July 8, 2005
Tripping Over the Light FANTASTIC
The good news: Fox's much-dreaded feature film adaptation of Marvel's venerable "world's greatest comic magazine," FANTASTIC FOUR, is not the awesomely awful catastrophe all early indications suggested. What it is, however, is still far from fantastic--an overall mediocre movie with some awesomely awful moments.
Damning--or rather more appropriately, dooming--the film from the start is the atrocious screenplay, credited to Mark Frost (falling far and hard from the TWIN PEAKS glory days) and Michael France but bearing the unmistakable scars of incessant re- and rush-writing. After the intelligent, respectful riches of BATMAN BEGINS, this FANTASTIC FOUR film is a throwback to the condescending Hollywood attitude of "it's only a comic book" merged with the contemporary blockbuster mentality of having the script barely hold together the lavish effects work. There is no story here beyond the familiar-to-comic-fans origin sequence, but even that has been tweaked in that Tinseltown tradition of trying to "top the topper." Indeed, our titular quartet--Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) and her brother Johnny (Chris Evans)--respectively become the fantastically super-powered Mr. Fantastic, Thing, Invisible Woman and Human Torch after getting caught in a cosmic storm during an outer space expedition. However, said expedition now occurs aboard not a space shuttle-like vehicle but a space station owned by Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon)--who also happens to be up there in space and transformed along with them, thus making a major alteration to the classic mythology of the armored archnemesis that will come to be known as Dr. Doom.
But what the writers and director Tim Story do to Doom--making his armor and electrical powers organic, not mere functions of a suit--is just a more dramatic example of how the characters in FANTASTIC FOUR are familiar by name but not quite as recognizable in execution. Alba is undeniably enticing eye candy, but she's all wrong in temperament for the firm yet motherly Sue, not to mention not a convincing peer to Gruffudd's Reed and especially Chiklis's Ben. Gruffudd seems more interested in keeping his American accent straight than making line readings completely convincing as Reed, whose trademark white temples are inexplicably subtle and tend to virtually disappear in distant shots. Evans's Johnny is a bit closer to the hothead punk of the page, but he forgets to make him the slightest bit likable, not to mention he looks markedly older than "big sister" Sue. The only principal cast member completely at home is Chiklis, who perfectly embodies Ben pre- and post-transformation. (He is only outdone by the casting of the Four's trusty mailman, Willie Lumpkin, which is a small but savory moment of sheer genius.)
The convincingly rough and rock-like yet remarkably expressive makeup used to transform Chiklis into the ever-imposing Thing is reflective of the fine technical work on display in the film. The cosmic storm is an impressive sight, and John Ottman's score does its job to aurally punch up whatever's on screen. Sue's invisibility powers are convincing, and Johnny's full-body flame effects are the showstopper it should be. Reed's stretching powers aren't nearly as fluid nor consistent as Elastigirl's in THE INCREDIBLES, but for the most part they appear as they do in the comic. Even Dr. Doom looks the part...
...that is, when he finally suits up, mask and all, which comes literally in the final minutes--a tribute to the thoroughly confused writing. After the Four's transformation and their "coming out" during a spectacular series of smash-ups on the Brooklyn Bridge, there is not only not another action sequence until the final stretch, but also no discernible story. Most of the time is spent with the four bickering while locked up in the penthouse of the Baxter Building as Reed tries to find a way to reverse their condition. And Doom? As a scar on his face grows, Victor speaks a lot of score-punctuated evil without ever really doing or planning anything. Talk, talk, and more talk--the very ingredients for blockbuster summer movie excitement.
The tedium is occasionally broken by a laughably boneheaded sequence here and there. Ben's love interest meets him in the middle of the night in the middle of the street... while clad only in a thin nightie, with no overwrap. A special trophy given to Doom for doing good deeds for the people of his native Latveria is revealed to be... the creepy-looking steel mask he will later don. But there aren't enough moments like that to move FANTASTIC FOUR into the realm of ridiculous, hilarious camp. As it stands, it's a fairly dull, thoroughly mediocre adventure--hardly the cinematic treatment Marvel's first family deserves.
C'mon In, DARK WATER's Fine
Walter Salles's remake of the Japanese horror thriller DARK WATER and Hideo Nakata's 2002 original make for an interesting study. Both are virtually identical, beginning to end, from a narrative perspective, but the approaches are completely different--and equally valid. While RING-master Nakata's film was more of a straight-up ghost story/mystery, the director of THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES takes a more reality- and psychologically-rooted approach for this English language version. Again, a divorced mom, here named Dahlia (Jennifer Connelly), in the midst of a nasty custody battle and her young daughter (Ariel Gade) try to start life anew in a run-down apartment building (which, in line with the grittier approach, is even more dank and overall disgusting in this take), but there appears to be some strange goings-on in the unit directly above, which has a water leak that apparently cannot be stopped.
While the creepy water stain that grows on Dahlia's ceiling is more dirty and messy than in the original, it's less the focus here than real-world stressors--making ends meet; legal stuggles with her ex (Dougray Scott); putting up with a less-than-cooperative building manager (John C. Reilly, doing his scene-stealing thing) and a weirdo super (Pete Postlethwaite); dealing with her daughter's teacher's (Camryn Manheim) concerns over an "imaginary" friend--and her rapidly disintegrating mental state. Connelly's made a niche of playing desperate, well-meaning women at the end of their rope, and here she gives another wrenching and indelible turn, in so doing maintaining the film's emotional authenticity when the plot takes its ultimate turn to the fantastic. Curiously, while Salles and scripter Rafael Yglesias stays true to Nakata down to the somber coda, this more grounded edition plays the epilogue sunnier compared to the more supernatural original. Perhaps even more curiously, the new approach to the end--and the entire film--plays effectively in its own right.
At the Video Store
Billy Bob Thornton has been so completely absorbed by mainstream Hollywood culture (after all, he's now toplining a remake of BAD NEWS BEARS), it's almost too easy to forget that he first hit the big-time radar as an indie maverick with 1996's SLING BLADE. Watching Miramax Home Entertainment's new two-disc Collector's Edition is truly like a trip back in time, travelling back to a simpler era before the Angelina union, the anorexia, and such to when Thornton was just a good ol' boy making good with the sheer force of his talent in writing, directing, and starring in a dark, gritty tale of a simple-minded former asylum inmate who befriends a young boy and his mother. But more than that, it's also an artifact of when Harvey and Bob Weinstein's Miramax were at the peak of its awards campaigning power, for included among the supplements here is one of their now-legendary infomercials that aired on Los Angeles and New York stations in the thick of awards season, the Thornton pimp piece MR. THORNTON GOES TO HOLLYWOOD. This is actually one of the campaign infomercials that the 'Max or any other studio (others adopted the practice in subsequent years after Miramax deployed them so effectively) has ever produced, as it is a fairly in-depth exploration of Thornton's background and artistic approach--which reflects the rest of this very comprehensive set. The original director's cut of the film (pre-Weinstein-induced cuts) is presented here with Thornton commentary, and various other extras--the infomercial, a Bravo profile, a roundtable discussion with the director-star and select cast and crew, behind-the-scenes featurettes--offer a very detailed glimpse into his work approach. The icing on this very tasty cake is a full-color booklet that includes trivia factoids and a Thornton interview previously published in ESQUIRE. However fully loaded this edition is, it does have one glaring omission: Thornton's original SOME FOLKS CALL IT A SLING BLADE short film, whose rights sadly belong to another video company.
The idea of a COYOTE UGLY Unrated Extended Cut (Touchstone Home Entertainment) incites excitement... for about a nanosecond, after which one realizes: what is the point? After all, part of the perverse novelty of this 2000 songwriter-becomes-a-dancing-bartender epic from that purveyor of Important Film, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, is that it's a T&A flick within the confines of a PG-13 rating. By adding some gratuitous (and rather obvious body double) toplessness to our heroine's (Piper Perabo) love scene, the film loses a large part of what made the film so uniquely amusing. Aside from this longer cut, the DVD is virtually identical to the original DVD (which is still on the market), the only major exception being the the two separate commentaries (one with Perabo and co-stars Maria Bello, Bridget Moynahan, Tyra Banks and Isabella Miko; the other with director David McNally) have been combined into a single track. Standard behind-the-scenes featurettes and a music video imported from the original release fill out the platter.
Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson's werewolf thriller CURSED arrived in theatres earlier this year living up to its title, as its long journey to the screen included many rewrites, recasts, reshoots, and--most infamously of all--a full production shut down during which the project was extensively rethought. As if that were enough, there was the studio's rather inexplicable decision to cut down the film to a PG-13 for the theatrical release, sealing its commercial doom. Dimension Home Video's unrated edition DVD corrects that last wrong, as it features the far gorier original cut (more of an R than an NC-17, though), which Dimension actually screened for press at early screenings. But anyone expecting any insight or even mention of the film's original conception will be disappointed. There are four behind-the-scenes featurettes which appear expressly edited together for this DVD release as they are one incorporates press junket interview footage of lead Christina Ricci and they are all fairly spoiler-heavy. However, the main interest of all of these segments is the makeup and effects work, and none of the actors, nor Craven or Williamson, give sound bites referencing the earlier version; commentary is offered on selected scenes, the participants are all from the technical effects crew, including actor Derek Means, who donned the werewolf suit. No deleted scenes are included from either the release or scrapped versions. Given how poorly the film was ultimately received, it appears doubtful there will be a more extensive DVD edition released in the future, making this disc a missed opportunity to give a really interesting insight into the Hollywood studio "creative" process.
DEAR FRANKIE (Miramax Home Entertainment) had its release date punted across Miramax's schedule for about a year before finally receiving a quiet and fairly fleeting release earlier this year, and this subtle charmer deserved far better. But then a number of quirks about the film didn't exactly make it a marketer's dream. Our young protagonist Frankie (Jack McElhone) is deaf, a fact strangely and conspicuously left out of all trailers and even the DVD box synopsis. Frankie's mother (an excellent Emily Mortimer) hires a stranger (Gerard Butler) to pose as Frankie's absentee father to spare him the less-than-ideal truth--and not surprisingly all of the marketing pushed a "romance" angle between these two characters, when in fact it's a very minor concern and Shona Auerbach's film is actually very simple and very touching mother-son story. Hopefully audiences will appreciate this film's many sweet charms on the home screen. The DVD includes commentary by Auerbach on both the feature film and deleted scenes and a behind-the-scenes featurette.
Next time...
...more reviews. As always, check out my home site, Mr. Brown's Movie Site, for additional reviews.
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