BAD LIEUTENANT

Crime drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Nicolas Cage: New Orleans police detective Terence “Terry” McDonagh
Val Kilmer: his partner Stevie Pruit
Eva Mendes: Terry’s call-girl lover Frankie
Michael Shannon: Mundt, the police evidence room clerk
Brad Dourif: Terry’s sports bookie Ned
Alvin “Xzibit” Joiner: a drug kingpin known to the police by his Alias/Street Name/Nickname as Big Fate
Tom Bower: Terry’s father Pat
Jennifer Coolidge: Terry’s stepmother Genevieve

REVIEW
Bad cop, good cop? He’s both.

In fact Terence McDonagh is almost a one-man police force in this fast-paced who-dunnit. As usual there are plot twists and turns although things do not always turn out as expected. And sometimes it can become a bit confusing: case in point, somebody wants to extort money from Terry but I’ve no idea why. But that doesn’t matter: keeping focus on the main story line is all that is required.

This has to be Cage’s best performance ever: his character provides him the opportunity to carry off a wide range of emotions reminiscent of Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. That alone is worth the price of admission.

CLASSIFICATION
for violence, profanity, sexual situations, nudity and pervasive drug use.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• During an interrogation of a suspected drug dealer the papers on the desk are all nicely aligned. Although no one touches them, when Terry enters the room those on the right are now at an angle.
• Hearing a knock on the door Terry says “Who is it?” but does not get up from the chair yet the door is opened by someone pushing a cart and announcing “room service”. Only housekeeping and the security have master keys to hotel rooms; everyone else must wait to be invited in.
• Whenever Terry has an encounter with the nightclub patrons in the huge parking lot, every one of them is parked in the same space.

P.S.
In the United States more money is wagered on football than any other sport. In the world of sports betting, a dime equals $1,000. The point spread is a handicap placed on the expected winner of the game. For example if the Lakers are expected to beat the Clippers and the point spread is 6 points, anyone betting on the Lakers will win only if the Lakers beat the Clippers by 7 points or more.

P.S.S.
When Terry visits his girlfriend he benefits from the Movie-making Miracle of Available Parking Space which states that "whenever a character needs a parking space, even on the busiest streets in the busiest cities, one is readily available."

P.S.S.S.
As a matter of practice I truncate long movie titles because they run all over the place on my website making it look messy and untidy. Can’t have any of that!

THE ROAD

Adventure\drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Viggo Mortensen: the man with no name
Charlize Theron: his wife
Kodi Smit-McPhee: their son
Garret Dillahunt: a gang member
Robert Duvall: an old man
Michael Kenneth Williams: a thief

REVIEW
This story of survival in a post-apocalyptic setting is a rather bleak affair. In no way is it a “feel-good” movie despite the brief flashbacks to an earlier life. It does raise the question about being human but under much different circumstances than today.

The paucity of dialogue provides little opportunity for the cast to do more than slog it out while keeping the emotional level in check.

The running time is almost two hours but doesn’t have to be since there are quite a few scenes that are either repetitive or simply too long. The film editor should have exercised his prerogative and done something about that.

CLASSIFICATION
for profanity and violence.

PRECIOUS

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Gabourey Sidibe: 16-year-old Claireece “Precious” Jones
Mo’Nique: her mother Mary
Paula Patton: Ms. Rain, teacher at Each One Teach One alternative school
Xosha Roquemore: Joann, one of Precious’ Jamaican classmates
Angelic Zambrana: another classmate Consuelo, one with musical aspirations
Mariah Carey: welfare case worker Mrs. Weiss

REVIEW
This story of an ghetto teenager with wild ambitions trying to overcome enormous odds is riveting stuff. The acting is uniformly good but the Oscar-worthy performance by Mo’Nique, although not always easy to watch, is nothing short of amazing.

Mostly shot with a hand-held camera and often dimly lit, this technique captures the grim, desperate mood with expert realism. And speaking of realism: the use of the vernacular is well considered but might result in some of the dialogue not being well understood. However you will likely get the gist of it and so that should not be too much of a problem.

CLASSIFICATION
for sexual activity and pervasive language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
According to the opening intertitle these events took place in 1987. While touring a museum Precious sees posted on the wall the famous photo of the standoff in Tiananmen Square. That student protest did not come about until two years later in 1989.

P.S.
I’ve taken the editorial prerogative to truncate the full title (“Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire”) as I think it serves no useful purpose to be told that the film is a work of fiction. To me, doing so undermines the fact so much of what we see in the film is all too real. People should be aware of that, not led to think for a moment that it’s all some make believe fairy tale. It is not.

LOVE AND SAVAGERY

Drama, romance

F.Y.I.
The Burren (Irish for “great rock”) is a region in northwest County Clare characterised by its distinctive karst topography, the result of the geological process over thousands of years of water dissolving the carbonate limestone bedrock.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Allan Hawco: Canadian geologist Michael McCarthy
Sarah Greene: barmaid Cathleen O'Connell
Macdara O'Fatharta: one of the locals who befriends Michael
Martha Burns: the Mother Superior
Sean Panting: Michael’s pal Wilfred

REVIEW
Right from the onset you know you’re in for a treat: along with the stunning views of the Irish west coast there is the ambient sound that so often gets lost amidst all the other elements of a movie.

And speaking of sound, the musical score is well done too and nicely complements this story of love set in the late ‘60’s, when traditional Irish values had yet to be supplanted by more modern ones.

I loved the pace at which things evolve, very much like real life instead of the all- pervasive hurry-up, frantic, “let’s get to it quick” style.

So if you expect to take in just one movie of this sort this year, make it this one. This film is definitely for the discerning viewer and their patience will be well rewarded with great performances in the telling of an absorbing story.

CLASSIFICATION
for some sexuality and violence.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
Cathleen sets her teacup down on a small piece of paper. With each change in camera angle the teacup hops on or off the paper.

LAST TRAIN HOME

Documentary

REVIEW
The inter-title informs us that Chinese immigrant workers make the long trek back home once a year to see their family. The film zeros in on Sugin Chen and her husband Yang Zhang who work in a sewing factory under appalling conditions. We then follow along as they return to their village during the Chinese New Year to see their 17-year-old daughter Qin and her younger brother. Some of the images during the long trip are just gorgeous.

One thing has to be said though: the film has the look of a “rough cut”, that stage in the post-production phase which is part of the editing process. The rough cut is not meant to be the perfectly assembled end product of the film, the final cut, which is distributed to theatres.

As such it is a good example of the pitfalls when any one person has more than two key production jobs. According to the end credits Lixin Fan is the Director, Cinematographer and one of the Editors. Consequently he has a lot to say about what gets to stay in the final cut or not. And in this case many times there are snippets that should have been edited out.

For example, Qin gets her hair done and comes out sporting long curls. In the very next shot her hair is once more straight. One or the other should go.
Another example: Yang is laying in bed suffering from a fever. Sugin goes off to work leaving him behind and when she gets there, who’s sitting in front of her? Why it’s Yang who somehow made a miraculous recovery from one shot to the next. One or the other should go.

However despite this shortcoming the story is compelling enough on its own to warrant taking the time to see it.

CLASSIFICATION

WELCOME

Drama
In French and Kurdish with English subtitles

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Firat Ayverdi: Bilal, a 17-year-old Iraqi Kurd
Vincent Lindon: Simon Calmat, swimming instructor at the Calais municipal baths
Audrey Dana: his soon-to-be ex-wife Marion
Derya Ayverdi: Bilal’s girlfriend Mina
Mouafaq Rushdie: Mina’s father

REVIEW
Set amidst the gritty dockyards of Calais, the plight of illegal immigrants is clearly portrayed in this well-acted film.

CLASSIFICATION
for language and brief sexual activity.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• The distance from Bagdad to the French coast is about 2,500 miles, not 4,000 as mentioned by Bilal.
• According to Simon the water temperature off the beach at Calais is around 10°C. In fact it never gets that cold, varying instead between 14°C and 18°C.

OLD DOGS

Family comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
John Travolta: Charlie Reed, one of the principals in a sports management firm
Robin Williams: his middle-aged business partner Dan Rayburn
Seth Green: their business associate Ralph White
Kelly Preston: Dan’s ex-wife Vicki
Ella Bleu Travolta: seven-year-old fraternal twin Emily
Conner Rayburn: and Zach
Matt Dillon: camp counsellor Barry
Bernie Mac: entertainer Jimmy Lunchbox

REVIEW
I’ve given it a lot of thought and tried to come up with something nice to say about this film, something that might justify putting out $10 or so and having to give up more than a hour of your time to watching it. I am stymied because this one is completely without any merit at all.

The producers have simply taken a lot of clichés used in comic violence including hits to the crotch (three times and counting), smacks to the body, falling, tripping, breaking things and the like. Add to that a lot of mugging for the camera, rude bodily sounds and silly inane dialogue. In a word, just about anything they hope will provoke a laugh from those who enjoy that sort of humour. I do not so I left before things got any worse.

CLASSIFICATION
for mild rude humor.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• While at the restaurant one of the kids knocks over Charlie’s soft drink. Seen from the kid’s perspective the empty glass remains on the table. But viewed over Dan’s shoulder the glass is sitting upright.
• Charlie tells someone their trip from NYC to Tokyo will take 18 hours. It does not: it is a little over 14 hours.
• Dan and Vicki got divorced before the kids were born so it is impossible that he was at an amusement park with them as seen on his laptop video.

P.S.
Makes you wonder if the Casting Director is a real good friend of the family: according to her bio, Kelly Preston (who plays Vicki) married John Travolta (who plays Charlie) in 1991. Their daughter Ella Bleu plays Emily.