Thursday, August 15, 2013

PARANOIA....A SLEEPER


Great sets, innovative technology and brilliant acting make Paranoia a summer treat.  For Jock Goddard played by Harrison Ford, duplicity is simply a hat trick.  He plays the good guy with sincerity and aplomb while his bald head gives him added stature.  Nicolas Wyatt (Gary Oldman) is another badass corporate CEO and keeps the suspense building.  While for looks, Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth) as the how –could-I -have -been -so -stupid innocent is more than boy candy.  He gets to work his acting chops while surrounded by this great cast.  Lest we not forget Emma Jennings (Amber Heard) who has some killer lines in the opening scene.  She jumps onto the Beautyrest with Adam then throws him out in the AM without telling him her name.  “I’m not into Bridge and Tunnel guys, “she says as she closes the door on Adam’s beautiful buttocks.  And Paranoia was written by guys--Jason Hall and Barry Levy.
Richard Dreyfuss (Frank Cassidy) as Adam’s father takes his moments and makes the most of every line. He gets a firm giggle out of the audience when he comes close to groping his nurse’s derriere.  May not sound funny, buy Dreyfuss makes it funny.  Comedy is his gift.
Robert Lukedic has directed a thriller about technology with the cell phone the star of this kind of big brother fear of being watched by everyone.  With GPS in the newer cell phones, tracking as well as recording from a cell phone is a reality.  The most outstanding scene is when all the protagonists come together in a gangland style meeting and Goddard says, “All cell phones on the table and remove the batteries.”  Cell phones have replaced guns.  
Paranoia is a techno thriller about two companies, Wyatt and Goddard, who spy on each other for the most innovative servers, processors and inventions.  The CEO’s of these companies will steal each other’s technology and murder at the click of a mouse.
Adam Cassidy is strapped with hospital fees for his ailing father, Frank.  Hoping to get a top paying job, he meets with Nicolas Wyatt who is the head of Wyatt Industries.  Wyatt needs to get a transformer for his latest line of cell phones and has hired a team of young techies to make a presentation.  A newbie to the screen, Lucas Till plays Kevin, a sort of techno wizard and adds a fresh face and more talent to this ensemble.
Adam becomes a pawn for Wyatt Industries and agrees to spy on Goddard’s inventions by becoming an employee of Goddard.  It is refreshing to see good old fashioned running as a thrilling chase scene and even more refreshing to witness the end of this crackerjack thriller with a hot built in love story to boot.   The look of this film is as slick as the acting and you will not regret your wise choice in seeing Paranoia.   



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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

LEE DANIEL'S THE BUTLER

Carole Mallory

Author, Actress, Critic, malloryhollywoodeast.blogspot.com
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Review-Lee Daniel's The Butler...Just a Minute

Posted: 05/09/2005 3:00 am

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Lee Daniel's The Butler is a tribute to African Americans. And to the evolution and struggle of the black woman and man as seen through the eyes of a butler, Cecil Gaines (Forrest Whitaker). Not only is this film about a butler's brutal journey to make a life by overcoming intense hardship, but also his internal struggle to join the fight for civil rights alongside his son Louis Gaines (David Oyelowo) who is the hero of this film. While Gaines is a Butler who is serving eight presidents, he is unable to protect his son who is a freedom fighter. Louis Gaines is being beaten up in Alabama and Tennessee where he has been incarcerated at least 16 times. An understated motion picture makes this true story work. Violence is brief and in flashes. Director Lee Daniels does a good job of juxtaposing the violence with scenes of family life and, thereby, arriving at balance.
While stars abound as pop ups in cameos, this story is not about celebrity, but ideals. It is about the gruesome spilling of blood unfortunately necessary to arrive at the pinnacle of the civil rights movement-- a black president. Barack Obama. So all the celebrity is almost a mute point when one focuses on the issues, the cause, and the history of the African American.
Our nation's suffering is the slow and subtle drumbeat--mantra-- felt throughout. Perhaps Lee Daniels thought maybe, just maybe, this film will get attention if I pepper it up with rich cameos by celebrities-- though at times I felt this took away from the sincerity of the screenplay. Yes, it was fun to play guess who's coming to or who's serving dinner, but it blocked the forward thrust of the stellar screenplay by Danny Strong based on an article "A Butler Well Served by this Election" by Will Haygood.
Jane Fonda steals the cameo performances by portraying a tender Nancy Reagan. Robin Williams delightfully underplays Dwight Eisenhower. Here as Annabeth Westfall , Vanessa Redgrave's posture relates volumes of empathy for slaves. Mariah Carey plays Hattie Pearl, the mother of a young Cecil Gaines in a brief but poignant moment. Lieb Schreiber is a confused Lyndon Johnson who is filmed constipated and seated on his toilet with his two dogs by his feet as he addresses his butler. Terrence Howard sizzles as Howard the butler who is having a fling with a frustrated Gloria Gaines. Cuba Gooding Jr, as Carter Wilson, serves as his usual comic relief as another White House butler as does Lenny Kravitz. John Cusack is a touching, yet sad and pathetic Richard Nixon. James Marsden as JFK is tender and wise though racked with pain from Addison's disease and Alan Richman is a befuddled and yet compassionate Ronald Reagan.
The music by Rodrigo Leao is used to accent certain moments. almost becoming a character while being effective as is the well composed cinematography by Andrew Dunn.
And lest we not forget the heartfelt and subtle performance of Oprah Winphrey as the butler's wife, Gloria Gaines, who struggles to find a life in the shadow of her husband's celebrated employers--presidents. Her character is reduced to having a drinking problem because she is frustrated in her need to find a purpose in life. When she, at last, is invited by Nancy Reagan to a dinner party at the White House, she wants so much to dazzle and fit in that she wears a beaded gown more appropriate for a crap table at Caesars. Wisely Winphrey adjusts her buxom cleavage in between courses, both performed in character and thus accentuating the garishness of the dress. Winphreys' performance is not the look -at -me -listen-to-me person we hear and see on talk shows. Her performance is the real sincere deal.
But this film belongs to Forrest Whittaker who internalizes the suffering of African Americans until due to aging he is hunched over, shuffling his feet while his character has never stood taller. He is the butler and the link that allows the film's story to be told. Bravo for the story and bravo to Forrest Whittaker. But ultimately telling the story of the struggle of African Americans thru excessive celebrity is like piping in a soundtrack of Hooray for Hollywood in the midst of a race riot in Selma. Inappropriate

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Thursday, June 20, 2013

BRAD PITT'S WWZ, NOT JUST ANOTHER ZOMBIE FILM


Carole Mallory

Author, Actress, Critic, malloryhollywoodeast.blogspot.com
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Brad Pitt's WWZ, Not just Another Zombie Film

Posted: 06/19/2013 8:14 pm

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Brad Pitt puts his soul into WWZ. His heart shines through his eyes, Watching him is mesmerizing. You will be unable to take your eyes off of him and not because of his dashing good looks, but because of his rich inner life. Pitt (Gerry Lane) is always striving to save his wife (Karen Lane) and their children, much as he has done in his role of Angelina Jolie's steadfast husband. He is not fooled by appearances. His wife in WWZ portrayed by Murielle Enos is perhaps his finest casting. After starring in the troubled TV drama The Killing,, Enos's first movie is WWZ and she has never seen a film about zombies.
She is a fresh face that loves the camera, WWZ has a great opening of a family unit being threatened by zombies, appearing out of nowhere. While driving through the streets of Philadelphia, Karen, Geri and their children are filled with terror, as you will be, by unknown creatures splashed on windshields and running in streets. But Geri is grace under pressure. The camera work is done in flashes so the mind does not capture the completeimages of the zombies which maintains the mystery and keeps the movie from being an over the top caricature of your stereotypical bloodsucking monster -- the undead...

The plot of this book by NY Times bestselling author Max Brooks, son of Mel Brooks and Ann Bancroft, is linear and not made needlessly complex with chaos masking as plot.
Geri who is retired from the UN is recruited to find the cause of a zombie pandemic. Geri, Karen and her children are flown to a safe air craft carrier at sea. From here Geri is sent to Korea where he encounters David Morse, a military pow, who gives him a clue to go to Israel where they have built walls to keep out the zombies. He says the only way to be safe is to be contained. From Korea all the while running and cycling quietly from zombies who are stirred up by noise, Geri flies to Israel. And so the plot goes into various countries and continually running from the undead. On the flight from America a scientist tells Geri to look for small clues to solve this mystery. Then in Israel you have one of these clues when zombies run by a man who looks unhealthy and dangerously thin. They do not want his blood. 
Directed by Marc Foster, WWZ is successful with its production values and direction of actors. The screenplay is written by M. Carnahan, D. Goddard, D. Lindelof and J.Straczynsk and has a great deal of black humor during all the bloodletting, my laughter was heard in a theatre of silence.
Stellar camera work and sound slowly build an impending doom. Don't miss this one -- though the ending sucks.
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Friday, June 7, 2013

REVEW; THE INTERNSHIP ...FORGET ABOUT IT!


Carole Mallory

Author, Actress, Critic, malloryhollywoodeast.blogspot.com
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Review: The Internship...Forget About It!

Posted: 06/06/2013 1:50 pm

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The Internship reteaming Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn ain't no Wedding Crashers. The problem isn't their acting. It's Vince Vaughn's and Jared Stern's predictable writing. Clichés abound. Wilson must have been paid a bundle to agree to this turkey. While Vaughn also produced The Internship, it appears he is riding on the coattails of Wilson and a fast talking agent sold this limp bill of goods to mighty fine actors.
The plot is a simple one. Two out of work aging -shall we say aspiring swingers,- lose their jobs because selling watches is an obsolete business in this computer age. We all tell the time on our cell phones. John Goodman is their boss in a "now you see him now you don't performance". And so Nick (Wilson) takes a job selling mattresses with his boss being none other than Will Ferrell, totally wasted in this cameo. Billy (Vaughn) must have used up a marker or two to get both Ferrell and Wilson and also a marker for John Goodman whose cameo is even more brief and less funny than Ferrell's.
After a stint in a mattress emporium, Billy convinces Nick to quit his job and go west young man to San Francisco to apply for a job with Google. Both boys are practically computer illiterate, but champion sales men in the film and in life. Billy talks Nick into trying his talents in the highly competitive tech world. The techies at first laugh at the naiveté of this awkward duo and perhaps have more laughs than you will watching this sad attempt at comedy. A series of challenges were given to several teams as actors: Rose Byrne, Aasif Mandavi, Max Mingella, Josh Brener, Dylan O'Brien, Tiya Sircar, Tobit Raphael, Josh Gad, Jessica, Szohr, Rob Riggle, B. J. Novak and Eric Andre round out a competent cast of genius college students and teachers at Google. A special mention to Aasif Mandavi who is the stern Google trainer. The winner of these challenges is awarded employment at Google. What is enjoyable is seeing what Google looks like on the inside. We have a visit to a strip club followed by a scene showing, 'let's get drunk and have a really fun time and forget the minutiae of the tech world'. Never mind the adolescent mind set behind this dated thinking. The Internship made me recall that iconic director of Last Tango in Paris, Bernardo Bertolucci, and his comments that today's films out of Hollywood have gone by the wayside and that TV is superior.
The direction by Shawn Levy is lackluster and appears that Vince Vaughn was heavily involved over Levy's shoulder in this process.
If you want to watch the real talents of Wilson and Vaughn rent Wedding Crashers again or as Bernardo Bertolucci suggests, 'Watch TV,' and skip this poor excuse for a movie.
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Thursday, May 30, 2013

A STEPFORD WIFE REMEMBERS HER DIRECTOR, BRYAN FORBES


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Carole Mallory

Author, Actress, Critic, malloryhollywoodeast.blogspot.com
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A Stepford Wife Remembers Her Director Bryan Forbes

Posted: 05/21/2013 2:25 pm

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With Bryan Forbes passing, I was reminded of what a good director he was. He taught me the importance of listening. Oh, I had taken acting classes with Wyn Handman who directed the American Place Theatre and had classmates the likes of Richard Gere and Brad Davis, and had filmed many commercials as a spokesperson, but Stepford Wives was my first major motion picture. It was the 1975 Ira Levin thriller in which women are turned into docile electronic incarnations of themselves.
The scene in which I, portraying Kit Sunderson, recall his talented direction was the following: All us wives were seated in a group therapy session when the topic turned to how our husbands were forcing us to do intense housework and we were rebelling. But instead of objecting to the masculine brow beating, eager to please any male when the topic wascleaning, I said, "It took me so long to get my upstairs floor to shine, I didn't have any time to bake."
"Have you ever tried Easy Off?" my girlfriend asked.
"Is it really that good?" I replied. Bryan wanted me to think about a life and death situation and the gravity this would imply. 
"Listen to Toni, Carole. You're not listening to her," Bryan yelled.
And he was right. The music became chime-like and eerie and the audience was given a clue that I was dead. That all the wives were dead. We were servants to our husbands. Slaves. Zombies in house dresses. Not wives. Loving wives.
This was a pivotal scene and Bryan made it work because he watched our performances like a myopic hawk and was forceful in his direction. We all listened to him especially when he yelled which wasn't often.
Stepford Wives drew mixed reviews and endures as a cult film and a quasi-feminist document. It helped make the phrase "Stepford wife," describing any woman who seems vapid and compliant, an enduring part of the lexicon.
In 2004 Bryan Forbes was named a Commander of the British Empire. But For all his accomplishments, Bryan remained remembered almost exclusively for The Stepford Wives,and sometimes found himself having to defend the film against misinterpretation. In an interview in 2004, he recounted having been accosted by an umbrella-wielding woman at a press screening.
"I remember saying to this particular savagely disturbed woman, 'You've missed the whole point,'" he recalled. "'A, it's a fantasy; B, if anybody looks stupid, it's the men. It's not an attack on women. It's an attack on women being exploited by men.'"
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