Jefferson Moss Reviews: Firewall

Harrison Ford? Check.
Loving, vulnerable family? Check.
One-dimensional villain with near-magical hacking skills? Check.
Complicated robbery plan involving a large team and several hostages? Check.
Overused, broadly misunderstood technical buzzword, preferably in title? Check.

‘People, we are all systems go for Harrison Ford’s recurring nightmare, ‘What Have You Done With My Family?’ Tonight’s episode is… umm… ‘Fireball’… sorry, ‘Firewall.’ Places, people, let’s make this one really adequate!’

Ok, so I can’t personally take credit for noticing that Harrison Ford’s oeuvre has grown a wee bit predictable. Props for that observation go to whoever put together the excellent spoof trailer Wife Force One. But having seen Wife Force One, I found it impossible to take Firewall seriously. Not that the film itself is any help on that point.

The movie starts out with a few perfunctory minutes establishing just how happy Ford and his wife (Virginia Madsen) are and just how happy their family (daughter Carly Schroeder and son Jimmy Bennett) is in their beautiful oceanfront home. A minor spat between the kids over a remote control toy that interferes with tv signals (wonder if that’ll be important?) shows that even this family’s not perfect. Oh, those darn kids! The same expository chores are soon taken care of at Ford’s office (His new boss is an ignorant dick! But the competent people who actually do work know that Harrison’s a great guy!) and the plot grinds into second gear. The villain (Paul Bettany) exposes himself; points some guns; makes some threats; makes some demands. The good guy tries to outsmart the bad guy; gets caught, tries again; gets caught again. The bad guy is so smart! But maybe the good guy can be smarter in the end, because he loves his family so much!

SPOILER ALERT:
In the end, Harrison Ford loves his family so much that he outsmarts the bad guy and saves his family from certain death. This, of course, is the spoiler equivalent to finding out that the ghost in an episode of Scooby Doo is really a grumpy old man in a rubber mask (bet you never saw that one coming). The real shocker is that he manages this rescue with some technical trickery that is, in fact, completely possible (he tracks the dog’s gps enabled collar) and only marginally implausible (homicidal sociopath decides to bring the family dog on a long drive in a crowded van to a remote location where he plans to execute the entire family).
END SPOILER ALERT.

I suppose Harrison Ford still has his renowned gravitas and presence, but having seen him play this same character in this basically identical situation so many times, it just doesn’t have the same impact it did back when Patriot Games or even The Fugitive came out. And as the villain, Paul Bettany, a fine actor in many roles (usually charming, erudite ones), is woefully tepid, unconvincing in his menace, and generally a poor substitute for Sean Bean. In his defense, it’s hard to say this is entirely his fault; in a juicier role he might be absolutely chilling. Virginia Madsen performs the terrified wife/consoling mother role with all the competence you would expect, but, again, there isn’t much there for her to sink her teeth into.

It would be easy to say that the problems of Firewall are just the problems of a formula that’s been recycled too many times to generate any excitement. The fault with that argument is that it doesn’t account for a movie like last year’s Die Hard installment: a movie that’s no less predictable in the broad outlines of its plot, but has so much fun within the confines of the genre that it’s almost impossible not to enjoy the ride. A more likely explanation is that the director Richard Loncraine, a Hollywood veteran who worked slowly but steadily under the radar for three decades before his breakout semi-success with Wimbledon in 2004, and writer Joe Forte, a newcomer whose prior career consists of a single story credit on an unnoticed film, decided to play it safe with a bankable star and a straight formula flick to make a bit of money and solidify their careers. Or maybe the suits just messed it up. Who really cares anyway? The result was a boring movie with a stiff, creaky plot that’ll be showing up sporadically on TBS for years to come.

John Peters Reviews: Be Kind Rewind

“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is one of my personal favorite films. Granted the script is amazing, by Charlie Kaufman, but the visual aesthetic Gondry used to explore the erasing of memories was so striking and hauntingly real. He even went crazier in the dreams of “The Science of Sleep”. So a potentially interesting concept of “Be Kind Rewind”, in which to save a fledging video store in the age of DVD and when most of the tapes are accidentally erased, Mike (Mos Def) and Jerry (Jack Black) conceive an idea about refilming the videos. Some strange wind of luck happens and they become highly successful. So why is this film the most annoying film this year?

I see where Gondry was going with the concept, an exploration of not why we love movies, but how we love movies, and when Mike and jerry film stuff like “Robocop”, “Driving Miss Daisy”, and “Rush Hour 2″, we can’t help but get excited and laugh. The film switches to their camera’s perspective sometimes, and there we can see them in that awkward, home movie, feel with bad lighting and audio; the film shines. It’s where Jack black is most comfortable-he’s funny and zany and with this material, he’s at home. Mos Def, essentially plays the straight man in the comedy team, and is a capable actor and shines in most scenes. If the film was something shorter or capitalized on these segments momentum, we would have a great ode to film and VHS.

Unfortunately, the weakest that Gondry has, script writing, is ever so apparent. The film has no framework or structure and lingers and shambles along to a very predictable and emotionless ending. So mentioned Gondry’s weakest in “The Science of Sleep”, but that film held together by a solid idea that was well-conceived. Here, I don’t know why the glue, which is the home movie segments, doesn’t hold together with the rest of the film. It might be the unlikable characters which have no development, all one dimensional, or it could be its too generic. You really won’t laugh much outside of the crappy movies Mike and Jerry film and the underlining reason of why they are doing it, doesn’t hold up, because Gondry telegraphs the ending in the first couple scenes, which could be okay, if it was better handled. The ending comes and with a lone piano score, Gondry is tying to forces us into emotions that the film didn’t earn. We are supposed to care for this hole-in-the-wall video store which is thought to be a landmark of a jazz legend. The film risks everything on this and falls as flat and hard as VHS did when DVD came about.

The film feels too much like the studio hired Gondry instead of Gondry creating this. It has that studio polish to it, especially in its manipulative score and ending, all the while I thought this film would play better on a lower budget, giving it a more indie, do-it-yourself feel, like Jerry and Mike were doing. Gondry’s visual flair is rather muted here, only peaking out in the home movie sequences, which to me I found highly disappointing. For a fun concept, it falls flat as it’s unremarkable from a director that knows better’or does he?

Empire does the Action A-List!

Empire Magazine has printed a few pics from the new “THE INCREDIBLE HULK” and “X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE” and also has a pretty bad-ass pic of Iron Man on the cover. So head over to their site and check out the pics then run out to the newsstand and pick up a copy of the magazine.

Source: Empire Magazine

Joe Francis reviews The Evil Dead (Book of the Dead edition)

I know, writing this review is like writing a review on really great sex.

You already know you love it, so why do you need to read someone else’s thoughts?

Well, thanks to our good friends at Anchor Bay entertainment, I was bestowed a killer set unto me this weekend (file that under nerdiest lines in print, please). During Texas Frightmare Weekend I was lucky enough to guess in some trivia, landing me not just the above mentioned dvd but PART TWO as well. Both ‘book of the dead’ editions, and both super sweet.

You know and love the movie, right? Well if you don’t, let me run it right by you real quick like and in a hurry.

Five friends head out to a cabin in the woods for a good time, what they get is death. They unleash the evil contained in the book of the dead, and what ensues is one of, if not THE, best horror movies of all time.

I hadn’t seen the film in years, which was another reason I was so giddy to receive the two pack of awesome and slightly rad-ness. I sat down to watch it last night, and soaked up every sweet little feature that single dvd had to offer. Which is quite a bit (but not as much as the ULTIMATE edition of Evil Dead) and quite entertaining. This movie has everything! Humor, gore, chills, thrills, gore, and even a slight release of boobs!

Why am I talking about this movie? Fuck if I know. You’ve seen it, I’ve seen it, EVERYONE has seen it. This edition has been out for a while, too, and the only reason I hadn’t bought it was the simple fact that I thought it’d look goofy on my shelf. It has no spine!

Boy was I wrong, this one’s got a spine and a giant backbone.

If for some reason you haven’t picked up this movie, or you’ve been slacking since some loser friend ganked (yeah, I said it) yours, GO GO GO get another copy of this groundbreaking start to what became a phenomenon!

Through the years Anchor Bay has put out multiple versions, but I’d suggest either this one (Book of the Dead) or the Ultimate Editions, with two versions of the movie and more documentaries and additional scenes than you can blow your nose at.

I’m gonna go enjoy the hell out of Evil Dead II now.

Click here to buy it direct from Anchor Bay!

Jefferson Moss Reviews: Near Dark

If you like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain; if you like Blade Runner and The Devil’s Rejects, this might be your escape.

Seriously, whatever road leads from Blade Runner to The Devil’s Rejects must pass right through the middle of the southern fried gothiverse that is Near Dark. The cinematography is achingly gorgeous, the direction is in the zone and the story is engrossing. Plotwise, it’s just another boy meets girl, girl bites boy, boy becomes vampire, boy has identity crisis kind of thing, but the execution is flawless.

You’re probably familiar with at least three members of the cast: Adrian Pasdar (Heroes’ Nathan Petrelli), Lance Henrickson (Millenium), and Bill Paxton (half of all movies ever filmed). You may also recognize Jenny Wright, who had a brief but memorable role as a groupie in Pink Floyd’s The Wall that led to starring roles in an untold number of autoerotic fantasies and minor parts in a couple of other 80s movies (imdb if you want to know which ones). After Near Dark, she bounced around the C-list for another decade and then disappeared. Anyway, she does a good job here.

Director Kathryn Bigelow made her mark with Near Dark, then went on to an uneven career including Point Break, Strange Days, and K19: The Widowmaker.

The best bit of trivia comes from writer Eric Red, who displayed a brief flash of B-movie brilliance in the 80s, exhausted his talent in the 90s, and then bottomed out in a truly sad and bizarre car crash in 2000. Plus, with a name like that, he’s gotta be a viking.

I’d tell you more about the movie, but why spoil it? It’s good. Watch it.

Oh yeah, and it’s being remade right now, so hurry up before another lost gem gets magically transformed into a jillion dollar rhinestone. You can still say you saw it when!

Zombies!!!

We just got back from the Texas Frightmare Weekend and by far one of the coolest things we saw at the convention were Twilight Creations board games. A popular game they had on display was “Zombies,” an awesome board game that comes complete with zombie game pieces. Players can also by companion kits and add to the zombie carnage as well as extra zombie figures because more zombies equals more fun. So check out the Twilight Creations site here!

Risen Rocked Frightmare!

The indie zombie flick “Risen” kicked much ass at the Texas Frightmare Weekend. The flick was one of the most impressive flicks that I had the pleasure to see at Frightmare and the filmmakers hosted an informative Q&A session after the screening. The film stars GiGi Erneta, Joe Thackery, Jason Harper, Steven Lee along with a group of other talented actors. So head over to the official site Here!

Jimmy Tancill reviews: Risen

In the world of zombie films, it’s pretty hard to be original these days. So, for me it is preferable that the film makers push a story rather than the eating of flesh. There is a point when a zombie feasting on a smorgasbord of humans just gets kind of old. Risen avoids the standard trappings of the zombie genre, and has a good time rolling us through the carnage all while developing its characters in the midst of crisis.

Jenny (GiGi Erneta) and Sam Mills (Joe Thackery) are a married couple stuck in the suburbs, separated from their daughter after an industrial accident releases a chemical and causes panic amongst the locals. Their situation is further complicated by the presence of Sam’s irresponsible brother Nick (Jason Harper), who Jenny doesn’t seem to like very much. It soon becomes apparent that the chemical is changing everyone to zombies, and yes ‘ they are eating everybody. Our 3 heroes meet a few people on the way, including AK (Karim Irteimeh), a young Arab ‘ American man and his relative who is trying to steer so and so in the right direction in life. Everyone eventually winds up at a rescue area, where they wait out the eventual coming of the zombie attack, and their strength of will is tested.

Risen is a straight forward zombie movie, but it never feels old hat. It is funny, and entertaining while still maintaining the traditional zombie movie format for the horror masses. With a healthy dose of humor, plenty of blood, character development and a good cast, Damon Crump’s Risen ‘rises’ above the standard low budget zombie film to become something memorable.

This movie is yet another example of how HD cameras are making it easier, and more economically feasible, for independent filmmakers to bring their vision to fruition; and to compete in the realm of ‘visual quality’ that larger budget productions dominate. I saw Risen at the TFW screening, where some of the independent productions looked like they were made a bunch of kids who borrowed a camera for the weekend, so it really stood out from the rest.

Be sure to check out our video interview with the director and cast members from the Texas Frightmare Weekend.

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