Archive | January, 2013

Attack the Block (2011)

16 Jan

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Smith’s Verdict: ***1/2

Reviewed by Tanner Smith

How often does it happen in a movie—and a monster movie, at that—when you start out hating the main characters and then wind up rooting for them when things get crazy? One example that comes to mind is “From Dusk Till Dawn.” If you recall that movie, it was about two murderous fugitives who kidnap a family and then have to work together to fend themselves against vile vampires. Now in “Attack the Block,” a sci-fi/horror film from the UK, we have a thuggish gang of inner city London teenagers banding together with their latest victim of mugging to fight a swarm of predatory creatures from outer space.

That’s a central element in “Attack the Block,” an entertaining thriller with an adventurous feel, decent special effects, and a cast of mainly unknown but talented young actors. It begins as a young nurse named Sam (Jodie Whitaker) is walking home on the bad side of town, where she is mugged by a gang of five young hoodlums. A meteorite lands nearby, interrupting the mugging, and scampers in the form of a small, furry, fanged alien that scratches the face of the gang leader Moses (John Boyega). The kids chase after the little beast and beat it to death, like the big shots they think they are.

But guess what! There are a lot more where that came from. So Moses and the others—Pest (Alex Esmail), Dennis (Franz Drameh), Biggz (Simon Howard), and Jerome (Leeon Jones)—get excited and grab a bunch of weapons (including swords, fireworks, and a baseball bat) to take them down. But it turns out that these creatures are bigger and more vicious than the thing they killed before. When one of them bites Pest’s leg, they need Sam’s nursing training to help. The gang assures her that there are worse things out there to be scared of than them. While inside their tower block, they, along with a druggie named Brewis (well-played by Luke Treadaway, who provides comic relief), band together to survive the night.

It’s so strange how this movie develops with its characters. When the movie starts with Sam, walking down the street and talking to her mum on her cell phone, we immediately suspect that she’s the central character. But then the gang shows up and mugs her and we follow them for just about the rest of the movie. These are people we’re supposed to hate. And we don’t like them indeed, at first. They’re vile, they talk trash, and they get stoned. Then the aliens show up and the boys realize they might not stand much of a chance against them. That’s when the gang starts to become sympathetic individuals. They think things through, attempt to keep each other safe, and rely on their wits to survive. This ordeal is also a great learning experience for them. Moses realizes later that everywhere he goes, trouble seems to follow him and everyone near him. He shouldn’t have gone looking for trouble in the first place. He chased down the first creature, killed it, and now the others are here for vengeance. At one moment, he tells the others, “I don’t want no one else to die.”

“Attack the Block” is the film debut of writer-director Joe Cornish, who also would co-write Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin.” Like most ambitious filmmakers, he starts out with a familiar genre to see what he could do with it before seeing what else he could do, which I am curious about. He takes what could have been just a monster movie and surrounds it with a sense of place (London after dark looks nice and mysterious), real personalities of the characters, and some truly gruesome monsters. He also brings about a mixed bag of characters. Aside from Moses, his friends, Sam, and Brewis, we also have—Hi-Hatz (Jumayn Hunter), the block’s main thug who chases the kids and the aliens; Ron (Nick Frost, “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”), the local drug dealer; the gang’s girlfriends whose main purpose is to scream and laugh; and Probs and Mayhem (Sammy Williams and Michael Ajao), two nine-year-olds who want to be the big shots on the block and go after the aliens themselves (armed with a Super Soaker).

I should also give credit to Cornish for the use of the aliens. These vile, nasty creatures are coated in entirely black fur to blend into the night. They resemble werewolves, except that they have no glowing eyes (they have none), but neon green fanged teeth. That’s kind of weird though, if you think about it. Would you really believe that these predatory monsters would have the right tools for space travel? They don’t seem to be that smart, really. They merely act on instinct. But they work as gruesome monsters.

The young actors are all exceptionally terrific, especially John Boyega who has a commanding presence as Moses, and Alex Esmail as Pest, who provides comic relief and has a backpack full of fireworks that come in handy.

The British slang that these kids use—“bruv,” “fam,” “wagwan,” to name a few—grows tiresome, even if that is how inner city kids in London talk. And Hi-Hatz’s motive for going after both the kids and the aliens doesn’t hold very well. Wouldn’t it be more interesting if he were willing to stand by Moses’ side to fight the aliens themselves? It seems like Hi-Hatz is the most ruthless person on the block. But then again, Moses did need a ruthless, cold-blooded, older person to convince him (unintentionally) that this isn’t who he should become. But for the most part, “Attack the Block” is a good deal of fun. The action and characters go well together, the creatures are suitably gruesome, and it’s over in just an hour and a half. It’s awesome, bruv!

Firstborn (1984)

15 Jan

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Smith’s Verdict: ***

Reviewed by Tanner Smith

“Firstborn” is an accurate, effective portrait of a broken suburban family that just gets better every time I watch it…or rather, the first hour and 15 minutes to be exact. The remaining twenty minutes are on autopilot and every repeated viewing keeps me from rating the film four stars. I really think it’s think it’s that good, so I’m giving it a three as a fair deal. I just wish it didn’t end with a typical, standard, (and worst of all) unnecessary action-film climax.

“Firstborn” begins pleasantly, as we’re introduced to a family that consists of a divorced mother, Wendy Livingston (Teri Garr), and her two sons—teenage Jake (Christopher Collet) and eleven-year-old Brian (Corey Haim). Theirs is a quiet, happy life; at least for the boys—Jake is on the lacrosse team and has a cute girlfriend (Sarah Jessica Parker), and he and Brian each have a lot of friends to hang around with. But there seems to be something missing in their lives and it becomes more evident with the news that Wendy’s ex-husband, whom she still loves, is remarrying.

The next day, Jake and Brian are having their usual morning breakfast—bickering while eating. Suddenly, they hear a cough and they know someone spent the night with their mother. At first, they assume it’s their mother’s ex-boyfriend whom she recently broke it off with. But instead it’s Sam (Peter Weller), a pickup from last night. In one of the movie’s best scenes, Sam meets Jake and Brian and they try to engage in awkward conversation. (“Sleep okay?” Jake asks to break the silence at one point.) This scene has ring of truth to it—what do you say when you meet a complete stranger in their house, after a one-night stand, that awkwardly?

But as it turns out, it wasn’t a one-night stand. Sam continues to date Wendy, and so Jake, being the oldest and most responsible boy, subtly tests him to see if he’s OK. Sam seems like a with-it guy, and has big plans for himself and even wants to share them with Wendy. And he also buys Jake a dirt bike as a present, which earns good points for him. But soon enough, Sam’s talk of businesses (with a home-security service and a new restaurant) gets Jake to believe that he’s all talk, and that “he’s an a**hole trying to make us think he’s OK.”

A few days later, Sam moves in. Wendy assures her sons that it feels right—for her, maybe, but to Jake, it’s all going so fast. Wendy feels like she’s in love with this man who seems as uncomfortable with his point in life as she is with hers. She doesn’t see that Sam is a put-on, though her sons are quick to catch on. Things get tougher around the house as Jake continues to challenge Sam closely about his future plans. Sam is lazy—he raids the fridge, sits around the house, and watches TV all day. At one point, Sam shoves Jake, telling him menacingly, “Get off my back.” Suddenly, this once-happy suburban family life is turned upside-down and it gets even worse when Jake learns that Sam is a small-time cocaine dealer and has even gotten Wendy hooked on the stuff.

The first hour and 15 minutes of “Firstborn” is very effective. It’s a credible, carefully-executed family drama with great performances, a steady pace, realistic dialogue, and some powerful scenes of truth. You feel the conflict that the characters are going through, and even if you want to shake Wendy into believing that she is making the wrong choices, you forgive her because you know people like her—looking for love in all the wrong places and not exactly knowing what to do after she’s found it. Jake is of course the character to sympathize with, since he is the one has to look out for his mother as well as the wellbeing of his kid brother, only because his mother is not the best one to take care of things around the house anymore. He even has to go in and see Brian’s principal one day just because the mother is coked up. The dad can’t help anymore, and on top of that, Jake can’t even call the police because most of the money spent on the drugs is Wendy’s. This is a lot for a teenager to go through, and Jake had to grow up fast and ultimately do something about this.

The acting is solid across-the-board. Christopher Collet is very good as Jake, delivering a natural and effective performance as a conflicted teenager. Corey Haim is convincing as Jake’s little brother Brian, who likes to hit other kids to take out his anger. Teri Garr has appealing scenes with the boys in the earlier scenes, and when she takes her own plunge into nothing, she’s pretty convincing (even if like I said, you want her to finally wake up and catch on). Peter Weller is brilliant as Sam—smooth when he needs to be, slimy when pushed over the edge. It’s a great performance.

Great scenes include—the aforementioned introduction of Sam; the scene in which Wendy tells the boys that he’s moving in; the moment when Jake tries to convince his mother that Sam is a phony, followed by a confrontation in which Sam tries to keep his cool to Jake (the end of that scene is just right); and the strong moment when Brian ultimately decides to sleep at a friend’s house because of everything going on at home—he doesn’t feel that his mom loves him anymore. There’s a subplot involving Jake’s snobby English teacher that at first seems unnecessary, but even that pays off, as it mirrors Jake’s home life. Jake finally snaps, “If you’re that great, why are you trying so hard to impress us?!”

And this is where “Firstborn” unfortunately loses its footing. With such a strong story with these kids facing a harsh dilemma such as this, we now have Jake ultimately deciding to stand up and get rid of Sam once and for all. He does this by hiding the cocaine, in an attempt to blackmail Sam into leaving. Where does this lead? Not to a battle of wits, which would have been acceptable. But it leads instead to a chase scene, with Sam in his car and Jake on his dirt bike, all over town. Would you believe that Jake gets attacked by a dog and nearly gets hit by a train?

But that’s not all. The film ends with a brutal fight scene in which everyone gets pummeled until we have the predictable victor (even little Brian gets beaten, after defending the family with a baseball bat). Where in the world did this come from? This is not the film we started out with. The film we started out with is called “Firstborn,” and this final twenty-minute sequence is essentially a throwaway climax. What happened? Did the writers give up on the story? Did they feel they couldn’t come up with something as strong as what was introduced to us before?

I guess I should only be glad that (SPOILER ALERT) it didn’t end the way most climaxes such as this turned out, with a death. (END OF SPOILER ALERT)

The first hour and 15 minutes keeps me coming back to watch “Firstborn,” but even when I love the same things again and again, it only makes it all the more disappointing every time it reaches the final act. But I just can’t bring myself to give it less than a positive review. Like I said, I praise the acting, the story structure, the credibility of the central determined dilemma, and the dialogue, but I just can’t figure out why “Firstborn” had to end so misguidedly. I guess I should say see it, but prepare to be disappointed. Is that fair? Maybe not. But it’s how I feel.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

15 Jan

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Smith’s Verdict: ****

Reviewed by Tanner Smith

There are so many things that “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” pull off greatly that it’s going to be difficult to name them all. This is one of those movies that just strike me as perfect. Everything this movie throws at you, you buy, you believe, you care, you admire, and in the end, you love. It comes from the idea that if an alien (or many aliens, for that matter) came to visit Earth with no plans of destruction or annihilation of mankind whatsoever, then it could be a friend to us if we let it. This is a movie about a lonely little boy who comes across a stranded alien and forms his own friendship with it. It’s the idea that could have been a tamed throwaway family picture, but it’s instead structured as something that becomes an instant family classic. It’s a wonderful, wonderful movie.

“E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” begins in a forest as an alien ship lands and these pudgy, ugly little alien botanists come to bring back a couple of plants that they come across. But a group of people arrives with flashlights and chase down one of the little creatures. They miss it, but it misses its ride home. So the thing is stranded on Earth and makes its way to the nearest suburb, where it comes across a ten-year-old lonely, friendless boy named Elliott (Henry Thomas). Elliott is at first scared at first sight of this creature, but becomes more curious and leads it to his house and bedroom (with Reese’s Pieces), where he decides to keep it and take care of it. He lets his teenage brother Michael (Robert MacNaughton) and his five-year-old sister Gertie (Drew Barrymore) in on the secret, as they give it the name “E.T.” (it’s short for extra-terrestrial, get it?), decide to keep it hidden from the authorities and their mother (Dee Wallace), and eventually come up with a plan to help it get back home.

That’s the storyline and unless you feel sympathy for the creature when its life is in jeopardy, the whole movie could fall apart. But E.T. is one of the most convincing special effects creatures I’ve ever seen. It’s so convincing that I constantly had to remind myself that it was an effect. On screen, E.T. has a distinct look, a curious personality, imitation of human speech, and is completely lovable. It’s a triumph of special effects done right.

Steven Spielberg is the director (and co-producer) of this movie and it’s reportedly his most personal work. He pays attention to detail. He tells a story. He makes us care. He originally got this idea from looking back on his childhood and remembering to have imagined an alien companion during his parents’ divorce as a child. During delays of making his film “1941,” Spielberg wondered what would happen if he brought that little creature to the screen. He expressed the idea to screenwriter Melissa Matheson, who wrote the script for “E.T.”

Spielberg’s direction and Matheson’s writing really bring the story to life and keep to every little detail. Where do I even start? First, there’s the idea of keeping the adults’ faces obscure until they take over in the third act of the movie keeps the focus on the kids—Elliott, Michael, Gertie, and their friends. (The mother of the three kids is the only adult fully seen until later.) The adults are mainly government agents who know there’s an alien somewhere in the area and constantly spy on the neighborhood to track it down. They want to study it, while the kids simply want to help it. They make for effective villains, though they may not be villains in some people’s eyes. Even one of these adults—not given a name, but is dubbed “Keys” because of his jangling keys attached to his belt—isn’t a bad guy. He’s just very interested in this incredible discovery. Who wouldn’t be?

The movie gets the family life just right. Elliott, Michael, and Gertie are the children of a failed marriage and while Michael has his buddies to fool around with and Gertie is too innocent to worry about not having a father figure around, Elliott has nothing to fall back on, until E.T. comes along and Elliott feels a friendship, as well as a need and responsibility to keep it safe. Also, the way the house is lit at dinnertime, the consistent mess of Elliott’s bedroom, and the relationship between these kids and their mother has a natural feel.

Also, the way these kids talk is absolutely right. When we first see Elliott, he’s constantly yelling for the attention of Michael and his three friends while they’re playing a dungeons-and-dragons game in the kitchen—they talk over one another, sometimes argue, and mock each other, just like how any group of teenage boys would act. The little sister Gertie also constantly says things that any kid of that age would say if she saw an alien (“I don’t like his feet,” “Is he a boy or a girl,” etc.).

The chase scene, in which the adults chase the kids on their bicycles, that leads to the final emotional moment as E.T. must return with his own family is thrilling and it succeeds in fulfilling childhood dreams—haven’t you ever daydreamed about your own bicycle flying? That’s right—E.T. makes the kids fly on their bikes and it’s a wonderfully pleasing moment. It’s one of the most magical moments I’ve ever seen in a movie.

Oh, and of course in that sequence, there has to be at least one kid who’s scared of heights—“Tell me when it’s over!”

All of the young actors are spot-on. Henry Thomas as Elliott possibly delivers one of the best child performances seen in a movie. He’s perfectly natural, always convincing, has a real energy to himself, and when all is said and done, he’s still a kid. He’ll get greedy, he’ll get whiny, he’ll get touched, he’ll get excited, etc. Robert MacNaughton and Drew Barrymore are good, and the other three young actors playing the friends—K.C. Martel, C. Thomas Howell, and Sean Frye—are appealing.

What have I left out? The memorable music score by John Williams, sequences involving Elliott showing E.T. some random things in his bedroom, Elliott’s emotional (and telepathic) connection with E.T., the moment where we fear the worst for poor E.T. and we actually feel something because of that, and the excellent final moment when E.T. bids farewell to his human friends and finally to his best friend Elliott. “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” mixes innocence, charm, adventure, joyfulness, and suspense, and the result is what reminded me of why I love movies.

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