By D.K. Holm
May 2, 2006
[nota bene: The following column, by necessity, contains some spoilers! If you don't want to know the ending of the movies mentioned, don't read on.]
Now I'm Out
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III
Here is my audio review of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III.
With Mission: Impossible III director J. J. Abrams steps to the forefront of action film directors. Move aside Doug Liman, Clark Johnson, Rob Cohen, Michael Bay. The first — and probably last — summer movie is here. Even Brett Ratner should bow his head in admiration. If Abrams weren't happily married, it would probably be him fucking Lindsay Lohan next.
But Abrams is just one of the influences on MI3. The others are James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino, and Tom Cruise.
In fact, if it weren't for Cameron, MI3 wouldn't exist. With its premise that Ethan Hunt, IMF operative, marries his conventionally unwitting girlfriend Julia (Michelle Monaghan, who was so winning in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), who remains unaware of his real job, evokes memories of Cameron's True Lies (itself a remake of a French film), as does the film's central sequence, which takes place on a long bridge, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, like the Florida bridge at the end of that film. In addition, Abrams's sequel borrows a return-to-life highlight from The Abyss.
Tarantino, on the other hand, lends his "witty chatter during operations" theme (now found everywhere from Heist to … Alias. MI3 also begins at the ending, a narrative disruption that is, well, less likely to come to mind to legions of TV writers if it weren't for Tarantino (who has guest starred on Alias). Hunt also rams an adrenaline filled syringe into a heart.
There is also a smidge of John Woo, who directed the previous MI movie, when two Philip Seymour Hoffmans gaze out of the screen.
Abrams is nothing if not loyal to his casts and his own ideas. MI3 begins in the middle of a torture sequence, as do so many episodes and indeed seasons of Alias. Abrams favorite Greg Grunberg has a cameo. And he resurrects Kerri Russell from Felicity. She plays the young woman whom Hunt trained, and whose kidnapping inspires Hunt to go back into field operations at the film's start.
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And then there are numerous little quotes to the private and public life of Tom Cruise, who, as before in the MI series produced the film. Some jargon is borrowed from Top Gun. The last shot of MI3 borrows some body moves from previous Cruise movies. Cruise levitates thrice in this film, as he did once in the first MI. And in a very funny and subtle Bronx cheer to the gossip mags, Cruise as Hunt, who has just had a discussion with Keri Russell about the amount of ammo left in his weapon, leaps up, kills a bad guy with smooth dexterity and, the last shell dropping to the floor, tells Russell and the camera, "Now I'm out."
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But MI3 is an action film, and in that regard it out Bonds Bond as it ranges from Berlin, to Rome, to Shanghai (also like an episode of Alias) with flamboyant yet easy to follow action sequences that generate real suspense. There is a chopper chase, through a field of wind turbines, while Hunt is trying to use a defibulator on a rescued agent. There is a three-pronged attack on a bridge from another chopper as well as a jet. There is a foot race through Shanghai and an excellent Hawksian gun throw (from Cruise to Russell) in the middle of a raid (by the way, why do the clearly losing underlings of evil masterminds always continue to keep fighting?). And in an inevitable quote, the desired object is code named the Rabbit's Foot, the Macguffin, which in a twist, the film doesn't bother to explain, even when given the chance.
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This is classic modern movie making, as David Bordwell delineates it in his new book The Way Hollywood Tells It: the big set pieces, the constantly swirling camera to both impress and to activate essentially static scenes, and the slow mo at moments of high tension or resolution. Also, per Bordwell, and Kristin Thompson, whose book Storytelling in the New Hollywood, enunciates the classic rules of script structure, the film consistently sets up facets of the film logically, such as Hunt's ability to lip read. MI3 provides pleasing variations on old plot threads. One of the big heists in the film isn't even shown. Instead, we focus on the people outside, waiting for it to be over.
The first Mission Impossible came at an awkward if interesting junction in the history of moviemaking styles. Directed by Brian De Palma in 1996, it drew upon Hitchcock for its twists, settings, and visual cues (tracking shots, off kilter angles), while anticipating some of the familiar tropes of movies to come that were inspired by music videos, TV, and bad horror films, such as dreams momentarily confused as reality, slo-mo, and circling cameras around a still person (though this comes from Hitchcock, too). De Palma also infused it with his customary theme of a man betrayed by his best friend (and in the process, betrayed Bruce Geller's source TV show). In essence, and given who the villain turns out to be, De Palma made what should have been the second film in the series. Compare the first MI to the recent second Bourne film for interesting narrative similarities. Now, the third MI is very much in the spirit of contemporyary film style, as described by Bordwell, but taken to the nth degree.
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The acting is all around perfect, including Tom Cruise, whom I never tire of reminding people, is a grossly underrated screen actor. Hoffman is reasonably normal seeming while still acting in cold blood (though he does feel strangely underused, or his character is underwritten). Billy Crudup, Simon Pegg (in the patented Abrams "Marshall Flinkman" role, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Maggie Q (is that a subtle Bond reference?), and Laurence Fishburne all lend good support. And the fact that Ving Rhames gets all the funny lines ("The look in your eye is the pain in my ass") reminds you of how much you miss him in movies.
The film is also very well shot, by Daniel Mindel (Domino, The Bourne Identity), and I especially relish, for what reasons I have no idea of the source, the shot of Hoffman looking back at Cruise as he makes his escape on the bridge.
Abrams said that he wanted to cite more of the original TV show than the first two films did, if at all. He also makes the characters human and emotional, and Cruise and Monaghan make a very appealing couple. The last shot should make tweener girls everywhere, and the girl in all of us, feel weirdly, wonderfully happy.
I've been diving into the box set of the marvelous Val Lewton collection (to be reviewed here, eventually, as part of the DVD Tray of Horror), and was surprised to discover that [Tales from the Crypt Presents] Ritual (Dimension, 2001, 106 minutes, color, R, 1.85:1 enhanced, DD 5.1 in English with English and Spanish subtitles, static musical menu with 16-chapter scene selection, one-page insert with chapter titles, keep case, one disc, $29.99, released on Tuesday, May 6, 2006) it is a remake of I Walked with a Zombie. And even more surprising, the film isn't half bad.
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Directed and written by Avi Nesher (Raw Nerve and numerous other films as a writer and director), and formerly called "Revelation," the film makes for a very loose adaptation of the original and adds much more backstory to the tale of, in this case, one Dr. Alice Dodgson (Jennifer Grey), who, discredited, takes a job as a physician to a disturbed man named Wesley Claybourne (Daniel Lapaine) living in seclusion on an estate in Jamaica (the movie seems to mix up Haiti and Jamaica, unless there are voodoo rites in Jamaica). Claybourne's brother Paul (Craig Sheffer) supervises his life, and Wesley is under the impression that he has been made a zombie.
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Suspects behind the scheme to zombify Wesley include a vet named Matthew Hope (Tim Curry, in a lecherously avuncular mood), among various others. Also on hand is the beautiful Caro Lamb (Kristen Wilson). She is an artist prone to the freedom that a warm environment affords. She is in love with Wesley and says that everyone else is, too. She becomes one of two mentors to Dodgson in her acclimatization to Jamaican life. There is also a very funny ending joke related to Caro that I can't reveal, except to say that it is set up perfectly early in the film and the payoff is wonderful.
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Ritual isn't particularly scary, and uses the old "wake up from a dream" trick maybe five times too many, but the psychology of the story is more complex than one usually gets in a horror film, and the mystery elements are truly surprising. Also, there is the gossipy aspect of the film that is strangely fascinating. This film was made with Grey post-nose job, and is currently her last credit. She is pretty good in it and like many an actress is proud of her body and not shy about showing it off. But it is strange to look at the face that one knows so well from Dirty Dancing and see her now resemble Lena Olin or many of the square jawed woman who inhabit Lifetime and Hallmark movies. She is more attractive, but less, if you will, iconic.
The disc enjoys a good transfer, but there are no extras.
Delicatessen (Miramax, 1991, 100 minutes, color, R, 1.85:1 enhanced, DD surround in French with English and Spanish subtitles, musical menu with 18-chapter scene selection, one-page insert with chapter titles, plus "Fine Cooked Meats," "The Archives of Jean-Pierre Jeunet," trailer and teasers, and director audio commentary track, keep case, one disc, $29.99, released on Tuesday, May 6, 2006) is a film that tells such an unusual story and does so with such visual originality and zest that it should be hailed as one of the greatest films ever, like Citizen Kane. But it's not. Why?
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Its plot, credited to Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, is of a simplicity out of a fairy tale, a very dark fairy tale, and is designed to highlight the comedic skills of Jeunet favorite Dominique Pinon (who, like Lee Evans of Funny Bones is another great comic actor who appears to have gone nowhere while Roberto Benigni wins Oscars). Said by some (who are they?) to be an unofficial remake of The Delicate Delinquent, and thus carrying on the new wave obsession with Jerry Lewis, the film is set in a vaguely post-apocalyptic society where food has become the currency, and in which a clown goes to work in a butcher's shop, unknowing that he is to be the main merchandise in a few weeks. Complicating matters is the boss's daughter.
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Despite its linear plot, co-directors Caro and Jeunet think nothing of stopping it for a few minutes in order to highlight Pinon's gymnastic slapstick. They are also known for their detailed production design and roving cameras, and anyone who likes Terry Gilliam should presumably enjoy Delicatessen.
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So why does the film languish in near obscurity today, coming out on DVD now only as Disney clears out all of its Miramax films for optimum profit potential. Well, there are a couple of reasons. The film is French; it's grim; and it's "too much," all that futuristic grime and sidebars of slapstick and visual pyrotechnics. Subsequent films by Jeunet were even more too much, until he foundered on the fourth Alien, before bouncing back with a hit in Amelie and the prestige of A Very Long Engagement which got on a lot of 10 best lists but which few saw. Caro and Jeunet practice the cinema of excess, like Welles and Maddin and Von Sternberg and Ophuls and von Stroheim, and that means playing to a specialty audience.
All that being said, the transfer from Miramax, for what I take to be its DVD debut, is luscious, with Jeunet's over-saturated yellow images intact. All the extras (a commentary by Jeunet sans Caro, the 13-minute making of "Fine Cooked Meats: A nod to Delicatessen," "The Archives of Jean-Pierre Jeunet [screen tests and on set footage]," the theatrical trailer and panoply of clever teasers) are imported from the various European discs circa 2003 and as such have been well covered by other DVD websites such as DVDTimes and DVD Beaver.
Letters
From Ian Bonds:
Alright, I can understand that you didn't like SILENT HILL. I mean, i know a lot of people just flat didn't get it, or some didn't like the way the story was told, or whatever … but if you're going to review it, try not to get most of your information from IMDB. "Rose is helped in her search by a motorcycle cop who was chasing her and who also crashed. The cop is in the game, too, and here is given a backstory. She is particularly fixated on children in danger. Her name is Dahlia Gillespie, and is played by an unrecognizable Deborah Kara Unger, kitted out in tight leather and gloves" Um, no. The cop is named Cybil Bennet, and is played by Laurie Holden. Dahila was Alessa's (Sharon's twin) mother … Y'know, the woman with the ratted hair that the cult cast out. "In the school bathroom she finds a tortured figure in a stall whose mouth contains a purple piece of paper, but once Rose plucks it out, the paper proves like so much else to be a non sequitur. Finally Rose ends up in a hotel …" OK, you MUST have fallen asleep here. The note wasn't a non sequitor. it said "HOTEL" on it. Hense, why she "ends up" at one. Just like she finds Sharon's drawing book pages with "School" written on them and ends up at Midwich. "The instigator of the witch burning is a female religious cult leader called Valtiel The Yellow God, and played by Alice Krige," Dude, did you even pay attention? I mean, yes, ok, you clearly hated the film, so you must not have felt the NEED to, but if you are going to review something and tear it apart, at least get your facts right, or maybe at least listen to character names (it wasn't just Sharon they were repeating).AND NEVER TRUST IMDB. Alice Krige's character is named Christabella. Valtiel is a character from the third game that fans were HOPING she played. Most of the stuff on the page for the movie hasn't been corrected since the film's release, and was done by FANS of the games, not the film staff. "The film has a habit of breaking the "rules" that guide the internal logic of its world almost as soon as they are enunciated. Rose has to navigate a group of white-garbed nurses wielding scalpels. In a version of Simon Says, they only move when her flashlight is one … except when it isn't on. If Silent Hill can't even follow its own rules, how can we believe it to have anything interesting to say about theology?" Um, wait, what? That … that doesn't even make sense. They only move when it's on, except when it isn't on? What? I mean, no one said that. They said they were "drawn to the light", not "they will remain motionless as you pass through them just so long as it's dark." Not sure what you're even trying to say here about the film "breaking the rules" since, well, it didn't, so you lose the argument on that one … Look, I normally enjoy your column, man, but this week I couldn't take anything you said about the film seriously when you got so many of the facts about it wrong. Sure, you could have been actually bored, or maybe you were just genuinely tired when you went and fell asleep during the flick, and since you did, blamed a bad film as the cause of your slumber. I've seen it happen …hot theater, long day, sure, I get it. But hey, if you did manage to keep your eyes open and i'm wrong here … fine. But try to keep things straight and coherent in your review. Some of your "spoilers" are just wholly inaccurate interpretations of the film. The film, much like the game, is more about ambience than outright scares, tho the film has plenty of those too (though apparently, just weren't your cup of tea. … heard plenty of screams at the theater I saw it in). And the "theme" or outright message wasn't one to bash religion, or even so much as to take one into account, but a repeating narrative through the entire film: "Mother is God in the eyes of a child". Children worship their mothers … plain and simple. Some (such as Alessa … that would be the burned girl) take it a bit too far. But, hey … people are allowed their opinions, and you have yours, and I have mine. I'm just glad I posted mine last week.
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And incidentally, if you are interested in KILL BILL, you might find my new book, KILL BILL: AN UNOFFICIAL CASEBOOK useful. It is now available in fine bookstores everywhere, or from Amazon.
Not only that, I've got a new book out on an aspect of film noir I call film soleil, titled simply FILM SOLEIL. It is sure to alter film criticism as we know it to its very core. Order it now!
And if you are interested in what I sound like, I can be heard on KBOO radio (90.7 FM) the second and the fourth Wednesday of the month, at 9 AM in the morning (Pacific Standard Time) on Ed Goldberg's show MOVIE TALK along with Dawn Taylor. It's available via streaming audio (in 20 Kbps Stereo). The next broadcast is Wednesday, May 10, at 9 AM, with the critics' ten best lists.
COMING SOON: Oscar winners on DVD, a package of Hitchcock movies and TV shows, REMINGTON STEEL and other TV mystery shows, many STAR TREKS, the third annual DVD Tray of Horror, and more!
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