Sleight of Film

Today’s quick review: The Road to El Dorado. After a series of mishaps, Miguel (Kenneth Branagh) and Tulio (Kevin Kline), a pair of 16th-century Spanish rogues, find themselves bound for the New World with a map to El Dorado, the legendary city of gold. Following the map, they manage to find the city, where they are hailed as gods. Together with Chel (Rosie Perez), a local woman who sees them as her meal ticket, they scheme to use their newfound divinity to fleece the locals out of as much gold as they can carry back to Spain.

The Road to El Dorado is an animated family adventure film from Dreamworks. Set during the early stages of the Spanish conquest of South America, The Road to El Dorado follows the misadventures of two con men as they stumble into the score of a lifetime. For all their faults, Miguel and Tulio are not bad men. The delicate balance of power in El Dorado offers them moral choices as to how to profit from the situation without empowering the bloodthirsty priest claiming to speak on their behalf.

The Road to El Dorado offers a trio of fun protagonists, comedic writing, and a soundtrack by Elton John. Miguel and Tulio have a great dynamic; they are charming, friendly, and loyal to each other, but their differing personalities occasionally cause them to bicker. The plot is a competent con artist tale with El Dorado’s high priest as antagonist.

For all this, The Road to El Dorado does not quite live up to its potential. None of the songs are particularly catchy or memorable. The Spanish conquest of South America is left in the background, in spite of its dramatic potential. The early stages of the adventure are driven mostly by chance, while the search for El Dorado is relegated to a single travel montage.

Watch The Road to El Dorado if you are in the mood for a light adventure. Though outclassed by many other animated films, The Road to El Dorado is a fine, breezy watch that will surely catch some of its viewers the right way. But for most, it will offer nothing exceptional and can be skipped or put off without much loss.

6.9 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.5 to 7.0 for decent execution with a couple of moderate flaws.

Today’s quick review: The Emperor’s New Groove. Kuzco (David Spade), the vain, spoiled prince of a South American empire, has it all. But when his chief advisor Yzma (Eartha Kitt) and her right-hand man Kronk (Patrick Warburton) turn him into a llama in an attempt to claim the throne, Kuzco is left on his own. His only ally is Pacha (John Goodman), a kindly peasant Kuzco had previously thought beneath him. To make it back to the palace and return to his human form, Kuzco must first earn the good will of the man he scorned.

The Emperor’s New Groove is an animated family comedy from Disney featuring great voice acting, cartoonish humor, and a nice moral about selfishness. The characters are excellent: simple, entertaining, and brought to life by talented voice actors. The animation is lively and colorful. The premise is fun, the writing is seasoned with jokes, and the story is topped off with a couple of nice emotional moments.

But for all its virtues, The Emperor’s New Groove lacks some of the quality of other Disney films. The film relies too much on cartoon slapstick, overt humor, and its hip attitude to ever be a classic. Its one song is a great one, but the movie lacks the detail, length, and polish of Disney’s musicals. The result is an entertaining watch that misses out on the replay value of its fellows.

Watch The Emperor’s New Groove if you are looking for a light family comedy with plenty of color. The Emperor’s New Groove has the cast and writing for a very fun time, even if it is missing a bit of substance. Skip it if you are hoping for another Disney classic.

7.3 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 to 7.5 for color, character, and humor.

“What we do in life echoes in eternity.” —Maximus

Today’s quick review: Gladiator. After the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) is slain by his son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), Aurelius’s favorite general Maximus (Russell Crowe) is betrayed and sold into slavery. He is taken to the outskirts of the Roman Empire, where an aging entertainer (Oliver Reed) forces him to fight as a gladiator. There his prowess in the arena earns him the favor of the crowd and a chance to return to Rome.

Gladiator is a historical drama from director Ridley Scott. Featuring violent action, a rich atmosphere, strong dramatic performances, and an impressive soundtrack by Hans Zimmer, Gladiator is a polished film that offers a fictionalized glimpse into Ancient Rome. Though it takes some liberties with historical events, the setting feels authentic and the movie works in snippets of Roman history in natural ways.

The combat in gladiator is gory, tense, and fairly realistic. Maximus is a formidable warrior but not infallible, and his success as a gladiator is as much a result of teamwork and clever tactics as it is his skill as a swordsman. The perils of the arena offer plenty of variety to keep action fans satisfied, while the skilled worldbuilding and character development offer more depth than a typical action movie.

Watch Gladiator if you are in the mood for a well-executed, action-packed historical drama. Steer clear if you dislike violence or you are looking for a light watch.

8.5 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.5 to 8.0 for overall high quality.

Today’s quick review: Catwoman. Patience Phillips (Halle Berry) is a mild-mannered artist working for a beauty company who accidentally learns the dark secret behind her company’s new beauty cream. The company’s unscrupulous head George Hedare (Lambert Wilson) has her killed to keep her quiet, but a mystic cat revives her and grants her catlike powers. With new abilities and new confidence, Patience sets about bringing Hedare to justice as the vigilante Catwoman.

Catwoman is a superhero movie loosely based on the DC comic book character. Catwoman follows the pattern of most superhero origin stories, but its execution leaves much to be desired. Halle Berry’s Catwoman has little in common with her predecessors beyond a whip and a cat motif. The classy cat burglar of previous incarnations is replaced by an edgy vigilante with murky motivations who behaves like she is possessed.

The intended transformation is from meek, ordinary Patience to confident, unrestrained Catwoman, but the character gets lost somewhere in between. The Catwoman persona seems to shunt Patience’s aside for nocturnal adventures, a protagonist that doesn’t grow so much as get rewritten. Patience is not a satisfying character, while the Catwoman persona is too erratic to take seriously.

Furthermore, the movie embraces all aspects of being a cat, resulting in a bizarre heroine who is vulnerable to catnip and is distracted by shiny objects. These moments could have been played for humor, but the film plays them just straight enough that it is hard to laugh. With a stronger protagonist, these would just be seen as quirky side effects of the transformation, but instead they just contribute to the impression that Patience is not right in the head.

The action should be the film’s saving grace, and to some extent it is. Apart from some peculiar leap physics, slightly dated CGI, and too much twirling, Catwoman does not have terrible combat. The heroine’s acrobatics are used in a few clever ways, and a better movie could have been built around the fight scenes. Even these fights lack vision, though: Catwoman rarely fights anyone significant or challenging, putting the half-decent choreography to waste.

The rest of the film is a series of lackluster choices. The evil cosmetics corporation plot is uncompelling. The love interest ranges from dull to awkward. The characters are unsympathetic. The writing borders on cringeworthy. The supernatural elements are handled poorly and add little to the plot. The moral is muddied by Catwoman’s split personality. The outfit is tasteless. The “hip” soundtrack just sounds cheap. Catwoman goes the wrong direction on nearly everything.

Watch Catwoman if you want to see Halle Berry lose her mind and start behaving like a cat. As a superhero movie, Catwoman offers very little. As a trainwreck, it is mildly amusing. Skip it if you are looking for a good film, especially if you are a fan of the superhero genre.

3.3 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 4.0 for a reasonable concept ruined by a series of bad choices.

Today’s quick review: Armageddon. When NASA discovers an asteroid the size of Texas about to collide with the Earth, NASA official Dan Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) calls on Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis), an expert oil driller, to help with a last-ditch scheme to save the planet. He and his crew (Owen Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Steve Buscemi) must travel to the asteroid and drill a hole deep enough for a nuclear warhead to split the rock in half. But NASA has their work cut out for them whipping the clownish drillers into shape, and Stamper must come to grips with the fact that his protege A.J. (Ben Affleck) is in love with his daughter Grace (Liv Tyler).

Armageddon is a fast-paced disaster thriller from director Michael Bay. For a genre that should be back-loaded, Armageddon manages to pack in an astonishing amount of action. Explosions are frequent, and even the parts of the film without an immediate catastrophe are filled with humor, emotional drama, or plot development to keep things moving.

Armageddon is a movie that wears its heart on its sleeve. Everything is big, from the meteor shower that devastates New York to the spending spree Stamper’s men go on before heading into space. Armageddon runs the full gamut of emotion, from blue collar fun and over-the-top action scenes to grim determination and tragic farewells. It is an emotional thrill ride with clear conflicts, clean execution, and big payoffs.

The cast is every bit as lively as the rest of the film. The main trio of Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, and Liv Tyler form the emotional core of the film, while Owen Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Steve Buscemi, and the rest of Stamper’s crew provide comic relief. The characters are drawn in simple, satisfying strokes that give their talented actors plenty to work with.

Skip Armageddon if you are looking for a sophisticated movie, a subversion, or anything but a fun time. It embraces its genre and plays it to the hilt, and the only winking at the camera is done through the film’s good-natured comedy. It is packed to the gills with cheap tricks to keep the audience interested, from the crew’s comic antics to transparent emotional subplots to dramatic camera work. None of this will appeal to the cerebral viewer.

But it will appeal to the emotional viewer. Watch Armageddon if you enjoy action films and are in the mood for one with skillful execution and unusual amounts of heart. Armageddon takes a decent premise, a great cast, and explosions aplenty and weaves them into a film that is entertaining at every level.

6.6 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.5 to 8.0 for entertainment, emotional richness, and overall quality.

Today’s quick review: Lethal Weapon. Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is a reliable police officer with a loving family and a home in the suburbs. Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) is a cop on the edge who channels his grief over his wife’s death into dangerously effective police work. When the daughter of one of Murtaugh’s army buddies is murdered, the two are assigned as partners and tasked with tracking down the killer.

Lethal Weapon is a buddy cop movie with a strong leading duo and fun writing. Riggs and Murtaugh are both great characters in their own right, but the dynamic between the two gives Lethal Weapon a solid core to work with. The film has plenty of jokes to go with the action, and the combination of action, humor, and character makes it a very entertaining watch.

Lethal Weapon does have a few deficiencies, even within the template of 80s action movies. The plot and villain are almost entirely forgettable. The action is plentiful but offers nothing too impressive. Action movie cliches are frequent if not omnipresent, although whether this is a strength or a weakness is a matter of taste.

But for anyone who enjoys the genre, Lethal Weapon’s strengths are more than enough to make up for its weaknesses. Lethal Weapon is perhaps the quintessential action movie, and any 80s action fan will love it. Watch it when you are in the mood for an entertaining popcorn flick. Skip it if you are looking for something less conventional or with a bit more plot.

7.6 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.5 for two great leads and surprisingly skillful writing.

Today’s quick review: Dog Day Afternoon. One summer afternoon in 1972, a pair of amateur bank robbers attempt to hold up a Brooklyn bank. But their robbery turns into a hostage crisis when the police show up. Sonny (Al Pacino), the brains of the operation, is forced to keep the precarious situation from deteriorating. To stay alive, he must negotiate with the police, take care of the hostages, talk to the media, handle the crowd, and keep his quiet partner-in-crime Sal (John Cazale) from despairing.

Dog Day Afternoon is a crime movie that is based on a true story. What distinguishes Dog Day Afternoon from other hostage films is its realistic, slightly comedic take on a bank robbery. Unlike most fictional bank robbers, Sonny and Sal do not have a plan. They are unprepared for the arrival of the police, and only a combination of luck and quick thinking keeps the situation from falling apart immediately.

But neither are Sonny and Sal the caricatures one would expect in a crime comedy. Their humor comes from their humanity, from their casual relationship with their hostages to Sonny’s impromptu rabble-rousing when he finds the crowd of spectators taking his side. The police are somewhat comedic themselves, bumbling authority figures with an undercurrent of menace. These elements of comedy give Dog Day Afternoon a lighter tone than most standoffs, even if the core plot of the film is a drama.

Sonny himself is a surprisingly compelling character. Al Pacino is given the better part of two hours to develop Sonny from an amateur crook in over his head into a nuanced, likable individual. Pacino accomplishes the difficult feat of playing a likable criminal who is neither a suave mastermind nor pure comic relief. For all his faults, Sonny seems like a nice enough guy, and he gives the movie a strong heart.

Watch Dog Day Afternoon if you are in the mood for an unconventional crime drama with traces of humor. The plot offers nothing special, but the acting is very good, the writing is sound, and the tone is a blend of comedy, drama, and realism that is hard to come by in other films. Skip it if you are looking for an exciting heist, a taut thriller, or a pure comedy.

8.0 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.5 for strong writing, good characters, an unusual tone, and a great performance from Pacino.

Today’s quick review: Arrival. Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is a linguistics professor mourning the death of her teenage daughter. But when alien vessels land at twelve sites around the world, she is recruited by an Army colonel (Forest Whitaker) to translate the aliens’ bizarre language. With the aid of Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), a scientist on her team, she attempts to communicate with the aliens to answer the question of why they have come to Earth.

Arrival is a science fiction drama with a linear, focused plot. The film skims over certain details in favor of presenting what is of plot or emotional significance. As such, many of the science fiction aspects of alien contact are addressed only in passing, while emphasis is placed on establishing communication with the aliens and the effects of the contact on Louise.

Fans of cerebral science fiction will have plenty to chew on. Louise sets about decoding the aliens’ language with a satisfying mix of logic and intuition. Her work is sprinkled with just enough real-world linguistics to make it feel authentic without getting too technical. And unlike many sci-fi films, Arrival has very little action to distract from the main plot.

Arrival also offers something to fans of personal drama. The outer science fiction plot wraps around a inner story of personal loss. Louise’s interactions with the aliens dredge up memories of her daughter that begin to affect her judgment. The personal drama gives the film a bittersweet tone that meshes well with its realistic, focused take on alien contact.

Watch Arrival if you are keen on hard science fiction and well-told personal drama. Arrival is a movie that sticks to its key themes and handles them well. Those who prefer adventure-style science fiction should look elsewhere.

8.5 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.5 for solid execution of an interesting premise, but drama fans will rate it higher.

Today’s quick review: Sharknado. When a freak storm makes landfall in Los Angeles, it brings with it a rain of sharks it sucked up from the Pacific Ocean. Fin Shepard (Ian Ziering), the owner of a dockside bar, flees inland with his best friend Bas (Jason Simmons), a waitress Nova (Cassie Scerbo), and a local souse George (John Heard). The group stop by the home of Fin’s ex-wife April (Tara Reid) to get his family to safety amidst the tide of flooding and sharks.

Sharknado is a TV action horror movie with a low budget and a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. With bad acting, low production values, and a ridiculous premise, Sharknado is objectively a bad movie. At the same time, Sharknado is a strangely entertaining watch. The film revels in its preposterousness and delivers shark-on-man and man-on-shark action with wild abandon.

How much you enjoy the film will depend on your willingness to embrace its absurdity. The premise is a thin excuse for shark attack-style gore in an urban setting. Many of the kills during the film are played for humor or astonishment, and these are what give the film its violent sense of fun. Not all of Sharknado’s decisions are correct ones, even given its unusual premise and tone, but it should elicit a few good laughs from a viewer with the right attitude.

Watch Sharknado if you are looking for a ridiculous, low-budget action film done right. Skip it if you have any standards regarding acting, writing, special effects, or intelligence, or if you are sensitive to gore.

3.3 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 4.0 for production quality, a 6.0 for breathing life into a low-budget film, and a 7.0 to 7.5 for enjoyability.

Today’s quick review: Casino. Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is a successful gambler with a knack for picking odds. When the mob notices his skills, they entrust him with running the Tangiers Casino in Las Vegas. They also send his childhood friend Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) out to Las Vegas to act as Rothstein’s muscle. But when Santoro decides to set up his own criminal operation, his actions threaten to send the situation spiraling out of control.

Casino is a Las Vegas crime drama from director Martin Scorsese that follows the rise and fall of Sam Rothstein and Nicky Santoro. Rothstein is effective at his job, but his attempts at legitimacy are damaged by his connection to Santoro. Santoro sees Las Vegas as a city ripe for the taking, but the same recklessness that makes him powerful causes him to make mistakes. The relationship between the two men is strained as their respective goals begin to conflict.

Casino is a movie with excellent writing, acting, and craftsmanship. Rothstein and Santoro are both compelling characters, with interesting actions, motivations, and troubles. The film is narrated jointly by De Niro and Pesci, explaining the situation and bridging the film’s many time jumps. The film’s capable writing combined with the acting talents of De Niro and Pesci keep the narration engaging.

The trouble with this format is that the film tells as much as it shows. The narration tapers off two-thirds of the way through the film as the plot begins to move under its own power, but much of the plot in the meantime feels like setup. In a film of nearly three hours, the slow buildup is justifiable but not necessarily welcome. The film’s omnipresent soundtrack makes Casino feel even longer, with over 50 songs crammed into the movie back-to-back.

Watch Casino if you are looking for a well-crafted crime drama with high production values. The format of the film may or may not be to your taste, but the components of the film, its acting, writing, and direction, are all sound. A couple of flaws in pacing, plotting, and soundtrack use keep Casino from being an unequivocal hit, but it is a strong choice regardless.

Skip it if you are looking for a tidy story. Watch Scarface instead if you want a success story with a bit more crime. Watch The Wolf of Wall Street if you want a success story with a bit more comedy.

8.2 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.5 for high quality with a few issues.