Lakeview Terrace

Samuel L. Jackson has made quite a career playing self-righteous, vengeful, morally ambiguous seekers of "justice. It started with Pulp Fiction when he played the cool bible quoting hit man, Jules Winnfield. It continued with his role in Changing Lanes, playing a game of one-upmanship with Ben Affleck. And it reaches what I think is Jackson's creative peak in Lakeview Terrace, where he plays the ultimate neighbor from Hell, or in this case Oakland.

Jackson plays Abel Turner, a single father raising his two kids in an upper class community in Los Angeles. Abel is a police officer. The type we've come to expect from movies portraying LA cops in recent years: He's overly aggressive, borderline racist, and basically has little faith in the inherent goodness of mankind. Who'da thought having guns pointed at you everyday would make you bitter? Go figure.

Abel's life takes a turn when interracial couple, Chris(Patrick Wilson) and Lisa(Kerry Washington) move in next door. There's a hilarious scene early on where Abel mistakes Chris as the moving guy, in an obvious twist on the usual setup where the minority is confused for being one of the help staff. Abel, upon realizing the situation, instantly takes a disturbing interest in the pair. He seems to take a peculiar dislike to Chris. Chris is a graduate from Berkley who works as some sort of executive at an eco-friendly supermarket. Lisa...stare at fashion designs all day. Somethin'. I dunno.

Abel begins to intrude into the personal lives of the couple innocently enough at first, but his actions become increasingly harassing and cruel. His every move is masterful with the obvious intent of breaking the pair apart. From overly bright security lights shining through their bedroom window, to outing Chris's smoking habit to Lisa, Abel plays the couple like a drum. For the early going it's a one-sided affair, but eventually Chris starts to get payback, which only amplifies the situation to a ridiculous degree.

For what's it's worth, Lakeview Terrace gets mostly everything right. Samuel L's performance as Abel is truly remarkable. I can't say enough about it. In some ways he reminds me a lot of Anton Chirurrh in No Country for Old Men. Every scene he's in you feel as if something awful is about to happen. Even in the most innocent of settings it seems as if he's always thinking ahead to the next evil deed he's about to commit. Jackson hits the nail on the head. He never makes Abel too much of a mustache-twirling villain. Abel is a world-class jerk with obvious race issues that he simply can't get beyond, but the script also allows us to see his role as a father and just how important is to him. I think they could've done a little more with the Lisa character, rather than setting her up as the damsel in distress in this little triangle. Lisa shows flashes of backbone early in the film, but I think eventually they sold out a bit and dolled her up to be the prize.

Patrick Wilson does an admirable job playing Chris, who's just a guy who wants to live a normal, peaceful life. He just wants to get past whatever the issues are with Abel and move on. There's a great scene where Chris, after Abel absolutely ruins a housewarming party, tells Abel that whatever their differences are he just wants to get past it and be neighbors. Abel immediately challenges his manhood by asking "What's your agenda?" The film plays with these issues of masculinity quite well throughout.

Not so much on the issue of race, however. Every single person in this film seems to have an opinion on the subject, and it comes up at the oddest times. I get that the writer wanted to make a point on the issue, but for the life of me I don't know what that is and I really don't care. What I do want is for the issue to be handled with just a hint of subtlety. There's just a terrible scene where Abel and Chris meet in a local bar, and Abel goes through a very labored five minutes explaining why he hates Chris so much. It really should've been cut out, as I feel the Abel character needs no explanation for hating Chris. It's implied quite effectively throughout the film, so I don't need it spelled out for me, thank you. Another problem I had is that it's pretty clear they weren't sure how to wrap this puppy up. The last thirty minutes or so crawls to it's inevitable conclusion, and frankly the endgame is a bit too out there for my tastes. I don't think it does justice to the way any of the characters were portrayed earlier in the film.

I gotta say something really briefly about the choice of Neil Labute as director for this. Neil Labute has written some of the best films featuring some truly heinous characters: In the Company of Men and The Shape of Things spring instantly to mind. While he didn't write this film, his influence is all over this, and Abel fits perfectly into his little pantheon of wretched creations you can't wait to see get their comeuppance.

I'd still recommend seeing this, though, because it does mostly get it right. They do a good job of ramping up the tension throughout. The performances are all strong, particularly Jackson's. You'll be hard pressed to find a better portrayal in theaters right now.

7/10

Podcast Time!

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This week's inaugural episode features:

1. A review of the Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading"
2. A scathing review of Deniro and Pacino's "Righteous Kill"
3. Travis reveals his true love of art house cinema
4. The guys' mutual love of Christina Ricci
5. DVD releases that matter, such as they were
6. The Coens inspire this week's Love This/Eff That segment

Bangkok Dangerous

I've always had a sortof love/hate relationship with Nicolas Cage. I loved him in Raising Arizona. Hated him for years in pretty much everything after that. He gets points for Leaving Las Vegas, but I maintain that it's Elisabeth Shue who deserves the credit more than he. Then in 2005 he fell back into my good graces by having two of my favorite films of that year, The Weatherman and Lord of War. Since then he's slipped quite naturally into his role as the turd in the punchbowl with films like Next, Ghost Rider, and the uncomfortably bad The Wicker Man. Nic Cage's latest film, Bangkok Dangerous, is an attempt to make what I assume is his version of Luc Besson's classic Leon the Professional. Only not good.

Assuming you're able to get past the USA TV Movie title, you'll be treated to Cage's stiff portrayal of Joe. Joe is a hitman. One of the world's best. The Russian's swear by him. Ofcourse they also swear by Yakhov Smirinov and drink vodka with their Frosted Flakes. Joe is a bit depressed lately. You can tell because he tells us in droll, boring narration that completely takes you out of the film. Most of the time I'm not a fan of narration in movies because I don't feel it's necessary...except when it IS necessary. It's only necessary when the actors aren't capable of expressing emotion on screen, and Nic Cage fits that bill to a tee. To paraphrase my personal idol, Dorothy Parker, "He runs the gamut of emotions from A to B."

Got off topic for a second there. So Joe is depressed. He's depressed because his job makes it hard to meet chicks. To have any real personal relationships with anyone. He's got no friends or lovers. Nothing. He longs for companionship. Why doesn't he just buy a dog? I don't know. Instead, Joe takes a big multi-target job in Bangkok. Joe hires some local help in the form of a petty swindler named Kong. Kong and Joe have a tenuous relationship at first. Kong is headstrong and a bit too relaxed for Joe's liking. Given the nature of the work, Joe has a need for strict adherence to schedules. After awhile, Joe and Kong begin to click. Joe begins training Kong on the skills to be a successful hitman.

Bangkok must be a hotbed of the hitman social scene, because Joe also manages to find himself a girlfriend. She's typically beautiful and innocent to a ridiculous degree to contrast the morally objectional life Joe leads. When Joe runs afoul of some local gangsters out for his head, his new found relationships suddenly are thrust into harm's way, and Joe must decide whether or not it's worth it to keep them around and leave himself open or cut them off and risk losing happiness forever.

I compared this movie to Leon for obvious reasons. The plotline is similar, only Kong isn't a twelve year old Natalie Portman and the random nameless gangster after Joe is no Gary Oldman. The themes of the two films are identical, with a morally ambiguous hitman basically deciding between his career and love. Both make him stronger and weaker in different ways, and he must choose what is most important to him. But also deciding whether or not to basically corrupt another by passing on his knowledge comes into play. That's where the similarity ends. This movie is awful. Nicolas Cage, who also produced this turd, phones in every single line of dialogue this "script" had to offer. It's apparent from the outset that this was an exercise in budget cutting production. There's not a single actor in this film worthy of note. Every performance is flat. Even the action scenes are dull and lifeless. There's not a single sense of creativity to be found. It's as if someone found "Stock Hitman Film" Treatment lying on the floor, coerced(blackmailed??) Nic Cage into funding and starring in it and hope it flies.

Not that I should be surprised by any of this. The film was directed by the Pang Brothers, who's most recent American work was a film I loathed called The Messengers. It was another one of those PG-13 horror films with lots of loud noise but no actual scares. One of their previous films is titled Bangkok Haunted. I assume Bangkok Bikini Blast is somewhere in the pipeline. Maybe Nic Cage will star in that, also. Atleast it won't be the Wicker Man. Or this.

4/10

Zack and Miri Make a Statement

Not a review just something I found particularly hillarious. So a week or so ago Kevin Smith released a poster for his new movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno which was immediatley banned in the US by the MPAA, here's the poster in question.




Nothing too racy, sure there are heads at the bottom of the poster doing something that may or may not be indecent but hey... at least they have their clothes on unlike the not banned poster for Good Luck Chuck which featured an apparently nude Dane Cook with the top of a girls head in the danger zone. I guess they figured that flick was going to suffer enough and gave it a pass. Anyway, Smith released a new poster the other day which is decidedly less racy and knowing the story behind it is much more funny. Here's the new 'Americanized' teaser poster.




And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I love Kevin Smith. A big F U to the MPAA for banning his poster and in a hillarious way. The best part is that all the stiffs at the MPAA did by banning the poster is make it a news story and vastly more popular. Thanks to the internet more people saw this poster than they would have before. Score one for the Clerks guy!

Review: Burn After Reading

Plot: CIA analyst Osborne Cox quits his job after being reassigned due to a drinking problem. He takes this opportunity to write his memoirs. His cheating wife decides to file for divorce and accidently copies the memoirs while trying to make copies of the family financial records. This CD falls into the hands of gym employees Chad and Linda who want to use what they think is “secret CIA shit” to blackmail Osborne.

The Ups: I’ll start by saying that the cast is amazing! I couldn’t give you one bad performance if I tried; even the characters with only a few lines nailed it. Brad Pitt and George Clooney cement themselves in my mind as two of the last true movie stars. Pitt is hilarious and really shows his range when you compare this to some of his other work. Look at Se7en, Troy and then this and you see three completely different yet all believable sides to his work. Clooney is great and although he’s doing the same schtick he’s done in other movies it just works, he’s that likeable of a guy. Frances McDormand is quirky, cute, and at the same time a bit scary in her dedication to what she wants. John Malkovich is always amazing but he really goes above and beyond in this one a bit and really left me wishing he had more screen time. The story is very complex yet easy to follow and the writing is amazing. Joel and Ethan Coen really amazed me with their mastery of black comedy even more so than they did with Fargo.

The Downs: I can honestly say that I have nothing to put here. That’s not to say it was a perfect movie. I’m sure I could say something about the score maybe, or the cinematography or some other technical aspect…but I really don’t think any of us care about that. I don’t know about you but I just like to be entertained and in that department there is no downside to this movie.

The Final Word: Although there is a completely different feel here than in their last outing, No Country for Old Men, I would not be surprised to see more Oscar talk in the Coen brother’s future for this one. Even if you weren’t planning on going to the movies this weekend carve out some time to see this. In today’s world we all need a good laugh and Burn After Reading provides great laughs with and a good story.

9.5/10

Review: Righteous Kill

Plot: Turk and Rooster are two NYC detectives, played respectively by De Niro and Pacino. They go on the hunt for a serial killer who is targeting criminals and leaving poems on their bodies. The deeper they delve into the case, the more it looks like the killer is one of their own, a cop.

The Ups: Following in the footsteps of Heat and The Godfather Pt. II Robert De Niro and Al Pacino show amazing chemistry. The fact that Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller can get together for 87 movies in one year, and these two have only done three in the span of more than thirty years is disheartening, but maybe that’s what makes it so good. It’s not overdone, it’s an event. The story provides a solid background with some good twists and turns for these two to do their thing. Donnie Wahlberg delivers another good performance, I really think he is underrated and perhaps a better actor than his kid brother… or at least makes better choices on what films to do. Lastly, there were quite a few funny moments in the film which I wasn’t expecting but worked well.

The Downs: The story like, I said earlier, is a good background for De Niro and Pacino to showcase their chemistry, but that’s it. As a stand-alone story with any other two actors in the lead, it’s unmemorable and somewhat predictable. I also didn’t like how they tried to play up on the chemistry between De Niro and Pacino. These two are great together anyway you put it, but the filmmakers tried to put emphasis on that fact and it ends up looking really cheesy in some parts. 50 Cent shows some decent acting but that’s overshadowed by the fact that his role was completely unnecessary and it feels like they only added him to draw a larger audience. The pacing also wasn’t all that great. The flick never really slows down but it felt a lot longer than its 1 hr 40 min run time.

The Final Word: I really….really….REALLY didn’t want to have to tell anyone to wait for this one on DVD, but unless you have some serious love for the De Niro/Pacino connection I wouldn’t bother spending the ten bucks. Don’t get me wrong this wasn’t a bad movie by any means, it just wasn’t particularly good. Go rent Heat if you want to see these two together this weekend and rent Righteous Kill in a couple months when it’s out on DVD.

6.75/10

The House Bunny

Does it throw my credibility into question if I state that the first few minutes of this film are some of my favorite of the year? It doesn't, does it? I'm a pretty sophisticated dude when it comes to movies, but even I can be easily won over by a plethora of scantily clad Playboy playmates frolicking at a party. I'm not hard to please.

There's something about Anna Faris that makes me like her in pretty much anything she does. Even if the material is weak, she somehow rises above it with her doe-eyed expressions and keen comedic timing. Here she plays Shelley, one of a myriad of playmates staying at the Playboy mansion. Well, she wishes she was a playmate. She's more like a roommate, as she's never actually been in a pictorial. But she's looked up to by the girls and especially Hefner, who absolutely adores her. On Shelley's 27th birthday, she wakes up to an ominous letter from Hef telling her to please leave the premises. Turns out 27 is a smidge too old to be shacking up with the ancient playboy. Distraught, Shelley finds herself checking out the local sororitys as a place to live because they "look like little playboy mansions". As good a reason as any.

After being rejected by the alpha females on campus, she stumbes upon the misfit sorority helmed up by Natalie, played by Superbad's Emma Stone. Natalie is an obviously attractive girl but a bit on the bookish side. The rest of the crew include your usual collection of outcasts: a Goth girl, a midget, a silent girl, a handicapped girl, and the mannish girl who puts even Ann Coulter to shame. Shelley stumbles her way into the sorority as a house mother, and proceeds to teach the girls how to use their feminie charms to seduce men and become popular.

It's all pretty standard stuff here. The plot bears a striking resemblance to another film with a prominent position in my DVD case, Sorority Boys, obviously without the cross-dressing aspect. The basic premise remains the same, however. Shelley teaches the girls to have confidence in themselves, and ofcourse along the way there are a few bumps. There's some poorly developed stuff here about the girls possibly losing their license due to a lack of pledges, but the threat never really seems legit.

That's not really a problem because this is clearly just a vehicle for Faris to show off her stuff. She is in practically every scene and it's clear she and the cast were having a blast making this film. Plenty of guest-stars show up(most are known Playboy mansion regulars) and the tone is kept light throughout. While the plot is somewhat of an afterthought, it's hard not to get caught up in Shelley's plight. The credit for making Shelley more than just a blonde bimbo goes to Faris and a surprisingly effective script. That should come as no surprise since the co-writers of this film previously worked on such films as Legally Blonde and 10 Things I Hate About You, both films which focused on beautiful women with surprising depth of character. I think if you're looking for something fun that you and your girl can both enjoy(for different reasons) then you can do worse than setting a date with The House Bunny.

6/10