The TV Addict 

With months of bad buzz, questions of whether a reboot was necessary (or wanted) so soon, and a swirl of rumors about the bad blood between Edward Norton and Marvel Studios (if you want the full breakdown, Anne Thompson has it summed up here), coupled with my opinion that the Hulk is one of the silliest and uninteresting characters in comics, I didn’t think there was any way THE INCREDIBLE HULK could be good.

I was pleasantly proven wrong. THE INCREDIBLE HULK is exactly what a Hulk movie should be: an action packed tale that fully (and almost joyously) demonstrates the overwhelming power of the Big Green Guy. With this reboot, Marvel Studios has above all else given us a classic Hulk story straight from the comics. It’s got everything from Banner wrangling with his dual personalities, his anger, and depression over his curse, to a scientific race to find a cure while being pursued by the military who want to harness the destructive force of the Hulk for their own ends. The hunting is led by the menacing General Ross, played effectively by William Hurt, who is in turn aided by Emil Blonsky, Tim Roth a soldier who sees the Hulk and the super soldier serum as his way to reach the next level of challenge in combat. Bruce Banner who is played surprisingly well by Edward Norton (who is a great actor, but I didn’t think he’d fit this kind of role) is aided by the Betty Ross (a lovely Liv Tyler) in his Jason Bourne like attempts to stay off the grid and avoid his pursuers.

Given that we’re effectively dealing with something as inherently silly as a scrawny science nerd who turns into a giant green monster, the film succeeds in both remaining dramatically loyal to the comic roots (there are numerous fan-friendly nods, ranging from reused theme songs, guest stars, and comic allusions), but also having a little fun with it all. It helps alleviate the film from becoming too serious, or being overburdened by its action.

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In the first ten minutes of INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, I was worried. Harrison Ford didn’t seem like Indy. He was dressed like him, he looked like him, but after he gets pulled out of a trunk his lines and interactions seemed forced, stilted and awkward. They were hollow with the significant gap between what his delivery was and what it should have been. It’s as if Ford was doing his best Indy impression rather than just being Indy again. It didn’t bode well for the film as a whole.

Thankfully though as the minutes go by, and the main plot started revving up, we’re treated to a legitimate (if not complete, but more on that later) INDIANA JONES experience. After all, that’s what we’re looking for when we watch an Indy movie. An experience. One that sweeps us up along with the adventure, where when things really get going we’re right there in the thick of it with our hero. It’s why we go to the movies. It’s also why it’s easier to overlook CRYSTAL SKULL’s flaws, of which there are a few (some minor, some major). It’s not a perfect film, nor is it one that surpasses any of its predecessors, but it’s an INDIANA JONES film, one that’s exciting and adventurous, and that’s more than I could have hoped for.

That’s never more apparent than in the deliriously staged action-sequences, including a great motorcycle chase earlier in the film, and an intense jungle sequence in the film that is quintessential INDIANA JONES in the way the stakes increasingly get raised, and one perilous situation dominoes into the next. It’s also apparent in the puzzle solving, map following, and tomb raiding/studying sequences, which are unfortunately loaded down by David Koepp’s somewhat clunky and exposition heavy script, but still contain the thrill that wells up in us and Indy (so lovingly conveyed again by Ford) as he gradually solves his way to the goal. All of that proves that Steven Spielberg still knows how to direct the crap out of an action/adventure film, and his decision to not shoot in non-digital, gives CRYSTAL SKULL a wonderful look, even if it’s sometimes interrupted by much more CGI than we were led to believe would be in the film. But that’s the price of working in Hollywood and Georce Lucas these days, and it remains largely and thankfully pretty unobtrusive.

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Todd McCarthy apparently has never heard of the sophomore slump, as his second film THE VISITOR is just as good as his first, THE STATION AGENT, which means something coming from me as I consider the latter to be one of my favorite movies ever.

Richard Jenkins – in a beautiful, deceivingly simple Oscar worth performance – plays Walter Vale, an Economics professors in Connecticut whose life has stagnated. A widower, who has spent twenty years teaching the same course, Walter is one of those people whose been stuck in a rut so long that he doesn’t even know it, unaware of the indifference, apathy, and gruffness with which he greets the world around him. When he travels to New York City to present a paper and arrives in his rarely-used apartment, he is shocked to find a Syrian drummer named Tarek (an impressive performance from Haaz Sleiman), and his Senegalese girlfriend, Zainab (Danai Gurira), living there, scammed by a supposed friend. When Walter agrees to let them stay till they can get settled elsewhere, he gradually emerges from his shell, gently encouraged by the compassion and friendliness of Tarek who seems to instinctively sense that Walter is a man unconsciously longing for more, but simply not sure how to go about realizing his desires. However, as Walter and their friendship bloom, Tarek is unjustly arrested and it turns out that both he and Zainab are in America illegally.

Many films at this point would step up onto a soapbox at this point and start preaching, but THE VISITOR avoids that. Yes, it does have political undertones, and has its fair share to say about immigrant/deportation policy in post 9/11 United States, but it remains ancillary to the film’s more human interests. It never strays from being a sweet, lingering, human story that involves watching Walter delicately emerge from the cocoon of his stagnant life with the gentle cajoling power of human compassion and friendship, and rediscover the long dormant pulse of his life and quicken it.

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The only thing worse than an annoyingly convenient deus ex machina that unexpectedly swoops in at the end, is one you do expect. It’s why even though PRINCE CASPIAN is a solid fantasy action adventure, and a denser, darker follow-up to the first NARNIA film, you never feel yourself fully involved in the events of the film because no matter how things bad go – and they do – you know inevitably the mighty lion Aslan is going to swoop in and save everyone from obliteration.

This time around Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy return to Narnia to find that even though only a year has passed for them in London, in Narnia several hundred years have gone by. The world in which they were once kings and queens has given way to treacherous humans called Telmarines who have driven Narnians almost into extinction. When the Telmarine leader, Miraz (a moustache-twirling Sergio Castellitto) tries to have the heir to the throne, Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), killed, Caspian unknowingly blows a horn that brings the London bunch back to Narnia to help the young (and dreamy) Prince and the Narnians reclaim the kingdom.

As the film moves along its slow-build towards the more intense action sequences in this inevitable war for the throne, it tides the viewer over with dramatic scenes involving a heavy-dose of politics, ruminations on the nature and temptations of leadership, the cost of war, and Christian issues of trust and belief. Weighty issues for a supposed children’s film, and the thing is, though it all works well enough, and I enjoyed it all, in a strange way I never got a sense of real gravitas. It felt as if the film was acting a sense of obligation to provide some drama before getting to the action sequences. Which of course means that as a viewer you dutifully sit through those scenes, and even enjoy them, but are still in the back of your mind wondering when the fighting is going to start.

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There’s no shortage of things that work well in IRON MAN. It’s stunningly well paced and plotted, finding the proper balance between the action and the dramatic, and propelling the story along without anything ever dragging or become excessive. The special effects are accomplished, and the action sequences are efficiently and often deliriously staged, even it means just watching with sheer exhilaration (shared by our protagonist) as Tony Stark flies around in his suit.
Even things that shouldn’t work do. Robots with personalities in the film avoid becoming cheesy family-film material. Terrence Howard plays little more than a one-dimension supporting character who seems eerily omnipresent, but his friendly rapport with Downey Jr. and the sense that you feel there a bigger plans for his character make it okay. Pepper Potts, Stark’s super secretary should also be nothing more than a patriarchal stereotype, but (to borrow Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman’s dead-on observation) the adorable looking Gwyneth Paltrow “manages the neat trick of taking a character who’s a pre-feminist throwback and playing her with a liberated twinkle.”

However, what makes IRON MAN such a good film is its protagonist transformation. At the onset of the film Tony Stark is an inventive boy-wonder, a genius rock-star infatuated with his own cockiness. He heads a weapons manufacturer company that is intent on preserving democracy by providing the American army with the means of putting down the “bad guys,” without bothering about the moral ramifications. He’s sarcastic, prone to drink, and uses his natural charm and good looks to get any women into bed that he can. While giving a weapons demonstration of a new missile in Afghanistan he is wounded and captured, and put to work by terrorists who want the missile for themselves. There his naiveté is burst when he sees his weapons have found their way into the hands of “the bad guys,” and learns a little humility when his life is saved by a fellow captive, Yinsen (a marvelous Shaun Toub). He devises a suit to escape, does so, and returns home somewhat of an active pacifist, declaring that his company no longer will manufacture weapons, but privately builds an iron man suit that will enable him to make a moral difference.

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Dennis Quaid can do as many films like VANTAGE POINT, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, and YOURS, MINE, and OURS that he wants, he’ll never have to worry about his status as one of my favorite actors. It’s not just because he throws us more than enough fantastic performances every now and then to keep us going, it’s because even when he is in a mediocre film, he stands out above the muck with that inherent charm that just spills out of that rogue-ish smile of his, and that talent that seems to come out of him so effortlessly and non-chalantly that he seems to just naturally inhabit any character he’s playing. Watching him often feels like you’re watching your best buddy doing whatever he does inherently best. Even when he’s play a jerk – as he does here – Quaid is a delight.

In SMART PEOPLE, Quaid plays Lawrence, the type of (English) professor we all knew at some point: bearded, unkept, and intellectually indignant to the supposed academic incompetence of his students. He’s a widower who has never moved on, sleepwalking through his professional duties and his personal duties as a father. His daughter, Vanessa (Ellen Page) is a hyper-intellectual over-achiever, so consumed in the potential of her own accomplishments, and trying to earn her father’s pride (or any emotional reaction, for that matter), that she has no life. His son, (Ashton Holmes) is the opposite – meeting his father’s obligatory interest in him with the same indifference he suspects his father feels. When Lawrence has a minor seizure, and his license is revoked, his dead-beat stepbrother, Chuck (Thomas Haden Church) steps in as driver, providing a “lived-life” contrast to the distanced intellectualizing of Vanessa and Lawrence.

They are a dysfunctional lot, made all the more so when Lawrence’s situation sends their personalities crashing against each other, with the addition of an ER doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker) – and former student – who becomes a romantic interest for Lawrence. It’s in the interaction between these characters that the film really shines, helped by the excellent performances of all the actors, Dennis Quaid (of course) being the best of the lot, in a role that would seem counter-intuitive to his open, friendly face, but ends up being perfect. It’s not unlike Michael Douglas’ role in WONDER BOYS, and like that role, the actor and character just fit so perfectly, that it’s never less than a pleasure to watch them mingle, even when Quaid’s character here is often simultaneously a conscious and oblivious jerk.

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I can’t say I’m surprised that an English language, Hollywood produced, written, and directed, major motion picture would dilute the promising awesomeness of Jet Li and Jackie Chan finally appearing together in a film. I can say I’m disappointed though, because on some level I naively deluded myself into at least having hope. Thankfully though the film wasn’t a complete wash, it just wasn’t all it could and should have been.

The most persistent complaint the film has gotten (and one I’m going to attach myself to) is that neither Jet Li nor Jackie Chan are the central protagonists. Instead, we’re forced to view this mystical, fantastical martial arts film through the much more North American friendly (you can’t see it, but I’m rolling my eyes right about now) perspective of a young white boy living in the present with an encyclopedic knowledge of kung-fu films, who gets transported back into time (or another reality, who knows?) where he gets a crash-course lesson in kung-fu, takes to it quickly, and winds up being the prophesized hero everyone believes him to be. Most importantly, he learns how to stand up for himself, and other such trite Disney-type lessons. What is the prophecy? He’s meant to bring a magical staff to the Monkey King. In other words, he’s a glorified courier service. A less than thrilling narrative, with barely there sub-plots involving assassins, and even a romantic love interest for the hero.

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FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL is the funniest film I’ve seen all year, and yet while I was watching the film my laughter felt strangely hollow. Throughout all the great lines, and performances, and comedic set pieces, it was always there. As I was leaving the theatre I found myself trying to figure out what was missing, why I felt somehow disappointed, even though I had laughed my butt off and enjoyed myself.

The basic story was fine, if comfortably familiar. Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) is a composer for a hilarious CSI-knock off show (while working on an awesome puppet based Dracula rock-opera on the side), and is dating the show’s star, Sara Marshall (Kristen Bell) until she dumps him. After a series of drunken one-night stands, Peter escapes to Hawaii to get over Sarah only to (of course) bump into her and her new lothario rock star, Aldous Snow (the scene-stealing Russell Brand) at the resort. Things get worse for a while until (of course) he begins a flirtation with Rachel (Mila Kunis, who has gotten gorgeous since “That 70’s Show”), the concierge at the hotel. You can probably figure out where things go from there.

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If you ever needed proof of why you need friends, CARAMEL might very well help. Written, directed by, and starring Nadine Labaki, the Lebanese film is a poignant testament to the nurturing power of friendship that can help one overcome the trials and tribulations of life. Needless to say, the five female characters that all work or hang out at a small beauty parlor in Beirut have their fair share of those.

The gorgeous Layale (Nadine Labaki) is having an affair with a married man but struggling to move on. Nisrine (Yasmine Elmasri) is about to get married, but because of cultural expectations needs a minor procedure to correct the fact she is no longer a virgin. Rima (Joanna Moukarzel) is a lesbian who is falling for a customer. Then there are those who visit the salon. Jamale (Gisele Aouad) is a middle-aged divorce trying to find work as an actress, while desperately trying to recapture her youth. Rose (Sihame Haddad) is an older seamstress who is burdened by having to make the choice between finding love again, or continuing to take care of her mentally handicapped sister.

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George Clooney’s LEATHERHEADS is two movies when it should have really been one. The film fumbles in and out – seemingly blindly at times – of being a nostalgic throw-back to the screwball comedies of the 1930s and an underdog sports movie, when it should have forfeited the later for the former. Instead the film awkwardly shifts its rickety frame from one genre to the next, never successfully melding the two together well enough for it all to work. It’s too bad because there’s a delightfully fun screwball film buried beneath it all, and when it peeks out you wish the rest of the film were like it.

The basic sports story centers on Dodge Connelly (George Clooney), who runs the Duluth Bulldogs football team, a down-and-dirty professional football team before rules were brought in, and the fun removed When the team goes broke, Dodge hatches a plan to hire a superstar college football player and war hero, Carter “The Bullet” Rutherford (John Krasinski) to save the team, and legitimize – or at least popularize – the sport.

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