'Famous' Jamie, Antoine and Doug...
I had the pleasure of seeing Bait two weeks ago at Montreal's World Film Festival. In attendance were Jamie Foxx, Doug Hutchison and director Antoine Fuqua. Antoine told us (the crowd in attendance) he was brought into this project 6 weeks before principal photography and had little time to prepare the film. Jamie came on the mic for a few minutes, cracking jokes and saying Antoine made this film look like a $100 million production when actually cost four thousand dollars. Doug, who's really a small guy that camera work makes look tall, didn't say much. I had the luck of shaking Jamie's hand after the film and tapping Antoine on the back for a job well done. I brought my best friend Phil along for the ride and he seemed to have enjoyed the movie too. Here are my thoughts on the film:
My Review of 'Bait'
September should be named African-American Action/Comedy Month. Last year we had Martin Lawrence's surprise hit Blue Streak and this year we have Bait. The recipe is very simple:
-Take one hip young director (Antoine Fuqua)
-One stand-up African-American comedian (Jamie Foxx)
-A cool movie opening Heist
-A big city setting (NYC)
-A strange white, I'm willing to kill anyone, bad-guy (Doug Hutchison)
Mix for 90 minutes and you've got yourself a surprise $50 million Hit.
After landing in jail for stealing prawns, Alvin Sanders (Jamie Foxx) is ready to go straight. If he can just get out and patch things up with his girlfriend Lisa (Kimberly Elise), maybe he can start over and lead a normal life. His first night behind bars Alvin shares a cell with Jaster (Robert Pastorelli), who was captured after he and his partner Bristol (Doug Hutchison) pulled off a high-tech gold heist from the Federal Reserve. With a weak heart and a limited time to live, Jaster gives Alvin a coded message for his wife -- a message U.S. Treasury investigator Clenteen (David Morse) believes will lead to the location of the stolen gold. In an attempt to draw Bristol out of hiding, Clenteen quickly arranges Alvin's early release, implants a tracking device on him and tips Bristol off that Alvin is about to make a run for the gold. Unaware that he has now become bait for the feds, Alvin attempts to salvage his relationship with Lisa. Between Alvin's brother Stevie (Mike Epps), the devious Clenteen and the mysterious and very dangerous Bristol however, Alvin has little hope of staying out of trouble. It isn't long before he's worse off than if he'd just stayed put in jail.
Antoine Fuqua's direction was brilliant and exciting. It was an improvement on his feature-film debut The Replacement Killers. His direction reminded me of Tony Scott's Enemy of The State mostly because of the many chase scenes. Antoine directed his action sequences with style. Great second film for Antoine and I can't wait to see what he does visually for his third movie Training Day with Denzel Washington.
While Scott's Enemy was much more a drama then a comedy, this film is not serious at all. That's where the references to Blue Streak come to play. Jamie Foxx plays Alvin for laughs. His dramatic skills brilliantly showcased in Any Given Sunday have vanished with this role. Hopefully he'll go back to drama somewhere down the road. His role of Alvin has almost no depth beside somewhat caring for his baby boy. He's funny but he's not the funniest guy I've seen on-screen this year. To compare, Martin Lawrence was funnier then him in Big Momma's House or Blue Streak. Doug Hutchison is scary as the villain Bristol. It's a shame that he's up against Foxx and not some A-List players, who could have given him a run for his money. It's been a while since I've seen an American actor play such a dominant villain on the big screen. I'm impatient to see what he does next. The rest of the cast isn't that impressive. David Morse does his best Tommy Lee Jones imitation. David Paymer is totally wasted in a supporting role. (I saw Bait two days after State and Main, in which Paymer gives an Oscar worthy supporting actor performance.) Kimberly Elise is cute and nothing more. Finally the movie's biggest mystery is: Why is Jamie Kennedy playing the same character he played in Enemy of The State?
Catch this flick at the $2 dollars theatres; don't waste 8 bucks on this deja-vu film.
'Almost Famous' Reviews
It's time to welcome two of my collaborators to this column, let's begin with Q-Brick's look at Cameron Crowe's latest opus Almost Famous:
"Fate has truly smiled on Cameron Crowe. Barely old enough to drive, he hit the road with a rock band and lived to write about it. After puberty he started making movies. And then he married a beautiful rock n'roll star. As if that wasn't enough, he now revisits his youth by making a film about it. Did young Cameron make a deal with the devil? No, because all of his films exhibit a soul that is intact and anchored firmly in his heart.
His latest effort, Almost Famous could have been called ALMOST A BIOGRAPHY because this highly enjoyable film experience retains the names of all the guilty and innocent except for Crowe's character (winningly portrayed by Patrick Fugit) and a band called Stillwater. The band is fronted by Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup..great as usual) and his buddy Jeff (Jason Lee looking very 70's).
It's really a coming of age story for the young hero. And for Rock Music too. The evil of Corporate Rock was just around the corner. Music critic/prophet Lester Bangs (played with witty arrogance and just a touch of warmth by Philip Seymour Hoffman) preaches this message of doom. All good coming of age stories offer a first love and in Almost Famous it comes in the form of Penny Lane, a groupie played by the radiant Kate Hudson. Hoping he survives all of this is Mom (Frances McDormand in one of her best roles)
Maybe it was the constant wave of nostalgia that washed over me but I really had a good time in the theater. With Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe has managed a very neat trick: he recreates an era that is no longer hip, yet on-screen, it looks much cooler than I remember."
(Review provided by 'Q-Brick'.)
Finally give a warm welcome to everyone's favorite traveling soap salesman, Tyler Durden:
"Hey rookies.... your favorite travel soap salesman was in the LA area and decided to catch this much anticipated flick. After stopping into Bloomingdale's to sell some of that award-winning soap and catching a bite to eat at the Stage Deli of NY (I recommend the Muhammad Ali myself)... I was ready to go see Almost Famous.
ALMOST FAMOUS - THE REVIEW:
Sometimes I wonder if movies can leap off the screen... and instead of watching it on a white background... we watch it as it were a daydream. A daydream is something personal, in sight but just out of reach of our current reality. Then again maybe that is the best thing about movies. We can daydream and let them become personal or shared experiences and in the end leave the theater without the consequence of knowing it can never really happen that way. Movies are fake creations! Every once in a while we are blessed with a film that is so good it becomes real. So good it is authentic. We quote it and recall entire scenes at the slightest whim of encouragement. Movies like this though need a voice... and for some of us a voice that never seems to fail is Cameron Crowe. A director who could do any film with seemingly any screen personality, but chooses to wait for those times when he is sure to deliver something special. I still watch Say Anything in awe. On Wednesday night I drove out to Los Angeles and sat in a theater that had a few famous musicians, a few Hollywood stars and almost didn't notice them. Instead I was pulled into a daydream, transfixed in its simplicity, and when it was over felt like something special had been shared with me. These are some reasons why you and your friends should see Almost Famous.
The Script:
If there is one thing in a movie that cannot be dubbed over with special effects or worked through by sheer star power it is the script. If Hollywood had found the path to sure success they would invest in better writers to develop better scripts. The script to this movie must have been so good it was haunting. So good the words leapt from the page. Cameron Crowe has proved how much of a difference a good script can make because the dialogue here seemed so natural that it made every character real. Keep it simple people. We don't need gigantic waves or four ass-clowns going on a road trip. We don't need stories that go for cheap laughs by making fun of equally bad movies. We don't need heroes larger than life who take on entire empires or win entire battles by themselves.
What makes Almost Famous that much more compelling is that it is loosely based on Crowe's own experiences with the band Led Zeppelin while an adolescent writer. How much of young William Miller (played by Patrick Fugit) is really Crowe himself? How much of what happens in this movie happened in real life? Those ideas swirled in my mind and just drew me deeper and deeper into the film and when it was over, I wanted more. There are no tricks here, just good dialogue brought to life by an amazing cast... that all started with a script.
This script is also very complex. I thought it was working on three different levels throughout the film: It is the story of a young man growing up and dealing with his family, the story of band and how success affects their friendship and a love story. Each of these ideas could drive an entire movie and Crowe manages to weave them together into a cohesive work. I kept looking for holes in the script or loose ends, but in some way we find enough resolution to be satisfied.
The Music:
It seems like a lot of films seem to have that one hit song. It makes me wonder if that script money is being diverted to land a soundtrack filled mainly with one hit wonders and posers. Imagine how much an N*SYNC inspired soundtrack would make if it had songs by those clowns that could only be had on the soundtrack sold in stores for $16.99 a pop? I bet it would make more than the movie which would be sure to suck. Throw any of those sound-the-same bands that are all rock and roll now and you will believe that the music has died. MTV is killing us slowly and we have to do something about it. Don't buy trendy, buy classics and enjoy real music before the sex and drugs were just another cliché. Look at the comparison. Fred Durst v Mick Jagger? Korn v Led Zeppelin? Britney v Janis Joplin? In terms of music and meaning there is just no comparison. Some of us were born a decade or two too late!!!
In 1973, George Lucas captured an audience with a movie called American Graffiti that took us to another place and time in life (and history) that had passed by. What the audiences found in the film was also a seamless collection of period songs that defined the film. I don't think a filmmaker has ever accomplished what ole George did. Almost Famous is very similar though because the music is so much a part of the film. Being a fan of bands like Zeppelin, the Stones... and many of the rockers whose songs were just so enchanting and moving... this film out did American Graffiti. How many times did I find myself silently mouthing the words to songs I knew so well. Check out this soundtrack because it is awesome and a score by Mrs. Cameron Crowe (Nancy Wilson) sure made all the scenes seem timeless. After the film, I went to the bathroom to take care of some business. Inside I found two people dissecting all the scenes and camera angles, with complaints about some shots being cut wrong and blah, blah, blah. I wanted to hurt these people, but before I could I noticed something. They referred to every scene not by the camera or scenery or dialogue... they referred to every scene by song first. To me, it was testament to the importance and value of music and score as a living part of the script.
The People:
Almost Famous is the story of William Miller and his experiences while on the road with a Crowe created enigma called Stillwater. Patrick Fugit does an outstanding job selling Miller to be the innocent, naive 15-year old genius in search of friends and heroes. Little does William know that a simple writing assignment from icon Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) will turn into a life-changing experience. Hoffman takes a very small part and runs with it. For you cynics out there, this guy could be your next quote machine because he is the champion of the "uncool." William meets Bangs, a major writer for Creme Magazine, and is given the assignment of doing a 1,000 words on Black Sabbath. When the doorman won't let him in, he tries to get in with some true female fans called Band-Aids. This group includes Anna Paquin (Polexia Aphrodisia), Fairuza Balk (Sapphire) and are led by Kate Hudson (Penny Lane). Hudson is just incredible in this film and the audience is sure to fall in love with her. But I digress...
William eventually weasels his way in by befriending the band Stillwater and instantly gets drawn in by the people. The adventure gets bigger as his article for Bangs leads to a call from Rolling Stone. They will pay him to follow Stillwater on part of their current tour. Billy Crudup (Russell Hammond, the lead guitar) and Jason Lee (Jeff Bebe, the lead singer) are the only band members really developed. Crudup just leaps across the screen and his chemistry with Hudson and Fugit is what makes the script come to life. Lee has some great dialogue as well, but Crudup steals the spotlight in true rock star fashion. The concert scenes with the band are also great and Crowe seemed to work on making them have stage presence.
Almost lost in this is a possible Oscar-nod for Frances McDormand, who plays Williams conservative mom who 'knows what is going on.' Let's just say she freaks a lot of people out, but is adorable at the same time. Crowe deserves credit for assembling such a great cast who will make you laugh, make you wonder and even make you cry.
The Moments:
I think that there were times when moments in this film seemed to stand still. A lot of you out there will relate with what happens to these characters on so many levels. Does everybody remember laughter? How about that first love of our lives? The first band that we followed and adored, bought their posters and fought the lines to see them live? We see all these things on screen. Crowe takes us through his own personal moments and I think he is sharing something personal. Have you ever connected with someone through their eyes and felt your world reborn in the glow of love? Have you ever believed you were not good enough for your love, not cool enough or famous enough? Or they loved someone else and always confided in you about that other person? Have you ever wanted to say those words to that person in your life but held back, only to say them when you were sure they wouldn't hear or remember that you said them? Have you ever had to say goodbye to that love (in an airport, which I can tell you from experience is the worst)? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then those frozen moments in Almost Famous are worth the price of admission!!! The romantic in me cried out and I was taken back to my own first taste of love at 16. I thought about my life now. And in my daydream I felt as if I was sharing my own life experience with William and through him, with Crowe.
Final Thoughts:
The marketing for this film has not been months and months in the making. The trailers have only been playing for 3 weeks, but the buzz around this film was high. I really liked the effort Vinyl Films put into developing the Internet backing for this movie and their website (www.vinyl-films.com) was great. I had high expectations for this film and was still blown away with how good it really was. The story and the cast will bring you back for a second-showing. The story and music will leave you wanting more and more and more. And don't be afraid to daydream just a little to find yourself again... to rediscover the poet, the storyteller or that first love of your life. A two hour visit with your old self couldn't hurt too much. A two hour daydream with Cameron Crowe won't hurt at all. Almost Famous is a must see worth the price of full admission."
(Review Provided by 'Tyler Durden'.)
Stay tuned...
That's all folks...
DeadPool
