Movie Review: '300' - 3/4

3 scoops (out of 4)
from the Orlando Weekly

300 is a steroid-fueled fantasy of male bloodlust inspired by Frank Miller’s graphic novel about the ancient Battle of Thermopylae between Greek Spartans — a warrior culture unparalleled in human history — and the invading, million-strong army of Persians hell-bent on squashing Greece’s burgeoning democracy. 300 of these Spartans hold off the entire Persian force for three days and, though eventually defeated, their deaths inspire the rest of Greece to unify.

Director Zack Snyder understands the balance between reality and mythology and renders the movie using a technique much like Sin City’s (also based on a Miller graphic novel), except in full color, so that the exaggerated, stylized carnage takes on an almost Homeric beauty while still remaining in the historical ballpark. A lot of this is a credit to Miller, whose comic-book source material is often recreated frame by frame, but just as much is due to the actors, led by Gerard Butler as King Leonidas, who transformed their bodies into muscle-bound machines and slice into their roles so passionately that it’s hard not to leave the theater wanting to become a Spartan and cut off a few Persian heads of your own.

If you see it, make sure your theater is using DLP (Digital Light Projection) technology. DLP™ shows are projected digitally rather than using conventional film. DLP technology is a revolutionary display solution that uses an optical semiconductor to manipulate light digitally. The result is maximum fidelity: a picture with impressive clarity, brilliance and color and a lack of scratches, fading and flutter.

http://300themovie.warnerbros.com/

Alpha Dog - 2 Scoops

Movie Review (2 out of 4)

You watch "Alpha Dog" in the conflicted grip of fascination, horror and, to be honest, depression. Writer-director Nick Cassavetes takes a viewer into a heart of darkness that exists right in Southern California's San Fernando Valley among mostly white, suburban young people adrift in a sea of drugs, sex, booze and violence. Parents are either "cool" with this or clueless. Traditional social structure has broken down, replaced by a hedonistic youth culture and "gangsta" lifestyle utterly lacking in any moral sensibility or control. What's worse, this is a true story.

This is a well-made ensemble movie in which actors take chances with uncomfortably repulsive characters or roles unlike any previous performances. Make no mistake though: This will be a hard sell for New Line. The gangsta element and hip-hop soundtrack might be selling points, but is that really the right crowd for this movie? Critical acclaim will help, but the film's dispassionate point of view might cause mixed reactions.

Interviews with several characters are seen throughout the movie as if a documentary about this story were in the works. But the film itself is no docudrama. Despite such stylistic devises as split screens and shifting frame sizes, "Alpha Dog" is pretty conventional. Cassavetes simply plunges you into an unhealthy environment of social disintegration and never eases up. The movie is based on a news story of a few years ago about Jesse James Hollywood, a middle-level drug dealer who became one of the youngest men ever to land on the FBI's most-wanted list. Here, he is known as Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch), whose father (Bruce Willis) helps supply the merchandise and whose posse is completely loyal, especially the slavishly devoted Elvis (Shawn Hatosy).

But he is more insecure and paranoid than he lets on. When he has a falling out with a competitor, Jake Marzursky (Ben Foster), who cheats him out of $1,200, he recognizes that Jake is a maniacal and ruthless adversary. So payback presents a problem. Johnny solves this with a truly stupid idea. He kidnaps Jake's 15-year-old half brother, Zack (Anton Yelchin). The youngster, who has grown restless with his normal life of doting parents and homework, admires his brother's on-the-edge lifestyle, so he is up for a few days of partying and boozing with this seemingly hip crew. But as Jake vows revenge, and others point out the legal repercussions of kidnapping, Johnny and his loyal lieutenant, Frankie (an almost unrecognizable Justin Timberlake), grow increasingly antsy. Meanwhile, Zack remains oblivious to his pending fate.

Most of the characters share the dual afflictions of poor education and a serious lack of smarts. Hirsch's ringleader moves in often jerky and hyperkinetic movements, but his mental processes are slow. Although he does less drugs than others, he can't seem to think through any problem. Timberlake's Frankie has much more brains and sensitivity, but male loyalty trumps common sense. Foster presents an astonishing portrait of lethal rage. Willis as the bad father and Sharon Stone as Zack's emotionally overwrought mother deliver outstanding performances.

'Casino Royale' - 3 Scoops (3/4)

movie review

For a long time now, the James Bond franchise has been operating with a license to overkill. That license has been revoked by Casino Royale. It doesn't even feel like a Bond film as we have come to expect them, in their numbing, increasingly gadget-dependent gigantism. No death rays from space this time. No invisible car. For once, most of the laws of physics are given due respect.

A renewed sense of engagement informs director Martin Campbell's tough, absorbing adaptation of the 1953 Ian Fleming novel, the one that started the whole 007 business. Daniel Craig is just right in the role, which has been rethought in ways that connect with the Bond Fleming actually wrote -- not in terms of physical appearance, but in terms of charismatic heartlessness with a hint of a soul underneath.

This isn't one of those Bond entries in which hundreds of extras get mowed down every other set-piece. The violence is rapid, personal, and a key torture sequence relates more to Abu Ghraib than the comparatively ticklish scene in Goldfinger in which Gert Frobe threatens Bond's boys with a laser.

The screenplay is set in the present day, trading the novel's Russian Communist baddies for an Albanian funder of international terrorism. Bond is a hot-tempered newbie in this outing, only lately having earned his hallowed double-0 status. On the trail of terrorist loan shark, Bond botches an assignment in Uganda early on in the picture. It's worth it for the audience: The first extended action sequence has Bond racing, on foot, in pursuit of a bomb maker. The villia is an ace practitioner of "free running." As he darts, leaps and bounds all around a construction site with Bond on his tail, the sequence builds beautifully.

Under the watchful eye of M (Judi Dench) and aided by a fellow operative, Bond arrives in Montenegro with British Treasury functionary Vesper Lynd by his side. There, in the swank hotel and gaming establishment of the title, he squares off in a multimillion-dollar poker game. (It was baccarat in the book.) Also, The romance between Bond and Lynd, played by French actress Eva Green, is taken very seriously.

Casino Royale is not perfect. It's long and the opening-credits sequence is truly lame. But all in all, its the best Bond film since Live and Let Die (1973).

'Borat' 4 Scoops

Sacha Baron Cohen is a comic genius. As Borat Sagdiyev, a TV journalist from Kazakhstan who is the least politically correct character imaginable, Baron Cohen spits out the most outrageous racist and sexist statements he can think of. Yet it’s the reaction of most of his unknowing victims that proves to be the most interesting aspect of Borat. The defiantly unapologetic and laugh out loud funny Borat is not for the easily offended or for those who don’t get Sacha Baron Cohen’s satirical humor. If even one scene from the trailer or TV commercials has upset you, do not go see Borat. Nothing is off-limits – not feminists, Jewish people, Pentecostals, homosexuals, or politicians. If there’s a way to stir the pot and use this shocking mockumentary to make us examine our values, Borat goes for it.

Once in America, Borat proceeds to skewer Western values at every turn. From inquiring of a gun store owner which gun to buy to kill Jews, to carrying on a conversation with the head of a rodeo about killing all homosexuals and then whipping up that rodeo crowd by praising America’s “war of terror,” Borat’s just as offensive as the genuinely shocking responses he elicits.

Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles don’t cheat when it comes to laying it all on the line. Borat is placed in the most volatile situations possible, sometimes barely escaping being hauled off to jail and even once being wrestled to the ground by the police. Yet not once over the course of the film does Sacha Baron Cohen break character. Like him or loathe him, Baron Cohen delivers an absolutely amazing performance and one audiences won’t forget. It is without a doubt one of the best performances by an actor in 2006, maybe even of the decade.

Baron Cohen’s brilliant film skewers anti-Semitism and racism while delivering some of the biggest laughs of the year. Borat leaves you chuckling while at the same time thinking about the root causes of prejudice and bigotry, and for that reason Borat’s a must-see.

A little thing mainly unknown abour Baron Choen: He wrote “A Case of Mistaking Identities – the Jewish Black Alliance” as his thesis. The piece examined the nature of cooperation between the African-American and Jewish communities and suggested ways to improve relations in the current day. Baron Cohen's professor described it as a major work of importance on the civil rights movement and is suggested reading for history students in Cambridge.

"The Departed": 4 Scoops

Martin Scorsese's The Departed drops into the current movie scene like a fireball outshining a field full of flickering matches. Running a full 149 minutes, its energy eventually flags; the ending plays as if everyone just wanted to go home. But until then The Departed moves with a fury, switching and leaping throughout.

Based on Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's superb, taut 100-minute Hong Kong action film Infernal Affairs (2002), the story follows two cops/criminals. The first, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), works for a Boston gangster, Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), and operates as a mole within the police department. The second, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), is an undercover cop who poses as a member of Costello's gang. Both rats have burrowed so deeply undercover that their true identities hang by a tenuous thread; they don't even know each other. Sullivan answers only to Costello, while Costigan secretly reports to the kindly Queenan (Martin Sheen) and the cranky Dignam (Mark Wahlberg).

Nicholson nearly steals the entire film with his hilariously offensive tidbits of wisdom. Stellar performances by Damon and DiCaprio as well; one breathtaking moment simply has Sullivan and Costigan "meeting" for the first time over cell phones; they're framed exactly the same, shocked silent by fear and anticipation.

"Gridiron Gang" : 2 Scoops

Punctuated by rough action scenes,Gridiron Gang is a familiar sports saga with kids in need of guidance and a coach in need of support from his institution. This time, it's also based on a 1993 documentary (clips from that film play during the closing credits and suggest that Jeff Maguire's script lifts heartfelt dialogue directly from the original speakers). The movie is also invigorated by The Rock (a.k.a. Dwayne Johnson), whose performance is simultaneously wry and warm. Charismatic as ever, The Rock plays Sean Porter, manager of a youth detention facility, as a creative coach and grateful son. He also makes the movie's basic corniness slightly easier to bear.

Long frustrated by a legal system that sends kids through endless cycles of violence in the streets, their homes, and their juvie blocks, Sean is moved to action when ex-inmate is killed in a drive-by shooting within hours of his release from Camp Kilpatrick. Sean's solution: Organize the violence into football. Though his boss, Paul (Leon Rippy), is predictably skeptical about spending the facility's scant state-issued funds on such a body-slamming venture, Sean and his whistle-wearing assistant Malcolm (Xzibit) assemble a team of hard cases. Because they're inclined to defend their turf, Sean gives them a new source of identification.

Some of the kids are briefly distracted by the usual obstacles -- Willie (Jade Yorker) likes a girl (Jurnee Smollett), Kenny (Trever O'Brien) is rejected by his mom, Junior (Setu Tasse) suffers an injury during practice. And Sean grapples with his own pain and his ailing mother (L. Scott Caldwell). Together, they find a purpose -- to beat back the other teams, in particular one that includes a white boy who calls Willie the n-word. The Mustangs, as the detention center team is called, engage in repeated drills of the montage-y sort, learning to tackle, catch, pass, and appreciate Coach's efforts.

Exceptional performances by Jade Yorker, Trever O'Brein, and Dwayne Johnson. The plot of the movie is overly predictable, as is the ending. I also enjoyed L. Scott Caldwell's performance. You can catch her every Wed. beginning Oct 4 once Lost resumes (she plays Rose).

'Snakes on a Plane': 2 Scoops

movie review

The plot centers around laidback surfer-dude Sean (Nathan Phillips), who witnesses the murder of a Los Angeles prosecutor in Hawaii by infamous crime boss. After saving Sean from hitmen at his home, FBI Agent Nelville Flynn (Jackson) convinces him to come out to Los Angeles and testify against Kim in court. The two of them, plus Flynn’s partner, commandeer the first-class section of a 747 on a red-eye flight headed for L.A. and, well, the rest is cinematic history.

The film takes a while to ramp up, and the exposition is rather heavy-handed as we meet the passengers who will share their reptile-infested journey. The plane is populated by a shallow mix of instantly recognizable types: the honeymooning couple, the two youngsters flying alone, the obsessive-compulsive rap star, the haughty princess and her accessory dog, the earthy young mother and her baby. Besides Jackson, the only other person to get any kind of characterization is flight attendant Claire (Julianna Margulies). Sam Jackson is his usual self, delivering soon-to-be classic one-liners in full badass mode.

As with The Lord of the Rings films, moviegoers must metally prepare themselves before seeing this film. Everyone knows that Hobbits don't exist and that there is no such place as Middle Earth, but that shouldn't stop anyone from getting caught up in the story and enjoying the film. That is also true for Snakes. Accept the film for what it is: a cult horror film that pokes fun at the genre and the human condition of fear. The sacrifices made after 9/11 (particularly the no steak knife rule) are also jested. There are a few jumpy moments, but overall you'll find yourself laughing more than being scared.

Julianna Marguiles and Sam Jackson deliver great performances. I also liked Kenan Thompson and Bobby Cannavale.