Joyride (1996)

What was Adam West thinking? That’s the only thought I could bring to bear when watching the original Batman pimp his daughter from a seedy motel. I guess Adam West as a degenerate father who would pimp his own daughter might not have been so bad if he did so in a script that was coherent or believable, but Joyride was neither. Joyride is a jumbled mess of ideas haphazardly thrown together in an effort to create a tense crime drama. Instead, we get an amateurish film that is short on crime and big on drama…but not the good kind.

Joyride tells the story of a couple of outcast small town students who go to school once in the film…just long enough to get harassed by the local bullies. For the rest of the movie, it seems that the concept of school was forgotten. One of the boys, JT (Toby Maguire), helps his father run a seedy motel which is located directly on the wrong side of the tracks. The other boy, James (Wilson Cruz), is an effete teenager who owns a Hyundai that barely qualifies as a hoopdee. A young female guest at the motel, Tanya (Amy Hathaway) catches JT’s eye and threatens the close friendship between JT and James. The three mistakenly decide to go joyriding in a car belonging to an assassin, which still happens to have a body in the trunk. When confronted by the assassin, JT truculently refuses to cooperate. With the Police (Benicio Del Toro) and the Assassin (Christina Zilber) creating conflict, the teens must decide how to get themselves out of a jam.

Joyride takes the easy road at every turn. The plot concept wasn’t all bad, but it was not well thought out. For starters, you have Tonya Bayer being pimped by her father in a seedy motel. She is being pimped, at one point, to the Mayor for five thousand dollars. That is a high dollar amount even if you are the Governor of New York. For that kind of price, the Mayor doesn’t need to visit a cheap motel and run the risk of someone in his everyone-knows-each-other small town seeing him. No…for that money you get a house call. But it was decided that the action needed to center around this seedy motel, so many of the plot details end up feeling forced.

Another thing that really bothered me was Benicio Del Toro’s observation that the homicide being investigated was done by a professional. But the discovery of the body was inconsistent with the homicide because the murder scene was so meticulously cleaned. First of all, if the murder scene was meticulously cleaned, how did he know where the murder took place? It assumes the police would be privileged to the same information provided to the audience without ever creating a logical bridge to that assumption. Furthermore, an assassin that is so adept at covering her tracks that the police consider her to be a professional would certainly not leave the rotting body in the trunk of her car. If the body needed to be disposed of…it would have been done quickly and efficiently. Parking a car with a dead body in it in front of your motel room would be pretty dumb.

Another problem I had with Joyride involved the cuts. They were about as bad as I have ever seen. If you are going to have a character skinny dip in a swimming pool, you need to figure out a way to keep his blue shorts from showing in the water. I don’t know…maybe cover the top of the pool with a layer of leaves. That may have worked. But it seems at the very least the camera angles could have prevented his blue shorts from showing. What’s worse is that James jumps into the pool to join JT and Tanya who are already allegedly naked. After removing his clothes, James jumps into the pool, but the shot of him jumping clearly shows that he is also wearing blue shorts. Better cutting and improved camera angles could have sold scenes like this much more effectively. And these issues don’t even address the fact that the joyride car mysteriously becomes a different car by the end of the film.


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Flyboys

Flyboys came out in 2006, quickly getting panned as inaccurate and formulaic. The major studios declined the opportunity to back this film which ended up going into production with private funding. The 60 million dollar budget was not wisely invested, with a return that would lucky to hit half that. This movie did not appeal to me at the time it was in the theaters, maybe in small part due to the reviews but more likely due to other movies that were higher on my must-see list at the time. Inevitably, I did not get a chance to catch this film in the theaters, waiting instead until it came out on DVD.

While watching Flyboys I could understand some of the critical comments, but was actually surprised that it is was so widely disliked. One thing that appealed to me about Flyboys was the fact that it was based on a true story. That limits the directions that the movie can go. Within that context evolves a period piece that tells the story of young Americans who agree to enter the Great War flying fighter planes for the French at a time when America had not yet entered the fray.



Flyboys starts by providing short background biographies on the American Pilots, concentrating primarily on Blaine Rawlings (James Franco), a young rancher whose parents are dead. Following foreclosure on his ranch, Rawlings decides to join the Lafayette Escadrille, a volunteer air force in France comprised of Americans who wanted to enter the war before the United States committed. Rawlings is joined by other young men from various walks of life. Among them are a black boxer named Vernon Toddman (Keith McErlean) and Briggs Lowry (Tyler Labine) a Harvard dropout who refuses to bunk with Toddman due to his race. Other pilots include Reed Cassidy (Martin Henderson) who was based on Raoul Lufbery, Eddie Beagle (David Ellison) whose character was an amalgam of pilots Courtney Campbell and Bert Hall, Eugene Skinner (Abdul Salis) based on Eugene Bullard and William Jensen (Philip Winchester) whose exploits were taken from a variety of sources. These young pilots end up under the tutelage of Capt Thenault (Jean Reno). Thenault was an actual character. Thenault trains the young pilots to fly, land and shoot. They quickly end up engaging German fighters in some great aerial fighting sequences. The pilots engage in numerous missions as they await the United States entry into the war. The movie ends with correlations between the characters and events following the war that the characters engaged in. Some of the events were based on the true stories of the pilots upon whom some of the characters were based. However, it appears that some of the stories were complete fabrications.

The script isn’t bad. Although the critics aptly pointed out that this film falls into formulaic period piece pitfalls, I disagree with the assessment of the dialogue. The dialogue in this movie has been referred to as unoriginal or hackneyed, but I found it to be enjoyable. It did not feel contrived or overused. If they had attempted to outgun Top Gun I might have felt that way. However, this story stays within the framework of the endeavors of the 124th Air Squadron with obvious liberties taken along the way. I thought that the characters were developed to an adequate degree, especially considering the number of individuals involved. We get brief insights into the backgrounds of several characters through various sub-plots or personality conflicts. These sub-plots add to the overall effect of the film, providing depth to the characters, helping them connect with the audience. I have seen better, but Flyboys wasn’t as tired as the critics made it sound. The movie lasted nearly two and a half hours, which was a bit long, so the pacing was definitely an area which could have been improved. I think the Director (Tony Bill) may have tried to squeeze in too much information.


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Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

I figured it would be a good idea to go catch the early showing of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa on Veteran’s Day. It’s a Tuesday…my son and I would certainly have the theater to ourselves. Wrong. The line at the theater was the longest I’ve ever seen it and packed with kids. I guess this wasn’t one of my best ideas. After waiting almost past the start time for our tickets, we managed to slip into the theater while the previews were playing. The theater was packed, but we were still able to find decent seats. People continued trickling in even as the show started. If this visit was any indication, this movie is going to be a blockbuster in terms of box office take.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa starts out in Africa where a young Alex Lion (Ben Stiller) is being shown the ropes by his father Zuba (Bernie Mac). Alex is lured off a wildlife preserve by hunters, ending up in a crate that ends up in a river, ultimately washing up in New York City, where Alex becomes the star of the Central Park Zoo. Not exactly a believable plot line, but it lays the foundation for the rest of the film. After providing us the details of Alex childhood in Africa, there is a quick recap of the escape from the first film of Alex, Marty Zebra (Chris Rock), Melman Giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith). We catch up with the four in Madagascar, where they are preparing to fly back to New York in a plane piloted by the Penguins. Things don’t go quite as planned, and our band of misfit zoo animals end up back on the very wildlife preserve where Alex grew up. The film explores the relationships of our main characters and others like them in the preserve, drawing the group back together by the end of the film, where they launch a joint effort to help their community.



The plot in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is very simple. There a minor sub-plots involving the relationships between the characters and other animals of their own kind, which adds a bit of interesting diversion from the very simplistic overall plot. This film targets a pre-teen audience, which makes the plot lines more than adequate. The dialogue is witty and interesting, with every opportunity to turn a pun exploited. And I mean that in a good way. There was even a bit of adult humor thrown in for the guardians that were at this showing in abundance. Little gems like “bring me my nuts on a silver platter” were sprinkled throughout the script. Although the plot is predictable, the characters are interesting and the dialogue flows smoothly. Considering the genre, the plot was well thought out. However, I did not think it was quite as good as the original…most likely because the idea was fresher the first time around.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa had interesting animation. I know that we have come to a point in CGI where it is often difficult to distinguish between reality and graphic enhancements. However, I am still amazed that a computer can generate water washing up on a beach or flowing in a river and create the reflections and ripples in a convincing manner. The level of detail in the animation of this film is outstanding. When you are creating background detail out of nothing, it becomes a true art form. Many of the scenes contain background detail that easily gets lost in the clutter of animation. It is the background that sells the believability of the animation. I was impressed with that aspect of the film. I am also always amused at the similarity I find between animated characters and their voice-over counterparts. When you get those idiosyncrasies down, you create an interesting illusion. There were some gestures that Alex made that definitely made me feel like I was watching Ben Stiller perform. Details like that really make the animation special. From my untrained eye, the animation was perfect.

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Tesseract

When I saw the name Tesseract advertising this film, it immediately caught my attention. A Tesseract is the four dimensional analog of the cube. The movie begins by explaining the meaning of the title, explaining that a square can be unraveled to form a line, a cube can be unraveled to form a cross and proceeds to show the Tesseract unfolded to a structure made of eight cubes that resembles a 3-dimensional cross with cross-arms that point in four directions. This image is actually one of 261 “nets” that the shape can take. What intrigued me was the name in relationship to the film. A mathematical term that refers to four dimensions was most likely used to identify a story that followed four intersecting paths as opposed to a single linear story. As such, Tesseract follows the lives of four individuals connected to the Heaven Hotel in Thailand. Their paths intersect throughout the movie, often jumping track and following a different path.

This film begins by showing a white guy (Sean, played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), apparently tweaking in a seedy hotel room. His scantily furnished room has a bare-bones look. The film jumps and skips, filming Sean from various angles as he paces his room. Sean eventually leaves the room, passing Rosa (Saskia Reeves) who is checking in. The film jumps track via flashback and eventually coming back to Rosa, who is helped to her room by a young bellboy named Wit (Alexander Rendel). Wit likes to go through things in people’s rooms while they are gone, fencing them through his connections on the street. Wit agrees to be interviewed by Rosa, who is a psychologist studying Thai children. During an interview, Wit reveals a dream in which he sees a girl who has been shot. However, his dream has already been shown as actual events when Wit walks into the hotel room of Lita (Lena Christensen) a lethal assassin hired to locate stolen drugs. The lives of these four individuals intermingle throughout the film as the lines of the Tesseract seem to intersect to the past and back, following different scenes involving the four main characters.



A Tesseract is not necessarily a stable figure like a cube or a square. The image can collapse in on itself and expose its various surfaces through movement of the cells. It is actually an interesting concept. This film seemed to borrow heavily from that concept. The flow of the movie felt like a story that happens in stages as opposed to a linear story. This concept set Tesseract apart from other films. It would have been easy for this movie to have devolved to an incoherent mess. There is a snapshot like sound effect and stop action filming that provides a visual and audio cue to assist in tracking the stages of the film. The director, Oxide Pang, did an excellent job of connecting the dots in order to present a story that doesn’t lose the viewers. The film also had the feel of a comic book at times, using extreme close up shots and stop action to create a surreal effect. Instead of introducing a character, you may simply be introduced to an extreme close up of that character’s shoe. The camera angles were also another comic book inspired effect. The subject matter isn’t always perfectly framed and the camera often jumps from overhead shots to point of view to straight on shots. The camera work was excellent.

The writing in this film was exceptional. In order to create continuity, a great deal of creativity was injected into this film. The writing formed the foundation for the rest of the movie to build upon. The story line was not exceptional, relating events following a botched drug transaction. What made this story exceptional were the characters and the development of the plot from multiple vantage points. The characters were interesting, providing a bit of dimension. Some characters were a bit more developed than others, but considering the comic book feel of this movie, the characters were further developed than I might have otherwise expected. The dialogue was also strong. Much of the conversation is done in English and does not have sub-titling. The exchanges that take place in Thai are sub-titled, creating a two-language film with half of it sub-titled. I actually liked the effect. The sub-plots were minor and added to the overall quality of the film. There may have been room to add a wee bit of dimension to some of the characters, but not to the interesting backgrounds of the characters. As a whole, the writing was spot on.


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Changeling

I was unfamiliar with the Christine Collins Story prior to watching this film. After watching the trailers for the past few weeks, I was eagerly anticipating the release of this film. I was further intrigued upon learning that this film was based on a true story. At nearly two and a half hours, this latest film from Clint Eastwood was a bit slow, but equally profound. It did not quite reach the level of Schindler's List which left me stunned and disoriented, but that eerie silence was evident as viewers slowly funneled out of the theater. Eastwood did a phenomenal job of conveying this story.

Changeling reveals the story of Christine Collins, whose son Walter turned up missing in 1928. Collins is notified by the Los Angeles Police that they have found her son and escort her to the train station amongst a throng of media. Collins immediately rejects the notion that the child is her son which angers the Police Department. They try to convince her that her son has changed and the separation has caused her anxiety. She is asked to take the child home on a "trial basis." Collins quickly discovers that the child is shorter than her son and is circumcised. The Police Department dispatches a Psychologist who further belittles Collins into her own delusions, insisting that the child is hers. Collins begins publicly challenging the Police Department and finds herself committed to a Pschotherapy Institution where shock treatment was still a common method of treatment. While these events are unfolding, a police detective stumbles on a serial killer in Wineville (now called Mira Loma as a result of the negative publicity). This discovery casts doubts on the police investigation regarding the Collins boy. The resulting investigation causes public outrage at the Los Angeles Police Department resulting in public hearings and an overhaul of the department. In order to preserve the integrity of the story, I will leave the speculation regarding Collins own son up in the air...you will have to watch the film to find out more.



Because this story was a true story, the writer (J. Michael Straczynski) was limited in terms of plot. However, developing characters and writing dialogue in a period piece are where the challenges lie in this film. Straczynski did a great job of taking historical characters and bringing them to life. His characters were well developed and interesting. The 1920's dialogue was different at times. Because I am not an expert on the era, I certainly cannot disclaim any of the language in the film, but it appeared that they did their research. Another strong aspect regarding the writing was the development of the storyline without getting bogged down in details. Now that I have seen the film, I looked up the story on the internet to find out what really happened. There were a few differences in the true story which I would chalk up to artistic license. I believe the story was streamlined a bit, because at two and half hours, the story was already thick enough without adding more plot lines. Although the movie progressed slowly at times, it wasn't necessarily sluggish and the gripping story unfolding was worth waiting for.

Do not read this paragraph if you have not yet seen the film: One of the interesting items that was not delved into in this film, which I will add here as a bonus concerns the Northcott Ranch. The killer, Gordon Northcott, was living on a ranch owned by his father. In the movie it is portrayed as vacant other than Northcott and his nephew who is held at the ranch against his will. It appears that in real life, this ranch was occupied by the Northcott family. Gordon's father incestually molested his sister who was still in Canada (the place where he is arrested in the film). Gordon was a product of that incest. So the woman who lived at the Ranch that he believed was his mother was actually his grandmother. So, in essence, it is his own mother/sister who turns him into police when he arrives in Canada. Collins does not believe her son Walter was killed, but in real life, Northcott's grandmother testified that she killed the boy and was sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled after serving twelve years.

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The World Of Henry Orient

It’s time for me to open the vault and take out a dusty. Blowing a cloud of cobwebs and dust off of The World of Henry Orient reveals a treasure long hidden in the vault of classic movies. The World of Henry Orient stars a younger Peter Sellers during the timeframe that he filmed his much more popular Pink Panther movie. A cast full of rising stars compliment this film directed by George Roy Hill which was written by Nora and Nunnally Johnson.

The World of Henry Orient is an interestingly innocent story of two teenage girls who meet in 8th Grade in the 1960s. The girls quickly become friends and allow the audience to explore the world through the eyes of two fourteen year old girls. The girls are silly in a fun way, disliking the same teachers and sharing their secrets. When one girl (Valarie Boyd played by Tippy Walker) falls in love with a “Avante Garde” pianist named Henry Orient (Peter Sellers), the two begin following Orient around. Boyd, who is affectionately called Val, shares her secret scrap-booking like album with her newfound friend Gil (Merrie Spaeth). Val and Gil bounce around New York trying to catch a glimpse of Orient, inadvertently spoiling his chances to share his affection with a very attractive and very married woman. When Val’s parents suddenly show up, the carefree fun comes to an end. Val’s mother Isabel (Angela Lansbury) also discovers her scrapbook and ends up taking Val to task over a project that was innocent and fun. Isabel is not a nice woman and the audience is easily swayed to favor Val’s father Frank (Tom Bosley), who ends up running static for his daughter. The story examines the innocence of youth and the tribulations of coming of age. Unlike the coming-of-age movies of today, this film examines the subject from a sheltered and interesting perspective.

One of the things I liked best about this film is that the setting was so different from today. New York in the 1960’s was a different place. There were issues in this film that easily created distinction from the current climate. Two fourteen-year-olds running amok with little supervision may not be a stretch of the imagination. However, the commentary within the dialogue paints a very different picture on society. In one scene, Gil refers to a group of boys that she is forced to dance with on Saturdays as not being as refined as her mother might think. She asks her mother “do you know what those boys were doing while waiting for the school bus?” In todays world, I might answer “flashing gang signs?” Or, “brandishing weapons?” No, they were burping. What a social travesty. The girls also manage to create a bit of trouble here and there, but the comedy has a very innocent feel. Another thing I thoroughly enjoyed in this film was watching actors and actresses I have known later in life performing roles from before I knew them. Tom Bosley is Richie Cunningham’s dad…everyone knows that. Seeing him a bit younger and slimmer was fun. Angela Lansbury is the old lady from Murder She Wrote. Okay, she is not defined by that single role, but it’s the one I associate her with. Seeing her as a sex-kitten is a bit weird. Fun, but weird. It was enjoyable to see such a treasure from a by-gone era.

The writing in this film was spectacular. The Johnsons effectively developed a script that truly had the feel of two mischief prone teenage girls experiencing life in an era that I barely remember. The dialogue was quick and interesting. There are exchanges between the two girls where they create fantasy worlds in their imagination. During the creative process there are ideas being passed back and forth as they build on their common fantasy. The communal fantasy seemed very credible and spontaneous. The characters were well developed with small quirks that made them more appealing. The script was engaging enough to create a bond with the characters and a concern over the outcome. The plot was fairly simple and straightforward, with very little in the way of antagonism. The carefree feel created an atmosphere where a strong plot was not necessarily needed, although enough difficult subject matter evolved to keep things interesting. In a nutshell, the writing created interesting dialogue, strong characters and a tolerable plot.

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Close Your Eyes

While trying to decide on a good movie to watch, I came across Close Your Eyes. The description sounded intriguing enough to capture my attention. I selected this film, which had a slow steady pace, but managed to move quickly enough to maintain my interest. The combination of British accents, interesting concepts and good acting allowed the film to effectively overcome the sometimes sluggish movement. It ended up being an excellent choice.

Close Your Eyes is an interesting detective story based in England. The story has an Illuminati or Davinci Code type of mystique about it, without being quite as elaborate. A young girl who has been traumatized after escaping from a serial killer is held in police custody while the Department engages in a massive manhunt for the killer. Supernatural elements become evident in the story beginning with the introduction of a hypnotist who accidentally sees the young girl in the thoughts of a Police Officer whom he is trying to help stop smoking. This chance event draws the hypnotist into the investigation which skirts around the occult and supernatural with sometimes bloody consequences. The events twist and turn at a leisurely pace, but quickly enough to keep you guessing on the outcome. The story culminates in a series of events that seem a bit contrived, setting up the plausibility for a sequel.

As a whole, the writing was refreshing. Thrillers have a tendency to be slow paced. When you add supernatural aspects to a Thriller type film, you also end up battling believability. By encasing the script in the occult, there was added credibility, but the major theme of the film was a bit difficult to accept. As entertainment, this film succeeded on the strength of the dialogue and character development which was well explored. I enjoy British films but don’t always understand the meanings of words. I find myself rewinding to see what I missed, sometimes guessing at the word meanings based on context. The dialogue was sharp and because of the accent, interesting. The characters had normal quirks that added dimension. The hypnotist experiences conflict at home based on his descent into the case, which added depth to the story. The antagonists are eerie but maintain a degree of normalcy to give them an element of acceptance. However, they tended to be flatter characters, as villains often are. In essence, the writing had strong dialogue with characters that connect while conveying a story that truly challenges ones ability to buy into the concept.

The acting was superb. Shirley Henderson plays the lead police role of Janet Losey. Her personal issues are briefly explored and she experiences some turmoil at work. Between balancing her character’s personal issues and work stress, Henderson effectively delivered a complex character with enough warts to be believable. Her work is brilliantly mirrored by Goran Visnijc, who I was previously unfamiliar with. Visnjic plays the hypnotist, slowly sinking into a creepy underworld of occultic creepiness. His ability to project confidence while countering his secrecy when dealing with his wife accurately conveyed the concept of a guy reluctantly involves himself in an investigation he really does not want to be consumed by. Visnijc was superb. His delivery is convincing, which made me wonder why I have not seen him before. Miranda Otto balances Visnijc, creating the worried wife role or Clara Strother. She does not come across as overbearing but her obvious concerns are evident. A good blend of concern sans bitshiness. The young girl, Heather, is portrayed by Sophie Stuckey. Stuckey doesn’t get much opportunity to speak and on one rare occasion her voice is not her own. It was a nice piece of dubbing. Stuckey took a part the required non-verbal communication for the most part, and effectively delivered her performance. Stuckey was another exceptional member of a cast that was well chosen.

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