This Pandora’s box of ideas and interpretation has been brought to you by Alan Trehern 
[Updated by Alan Trehern! © 2013]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

How many times have I seen this phrase? Whether it is on the big screen, in a video game or in literature, this simple phrase pumps up millions of people. As you well know, this precedes some of the greatest films of our generation. Not only that, but this particular film (the one I’m writing about right now) was the first in the saga and started the figurative avalanche of stories, sequels and merchandise you love and cherish today. So let’s not falter a minute more, for your reading enjoyment and mine: STAR WARS: A New Hope.

It is a period of civil war. Rebel space ships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.
During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored spacestation with enough power to destroy an entire planet.
Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy....
The proceeding events of this film are crucial. Plans for a planet destroying space station has been stolen from the Empire by Princess Leia Organa, Imperial Senator and Rebel Alliance sympathizer. As the dreaded Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer boards her space cruiser, she soon becomes prisoner, passing off the plans onto C-3PO and R2-D2. The story unravels as a young boy named Luke Skywalker is met by an elderly wizard named Obi-Wan Kenobi, and they set off to rescue the damsel in distress with the helps of pirates named Han Solo and Chewbacca. They manage to save her and save the galaxy from certain doom by destroying the Death Star and giving the Rebel Alliance the push it needs to become a formidable opponent in the Great Galactic War. And so ends the greatest story ever made.

Well, not really. It’s a really basic story, just placed thousands of years into the future (or somewhere in the universe, a long time ago). This simple space odyssey, linked with some of the greatest cinematic scenes of that time, made it an instant classic.


Now, examine the story from a medieval point of view. Many of the same themes of the Arthur legend/ bedtime story can be seen in A New Hope. For instance, Luke is Arthur, a young boy unaware of his potential, and essential for the survival of his world. Obi-Wan Kenobi is the Merlin-archetype, and the lightsaber is Luke’s Excalibur. Darth Vader is the menacing dragon, lurking in his cave (Death Star), and holding Leia, the damsel in distress. Han and Chewie are the unlikely heroes, who you think are out for selfish reasons, until they redeem themselves by saving the young hero at the last minute. The droids, who many think of as comic relief, are the jesters that tell this tale from the stands (like the Muses or Chorus of an ancient Greek play). Whether you see the story from an Arthurian view, an ancient Greek epic view or a science fiction view, this story plays to everyone’s fantasy, making it a timeless film in any way you perceive it.

For a movie of this magnitude, the creators pushed the current effects to their potential. Ships in space, for example, were simply hanging from strings on a green screen, and tipped to signify movement. The explosions on the Death Star attack were dioramas and firecrackers set off by passing trucks. The camera work, although not the best, manages to take the vastness of space and the infinite beyond and translate it into modern cinema, bringing a space obsessed society to its knees.

Some of the greatest characters were born in this simple and vast film. For example, Han Solo, the coolest guy you know, helps Luke and Kenobi with the speed and agility of the Millennium Falcon. For those of you unaware, Solo had previously been employed by Jabba the Hutt, a crime lord on Tatooine and general scuzz. Anyway, Solo was carrying some illegal spices aboard his ship (The Falcon had been previously owned by Lando Calrissian, but he lost it to Solo in a card game called sabaac) when Imperial vessels attempted to search it. He dumped the spices before being pulled in, and that’s the reason Jabba puts a price on his head and sends Boba Fett. (Believe it or not, Boba Fett’s first appearance was on the in 1978; the bounty hunter was introduced in a cartoon where Luke and Chewie needed help.)

Luke Skywalker, the arrogant and inexperienced farm boy, learns a few things about courage and becomes a hero. Why is he so important to the saga? Luke is the same base that Vader (Kenobi’s former apprentice) was. But Vader failed when met with the challenges of being a Jedi Knight and fell to the dark side of the Force. It is Skywalker’s triumph over temptation that corrects his predecessor’s faults. (In Arthurian legend, Sir Lancelot fell from grace when he slept with Guinevere, Arthur’s bride. Lancelot’s son, Sir Galahad, corrected his father’s mistakes by being pure of sin. He was rewarded by getting a glance at the Sangrail (Holy Grail), while his father, who searched for it as well, did not.)
Darth Vader is perhaps one of the most fiendish villains ever to hit the screen. He is unforgiving, unfaltered and stubborn. When A New Hope came out, no one even thought of Vader being Skywalker’s father. He was just the previous apprentice of Obi-Wan who had fallen to the dark side. This spin on Vader, as an unrelated-to-Luke entity, is very interesting. For example, Vader, in his jealousy, hates Obi-Wan for not understanding him. This is why he strikes him down in the Death Star. Then Vader finds out that Obi-Wan had a new apprentice; that a younger, more ready learner had replaced him. This outrages him even more, pushing him to the brink of insanity, and setting the stage for The Empire Strikes Back, where his hatred for Skywalker is fueled by his loneliness as the last remaining Jedi.

Come by Ben’s Movie Reviews (Congrats on 50 posts, buddy) to find the remaining parts of this series: The Empire Strikes Back, Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry, and Return of the Jedi.

Safe journeys, space fans….

I know I've already hit my 50th post, but sticking with that theme, this entry will list 50 movies that I'm looking forward to seeing in the next year or so. It'll give you guys a glimpse of what is to come in case you aren't already privy, and when you see the trailers for these movies in three or four months, you'll be like, "Oh yeah, Ben was talking about that one." These are in no particular order, by the way. (Editor's note: 50 is too many. So here's what I've got for you. I think it's 28.)

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
Sidney Lumet is 83 years old and still making movies. He has directed over 50 movies in his career, the most prominent being 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, and Network. His most recent movie will star Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke as brothers who rob their parent's "mom and pop" store. The trailer is to your right. Marisa Tomei also stars.

Juno
Written by Diablo Cody, a stripper and famous blogger, this cheery-looking dramedy about a pregnant girl stars Ellen Page, Michael Cena, and Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight from "The Office"). It looks pretty lighthearted and it's directed by Jason Reitman, the same guy who did , which was great. The movie has such good buzz that Cody has been churning out scripts left and right, the most ridiculous being one set to star Megan Fox (from Transformers) as a cheerleader who gets possessed and starts eating boys in Jennifer's Body.

I Am Legend
Granted, this Will Smith thriller looks kind of out there. I think the idea of vampires being around and actually seeing them are two different things, and the filmmakers probably should have taken the route of not showing the vampires, or at the very least made us wait until we were sitting in the theater to see them. Hopefully they won't suffer the same fate as M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, where the movie was great until they showed us the monster. That said, it's a Will Smith movie, so there's a 97% chance I'll see it.

The Happening
Speaking of M. Night, his next flick revolves around Mark Wahlberg and his family as they must survive a global environmental crisis or some sort of natural disaster (details are foggy at this point). The studios are purposely releasing this on June 13th, which just so happens to be Friday the 13th. I love Night's movies, so I'm definitely seeing this. By all accounts I've heard, this is his best script since The Sixth Sense.

Be Kind, Rewind
Jack Black and Mos Def star in this comedy about videotapes getting erased and those two doing remakes all of the movies using little to no budget. Looks like a lot of fun. From Michel Gondry, the guy who directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
I don't care what you say, I loved the first one. I'm totally in for this. Coming December 21st.

There Will Be Blood
This movie will not be for everybody, as it looks really long and probably won't have a lot of action in it. Think The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, but the plot revolves around an oil baron taking land in early 1900's America. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis, who only comes out of semi-retirement for great scripts nowadays, so I'm interested to see his performance. The movie is based on Upton Sinclair's novel "Oil!" and is written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights).

Cassandra's Dream
I haven't ever seen a Woody Allen movie, but this one looks like it could break that streak. Starring Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor as brothers who get in over their heads, this one can't really be explained because I'm not 100% sure what it's about. Check out the trailer if you're interested, but in any case it comes out on January 4th.

1-18-08/Cloverfield
Apparently the real title for this movie is going to be revealed sometime in the very near future, and after a wave of online marketing, it's about time. The movie is framed around people who somehow stumble across a personal video camera in Central Park and watch the tape, which takes up most of the movie, and documents a monster attack on New York City. Details are really hard to come by, as the project is being kept top secret. But they've done a good job of making the trailer look interesting, and J.J. Abrams (creator of Alias and Lost) is producing, so maybe it'll be good. Who knows. If you can't figure out when this hits theaters, you should probably smack yourself really hard in the face and look again.

Untraceable
This Diane Lane technological thriller looks pretty good from what I can see. The plot centers on her and Colin Hanks (I loved him in Orange County) as FBI agents searching for a serial killer who kills people based on the number of hits he gets on his website, which shows the victim being tortured with every click. Cool premise, but I'm going to go ahead and guess that Diane Lane's ex-husband is the killer. Don't you get that impression from the trailer?

Killshot
And speaking of Diane Lane, she and Tom Jane star opposite Mickey Rourke and Joseph Gordon Levitt in this suspense thriller based on an Elmore Leonard novel. Lane and Jane (ha!) play a husband and wife who witnessed a murder, and Rourke and JGL play the assassins out to get them. It also stars the not-terrible Johnny Knoxville and Rosario Dawson, if I'm not mistaken. I have no idea when it's going to be released, since it was supposed to come out mid-way through 2007. The trailer for it is here, though.

Rambo
This movie has been in development for a while, and it's good to see that Stallone is still pumping stuff out these days. After that R-rated trailer hit the internet with excessive violence showcased at every corner, I was really excited for this movie. But Lion's Gate has revamped the trailer into a more kid-friendly version that looks like the movie could go straight to DVD and be right at home next to Pterodactyl on the shelves of Blockbuster. Hopefully when the movie actually comes out it'll be more like the first trailer, but the prospect of seeing Stallone decked out as Rambo in the theaters has already guaranteed 6 dollars from me.

Vantage Point
I'm normally not into all those Crash-esque types of movies with different storylines going on at the same time, but this one looks really action packed. Granted, it'll probably be really political (that's the nature of the beast when you're dealing with a movie about a presidential assassination), but I think it should be worth it. Dennis Quaid makes his triumphant return to film (just a joke - he hasn't been gone that long) alongside veteran actors Forest Whittaker and Sigourney Weaver.

Drillbit Taylor
From super-creator Judd Apatow comes something completely different - a comedy. That was sarcasm, by the way. Owen Wilson stars as a homeless man who gets hired to be some high school kids' bodyguard because they think he's in the military. It could be really terrible, but it looks like it's good for a few laughs.

Iron Man
This one looks like it could be Superman Returns with explosions and Robert Downey, Jr. From the trailer alone we can already tell there will be a lot more action than the previously mentioned DC movie (this one is Marvel-based), and even though I'm generally a fan of DC content, I'm hoping this one will be better than Bryan Singer's most recent attempt at the genre. After all, Robert Downey, Jr. playing a drunk is a no-brainer. They couldn't get Billy Bob Thorton for the role, so he was the next logical choice. (Sigh. That's a joke, too. I just wanted to clarify so no one was actually picturing Billy Bob as a superhero.) I have heard, though, that this will be similar to Superman Returns in that all of the action is supposed to be in the sequel, so this is another origin story. But the cast is good (Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges round it out), so I'm looking forward to it. Hits theaters May 8th.

The Dark Knight
Holy crap, I can't wait for this movie. I thought that Batman Begins was the best comic book movie ever made, and this sequel should be amazing. I've been a supporter of Heath Ledger as the Joker since they first announced he was cast, and I've been hearing a lot of great things about his performance ("he has zero empathy," "he's absolutely maniacal," "it's the scariest performance [Michael Caine] has ever seen"). The only downside I can see is if they get a case of Spider-Man 3 syndrome and try to fit too many things into one movie. The cast has already grown to Aaron Eckhardt as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Anthony Michael Hall as Edward Nygma/The Riddler, and a possible cameo by The Scarecrow from the last film. I'm sure Christopher Nolan learned from Sam Raimi's mistakes, and I have high hopes for this one. In theaters July 18th.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
With the exception of The Dark Knight, this is the one I'm looking forward to the most. The title's a little excessive, Cate Blanchett is in it, Sean Connery won't come out of retirement to reprise his role as Dr. Jones, and Marcus Brody and Sallah won't be in it (Denholm Elliot died of cancer in 1992 and John Rhys-Davies wasn't asked to return), so those are some huge downers. Hopefully the presence of Shia LaBeouf will add to the magic of seeing Harrison Ford with that fedora and bullwhip on the big screen for the fourth time. Once again, the plot is being kept really secret, but I'd prefer it that way. Spielberg is refusing to use a lot of computer generated technology in order to keep that action pulp feel to the movies and keep them in continuity with the three previously released films, which I think is a great decision. Set to whip into theaters on May 22nd.

Crank 2: High Voltage
Jason Statham returns as Chev Chelios, and I couldn't be happier about it. Logic be damned, this is going to be a hell of a fun movie. Apparently the plot is loosely based around the Chinese replacing Chev's heart with a synthetic heart that requires jolts of electricity for him to stay alive this time. The writers/directors of the first one are back for the sequel, and they said something like "if you are going to do a sequel to a movie like Crank, it's gotta be 20 times more outlandish." Statham read the script and said it was so outrageous that he HAD to be in it. The only sad part is that we won't see this crank into theaters until late next year.

Game/Unknown Title
From the same writer/directors as Crank and Crank 2 comes a high concept futuristic thriller in the vein of The Running Man. In the future, people play video games - but the way they play is by controlling other people in a dangerous environment like a gladiator. The number one ranked player in the world, Kable (played by Gerard Butler), has to overthrow the game and discover his own true identity. Michael C. Hall (who plays the title character in my favorite show right now, "Dexter") has signed on to play Ken Castle, the main antagonist and creator of the gaming world. They are currently filming this, and I've heard they are filming Crank 2 back to back with it, so I'm guessing this will be out sometime in the summer. It SOUNDS like a summer movie. It was called Game, but I guess they've recently changed the title to something else. We'll see what it turns into.

Fanboys
This looks really funny. It's about a group of guys who travel across the country to "Skywalker Ranch" to steal a copy of Star Wars: Episode I before it comes out as their dying friend's last wish. It looks like Harold and Kumar for sci-fi fans, as the guys have run-ins with Trekkies, conventions, and celebrities (including Shatner!). The trailer is here, and the movie hits theaters on January 18th.

Speed Racer
The Wachowski's are back, this time directing a family friendly version of the 60's anime Speed Racer. Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, and Susan Sarandon star. Always searching for new ways to break boundaries, the Wachowski's have invented a completely new camera apparatus which supposedly focuses on multiple planes at the same time. You know how when you stare at your finger directly in front of your face, everything in the background goes blurry? This camera has two cameras built into it that focuses on both planes simultaneously, which will make the movie seem more like the original 2-D cartoon. This sounds revolutionary, and I'm really anxious to see a clip of what it actually looks like on film. Races into theaters May 9th. (OK - I'll stop with the puns now.)

John Hancock/Hancock
Another Will Smith movie, this time costarring Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman. Smith is a drunken superhero who has fallen out of favor with the public and enters a questionable relationship with his publicist's wife as the publicist tries to repair his image. Sounds like it could be a new take on some old subject matter. I like all the actors involved, and once again it falls under the 97% rule previously mentioned about I Am Legend. Coming to theaters July 2nd.

Tropic Thunder
Directed by Ben Stiller, this one sounds awesome: a group of actors shooting a war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are playing through a series of freak occurrences. Starring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Black, Nick Nolte, and Matthew McConaughey. Owen Wilson was originally intended to play McConaughey's part, but due to that pesky little attempted suicide thing, he had to drop out. Seriously though - all the best for a speedy recovery, Owen. In theaters July 11th.

Eagle Eye
Another DJ Caruso/Shia LaBeouf team-up (the first being Disturbia), this one has a great cast lined up as well. Shia plays a young slacker (nobody does it better right now) whose twin brother mysteriously dies. He and his single mom find out they have been framed as terrorists, so they must work together to extricate themselves from a cell plotting a political assassination. Billy Bob Thorton, Rosario Dawson, and Michelle Monaghan also star. Comes out August 8th.

Y: The Last Man
This one is more rumor than anything at this point, but I'm still really looking forward to it. DJ Caruso has been tapped to direct this one too, but this is based on a comic about Yorick Brown, the last man on earth after a plague kills every male man and animal except him and his pet monkey Ampersand. Attempting to keep his identity a secret from the women who are left on the planet, Yorick travels the globe in search of his girlfriend Beth and searches for the truth behind his survival of the plague. Due to the good working relationship between Caruso and Shia LaBeouf, I'm REALLY hoping that Shia gets the role of Yorick in this film. He's publicly stated his interest in the project, so if things go well, it just might happen. He would be absolutely perfect for this character. Check out this link to read the first issue of the comic for free here. The series is one of the best things (books included) I've ever read. There's no release date yet, but I'm guessing sometime in 2009.

Nottingham
Another team-up between Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott, this movie tells the story of Robin Hood from the Sherrif of Nottingham's (Crowe) perspective. Written by the guy who wrote Mystic River and L.A. Confidential, this should be a really interesting flick. No release date yet.

Max Payne
Anyone who has ever played this game will be thrilled with the news that Mark Wahlberg has been cast as renegade cop Max Payne. Man, talk about perfect casting. This movie should be a combination of Sin City and the Matrix in the way it's shot, so if they stick to the storyline that went down in the game (which was really good), this movie should rock pretty hard.

Avatar
I left the biggest one for last. This isn't coming out until May 22nd, 2009, but start getting ready for it. It's going to change the way we watch movies. The premise is pretty out of this world (literally), as it follows a young man injured in a war in the future is forced to take over an exotic planet rich in bio-diversity, but eventually crosses over and protects the indigenous people from the very people who sent him there in the first place. It may not sound that great, but the technology involved is going to blow some minds. James Cameron is directing, and he has taken it way beyond any normal production. He and a linguist from the University of Southern California developed an entire language and culture for the indigenous alien race, the Na'vi. Like the Wachowski's, Cameron is also innovating new ways to shoot his movie. He is putting two high definition cameras into the body of one camera to create high-def depth perception. And most incredibly, he has created a virtual reality camera. Get this - he wants his actors to use motion capture technology, but instead of old motion capture where the environment is added after the actors have done their parts, Cameron's virtual reality camera allows him to directly see how the actors' virtual personas interact with the movie's digital world in real time and direct the scenes as if he were shooting the entire thing live action. He's also created a performance-capture technology that allows for improved capture of actors' facial expressions and eye movements. This should put Beowulf to shame. This is really unbelievable stuff that he's working on, here. Leave it to this guy to be the innovator - the T-1000 metal melting in Terminator 2, the crossfades from the sunken ship to the CGI ship in Titanic: James Cameron knows what he's doing. I can't wait to see what this looks like.

In similar news, Variety reports that half of all movie screens are set to be digital by 2013, with 3-D capabilities, and Jeffrey Katzenburg (the head of Dreamworks) predicts as many as twelve to eighteen 3-D movies per year by 2010. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of effect all this has on the industry. Until next time...

P.S. - If you hated this article, then suck it up and come back again. I won't be doing it again for a long time. If you loved it, sorry. I covered about as much as I could cover for 2008, so it'll be a while before you see another one of these types of posts.

UPDATE: I've since rewatched TAOJJBTCRF and you can find my (much kinder) thoughts on the film right here.

My 50th post! Thanks to all the readers out there. Hopefully I can keep this going for at least another 50.

The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Director: Andrew Dominik
Starring: Casey Affleck, Brad Pitt


Well, as far as this one goes, there isn't much to say. The title says it all - and I mean "it all." Nothing else happens. I knew it wouldn't be as good as 3:10 to Yuma, but this was one of the slowest movies I've seen in a long time. The industry is going to have to do a lot better than this to revive the long-dead western. Hopefully the Coen Brothers' (which is a modern western) can make up for this film.

Visually, the movie is great - the cinematography lived up to expectations, with some beautiful-looking scenes of Jesse and his gang robbing a train (they even managed to make THAT boring!) and some cool shots where just the outsides of the frame were out of focus to imply a sort of dream-like trance. But plot-wise, it was like a bunch of junior high girls talking behind each other's backs. Someone would say something, and it would get tense and anxious for a minute, but then the situation would diffuse and everyone would breath a sigh of relief that no one was shot. Repeat that for two hours and forty minutes, and that pretty much sums up this movie. I've got a decent analogy for the movie, but it's too inappropriate to print here, so ask me if you want to know what it is.

Brad Pitt was excellent as the melancholy Jesse James, while Casey Affleck (who was good in Gone Baby Gone) was more annoying than anything else as Robert Ford, the young man who idolized Jesse, joined his gang, and eventually killed the notorious cowboy. He spoke with a broken voice for most of the movie, having an effect reminiscent of Mos Def in 16 Blocks or Adam Sandler in The Waterboy - distracting. Overall, I thought it was really detrimental to the film. But good performances generally can't save a movie with no plot. I think the movie is intended to be a dramatic character study comparing two men at different points in their lives - one at the peak of his fame, one looking to become famous. But they really could have made this a lot more interesting to those of us who weren't watching for the technical execution of how the movie was made. We just want some cool train robberies or in the street, or a - SOMETHING. After all, this is supposed to be a western, right?

Little trivia for you: Shia LaBeouf originally competed with Casey Affleck for the role of Robert Ford, but the filmmakers decided Shia was too young for the part.


Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Director: George Clooney
Starring: Sam Rockwell, George Clooney, Drew Barrymore


This was a really cool movie. George Clooney's directorial debut was fantastic, especially for someone who's never stepped behind the camera before. The movie is based on an autobiography of Chuck Barris, a really interesting guy who created and produced some hit game shows in the 1960's and 70's. In his biography, Barris claims to have worked for the CIA during that time as an assassin, so this movie follows that possibility and shows what Chuck's life would have been like running game shows and killing people at the same time. The movie intercuts the story with real interviews of friends of Barris, such as Dick Clark and other game show personalities.

I hate Drew Barrymore almost as much as I hate Kirsten Dunst, but she was actually passable in this movie. She played Chuck's love interest, the flower-power free spirit Penny, and the role suited her. Sam Rockwell (Nic Cage's partner in Matchstick Men) was great as Barris, playing both ends of the cool and paranoid spectrum like Leo DiCaprio did in The Aviator. Clooney cast himself as the CIA handler who hires Barris, and he does a fine job with the character. Obvious Clooney-friend Julia Roberts makes an appearance as well, breezing through her role as another CIA operative who throws a wrench into Chuck's life right when he's finally making it big.

I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just say that this is probably worth your time if you're a fan of any of the actors/actresses involved, and if you're a Clooney fan, this is almost a must-see. To this day, no one really knows if Barris' claims are true. The CIA has released a statement saying "it is ridiculous, and it's not true. We could find no record of him ever working here," but we all know that if they really told us the truth, they'd have to kill us. Until next time...

By Guest Reviewer Alan Trehern [And Updated by Alan Trehern! © 2013]

I know it has been a long time since my review of Attack of the Clones, but as I said in previous articles, the 30 year anniversary of the STAR WARS trilogy is throughout 2007, so I'm still in boundaries. (And if you ever question me again, there's no telling what may happen. I'll kill you and your brother.) (Yikes! I like this guy! - Trehern, 2013)



Speaking of revenge, in Episode III, directed by Lucas and released in 2005, we see the apex of the new trilogy, or those taking place before the old trilogy (Yeah, the "prequel trilogy," nutsack. - Trehern, 2013). It has been two years since the marriage of Anakin and Padmé, and Clone War is raging across the galaxy. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine has grown even more powerful within the Republic, and it seems that he will not relinquish that power anytime soon. A strange character by the name of General Grievous makes his appearance, bringing up the topic of underdeveloped characters (again!). Another character, Count Dooku, who had some potential (not alot), is killed off within the first 15 minutes, but alas the inane acting of Obi-Wan and Anakin stays constant. I'm sure many of you have seen this film, as it was the highest grossing movie of 2005 (maybe?), so I'll skip the plotline and focus more on possible problems and refinement of the bridge between the two trilogies.

American Gangster
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor


I had really high expectations for this one, and it kind of let me down. Don't get me wrong: it was good, but it just didn't have that extra element to take it to the next level. I'm sure Denzel will get the requisite Oscar nomination for his performance (deservedly so, in my opinion), but Russell Crowe's character kind of sucked. I was more disappointed with this aspect of the movie than anything else. The Ridley Scott chose to shoot the movie in a parallel fashion so Frank Lucas (Denzel) and Ritchie Roberts (Crowe) didn't meet up until the very end of the movie, and I think this was a mistake. The best parts were when the two were acting together in the same room, and I think the whole thing would have greatly benefited from them playing up the fact that two of the best actors on screen today are starring in the same film. Denzel's family scenes were pretty good, but Crowe's were not nearly as interesting. Yes, they did this for a reason, but I just don't really think it was necessary to harp on the paradox that Crowe is a womanizing cop while Denzel is running a fair (but illegal) operation. We get it. They're different.

American Gangster was good, but not great. It was really long (2 hours and 40 minutes), but that part didn't bother me as much as it might have bothered other people. I think when you take on a character-driven movie like this that is so epic in scale, you have to show the rise of the character so his eventual fall actually means something to the audience. You can't just jump in halfway through his career as a drug lord with an already-established power base. American Gangster did a great job of avoiding this and giving us just enough of Frank Lucas' life on both ends of the movie. There were some great appearances by Cuba Gooding, Jr. (What has HE been up to lately? A sequel?) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (One of my new favorite actors. He was fantastic in ), so that was a nice surprise that I didn't expect going in. I think my best analysis I could give of this movie is that it has a nasty case of Wild Wild West syndrome. The (or , in WWW's case) was better than the actual movie.

I almost guarantee this is going to be a "TNT New Classic" in a year, so wait until then and catch it for free on TV, or rent it when it comes out. It was good, but there's really no need to see this in the theater. Fun fact: Ridley Scott said in an interview that thirty-five locations was reasonable for a film, but he broke a record with this movie with a staggering one hundred and eighty locations, most of them in Harlem.


Wristcutters: A Love Story
Director: Goran Dukic
Starring: Patrick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon


Don't judge it by its title. Aside from Shoot 'Em Up (which was a polar opposite to Wristcutters), this was my favorite movie of the past four or five months. I'm sure most of you haven't heard of it, so here's the trailer to get you a little more acclimated.



If you liked the trailer, you'll like the movie. I loved it because it's an interesting concept that I've never seen hashed and rehashed on film before. Anything original these days will at least grab my attention. I used to purposely avoid indie films, but in recent years I've broadened my horizons and given them a chance. It just so happens that indie films give me just as much (if not more) enjoyment as huge blockbusters. Almost all of the independent films that I've seen have been really good: Amelie, Brick, Memento, Fargo, Little Miss Sunshine, The Big Lebowski, Garden State, Shaun of the Dead - the list goes on. I know there are some terrible indie films out there, but I've been lucky with the ones that I've seen. It's just refreshing to see a high-concept movie executed on such a great level without relying on huge budgets or crazy special effects to connect with their audience.

I was a little distracted by Patrick Fugit while I was watching the movie because I knew I'd seen him in something else but couldn't for the life of me remember what it was. I later discovered he was the main character in Almost Famous. He carried the movie well, and I wouldn't mind seeing him in more of these type of films. And I must admit, I'm not really a Shannyn Sossamon fan since she has a penchant for playing really morose, drugged out characters. But she was surprisingly charming, affable, and gorgeous in this movie. I thought she did a great job. There is also something mesmerizing about a movie like this where there is such a clearly defined mission (find the girl, find the people in charge), but great things happen along the way.

It's a shame that most of you will never see this. Phil McCarty (former bassist of The Chris McCarty Band) reminded me that the concept is slightly based on a play of Jean-Paul Sarte, an existential French writer from the mid-1900's. No Exit follows three people trapped in a room together (supposedly hell), but it is only hell because they make it hell for each other. Wristcutters is similar, but a lot more upbeat than No Exit - after all, Wristcutters is a comedy. Anyway, I can't tout it highly enough. I promise you won't suddenly turn emo if you see it. Support independent film. Until next time...