Movie Review: Attack of the Clones

Well, this is my first review of a Star Wars movie. The question of how little old me is to review a master like George Lucas weighs heavy on my soul! But, go on as I must, I shall review.

There are movies, and then there are Lucasfilms. This is a Lucasfilm. Despite my enthusiasm, however, I must admit that I was disappointed. And here is why: In the original films the technology that Lucas had at his disposal was truly in its infancy. The technology that he did use was marveled at and rightly made him famous. Now, despite the awe in which the originals find themselves today they did have some problems. Mainly the acting was lack luster and some of the dialogue shabby. If great visual effects, bad acting and cheesy dialogues was all that characterized a Star Wars movie, then Attack of the Clones fits in well. However, to my mind, the genius of the first series lay in the mythology, symbolism and classic characters that Lucas brings together into one epic and heroic story. The acting, dialogue AND the effects were of secondary importance to the incredible and simple story that Lucas is able to tell in a filmed format.

Attack of the Clones focusses too much on the effects at the expense of characters and story. This episode was perhaps the crucial installment of the series. Like The Empire Strikes Back, this episode is all about setup. Here's the problem: the story is so complicated that much needs to happen and be said. Also, the story calls for giant battles and awesome chases. Putting all of this into one movie is a great challenge. I think Lucas did a great job with the battles and chases. The problem is that they take up too much time and the stuff that needs to be said in order to bring us up to date and to move the plot ends up in drawn out dialogues that seem flat. They needed to happen as part of the action. There is a glimpse of Lucas' forgotten genius when Anakin goes to rescue his mother. Here the plot is moved by the action and the characters are developed. All three work together.In other scenes only one is developed. During the droid factory sequence we have stunning visuals lots of action, no plot and no character. The focus on the visuals is inefficient and Lucas consequently needs to rely on crappy dialogue (like the Anakin-Padmay discussions) to do what needs to be done.

Nonetheless Attack of the Clones remains a decent movie. I look forward to the next installment, though I am fearful that Lucas will need two movies to get what needs to be done done. I will abstain from giving this film a rating though.. It is too hard to separate enthusiasm and all of the baggage that accompanies a Star Wars movie from any objective criticism. If a Lucasfilm fails as a Lucasfilm is it not still a superlative film?

Movie Review: Spiderman

Wow, talk about a cool movie!

I've always been a big Spidey fan and have lamented the absence of a Spiderman movie ever since the original Batman movie came out.

I'm not going to draw out this review. The movie doesn't really need a review. It's a simple movie, nothing is really complicated. There are no no complex themes, or anything that really needs interpretation. Good and Evil are easy to identify. This simplicity is part of the beauty.

The movie is a comic book put on film, and that's all that I wanted. It has the feel of a comic and not a movie. You can't put deep thematic developments into a rag aimed at kids. You can put simple action, black and white moral situations and heroic and villainous characters. The formula is simple and time tested. The action and moral clarity dominate the film so that we can get to the action. Sappy love stories are, at best, secondary - young boys want to see fights, not kisses. Though perhaps these boys, now that they are older, would prefer to see Kirsten Dunst.

The acting was fine, though Aunt May and Spiderman get the best treatment. The Green Goblin (Willem Defoe) is great. Defoe was an excellent choice. He can play the sympathetic father, lunatic, businessman, and supervillain. He gets my vote as one of the most under appreciated actors out there. Charges of over acting have been levied, and perhaps they are justified. But this is a comic book. Things like heroes and villains are all supposed to "super" so exaggeration is necessary. If you don't like it, well, guess what? It's part of the genre, too bad.

As for the visuals, well, contrary to Mr Ebert, they were perfect. The images portray everything as they should be portrayed. The ordinary scenes are ordinary, but when the masks get put on, the rules don't apply. That's what being a superhero is. If the rules applied to you, you wouldn't be "super." Again Ebert is wrong. Parker has his problems in the real world, and that's why so many people can sypathize with him, but when he is Spiderman he leaves his problems behind and the rules that physical and social that we all deal with no longer apply.

In short, this is a comic book on film and it works - I like it.

On the official Chris' Choice scale Spiderman gets four stars.

****

The War Movies

I can't even count all the e-mails I've got saying: "Chris, I want to impress my friends with my insight into movies, can you help me out, what's the best war movie?" Well, that's a good question. Here are my picks. I will look at three each of which will be reviewed separately. They are:

• Saving Private Ryan **** (4)
• Das Boot **** (4)
• Regeneration ***** (5)

I know, I know, you're saying: "What? Private Ryan over Thin Red Line? Are you crazy?" I have a private theory about these two movies and the people who promote Ryan over the Line. Anyway, I chose to review Ryan because it is the American war movie. I agree, Thin Red Line is better, but only marginally so. They would still get the same number of stars. It is not that much better. It is certainly not what one might call an 'American war movie.' The Cranky Critic calls it an art house movie.

Let's get going! Aristotle talks about the human good, the one thing that we all strive for. He says its happiness, self fulfillment. War is very much the opposite of this. These three movies each have a different take on this idea. War movies, if they are worth their salt, should explore and peer into, in a visual and literary way, how war affects these our most important human projects whether as individuals or collectively. DAs Boot does the latter.

As a project of the German people, the U-Boat is a symbol of nationalism and collective aspiration. Though I don't agree with the final message entirely at least it speaks to us about war. Unfortunately, the issue of war is transcended, indeed, in the end it is not clear whether or not we are still talking about war. In the greatest visual expression of existential angst, it is no longer certain if war is the only thing that is futile, perhaps all human action is. This is a weakness of the German perspective. It cannot do otherwise lest it take sides in the conflict.

In Private Ryan, there is a schizophrenia. On one hand war is portrayed as horrible violence. Let's be honest, this is not very imaginative. Happiness, as simple physical pleasure, is an impossibility. But then, happiness is, in some sense, possible. The band of brothers adventure that makes up the second act provides a glimmer of light through the storm clouds that showered blood during the first act. This kind of camaraderie is present in all three and just as effective. It is the third act that really pissed me off, and sealed this movies fate as, yet another American war movie. The last stand, good old fashioned ingenuity, and a character forged in battle all stink of jingoism! On the other hand, not including these things is like having Bond without a Bond girl! The clincher, of course, was the cemetery scene. I'm being harsh here because everything is done with the subtlety of a Las Vegas neon sign. However, these are important themes. We cannot forget about sacrifice and the good things that have come from war.

Regeneration on the other hand does everything with style, subtlety, restraint and art. When violence is psychic the will has been overcome and the self cannot be realized. Happiness in Aristotle's grand sense is impossible. Ryan is a triumph of the will, Das Boot is about the futility of willing anything while Regeneration shows you how war paralyzes the will. Yet, in the end, the will triumphs. Most of the themes in Ryan are present, but there is no jingoism. There are positive things to come from war. This movie is not silent on this issue. For Ryan friendship and life are saved. In this movie friendship too survives the war, and obviously so does life, but human creativity and art do too. The enduring things, the vehicles of expression and self realization are present here like in no other war movie. When the images and characters are brought into the calculation this move's superiority is well established.

Well, those are my thoughts, and I'm sticking with 'em!

Movie Review: Saving Private Ryan

The American War Movie

Well, what can I say? Graphic? Sentimental? This is the American war movie. I don't know how anyone could top it. There is graphic violence, a motley cross section of American society, a sentimental mission and a courageous "Alamo" of a last stand using good old American ingenuity.

We all know the plot, we all know the story, hell, we've all seen it five times. The problem is, this is a franchise. We saw this movie when we watched The Guns of Navarone, The Devil's Brigade, and others. The opening scenes are epic, but unlike A Bridge too Far, the movie is not epic. It turns the minor - a side show of a side show into an epic. Classic Hollywood!

The characters are none too heroic, they are just doing their job. In fact some are completely un-heroic. Of course, they come from all over the USA and they all long for the life back home.

The film turns into a giant allegory. The small platoon is out to risk their lives so that some other might live. It is a great sacrifice, and the band of brothers would not be doing it if the cause wasn't so great. Of course they are reluctant, but in the end they see the nobility of the cause.

One cannot escape the graphic opening scenes. They are so graphic that they are unreal. A friend of mine, who landed at Juno Beach, told me that he laughed at the opening scene. He said "bullets don't make a mess like that, they go through you, make holes and you fall down." These protests aside, the sense of violence, destruction and chaos is unequalled.

Putting this all together, it doesn't say too much about war that is not tivial or the self-congratulations of a Johnny come lately. Violence and noble sacrifice are very important parts of war. Saving Private Ryan just reinforces the obvious to such an undeniable extent.

Well filmed, good acting, and half decent characters. Not bad. The best of one genre of a genre.

On the official Chris' Choice scale Saving Private Ryan gets four stara.

****

Movie Review: Das Boot

The German War Movie

Ouch! Why would you even bother with war after seeing this one.

The characters aren't so important. The life, the excitement and the action are what's important. The fact that this is a Nazi submarine that we are being shown is not important. Very little mention of politics enters into this film. For a German film, I guess that is to be understood, and its good for our purposes as well. There are other wars than the Second World War.

>> I'm just going to spoil this one!

Of course, I don't really know much about German war movies. I've only seen one other. Unlike other war movies this sub is out for adventures and for glory. The martial -teutonic - virtues seem alive and well, and they deserve them. Ahh, but we forget that life is a tale told by an idiot. The message is: why bother? The things we value get destroyed.

Das Boot tells us that war is cruel and unjust, it destroys the things we love. How can anyone argue with this. Coming from the Germans who ought to know. This is undeniable. The crew and the ship go through so much together. They suffer, find salvation and survive together, only to be kicked in the groin.

The visuals are spectacular. You feel as though you are on the sub. The sea is a truly awesome force, and you feel its strength, its infiniteness and its brutality. For the visual experience alone this is a film worth seeing. If you like submarine movies this one is the mother of them all. U-571, Crimson Tied, The Hunt For Red October are all judged in comparison with this one. But this is a war movie. I will judge it as such.

As a war movie, it is cannot transcend the German perspective. Not all wars are as futile as this one was for this particular sub-crew. This was a stunning movie, but still it doesn't say it all.

On the official Chris' Choice scale Das Boot gets four stars.

****

Movie Review: Regeneration

The English War Movie

This is not the kind of war movie people are used to, however, it does its job better than any other movie I have seen. It doesn't take place during the Second World War, but the first.

The movie is set in Scotland in, like so many modern films, hospital. This is not just any hospital, but one for shell-shocked British officers. There are three principal characters, all of whom are real historical figures. The doctor, Rivers and two poets Sassoon and Owen form heart of this film. Sassoon is a gallant officer. He's brave and cares deeply about his men. He cares so much that he has taken to protesting the war. As a result Horse Guard's has declared him shell shocked and in need of treatment. Owen is quintessential sensitive poet. Rivers is a caring and hard working physician who wants to see his patients actually recover.

Rivers must treat Sassoon, and this forms the central action of the film. Of course, Sassoon is not shell shocked. So we think anyway. Rivers can't stand it, there are others in the hospital who are actually suffering, but he holds back his feelings. Sassoon is completely contemptuous of his situation and those trying to silence him. Like all movies set in hospitals like this the question of who's crazy is central.

The war is not seen so much as it is remembered. The world has been turned inside out. Everything is backwards. Nothing is as it should be and this is all the fault of the war. War is the driving force of the movie. It is all that can be talked about and for the poets its all that they can really write about.

The war is driving Rivers to shell shock, and he has never been shot at. War, not love is the source for the greatest poetry. Sassoon may actually be shell shocked. Officer's are commanding young children. The most effective healing is done outside the hospital. Doctors torturing patients.

The power of war is evident throughout the film. It doesn't just blow things up. It kills souls. You don't even have to be at the front to be killed.

The violence in this film is psychic, and what could be more disturbing than that? The film is not devoid of hope. The name is after all Regeneration. The characters overcome, but once they overcome, their fate is to return to the war. So enters Futility.

Heroism is also evident. The strength of character of each patient, and Rivers is apparent. But these men are officers, and leaders ultimately their willingness to heal themselves is also a willingness to return once more into the breach, for dear friends. They are moved by concern for others, for their troops. There is an honour amongst these men.

This movie has it all, and it is all done with gently with words, characters and plot. There is no need for the obvious. War is violent enough. The violence is belittled if it only seen to be a physical violence. In Regeneration the physical violence mnifests itself psychically in the patients, in the language of the poets and aesthetically in the reversals. In the end life regenerates and the human spirit triumphs.

The film is on all accounts excellent. Though characters and plot are central it is beautifully filmed. A superlative film!

On the official Chris' Choice scale Regeneration gets five stars.

*****

Movie Review: K-Pax

Good movie. This joins the ranks of other great movies set in mental institutes. For some reason movies about crazies work well these days. Perhaps because, as one English prof used to say, nobody is quite sure "who's crazy." That's just about the jist of it. Spacey, again, proves himself an excellent actor. Though, I am not sure he has yet transcended Hollywood. (one of my beefs is that Hollywood actors play themselves and not their characters. Contrast Peter Sellers, the perfect example of non-Hollywood acting, and Mel Gibson, the Hollywood actor)

In any event, a very good film there is a lot of emphasis on light and things are nice visually, but the great achievement is characters and character development. The film wants you to believe that Spacey is an alien, and the crazies really start believing him. Then, so do a bunch of rocket scientists. The idea is that you must take a leap of faith and admit like medieval church Credo quia absurdum est. (I believe because it is irrational). It may defy explanation or the way we see the world, but it would truly be the best way to explain things. This goes against so much of the things the modern world holds to be so. And if you are truly a modern, there is an easy explanation for you. The romantics, those who leave room for doubt, or those who have faith in the point of view and decency of others, in short, - the crazies - have a harder time. Maybe I'm saying that because I'm either sympathetic with or a crazy myself. The lever in the plot is Jeff Bridges - the shrink. He is the one that must be convinced that Spacey is from the planet K-Pax.

The ending is good. It leaves open the question of who's crazy. I like it. Nicely filmed, good story and great characters. Not that original though.

On the official Chris' Choice scale K-PAX gets three stars.

***