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 12/25

The Great Debaters is a biopic period piece from Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo productions so it is no surprise that the ensemble cast is top heavy with African American super talent. That said the central characters to the movie James Farmer Jr. played by Denzel Whitaker along with his Wylie College debating team mates Nate Parker as Henry Lowe and the smouldering Jurnee Smollett as Samantha Booke are basically newcomers. Forrest Whitaker is Dr. James Farmer Sr. (no relation to the younger Whitaker playing his son) who manages to isolate the lad from the surrounding racial ugliness and whose strict ways undoubtedly account for junior’s early entry into college at 14 years old. Farmer Jr. may be a still wet behind the ears but he has raging hormones enough to lust after Booke who has fallen for Lowe, a hunky erudite player. For a while this causes friction in this elite debating squad but as their success spreads they gel as a team and focus on ever more challenging debates and become the vanguard of a debating dynasty. Denzel Washington directs himself as Professor Melvin Tolson, their debating coach whose involvement in social justice issues is a passionate as his direction of the debating team.  Texas in 2007 is not what you’d consider a watershed of racial tolerance so imagine how things were in 1935! If you’re imagination isn’t so vivid it will be after seeing this movie which in short order takes Farmer Jr. from shy adolescent to compelling orator.

The Savages is the ironic name of a family of quirky individuals reluctantly reunited. As you might expect from the cast the acting is flawless in this dramatic comedy. Philip Seymour Hoffman is Jon Savage a dishevelled Buffalo NY university professor with commitment issues who is constantly missing publishing deadlines for his research. His sister Wendy played by Laura Linney is an aspiring New York City author who ekes out a living on grant money and is sleeping with her married neighbour. Naturally their shortcomings are all the fault of Lenny (veteran actor Philip Bosco) their surviving parent slowly sinking into dementia and living in Arizona with his second wife also with diminishing capacities. When fully cognisant however she and Lenny signed a prenup and her sudden passing puts dad on the street which leaves the siblings scrambling to find accommodations for their hated yet still loved father. Ferocious, rude and cruel all fall under the dictionaries description of “savage” and the family members all exhibit similar attributes as they try to remedy the situation so that they may again comfortably distance themselves from one another.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a French biopic which was one of the feature attractions at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival. It’s the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby the editor of Elle magazine in 1995. At the time he was living a dream but all that changed in an instant when at the very young age of 43 he suffered a massive stroke that left him totally paralysed save for his left eye. Rather than sink into despair he managed to dictate his memoirs through a painstakingly laborious method of blinking, all the while maintaining the affections of not just one but two beautiful women. In the process he discovered a world of imagination within. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly stars Mathieu Amalric as Bauby, a role that Johnny Depp was slated to take on but his schedule for Pirates of the Caribbean got in the way.

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep is a rather shallow fantasy based on the mythical Loch Ness Monster. With an almost convincing highland brogue Brian Cox is Old Angus a wizened Scottish local who regales “Nessie” tourists with the story of a forlorn wartime lad in denial that his Royal Navy father went down with his torpedoed ship. When his tide pool treasure hatches a ravenous and unique amphibious creature he learns from the newly hired handyman that he probably has a legendary hermaphrodite water horse which lays one egg before it dies so that the legend can live on. They along with his blossoming sister keep the creature a secret from mom and the bivouac soldiers on their estate for as long as possible which isn’t long due to its exponential rate of growth. They finally release it into the loch where it is in peril from military target practice. The CGI interaction between the humans and the creature is mind boggling but more is needed to wow an audience for an entire movie. The very young may be harmlessly distracted by The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep but character development is sketchy and very little chemistry evolves to make us care much for these people.
 
Also opening Xmas Day:
Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem
The Orphanage (Spansih)

12/21

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story has Taladaga Nights star John C. Reilly masterfully taking the lead as a hard living rockabilly icon who spends his life trying to impress his disapproving father after a childhood machete accident leaves dad feeling that the wrong son died. Lampooning the attributes of biopic subjects like Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis we take the roller coaster though his career as a contemporary of Elvis and The Beatles and on into his 70’s TV show and along the way meet his 3 wives and 22 kids. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is co-written and produced by Judd Apatow who did the same jobs for The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad. Although this one isn’t as entertaining it’s still pretty funny and its Golden Globe nominations finally give Apatow some well deserved credentials. Also testament to his rising star power is the big names taking small parts here. Harold Ramis, Jason Schwartzman, Jack Black, Justin Long (The Mac computer guy) and Paul Rudd all appear in very minor roles. As well we get cameos by musicians Jack White of the White Stripes playing Elvis and as themselves Jackson Browne, Otis Williams & The Temptations, Eddie Vedder and Lyle Lovett.

Charlie Wilson's War stars Tom Hanks playing a real life congressman who in the ‘80’s cobbled together geometrically escalating CIA funds that were used to outfit the Afghani Mujahadeen rebels in their fight against the invading Russians. Getting the money was the easy part – arming the rebels with catastrophic ordinance that couldn’t be linked to America was the hard part. History also marks Wilson as a playboy politician which is fodder for a hilarious segment where he tries to spin allegations of cocaine use while strategizing with his CIA brainiac Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman by the way here takes his trademark slovenliness to magnificent new heights and tops it off with a huge dollop of surliness. Wilson also had a long term affair with Joanne Herring (a sizzling Julia Roberts), a capital R Texas republican socialite who pulls more strings than Geppetto and she’s the one who prods Wilson into action Charlie Wilson's War alleges that his actions bankrupted the USSR so badly that it lead to the break up of the Soviet Union. Was he a visionary or just exacting payback for Vietnam? No matter what the facts are they’ll never stand in the way of this being a very good story.

P.S. I Love You stars Hillary Swank as Holly Kennedy, a New York widow who is contacted by the ghost of her late husband not in a spiritual way but thanks to the US postal system, giving new meaning to the Dead Letter Office. Her departed scribbling spouse is Gerard Butler whose personality has softened as much as his abs since 300. Here he’s the stereotypical Irish charmer who mercifully we lose with no maudlin death watch. Post mortem letters start arriving that were written while his life ebbed away that seem to anticipate her emotional state and map out a plan of action that will get her life back on track. Kathy Bates is solid in a supporting role as is Lisa Kudrow who gets all the big laughs. Ironically the only one that doesn’t seem to sing at one point or another is Harry Connick Jr. who is a social graces challenged acquaintance smitten by Swank who hangs around waiting to be first in line when she returns to the dating scene and how their relationship develops is satisfying with its unpredictability. Also a surprise and lost in all the globe trotting until it hits you in the face is where are these letters coming from? Swanks stellar career took a stumble this ear with The Reaping and although P.S. I Love You won’t garner another Oscar nomination, this movies post script is I like you again.

Juno is a witty self assured 16 year old  who is a friend with benefits to Toronto’s Michael Cera (only slightly less geeky here than in last summer’s Superbad). Unfortunately the one time they get busy leaves her in the family way. With shocked but loving support from friends and family (a prim and feisty Allison Jenny and the seminally rock solid JK Simmons) she finds what appears to be the perfect couple to adopt the impending arrival. They’re played by Jason Bateman who appears to be the coolest fit of the two and an uptight Jennifer Garner who proves to be the fittest parent. Juno is a quirky love story with a screenplay that is genius in making borderline taboos acceptable. This filmed in Burnaby movie although having a definite Canadian presence has nothing to do with our annual music awards but none the less should get some kind of trophy for writing and especially for Haligonian Ellen Page who impressively takes charge in the title role.  Root for her at the Golden Globes.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is the latest dark and delicious offering from creepmeister Tim Burton. Johnny Depp takes the lead character to demonic depths even as we meet him quietly raging on a sailing ship docking in Victorian London. This Broadway musical originally staged in 1979 soon reveals that the former barber’s 15 year absence was punishment for a crime uncommitted and his sentence was imposed by a Judge Turpin because he lusted after the accused man’s wife. When Todd returns to his barbershop he finds that Mrs. Nellie Lovett played by Helena Bonham Carter is the proprietor of the downstairs pie shop. She recognizes him not as Sweeny Todd but as her former neighbour Benjamin Barker and informs him that his wife died and his daughter is now the ward of Judge Turbin (Alan Rickman who is becoming the new cinematic touchstone for sinister). Before long Todd and Lovett have a cozy arrangement – while he awaits the day that he can exact a bloody revenge on the evil judge Todd slits the throats of unsuspecting customers and Lovett turns the corpses into tasty pies that become haute cuisine for London gourmets. Filming a musical can be tricky and since none of the songs are really hum-able the vocals take some getting used to. Depp takes on the new challenge as a singer with typical perfection but Carter isn’t quite as accomplished – but when you’re Mrs Tim Burton the director might cut you some slack. Anyway she’s still pretty good so maybe I’ll eat my words but hold the Cornish pasty.

The Kite Runner is a screen adaptation of the best selling novel of the same name. It comes to a climax in Afghanistan just prior to 9/11 but starts in Kabul in the ’70’s long before the favourite national pastime of kite flying was outlawed by the Taliban. One of the best is Hassan, the son of a servant who even as a boy displays loyalty and courage beyond his years and is devoted to Amir the son of Baba his father’s benevolent employer. Amir is the story’s protagonist who is long on talent as a storyteller but short on valour. A shameful act severs a 40 year relationship with his family and the hired help and their comfortable lifestyle is irreparably disrupted by the Russian invasion that causes Amir and his father to flee to San Francisco. After years spent scrimping to regain a level of comfort Amir is presented with the opportunity to make amends for his boyhood betrayal and in the process grow a backbone but it means a perilous trip into Taliban controlled Kabul. The Kite Runner seems an off choice for DreamWorks films but an odds on favourite for consideration during the upcoming award season.

Also out this weekend:
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Taare Zameen Par
Welcome
Ride Around the World/Dinosaurs Alive!

12/14

I Am Legend takes us ahead to the year 2012 where Will Smith is a former military officer MD hunting deer with his German shepherd Sam in the rubble of the vacant, neglected streets of New York City. This is because in 2009 a miracle cure for cancer mutated into a virus that wiped out civilization except for those immune to the bug and as far as Smith is concerned he’s the only one left on earth. Actually he’s not totally alone and that’s where the story gets suitably creepy. When he’s not on daylight safari’s in Time Square he’s in his lab trying to come up with a vaccine for the killer virus and spending his nights barricaded indoors waiting in terror for the sun to rise but I won’t be a spoiler and say why he’s so nervous. I Am Legend is a tour de force for Will Smith and the affable ex-rapper really rises to the occasion but aside from his outstanding one man show I also liked that there was no cop out extended narration to explain the story. Instead all is revealed via dialogue and flashbacks and with the exception of one passage about God that sounded like Tyler Perry had a hand in writing the script, the story flows sensibly. On the down side I Am Legend may not be what Will Smith fans have come to expect and the theme we’ve seen done as well or better in movies like 28 Days Later.

The King of Kong is a documentary that has all the makings of a mock send up as it focuses on people who are just odd enough to look like a parody of themselves but they are in fact the real deal. The Kong of the title is the classic video game Donkey Kong and the King of the game is Billy Mitchell a hero to geeks everywhere because he set an all time high record at the game in the 80’s that can’t be beat. In the meantime he’s become a hot sauce mogul and philanthroper of sorts still idolized by gamers everywhere especially members of Twin Galaxies, an organization dedicated to like minded dating challenged men. Lately however Billy’s benevolence is shaded and his mullet has gone into a tailspin wilt because upstart Steve Wiebe from just down the road in Redmond WA has surpassed his unsurpassable record. The rivalry gets very heated in King of Kong when it looks like Twin Galaxies, which has just been tapped by the Guinness people to record video game world records, is bending the rules to favour their golden boy Billy Mitchell.

Citizen Duane takes place in Ridgeview named after the ridge at the edge of town which so impacts the life of a local high school student, Duane Balfour. Duane’s father alleged before his untimely death that the ridge is unstable ground and when his alarms were ignored dad went a little crazy. Without a father figure Duane is like a rudderless torpedo constantly in trouble and recipient of pain doled out by his nemesis Chad Milton. He plots revenge by running for Mayor of Ridgeview against the incumbent who happens to be Chad’s mother and makes some serious inroads on the hustings until his disastrous grand gesture to try to win his girlfriend back puts the court of public opinion in a lynching mood. Citizen Duane is a low budget comedy filmed in Hamilton that pays homage to movies like Napoleon Dynamite but doesn’t quite match their standard.

Also out this weekend:
Alvin and the Chipmunks

Deep Water
 

12/07

Atonement is the true telling of Time Magazine’s 2001 best novel of the year. It chronicles a lifelong literary English aristocrat named Briony Tallis played by 3 exceptional actresses especially through the remarkable newcomer Saoirse Ronan as a pre-war, preteen and for a brief but riveting time by Vanessa Redgrave as a geriatric contemporary. We’re introduced to her as a child in 1935 when she and the terminally luscious Keira Knightley her twenty-something sister Cecilia along with their family and servants live in the seclusion of a pastoral estate. A surprisingly underutilized  Brenda Blethyn is the housekeeper whose son Robbie (played by The Last King of Scotland’s  James McAvoy) in a then modern twist has been put through university by the family but the simmering passion between he and Cecilia causes him to happily toil on in servitude. Briony’s over-active imagination and the jealousy brought on by her girlish crush on Robbie causes her to falsely accuse him of a heinous act and the somewhat unbelievable fallout not only ruins his life but also causes an irreparable rift in the family. Briony then spends her life trying to make “Atonement” for her lie the only way that she knows how.

The Golden Compass is one of the most anticipated of this falls myriad of films. The title refers to a device that establishes the truth with clockwork precision but only for those who know how to read it. It exists in a parallel universe which is connected by mysterious dust and where humans have external souls that manifest themselves as animals. The compass secretly becomes the property of the daring and precocious Lyra Belacqua played by outstanding newcomer Dakota Blue Richards. She’s the ward of Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel who has placed her in an Ivy League school while he goes on a northern safari to explore the source of this dust. While he’s gone however Marisa Coulter played by Nicole Kidman takes charge of Lyra who is dazzled by Coulter’s glamour and sophistication but soon realizes that there is an agenda and the compass is part of it. Coulter actually runs The Gobblers, kidnappers who steal children for experimentation in an arctic lab, and Lyra makes her way there attempting to rescue her friends. On the way there’s help from witches, polar bears, gypsies and a Texas aeronaut. With never a dull moment the intense action brilliantly enhanced by some phenomenal CGI that constantly enhances 19th century technology with 21st century refinements. The book knocked me out so I came with such high expectations that I actually prepared myself for a letdown but The Golden Compass was even better than I’d hoped. And that mysterious dust? We’ll just have to wait for the sequel to find out more.

Margot at the Wedding is a black family comedy and not just because Jack Black is about to marry into a clinically dysfunctional family. Black is starting to get some creds as a serious actor and as testament that he’s committed to his craft he’s convincingly packed a 58 year old portly body onto his thirty-something frame, all of which we get to see way too much of. As the freeloading Malcolm he’s managed to woo Pauline, an earthy beauty played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. Their wedding invitations list includes Pauline’s estranged sister Margot played by a glammed-down Nicole Kidman who surprisingly shows up with her hormonally charged teenaged son and a ton of baggage – most of it NOT for clothes. Bygones are left as bygones only as long as it takes for Margo to decide that Malcolm is no good for Pauline and as she uses her razor sharp wit to undermine the ceremony some acidic head butting ensues. Margot at the Wedding is from Noah Baumbach who gave us last years Oscar nominated The Squid and the Whale who again has come up with a sometimes painfully honest story of family values.

Walk All Over Me is a funny Canadian thriller with international stars as well as Vancouver playing itself. Leelee Sobieski is Alberta who coincidentally on the run from a small town in Alberta. She’s a young woman who already has accumulated a lifetime of misadventures and who heads to the coast to escape her past. With no job and no home she turns up on the doorstep of her prosperous looking sister played by Battlestar Galactica’s fetching Number 6 Tricia Helfer who by the way actually is from a small Alberta town. We soon realize that the source of her prosperity is from her much in demand skills as a dominatrix. Alberta’s Alberta ways still haunt her and finding herself in need of a lot of quick cash she decides to literally whip up some cash via the family business, the source if which is selected from videos that clients are required to submit so to speak. However the slave she decides on appears to have run afoul of some eastern heavies and she gets caught in the middle of a violent search for some missing cash. Sobieski and Helfer are a lot more believable that the script they find themselves in. Still Walk All Over Me has bursts of entertainment and might be a consideration when it comes out on DVD.

How to Cook Your Life is a documentary that focuses on a philosophical Buddhist monk whose disciples take away his Zen platitudes not as much for affirming their lives but more importantly as a way to conduct life in the kitchen. I found the pace unwatchable but a gentler gourmet might find it How to Cook Your Life enlightening both spiritually and around the waistline.

Also out this weekend:

It's a Boy Girl Thing
Dus Kahaniyaan

11/30

 I'm Not There is an appropriate title for a movie based on the many lives of Bob Dylan since none of the characters are named Bob or Dylan or even Robert Zimmerman. With unmistakeable Dylan characteristics a variety of actors portray various phases in the life of this very public enigma and although done in a most entertaining fashion we’re not much more enlightened by the end of the film and you might be even more mystified by the closing credits. One piece of enlightenment dealt with possibly at too much length is the man’s apparent affinity with Billy the Kid portrayed by Richard Gere. Ironically one of his few acting gigs was in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid starring Kris Kristofferson who narrates this picture. More irony is that although Dylan never was an actor per se, Heath Ledger portrays him as a philandering thespian. The most recognizable portion of his life – when he was hitting it big in the mid 60’s – has Cate Blanchett brilliantly bringing some frailty to a lippy self absorbed rock star. Ben Whishaw is a talking head spouting philosophical brilliance that we came to expect from Dylan. Christian Bale is haunted as a man taking responsibility for the impossible expectations of his fans. Along the way we meet a Joan Baez type and a Joni Mitchell type an Edie Sedgwick type. Of interest are roles starring the real Richie Havens (with teeth finally) Vancouver’s Bruce Greenwood and former Vancouver DJ Don Francks. I was there for the duration of the lives portrayed and I liked the nostalgia trip and more importantly if I was Bob Dylan I think I’d like I’m Not There.

Awake stars Vancouver’s Hayden Christensen and the filmed in Vancouver Dark Angel Jessica Alba along with Terrence Howard, and Lena Olin.

Why Did I Get Married? is yet another comedy from the always dreadful Tyler Perry which was released a month ago in the USA. 

Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint is a beautifully shot but slow paced film that follows the early enlightening years of Thöpaga an 11th century Tibetan son of a wealthy merchant who is robbed of his birthright by an unscrupulous uncle. He leaves his village determined to master sorcery and returns as Milarepa, able to bring about revenge with his magic but at too high a price. His legend endures to today and this story will endure until 2009 when the sequel is due to be released.

Also out this weekend, 3 movies fro India:
My Brother Nikhil
Sajna Ve Sajna
Aaja Nachle
 
And the documentary:
Tears For April: Beyond the Blue Lens

11/23

The Mist builds tension not only outwardly by a malicious fog that rolls into a sleepy lakeside hamlet but also inwardly via a Lord Of The Flies-like psychology. A devastating wind storm sends a flurry of residents to the local supermarket for emergency supplies and while they line up at the check-out the mist rolls in which precipitates not only moisture but a variety of flying and tentacled nasties hungry for anyone foolish enough to venture back to their car. While confused shoppers try their best to brace for a creepy onslaught the bible thumping Marsha Gay Harding gets exponentially more successful at making herself out as a messiah who has all the compassion of the Spanish Inquisition. The Mist is adapted from Stephen King's novella and takes a step back from the slashing and torture that are hallmarks of today’s most successful horror flicks however in the end stellar fantasy director Frank Darabont  does Steven King one Steven King better when it comes to hopeless peril.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is the punch line to an old Irish toast that starts “may you be in heaven a half hour…”. If ever there were people to hope that’s the case it’s the two brothers earmarked for Satan played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke. Both are strapped for cash and Hoffman as the older sibling can egg the younger Hawke into perpetrating a slam dunk inside job jewellery heist. Well, things don’t go smoothly at all although you’d think being such an inside job they’d be prepared for things going sideways as they did and all of a sudden our boy’s money worries became the least of their problems. This story is told flip flopping between pre and post robbery as a way to pique interest. Certainly a naked Marisa Tomei piqued my interest however that was horribly offset by an equally naked Philip Seymour Hoffman. With a cast that also features a filicidal Albert Finney the acting is superb but there really is no mystery to Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

Still Life perhaps refers to the pace of this Chinese docudrama that seems to progress at a speed just one notch above stopped. In a riverside town along the Yangtze a man searches for his ex wife in hopes of establishing contact with his estranged daughter. Although you’d never know it by the speed of events taking place, time is of the essence as the town will soon be flooded as part of the Three Gorge Project. Although a fascinating look a part of the mysterious Orient rarely seen, the quality of filmmaking seems to be from decades ago.

Also out this weekend:
This Christmas
Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal

Open Wed:
Hitman
Enchanted

11/16

August Rush stars Freddie Hightower as an 11 year old oblivious to his musical genius and only aware that he can find music in any ambient sounds. He lives by choice in an orphanage and is scorned for his belief that this will aid his parents in reclaiming him. Keri Russell and The Tudors Jonathan Rhys Meyers play his parents renowned in completely different music genres who are kept apart by Russell’s over protective father who is also responsible for their separation from the boy. When Hightower leaves for New York to find his parents he is taken in a la Oliver Twist by a Fagan-like Robin Williams who gives him his stage moniker and unwittingly starts him on the road to family reunification. I loved the counterpoint of original and classic music in August Rush which is a totally predictable journey yet the relentless emotional build up made even more intense by the quality of acting make the final release truly a rush.

Beowulf retells the 6th century Saxon poem for the second time in 2 years following last years Beowulf & Grendel starring 300’s Gerard Butler. In this exponentially more spectacular version director Robert Zemeckis further refines his The Polar Express animation chops to even loftier heights. Anthony Hopkins is Hrothgar a Nordic king plagued by Grendel a party crashing troll with a penchant for making Danish pastries out of his warriors. The usually stocky Ray Winstone is radically buffed by computer enhancement as Beowulf who is rewarded with Hrothgar’s kingdom for dispatching Grendel, however the real problem is that monster mother (Angelina Jolie). Beowulf’s connects with her in the same way that Hrothgar did but with even more terrifying results. Beowulf is released in 2 formats including 3D IMAX which is how I saw it and perhaps this marks its coming of age. For the most past this has only been used as a documentary vehicle but seeing a well crafted feature length film five stories high produces a profound “wow” factor that could attract movie fans back into theatres.

Love in the Time of Cholera returns No Country for Old Men star Javier Bardem again in a screen adaptation of a best selling novel but this time returning to his more familiar territory as a sympathetic lost soul. With a whose who of Latino actors this epic story of frustrated passion takes place in Columbia from about 1880 to 1930. Sanitation is crude so cholera outbreaks are many. Giovanna Mezzogiorno is Fermina Urbino and it is cholera that brings her together with her two greatest lovers. As a young woman she is thunder struck by Florentino Ariza the telegraph boy later played by Bardem. The feeling is more than mutual but their attraction is thwarted by Catholic mores and her father, a middle class social climber played by John Leguizamo who feels that she can do better. When he cajoles her into marriage with Benjamin Bratt as the prosperous Dr. Juvenal Urbino, Florentino bides his time for ½ a century getting rich, counselling the love lorne and bedding over 600 women while waiting for the not always good doctor to die. When that day finally comes it is not the glorious reunion that he’d envisioned. Love in the Time of Cholera is a true linear presentation of the novel told via sweeping cinematography but I found that some of the aging prosthetics didn’t quite work and I couldn’t connect emotionally to the film.
 
Redacted has an epilogue that features a sickening montage of Iraqi carnage that appears to be of innocent citizens. One can imagine that the veteran graphic movies director of Scarface and Carrie, Brian Depalma imagined the previous life of these ravaged souls and wove their story into the drama presented. You might feel a little deceived at first because the documentary style feels pretty real as we watch American soldiers on an overextended tour of duty managing an Iraqi roadblock. The painful boredom and constant war zone stress slowly turns this band of brothers into snapping adversaries and some into unremorseful criminals who feel that this situation gives them licence to act that way. These actions of course do nothing to win the hearts and minds of the vanquished that they are purportedly there to help.

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium stars Dustin Hoffman as the magical Margorium, a toy store proprietor for some 250 years which might explain the bad hair but not the lisp. At one point he bought enough shoes to last a lifetime and right now he’s on his last pair so he’s preparing to hand over the emporium to an asexual Natalie Portman (who still looks hot) playing Molly Mahoney, Magorium’s assistant whose also trying to recapture her musical muse. She warms the heart of Jason Bateman the anal retentive accountant Henry Weston hired to put the store’s affairs in order. The story is narrated by Molly’s friend Zach Mills as the outcast 9 year old Eric Applebaum reading from notes of Bellini the Bookbuilder who is Magorium’s long time diarist. He doesn’t say much but seems to have had the good sense not to invest in long term footwear. Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is a filmed in Toronto mildly funny and kid safe fantasy that tries with limited success to bring some Willy Wonka magic to the upcoming festive season and being released so close to the holidays is a dream come true for product placement. 

Breakfast with Scot stars Canada’s Tom Cavanagh (TV’s Ed, also Ed in this picture) as a former enforcer with the Toronto Maple Leafs who’s sidelined from the game by injuries and gamely sports a Vancouver Giants cap when not on camera at his new gig working for a Canadian sports network. Oh yeah, and he’s gay. That’s kept on the down low for professional reasons but staying committed and in the closet gets complicated when Sam, his buttoned down lawyer life partner gets saddled with Scot a pre-teen sired by Sam’s irresponsible brother.  Scot is played by Noah Bernett a phenomenal 12 year old Montreal actor who at one point gives an Oscar worthy admission of the real reason for his mother’s death. Scott by the way is quite effeminate which makes Ed very uncomfortable. Of course the 2 ½ men end up bonding in an extremely heart warming fashion. Outside of ockey the message of tolerance in Breakfast with Scot puts a real Canadian brand on the film but it doesn’t have a Canadian look to it and is another production from Astral Media to be quite proud of.

Intervention stars Canadian actors Jennifer Tilley and Colm Feore along with Andie MacDowell, Charles Dance, and Donna D'Errico in a horrible movie that will have you doing an Amy Winehouse regarding rehab and saying no, no, no. 

Also out this weekend:
Falling For Grace
Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking
Nitro
The Devil Came on Horseback

11/09

Surviving My Mother is a worthwhile Canadian comedy that was well received at the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival. Three generations of seething oestrogen are united under the roof of long suffering Colin Mochrie. Ellen David is his wife who must care for her ailing yet demanding and judgemental mother. The real story of matriarchal survival however is between David and blue eyed francophone hottie Caroline Dhavernas as her daughter and the only one to whom grandma cuts any slack. Storytelling through slick graphic displays of text messaging in Surviving My Mother help explain the real reason for the youngest generations serendipitous promiscuity that so concerns her mom.

No Country for Old Men stars Tommy Lee Jones as a lifelong sheriff in a dusty Texas border town. He’s absent in front the camera for almost the first quarter of the film but is already ingratiated because of his humorous, sage and insightful voice over. In the interim we meet Josh Brolin as a resourceful cowboy out where the antelope play (not kidding) who stumbles across the grizzly aftermath of a bad drug deal and walks away with $2 million. We also meet Javier Bardem in a scary departure playing a remorseless killer with the resilience of Freddy Kruger who is after those millions in cash. But wait, there’s also a litany of Mexican gangsters who want the money too, all of whom are easily dispatched by the psycho killer. Just after Jones puts in an appearance we’re introduced to Woody Harrelson, a cocky bounty hunter hired by shady corporate types to deal with Bardem. There’s a lot I loved about No Country for Old Men but some aspects left me scratching my head and supposing the lack of a final showdown could mean a sequel.

P2 stars Rachel Nichols who is impressive as a workaholic from New York (played by Toronto) working to the last corporate minute on Christmas Eve. Little does she know that Weirdsville’s Wes Bentley playing the building security guard who has been stalking her for some time will use the occasion of the totally vacant office building to make her much later than she already is for the family’s turkey dinner. P2 refers to the underground parking level where a lot of the action takes place and is also an ironic title for a suspense-horror film that’s not quite top tier. It may not be intense enough for fans of the Saw and Hostel franchises who have seen the graphic gore level raised to the stratosphere. Still although it requires more than the usual suspension of disbelief it may be just the ticket for horror fans that find the current money front runners too intense.

Lions for Lambs is an excerpt from a quote regarding the high quality of combatant soldiers at the whim of low quality decision makers. This is yet another of many films this year involving U.S. navel gazing over American incursions into Muslin territory (two of them starring Meryl Streep on opposite sides of the debate) but this one might be the best and in no small way because of Tom Cruise. Yes you heard me right. As senator Jasper Irving he has to go toe to toe with Streep and appear to be more in command and he succeeds. Irving is touted as the saviour of the Republican Party who has summoned Streep for a huge scoop on ensuring victory in the Middle East. With more spin than a Dervish the convincing plan would involve a justifiable invasion of Iran. His blabbing puts in jeopardy the first phase of the plan already underway and has left two idealistic soldiers in harms way. In real time in California these two soldiers, formerly students, are held up as examples by a professor (Robert Redford, also the films director) to a brilliant slacker in hopes that their altruism might inspire this spoiled kid to rise to his potential. Lions for Lambs is a definite message movie that might end up only preaching to the choir. If only as much attention could be paid to what Tom Cruise does here as to what he did on Oprah’s couch

Jimmy Carter Man from Plains shows the modern day former U.S. President at 80-something conducting a litany of affairs with more energy, clarity and sense of purpose than someone half his age. He’s never stopped being the perfect politician and his work with Habitat for Humanity is well documented but maybe what we never knew is that this biblical scholar is a model for keeping a loving relationship strong. This documentary follows Carter from late 2006 on a whirlwind book tour to promote his controversial Palestine: peace or Apartheid. In 1978 Carter brokered the Camp David Accords with Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat but over time his hard work has obviously been eroded and his book offers a logical humane solution for the region but the title ruffles more than a few feathers. Travelling commercial flights he bounces from city to city graciously receiving praise and artfully addressing critical questions, although he steadfastly refuses to debate Alan Dershowitz who’s ready to blow a gasket over the book’s title. Still for those who may only recall his anemic response to the Iran hostage crisis (which he effectively addresses here) and his beer swilling brother Billy, this is a far more elegant legacy by which to remember Jimmy Carter Man from Plains.

Music Within doesn’t refer to this biopic’s rockin’ soundtrack which is sure to please CISL listeners. The title actually comes from an Oliver Wendell Holmes quote that laments most people not rising to their potential. Oregon’s Richard Pimentel as the prime instigator for the Americans with Disabilities Act is not like most people even though life often worked at cross purposes for him. He survived a neglected childhood at the hands of his unbalanced mom played by an unrecognizable Rebecca De Mornay who really knows how to do crazy. Ron Livingston plays the older Pimentel who even with remarkable public speaking skills can not land a scholarship so Uncle Sam to pay for college by going to Vietnam. Perhaps a foolish move as he returned with deafening tinnitus, however as a new member of the disabled world he realized that he could make a difference thanks to people like Art Honeyman, a genius with cerebral palsy played passionately by Michael Sheen, also unrecognizable from his Tony Blair in The Queen.  Melissa George also stars as his free love interest in a juicy part as opposed to being juicy dinner currently in 30 Days of Night. Music Within comes with subtitles which is yet another example of how the film (with much humour) demonstrated just how far the world of the disabled has progressed in our lifetime.

Also out this weekend:
Fred Claus
Darfur Now
Blade Runner: The Final Cut

11/02

Lars and the Real Girl has Ontario’s Ryan Gosling working in a very small town in his home and native land. His instincts are spot on as usual playing Lars, a young man with abandonment issues not so much about past rejection as his fear of being spurned in the future. Emily Mortimer also stars as his ever game and compassionate sister in law. Lars feels physical pain at the touch of a woman and Aphephobia might help explain his on-line order of a life sized, anatomically correct female doll that he introduces as his fiancé. Somewhat unexplainable is the willingness of all the townsfolk to play along including Paul Schneider playing his mortified brother and Kelli Garner as the cute girl next cubicle at work who has a huge crush on Lars. Perhaps she’s OK with it because the intended have decided to wait until after the ceremony to consummate their relationship. The results couldn’t be sweeter or more hilarious and ultimately therapeutic for Lars. If you’re in the mood for a real flight of fantasy then Lars and the Real Girl is a real winner as fresh as its snowy setting.

Martian Child features a real life brother and sister John and Joan Cusack playing on screen siblings. He’s a widower still carrying a torch for his barren late wife who decides to carry on with their plan to adopt despite dire warnings from his sister. As a child he overcame ostracizing by escaping into his fertile imagination. That defence mechanism germinated adult success as a science fiction writer. As a survivor of that kind of mental trauma he is drawn to 10 year old Bobby Coleman who couldn’t be more adorable as Dennis, an orphan with abandonment issues so strong that during daylight he holes up in a cardboard box and pretend to be a Martian. Or is he pretending? Some of his actions make you wonder. Comedy and drama result from Cusack’s unorthodox inroads to the boy which causes Family Services to have second thoughts about him as a guardian. Amanda Peet is also featured in a thankless ad-on role appearing to bide her time as a best friend waiting for Cusack to realize that his wife is really dead and that she’s really hot. With Vancouver subbing as Seattle, Martian Child starts us down more than one aborted mission with a heavy gravitational pull towards manufactured pathos and is light years from plausibility.

Bee Movie finally reunites us with Jerry Seinfeld but only as the voice over of Barry B. Benson a honeybee who has just graduated at the top of his class with solid B’s. Unfortunately commencement means his job choice is a lifelong commitment which he finds unappealing as he has a taste for variety. Up to this point the movie is about what I expected which wasn’t much. They started running trailers for this ages ago before even before the animation was done which lead me to believe Bee Movie might rate a “C” at best. However when Barry ventures out and breaks with evolutionary tradition by thanking a bee-saver human played by Renée Zellweger the over the top consequences build to laugh out loud fun. While grocery shopping during their blossoming friendship (bordering on romance) Barry discovers that bees have never been compensated for what he considers stolen honey and he decides to sue. Standout performances include Rules of Engagement star and  Seinfeld alumni Patrick Warburton as Zellweger’s hair trigger boyfriend, John Goodman as a sleazy corporate lawyer and celebrity self deprecation from Sting, Larry King and Ray Liotta.  Bee Movie was very obviously co-written by Jerry Seinfeld and the witty banter in ridiculous circumstances along with heart stopping action gives us a winner for the whole family.

American Gangster starts in 1968 New York when real life mobster Frank Lucas played by Denzel Washington was providing muscle for Harlem’s godfather-like drug lord Clarence Williams III (ironically starring in The Mod Squad in 1968). His mentor’s lament about cutting out the middle man is taken to heart and when Williams passes away Harlem’s organized crime opens up wide. With Vietnam raging, Lucas launches a scheme to smuggle pure heroin from Thailand piggybacked in the coffins of dead soldiers. Meantime a soon to be divorced would-be lawyer, Russell Crowe as New Jersey PD’s Richie Roberts is gaining an unpopular reputation for not taking bribes – unpopular with fellow officers not gangsters. When mayhem follows the influx of cheap heroin Roberts’s unblemished character (at least on the job) puts him in charge of a few good men trying to make sense of it all. Lucas is so cagey that for the longest time Roberts assumes he’s after the Mafia but Lucas is on to such a good thing, the Mafia is actually trying to ride on Lucas’s coattails. It’s not until Lucas in a weak moment ignores his own advice that the pieces start to fit together for Roberts. You’d think in 2 ½ hours it could be fleshed out just how Roberts makes the leap from cop to prosecutor at Lucas’s trial, still it’s time well spent.

The Bodybuilder and I is a whiny catharsis for documentary filmmaker Bryan Friedman as well as a fascinating insight into a little known subculture of over 50 men with ripped bodies. Somewhat estranged for many years from his father Bill, Bryan has decided to document dads attempt to re-capture his world championship in the 50-60 year old category of competitive bodybuilding. Now 59 this is Bill’s last shot at a dynasty. In this Canadian feature from the Vancouver Film Festival we meet not only dad but also what motivates several of his bumpy international competitors. Despite his mortification at the narcissistic regimen that his father follows Bryan soldiers on as two dramas unfold as we wonder if father and son will reconcile and who will take the title.

The Tracey Fragments is another of the well received Canadian features at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival. Ellen Page stars as Tracey Berkowitz a disaffected teen in search of her brother lost due to her negligence. On the mean streets she gets involved with shady people and dangerous situations that leave her riding at the back of a bus clad only in a shower curtain. Page is a veteran of roles like this but the real star of The Tracy Fragments is the film editor who masterfully gives double meaning to the title.

Also out this weekend:
4 Months, 3 Weeks and Two Days
Darfur Now
Private Fears in Public Places
The 3 Little Pigs

10/26

Control follows the short career of a mid 80’s new wave band called Joy Division. Relative newcomer Sam Riley who was a minor player in a similar 2002 move (24 Hour Party People) is totally convincing as Ian Curtis, much in control fronting the band but living out of control off stage where his compulsive behaviour, epilepsy and drug abuse lead to his extremely early demise. Shot in black and white Curtis goes from well adjusted but adventurous Manchester preppie to responsible teen parent but when stardom came quickly the accompanying pressures take their toll. Most devastating is the love triangle with Samantha Morton playing Deborah his tragic wife (whose book Touching From a Distance is the basis for the screenplay) and the other woman Annik Honoré a sultry, exotic fan mag reporter portrayed by Alexandra Maria Lara. A 2007 darling at the Canne Film Festival Control is not just a biopic but a good story, and then there’s the music that Riley faithfully recreates. I vaguely remember the name Joy Divison and none of the music but I enjoyed hearing it so much that I want to scour the nearest swap meet for some of their CD’s.

 Reservation Road is the name of a tertiary Connecticut highway with an apt double meaning. There’s a curve in the road by a convenience store where two ordinary families literally collide. A bearded Joaquin Phoenix has just stopped there with his wife Jennifer Connelly and their son and daughter. A distracted Mark Ruffalo accidentally runs the boy over with his SUV but in the panic of the moment and under the pressures of his life he flees the scene. As a lawyer he knows that he faces jail time and in the clear light of day plans to reconcile the mistakes in his life before turning himself in. This doesn’t happen fast enough for the brooding Phoenix whose anger is turned into zeal for his personal crusade to find the perpetrator. Ruffalo’s plan gets complicated when Phoenix hires his law firm to get on the case and Mira Sorvino, Ruffalo’s ex-wife, turns out to have a casual history with both of Phoenix’s children. Unlike this year’s eventually tedious revenge films Death Sentence and The Brave One, Reservation Road is an excellent expose of human frailties that provides palpable and constant tension.

Dan in Real Life is the name of an advice column written by Dan Burns a melancholy New Jersey widower who has his hands full raising 3 daughters (each one a heartbreaker in her own right). Steve Carell who can make anything watchable including Evan Almighty plays Dan as he and the girls head for the annual fall extended family get together at mom and dad’s roomy and rustic beach house. Dianne Wiest is Dan’s mom still subtly influencing her brood. She orders him to town for some much needed “me time” and while gone he’s smitten for the first time since his wife’s passing by the ever lovely Juliette Binoche (who disguises her French accent for the most part yet ironically misunderstands his use of potpourri). Later back at the house he discovers Binoche has actually come from the city to meet the family as the new girlfriend of Carell’s brother Dane Cook.  Keeping this a secret drives Carell into a deeper depression until a Dan fan arrives - Emily Blunt never looking lovelier and on screen far too briefly but long enough to make Binoche come to a decision. Surprises are few except for one big one - Dan in Real Life is a delightfully presented romantic comedy charmer.

Pigs is on more than one occasion what all men have been accused of. This Canadian film attempts to make the point definitive. Jefferson Brown is Miles a college ladies man who takes copious notes as well as Polaroids to document his many conquests. Darryn Lucio plays Cleaver his best friend who brainstorms a scheme to cash in on this rampant philandering by taking bets that Miles can sleep his way through the alphabet and laying (so to speak) higher odds on last names starting with less common letters. The letter X is the X-factor – a huge stumbling block until he encounters Melanie Marden’s character Gabrielle Xeropolos. Unfortunately he becomes so smitten with her that he takes his eye off the prize. With some after-school-special-type performances, Pigs is an American Pie wannabe that’s kind of un-hip (in a camera phone age who takes Polaroids anymore?). Still there are some new ideas and the final refreshing twist is very un-American Pie.

Sleuth is a remake of the play previously filmed in 1972. According to Michael Caine there is not one line of dialogue that is the same in this version and he should know since he stars in both adaptations although in different roles. This time he plays the cuckold wealthy aging mystery writer out for vengeance from Jude Law, the actor spending his extensive time between engagements ravaging Caine’s young wife. Gadgets were a hook in the original and again here as Caine has invited Law to his 19th century estate outfitted with the latest 21st century technology. He plans to use his superior wit to gain retribution but Law proves to more than a worthy adversary. The Pretzel plot has minimal action but stellar performances and the ongoing erudite banter seething under British civility of Anthony Shaffer’s play has here been reworked perfectly by England’s greatest living playwright Harold Pinter. 

Also out:
Saw IV

10/19

Rendition definitely does not refer to the reworking of a favourite song however the upshot may be facing the music regarding a policy that as a disturbing surprise started under Clinton and allows detention without due process in offshore locations, most conveniently lax in laws regarding torture Reese Witherspoon is light years past Legally Blonde as the wife of Anwar El-Ibrahimi, an Egyptian long time landed immigrant. His job as a chemical engineer takes him to South Africa but on his return he’s arrested because his cell phone records implicate him as party to an unusual mid east bombing - unusual not for the massive local carnage but because it took out one CIA operative. Jake Gyllenhaal is a neophyte agent pressed into overseeing the interrogation of El-Ibrahimi, sent to the scene of the crime by an icy Meryl Streep. Looking for clues Witherspoon turns to Peter Sarsgaard her only friend in Washington while Gyllenhaal is increasingly convinced of his prisoner’s innocence. Most captivating though are the sub plot involving a methodically cruel interrogator who sees karma come full circle in his own house and the closing turn around of events that you mistakenly thought were running in parallel and which will long leave you wondering if the pieces really fit together properly. Save for too many vowels among the actors, Rendition is a sharply written and masterfully edited movie that takes no prisoners.

Things We Lost in the Fire is actually about what is gained after a garage fire that is otherwise incidental to the film. The garage is attached to the happy Vancouver home supposed to be in Seattle belonging to Halle Berry and David Duchovny and their two well adjusted children. Duchovny is compassionate to a fault but to Berry’s dismay that includes loyalty to Benicio Del Toro, a lifelong friend who has slipped into a world of drug addiction. Duchovny’s good samaritanism also unfortunately leads to his murder and shortly after his funeral she has a change of heart about Del Toro and invites him to live in the garage now being converted into a suite. Sparks eventually fly between them but not like you might think as she takes her pent up anger out on him and he sinks into a relapse. The strengths of Things We Lost in the Fire are certainly the performances (even Duchovny come off looking good for a change) but also that the story is different. That said it’s probably not one I’d be anxious to see. I thought it might be because I don’t have that strong a feminine side but my wife wasn’t knocked out by it either.

Gone Baby Gone is quite the make work project for the Affleck family as Casey stars and brother Ben directed and collaborated on the screenplay from the Dennis Lehane novel. Out of his house Casey Affleck runs a PI firm consisting of himself and Michelle Monaghan his fearless girlfriend and when we meet them they’re at odds over his accepting a high profile child abduction case. Morgan Freeman is the police chief who reluctantly green lights cooperation from Ed Harris his point detective who comes to believe that Affleck’s street smarts might help solve the case. A cash- for-kid exchange goes horribly wrong but in the aftermath a shady tipster leads Affleck to the potential kidnappers. It takes a bloody encounter with them to provide Affleck with some vague clues as to who the real bad guys are. Although the story has some its moments, there’s a significant relationship that falls apart for pretty weak reasons and the convoluted plot of Gone Baby Gone seems out of sync with the timeline of events.

30 Days of Night stars Josh Hartnett as the sheriff in Barrow Alaska which for a month each year is plunged into darkness and under his watch the town comes to the attention of a roving band of vampires. With 30 sunless days as their leader (played to the hilt by an unrecognizable veteran actor Danny Huston) says “we should have come here a long time ago”. These are somewhat snobby creatures of the night as they don’t want to “turn” any of their empties so they tend to decapitate victims thus keeping their club exclusive. After the first onslaught we check in with Hartnett every 7 to 10 days living in a boarded up attic undetected (even though we’re told that the vampires can smell unspilled blood) and surviving oblivious to a complete lack of bathroom facilities. Feasting on haemoglobin seems to make their adversaries logy as Hartnett occasionally outruns the undead who at first travelled at light speed and through guts and guile the living are able to take out a few of the nasties but still out hero’s numbers continue to decline and we wonder who will remain to watch the sunrise without emolating. Hartnett is coming off an impressive performance in Resurrecting the Champ and does his best with this resurrection of the dead that has an interesting premise but is a bloody mess when it comes to logic. Still with Halloween coming 30 Days of Night will probably manage to suck the life from the wallets of a majority of film goers.

Into the Wild is a Thoreau-esque biopic about the epic last 2 years of Christopher McCandless, a rebellious college grad who is so wounded by the upbringing at the hands of William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden his self absorbed parents that he  forsakes the demons of his Ivy League upbringing and hitches cross country on a vision quest to Alaska. After tramping through the wilds of the 49th state he discovers an abandoned, crudely converted bus that he calls home. The story bounces back and forth between his journey north and his adapting to his new rugged lifestyle. We see characters fleshed out that helped him on his journey and in return whose lives were favourably changed from knowing him. They include Catherine Keener as a surviving hippie, Vince Vaughn as a good hearted felon, Hal Holbrook as a jaded septuagenarian and Kristen Stewart as a pubescent folkie among others. Produced and directed by Sean Penn who also help adapt the John Krakauer’s bestseller,  the almost 3 hour length may seem self indulgence yet Into the Wild may stick with you for a while because of its free spirited grandeur or it may make you crazy from all of McCandlesses cliché intuition.

Death at a Funeral has a snobby dysfunctional extended family gather at the country estate of their patriarch for his untimely funeral. One of the relatives is a budding pharmacist who isn’t studying the profession so much as a career as he is for insight into chemical recreation. He catches a ride to the service with his sister sporting some mind blowing artificial joy disguised as valium. This is mistaken for the real thing on a number of occasions providing cheap set ups for obtuse behaviour at inappropriate times. Meanwhile the deceased’s rivalling siblings are confronted at the proceedings by a diminutive blackmailer threatening to reveal embarrassing details of the dearly departed. This stranger’s death at the funeral poses a tricky disposal problem for the warring brothers in a house full of mourners. Jane Asher (Peter’s sister of Peter and Gordon and Paul McCartney’s paramour and muse through the latter 60’s) is about the only recognizable name and the fixed location peg this as a fairly low budget film and starting out under those circumstances the story really has to shine and the tedious broad comedy of Death at a Funeral like octogenarian fecal matter throws it way off that mark.

Also out this weekend:

My Kid Could Paint That
The Comebacks
Goya's Ghosts

10/12

Elizabeth: The Golden Age has Cate Blanchett, without missing a beat and under the same director, sequencing Elizabeth the first of England in a role that made her a star with accompanying Academy Award chatter. When we last left off good queen Bess had quelled any courtly dissention to her ascension to the throne. Now older wiser and comfortable as head of church and state this movie not only deals with her stormy infatuation with the dashing Sir Walter Raleigh (played by the much too dashing Clive Owen) but also her confrontation with a new assault from a formidable foe – the Catholic Church using the muscle of  the Spanish Armada. The film makes an interesting historical conjecture that the king of Spain manipulated the virgin queen into beheading his catholic cousin Mary Queen of Scots to provided justification for invasion. Although providing some corny Walter Raleigh heroics and equestrian metaphors during the climactic battle at sea (mercifully short on swashbuckling) Elizabeth: The Golden Years does a nice job saying heavy is the head that beheads the crown.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford may be an unwieldy title but in 19th century pre-30second sound bite days would have been an appropriate headline also expressing the prevailing sentiment in pulp novels and films even up 2001’s American Outlaws. This movie may change that. Brad Pitt’s portrayal of Jesse James is not of an oppressed confederate veteran who train-robbed the rich and gave to the poor prior to retiring incognito. Pitt will have you convinced that James was a sly, paranoid thug with a death wish. Meanwhile Casey Affleck is riveting as Robert Ford, not so much a coward as a bullied quasi-intellectual more concerned with gaining acceptance and self preservation than collecting a reward. Up until now Casey has been known as Ben’s younger brother. After this maybe Ben Affleck could start to be known as Casey’s older brother as Casey’s work here may generate some Oscar buzz. A little lost in all this is the meaty role of Charley Ford well done by Sam Rockwell and some almost cameo appearance by Zooey Deschanel, Sam Shephard, and Mary-Louise Parker. With Alberta standing in for a wintry Missouri The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a linear presentation fashioned like a PBS mini series and at just over 2 ½ hours is almost as long but if accurate, it’s just as enlightening.

We Own the Night stars two Hollywood young Turks, Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg along with Tinsel town veteran Robert Duvall playing two late 80’s New York young Turks and an NYPD veteran. Phoenix and Wahlberg are Duval’s sons who couldn’t be more opposite. Wahlberg is following in dads footsteps as a serious cop working his way up the ranks and Phoenix with his cavalier lifestyle as a nightclub manager constantly fuels his father’s contempt. The real world steers the brothers on a collision course when Russian gangsters start pushing drugs in the nightclub and the subsequent turf war leaves Phoenix with a tough decision, family heartbreak and his solid relationship with Eva Mendes in jeopardy. We Own the Night is truly engaging for the first hour with some genuine macho sibling rivalry and a refreshingly different car chase but even then there are sporadic breakdowns in logic and the climax lapses into typical manufactured tension with a big dollop of Hollywood schmaltz.

The Darjeeling Limited is the name emblazoned on a train in India where 3 brothers Jason Schwartzman (also one of the screen writers) on the rebound from a bad break-up with Natalie Portman in the short prologue to the actual movie, Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody (almost divorced from his expecting wife) are together for the first time since the death of their father. Dad must have been loaded as none of this trio appears to have any employable skill yet their lifestyle seem lavish. Wilson, fresh from a motorcycle mishap and sporting copious bandaging for head trauma has requested that the siblings join him on a carefully mapped out Hindu spiritual quest that the brothers prepare for while chain smoking and downing handfuls of over the counter stimulants. Wilson's real agenda is to reunite this party with Anjelica Huston their estranged mother now a nun in India. En route their comic sibling rivalry almost causes a resurgence of the rift that had them divided until a chance brush with disaster awakens the family bond that still remains. The limited charm of The Darjeeling Limited is the unlimited symbolism from the train itself to discarded baggage to the trios chronic tardiness to the mute cameo of Bill Murray who misses the train altogether.

Weirdsville should be a first nighter’s choice for those looking to find quirky laughs while supporting Canadian films. Set in the chilly end of an Ontario spring in a small town actually called Weedsville three junkies Sheldon, Royce and Matilda who would be completely inept without drugs have a plan to raid the safe of Matt Frewer playing a loaded local eco-friendly but comatose entrepreneur. They need money to avoid retribution from their pusher but the plan encounters a setback when Matilda played by Taryn Manning (so good in Hustle and Flow) suffers an overdose. As Sheldon and Royce try to remedy that predicament they interrupt a coven of devil worshippers performing a human sacrifice. Undaunted they persist in their safe cracking scheme which eventually has them being pursued by the Satanists, the pusher and a car full of dwarf medieval warriors. Though often dark the humour of Weirdsville is original and the movies pace is relentless.

American Venus is produced by a Vancouver company so it’s no surprise that our fair city is one of the stars. And speaking of fair, it also stars the ever lovely Rebecca De Mornay but if she’s the American Venus, she’s anything but unarmed. Playing a hot upper middle class mom from Washington State with a triple-A type personality her juggernaut persona focuses entirely on her daughter who she’s trying mould into a competitive figure skater and her glock 9mm handgun that she uses for stress release. When her fed up daughter takes off for Vancouver mom tracks her down after a brief stop at Canada Customs – something about illegal firearms. Unable to talk he daughter into coming home and unwilling to leave without her she spends her down time (in more ways than one) trying to buy any kind of piece to take the edge off as she slowly becomes more and more unhinged. De Mornay starts out a little wooden but when she hits borderline psychotic little miss sweet and petit turns truly frightening and the story looks like it’s heading for an engrossing creep out. However like previous films funded by out tax dollars it looks like they get paid by the word and all of a sudden the grant money dries up.

Lust, Caution is directed by Ang Lee the Oscar winner for the controversial Brokeback Mountain. This erotic epic of espionage bounces between Shanghai and Hong Kong circa 1938 to 1942 during the Japanese invasion of China with Asian superstar Tony Leung as Mr. Yee, a ruthless, sadistic, self serving collaborator with the invaders. Ageless international star and no stranger to Vancouver Joan Chen plays Mrs. Yee his socialite wife. Ingénue Tang Wei is the central character, a shy university student who joins a propagandist group of thespians. Ideology soon takes over for her fellow actors who hatch a plot to execute the untouchable Mr. Yee for his duplicity. She takes on the acting role of a lifetime assuming the character of a Mrs. Mak who befriends Mrs. Yee in order to seduce her evil husband and she’s brilliant but the conspirators are inept so the plan fails. Three years later they try again with a much stronger support team but as the torrid affair again heats up the inevitable entry of human emotions cause the lovers to alter their agendas with very detrimental results. Lust Caution is a lengthy Asian cross between Mata Hari and Casablanca with remarkably precise human and sexual realism culminating in an unsatisfying conclusion.

 10/04

The Heartbreak Kid stars Ben Stiller (still glowing from the critical and financial hit comedy Night at the Museum) in one of the falls most anticipated films. Jerry Stiller his real life father plays his on screen dad in the same boisterous fashion that he takes to virtually all his roles and again it works well here save for the fact that Ben has grey hair and Jerry does not. Stiller Jr. is a lonely 40ish San Franciscan who in a whirlwind romance weds Malin Akerman a hot damsel he recently saved from distress. As they drive to their honeymoon in Cabo certain disturbing attributes of his new bride give him second thoughts. When they get to their hotel he meets Michelle Monaghan the real girl of his dreams and he spends his nuptials dodging his future ex-wife and wooing Monaghan. The Heartbreak Kid is a retelling of a 1972 comedy starring Cybil Shepherd and Charles Grodin and the premise remains the same but fans of the original could still take a lot of enjoyment from the remake. Produced by the Farrelly Brothers who provided a stellar Stiller comedy with There's Something About Mary, they’ve done it again although not quite so over the top. Still it’s fresh and funny and except for a questionable final hook up via an E-greeting, the plot has an unflawed fluid logic.

The Seeker: The Dark is Rising brings some fantasy books of the 60’s and 70’s to the screen and introduces us to Vancouver newcomer Alexander Ludwig playing a Californian whose father has accepted a teaching position in Northern England. You’d think dad and mom (played by fellow Canadian Wendy Crewson) would prefer Ireland or some other Catholic country as they have 6 boys and a girl. Actually he has no choice as his tenure is part of the town elder’s agenda and the multitude of siblings fleshes out why Ludwig is pre-ordained to be The Seeker. Their new home is actually the focal point for a rematch of a duke out between light and darkness. Before time light had triumphed but now darkness is rising and our seeker must find 6 “signs” in order to have enough power to prevail over darkness personified by TV’s Dr Who, Christopher Eccleston. Good luck goggling Alexander Ludwig for a bio, he’s so fresh it doesn’t exist but that’s going to change because he’s really good. Not so for the material. The Seeker: The Dark is Rising is an OK family film with a cool time travel element and impressive effects but it has a tough job condensing a series of novels and as a result mysterious characters aren’t much of a mystery and many developments are under-explained.

Michael Clayton is a lawyer portrayed by George Clooney in his strongest role since Syriana. Clayton’s role in a high powered New York law firm is never really made totally clear but it’s clear he’s neither a litigator nor a barrister, however he is very resourceful although also very flawed. For the most part we see him baby sitting Tom Wilkinson who turns in another stellar performance as the company’s finest legal mind who has elected to forgo his meds for manic depression. His subsequent erratic behaviour has him championing poisoned victims of a multinational fertilizer manufacturer. We know this is erratic because he’s spent 14 years defending that accused chemical company whose top legal beagle Tilda Swinton is demanding immediate damage control and she starts flexing the kind of muscle that you can with unlimited resources at your disposal. When murder attempts start to mount up Clayton has to muster maximum moxie if he is to have any hope of saving the day. The big stakes, big power, big money, big politics and no wasted space of Michael Clayton draws you in and holds you tight in a cerebral headlock right up to it’s dramatic conclusion.

In the Shadow of the Moon chronicles America’s crowning technological achievement of the lunar astronauts and ironically it was assembled by David Sington who is from Britain. With every moon mission represented astronauts assembled for the first time in years and maybe the last time ever give their candid perspective on being in space. Surprisingly Neil Armstrong the first man on the moon isn’t among them but his Apollo 11 crew of Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins are along with Jim Lovell, Dave Scott, John Young, Gene Cernan, Alan Bean, Edgar Mitchell, Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt. For some it was a job for others it was spiritual but for all it was life altering. Adding to the fascination of this documentary is some gloriously re-mastered footage, much not seen for 30 years. In the Shadow of the Moon reinforces what a cool time the 60’s were to have experienced first hand.

The Jane Austen Book Club transfers to the big screen a lot of actors more familiar on television. The biggest star is Georgy Girl Lynn Redgrave in a very minor but important role. NYPD Blue alumni Jimmy Smits and Amy Brenneman never together on that show are united briefly as husband and wife until Smits takes up with another woman. A hot but unapproachable Maria Bello is actually central to the story as she rallies Brenneman’s best friends to comfort her by starting a book club to discuss their common favourite author. As there are 6 novels and only 5 women (rounded out by TV veteran Kathy Baker and Maggie Grace from Lost) Bello invites Hugh Dancy a computer geek years her junior to participate - with the ulterior motive that he and Brenneman might hook up. He of course is more interested in Bello than her friend or the 17th century novelist. It helps if you are familiar with Austen’s work but if not you quickly get a sense of her sensibility as her stories consistently seem to parallel the lives of one or more of the discussion group’s participants. Putting aside a kind of creepy attraction between Canada’s Kevin Zegers and Emily Bunt (Michael Buble’s current girlfriend) The Jane Austen Book Club is a smart romantic comedy and partial lampoon of modern life which is not directed at a younger audience for a change.

9/28

 Shake Hands With the Devil is the dramatization of Roméo Dallaire the Canadian General assigned the impossible task of keeping the peace during the early ‘90’s Rwandan Hutu/Tutsi genocide. He was the basis for Nick Nolte's character in Hotel Rwanda but in real life he wasn’t quite as hamstrung. With fewer than 300 men and without firing a shot he still managed to save a significant number of lives during those 100 days of wholesale butchering through wit and unmitigated courage. His accomplishments came at a high cost however. Put succinctly in a flashback by a fellow Belgian commander who, although court marshalled, said Dallaire faced a much harsher judge – which was Dallaire himself as the carnage he witnessed left him suicidal. Roy Dupuis who knocked me out last year with his portrayal as Maurice Richard in The Rocket knocked me out again as he completely nailed the role of Dallaire. We know him today as Senator Roméo Dallaire but I’m thinking Saint Roméo Dallaire would be in order. I was never more proud to be Canadian than while watching the tense intricate drama unfold in Shake Hands With the Devil.

Silk initially whisks us through a time in the 1840’s and a town in France trying to revive its economy manufacturing silk. When disease devastates the silkworm larvae the city fathers enlist Michael Pitt a bright young soldier who happens to be the love interest of Keira Knightley the mayor’s daughter. As a condition of securing his marriage he must travel the world in search of unblemished silkworm eggs. His globe trotting takes him to Japan where he is smitten by newcomer Sei Ashina, a beautiful villager apparently the property of his warlord business associate. Fuelled by an infatuation brought on by only a few brief and distant encounters he retraces the trade route for a number of not always necessary journeys made ever more perilous by civil war and trade embargoes as proved by the fate of a fellow trader played by Vancouver’s Callum Keith Rennie. Through all of this Knightley appears oblivious but in the end proves to be eerily perceptive. Silk is an odd bit of stunning cinematography. It tries very hard to be an epic romantic drama but why Knightley, playing a French woman adopts a quasi American accent is as mysterious as the 19th century Far East and Michael Pitt seems to have learned few facial expressions since his hang dog performance of a Kurt Cobain type in Last Days.

Feast of Love unites Morgan Freeman who we’ve almost overindulged in already this year, ditto co-star Greg Kinnear. Refreshing for the first of two similar roles this year, Freeman is in an inter-racial marriage, this time to veteran actor Jane Alexander. They’re a solid middle class couple who have suffered a dear loss. Freeman is a professor on sabbatical that haunts Kinnear’s trendy Oregon coffee bar where he hands out sage advice to the love lorne not the least of whom is Kinnear, a man plagued with nothing but bad choices in affairs of the heart. Never the less he seems to be the Typhoid Mary of amore as love manifests itself all around him - among his employees, his lesbian ex-wife and his Realtor. Feast of Love is a chick flick gluttony but still it may not give you indigestion.

The Kingdom refers to Saudi Arabia, ruled as a monarchy since 1933 as we learn in a masterfully edited montage over the opening credits. This kingdom treads a fine line as it reaps obscene oil profits dealing with western infidels thus drawing the rancour of militant Islamic fundamentalists The film makes an interesting conjecture that this country was politically damaged when the majority of recruited 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationalist. Here similar sympathizers hatch a monstrous plot of multi-tiered explosive mayhem on the isolated American oil workers compound in Riyadh. With no legal mandate outside the USA, FBI agents Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Carter and comic actor Jason Bateman (an odd choice but the reason eventually becomes obvious) muscle their way into the investigating as they fear the locals can’t do a proper job – and who knew it, they turn out to be right. It’s a little hypocritical that in a clumsy way The Kingdom quietly makes the point that the east-west tension won’t subside until attitudes change and yet Americans arrive with such patronizing borderline jingoism. Reality takes a back seat to heart pounding action as CSI Saudi Arabia ramps up some desert heat to provide the kind of Middle Eastern movie that could be very popular in the States since only Muslims die.

Also out this weekend:
The Game Plan. A Disney family film starring The Rock.

9/21

In the Valley of Elah gives us a bolt upright Tommy Lee Jones playing a long retired sergeant who spent his lengthy time in uniform with the Military Police. Susan Sarandon gracefully elides her talent into the mature role of his wife with a melancholy resignation to being married to the service. Jones is suspicious when the army calls to say his surviving son is AWOL after a tour in Iraq. He goes to the base to investigate but with no MP cronies left to help he turns to Charlize Theron, a struggling detective with the local police. At first she finds Jones an annoyance but then indispensable as they discover not only the fate of his son but also some horrifying coping mechanisms that his fellow soldiers adopt to deal with the atrocities of war. In the Valley of Elah may stir up some controversy as it refers to the biblical site where David met Goliath, the irony being that in the same part of the world today a giant is held at bay by those poorly armed and judged inferior. These days creator Paul Haggis seems to be able to cinematically expose the American Psyche better than any American – not bad for a good Canadian kid from London Ontario.

Good Luck Chuck is a sexy romp that brought the eternally pleasing Dark Angel Jessica Alba back to Vancouver to film with current stand-up wunderkind Dane Cook. He’s back to his comedy roots after his impressive dramatic stretch in Mr. Brooks but she hasn’t done a lot of physical comedy and here rises to the task as a klutzy aquarium penguin wrangler. He’s literally cursed from adolescence to constantly lose women who next find the loves of their lives. The story gets turned around on the internet which causes a litany of liaisons with desperate women who want him for only one thing – to move on to the next guy. Alba knows about the curse and the long line of lovers and he fears that their total involvement will mean she’ll soon move on to Mr. Perfect so despite their hormonal gravity they are wary of one another. Good Luck Chuck faithfully follows the Hollywood romantic comedy formula but without squirm inducing forced humour – although Balls of Fury’s Dan Folger as Cooks confidant comes close. Dane Cook fans disappointed in his straight man performance need to stay for the out takes over the closing credits.

Also out this weekend:
Resident Evil: Extinction with Milla Jovovich
Sydney White with Amanda Bynes
Transformers: The IMAX Experience

9/14

Across the Universe is a musical masterfully fashioned around Beatles material and follows Jude a young 60’s illegitimate Liverpool dockworker on his quest to America seeking his father. Once there he’s befriended by Max a college dropout whose sister Lucy becomes his love interest. Max and Jude move to New York and take up communal living with Sadie a Janice Joplin type and Jojo a Jimi Hendrix type. Max gets drafted and Jude and Lucy move in together but the overwhelming growth of her radical activism drives a wedge between them. Fab four fans will love the many more references - there’s also Prudence, Mr Kite and Dr Roberts - played by Bono of U2 who does a killer version of I am the Walrus. Also outstanding is Joe Coker’s cameo doing Come Together. The plot is fairly pedestrian but juxtaposed alongside the music and stunning visuals Across the Universe is a knock out. Through 32 songs the story parallels the Beatles journey from love struck innocence to social activism. Being the Beatles fan that I am I entered the movie a cynic but I left feeling I’d just seen the years best picture.

Eastern Promises is Canadian director David Cronenberg at his most accessible and refers to lavish promises made to entice desperate Russian women into Western sex slavery. In London England a pregnant teen victim of those promises has kept a diary of her exploitation. We’re introduced to her as a haemorrhaging emergency patient of Naomi Watts, a hospital midwife who loses the mother but saves the baby and the diary. Unfortunately she takes it for translation to the guy who wanted the mother dead - a Russian Mafia boss with a soft voice but a chilling demeanour.  She contacts him at a time when gangland warfare is brewing thanks to the activity of the boss’s son, a psychotic Vincent Cassel and Viggo Mortensen a gang soldier trying to earn his stripes (actually stars in this case). As secrets and betrayals unfold you realize that Eastern Promises is one of the best movies so far this year, but not for the squeamish as it will probably be long remembered for one of the most realistically graphic knife fights ever filmed.

Mr. Woodcock lets Billy Bob Thornton reprise those uber unpleasant characteristics made famous in Bad Santa and School for Scoundrels and personified here in a small town gym teacher from hell.  A subdued SeannWilliam Scott plays the adult version of a former student who has managed to harness his grade 9 trauma into a career as a published self help guru. When his home town elects to honour him he enthusiastically heads back, ditching his publicist Saturday Night Live’s Amy Poehler who should get a best supporting Oscar nod for making the absolute most of her minor role. When Scott to his horror realizes that his mom (Susan Sarandon) is engaged to Thornton he decides to follow his own psycho-babble and expose Thornton for the tyrant that he is. This proves difficult as the whole town seems to be under the spell of a kind of Mr. Woodcock Stockholm syndrome.

Terrence Howard is involved in 2/5ths of this weekend’s new releases.

The Hunting Party we’re told is a fact based story which has Terrence Howard playing a TV cameraman for Richard Gere, a gonzo journalist covering Bosnian genocide in the90’s. Howard finds the rush of terror exhilarating but the inhumanity of the war causes Gere to melt down on national television. A decade later they cross paths again in Sarajevo where Howard is on assignment for his cushy network gig and Gere is on the skids but can still fast talk Howard and a rookie reporter played by Jesse Eisenberg into one last chance for adventure – landing an interview with “The Fox”, Bosnia’s elusive and most wanted war criminal. The Hunting Party is compelling and exciting cinema that is mistakenly advertised as a high spirited romp. Its factual nature makes it much more of a tragedy.

The Brave One co-stars Terrence Howard as a NY detective trying to put away a wily multiple wife murderer along with Nicky Katt playing his partner whose one-liners steal every scene he’s in. All this is a minor sub-plot that connects Howard with Jodie Foster, a sensitive and esoteric radio editorialist. Her fiancée is murdered in a senseless and violent Central Park attack that leaves Foster comatose and agoraphobic after awakening. A hand gun gives her the strength to venture into the mean streets again but when necessity requires her to use the weapon she finds great solace in the killing and it leads her on a rampage of vigilantism. I find it regrettable that revenge in movies too often comes at the point of a gun and in The Brave One it doesn’t help that every one of her dispatches is conveniently in self defence. Still with Jodie Fosters skill that isn’t as laughable as it could have been.

9/7

 Shoot 'Em Up is another pretty good action thriller with a side of comedy for Clive Owen. Doing sullen like no one else he’s a solitary man known only as Mr. Smith who subsists on carrots which as we find out, in a pinch can exert lethal force. It takes a long time before we find out why a man could be so grumpy with that much fibre in his diet but it all starts while he’s delivering a stranger’s baby during a gunfight. Mom doesn’t survive and Owen spends the rest of the film dispatching armies of assassins at every turn with baby in tow. Child rearing isn’t really his thing so he enlists the aid of the luscious Monica Bellucci, a conveniently lactating dominatrix that he occasionally “dates”, while he tries to figure out why the smirking and evil Paul Giamatti is trying to harm the newborn. You want to forget about logic to enjoy this movie, and as the name might suggest there’s a fair amount of gunplay in Shoot ‘Em Up. In fact you won’t see more lead flying around in a Chinese toy factory.

3:10 to Yuma is a new millennium take on the 1957 western classic with most of the characters either good guys or bad guys except for the two protagonists, Christian Bale a dirt poor, sod busting, civil war amputee and Russell Crowe a swaggering gunslinger. When the Pinkertons put Crowe in irons, the anti-hero train robber of dime store novel fame has to be transported to justice aboard the 3:10 train to Yuma. Getting to the station is a dangerous task since Crowe’s gang of loyal thugs are determined to ambush the posse escort somewhere along the trail. Bale volunteers to be deputized not only for the money that will save the farm but also win back the esteem of his estranged son. En route Crowe shows glimpses of decency that are constantly dashed as self serving, but his final act of genuine nobility in aid of Bale is just confusing. 3:10 to Yuma is kind of like a 19th century Shoot ‘Em up – at least for the last 20 minutes, which goes on for about 15 minutes too long.

The Brothers Solomon is produced by the Carsey-Werner Company which has given us some pretty funny TV fare. It stars Canada’s Will Arnett who I love in Arrested Development, Blades of Glory and Hot Rod to name a few and rounding out the cast are Saturday Night Live’s Will Forte and Kristen Wiig. The two Wills are brothers, home schooled in the arctic by their military dad which leaves them as social lepers especially around women. Their ailing father’s wish for a grandchild just before he slips into a coma leaves the boys feeling pressured to procreate and maybe snap dad out of it. Arnett’s attempts to woo Malin Akerman his hot neighbour go nowhere (as does her role so why even bother?) and the brothers end up dealing with Wiig, a mercenary surrogate whose boyfriend has anger issues. With all that comedy fire power this movie should be pretty funny and although the set ups showed a lot of promise, laughs were undelivered and the uncomfortable comedy just didn’t work for me The Brothers Solomon also stars Lee Majors as dad but I’d be surprised if the movie ever makes even six million dollars.

This is England is an odd title for a movie that takes place in 1983. It was a time of Margaret Thatcher and the Falkland War that took the life of a soldier which left his spunky 12 year old son Shaun alone and bitter. He takes up with a group of much older skinheads whose rage matches his and who are very un-fatherly surrogates. Sparky newcomer Thomas Turgoose is amazing as Shaun and This Is England in a depressing story that is never the less an interesting look back at a forgotten time.

Lady Chatterley is an adaptation of a D.H. Lawrence novel from 1927 called John Thomas and Lady Jane, a prequel to 1928’s historic Lady Chatterley's Lover, a world wide watershed for free speech. The story is pretty much the same except there’s no one named Thomas or Jane. Constance Chatterley is trapped in a rural chateau with her industrial baron husband, a wheelchair bound WW1 veteran. She eventually finds joy and fulfillment in the unlikely arms of her low class games keeper. Lady Chatterley took 5 French Caesar awards recently. I liked it alright but Mrs. Kennedy didn’t. Of interest is that they seemed to like Canada and spoke of it glowingly as a place of refuge.

Also out:
Hatchet

8/31

The 11th Hour with a title that indicates that there isn’t much time left is a documentary following the path of An Inconvenient Truth. It’s produce and narrated by Leonard DiCaprio who gains more and more respect with each new project he undertakes. A lot has been made about the somewhat radical BC logging critic Tzeporah Berman giving expert testimony. She got significant mileage at the LA premiere of the film hanging out on the green carpet with Paris Hilton and then attending a splashy premiere here last week at the 5th Avenue with Lexa Doig and Marlee Matlin but more credible are erudite thoughts and scientific facts for fine minds like Stephen Hawking and Vancouver’s David Suzuki and some surprising figures on board like R. James Woolsey the former head of the CIA and once Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev. Such a strong case is made about the perilous condition of the earths ecosystem that 2/3 of the way through you’re convinced that humanity is doomed, but then we’re offered a litany of sustainable and do-able solutions that only require a little far thinking political will. Superbad may end up as the #1 move again this week, but the 11th Hour is the movie that everyone should be attending.

Death Sentence stars Kevin Bacon and Kelly Preston (Mrs. John Travolta). Bacon’s son’s dreams of moving to Canada to launch a hockey career are literally cut short when he’s murdered as part of a gang ritual right before his father’s eyes in a bad part of their chilly Midwest town portrayed by BC, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario. The justice system isn’t prepared to provide significant retribution so Bacon, an executive who is no match physically or mentally for gang violence foolishly decides to mete out the appropriate punishment himself. As with most illogical revenge films the solution seems to be at the point of some significant firepower which is provided by John Goodman, a highlight in a film that has few although there are some heart pounding moment however death as a sentence pretty much encapsulates the theme of Death Sentence.

Also out this weekend:
Greg and Gentillon
Halloween

8/24

RESURRECTING THE CHAMP yet again puts boxing, the number one go-to sports theme in Hollywood, into the limelight. With Calgary standing in for Colorado the movie stars Josh Hartnett as a Denver newspaper sports reporter who saves a homeless guy from some college thugs only to stumble upon the story of a lifetime. The vagrant played by Samuel L. Jackson claims to be real life boxer Bob Satterfield and with some cajoling over the course of a few weeks Hartnett pieces together a story that catapults him from beneath the shadow of his broadcasting legend father into media super-stardom. In the process the lives of Hartnett and Jackson intertwine but in the end that old cliché “never let the facts stand in the way of a good story” comes back to topple our young scribe. Although losing points for still punching after the bell, Resurrecting the Champ has some fine supporting performances by Alan Alda, Teri Hatcher, David Paymer, an unrecognizable Peter Coyote plus Canadian tyke Dakota Goyo and Samuel L. Jackson may be the first legitimate contender this year for a best actor Oscar.

THE NANNY DIARIES is the movie version of Emma McLaughlin’s 2002 novel and
stars Scarlett Johansson as a New Jersey college student who recently graduated in finances with a minor in anthropology. For badly explained reasons she decides that she can’t get a job in New York (only the hub of world commerce) and elects instead to take a post as nanny for the insufferably rich Laura Linney. Linney is married to a distant, philandering Paul Giamatti and Johansson’s taboo love interest is the well to do boy next apartment Chris Evans (the Fantastic Four’s Johnny Storm). Feeling that the winsome youngster in her charge is at risk of emotional scarring, Johansson finds it impossible to quit her job despite the advice from her best friend Alicia Keyes. Of interest are the Mary Poppins references and Johansson’s narration of the scenario in anthropological terms, but on the whole The Nanny Diaries is a real underutilization of some very high end talent.

MR. BEAN'S HOLIDAY marks the return of the Rowan Atkinson highly successful early ‘90s TV character. Here Bean wins a trip to Cannes in a church raffle which par for the course turns out to be anything but a holiday. Ridiculous but quasi-ingenious solutions to problems that would normally be uneventful abound as he teams up with a pre-teen and a movie star while stumbling towards the south of France. Upon arrival he manages to become the toast of the Cannes film festival at the expense of a self aggrandizing Hollywood director played by Willem Dafoe. Atkinson’s largely pantomime shtick is quite popular in half hour television segments but stretched to just under 90 minutes may prove unpalatable even to the biggest Bean fanatics.

MOLIERE is a fanciful slice of the life of that man who revolutionized 17th century French theatre. The real Moliere spent a short time in debtor’s prison for not paying the rent. This movie conjectures that he acquired freedom via a nobleman who hired him to live at his estate as an acting coach for a play that he had written solely to seduce a very young woman. So that his benefactor’s wife does not get suspicious Moliere must pretend to be a priest named Tartuffe. Of course the irony is that in Moliere’s actual religious mocking masterpiece, Tartuffe is the hypocrite who controls his rich associate. Here Tartuffe must use his acting ability to maintain the ruse but his warm connection with other family members compels him to work against his patron in a many sided plot that leaves the family intact but puts Moliere on that road that history tells us lasted for 13 years before his troupes final return to Paris. Moliere is a feast for the eyes as the story may not be historically accurate but the staging certainly is.

Also opening this weekend:
WAR filmed in Vancouver and starring Jet Li and Jason Statham
HEY BABY
A STONE'S THROW
THE BOSS OF IT ALL
THE RAPE OF EUROPA
WHITE PALMS 

opening Aug 29th:

BALLS OF FURY wants us to accept a pudgy actor with only a few minor roles in a short career as leading man material capable of captivating Live Free or Die Hard’s Maggie Q. Dan Fogler isn’t much of a sensation away from Broadway but here stars as a former ping pong child prodigy fallen on hard times after a humiliating pubescent defeat at the paddle of a cocky German and the loss causes the death of his father. At his lowest years later an FBI agent played by George Lopez (who doesn’t raise the comedy bar much from his TV show) recruits Fogler to infiltrate a Chinese triad headed by a slumming Christopher Walken who as a geisha-like cross dressing table tennis fanatic provides most of the scattered funny moments in this film. Equally game is veteran James Hong as Folgers mentor who guides him to the final paddle showdown of complete vindication. Balls of Fury is a clumsy co-production from Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon of Miami 911 fame which would be thoroughly entertaining if I was 12.

8/17

SUPERBAD is a word that you might expect to use to describe yet another movie about high school seniors trying to get lucky with liquor. Nothing could be further from the truth when this cliché premise is delivered from Point Grey grad Seth Rogan and fellow Vancouverite Evan Goldberg. These are the guys who brought us this years hilarious Knocked up and were partially behind The 40 Year Old Virgin. On screen we have a veteran of both those movies Jonah Hill and yet another Canadian Michael Cera from Arrested Development playing two pre-grads who are such geeks that they’re plotting to seduce two hot classmates who are already attracted to them. Their under-aged quest to acquire alcohol takes them on a wild ride to the party of their dreams with a fellow outcast played by newcomer Christopher Mintz-Plasse who scores big both bedroom-wise and in his screen debut. Weak premise? Sure but Superbad had me giggling from start to finish.

ROCKET SCIENCE pits Jonah Hill against himself as this movie opens the same weekend as Superbad. Hill has a smaller role but still plays a geek who is friends with yet another Canadian Reece Thompson. Thompson plays a high school student with a pronounced stutter. Much to his surprise he is recruited to the school debating team by
newcomer Anna Kendrick, its star speaker who also seems to be attracted to him. Rocket Science is a little frustrating because we spend the movie hoping for a Rocky-type ending but Kendrick’s cruel agenda makes that impossible and also makes it impossible for movie goers to leave feeling satisfied.

Also out this weekend:
THE INVASION
THE LAST LEGION
EL CANTANTE
ARCTIC TALE
MARIGOLD
YOUR MOMMY KILLS ANIMALS
ZOO

8/10

STARDUST seems to have come out of nowhere which is unusual considering the star power involved. Claire Danes is more appealing that ever as a personified star pulled from the sky and hurtled into Stormhold a mythical land located next to England at the town of Wall. Michelle Pfeiffer heads a coven of witches who crave eating her heart to regain their youth. Dane is also hunted by feuding princes who believer she’s the key to taking over as king from their father played by Peter O’Toole, but she’s captured by an Englishman from Wall bent on making her a present for Sienna Miller his mercenary girlfriend. Early on it’s clear how the story will end but that doesn’t make getting there any less entertaining. The writing is witty, the locations are stunning and Robert De Niro as a closet cross dressing, flying ship buccaneer is not to be missed although I’m surprised he didn’t tackle a British accent. Not all fantasies are fantastic but I think Stardust is and I’m surprised that it didn’t arrive with a little more hype.

RUSH HOUR 3 has a waiting audience for this three-quel to the original filmed in Vancouver Rush Hour. Again LA cop Chris Carter is taken off probation to team up with Jackie Chan, the head of security for the Chinese Ambassador who is assassinated as he is about to announce the head of the Triad, a super secret crime gang. When his daughter who holds the key to the secret is kidnapped the trail leads our duo to Paris (it must have been the real Paris because American pervert-non-grata Roman Polanski greets them) where a dishy frican-American helps them fill in the blanks. Carter is naturally funny and does the best that he can with the material provided to again capitalize on this money making franchise that is past its expiry date. Chan’s strength is his athleticism which seems to be waning. Even the mandatory out takes over the credits has pretty tame action. I’m not always a fan of the Chinese Government but the may have done the Peoples Republic a favour by banning Rush Hour 3.

2 DAYS IN PARIS stars Julie Delpy and the ubiquitous Adam Goldberg who until now mostly did a lot of TV and co-starring roles but here more than meets the challenge of carrying the film. He proves to be perfect for the snappy banter penned by Delphy, no stranger to engaging discourse having starred in the previous European set movies Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. They’re a solid but neurotic couple from New York although she’s a French transplant. On their return from vacation in Europe they pay a two day visit to her free thinking Parisian parents. Her wilder younger days start to come to light which leaves Goldberg uneasy about their future together. 2 Days in Paris is a real tour de force for Julie Dephy as she wrote, directed and starred in the film – and as far as I’m concerned the force is definitely with her.

CLOSE TO HOME is a 2005 film from Israel in Hebrew and is a modern day slice of life for Smadar and Mirit, two 18 year old women who like other teens their age are preoccupied with boys and fashion. The difference is that they are also in the Israeli army and are forced to spend their day patrolling a few blocks of Jerusalem demanding ID cards from Palestinians and jotting down their information. The two could not be more different personalities but that gets put aside when confronted with the fiery reality of the Middle East. This is a rarely seen insight into Israeli conscription life presented well by a lot of film first timers, but I found Close To Home only close to interesting.

Also out this week:
SKINWALKERS
KAAFILA

8/3

HE BOURNE ULTIMATUM is the follow-up to the 2002 Bourne Identity and the subsequent 2004 Bourne Supremacy and is the last of the Bourne adventures that was actually written by Robert Ludlum. Matt Damon is back again as Jason Bourne, a CIA assassin still overcoming his amnesia and now also lamenting the loss of Marie his love interest from the first two chapters. His old nemesis Operation Treadstone has morphed into a fascist homeland security wing of the agency codenamed Blackbriar headed by a superb David Strathairn and when a nosy reporter connects it with Bourne, he becomes a target again. He gets help from Julia Stiles and Joan Allen who reprise their roles from the first two films. Although it strays a lot from the book The Bourne Ultimatum is still a great story set within interesting locations and relentless, believable, heart-pounding action.

HOT ROD stars Andy Samberg from Saturday Night Live as Rod Kimble who professes to be a stunt man, however he doesn’t appear to be the man best suited to succeed at the stunts he attempts. He believes he comes by his skill honestly as he grew up with stories told by his mom (Sissy Spacek) of his late father, a former stunt tester for Evil Knievel. Kimble’s other great ambition is to take a few rounds out of his abusive step father who inconveniently becomes in need of an expensive life saving operation. Kimble is inspired to do a record breaking moped jump in order to raise funds for the operation to make the man healthy enough to take a beating. It’s low brow and predictable but the filmed in Vancouver Hot Rod could teach Adam Sandler just how an ex-Saturday Night Liver goes about making a physical comedy for the big screen that’s actually funny.

TALK TO ME is the story of Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene Jr., a black Washington DC radio DJ during the racially charged early 60’s. Don Cheadle stars as the former jailbird who conned his way into a radio gig, which outraged the broadcasting brass (personified by Martin Sheen) but drew big ratings so his career eventually blossomed into television. Not only are the turbulent times front and centre, but the story also revolves around Petey’s relationship with his straight laced and ambitious program director Dewey Hughes played by Kinky Boots star Chiwetel Ejiofor. Talk to Me impaired my objectivity as it features a lot of music I love and centres on the business I love but I did find some of the perceptions of what we do in the radio business a little curious.

Speaking of Kinky Boots, the director of that picture also directed

BECOMING JANE a similar film to this years Beatrix Potter biopic which chronicled a female author who railed against the age she lived in. Unlike Miss Potter’s children’s books, Jane Austin penned a litany of romantic novels still regarded as literary classics. In an age when women settled on security, Austin dared to demand marrying for love. James McAvoy plays Tom Lefroy, a womanizing London rogue articling as a lawyer. He’s banished to Austin’s countryside where it’s hoped he’ll settle down. The combative wit of Austin’s and Lefroy’s first encounters are soon the cause of their attraction and eventually their passion that would have them turn their backs on family and position in order to be together. Becoming Jane has the expected strong performances by Maggie Smith and Julie Walters and Anne Hathaway is quite becoming as Jane Austin, a woman whose heartbreak ended up providing a lot for her writing to draw on.

Also out:
BRATZ: THE MOVIE
DADDY DAY CAMP
JOURNEY FROM THE FALL
UNDERDOG

7/27

NO RESERVATIONS is an Americanized version of a 2002 German charmer called Mostly Martha. In this movie Martha is Kate played by Catherine Zeta-Jones who in real life should be arrested for looking so good after having 2 kids. Kate is a megalomaniac chef working a tony New York eatery with two sub plots swirling around her. The kitchen needs more help so the restaurant owner hires Aaron Eckhart, a charming sous-chef who leaves the uptight Kate feeling threatened. Another distracting topic to discuss with her shrink is Little Miss Sunshine Abigail Breslin her pre-teen niece suddenly thrust into her solitude. All the characters chafe against one another until they inevitably gel. Not much has changed since 2002 but No Reservations is charming enough that it’s worthwhile retelling, especially to those who missed it the first time around.

MY BEST FRIEND is originally titled Mon Meilleur Ami so guess what; it’s a French film with English subtitles. Daniel Auteuil who seems to be the new face for French cinema plays an unpleasant antique dealer named Francois. Against the wishes of his business partner he overpays for a huge Greek vase which becomes the payoff for a bet between the two. She accuses him of being friendless and challenges him to produce just one actual friend. Francois finds this more challenging than he thought and eventually enlists the help of Bruno an irritating but affable taxi driver with stage fright that prevents him from fulfilling his dream of competing on the French version of Who Wants to be A Millionaire. It’s amazing how universal that show is by the way.  Like The Valet, another Auteuil movie out right now, My Best Friend is witty enough that Hollywood could very likely some day give it the Mostly Martha treatment and take a shot at owning it as well.

I KNOW WHO KILLED ME is a fairly gruesome film and not just by virtue of the star Lindsay Lohan. She’s a small town teen named Aubrey – or is she? The well adjusted Aubrey is kidnapped by a sadistic serial killer but unlike his other victims she is discovered alive. However the young woman found on the roadside denies that she is Aubrey and insists instead that she is a hard living stripper named Dakota. Her parents believe that this is torture trauma talking but Dakotas horrific flashbacks eventually bring her some clarity. As morbid movies go this has an intriguing plot, however the stigmata on screen is stigmatized by too much time spent on Dakota at work - with too much emphasis on the tease and not enough on the strip. As a result there isn’t much time for anyone else’s character development and the pieces tumble together all too conveniently towards the end like they’re rushing to get done in time. There’s also a time line discrepancy between Dakota’s entry and the time that she puts all the pieces together that would seem to make her resolution impossible.

GYPSY CARAVAN follows 4 Romani orchestras from far flung reaches of Eurasia on a North American tour one recent autumn. Roma people who originated in India are usually referred to as Gypsies and along with the exceptional music we get a lesson in how this gentle race of people is misconceived and discriminated against. Amazingly although the race and its music have evolved into distinct entities, the similarities become evident when these musicians come together for the first time. Gypsy Caravan is not only a moving documentary but a treat for eclectic tastes in exciting music.

Also Out:
THE SIMPSONS MOVIE
SUMMER '04 from Germany
SUNSHINE

7/20 

HAIRSPRAY started as a John Waters 1988 comedic diatribe against prejudice that was predicated on bad taste. It was stripped down and adapted to the stage as a musical which has now been released on film. The original made a star out of Ricky Lake and this could do the same for Nicole Blonsky who plays the cute, obliviously plump and terminally optimistic Tracy Tumblad. The time is 1962 and the bouffant hairdo reins supreme, held in place by copious applications of hairspray, thus the name. Unfortunately the minds of the time are as rigid as the hair on top of them. Tracy’s dream is to dance on the local American Bandstand-like show opposite her dreamy classmate with the kiss curl. She has the talent in bunches but clashing with conformity are her size and pro-integration attitude not to mention little support from her mousey mom played to drag delight by John Travolta. I thought the music in Hairspray felt like it was lifted right out of the era and delivered the message about stereotypes with fun and class even if it is low class.

Not like another movie out this weekend.

I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK & LARRY is passively aggressive in its homophobia and further fuels my Adam Sandler-phobia. Sandler and Kevin James are straight New York firefighters who go to Canada to get married in order to collect benefits. Their scheme to quietly live their lives as before is thwarted when scam-buster Steve Buscemi gets on their case and they seek legal council from hottie lawyer Jessica Beil and of course the sparks fly between her and Sandler. They really don’t even try to make the premise plausible and this is compounded by Sandler again being cast as a lady killer. It’s more an excuse to string together a series of low brow concepts of comedy, all of which left me cold. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry eventually tries to pitch tolerance but by then it’s too late – not even a classy Richard Chamberlain can rescue these rescue workers. Sandler is always hit and miss so it might be expected since the critically acclaimed Reign Over Me tanked that his next offering would be a return to what always seems to work for him - second rate potty humour.

INTERVIEW stars Steve Buscemi as a ethically bankrupt political reporter living in dread of his assignment to go one on one with a Lindsey-Paris-Brittanyesque flavour of the month soap star played by Sienna Miller. The tension between the two is constant and palpable yet they are drawn to one another like a moth to a flame each one trying to take control of the meeting which fitfully moves from a chic restaurant to her New York loft. There isn’t much for action fans in Interview but if you liked the smart give and take dialogue of Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and even Conversations with Other Women (which I loved) then Interview will get you talking.

JOSHUA stars Sam Rockwell who I just heard described as the Brad Pitt of the Steve Buscemis. He’s a New York corporate money maker whose wife has just given birth to a little girl. What seems like a perfect family starts to crumble when the girls older and evil genius brother Joshua starts to feel neglected and all of a sudden things start to go eerily wrong about the apartment. This starts to take its toll on mom who has a history of post partum depression. Eventually even Rockwell’s aplomb is shattered as the boy continues to disrupt the family. The kid playing Joshua is terrific and this all sounds like the makings of a Hitchcockian thriller - and it should be but I wasn’t so much thrilled as bored.  

7/13

 If you can’t get into Harry Potter this weekend (and that is likely) there are a couple of imported movies that are terrific. Coincidentally they have something in common – Tina Turner’s Nutbush City Limits.

VITUS is a Swiss-German child music prodigy on his way to certifiable genius. In a departure from the classical masterpieces he usually breezes through he’s caught on the nanny-cam at age 6 doing Tina’s song with his babysitter. When his parents review the tape they fire the girl who happens to be the love of Vitus’ life. This is just one of the pressure points that he has to deal with as a child treated with adult expectations and eventually he appears to crack by engaging in a reckless stunt. The resulting head concussion seems to be life altering but the audience figures out much sooner than his pushy parents that it’s all a ruse to bring about normalcy in his life. However as a “normal” kid he quietly uses his genius to enrich the lives of everyone he loves and come to think of it, everyone who watches Vitus.

INTRODUCING THE DWIGHTS is an Aussie picture starring the marvellous Brenda Blethyn who completely demands attention every time she’s in front of a camera. She performs Turners rave-up at the films finale but all is not happy before the ending. This is years after coming to the land down under with John Dwight, a one hit country singer, and leaving a promising career on the British stage. Years later the dreams are broken as is the marriage and Blethyn is reduced to doing bawdy stand-up in casino lounges outside of her boring day job - that and completely controlling the lives of her sons Tim and the mentally challenged Mark. When Tim gets a girlfriend however her manipulating goes into overdrive with hilarious results as the two vie for his affection.

RESCUE DAWN is Werner Herzog's 2006 take on the harrowing true life adventure of Dieter Dengler, a German-American who in 1965 became the only US combatant to escape a Laotian POW camp. Christian Bale puts on his serious actor hat and takes off serious tonnage a la The Machinist to look authentically emaciated as Dengler. Putting aside the illegality of an incursion into Laos in order to napalm communist Vietnamese, Rescue Dawn although somewhat stomach churning is an exotically shot and inclusionary tale.

MANUFACTURING DISSENT is a documentary about the world’s most famous documentarian, Michael Moore. Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine are two Canadian journalists and in 2004 being as fanatical about Moore as he is of Canada decided to put his post Bowling for Columbine-Fahrenheit 9/11 victory lap on film. Manufacturing Dissent ends up as a less than saintly look at some of Moore’s paranoia and questionable ethics and present a pretty convincing case that Michael Moore has a side dark enough that he’d prefer left undocumented.

Also out:
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
CAPTIVITY looks like a Saw wannabee starring Canada’s Elisha Cuthbert.

7/6

LICENSE TO WED stars Robin Williams whose movies can go either way. Mandy Moore has the same luck and with the two working together we have a potential geometric progression towards a monumental dud. Not even the affable John Krasinski of The Office can save them from themselves. He’s engaged to Moore who has always dreamed of a wedding at Reverend William’s church. One problem, he has a rigorous prenuptial course that couples have to endure. This involves abstinence on the part of the couples and quasi illegal monitoring on the part of Williams and his pre-teen assistance gamely played by Josh Flitter last seen in Nancy Drew. Now he has to live this one down too. There’s something appallingly unholy about a man of the cloth spending an inordinate amount of unsupervised time with a prepubescent boy and although William’s traditional rapid fire wit tries to save the film, most of the humour is lame or painful. I think the Outtakes at the end were just to flesh out the movie that at 91 minutes still felt too long. They may well have been funny but I was unwilling to spend any more time watching License to Wed.

YOU KILL ME stars Ben Kingsley and Téa Leoni as an unlikely couple who click due to their mutually warped sense of humour and flawed personalities. Kingsley is a hit man with a teeny flaw, he’s a slobbering drunk. He does wet work for the Polish underworld which would probably be a small player in any mob situation but in Buffalo NY, not known as a hotbed of organized crime,  it really doesn’t have much of a stranglehold at all, and any leverage is about to erode further. When a guy who is supposed to show up dead is still walking around they ship Kingsley off to San Francisco for rehab. Part of his therapy is working at a mortuary where he hooks up with Leoni after her step father’s funeral. Kingsley’s 12 step program also require expressing complete honesty so he comes clean about his profession to Leoni as well as his fellow AA members, all of whom take the news in stride. Further tension in Buffalo however put a strain on their relationship. You Kill Me is often a line used when one is a constant source of amusement - in this dark comedy it definitely has a double meaning.

TRANSFORMERS CGI’s the earthly battle between the other worldly Megatron and his Decepticons VS the Autobots led by Optimus Prime that we remember from the 80’s TV show, comic books and especially chameleon-like toys. Shia LaBeouf reprises the glib naughtiness that has already paid off so well for him this summer in Disturbia. His dad goes halfers with him on a new set of wheels that turns out to be the Autobot Bumblebee in Camero clothing which he uses it to impress Megan Fox the cliché hot chick involved with a loser jock. The car helps at first but its real mission is to retrieve the “Allspark” which can grant unlimited power to whoever possessed it and an heirloom belonging to our young man is etched with a map to this talisman. Meantime Decepticons on the same mission attack the US military in Qatar trying to hack the location of the captured Megatron. His release brings about a Transformer battle royale. Other standouts are John Voight as Defense Secretary and top secret agent John Turturro. The banter is fresh but the over extended melee that stretches the film to 2 hours and 24 minutes gets stale.

6/29

 RATATOUILLE is a lengthier than usual yet fast paced animated film about Remy, a keen nosed Parisians rodent who is a surprisingly avid reader. His favourite author is chef Gusteau whose 5 star restaurant has tarnished since his death. Remy comes to the aid of a young employee there with an unexplained American accent and they join forces to bring the bistro back to its former glory. Even though I hate rats, the Disney/Pixar folks didn’t take long to win me over. They’re the people who brought us The Incredibles (my current standard for measuring cartoon features by) and like that movie Ratatouille will entertain parents while delighting the younger set, no matter how easily distracted.

SICKO is the latest documentary grilling from Michel Moore, famous for the bitingly sarcastic Roger and Me, Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 911. Here he goes after the American health care system with equal eye opening subtle humour. While bottom line hysteria among all HMO’s in t