by Michael Dequina
March 17, 2003
Worth Far More Than a Rat's Ass
Going into the rats-gone-wild epic WILLARD, I expected nothing but camp. Apparently writer-director Glen Morgan is keenly aware that most, if not all, audiences share those expectations, for his remake of the straightfaced 1971 thriller (which spawned the more famous 1972 sequel, BEN) is to horror films what CHARLIE'S ANGELS attempted--and largely failed--to be in relation to action flicks: a tongue-in-cheek entertainment that acknowledges its inherent cheesiness while delivering the popcorn goods.
Whatever true scares that come from WILLARD, though, do not come from the hordes of rats that wreak havoc but of their master, the title character Willard Stiles. Mousy (yes, pun intended) Willard is played by Crispin Glover, whose rather (to put it mildly) specialized screen charisma hasn't been this ideally used in years. From the first frames, Glover perfectly embodies the pathetic yet menacing, sympathetic yet highly disturbing persona of the put-upon Willard, who, on top of being disrespected on a daily basis by his boss (R. Lee Ermey, chewing his own fair share of scenery) and constantly nagged by his invalid mother (Jackie Burroughs, ditto), has to deal with a worsening rodent problem in his dilapidated home. But he soon turns that last negative into a positive as precocious rat Socrates becomes his most loyal, loving companion, and Willard trains his furry friends to do his bidding.
The sequence in which Willard trains the rats perfectly sums up Morgan's off-kilter tone. Watching the rats climb ropes like aspiring Olympians is, indeed, hilarious, there's an undeniable creep factor to seeing these rodents ravenously tear into everything and anything. The most dangerous rat, the infamous Ben (he of the sequel's title and the treacly Michael Jackson ditty--which is used in one scene for macabre comic effect), is indeed a menacing presence, a triumph of smart, seamless use of actual rats, CGI, and animatronics. But not even the hundreds of critters can upstage Glover; no one can do the funny/scary/crazy/creepy high-decibel wig-out/breakdown scene nearly as well as he can, and the mere existence of this is film is absolutely unthinkable without him, let alone what an absolute blast it is.
GRAVE-ly Amusing
CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE isn't a great film, but does anyone really expect it to be? One simply expects thrills and agreeably thought-free entertainment upon seeing the names of stars Jet Li, DMX, and producer Joel Silver, and there's no denying that their latest collaboration with ROMEO MUST DIE and EXIT WOUNDS director Andrzej Bartkowiak is never boring. Whether or not it's really any good is still very much up for question, but some fun is definitely to be had when thief-with-a-heart-of-gold DMX and Chinese secret agent team up to find the thief's daughter and her kidnapper, a dastardly dude (Mark Dacascos) on the trail of some black diamonds. Yes, the film finds Silver falling into laughably inappropriate treacle more befitting the Jerry Bruckheimer oeuvre whenever DMX and his screen daughter share the screen; yes, Dacascos's evil scheme is total wannabe Bond villainy; yes, Bartkowiak tries a bit too hard to evoke the spirit of his last two hits, particularly in rehiring comic relief sidekicks Tom Arnold and Anthony Anderson and making them do another end credit verbal sparring session. But when the film features a memorable steel cage brawl between Li and a gaggle of Ultimate Fighting Champions, a cool ATV chase with DMX, and a kick-ass girlfight between Kelly Hu and Gabrielle Union, enduring the dreck almost feels like a small price to pay. Almost.
Time Destroys Everything
A nine-minute rape scene? Tasteless! A graphic bludgeoning death? Exploitative! A backwards time structure? Pretentious! IRREVERSIBLE has all of those three things, and those three same complaints have been leveled against Gaspar Noé's audacious film since it premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival. Indeed, the complaints do hold water: the story is no more than a rather trite rape-and-revenge plotline ripped from '70s exploitation cinema; Noé's constant reiteration of the "time destroys everything" theme is as bludgeoning as those deadly blows that come early in the film; the infamous sexual assault sequence indeed crosses the boundaries of comfort (as it should). But Noé weaves together the off-putting elements into something that sears itself permanently in the memory and grows more haunting and profoundly touching over time. The key to the latter is the superb performance by Monica Bellucci as the rape victim; while the film's backward progression gradually reveals layers to her character and relationship with her later-vengeful boyfriend (real-life husband Vincent Cassel), Bellucci adds even greater dimension through silent yet eloquent expressions by her face and body. When I saw the film, the final shots struck me as being a bit sugary and (yes) pretentious, but in the case of IRREVERSIBLE, time hasn't destroyed everything, as in my mind the conclusion is one of the most transcendently beautiful and tragic sights I've seen on the screen in a long while.
Sights Unseen
Frankie Muniz hopes to horn in on the SPY KIDS audience with his family-friendly adventure AGENT CODY BANKS, which co-stars 'tween It Girl Hilary Duff and erstwhile LAW & ORDER and BAYWATCH NIGHTS (surely I can't be the only one who remembers...) star Angie Harmon.
A young Indian girl in the UK attempts to buck the odds and become a football (soccer to us Yanks) star in BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM, which did strong business in Great Britain last year.
Tracker Tommy Lee Jones is hired by the feds to find former military assassin Benicio Del Toro in William Friedkin's action thriller THE HUNTED.
At the Video Store
The third of Eddie Murphy's trio of 2002 flops was I SPY (Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment), a watchable though not particularly exciting comedy in which he plays a champion boxer who is enlisted to aid a fumbling government agent (Owen Wilson) on a secret mission. The DVD includes commentary by director Betty Thomas, producer Jenno Topping, editor Peter Teschner and writers Jay Scherick and David Ronn; four different behind-the-scenes featurettes; and both the full-screen and widescreen transfers of the film.
FATAL ATTRACTION got a tepid teen makeover with SWIMFAN (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment), a goofy thriller where a swim team stud (Jesse Bradford) is stalked by a disturbed one-night stand (Erika Christensen) whose breaks from sanity are marked by a hilarious Wolverine-ish "SNIKT" sound effect. The DVD includes commentary by Bradford, Christensen and director John Polson; ten deleted and extended scenes with commentary by Polson; and a making-of featurette.
File MOONLIGHT MILE (Touchstone Home Entertainment) under those high-profile big studio would-be awards bait projects that don't catch a bite. That said, there is much to admire in Brad Silberling's drama about a young man (Jake Gyllenhaal) bonding with the parents (Susan Sarandon and Dustin Hoffman) of his recently deceased fiancée--particularly the performances by those three actors and stunning newcomer Ellen Pompeo, who plays a potential new love interest for Gyllenhaal. It's too bad, then, that Silberling ties up the messy emotional issues in a too-tidy, too-Hollywood bow at the end. The DVD includes commentary by Silberling, Hoffman and Gyllenhaal; deleted scenes; and a making-of featurette.
If it were released later in the year, maybe Robin Williams would have received his due year-end awards recognition for his creepy work in ONE HOUR PHOTO (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment). Then again, Mark Romanek's disturbing drama about a convenience store photo clerk (Williams) who becomes dangerously obsessed with a family he frequently serves isn't exactly the type of film that is championed by stodgy voting bodies. For those of us who do appreciate this film in all its unsettling beauty, Fox has put together a well-rounded DVD edition that includes commentary by Romanek and Williams, the pair's tandem appearance on PBS's CHARLIE ROSE and the film's theatrical trailer and TV spots.
After the box office success of 2001's EXIT WOUNDS, Steven Seagal's career returned to HALF PAST DEAD (Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment) with this fall flop in which he plays a deep cover fed in Alcatraz who teams with an inmate (Ja Rule) to take on the assorted baddies (led by Morris Chestnut and Nia Peeples) who have taken over the prison. The DVD includes commentary by writer-director Don Michael Paul, deleted scenes, and a making-of featurette.
Even though New Line kept in on the shelf for years until co-star Vin Diesel became a major star, KNOCKAROUND GUYS (New Line Home Entertainment) still enjoyed only a brief theatrical run when it was finally released last fall. No surprise, as David Levien and Brian Koppleman's film in which a group of gangster wannabes (among them Barry Pepper, Diesel and Seth Green) lose a valuable package never quite decides if it's a serious crime yarn or a tongue-in-cheek Tarantino-ish caper, nor does it do particular approach well. Levien and Koppleman are on hand for commentary on the DVD, which also includes deleted and alternate scenes.
The Indian/Caribbean dialect makes the 1940s Trinidad-set THE MYSTIC MASSEUR (Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment) consistently fascinating to the ears, but it still doesn't make Ismail Merchant's quirky fable consistently entertaining. Much like how the title character, an aspiring author (Aasif Mandvi), doesn't find his career taking off until he adopts the guise of a faith healer, the film doesn't really take off until this plot development; unfortunately, it comes fairly late in the game. Jimi Mistry, now more known to audiences thanks to THE GURU, has a small role.
For those of you who like your Biblical tales acted out by CGI produce, JONAH: A VEGGIETALES MOVIE (Artisan Home Entertainment/Family Home Entertainment) will hit the spot. Although the film was not a blockbuster during its theatrical run, the two-disc collector's DVD edition is packed, including both the full-frame and widescreen versions of the film; commentaries by crew and characters; music videos; games; behind the scenes featurettes; concept drawings; and the complete film script.
ESPN'S ULTIMATE X (Touchstone Home Entertainment) is not the new deluxe edition of X-MEN (that would be X-MEN 1.5) but a documentary, produced for the giant IMAX screen, on the extreme sports tournament known as the X Games. While watching an IMAX film on a television set seems like defeating the purpose, but if you regularly watch skateboarding, BMX, moto X and streetluge competitions on ESPN2, then the well-shot, crystal clear action footage will hit the spot. Those who aren't so interested in extreme sports may still have fun with the elaborate, THX-certified DVD, which enables one to access additional supplemental materials (such as athlete profiles and close-up trick views) while watching the 39-minute feature. The hipper-than-thou animated menus, which use icons in place of text options, are a bit much, but considering the "extreme" subject matter they're all too appropriate.
My first instinct was to question the existence of the straight-to-tape sequel INSPECTOR GADGET 2 (Walt Disney Home Entertainment), but then the horrible repressed memory of the theatrically-released original's blockbuster box office take came to the surface. French Stewart assumes the role of the cyborg detective from Matthew Broderick.
While watching the uncensored DVD collection of THE OSBOURNES The First Season (Miramax Home Entertainment), a troubling realization came upon me: without the bleeps that cover the naughty words on the MTV broadcasts, this reality TV sensation is rather dull. Don't get me wrong--the motley crew of dad Ozzy, mom Sharon, and kids Kelly and Jack are indeed fascinating to watch as they go about their surreal everyday lives, but without that feeling of the forbidden, the show isn't quite as funny as it is in its censored form. To compensate for the lost novelty, Miramax has packed the two-disc set (which features all 13 episodes) with many bonus features, including a blooper reel, interviews with the family, unaired footage, DVD player and DVD-ROM games, and commentary tracks by the entire family.
Access Bollywood
While Hollywood plundering Bollywood, as it does in THE GURU (which enjoyed some surprisingly healthy returns in limited U.S. theatrical release) is, to put it lightly, a fairly uncommon practice, that ever-prolific film industry in India borrows from and/or rips off Tinseltown with regularity--for example, the RESERVOIR DOGS/USUAL SUSPECTS amalgam KAANTE, which was released in cinemas in December; and a pair of other titles released last year (and currently available on DVD):
RAAZ (Secret) (Tips Films) and KEHTAA HAI DIL BAAR BAAR (Says My Heart Over and Over Again) (Video Sound).
RAAZ is a redo of Robert Zemeckis's haunted house thriller WHAT LIES BENEATH, and to answer the inevitable next question, yes, director Vikram Bhatt gives the material the full Bollywood treatment; there's no shortage of the elaborate song and dance numbers that give B'wood its uniqck. Surprisingly, though, the production numbers never feel at odds with the supernatural story as they are used to flesh out the relationship of the two lead characters, who are, as in the Zemeckis film, a married couple. The plot/character specifics are not lifted wholesale, however, from the original film. The haunted house in question is a vacation residence, where Sanjana (Bipasha Basu) and Dhanraj (the bland Dino Morea) have come to rekindle their floundering marriage. But just like the original, the gorgeous and talented leading lady with striking eyes soon finds herself terrorized by an unseen force in the home.
The distinctly Indian touches are not limited to the musical sequences, however. Perhaps as a concession to the more family-oriented values of the culture, the final twist in WHAT LIES BENEATH is completely jettisoned. However, that hasn't stopped Bhatt from doing the ridiculous slasher finale that capped off the Zemeckis picture, which unfortunately made even more embarrassing by the cheap makeup and visual effects. The latter are especially shoddy and distracting in the film's counterpart to the famous "I think she suspects something--your wife!" scene. But RAAZ certainly without its merits, chief among them being Basu, who has talent to back up her beauty. Most notable, however, is how ? stays true to a more serious thriller tone, never once pandering to the audience by throwing in a needless broad comedy bit.
Broad comedy is, however, all there is to KEHTAA HAI DIL BAAR BAAR, and appropriately so, considering it's a reworking of the Robert DeNiro/Ben Stiller laugher MEET THE PARENTS. Unfortunately, said broad comedy isn't all that funny here. Clocking in at a minute under two hours, KEHTAA HAI... is definitely much shorter than the Bollywood norm, but it progresses more slowly than usual. In fact, the movie only starts mirroring the Jay Roach film after the intermission, with the first hour being devoted to catering truck cook Sunder (Jimmy Shergill, more of a Matt LeBlanc clone than a Stiller one) wooing doctor Ritu (Kim Sharma). The chemistry never really comes to life, and neither does the comedy in either the first or second halves despite a spirited performance by Paresh Rawal as the disapproving, DeNiro-like father. His work and the nice photography of the New York/New Jersey locations (the film was the first Indian production to be shot on American soil) aren't enough, however, to compensate for the unmemorable, if pleasant, music and the general dearth of laughs.
In keeping with the general path of watching remakes of American projects, I continued my ongoing exploration of Hindi language film by making other baby steps within the realm of my existing familiarity. When I saw DEVDAS for the first time in theatres, playing along with it was a trailer for DIL HAI TUMHAARA (My Heart Is Yours) (Tips Films), which caught my attention--for all the wrong reasons. The Hindi-language trailer played without subtitles, which made its scattered images of a young woman wearing a Supergirl T-shirt making bitchslapping gestures and the same woman later dancing along a riverbank in a gaudy silver sequin dress all the more bewildering yet oddly fascinating. The first half of the film lived up to the promise of the trailer, as the spunky young woman, named Shalu (Preity Zinta), indulges in overly broad slapstick, even by Bollywood standards (she feeds some unwanted houseguests really hot chili peppers--which causes smoke to literally come out of their ears) and engages in a typical love-hate, musically-enhanced tango with rich guy Dev (Arjun Rampal), whom Shalu believes to be his lowly driver (don't ask). But by the film's intermission about 90 minutes in, the primary plot finally kicks in, and the film becomes not only entertaining but rather involving. When she discovers that Dev prefers Shalu over favored daughter Nimmi (Mahima Chaudhry), their mother (Rekha) is forced to confront the resentments caused by a dark family secret: Shalu is, in fact, not her natural daughter but her late husband's bastard child, whom she promised to raise after his and his mistress's deaths. The silliness of the first half makes way for a fun (if contrived) love triangle between Dev, Nimmi and Shalu, and Shalu's puppeteer admirer Sameer (Jimmy Shergill of the aforementioned KEHTAA HAI...); and, above all else, some moving, emotionally authentic work from Zinta and Rekha.
Smarting from that disjointed film, I decided to work closer to the comfort zone and watch the previous collaboration between DEVDAS director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and leading lady Aishwarya Rai, 1999's HUM DIL DE CHUKE SANAM (Straight from the Heart) (Video Sound). Despite the loftier pedigree, HUM suffers from the same problem as DIL HAI TUMHAARA--that is, a rather glaring disconnect between its two halves. The first half, in which sheltered rich girl Nandini (Rai) falls for the brash, half-Italian, half-Indian young man (Salman Khan) who moves in to study music under her stern father is predictable and often silly, replete with groan- and cringe-inducing flatulence jokes. The sober seriousness second half, in which Nandini's new husband (Ajay Devgan) selflessly helps her track down her lost love in Italy (the locations at which were obviously--and rather comically--shot in Hungary), is a stark contrast--but here the dramatic turn justifies the lighter first half, for the contrast drives home Bhansali's themes about the nature of mature love versus impetuous, youthful passion. Even Khan's sometimes laughable performance works in favor of Bhansali's message, and I imagine the lovely songs do as well, but Video Sound's DVD features no English subtitles during the music numbers (a two-disc deluxe edition of the film, released by DEI, does subtitle the musical numbers; alas, this version is out of print).
One film that has no such pre- and post-interval disconnect is the 2001 blockbuster KABHI KHUSHI KABHIE GHAM... (Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sorrow...) (Yash Raj Films). Karan Johar's star-studded family drama boils down to a fairly simple plot: a young man named Rohan (leading Bollywood hunk du jour Hrithik Roshan) tries to heal the rift between his older, adopted brother Rahul (Shahrukh Khan, who played the title role in DEVDAS) and their father (B'wood legend Amitabh Bachchan). But that sappy-sounding summary hardly does the film any justice; the film seamlessly melds comedy (mostly courtesy the luminous Kajol, who plays Rahul's perky wife Anjali), romance (Khan and Kajol, one of B'wood's most beloved screen couples, have both flighty charm and intense, smoldering chemistry) and genuinely moving drama--the latter brought about by beautifully shaded performances by Khan; Kajol; both Bachchans (Amitabh's real-life wife plays the same here) and Roshan, whose acting chops are often overshadowed by his looks and phenomenal dancing ability. There is a weak link in the ensemble, however, and that is the insufferable Kareena Kapoor as Anjali's sassy, Alicia Silverstone-in-CLUELESS-esque younger sister Pooja, but not even her mugging and general inability act or dance can ruin the film nor its spectacular production numbers, which help make the three-and-a-half-hour (!) run time fly by. Special credit must go to the songwriting team, whose tunes echo strongly in the memory; the Rohan/Pooja duet "You Are My Soniya" (sung by playback singers Sonu Nigam and Alka Yagnik) may be Western-influenced dance pop at its bubblegum-stickiest, but good luck trying to get the song out of your head afterward.
Yash Raj Films Home Entertainment has released two different DVD editions of KABHI KHUSHI...: a barebones single-disc edition featuring only the film; and a two-disc deluxe collector's edition. The latter comes in a handsome book-like case, which allows ample space for both discs as well as a set of postcards, a bookmark and a calendar. The first disc has the feature film (subtitled in no less than seven languages) while second carries some interesting supplemental features. Johar is an affable guide through an hour-long-plus collection of deleted scenes and an equally lengthy making-of documentary featuring interviews with many members of the cast and crew. Rounding out the supplement disc are all of the film's trailers and television spots.
Bollywood superstardom isn't limited to just the on-camera talent, however. Just as big of a celebrity as, say, a Shahrukh Khan is composer A.R. Rahman, who was responsible for the music for the Academy Award-nominated LAGAAN and composed the Andrew Lloyd Webber-produced, Bollywood-themed stage musical BOMBAY DREAMS, which is currently playing in London. His most recent film score was for last December's drama SAATHIYA (Companion) (Yash Raj Films). While the songs--with two exceptions (the title number, which is nice except for the grating chorus; and an odd opening hip-hop song)--are a highlight, what drives this romance are impressive performances by Rani Mukerji and Vivek Oberoi (who were respectively nominated for the Best Actress and Best Actor Indian Oscar equivalents) as Suhani and Aditya, a young married couple who come to realize that they may have rushed too quickly into matrimony. Director Shaad Ali and writer Mani Ratman approach the issue intelligently, but they too take their time to get to the real meat of the drama, as the somewhat tedious first half details their tortured, sometimes creepy (Aditya practically stalks Suhani before she finally falls for him) courtship in the face of (what else?) disapproving parents. After the intermission, Mukherji and Oberoi's believable for-better-and-worse rapport fuels the drama, and it speaks highly of their charisma and acting talent that a late-in-film cameo appearance by Shahrukh Khan can do nothing to steal their thunder; Oberoi is particularly impressive though he needs to work on making his dance moves look less forced. Yash Raj's nice DVD platter includes the film's theatrical trailer, all of its television spots and an understandably unused, overly BAYWATCH-ish alternate version of a musical number.
Looking Ahead...
Still to come, my annual report from the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas. As usual, check out my home site, Mr. Brown's Movie Site, for my longer takes on older releases.
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