Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Based on Jules Verne’s classic novel, this movie has been made over and over again. Probably, the most successful version dates from 1959, and starred James Mason as an adventurer who leads an expedition into a volcanic shaft, and finds large mushrooms, giant lizards, and an underground ocean. Pat Boone was a big ‘pop’ star at the time, and he also swash-buckled his way through the movie. For the late 1950s, the special effects were pretty neat! Anyway, this new version is made in 3D. Without your red and green goggles you don’t get the full dimensional effect, but it is obvious where the optical illusions are intended. The movie is a hell of a lot of fun. Children unfamiliar with the story will love it. Brendan Fraser is in good laid-back form, as this movie’s slightly lackadaisical professor, who leads the journey.
Get Smart
Back in the 1960s writers Buck Henry and Mel Brooks created a spy television comedy series, called ‘Get Smart’, which has become a classic of its kind. It was all about bumbling CONTROL Agent Maxwell Smart, and his beautiful sidekick Agent 99, and their fight against the evil forces of KAOS. Don Adams and Barbara Feldon became so identified in the roles that it hard to imagine anyone else in their parts. However, in this cinematic spoof of the series, Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway make very memorable Control Agents of their own. Fans of the TV series will recognize many of the jokes. The tunnel of slamming doors, the Cone of Silence, and the secret entrance in the form of a telephone booth. It is all there. Newcomers to this send-up movie version of the series will get a kick out of this excellent farce.
Mirrors
French writer and director Alexandre Aja, now resident in Hollywood, was the man responsible for the successful remake of Wes Craven’s ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ (2006). Aja brings us another terrifying story, set in the burnt out ruins of an abandoned New York department store. Kiefer Sutherland plays a night watchman who starts to see strange things in the ornate mirrors that hang on the department store’s walls. He believes the mirrors contain a mysterious and evil force. There are a lot of ‘red herrings’ in the movie, a lot of unnecessary background information, and, a lot of the movie doesn’t make logical sense. But, this doesn’t stop the movie from delivering plenty of thrills and chills. Within its genre, it is a classy piece of film making.
The Visitor
A disillusioned college professor, who has lost his passion for teaching and writing, is sent by his college to present a paper at a New York conference. He decides to stay in his New York apartment, which he hasn’t visited for sometime. There he is surprised to discover that a Syrian man, and his Senegalese girlfriend, victims of a real estate scam, have taken up residence. After the initial shock, a slow bonding of sorts starts to take place. Written and directed by Thomas McCarthy, ‘The Visitor’ is a marvelous example of ‘Independent’ American movie making. The movie is superbly acted, in particular by Richard Jenkins, and its subversive comments on the injustices of the American Immigration System are shrewdly presented and explored.
Flashbacks of a Fool
Daniel Craig is the nominal star of this movie, but he isn’t in it for very long. The movie takes the form of an extended ‘flashback’. Daniel plays an actor, whose career is on the slide, and, with news of the death of his childhood friend, he indulges in a long reminiscence of his teenage years spent in an isolated sea-side town in Britain, in the 1970s. At one point there is a very interesting discussion about the talents of David Bowie versus Roxy Music. However, the movie is more about the dramatic events that changed a boy into a man. Written and directed by Ballie Walsh, the movie is exceptional.
Street Kings
Age is starting to take its toll on Keanu Reeves. He is no longer the ‘pin-up boy’ he was in the 1990s. In fact, in ‘Street Kings’, Keanu looks dissolute and dissipated. Maybe it is intentional characterization, as Keanu plays a hard-living cop, hunting the killers of his police partner. Inevitably, this leads to run-ins with Internal Affairs, and all forms of vice and corruption. Directed by David Ayer, the movie is terrific. It is gritty, and full of action.
Happy-Go-Lucky
Mike Leigh is a British screenwriter and director of some note. His works include ‘Secrets and Lies’ (1995) and ‘Topsy-Turvy’ (1999), for both of which he received Academy Award nominations. He should know better than to put all his faith in a Leading Lady. Mike Leigh fashions a movie to showcase the talents of emerging English actress Sally Hawkins, and it fails miserably. Nothing much happens. Sally teaches primary school, she has a fight with her driving instructor, and she goes clubbing with her girlfriends. The movie is meant as an amusing ‘slice-of-life’, but it comes across as a lecture regarding the benefits of the British Welfare System, delivered by a woman who has about as much personality as Baroness Margaret Thatcher.
Fireflies in the Garden
Julia Roberts is an enduring, magnificent, authentic American Movie Star, but no-one should have to sit through this ponderous drama, just to see her!
