Playing This Week... 12/20/07

A new feature to the blog. Each week I'll bring you a couple words on whatever it is I'm watching. I'll try and include at least one pic that's playing in theatres and one classic from the vault.

Stardust - 8.5
Lighthearted fantasy at its best. This is what movies were all about in the 80s- watching this I can't help but be reminded of Legend, Labrynth, Willow and Neverending Story. A movie from a simpler time, before over-wrought epics dominated the landscape. DeNiro turns in one of his best supporting turns in more than a decade and pix star, Charlie Cox, has a genuine likability about him. Turns from Sienna Miller and Claire Danes round out a solid cast. Neil Gaiman at his most bare, stripped down and fun. A popcorn movie with a little heart.

Superbad - 9
Raunchy but genuine. Another brilliant piece from director-cum-producer Apatow and his crew of miscreants. Painfully funny and quotable. Michael Cera is real star in the making, though we're beginning to see Seth Rogan play the same character a little too often. This one will remind everyone of high school just a little bit. That's good and bad, really.

No Country For Old Men - 8.5
Not the tour-de-force it's touted as, but it is a return to form for the Coen brothers. There has likely never been such a faithful studio adaptation of a popular novel. McCarthy's book reads like the screenplay, warts and all. This film, like the novel, is still void of a third act. Just when things really heat up, Mcarthy punctures the balloon and it fizzles into an unsatisfactory conclusion. Still, virtuoso performances from Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem and Woody Harrelson's best work ever are sure to please. When the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences awarded William Hurt an Oscar nod for his twelve minutes of screen time in A History of Violence they made a major mistake - they would be remiss if they avoided Woody on the same grounds.

Rescue Dawn - 8
Powerful and unsettling. Herzog does more with nothing better than almost anyone else. Bale turns in what has become a routinely captivating performance, but his willingness to envelope a character so fully is becoming distracting - his startling weight-loss here, like his work in the Machinist, takes away from the film itself. This is a stand up and cheer film, if that can be said about a POW pic. Getting through the first ten minutes is tough - useless exposition is rampant, and this film is the proud home of the worst plane crash in cinematic history. Cast Away has been out for 8 years, Werner- you can do better than this.

Spider-Man 3 - 4
One of the worst comic-to-film adaptations I have ever seen, even if it's not based on a single narrative. Almost everything in this film is flawed - they ruined Venom (an inspired performance from Topher Grace can't save the ghastly CG work); there are 4 story-ines where 1 will usually suffice; Peter's 'do and the Manhattan strut are an embarrassing travesty; the new goblin might as well sign on for the next installment of Spy Kids. Rami and the crew really mailed it in this year. Spidey looks more plastic and artificial than usual. Gwen Stacey was wasted entirely. No one cares about Harry Osborne and the Sandman storyline was tacked on as an excuse to flex CGI muscle. Spidey 3 continues the trend of horrid trifectas. Here's hoping that The Dark Knight, Iron Man and Hulk can save the superhero genre. Until Snyder drops Watchmen on us, that is. Then all bets are off.

American Gangster - 9.5
Russell and Denzel give the crime drama the kick in the nuts it so richly deserves. Nothing new here, but when you're playing on the same field as HEAT, Goodfellas and The Departed, you don't need to call any new plays. Washington plays he's so-damn-bad-he's-good to perfection and Crowe is abusive, masochistic, drunken white trash as only he can be. They aren't on screen together until the last fifteen minutes, but it's worth the wait; they set it on fire. Crowe's best work since The Insider and... a very good showing from Washington. It's sprawling and overblown in the way you expect it to be from Ridley Scott, but there's nothing here that will stop you from enjoying this film. One of the year's best.

NIGHT HAS FALLEN - coming soon..

I know most of you out there have been waiting for that new Dark Knight trailer to premiere, but I've got something better... haha.

My debut novel, Night Has Fallen, will be available from Horizon Park Media in January 2008. That's this coming January, for those of you still living in 1999. Information on ordering, special promotions and a firm release date are coming in the next few days. Until then...

NIGHT HAS FALLEN
They descend on the wilderness with all the naivety and brazen disregard for safety that young men are capable of. They are ill prepared, but it does not matter, for they are in search of adventure—a final voyage together, one for all time. In one horrifying moment the adventure becomes a struggle for survival. The rugged Canadian wild and the treacherous whitewater that cuts sharp swathes across the terrain will be their final playground, if they allow it. They have nothing to defend themselves against the wilds but a pistol and a can of bear repellent that may or may not contain hairspray. But they will survive. For that, all they need is each other.

Night Has Fallen is the intensely affecting tale of a journey. It is an exploration of loss, betrayal, courage and friendship and a reflection on what man is capable of when he is faced with insurmountable odds: wanton destruction, incomparable compassion and unrivaled heroism.