gulliver's Travels.

Hereafter

George (Matt Damon) sees dead people wherever he goes. He was once a legitimate psychic, but he gave that up to be a forklift operator because, as his brother Billy (Jay Mohr) said, “he couldn’t cope.”

George is the central piece of Clint Eastwood’s latest film, Hereafter, which is about death and what comes after. Sure, Eastwood as Dirty Harry killed some bad guys, but they didn’t show up to haunt him.

Before we get to George, we get to French Journalist Marie (Cecile de France). She survives what is meant to be the 2004 Tsunami (though no year is given, the implications are there), but not before she sees an eerie world of light and shadows.

And also, there are twin brothers Jason and Marcus (twins George and Frankie McLaren). They live with their careless mother in London until Jason is killed by a truck while evading some hoodlums. After that, all Marcus wants to do is to get in touch with Jason.

Eastwood, and his writer, Peter Morgan, have crafted what is admittedly a slow-moving work. One needs a lot of patience to get through the film’s development of its characters and their relationships. It doesn’t help that, despite what the trailer may imply, the convergence of the three leads only happens in the very end.

But if one has the patience, the film won’t be so bad. Eastwood’s depiction of disaster, working on a decent budget of $50 million, is frightening without being elaborate. And it helps that of the main three, McLaren’s debut performance is the best.

The film may be dark, but its ultimately an optimistic film. This is reflected by the cinematography of Tom Stern, and music by Eastwood himself. Once one can get through the long haul, then that message will be clear.

Secretariat

Why do I keep wanting to say Seabiscuit every time I want to say Secretariat instead?

Let’s see: they’re both real life champion horses and both have had movies about them. It’s just that Seabiscuit, both on-screen and in real life came first. So, the memories of Seabiscuit are quite there.

The titular horse of Secretariat, it happened, won the Triple Crown of Horse Racing back in 1973. There, I spoiled the ending of the movie.

Before then, Secretariat was won by housewife Penny Chenery (Diane Lane) in a coin toss. With the aid of eccentric trainer Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich), Chenery raised Secretariat as the last hope of her ailing father’s Ranch. In doing so, Chenery not only pitted her horse against many more, but also herself against the chauvinists running the show.

Its director is Randall Wallace, best known as the writer of Braveheart, and its writer is Mike Rich, who did another Disney sports film, The Rookie. Here, the two have crafted a film that relies on getting there, and not the end result. Sure, Penny wins and saves the Ranch, but will she loose her family’s love in the process?

Lane and Malkovich are both great in their roles, with Malkovich once again a fine scene stealer. Their performances, and some fine effort by the crew, help make Secretariat a nice ride all the way through.

RED

Is this the year of CIA agents vs. Corrupt System movies?

Already, there was The Losers, Knight and Day, Salt, and the yet-to-be released Fair Game. And now this film, which like the first listed, is taken from a DC published comic book.

As Ernest Borgnine explains in his cameo role as Henry the Records Keeper, RED, the film’s title stands for “Retired, Extremely Dangerous.” And that’s what Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), former CIA agent, happens to be.

Which means that the wetsuit hit squad sent after him in his home should’ve known better. A LOT BETTER.

Realizing that bad guys want to silence him over what he knows about a shady Military Operation back in the ‘80s, Moses goes on the run with his only friend, Sarah (Mary Louise Parker). He then assembles his old CIA buddies Joe (Morgan Freeman), Boggs (John Malkovich), Victoria (Helen Mirren) and Ivan (Brian Cox) for a mission against the enemy.

And the enemy is a shady man named Alexander Dunning (Richard Dreyfus), given away a bit too early by his smug body language. Cooper (Karl Urban), the CIA agent sent after the heroes, is much better at portraying the film’s Javert type. And Malkovich steals every scene as the Looney Boggs.

At heart, this is an action comedy, unlike the gravely serious graphic novel. Director Robert Schwentke and his crew get the action right, and the actors, by playing off each other, get the comedy to come out fine. Now, the only thing that could improve it is a polishing of the script to clarify some confusion.

Let Me In

Not even the glowing vampires of Twilight can illuminate the atmosphere of Let Me In. It’s just that dark and a bit more mature and quite better than those vampire movies that are all the rage.

Its protagonist, Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is living a not so nice existence. His parents are bitterly divorcing and the school bully and his posse has taken special interest in him. So, Owen expresses his frustrations by doing serial killer role playing.

And then the new girl Abby (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her nameless guardian (Richard Jenkins) move into Owen’s apartment complex. After a while, the two kids “go steady;” but then, Owen finds that Abby likes blood…

This is actually a remake of a VERY recent Swedish film Let The Right One In (itself based off a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist). And it’s quite similar to it except for it being in English and the addition of a policeman character (Elias Koteas). But even without seeing the original, this film for me didn’t seem some lifeless imitator.

And much of the credit goes to director and writer Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) for getting great efforts from everyone involved. From the young actors, to composer Michael Giacchino, to cinematographer Greg Fraser, all help create the film’s dark mood. On screen, the suspense, and impact of violence is quite there, and so is the blood, even if it’s not to the extent of something like Saw.

This film knows what it’s doing. If all remakes, especially those of Horror films, took cues from this, then they might become respectable again.