Movie & Video reviews

Ben Dugan

2/2/2006 - Bruce Almighty (2003)

  This film is sort of a biography pic for Jim Carrey. His character longs to shed his funny side to be taken more seriously. Carrey plays the role of Bruce Nolan, a local television reporter always assigned to cover the less than thrilling events in and around his town (Buffalo, NY). Dreaming of one day attaining the anchor's chair, he works hard to shed his funny guy image.

  Bruce lives with his girlfriend Grace Connelly (Jennifer Aniston), but the two get into a fight when Bruce (who finds out he lost his bid for anchorman to the underhanded Evan Baxter) flies off the handle and loses his job. Unhappy with his life, and constantly blaming God for it, Bruce is mad at the world. In the interim, he continues to receive numerous pages from an unknown phone number. When he calls the number, he's offered an interview for the job of his life. Bruce ventures to the interview and finds a mysterious janitor who turns out to be God (Morgan Freeman).

  God confronts Bruce with all the complaints he's made, and then he makes a surprising offer. God is going to let Bruce take over his job. God will go on vacation, and Bruce will be granted all of God's powers. Bruce begins by parting his tomato soup and proclaiming himself Bruce Almighty! He then succeeds in being the only reporter in town to happen upon the biggest story of the year - the uncovering of Jimmy Hoffa's body. Inserting himself into amazing story after amazing story, Bruce quickly gets his old job back and climbs the ranks of the newsroom. After sabotaging co-worker Evan's career, Bruce is even given the anchor position.

  But along the way, his relationship with Grace starts falling apart, and the world around him edges closer to anarchy as the powers of God become too much for Bruce to handle. Desperate, Bruce experiences near death and meets with God once again. Acknowledging the difficulty of God's job, Bruce prays for Grace to be happy. God grants his wish, and Bruce is revived - brought to life with a new, fresh perspective to live happily ever after with Grace by his side.

  This is a charming film and enjoyable for the entire family. Recommended for comedic value.

Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

  This movie is a train wreck. It also qualifies as another bad Ben Stiller movie (and there are many). This movie was filmed in slow motion and moves along at a snail's pace. In all fairness I believe you will find it quite boring, as I did.

  Royal Tenenbaum is the father of genius children that really do not like him. He is a self-centered, manipulating jerk. He was an attorney until he got disbarred. The children are very depressing. Margot is a playwright, Richie is a tennis pro, and Chas is a finance genius and father of two boys. He is a widower and very protective of his sons. They were all raised by Etheline, their mom. Despite their success, they all wish they had that family dynamic that is missing in their lives. When Royal gets kicked out of the hotel he was living in, he schemes his way back into his family’s life by claiming he is sick. The family is living together in the house and still trying to maintain their own lives, while dad is attempting to make up for all his wrong doings. Etheline is engaged to Henry Sherman and Royal is doing everything to prevent that marriage from happening. Will the Tenenbaums ever come to terms with the problems in the family or will they remain at odds with each other?

  The overall plot is pointless and viewers will find themselves wondering why they are watching this film in the first place. Another example of this slow pointless drivel is director Wes Anderson’s sub par movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Save your money and go to the Laundromat to do your wash instead. You’ll get more out of that experience than you will this movie.

Hero

Review by Travis Lavan 

I feel fortunate not only to live at a time when martial arts films have become somewhat accepted by mainstream America, but at a time when the quality of these films keeps getting better all the time. When I was growing up, your typical martial arts film consisted of a sullen loner who was seeking revenge against a gang of thugs who had killed his sensei/best friend/wife, etc. There was generally no depth or humanity to the characters and there certainly was never a wider message to the stories than "don’t get mad, get even."

  And for the duration of the 1970s, that was fine. Many a great martial arts film has been made in this paradigm and many a great time has been had watching such films. But with a few exceptions (such as Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master from 1978), the old Hong Kong movie machine spent the 1970s and 1980s churning out one Bruce Lee style revenge flick after another – and they were of widely varied quality. Now we live in a time where the quality of the films we see here in America is usually quite good, and there are more often than not compelling stories to go along. Hero is not the best film of this genre I have seen in the past few years, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t leave a tremendous impression on me and strike me as a unique and beautiful experience.

  The film is based on an ancient story regarding how China came to be a unified nation, and centers around four characters, each whose motives and intentions become seemingly unclear as the movie progresses.

  The story takes place two millennia ago; China is divided into warring provinces, each guided by its own king, each vying for ultimate rule over all of China. The strongest province, Qin, is ruled by a seemingly despotic, ruthless and nameless King (Daoming Chen). The King of Qin has prosecuted a slash and burn campaign of violence against the neighboring province, as well as against his own people. Many citizens of Qin are outraged by their king's conduct, and many have attempted to assassinate the ruler. As a result, the king has sequestered himself in an empty palace, surrounded by loyal guards and he sleeps only fitfully at night.

  Soon, three of China’s greatest warriors come to Qin looking for trouble – Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung), Broken Sword (Tony Leung), and Sky (Donnie Yen). Fearing for his life, the King places a bounty on their heads, and proclaims that he who defeats these warriors will be granted a truckload of bling bling and an audience with the King himself.

  Soon, a mysterious warrior called Nameless (Jet Li) comes to court bearing the confiscated weapons of all three warriors, claiming to have earned the bounty. Eager to hear the story of how such skilled fighters had been bested, the King grants Nameless an audience and listens to his tale. The King is no fool however, and soon it becomes clear that there are inconsistencies in Nameless’ story, and that this stranger may be more than he seems.

  Now if this doesn’t sound like much of a story this is because it isn’t. But Hero uses well the time honored convention of telling the same story from several points of view in order to create tension and intrigue. It isn’t long before we aren’t sure who the heroes and villains really are in this story, and this, coupled with the film’s whimsical and imaginative settings and choreography transform it into something a modern day fable.

  In fact, I found the film’s underlying message (at least as I perceived it) to be quite timely, and it manages to superimpose an accepted ideal of Western philosophy with a seemingly incompatible component of some Eastern schools of thought. The first is that at times it may be necessary to propagate war and create suffering in order to alleviate suffering. This is an idea that Westerners have long accepted – there is both merit and hypocrisy too in this conceit, but it is definitely thought provoking.

  The other idea is that to forgive one’s enemies is essential to cleansing one’s soul and bringing clarity to one’s motives. If you are blinded by hatred of your enemy, your mind can become clouded and it becomes easy to lose sight of your own humanity. This is something that is hard for Western minds to grasp but it is no less food for thought. Hero manages to pose these interesting questions in a way that is pleasant to watch and memorable to behold. I’ve spoken to people who love this movie and to people who hate this movie, but I’ve never spoken to anyone who has seen this movie who is likely to forget it, and Director Yimou Zhang himself has indicated that this was chief among his aims when he set about making this film.

  Regardless of your thoughts on it, this film contains remarkable scenes of martial arts combat designed to highlight the dance-like beauty of the discipline as well as the individual motivations of the participants themselves.

  I’m sure that Hero will be one of those films I pop into the DVD player from time to time just to experience for its own sake, even when I am not in the mood to pay attention to it. Sometimes, the visceral act of experiencing a film can be just as remarkable as intellectually absorbing a thought-provoking story.