The producers of Pitch Black knew they had to do something after the movie was a big hit and Vin Diesel saw the chance to co-own a potential big budget science fiction franchise. The Chronicles of Riddick was not bad at all: original designs for space ship designs and other computer graphics, a role tailored for Diesel and a worthy opponent in the outrageously powerful and mean Necromongers.

Decent supporting cast too. Colm Feore as the half-undead leader of the villains, Thandie Newton as his Lady MacBeth-ish wife, Judi Dench as the ethereal Elemental, Karl Urban as an ambitious Necromonger captain and Keith David as the key link to the Pitch Black story. The earlier movie was, after all, more of a scifi horror flick where this is a more straightforward actioner.

Too bad the movie cost over $100 million but only took in about $60M. No final two parts of the trilogy for you, Richard E. Riddick! Which is a shame, I really would like to see where writer/direcctor David Twohy planned to go from his quite unexpected twist ending.

recommended

I was quite surprised at how well Robots worked as a movie. Even the smallest things in this world are robots, right down to the fire hydrants (Jay Leno) and dishwashers (Stanley Tucci). The colors were bright and made me feel like I was visiting a real place even though there were a number of obscure pop references too.

Ewan McGregor really lost himself in voicing the title character, so much so that we never recognized him, though I wish Chris Wedge (Ice Age, but not Ice Age 2) and Carlos Saldanha (co-directed Ice Age and flew solo on Ice Age 2), the co-directors, had let Robin Williams do more even if his Fender was the sidekick and not co-lead. Jennifer Coolidge had a great part as Aunt Fanny and Amanda Bynes was appropriate spunky as McGregor’s younger sister.

recommended

Teens are teens, according to Hollywood, no matter what situation you put them in and Brian Dannelly’s Saved! hardly says different despite setting the story in a private Christian high school. What elevates this movie is the quality of the acting and the sincerity of the script. Geez, that makes me think of Linus from the Peanuts talking about the Great Pumpkin! Still, seems like the right word to use.

recommended

Yesterday was my sweetie’s turn to choose the movie and so we saw Scary Movie 4. I wouldn’t have picked it, not because it’s beneath me but because seeing it on TV would be essentially the same experience. I laughed some but co-writer Jim Abrahams and director David Zucker, who took over the franchise from the Wayans Brothers, are such veterans that I think they gave this the same attention as the morning coffee. Way too many easy and obvious gags, never reaching for anything off the breakfast table.

Maybe it’s my inner racist and maybe I’ve been disappointed once too often by Robert Altman films but 2005 Academy Award Best Picture Crash simply didn’t reach that lofty level for me. The movie is decent, I’m not saying otherwise, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Ludacris, Shaun Toub, Sandra Bullock did good acting jobs and, despite not really being about anything, Paul Haggis avoided the worst, ponderousness that so frequently bloats Altman’s work and James Muro’s cinematography was definitely excellent.

But in the end Crash is just too laid back and relaxed, as if the stereotypical LA pace infected the cast and crew. The tension doesn’t build and the climax has nothing to release; Haggis’ message about the sad state of everyday life is absolutely true and he gives good dramatizations, small and large, but really nothing new.

moderately recommended

In the role which probably got him consideration as the new James Bond, Daniel Craig stars as a man trying to apply business school techniques to drug dealing in the 2004 release Layer Cake. Sadly, neither his old school boss nor enough of the other individual contributors are on the same page and so, right at the start of this flick, Craig runs into trouble. Of course he does, how else would we have a story?

Playing a character whose name is never said despite either appearing in, or narrating through voiceover, every scene, Craig is assigned two key deliverables by fat and loud Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) which are outside his area of expertise; neither has anything to do with the other except that with each milestone his own efforts get them tangled.

Directed by Matthew Vaughn from JJ Connolly’s script (based on his own novel) Layer Cake, in a good way, strongly reminded us of Gangster No. 1, probably because it too focuses on a smart, unnamed British gangster who narrates his attempt to bring a more modern strategy to the business. I wouldn’t rate this at quite the same level of quality because the Malcolm McDowell/Paul Bettany 2000 release much more strongly integrates the female subplot.

But its still pretty good and I can see why the Bond producers were interested in Daniel Craig. In a bit less than eight months, we’ll get to see if they cast the next Sean Connery or–IMO the worst of the first five–Roger Moore.

recommended

Spike Lee has been falling off the radar in recent years, for me his last really strong films were Clockers and Malcolm X back in the early ’90s, but Inside Man should change that. As he has in so many of Lee’s better efforts, Denzel Washington plays the lead and truly carries the movie on his back. The publicity and advertising always include Clive Owen, who is the lead bad guy, and Jodie Foster, a mysterious fixer, but really IM lives or dies on how convincing Washington is as Det. Keith Frazier.

Spike’s joints have never depended on big explosions or buckets of blood; perhaps he isn’t interested in special effects, maybe no studio would give him the budget. Either way, he’s learned to use illusion to create the necessary dramatic tension instead of taking the Jerry Bruckenheimer/Michael Bay sfx shortcut and so this film is all about showing us how Det. Frazier bucks the system/rulebook (of course!) to unravel the clues behind a very strange bank robbery.

Owen is fine as the leader of the gang, Foster less so as Manhattan’s go to girl, Chistopher Plummer spritely at 76 but very far from Captain Von Trapp and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Serenity, Dirty Pretty Things, Love Actually) excellent as Washington’s just dumb enough partner (or inexperienced enough, so Lee can use him as the audience proxy). Willem Dafoe is a stereotypical SWAT leader and I think Samantha Ivers was cast because of her resemblance to Kim Director while wearing the blue jumper and mask the hostages and captors wear for the duration.
Owen suffers the most because Spike doesn’t seem interested in his Dalton Russell character. The audience never learns how he got the tightly held information which is key to the heist, nor his motivation; don’t believe the pseuo-reality introduction Owen mouths. Add to that limitations imposed by the costume (he gets sunglasses added to the jumper and mask) and range of accents he uses to throw off identification. So no award nominations likely for Clive.

Still, don’t get me wrong. This movie is all about Washington and the dramatic tension Lee creates from Russell Gewirtz’s script, timing, adroit editing and sleight of hand. It’s really good; Pam put it towards the top of anything she’s seen in the last few years and I’d say that’s not far from my opinion.

recommended