MOVIE REVIEWS
Extremely Loud & Incredibly
Close
By John Mulderig
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) — Few events in recent history have exerted as deeply
personal an impact on the lives of millions of Americans, and of people
across the globe, as the attacks of 9/11.
So it’s odd and a little baffling that a film based
on the tragedy of a decade ago should register — for most
of its two-hour-plus running time, at least — as uninvolving.
Yet such is the case with Extremely Loud & Incredibly
Close (Warner
Bros.), director Stephen Daldry’s grim screen version of the best-selling
novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. Though his drama focuses on community,
shared suffering and familial solidarity, and upholds positive, humanistic
values, various factors within it seem to conspire to keep the audience
at a distance.
To begin with, there’s the eccentric personality of the movie’s
main character, introverted grade schooler Oskar Schell. While newcomer
Thomas Horn does an admirable job of inhabiting Oskar, this young Manhattanite
is anything but an Everyman — or perhaps Everyboy.
Oskar may or may not have the mild form of autism known
as Asperger’s
syndrome; tests, he tells us at one point, were inconclusive. But he is
undeniably pan-phobic, and the only thing that seems to soothe him — as
he runs the gauntlet of such fear-inducing elements of New York life as
subways, elevators and loud noises — is his ever-present tambourine.
Of course, Oskar has more reason to be fearful than most,
given that his devoted father, Thomas (Tom Hanks), perished in the World
Trade Centre.
Devastated by his sudden loss, Oskar seeks diversion, as
well as a prolonged sense of closeness to his dad, in an unusual quest.
He’s out to identify
the purpose of a mysterious key he discovered among Thomas’ belongings.
His search gains him the friendship of the traumatized German immigrant
(Max von Sydow) who lodges with his grandmother. And it ultimately brings
him closer to his seemingly grief-paralyzed mom, Linda (Sandra Bullock).
But the diffuse nature of his journey, which brings him
into contact with a whole series of strangers is another alienating,
or at least distracting element for viewers.
While not suitable for Oskar’s real-life peers, his story is presented
in a way that most adults will find acceptable, a few rude puns exchanged
with his building’s doorman Stan (John Goodman) notwithstanding.
But, as scripted by Eric Roth, his tale is likely to prove more emotionally
trying than genuinely cathartic.
The film contains mature themes, some disturbing images,
a couple of crude terms and occasional vulgar
wordplay. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion
Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly
cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
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Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.
Haywire
By John P. McCarthy
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) -- With the fairly suspenseful but frequently brutal thriller
Haywire (Relativity),
filmmaker Steven Soderbergh tries his hand at action-oriented espionage.
Stylish and spare, the result plays like the work of a talented yet restless
director ticking another genre off his list.
What moviegoers may appreciate most about Haywire is that it
clocks in at a swift 93 minutes. What they'll likely find most disconcerting
is its casual approach to violence, even after allowing for the life-and-death
nature of international spying and covert military operations.
In recent years, this terrain has been dominated by the Bourne trilogy and slickly outlandish fare such as the Angelina Jolie vehicle Salt.
Soderbergh
attempts to lend some authenticity to his variation by casting mixed martial
arts fighter Gina Carano in the lead role. That choice, together with the
knowledge that the film's working title was Knockout, provides
an accurate barometer of what's in store.
Carano plays Mallory Kane, a former Marine engaged in black ops for a private
company contracted by the U.S. government. We first meet the lethal brunette
on the lam in upstate New York. How she became a fugitive is told in flashback,
beginning with a Barcelona job during which she and several colleagues,
including gung-ho Aaron (Channing Tatum), free a Chinese dissident being
held by unidentified thugs.
Next, Mallory's boss and former boyfriend Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) sends
her to Dublin to work alongside British secret agent Paul (Michael Fassbender).
It's during this assignment that she's double-crossed and forced to go
rogue to find out who has betrayed her and why. American spymaster Coblenz
(Michael Douglas) is somehow involved, as is Spanish diplomat Rodrigo,
limned by Antonio Banderas.
Soderbergh's lively cinematography -- along with a jaunty musical score,
glamorous international locales, and a seasoned supporting cast -- gives
the picture ample flair. But since the plot and dialogue exist solely to
provide Carano the chance to display her considerable fighting skills,
there's not much substance to be found. Attempts to explore character and
tease out the human drama in the scenario don't register.
The intense, precisely choreographed hand-to-hand fight sequences, along with several exciting chases, stand out. Kudos to Carano for performing her own acrobatic stunts (without the use of wires or special effects) and to Soderbergh for capturing them with his typical energy and panache. Unfortunately, Mallory shows no mercy as she tracks down her betrayers.
Close combat is Carano's metier; as for Soderbergh, with
Haywire, he
once again demonstrates that, though he's adept at making different kinds
of films, he has yet to master any one form. Obviously enthused by the
challenges of staging and shooting a certain type of action film, and the
opportunity to pay homage to its progenitors, he seems uninterested in
its thematic or ethical content.
The door is left open to a sequel but don't expect Soderbergh to be at
the helm. No doubt he'll have moved on to something completely different.
The film contains much fierce hand-to-hand violence and gunplay,
brief gore, an implied non-marital encounter, at least one use of profanity
and of rough language, some crude terms and an obscene gesture. The Catholic
News Service classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose
problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture
Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying
parent or adult guardian.
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McCarthy is a guest reviewer for Catholic News Service.
Red Tails
By Kurt Jensen
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) — The last time audiences watched flag-waving hokum
on the order of Red Tails (Fox), the show may have included
a cartoon and a newsreel, and war bonds may have been for sale in the lobby.
Patriotic corn, it seems, is not a staple that ages especially well.
During the Second World War, combat-themed films were relentlessly upbeat
because the federal government, as well as the Production Code Administration,
decreed such optimism to be in the interest of home-front morale.
But what director Anthony Hemingway and screenwriters John Ridley and Aaron
McGruder obviously intended as an enthusiastic fact-based homage to that
type of motion picture instead comes off as shallow and cliched storytelling
about a famed group of Tuskegee Airmen.
As their film opens in 1944, the 332nd Fighter Group of the Army Air Forces — made up of African-American pilots based in Italy — are shown banished to rear-guard missions such as strafing a German supply train and making coastal patrols with second-hand P-40 Warhawks.
These fliers yearn to get into the scrap. But they face racism, not only
from the distant Pentagon — where Col. A.J. Bullard (Terrence Howard)
fights the good fight on behalf of his subordinates — but from their
nearby white counterparts.
They’re finally awarded the use of the P-51 Mustang — a muscular
plane suitable for bomber escorts and nimble enough to outmanoeuvre the
first German jets. This being the time before stealth aircraft, the Mustangs’ noses
and tails are painted bright red. Those at the controls clearly intend
to be seen and remembered.
The history lesson is easy enough to convey if the filmmakers would only
focus on the task at hand. Instead, they prefer to have their flyboys cracking
wise with such remarks as “How you like that, Mr. Hitler?” and
aphorisms like “Experience is a cruel teacher. You get the exam first,
then the lesson.”
The aviators are shown to be practising Christians, particularly David “Deke” (short
for Deacon) Watkins, played by Marcus T. Paulk. Deke’s cockpit carries
an icon of a black Jesus, and he leads his comrades in prayer before takeoff.
Tristan Wilds as Ray “Junior” Gannon finds romance with Sofia
(Daniela Ruah), an Italian girl, and Cuba Gooding Jr. as Maj. Emmanuel
Stance grunts a lot and never takes his pipe out of his mouth. On the up
side, despite their predictable outcomes, the extended dogfight sequences
are everything you’d expect from the greatest generation.
The film contains extensive aerial combat violence, an instance of implied
premarital sex as well as fleeting crude and crass language. The Catholic
News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture
Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned.
Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
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Jensen is a guest reviewer for Catholic News Service.
Underworld: Awakening
By Kurt Jensen
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) — Kate Beckinsale squeezes into the black vinyl tights
again as Selene, avenging warrior of the underground Vampire clan, and
battles Lycans (werewolves) and predatory human scientists for Underworld:
Awakening (Screen Gems), the fourth instalment in the horror-fantasy
series.
This time around, Selene awakens from 12 years in frozen suspended animation
imposed on her by the folks at Amigent Corp. They’ve imprisoned her
for the period humans know as The Cleansing but which vampires
refer to as The Purge.
She learns she has a daughter, Eve (India Eisley), from her assignation
with a Vampire-Lycan hybrid in a previous film. Just how this birth took
place isn’t quite explained.
Co-directors Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein — along with screenwriting
quartet Len Wiseman, John Hlavin, J. Michael Straczyinski and Allison Burnett — concoct
a familiar and by now somewhat dreary formula of neck-bitings, stabbings,
martial-arts kicks and more gunfire than Custer’s last stand.
Most of the film — which, at 88 minutes, is mercifully shorter than
the previous instalments — consists of Eve coming to grips with
her vampire powers.
She also has to reconcile herself to the fact that Selene isn’t quite
the maternal type — a discovery to which Selene herself responds,
in a line worthy of Barbara Stanwyck’s Stella Dallas, “My heart
isn’t cold; it’s broken.”
Only fans of this series — and those incurably incurious enough never
to wonder why vampires need all those guns — are likely to find any
enjoyment in this episode.
The film contains stylized gun, knife and martial-arts violence and brief,
shadowy upper female nudity. The Catholic News Service rating is A-III — adults.
The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted.
Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
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Jensen is a guest reviewer for Catholic News Service.
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