GoldenEye

Pierce Brosnan is fantastic as James Bond in 17th James Bond film, which shows that the 90's were Bond's golden age. This film has it all: a great Bond, a very good plot, a unique villain, great action scenes, Moneypenny, Q, Judi Dench at her best as a female M, and the best villain sidekick in the series to date: computer geek Boris Grishenko (Alan Cumming). The plot is a thing of beauty: Bond and 006/Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean of "The Field," "National Treasure," and the Lord of the Rings series) are on a mission when Alec is caught and, in order to finish the mission and make it out alive, Bond resets the 6 minute timers to 3 minutes and barely escapes, while Alec's face is mutilated and while he turns to the dark side. We rejoin Bond nine years later, sent on the scene to stop a crystal known as GoldenEye, which powers satellites to destroy cities. When he goes to find the villain, he finds the villain is Alec, now Janus, and he's supercharged and ready to take down Bond at all costs. And there are other dangerous sidekicks: Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) and Arkady Ouromov (Gottfried John). Also, there are other interesting Bond allies, Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker) and Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), who each reprise their parts, JW in "Tomorrow Never Dies," and VZ in "The World is Not Enough." As for a Bond girl, there is Natalya (Izabella Scorupco). Desmond Llewelyn is brilliant in his antepenultimate film as Q in his small scene that is hilariously gimmicky, and Judi Dench's first film as M is also top-notch, showing that she can take on comical parts as well as more serious roles. Samantha Bond's Moneypenny is also good. But the film's-and the franchise's-strong suits are the action scenes, which here are very, very good, the best involving a tank piloted by the agent himself. These scenes are strong not only in their way of being action-packed, but also adding witty and inventive touches to them, possibly courtesy of Martin Campbell, who crafts a great film here. The gadgets are also strong in this film, the best being a pen that can turn into an explosive with three clicks. In other words, this is the definitive Bond film, which hasn't been matched so far yet. "GoldenEye" is my favorite Bond film, a fast-paced, well-done, well-written piece that showcases a new Bond. A-

Flick Pick Hall of Fame List

Just as a starter for a potentially bigger project. The following are people who have made the film business a great place, crafting, acting in, directing, and filming movies that are great:
Charlie Kaufman
Francis Ford Coppola
Paul Newman
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Christian Bale
Gus Van Sant
Mel Brooks
Jim Carrey
Peter Weir
Robert Redford
Ralph Fiennes
Daniel Day-Lewis
Sidney Lumet
Jonathan Demme
Michael Palin
Terry Gilliam
Nicolas Cage
Robert Duvall
James Stewart
Jeff Bridges
Marlon Brando
Wes Anderson
Gene Hackman
Dustin Hoffman
Bill Murray
Jack Lemmon
Walter Matthau
Robert De Niro
Al Pacino
Anthony Hopkins
Ben Kingsley
Tom Wilkinson
Sean Penn
Woody Allen
David Mamet
John Cleese
Peter Sellers
Samantha Morton
Tim Robbins
Morgan Freeman
Clint Eastwood
Jonathan Pryce
Clive Owen
Spike Lee
Casey Affleck
Don Cheadle
George Clooney
Brad Pitt
Jack Nicholson
Buster Keaton
Warren Beatty
William Holden
Kevin Spacey
Cate Blanchett
Harrison Ford
Steven Spielberg
Pete Postlewaite
Alex Gibney
Terrence Malick
Errol Morris
Alfred Hitchcock

More to come!

Road to Perdition

A disaster from the same family of "The Godfather" movies. Relation: third cousin, twice removed. This film actually has a little tiny bit of promise, especially with one of Paul Newman's sleeper performances (which garnered his ninth Academy Award nomination), but he's not the lead. He doesn't appear for more than 10 minutes. In those ten- minutes, he actually supplies all of the film's good moments, as 1930's crime boss John Rooney, who is a pretty shady character. Less shady, though, than his scheming loose cannon of a son Connor (Daniel Craig) and the mass murderer who is his hit man in power, Michael Sullivan, played quite flatly by two-time Academy Award winning actor Tom Hanks, in such a way that it really shows that when Hanks is off, he is really, really off. He's one of the film's low points, and the main supplier of the tasteless violence that comes packaged in with it. So there you have it: Rooney is like Vito Corleone, Sullivan is vaguely resembling Tom, and Connor is like Sonny. All three of the characters are of course much, much, much less interesting and captivating than their dopplegangers of the cinematic masterpiece. Newman, though, can at times be very good, but the film skips over him, as director Sam Mendes (who won an Oscar for "American Beauty" movies whose career since then not been quite as awarding) thinks that Hanks' story is a lot more interesting. That story is of the running man Sullivan, running because of the fact that his older son Michael Sullivan, Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin of "7th Heaven") witnessed one of the corrupt murders committed by his father and Connor and the rest of the hit men employed by Rooney, and the fact that Connor has gunned down his other son Peter (Liam Aiken) and his wife Annie (Jennifer Jason Leigh). So he and his living son go on the road to Chicago and rob banks and cross paths with creepy dead body photographer Harlen MacGuire (Jude Law), yet another man sent out to track down Sullivan. So this plays out with more violence and terrible dialogue and heart-to-hearts and other assorted style-over-substance baloney. I can compliment this film at least on the style, as the sets are done very well, and it looks very luscious. So, towards the end, Sullivan commits more tasteless murders and just when you think he's safe... The film is really not well done at all, shakily put together, badly scoped and a misfire in terms of a surefire plot. Newman, as I said earlier, is very strong, but not good enough to beat the likes of Christopher Walken ("Catch Me If You Can," a much better Hanks picture), Ed Harris ("The Hours"), and the winning actor Chris Cooper ("Adaptation," a far superior movie in many, many ways). Craig is also good, but maybe not worthy of that much praise. Hanks and Hoechlin, though, really can't carry the movie, and they are unfortunately put in position to, instead of Newman and Craig, much better candidates. But the film's biggest whole is a lack of purpose: why is this happening? What is happening? I don't really get the point of this. To sum the film up: style, style, style over substance, screenplay, and satisfactory filmmaking. C

Rachel Getting Married

How to describe Jonathan Demme's new work, what with all the quirks that you would expect, but actually a devastating backstory. Oh and Anne Hathaway in her finest performance. Hathaway plays the the titlular character's formerly drug-addled sister Kym in such a way that speaks mediums. I really doubt that Hathaway can do better than this. She plays Kym as an attention hog, a desperate, emotionally torn black sheep who does all she can, purposefully and accidentally, to ruin everything and make a unique wedding weekend a total mess. Demme knows how to play this up, and makes Jenny Lumet's fully-developed character something more. It is safe to say that Hathaway makes the movie. Beyond her, the movie is still very strong. Rosmarie Dewitt ("Mad Men") less drastically but still not-so-subtly plays the title character, who is indeed tying the knot, to TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe as Sidney, and also is letting out all of her bottled up anger onto her recently rehab-released sister. Also, Bill Irwin (Mr. Noodle of "Sesame Street" and Tom Snout of "A Midsummer Night's Dream) provides a lot of the film's comic relief and also a lot of the film's tears as the overprotective father, weird and normal at the same time, stealing the scenes he's in to a certain extent (as he can't really top Hathaway). Also, Debra Winger steps in as Irwin's ex-wife, also quite (as others said) "emotionally taut", who is also very good in a good supporting performance. Adebimpe is also a comic relief, as he sings Neil Young's timeless "Unknown Legend" atop the altar. And I haven't even gotten to the numerous cameos by singers in fabulous musical performances, supplying music as there is no score and I'm glad there isn't. The film is very personal, especially with Declan Quinn's ("Pride and Glory," "Get Rich or Die Tryin'") crazy (as Owen Gleiberman and Ebert said) "handheld cinematography" that works wonders and is just great. As is Lumet's script and, again, Demme's top-notch directing. Also, it really would be unfair if Hathaway didn't get a Best Actress nod and I'm even going as far to say it might be unfair if she doesn't actually take the statue home on Oscar Night. Why? Because it is a job very well done. You can feel the air being sucked out of the room every time she enters and everything shifts from casual to crisis when she is involved. One last note: the film's trailer is no indication of how the movie is. It is to attract the same audience as the next Hathaway project "Bride Wars," because that audience would not want to see a film that heavy. Speaking of "Bride Wars," I hope that doesn't derail Hathaway's chances of Oscar Gold like "Norbit" did for the 2006 frontrunner Eddie Murphy, who had it all but sealed up but then Alan Arkin pulled away with the Best Supporting Actor award. Bottom line: One of the best films of the year and proof that 2008 could very well be like 2007. A

Rachel Getting Married has a disturbing depiction, and some sexuality.

Recount

"Recount" is a made-for-HBO docudrama that offers you the chance to be a fly on the wall during the 2000 Election Recount that lasted for a whole month and drove Bush into the spot that he has been in for eight years now. The film is partisan, and when I say that, I mean leaning left. But still, it gives you chance to see behind closed doors, and beyond what CNN and MSNBC offered you. "Recount" mostly surrounds Ron Klain (played well by Kevin Spacey), Al Gore's former campaign chairman and his Democratic staff as they fight against the result that Bush has been awarded Florida. It's good to see that Spacey's next project after "21" was actually very good. In this film, Spacey turns in his best performance since (should I say) "American Beauty" or "The Usual Suspects." This is Emmy material. I was thinking the pacing was off when the election (i.e. Gore's projection, then retracted projection, then Bush's projection) flashed by under 20 minutes in. But I definitely was missing the point. There is a movie behind the recount. Also, I felt the dialogue was a little forced, but I was too caught up to notice that most of the time. Anyways, we all know the result of the recount and we know what the result has been. The genius employed here is that you are actually enrapt and you actually believe it can actually happen, that Gore can pull ahead, that he can prevail victorious and continue the vision of Bill Clinton. The film is actually dramatic, and really is nail-biting action right down to the last hanging chad. But it really wouldn't be the same without the great supporting performances: Denis Leary as Michael Whouley, Ed Begley, Jr. as David Boies, Bruce McGill as Mac Stipanovich, Laura Dern uncannily as the overtly inexperienced Katherine Harris, and one of my favorite actors, Tom Wilkinson, as James Baker. All of the performances enhance the film by previously pretty bad director Jay Roach ("Meet the Parents," the Austin Powers series), who turns in a polished job at the helm, and editor Alan Baumgarten (who edited some low-quality stuff, but did perform the good editing in "Fever Pitch"), who wisely edited in some archival footage along with the footage shot by Jim Denault ("Maria Full of Grace," "Boys Don't Cry"), and also scorer Dave Grusin ("Ishtar," "Hope Floats" LOL) who does great work on the music. Bottom line: this film is set apart from 2006's "Bobby," and other political dramas because it is well acted, edited, and directed and connects with that side of you (for Democrats, at least) that was maddened by those highly Republican decisions made in 2000. A-

Redbelt

I love David Mamet's style of directing. He has given us great films: "Glengarry Glen Ross," "Heist," "House of Games," and "The Spanish Prisoner." But in 2008 he seems to be way out of his element. "Redbelt" is more of a misguided vision than a miscalculation. It has some promise as a film, but it doesn't know how to show it, tangling us up in meaningless subplots, providing us with way too many characters, clogging our minds, eyes, and ears with boatloads of information, 75%-85% of it totally useless. Well, I'll try to explain it. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Mike Terry, a jiu-jitsu trainer (and apparently, master) whose zen-inspired offerings reminded me of Wes Studi as the Sphinx in "Mystery Men" giving out his cliches. As for support, there's a love interest that comes early on in the form of Emily Mortimer, good actress, who is faced with a challenge: play a part way out of her element. She actually doesn't rise to that challenge, and she's not very good as Laura Black, an attorney, who, when being asked if she wants her coat to be taken off by one of Mike's students (Max Martini, who happens to be a cop), she fires the student's gun and shatters the window. She starts the crap that is making it's towards Mike. She now could be arrested for this and Mike could be indicted as an assailant. As a result of this, Martini keeps mum (illegally) for Mike's sake. Then, Mike goes to the club where Martini is bouncer, and as a result, we are introduced to more characters: Chet Frank (Tim Allen), Hollywood star who eventually means nothing to the plot because one of the resulting plots bowls over, some guy who I can't remember the name of who can change dice (and more importantly, anything) from black to white, the brother of this prize contender whose a promoter also, and, in his worst performance in a long time, Mamet favorite Ricky Jay, who may have purposely made his acting bad for all I know, because here, he is really bad. I mean really bad. He walks right through his lines and doesn't care whether or not he's even mediocre. He's not trying, and, like a lot of other actors and actresses in this film, is way, way, way out of his element. Well, there's a fight between Chet Frank and some unimportant dude and guess what? Mike Terry has to break it up. If I haven't mentioned it already, all the fight scenes in this movie are pretty bad. They really don't work. Anyways, Mike does and Chet invites him over for dinner. In this scene, we get only a couple of glimpses of Rebecca Pidgeon, who might as well not have been even credited. Well, Mike's wife (Alice Braga) and Pidgeon as Chet's wife apparently make up some scheme that eventually pays off, but it really doesn't matter. So the scene is meaningless. Then, a little later on, after a couple of pointless scenes where Mike is working on Chet's TV show that apparently is called "Desert Storm," we see the get-rich object of desire: a system of stones, 2 white, and 1 black, where, if you draw the black stone, you get a handicap. I, as the viewer, had no idea this was Exhibit A; I thought clearly that it was Exhibit B or C. But flash-forward to the ending and, guess what, I was wrong. Anyways, Mike's wife screws him over as she takes out a $30,000 personal loan from a loan shark (David Paymer). Then, Mike must fight. He decides to fight, he pulls out, then wants to fight again, and then takes a guy down and gets the redbelt. On the way we find out that Exhibit B or C is Exhibit A, but really, Exhibit A is your attention span. Exhibit B is David Mamet, selling a supposedly good film on his great status. Exhibit C is this movie, as it deserves only to be Exhibit C. Why? Because Mamet needs to edit more, better, and re-shoot the movie. He needs to add on a few more scenes, a point, and present a film not only for jiu-jitsu insiders. C-

Redbelt has some language, and some violence.

The Big Lebowski

Ever imagined a western mixed with bowling? Well, now you can see what happens. It's not really much of either, but they are combined in this iconic piece of American comedy by the men behind "Fargo," "Barton Fink," and "Miller's Crossing." It's one of the most unique movies I have ever seen, and maybe that's why there are Lebowski fests from coast to coast. Anyways, Jeff Bridges, five years removed from his best role of his career in "Fearless," turns in a dazzling performance as the hero and massive slacker Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, who gets mixed up with the millionaire Jeffrey Lebowski (Donald Huddleston of "McQ") , who shares his name, but not a lot of his passive traits. His wife Bunny (Tara Reid) has supposedly been kidnapped and he has chosen "The Dude" to be the courier. It all goes horribly wrong, anyways, and it gets mightily confusing, but it's all in great humor. Also in the picture fellow bowler Walter Shobchak (John Goodman in his career roll), who is serious about bowling, and Donny (Steve Buscemi), who is always pretty much confused and always is told by Walter to "shut the f*** up." To add to that, Julianne Moore, for once, is not the greatest actress on the screen, as she unevenly but still hilariously takes the role of the millionaire Lebowski's artist daughter, and David Thewlis, who has played a very wide variety of roles, plays a cackling fellow artiste in one hilarious scene. Flea (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers), Sam Elliot, and John Tuturro all make great supporting performances, too, but in the end it gets too complicated to describe and I am left with only the words "you have to see it to believe it." Some great lines and quirks were spawned from this film, such as the Dude's White Russian obsession and the summarizing line "the dude abides." The film also has set some records, being, as of now, 21st on the list of most f-words (something that has spawned many mashup videos on YouTube) and possibly the only film ever to have both a marmot and a pee-stained rug as a result of two separate incidents. It's only problem are the random unfunny sequences that pop up, which are basically whenever Lebowski however gets knocked out. This only happens twice, but they are the downpoints of the movie. In one of these sequences, Saddam Hussein passes out bowling shoes out of a skyscraping tower of them. Talk about strange. Bottom line: not the best or worst movie of all time, but altogether very, very funny, lifted on the sweet comedic timing of four hilarious: Bridges, Goodman, Buscemi, and Tuturro. A-

The Big Lebowski is very profane, very raunchy... for adults only.

Paul Newman

As you may know, Paul Newman passed away yesterday due to cancer and he joins the list of Hollywood's finest who have passed away this year, Heath Ledger, Bernie Mac, Sydney Pollack, and Charlton Heston being a few others. It is saddening to see an entertainment great like Newman pass away. He has left behind many classic and forever treasured films, such as "Cool Hand Luke," "The Verdict," and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Sting," "The Hustler," and it's sequel "The Color of Money," the only movie for which he received an Oscar, although he was nominated ten times and he also not only won one but two honorary Oscars. He spearheaded the company that made some of the best lemonade I've ever tasted, and donated the money to charity. He was a driving force all around. I am deeply saddened that I will never be able to see brown eye to blue eye with him in person.

The Truman Show

"The Truman Show" is television satire at it's absolute best, and although it's director, Peter Weir, went on to direct another great movie ("Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" was also stellar), "The Truman Show" is his magnum opus. It is also Jim Carrey's best performance of his career, even better than his great dramatic work in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and his actually underrated comedy efforts in "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" and "Fun With Dick and Jane." In this film he plays the title character, Truman Burbank (another sarcastic joke about the industry), a man who has been living in a 24 hour television show practically his whole life, unknowingly being held captive by the ratings-greedy television producer Christof (Ed Harris, also quite good), who adopted him as a baby. The show, though, is a pop culture phenomenon, shown on the big screen at Times Square and loved by millions of people. We only get to see some of the audience though, including two lazy police officers, an entire bar devoted to the show, two old ladies with a Truman pillow, a guy taking a bath, etc. Back to the actual show. Truman lives with his wife Myrel (Laura Linney) and goes to work every day practically the same way every day, with the same people bumping into him, etc. The show in all honesty is about as much a product placement vehicle as it is about Truman himself. Anyways, one day during his daily routine, he sees his supposedly dead father (Brian Delate) wandering around on the set of the show and this where Truman starts to suspect something is up. During a flashback, we see this isn't the first time. During a brief romantic encounter he had with Lauren (Natascha McElhone of "Ronin," "Solaris," and TV's "Californication"), Lauren, in the real world Sylvia, tried to spill the beans on the show before she was driven off the set. But they couldn't hide it forever, and Truman eventually outsmarts the TV crew. But before that, you have close to 85 minutes of absolute genius from Andrew Niccol (whose wrote the movie adaptation of Adonis Huxley's "Brave New World" coming 2011), who, with this film, solidifies himself with Charlie Kaufman that he is one of the best unconventional screenwriters in the business. A

Late Oscar Commentary

Old magazines are fun to read. One I keep coming back to is the Oscar edition of Entertainment Weekly, and besides the Oscar minute-by-minute recap, something else caught my eye. Apparently now, the Oscars are boring, and, mark my words, you are not a true movie lover if you can't appreciate awards night. I admit, it wasn't the speediest of years, but it was still suspenseful, especially that Best Supporting Actor race that featured the five heavyweights: Bardem, Seymour Hoffman, Holbrook, Wilkinson, and Affleck. One thing I do agree on, though, is to stop campaigning movies and actors/actresses so much for certain honors, such as Daniel Day-Lewis for "There Will Be Blood" or Javier Bardem for "No Country for Old Men" or even "No Country" itself. Why? Some frontrunner victories are okay, but to have a truly predictable year at the Oscars is like having a Super Bowl victory of 50 points. One of these years was 2003, when "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King", won so many awards, it was embarrassing. It was such a predictable ceremony, also because Sean Penn was sure to beat Bill Murray despite a lot of attention given to Murray, Tim Robbins held off two great actors in Djimon Hounsou and Ken Watanabe, Charlize Theron beat Keisha Castle-Hughes, and Renee Zellweger captured Supporting Actress easily. So, I admit, some years can be kind of downers, but that's no reason to tune out, as apparently 82% has done from now on. So then, Hollywood cooks up crappier movies because they think due to the popularity of the ceremony that the films sucked and then viewers/critics like myself are forced to watch these less-than-top-notch movies to stay connected. Take, for example, "Crash." "Million-Dollar Baby" was really quite good, but no, Hollywood obviously doesn't think so, as they promote "Crash," an absolute mess that didn't deserve any nominations, over such greats as "Capote" and "Brokeback Mountain." How dare they? Well, this year seems to be one of those years, because although there seems like good pickings this year (refer to my Fall movie preview blog), it seems like the Academy is going to award the film that seems to be creating the most buzz among fans.