First update of a big week of new releases hitting the big screen. We've got two reviews of upcoming movies. First stop is Hollyfeld's lengthy and wonderful review of the latest Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou? Followed by Q-Brick's surprisingly positive look at Russell Crowe's Proof of Life. Next issue will have reviews of Dungeons & Dragons and Vertical Limit.
O Brother Review
"Hollyfeld, here. I have been contemplating my more recent reviews recently, and have been a bit disturbed by their tendencies to be favorable, if not spectacular. This concerned me, for obvious reasons. Have I grown soft? Or have I just seen a bunch of particularly good movies lately? The recent brilliance of O Brother, Where Art Thou? makes me seriously consider the latter to be true, but I wouldn't want someone who actually reads my reviews (all one of you, judging from the number of e-mails I have received) to think that I love everything I see. So, just to balance out my recent string of positive energy, I will now list a few movies that I utterly loath with all my being - movies that, when mentioned, force me to utter words of pure derision, disgust, or at least an obscene noise of some variety. *Ahem.* A short list: U-Turn, Pret-A-Porter, The English Patient, Scanners, Deep Impact, Alien: Resurrection, Rock-A-Doodle, Species 2, Dr. Dolittle (the remake, not the tolerably stupid Rex Harrison original), Mission: Impossible 2, Nine Months, Speed 2, The Ninth Gate (pleasant memories surrounding it not withstanding), and Basic Instinct. There. Now on to another, justifiably glowing, review.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is the latest film the Coen Bros., perhaps the most consistently brilliant filmmakers since the heyday of Hitchcock. A loose re-telling of Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey, in Depression-era Mississippi, it follows the experiences of three escaped chain gang convicts, Everett Ulysses McGill (George Clooney), Pete Hogwallop (John Turturro), and Delmar O'Donnel (Tim Blake Nelson) on their adventures as they head towards home and freedom. Along the way, they encounter duplicitous sirens, a bible-selling cyclops, and widespread musical popularity.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? may not be the Coen Bros. most effective film (an award which probably belongs to either Fargo or Blood Simple), but it is certainly their most brilliantly conceived. As you have no doubt heard by now, the title comes from Preston Sturges classic film, Sullivan's Travels. Don't feel bad if you haven't seen it. It's one of those classic films that everyone talks about but no one ever actually looks at. Suffice it to say, it was a film about a mainstream movie director who, tired of making entertaining fluff, sets out to make a serious, no holds barred drama about the pain of the homeless. He disguises himself as a homeless man in order to get a first hand look at their pain and suffering, and learns that to those who have nothing, light entertainment is a wonderful thing. (There is a wonderful homage to this in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, in which one of the chain gangs in question is filed in to a movie theater playing a silly comedy.) O Brother, Where Art Thou? is the title that the director wanted to call his film, and those who are familiar with Sullivan's Travels and other films of Preston Sturges will be pleased to find that it is a note perfect realization of the film that he surely would have directed after the events of the film are over. It is a wonderfully funny and absurd comedy about serious issues of the Depression-era south, from the Ku Klux Klan to the emergence of the Reform Party.
Those unfamiliar with the works of Sturges and Sullivan's Travels, however, will undoubtedly appreciate the homage to Homer's The Odyssey. (Those unfamiliar with none of these works will probably be entertained, but come out of the theater somewhat bewildered - think Barton Fink but less obscure.) The story is largely lifted from that classic epic, but it should be interesting to note that the Coen Bros. admit that the film is not based on the book at all, but rather the Ray Harryhausen movies based upon the adventures of Odysseus. This is typical of the Coen Bros., whose films are usually amalgams of various movie styles that they love (The Big Lebowski - slacker pothead comedy meets Raymond Chandler mystery, The Hudsucker Proxy - Frank Capra feelgood epic meets Howard Hawks conversational comedy meets Kafka). In addition to Ray and Preston, the film also seamlessly blends in homages to the Clark Gable, yokel comedies, chain gang classics, bank-robbing flicks and Busby Berkley musicals (the latter being the inspiration for one of the most memorable and timeless scenes in Coen Bros. history - a scene of such pure satirical joy that I cannot allow myself to ruin it for you - go see the film).
Although I have been speaking primarily of the Coen Bros. contribution the film (which, due to their directorial style, should be the target of most all compliments), considerable mention deserves to go the performances, particularly George Clooney and Tim Blake Nelson. Those of us you who were critical of George Clooney during the Peacemaker/Batman and Robin years have been privy to a remarkable transformation in Clooney's on-screen persona, and to his credit this change has been planned all along. As he stated on the Charlie Rose show, his previous career choices were primarily economic - once he was financially secure enough to never have to work again, he started doing the films that he actually wanted to do. Becoming charismatic for the first time since From Dusk Till Dawn, we saw Out of Sight, becoming a talented actor for the first time in Three Kings, and proving himself as a brilliant physical and verbal comedian in O Brother, Where Art Thou? His delivery of such lines as 'Damn, we're in a spot!' and 'I just don't think that's Pete.' are delivered with the same level of comedic flare as his longer, more Algonquin Roundtable-esque dialogues, and his dancing shows the same kind of cinematic glee present in the glory days of Harpo Marx. Tim Blake Nelson (a fantastic writer/director in his own right - see Eye of God if you don't believe me), however, runs away with an equal part of the movie, portraying the most lovable slack-jawed yokel perhaps ever filmed. His simplicity and deliver of such lines as 'Would you like some gopher?' are not to be found in any character to recently grace the silver screen.
Considering that this review is running particularly long as it is, I will forego the other important themes of religious discovery and Mississippi as an entity, the exceptional performances of John Goodman, David Huddleston and the underused Holly Hunter, and the recurring imagery of, well, cows. O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a great film for those who think that 'they just don't make them like they used to,' another turning point for George Clooney, and yet another classic from the always dependable Coen Bros. I wished I used a star system - I would give 'em five. As always, I can be reached at hollyfeld_hotmail.com . Thank you for your correspondence and comments."
(Review sent in by This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .)
Proof of Life Review
"The very first time I saw Russell Crowe on screen was in a little Australian film called Proof. It was about a blind man who takes photos. And now, watching him in his latest, Proof of Life, I was struck by how much of a star he'd become. He was a fine actor when I first saw him but he now, he's a Star. He wears it well.
In Proof of Life, directed by Taylor Hackford, Crowe is Terry Thorne, a K&R specialist (kidnap and ransom) employed to bring rich abductees back alive. He's enlisted to save Peter Bowman, an engineer (David Morse), whose been dragged off to the lush wilds of the Andean slopes by revolutionaries. The victim's wife Alice (Meg Ryan), is left to fend for herself by Peter Bowman's company. She has to raise the ransom money because the company employing her husband has suddenly gone bankrupt. Terry must decide whether to walk or to come the rescue. The film's trailers make it obvious....Crowe does do the job. And since I've already mentioned the trailers: the ad campaign heavily promotes the romantic element of the film. It's there, but not to the degree promised. That may disappoint some of the ladies but it leaves plenty of room for lots of well-staged action sequences.
Director Taylor Hackford is really in familiar territory here. If it weren't for the movie's riveting mechanics revealing the kidnapping negotiation process this would be a re-make of his earlier Against All Odds...the love triangle, even the story's locale is remarkably similar. But Proof of Life has something the previous film lacked.
With apologies to the always fine Jeff Bridges, Russell Crowe commands so much screen presence that he recalls the solid, rugged leading men of the old Hollywood...stars like Humphrey Bogart and Gary Cooper. And Crowe has that same appeal. Men like him 'cause he looks like one of the guys. Women adore him because....well, ask any woman.
Of course, Hackford is no slouch as a director. His casting instincts are well-tuned. Who else would hire David Caruso to play Crowe's amped up partner Dino. I have to admit that when that familiar tight-lipped visage of Caruso entered the frame, I almost groaned. But he soon won me over with his gung-ho, Soldier of Fortune antics. He's almost the film's comic-relief. Hackford also understands the visual dynamics available to film. He exploits them, especially in the sequences featuring David Morse's Peter Bowman surviving his kidnap ordeal. Morse is so strong in these scenes that it nearly becomes another film.
Though there's been a lot of press from the casts' on-location grumbling, the wild splendor of the Ecuadorian locale is stunning. It really does serve the film vividly. Proof of Life is a rousing, full-blooded, romantic action film. But it's the old-fashioned romantic: doing something bold and daring. Doing it because it's right."
(Review sent in by 'Q-Brick'.)
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DeadPool
