PUBLIC ENEMIES (2009) Weekly Pick + Review
Public Enemies (2009)
"What is it exactly you do for a living?" We've all heard it, but can any actor say "I'm John Dillinger. I rob banks." and really pull it off? Maybe. Depp is wild card in his own right, if movie star was not on his resume, he'd probably be robbing banks about now. In France. With Vanessa "Bonnie" Paradis in tow, even though Dillinger is no "Clyde," he does channel Clyde within his explosive personality. "What else you need to know?"
Marion Cotillard - the Marion that won the Oscar for "La Mome" (the story of Edith Piaf), is the damsel swept away by Dillinger's rico suave, gun toting, minute forty money grabbing, fast car junkie, whiskey swilling, public loving bad boy. Whew! In for a penny, in for a pound. The girl is in for a death defying journey.
I can't say I like the title, it's bland, and unnecessarily plural. The film, however, is a 1930s wild ride, clean and cut with raw guns and emotion. Somebody had to blaze the bank robbing, national enemy trail and Dillinger did it with some style. Depp feeds on Dillinger's style and re-purposes it to fool our senses, inspire our inner rebel and relish a time gone by.
While I don't think you'll run out an buy a hat after the show, but you just might look twice at those security cameras in your bank next time...oh wouldn't it be nice....
Directed by an expert at character development, story arc and quality action, Michael Mann (Miami Vice, Heat, The Last of the Mohicans) and written by him and Ronan Bennett, a German TV writer.
Public Enemies will not go quietly.
FLiXER's Movie Pick is relative. It may not be the best movie of all time, but it's the best movie opening this weekend. We think. Maybe.
He May Be Wacko, But He Was Our Jacko - Michael Jackson Dead At 50
Michael Jackson is dead. Ken Shane writes...Those are words that I never thought I’d write, and yet now, a few hours after his death, his body not yet cold, the snide remarks and jokes are coming fast and furious. “Pedophile,” they call him. There are jokes about his nose. The cable station I have on has decided that it’s important to follow the helicopter ferrying Michael’s body from the hospital to the coroner’s office. They want to make sure they get that shot of his body being moved from the chopper to the van. Despicable.
I was around when Elvis Presley died. The more I think about it, the more the similarities are startling. A superstar fades into the twilight, but gains a chance for a comeback. For Elvis it was the Elvis in ‘68 show. For Michael it would have been the 50 sold-out shows at the O2 Arena in London beginning next month. A great entertainer is taken down too young. There are rumors about prescription drugs. People on the inside knew about the problems, but the public was blissfully unaware. A circus begins. Both men destroyed by their fame. An American story that’s all too familiar. For a time, Elvis would have been Michael’s father-in-law. Make no mistake, the death of Michael Jackson is every bit as important, in terms of musical history, as the death of Elvis Presley.
Ed Sullivan provided Americans with their first look at many of the great popular music stars. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, hell, all the British invasion bands, but also the Motown groups. It was on his show that I first saw the Temptations, the Four Tops, the Supremes, and, led by a precocious little eight or nine-year-old boy, the Jackson 5. The song was the still undeniable “I Want You Back,” simply one of the greatest pop singles in history. From that night to this, Michael Jackson never really left the public eye. He went on to sell 750 million albums worldwide, including 100 million copies of Thriller, the best selling album of all time. Think about those numbers for a minute. These days an artist who sells two or three million albums is huge.
There’s more. Michael Jackson was the first black artist to have his videos played on MTV, back when they were still playing videos. Walter Yetnikoff, Chairman of CBS Records to which Jackson was signed, told MTV that if they didn’t play Michael’s videos, they wouldn’t be playing videos by CBS artists. MTV gave in, and the rest is pop music history.
Gone Forever - Farrah Fawcett - Dead at 62
Farrah Fawcett, an actress dedicated to her craft even if she was best known for a pose in a red swimsuit and a starring role in the TV series Charlie’s Angels, died today.
The native Texan and former Houston resident, who suffered from cancer, was 62.
Fawcett’s career and life in the public eye spanned the boom years of America’s celebrity culture from low-tech to high, from the pulp fan magazines of the 1970s to the cable-driven reality shows and Internet fan sites of the last decade.
But she will always be most closely associated with the 1970s, when her feathery hairstyle and toothy smile adorned a poster that sold more than 12 million copies and, alongside Charlie’s Angels co-stars Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson, launched the dubious genre known as “jiggle TV.”
“There is a moment in the film Saturday Night Fever where the Bee Gees are playing and John Travolta is looking in a mirror, and in the mirror is reflected the Farrah poster,” said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University in New York.
“If there is any single moment that captures the ’70s, that would be a good candidate — Farrah, Travolta and the Bee Gees all jammed into one experience. When you’re thinking of the ’70s and listing its icons, you don’t get very far without Farrah Fawcett being mentioned.”
Review: My Sister's Keeper (2009)
MY SISTER'S KEEPER
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
Faced with a clear choice between an entirely original story and one told a
thousand times before, director and co-writer Nick Cassavetes takes the
easy, well trodden path.
MY SISTER'S KEEPER tells two stories. One is the fascinating and fairly
unique tale of an eleven-year-old girl, Andromeda 'Anna' Fitzgerald (Abigail
Breslin), who is suing her parents so that her body will no longer be used
for spare parts for Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), Anna's long-dying sister. With
plenty of potential legal intrigue, this part of the narrative plays a
background role, more of a hook to sell the movie in the trailers than a
central premise. In this portion of the narrative, Alec Baldwin does a
superb job playing Campbell Alexander, a shyster who advertizes his law
office in all the media, bragging of his 91% success rate. He's a lovable
guy, who is filmed in a handsome glow. With a service dog named "Judge,"
who goes with him everywhere, you can probably guess how one of the film's
most effective jokes comes about.
But MY SISTER'S KEEPER isn't Anna's story. It's Kate's, whose life we see
in a long series of sappy montages (Kate at the beach, Kate on her first
date, etc.), some of which, no how manipulative they are, still manage to
work. The setup for the plot has Kate's parents, played by a reserved Jason
Patric and an over-the-top Cameron Diaz, creating a girl in a test tube
(Anna) for the express purpose of being able to keep leukemia patient Kate
alive longer.
Review: Last Lullaby (2009)
LAST LULLABY
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
"You decided you wanted her dead," Price (Tom Sizemore), an aging hit man,
tells his new client, "that means she's already dead. She just doesn't know
it yet." And a few days later, when Sarah (Sasha Alexander) hasn't been
murdered yet, Price has to reassure his restless client that hiring him
means the act is certain -- repeating a variation on his personal corporate
motto -- "She's already dead, just hasn't had the obit yet."
LAST LULLABY is brilliantly directed by Jeffrey Goodman, who was at our
screening for a Q&A afterwards. He said that when he first spoke to
Sizemore about the role, Sizemore said "I am Price." Whether that is right
or not, his very believable acting in LAST LULLABY argues that the actor's
assessment is correct. In fact, Goodman said that if someone told him that
in real life Sizemore had killed someone, he'd sure believe it.
In a consistently captivating performance, Sizemore plays a taciturn
contract killer who thinks he has retired from the job. A beefy, middle-age
guy, Price hasn't forgotten any of his skills and likes nothing better than
dealing with the young bucks who try to get in his way. But it isn't only
Sizemore whose acting is performed with dead-on accuracy. The entire cast
works at what appears to be the top of their form.
Review: Off Jackson Avenue (2009)
OFF JACKSON AVENUE
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Three (or more) crime stories intersect each
other in this tale set in Queens, New York's
underbelly. A Mexican immigrant is forced into sexual
slavery; an unreadable Japanese hit man prepares for
killing; a car thief tries to steal enough to buy
himself a legitimate business. The film makes a slow
and grim build to a suspenseful third act. Newcomer
writer/director/actor John-Luke Montias (in his second
feature film) shows us several faces of crime. Rating:
low +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
