writhaus

With the advent of high definition, nothing pleases me more than to watch a catalog title look better than it has any right to. Such is the joy of watching Smokey and the Bandit. The colors are crisp, and the print used to strike this HD DVD is in great condition, with none of the problems other movies from the ’70s exhibit.

Smokey and the Bandit tells the story of Bo “Bandit” Darville (Burt Reynolds) and Cledus “Snowman” Snow (Jerry Reed) as they try to win a bet made to transport a transfer truckload of Coors beer from Texarkana, Texas, to Atlanta, Ga., in 28 hours. It’s illegal to transport the beer across state lines, so Bandit runs cover for the truck driven by Snowman. Along the way, Bandit picks up a young lass named Carrie (Sally Field), which brings Hell upon him in the form of Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), whose son was set to marry Carrie that very day.

The plot, as you can tell, is pretty thin, but that isn’t to say it isn’t enjoyable. Reynolds was a ’70s icon, and it’s easy to see why given the charisma exhibited. You never wonder how Carrie or Bandit could fall for each other, as it happens organically and expertly. The supporting cast is outstanding, too, as Jackie Gleason steals virtually every scene he is in. I wonder sometimes how he was persuaded to be in the film, but I am definitely glad he signed the contract. Jerry Reed provides a comic foil for Reynolds, as well as providing the film’s trademark theme, “East Bound and Down.”

If you haven’t seen the film, the HD DVD definitely is worth a rental. If you’ve seen the film and love it, it’s a no-brainer to buy. If you have seen the film and hated it, nothing I can say here likely will persuade you otherwise. Overall, though, the film is a great diversion and a lot of fun. Now bring on The Cannonball Run!

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With little better to do on the Memorial Day holiday after finishing my tutoring, I decided to head to Pasadena and see Waitress. I had heard a lot of positive things about the writing and acting. This left my interest piqued.

There was a good crowd for the afternoon showing, which skewed older than I’d expect but was probably normal for a weekday afternoon.

Keri Russell, TV’s Felicity, plays Jenna, a woman married to an asshole who feels trapped in her small town because of lack of money to leave him. She works at Joe’s Pie Diner and creates all the day’s delicious pies. Almost immediately, Jenna discovers she is pregnant and is consoled by her fellow waitresses, Becky (Cheryl Hines) and Dawn (writer/director Adrienne Shelly). She doesn’t want be a mother and isn’t the least bit enamored with the news.

She schedules an appointment to see her doctor only to find out the lady has semi retired, turning her practice over to Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion). The two share a connection that quickly grows into something more.

The performances are all quite well done, especially Andy Griffith as Old Joe, although the faux Southern accents do tend to grate a bit. Shelly definitely found her muse and cast with this film, which makes her passing much more tragic.

The narrative is not without faults, in my opinion. In particular, the ending is rather pat and feels ultra feminist. The message it offers is marginal at best. In fact, it annoyed me enough that I skipped a planned second movie because of it. Not wanting to spoil the film for anyone, I am saving that conversation for my own Web site. You can link to that discussion here.

Overall I was happy with the film until the climax. It damaged what came before enough that my whole outlook of the film was skewed. In the end, the film until the delivery of the baby is a solid, if low-key film. With the ending, it’s much less enjoyable and leaves more questions than it answers.

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I’ve enjoyed my two trips to Britain. On the first trip, the group I was in traveled to Windsor. The queen was in residence, as indicated by the flag over the castle. It was an odd realization knowing that there was royalty about, even though I knew I was in no danger of bumping into her while I was buying Scotch blankets for my mother.

It’s exactly this sort of aloofness that’s presented in Stephen Frears’ The Queen. Elizabeth gives off an air of detatchment from her people in the days following the death of Diana, former Princess of Wales. This aloofness puts her at odds with her subjects and is reinforced by her husband. All the while, the new prime minister, Tony Blair, tries to guide her out of the trouble she has found herself in. I wondered as the film started what role the queen’s grandchildren would play, but fortunately, they were scarcely in it at all.

All in all, this was a very well-put-together movie. The shot selections are solid, and the acting is quite good, as you might expect from a cast that includes Helen Mirren and James Cromwell. The editing is good, if not outstanding. In the end, though, I feel more as if I watched a well-produced television movie than a theatrical release. This is a feeling that is creeping more and more into dramas, with only the avant-garde such as The Chumscrubber pulling away, if only because of their oddness.

What this film does do very well is give us a glimpse into what the rationale might have been that week in September 1997. I appreciate this look inside the British monarchy and feel better educated for having done so.

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Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg saw great success with their 2004 film, Shaun of the Dead. They haven’t been slacking off since that film’s release, though, and have had their new film, Hot Fuzz, released in the United States by Universal’s Rogue Pictures. I watched it tonight with a packed house in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

In the film, Pegg plays Nick Angel, a man born to be constabulary. After acing all his training and becoming something of a one-man taskforce, the department realizes he is showing up the rest of them and ships him off to sleepy little Sandford, where nothing seems to happen at all.

Angel the supercop rounds up a dozen or so collars his first night in town, much to the chagrin of locals who understand being a little looser with the law. Just when you think the film will devolve into a “boy, Angel just needs to learn to lighten up a bit” sort of film, everything is turned on its head when real crimes start happening in the small town, and Angel is the only one who notices what’s going on. Lest you forget this is a comedy from this description, I assure you the British dry wit is evident throughout.

First, the bad news: This film is long, especially for a comedy. Five minutes easily could have been shaved, leaving us with a much spunkier film.

That said, the editing of this film is top notch. It keeps your eyes firmly on the screen and gives you scant time to look about the theater at the people surrounding you. The sound design deserves note, too. Rarely has a comedy, even a police-themed comedy had this explosive of a mix. This film definitely will make a fine holiday HD DVD release for Universal.

Next, the writing astounds. There are so many jokes and quick one-liners that you’d be hard-pressed to keep up with them all. The acting is spot on, as well. Pegg nails Angel. His comic timing is perfect, as are his mannerisms. A perfect example is when he is forced to impersonate the village idiot, who is only heard uttering one syllable. Nick Frost is in perfect form as the well-meaning but somewhat-inept son of the burg’s inspector. The supporting cast is great fun, too, including Martin Freeman, Timothy Dalton, and Bill Nigh, among others.

This is a great film to see in a packed theater. There were numerous bursts of laughter and applause throughout the film in the packed auditorium in which I watched it. It bodes well for Pegg, Wright, and moviegoers in general.

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Whenever I see Clive Owen, I wonder what the world would have been like had he been discovered when he was 25. His presense always conveys the attitude of the anti-hero. While I haven’t always enjoyed the movies he’s acted in, I always appreciated what he brought to the film. Sadly he always lacked that breakout starring role — until Children of Men, anyway.

Children of Men is a societal polemic based on the 1993 novel by P.D. James. Set in 2027 when no child has been born for 18 years, the world is in shambles. Director Alfonso Cuarón deftly brings this world to life, letting the medium of film help tell his story. Eyes must be kept open during Cuarón’s films. Otherwise, you will miss the headlines on the old papers in the Fish’s interrogation chamber or the backstory for Janice’s catatonic state.

The film’s plot follows perfectly cast Owen’s Theo Faron as he helps his radical ex-wife (Julianne Moore) smuggle a girl out of England. The supporting cast is filled with such fine actors as Pam Farris and Chiwetel Ejiofor, who I always thought of as an African Tim Curry. The production design of burned-out buildings, urban streets, and rural escapes are lavish. Cuarón’s budget is visible on the screen.

The cinematography is inspired. There are layers and layers of things happening in every scene. The action sequences are handled with care and aplomb. One would think Cuarón wanted to match the fantasy impact of Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth with gritty reality. The HD DVD transfer by Universal lets all of this flow through into your living room.

The film rewards multiple viewings because of its depth. You may not notice the boxes of Quietus lingering around the film, and after you do, another viewing will help you understand the characters’ motivations for having them. Cuarón embraced the canvas he was given to tell this story, but he expects us to pay attention.

I heartily recommend this film to own. The story told is worthwhile and important. You deserve to see a film of this quality.

I reviewed this film based on three viewings: The theatrical exhibition, the HD DVD presentation, and the standard-def DVD.

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Frank Miller liked the movie The 300 Spartans. He liked it so much he wrote his own comic based on the Battle of Thermopolae titled 300 and published by Dark Horse Comics in the late ’90s. Miller is now something of a movie-industry darling, having had teenagers who read his cutting-edge comics work in the ’80s grow into filmmakers in the ’90s. With the success of Sin City, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood began hydromining his back catalogue of work for adaptable films. It’s our luck that 300 was chosen.

Zach Snyder directs this highly stylized adaptation of Miller’s comic. A lot of liberties are taken visually, but the core story is still as stirring as it was 2,500 years ago. Spartan king Leonidas knows the Persians are coming and that the Greeks are not yet prepared to stop them. He takes it upon himself to gather a 300-man group of his warriors and to lead them against Xerxes’ Persian forces. At the hot springs of Thermopolae, Leonidas has his men hunker down as the Persians approach. When the battle is over, Sparta and Greece will be changed forever.

Following in the footsteps of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Sin City, 300 is a mostly green screen affair. The material actually lends itself to this technique. To a very large extent, the film feels more like a stage play until the battles start. I was initially apprehensive about a two-hour movie basically being a three-day battle, but Snyder handles it nicely. The visual flair of the film is excellent, too. The Persian forces look exotic, mystical, and dangerous. The Spartans are appropriately buff, with the crimson of their cloaks one of the few colors standing out in the desaturated palette.

It is not a perfect film, though. Because this movie is about a battle, there isn’t much for the actors to do. Gerard Butler does an acceptable job as Leonidas. He has the proper gravitas for the role and a voice that lends itself to the passages he needs to speak. Lena Headey does a nice enough job as his queen, Gorgo. Dominic West is appropriately sleazy in the role of Theron. Outside these roles, there really isn’t much for the actors to do. There is little time given to what motivations the Persians had for their Greek invasion. As a matter of fact, other than fighting, the Persians have little to do at all.

Overall, though, the film is largely enjoyable. The design-work makes full use of its computers, and the battles feel real and epic. That’s likely the highest compliment the film can be granted.

300 was viewed at the Pacific Theater’s Paseo Stadium 14 on March 10, 2007.

For more on the realities of Spartan life in ancient Greece, browse this article from the Toronto Sun.

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Whatever negative attributes he has, John Woo really does know action. In my opinion, his best work was done in Hong Kong, culminating in Hard Boiled, but he has crossed the Pacific and become something of a Hollywood mainstay. Mission: Impossible 2 has been the pinnacle of his American success, with a gross of more than $200 million.

With the actors and action, it’s easy to see why. As with the prior movie (and a lot of Woo’s Hollywood output), the story takes a back seat to the action. What plot there is revolves around a stolen virus and the Impossible Mission team’s quest to snatch it away from the baddies. To do this, they enlist the help of Nyah Nordoff-Hall (played by Thandie Newton), the ex of the lead thief, a rogue IMF agent named Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott).

The action set pieces are plentiful and enjoyable. The last half hour consists of a thrilling motorcycle chase and a (mostly) hand-to-hand throwdown on a beach. There are a lot of explosions and a few genuine tense moments.

Woo has a tendency to let things run long, and that negatively impacts the picture. At just longer than two hours, the film could have been much better with about 15 minutes removed. A lot of that has to do with Woo’s trademark style, though, which includes a lot of slow-motion effects and operatic-action moments. If you are a Woo fan, you won’t be bothered as much as I was by them.

Overall, the film is enjoyable summertime fluff, as it was intended to be. You will enjoy the action, ignore the story, and have a mostly good time.

The version viewed was Paramount’s HD DVD released as part of a Mission: Impossible three-pack. The transfer was generally outstanding, although there are a few technical issues with the film crew and their inability to keep people in proper focus. In the era of high definition, this is becoming an issue, as I am noticing it more and more. Hopefully, Hollywood will adapt.

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I was thinking about the movie reviews and realized there might be some questions as to my methodology and why I seem to enjoy every movie I review.

It’s like this: Because writhaus.com is a small-time operation, we don’t get free copies of movies (or music CDs for that matter). Everything I review is something I have bought or rented. It should go without saying that when I am laying out my money, I tend not to want to spend it on something I don’t think I will like, nor do I relish the idea of spending an hour and a half plus with a film I will regret having seen.

I assure you, there are tons of movies I think are absolute garbage. One day soon, I will recreate my “20 All-Time Worst Films” list from YMDb. Then, you can see for yourself. In the meantime, enjoy these reviews, and rest assured at some point I will take a chance on something, hate it, and write a scathing review for you to relish.

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Why it happens, I have no idea. Maybe they just hope to capitalize on confusion. At any rate, it’s often the case that two movies with similar themes are released in the same time period. Think of Deep Impact and Armageddon or Dante’s Peak and Volcano. So it was with Stir of Echoes, which had the unfortunate task of following a certain Bruce Willis/Haley Joel Osment horror pic. For once, though, the second pic wasn’t a stinker. In fact both these pictures hold up well today, nearly a decade after their theatrical releases.

Kevin Bacon plays Tom, an everyman who lives a grounded, down-to-earth life with his wife, Maggie, and son, Jake. At a party, Tom’s sister-in-law hypnotizes him, and after that, he sees things…not happy things, either. As the film progresses, we find that Tom sees the ghost of a girl missing from his neighborhood. Tom is compelled to find out what she wants, which leads him into the dark recesses of his neighborhood and home.

David Koepp, who shares a writing credit, directs the film with a steady hand. Being no stranger to the horror/suspense genre, Koepp manages to avoid some of the pratfalls that other directors fall into. The film keeps moving at a brisk pace, never allowing you to grow bored. He also eschews gore for genuine tension. When Bacon’s character is having visions, I found myself leaning forward in anticipation, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.

Another positive is that this film does not over-rely on flashy effects. From the same time period, Jan De Bont gave us a remake of The Haunting that was all style with no substance. With Stir of Echoes, Koepp lets his actors do the heavy lifting, and with the underrated Kevin Bacon starring, that’s a good thing.

I screened the film on Lionsgate’s recent Blu-ray release. I immediately was impressed with the transfer and DTS soundtrack. Grain was never an issue, and the print used must have been pristine. Rarely have I enjoyed blacks so rich and deep as in this transfer.

While not a flop, Stir of Echoes definitely was overshadowed by The Sixth Sense. As unfortunate as that is, now is a great time to pick up this spine-tingler and enjoy a spooky good time.

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Few people possess the wit of someone like Douglas Adams. Writing satires disguised as science fiction, Adams’ books are loved the world over. Adams also never met a media form he didn’t love, converting Hitchhiker’s to radio, TV, and computer game formats before it made the long trek to the silver screen. These permutations were always different, but they are all beloved by their fans. It was with some controversy that the film was released in 2005.

They all start similarly, with Arthur Dent waking to discover his home is about to be destroyed to make way for a bypass. He doesn’t feel any better when he finds out the Earth is being demolished to make way for a similar bypass, either. The film finds its own way afterwards, though, mixing in a quest to find out the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything; the quest for an actual question when the answer to life, the universe, and everything is unsatisfactory; and a quest for a particular weapon for the loser of the last President of the Universe election.

If you are confused by the previous paragraph, don’t panic. As with all the prior versions, the film is an entity unto itself…parts are dropped, expanded on, and added as needed. If this is your first experience with Adams’ work, you will be entertained. If you have been reading for decades, then there are enough different bits to keep you up guessing.

The cast all steps up to the occasion. Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Zooey Deschanel, and hip-hopper Mos Def all devour their roles. The aliens, created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, are as amazing and imaginative as one would hope. Marvin the Robot is brought to life by Warwick Davis, and Alan Rickman brings a great sense of depression to every scene he is in.

I am reviewing this film from Disney’s recent Blu-ray release. The transfer is a step beyond what was seen on the standard DVD. Grain is apparent often, but it is in line with what one expects from the filmmaking process. Audio is a step up, as well, making the initial musical number a delight.

Have no reservations in regard to the film. It is as enjoyable as Douglas Adams would have hoped, especially if you keep in mind how the story evolves in each medium for which it is adapted.

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