Monday, May 29, 2006
QUICK MOVIE REVIEWS
It's been almost a month since my last post,unfortunately. Sorry about that. I keep promising to do these more regularly, and life keeps getting in the way. Saw a few things of interest lately that I thought I'd review. But since it's been awhile, might as well keep 'em short:
THE DA VINCI CODE
Okay, I admit, I saw this more out of curiosity than anything else. I wanted to figure out what the damn buzz was about. I'm probably one of a handful of people in the country who hasn't read the book, and from what I'd heard, I have no real desire to read it. The movie just clinched this. Ron Howard, a mediocre director at best (I thought A BEAUTIFUL MIND was really overrated, and his other work for the most part is just so/so, although I did like CINDERELLA MAN), does what he can, bringing the book to the screen, and everyone involved (Tom Hanks, Audrey Tatou, and especially Ian McKellan, who is easily the best thing in the movie) all do a good job. My problem wasn't with the acting or the direction or even Tom Hanks's hair (why is this such a big deal in the media??). My problem is with the plot (i.e. the source material). I hate puzzles and mysteries and I found the whole story incredibly predictable and unexciting. I think everyone involved in the movie did what they could to pull me in - but in the end, I found this to be one big yawn. So I have to admit. I still have no clue why this damn thing is so popular. And I know, finally, that it's not my cup of tea (Or whiskey).
DESPERATION (Aired on ABC on Tuesday May 23, 2006 from 8 to 11pm)
I was actually looking forward to the latest Stephen King miniseries (or rather, in this case, a 3-hour TV movie) for a long time now. I saw the first 15 minutes over a year ago at the World Horror Convention in NYC. Mick Garris was one of the guests and I have to admit, I was totally psyched with the preview. It features Ron Perlman (who always turns in a great performance) as a deranged sheriff in the town of Desperation, Nevada, who stops some tourists passing through, frames them with a bag of pot, and then drags them to his police station in the middle of a ghost town, where bodies rot on the sidewalks, and the sheriff turns out to be possessed by an ancient spirit named Tak. As long as Perlman is onscreen, the movie rocks, but half-way through, the spirit gets rid of Perlman for another body, and the movie comes to a screeching, tractor-trailer-derailing, blood-on-the-windshield STOP! And whatever was good suddenly vanishes. Not sure if this was meant to be a miniseries and then was chopped down to fit into one installment, but the ending seems really rushed. The other actors do what they can, including Matt Frewer, Tom Skerritt, Charles Durning, Annabeth Gish and Steven Weber (who has become a staple of these things), but the main problem I had with this movie was it's heavy-handed preachiness. I can appreciate the whole good vs. evil thing, and there have been religious overtones in King's stuff before (THE STAND comes to mind, but worked despite it), but DESPERATION is another kettle of fish entirely. Whenever Shane Haboucha as "the kid" David Carver appears on screen, all he talks about is god's will and praying and the movie ceases to be a horror film and instead becomes some kind of elongated live-action DAVEY & GOLIATH episode. The characer is one-note and pretty much kills any momentum the plot has built, turning the last half of DESPERATION into a dead end. Which is incredibly sad, because the beginning with Perlman is SO DAMN GOOD! To think I was psyched for over a year to see this. What a major disappointment.
I also saw a bunch of season finales for TV shows. PRISON BREAK and LOST ended with a real bang, and I can't wait to see what next season will bring. I found out that INVASION has been canceled, and I guess it was their own fault for building the plot so slowly in the first half of the season, but it's too bad to see it end when it was getting so good.
Not much else on this end. Until next time....INFERNALLY YOURS....
LLS
