Streets of Blood 2009

Streets of Blood 2009

I have to admit, I love Val Kilmer.  He is still my favorite Batman, despite the movie being bad, and The Saint (1997) is a favorite guilty pleasure.  Recently I caught Kilmer in Felon where his performance saved an otherwise bad B movie and so I had some hope for Streets of Blood when I saw it pop up on Netflix.  It also stars Sharon Stone who has delivered great performances throughout her career, Basic Instinct anyone?, and one of my favorite supporting actors Barry Shabaka Henley, known recently for recurring rolls in Heroes and FlashForward or in an ancillary role in Four Brothers (2005).  Also with a lead role in the film is the rapper 50 Cent, who surprised me by not being horrible.  The director, Charles Winkler, and DP, Roy Wagner, were unknown to me before this film.  I think I will forget their names by the end of the week after watching this film.

This B movie plays out a lot like a made-for-TV movie, but deals with the topic of post-Katrina New Orleans, a topic I find intriguing.  The settings throughout are interesting, but mostly fail to capture the stark and intense flavor of destroyed New Orleans.  Abandoned schools, FEMA trailer parks, and flooding streets are all used to set the stage, but mostly each set comes across as cheap and poorly lit.  The topic of dirty cops being investigated by the FBI in a city that is still in chaos should be a recipe for deep intrigue or at least exciting action sequences.  This movie tries for both and fails to reach either.  Its action scenes are choppy and the attempts to make them gritty creates cheesiness. The twists in the plot are telegraphed with an air horn and police lights, but using the interviews between the police psychologist, Sharon Stone, and the main characters does add a bit of creativity to the script.

Streets of Blood is really forgettable and so was Val Kilmer in the role of the ethical-but-dirty, antihero Detective Devereaux.  Both Kilmer and Stone pull out some decent voice talent trying to represent that distinct southern Louisiana drawl.  Despite the accent the characters, script, and acting were all dull, uninteresting, and lacking in substance.  Devereaux makes multiple references to his hero father, a cop killed on duty, but this lame background fact to make the audience sympathetic with a rogue cop fails almost as badly as the weak half-attempt at sexual tension between Kilmer and Stone.

The one redeeming quality of this movie was that it forced me to reexamine my unprovoked dislike for 50 Cent.  Throughout the movie he puts up a solid effort that would fit in with any B movie and he could easily go toe to toe with other rapper-actors like DMX or Ice T.  His acting didn't rise to the level of the other professional actors in the film, but it was consistently OK.  

Overall this movie has B written all over it.  It has cheap sets, a cast of has-beens and rappers, and a script written by tarantula-monkey hybrids with no understanding of character motivation or connections with an audience.  I would recommend this movie to people looking for an action movie to laugh at or to people who want to rethink there image of actors/actresses who used to be sexy.

The Black Hole 1979

The Black Hole 1979

Ah... movie nostalgia... What a wonderful feeling.  Since this is hopefully just a trip down memory lane for any proper sci-fi geek or child of the 80s, I will keep this review short and sweet.  The Black Hole directed by Gary Nelson came out in 1979, before I was born by the way, and was a staple Disney movie for me and most of the TV audience throughout the 1980s and early 90s.  It is now considered a science fiction classic and had some notable talent.  The Director Gary Nelson is most known for countless TV movies and his work on Disney movies and series.  I suppose he put on a good show with fun effects back when the film was new, but I don't think the directing stands out in any significant way.  The Director of Photography Frank Phillips was another Disney regular in the 1970s and he pulled some fun tricks with floating robots, but his best DP credit still has to be the 1971 childrens' classic Bedknobs and Broomsticks.  The score by John Barry is pure space gold, you might know him as the kinda creator of the James Bond theme song!

On the other hand, there are some good performances by some famous  actors.  The villain in the story Dr. Reinhardt, Maximilian Schell a famous German actor, delivers a really creepy performance as a scientist totally gone bonkers.  The biggest star from my childhood memory has to be the man who played Norman Bates, Anthony Perkins, coming out as a good guy.  He plays a scientist who is dead set on finding life or the next big discovery, but in the end sacrifices himself to save his colleague.

Yet in my view the stars of this movie have always been the robots.  These lovable characters are well voice acted, funny, and have more personality than the rest of the cast combined.  I think the two main 'bots were voiced by Slim Pickens and Roddy McDowell, but they weren't credited in my bluray copy so I am basing that on internet facts.  Either way Vincent and Bob make The Black Hole a classic gem.

If you like sci-fi and haven't seen The Black Hole then you totally were born in the 1990s!  Compared to today's computer graphically aided masterpieces The Black Hole will seem dated and cheesy, but that is also what makes it a classic.  The shootouts are a joke, but the characters are funny as heck.  Lastly, a few of the scenes of the spaceships viewed from space are still gorgeous to this day, but that can't quite rescue some of the interior settings.  I would recommend this movie to fans of classic science fiction movies or anyone who wants to do a Mystery Science Theater reenactment in their living room.

Brick 2005

Brick 2005

Along my recent splurge of the great missed movies of the last 10 years, I came across this absolute gem.  It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and once again the goofy kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun proves he is a serious actor.  Brick is a modern play at film-noir set in a sunny, bright Southern California high school.  It was written and directed by Rian Johnson and was made for under $500,000.

Rian Johnson drew heavily from pulp crime novels and film-noir to create Brick, but the setting and light hearted plays on the serious nature of its own dialogue sets this film apart from other neo-noir films and the 'hard-boiled' noir classics.  The film is set in a generic So-Cal suburban neighborhood, with most of the scenes shot at an equally unnamed high school.  The script uses film-noir dialogue and pacing with modern culture and high school references.  Classic noir terms like 'sap', 'pin' for kingpin, and 'bulls' for police, pepper the dialogue to the point where I kept forgetting what decade the story was residing in.  Usually such discontinuity and juxtaposition would pull the audience away from the experience, but the fast paced, witty Chinatown banter kept me drawn in and excited for the next conversation.

The limited effects and cinematography play out well considering the setting.  There are many rough transitions, especially in the action and chase scenes, but the overall camerawork by Steve Yedlin is solid.  It incorporates some simple camera tricks and framing to make for a few dynamic shots and flashback scenes.  The scenes shot at the mouth of the cement culvert look stellar in their absolute ordinariness.

  The costumes are another area where the film stands out.  In a modern setting most everyone is dressed in the standard of jeans and t-shirts, but a few of the characters stand out and play back to the noir roots.  The character of Laura, played by Nora Zehetner, has a distinctly 1920-30s style.  At times she looks like a high class lounge singer and other like a skanky flopper, but throughout the film the costume designer has her done up with feathers in her hair, brooches, furs, and a wonderful nostalgic flair.

The Pin, Lukas Haas, dresses up like the film-noir villian he plays and his right hand man's muscle car is a perfect character choice.  The last character costume of note is the drama queen/drug dealer Kara, a potentially cross-dressed play actress portrayed by the capable Meagan Good,  who has that flair for the dramatic that fits both the film-noir homage and the fashion of a modern drama student.

The acting throughout is intentionally flat and serious, another film-noir standard, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt carries his character Brendan through a journey of violence, death, and intrigue with his stoic and quick witted delivery of perfectly antiquated lines.  Nora Zehetner's character has a few floundering moments where her intentions are unclear, but this may have been part of the deliberate mystery surrounding her character.  The rest of the cast plays out their roles in the mystery with the flat lines and deep stares expected in any noir film, but the support characters are truly what keeps the story grounded back at a modern high school.  Particular nods go out to Noah Fleiss for playing the dumb muscle perfectly and to Matt O'Leary as 'The Brain' who is Brendan's researcher and sidekick.

The plot of the movie is a film-noir investigation into the death of Brendan's, Gordon-Levitt, ex-girlfriend who was bound up with some bad people due to her drug use.  The mystery of her death in tied to a missing 'brick' of drugs that has thrown the underworld of this suburban neighborhood into chaos.  High school parking lot brawls, emotional scenes set at the 50 yard line, and even a full-on gang war keep the story moving, but deep down this is all a murder-mystery and  Brendan is the classic detective.

Brick is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time.  I am a big fan of the film-noir and neo-noir genres, but this goes beyond being only a genre piece.  It has a unique setting which adds sharp humor to an otherwise serious genre and a mix of historical and modern jargon that I have rarely seen work so well.  I would highly recommend this movie to film-noir fans and to people looking for a witty mystery movie.

Manic 2001

Manic  2001

Recently I have been on a kick of watching a lot of indie and smaller films that have come out in the last 10 years.  Many of these I missed because I was in my 20s and entirely focused on being a expletive deleted, drinking, or trying my best to find an overly stuffed bosom to cram my head in.  Part of this kick brought me to a couple of films starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Manic (2001) and Brick (2005).  Brick will be reviewed soon, but I choose to order my chaotic mind chronologically so Manic is up first.  Manic was directed by
 Jordan Melamed and written by Micheal Bacall and Blayne Weaver.

First of all Manic has a solid cast of actors.  It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt a face we know and love from his early work on the TV series 3rd Rock from the Sun.  More recently he has been in the hit Inception as well as rolls in movies I was not inspired by such as GI Joe and (500) Days of Summer.  This film from 2001 shows the earliest hints of his adult dramatic acting talents.  He plays the character Lyle Jensen, a teenager with severe anger issues and manic tendencies.  It is a serious and deep roll and he pulls it off brilliantly.

The rest of the cast is filled out with the award winning Don Cheadle and other recognizable faces like Elden Henson, Micheal Bacall and Zooey Deschanel.  The roles are exceptionally cast with Godron-Levitt and Deschanel pulling off teenagers with total believability.  The supporting roles look the part and turn in some great performances dealing the difficult subject matter of adolescent mental illness.

Don Cheadle plays Dr. David Monroe the councilor or therapist in charge of the juvenile psychiatric ward where Lyle is committed.  The character of Dr. Monroe is given some depth such as an addiction to smoking, but throughout most of the story he remains a foil to reflect the growth of Lyle.  Despite a limited role in depth, Dr. Monroe is given plenty of lines and on screen time.  Don Cheadle, as always, creates much more depth in the character than was written in the lines.  Cheadle's small acting choices add up throughout the film and culminate in a late movie outburst that is both jarring and moving.  Making Dr. Monroe the most memorable character in the film.

The plot revolves around Lyle, Gordon-Levitt, getting institutionalized after a violent fight where he seriously injured another boy.  Throughout his time in the juvenile psychiatric ward, Lyle's background and abuse are explored and he eventually learns valuable life lessons.  The story is one of exploration of abused adolescents and their resulting mental illnesses.  Lyle's father was abusive and violent, the exact problems that plague Lyle.  His love interest, Tracy played by Deschenal, was raped and Lyle's violence threatens to push her away.  Another character is obviously bi-polar and another appears to just suffer from deep depression due to her mother's indifference.

The plot progression is slow and lacking in serious curves or twists, but it remains interesting and moving.  The writing is sub par, but the acting saves the script.  The characters draw the audience in and helps them identify with the twin problems of being a teenager and suffering mentally illness.  The cinematography and technical aspects of the film are solid and show moments of creativity.  The most notable moment of genius is when the fourth wall is partially broken during a series of taped interviews culminating in a stellar moment by Don Cheadle.

Overall the movie is good with many of the short comings of lower budget films, but good acting and casting keeps the movie deep and engaging.  I would highly recommend this movie for teenagers and people who love dramatic character studies.