Smith's Verdict

Smith’s Verdict: ***1/2

Reviewed by Tanner Smith

Where did a comedy like “Raising Arizona” come from? This movie is all over the map and to call the comedy offbeat would be an understatement—everyone in this movie is either foolish or insane, the screenplay’s dialogue for the characters is quirkily poetic, and it’s hard to figure whether it takes place in reality or another dimension (though I’m close to picking the latter). But I loved this movie mainly because it’s consistent—consistently funny and crazy.

In a 13-minute pre-opening credit sequence that is pure montage and narration, we meet our main characters—an ex-convict named H.I. “Hi” McDonough (Nicolas Cage) and his wife Edwina “Ed” (Holly Hunter), who takes police mug shots. Actually, in a funny twist, that’s how they met. Hi meets Ed as she takes his pictures when he’s first convicted. Then the second time he’s convicted, he notices some sadness in her life and begins to charm her. Then the third time he’s convicted, he actually proposes to her. (You see, Hi has a tendency to rob convenience stores, which always lands him in jail.) When Hi is released, again, he decides to start a clean wife and actually marries Ed. They live in a trailer out in the boonies, near a small town in Arizona. They want to have a child, but can’t because Ed can’t conceive and adoption is out of the question since Hi is a repeatedly-convicted ex-felon. But then they hear of popular furniture dealer Nathan Arizona’s newly-born quintuplets and decide that that’s too much for him and wife to handle, so…they decide to borrow one of them.

Sheesh, so much story put into the first thirteen minutes, before the credits appear. But I thought it was quite enjoyable because of how it never seemed to stop. With Hi’s “poetic” voiceover narration of the sequence and just the over-the-top delivery of the characterizations of Hi and Ed make for a zany experience that I quite enjoyed. And that sets the tone for the rest of the movie, which is equally zany.

For example, the following scene is in which Hi sneaks into the babies’ room to steal one of them. He inspects them all to see which one seems right, and they all run (or crawl) amok around the room, while Hi tries to control them while also attempting not to make any noise while Arizona is downstairs. The wide-angle shots, low-angles, and closeups add to the wackiness of a situation that…to tell the truth, could be very disturbing. Somehow Nicolas Cage makes “baby-stealing” seem less creepy. It’s strange.

Another overly-executed sequence is when Hi and Ed go to a convenience store to buy the baby (whom they call “Junior”) a pack of Huggies. The big mistake Ed makes is letting Hi go in while she stays in the car with the baby. Of course Hi robs the clerk, and this leads to a chase scene that is…well, not boring. Madness ensues during the chase, as Hi goes through streets, backyards, and a supermarket while being chased by the crazed clerk, armed police, and even a pack of snarling dogs!

“Raising Arizona” was the second movie written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, who obviously know how to make exciting movies. They certainly showed that in their debut film, “Blood Simple,” a completely different film than this one. They use unique camera angles and quirky characters to tell their stories, and the results are quite effective.

All of the characters in “Raising Arizona” are memorable. Nicolas Cage’s Hi is charmingly dangerous with some sincerity in him, Holly Hunter’s Ed is ultimately stubborn to the point where she seems somewhat psychotic, Trey Wilson’s Arizona is suitably flamboyant, and then there are these folks—two escaped convicts (John Goodman and William Forsythe) who are dumb as posts, Hi’s boss Glen (Sam McMurray) who gladly tells bad joke after bad joke, and Glen’s perky wife (Frances McDormand). They’re all enjoyable to watch and the Coen Brothers cast game actors who really go for it with their roles. I should also mention that their dialogue is not normal. These rural folks all talk like they’re in a Shakespearean play, with countryside jokes put in for good measure. How weird is that?

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention Randall “Tex” Cobb as Hell’s Angel type who may be just a bounty hunter, but Hi describes him as a demonic being who rides on his motorcycle with a blaze trail following. He becomes an important asset to the story when Arizona hires him to get the baby back. This subplot is very silly, to tell the truth, but it’s also a lot of fun and as wacky as the rest of the movie.

“Raising Arizona” is a weird, preposterous and yet mostly hilarious and well-put-together offbeat comedy with a lot of material, aided by flashy camera work and eccentric characters. It’s weird, goofy to say the least, and very entertaining.

Smith’s Verdict: ***1/2

Reviewed by Tanner Smith

“The Sandlot” presents a kind, innocent, comic portrait of boyhood, baseball, and summertime. It’s told as a baseball announcer narrates this story in flashback, looking back on his sandlot days with his friends in the early 1960s. These are just kids being kids—having fun and misadventures.

In the early 1960s, Scotty Smalls (Tom Guiry), who will grow up to be the narrator of the story, is a shy kid who moves to a new neighborhood in a new town, with his mother (Karen Allen) and his stepfather (Denis Leary) with whom he’s trying to connect with. Smalls would love to play baseball, but is so ignorant of the game that he can’t throw a ball, he can’t catch, and he doesn’t even know who Babe Ruth is. His stepdad tries to teach him to play catch, but he winds up a black eye after being hit with the ball.

Smalls tries to fit in with a local sandlot team of eight players, figuring he could be the ninth. The leader Benny Rodriguez (Mike Vitar) takes Smalls in and teaches him to catch and throw. Now he’s in with the team and they have their own adventures. One of the highlights is when one of the kids—nicknamed “Squints” (Chauncey Leopardi)—tries so hard to gain the attention of the sexy lifeguard at the town swimming pool, even risking probable drowning. The outcome is most hilarious.

But the second half of the movie leads the kids into more fearsome territory, as Smalls swipes his stepdad’s Babe Ruth-autographed baseball—a family heirloom—to use to play in a game. When he’s up at bat, he accidentally hits into the neighbor’s yard, behind a fence past left field. It’s then he discovers who Babe Ruth is and realizes he must get the ball back. However, it’s not so simple to just hop over the fence and get the ball, because the yard is guarded by a dog so ferocious that it’s even labeled the “Beast,” who is said to have killed trespassers and even ate a kid who hopped over there once. This leads to the kids desperately attempting many strange schemes to retrieve it before it winds up in the Beast’s possession. They try everything they can think of in a series of more funny misadventures—including a kid-sized harness, a series of vacuum cleaners, and even an Erector set.

There’s a nice comic rhythm within the kids’ misadventures and a sense of innocence throughout. This doesn’t resort to the usual clichés you see in family movies, let alone baseball movies. “The Sandlot” is an effective feel-good family movie that provides entertainment and nostalgia for childhood. This movie was directed by David Mickey Evans, who also gave us the deplorable “Radio Flyer,” which tried to capture this same sort of delight, but ultimately failed. With “The Sandlot,” he hits a triple, if not a home run.

There are little problems with the movie (like how Babe Ruth is misspelled by one of the kids who know his statistics), but so what? Evans remembers what it was like to be a kid—awkwardness, nervousness, friendship, free-spiritedness, etc. This is a movie kids can relate to with its sense of fun and adventure, and adults can see it as a nostalgia trip. Even if you didn’t grow up in the 1960s, you still feel the spirit of things here.

There’s a lot of baseball that these kids play in this movie, and it still proves to be America’s pastime. The kids play mostly for practice, as Benny believes he’ll go on to play in the major leagues in the future (which he may be). And there’s one quick game in the middle of the movie that comes as a pushover, since there is no big game at the end, which is a pleasant surprise. The movie isn’t about winning or losing. It’s a coming-of-age story about growing up and facing your fears.

There’s also a welcome cameo by James Earl Jones, a blind former baseball player who remembers the game fondly. It adds to the conception that is the greatness of baseball.

The kids are appealing comic actors and hold the screen nicely—even Chauncey Leopardi as know-it-all Squints, who can get grating at times with his constant screaming in eagerness, gets points for being a convincing know-it-all. They add to the charm and humor of “The Sandlot.”

Smith’s Verdict: ***1/2

Reviewed by Tanner Smith

If I said “Source Code” was a mix between “Groundhog Day” and “Inception,” people might think I copied Richard Roeper’s first comment in his review. Good thing I actually checked out his review before I wrote mine. Actually, I’m thankful because I realize that saying a title is a mix of something and something, where does that leave the title I’m really referring to? Think about that. But seriously, “Source Code” is a strange, bewildering, and terrific science-fiction thriller with so many ideas, all of them intriguing.

As the movie opens, a man named Colter Stevens awakes from a nap and finds everything around him strange. So right away, we’re interested because he’s wondering the following: Why is he on this Chicago commuter train? Who is this lovely woman who apparently knows him? Why is she calling him “Sean?” And more importantly, why does he see another face looking back at him in the mirror of the restroom? All he knows is that his name is Colter Stevens and he’s a helicopter pilot. All we know is that he’s played by Jake Gyllenhaal.

It’s a mystery that I’m already interested in seeing solved. Without giving too much away from the story (actually, going by what the TV spots show), the train explodes with him on it. But wait! He awakens in a secret Army lab without a scratch. How can this be? Colter knows he’s himself again (and not “Sean”) and the people holding him know him as well. A scientist named Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) talks to him and tells him that the train was destroyed by a terrorist bomb and is not the only one. Apparently, a bigger explosion is set for the middle of Chicago. Where does Colter fit into this? Well, the brain of one of the unfortunate souls on that train saved memories of the last eight minutes on the train before the explosion.

OK, so I can’t say why Colter himself is involved because it would give something in the plot away. What I’ve just written is the first fifteen minutes of the movie. But let me continue to say that the rest of the movie (I’m only setting a small description) features Colter as he relives the final eight minutes on the train before the explosion to find the bomb and identify the bomber. He has to do this until he gets it all right. And of course, with these multiple trips, Colter is experiencing it all over again, while the passengers always feel like this is the first time this happened.

So with that last statement, there’s the “Groundhog Day” distinction. With the futuristic technology that allows space travel, there’s the “Inception” distinction. There’s nothing wrong with that at all—this is fun. I’m excited and riveted. I’m racing along with the likable Colter, trying to piece together everything. Even if this technology doesn’t exist, it does seem plausible enough for this movie. This is the kind of science fiction film that is set with ideas. It’s not just special effects that are brought to the screen that impress us—it’s a sense of wonder and mystery that wins us over.

There’s a human element to “Source Code” in that Colter thinks about what it’d be like to have less than eight minutes to live. He wants to contact his father, with whom he hasn’t spoken in a long time. He also feels sympathy for the female passenger named Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan), “Sean’s” close friend who has had a crush on him for the longest time. Soon, through these multiple trips, Colter begins to care for her and feels like he should save her and change fate. He also gets to know some of the other passengers, including a comedian preparing for a show in Chicago, and sees that he can’t just let them die.

Jake Gyllenhaal is a solid lead—it should also be mentioned that he’s solving a more complicated mystery here than in “Donnie Darko.” We believe what he’s going through, mainly because we know as much as he does to begin with, but he’s also a stable anchor for a protagonist, showing a blend of cockiness and confusion. Michelle Monaghan is also good as the beautiful train passenger who is also living the same event over and over but just not noticing it and wondering what is going on with her friend lately (each time). How can you not like Michelle Monaghan? She’s a lovely woman and shows a lot of credibility as an actress. That can also be said for Vera Farmiga, who takes over with her strong presence every time she’s on screen.

“Source Code” is a powerful, ingenious thrill ride. Why wasn’t this released in the summer is beyond my understanding. Maybe it’s the length of 93 minutes, while other summer blockbusters are close to or over two hours in length. Maybe it’s the title, I don’t know. I do know that I wasn’t bored—there wasn’t one moment when I was checking my cell phone for the time. I was intrigued by everything on screen. I’m not quite sure I figured out everything that was resolved in the final half, but I will see it again to see if I can solve everything along the way.

NOTE: I have seen “Source Code” several other times since I wrote this review. I still have a bit of trouble trying to analyze every sci-fi element. I decided, let it be. It’s thrilling sci-fi. Deal with it.

Smith’s Verdict: ***1/2

Reviewed by Tanner Smith

A young FBI hotshot is on the investigation of a series of bank robberies, in which the robbers wear rubber masks that resemble the Ex-Presidents of the United States (Reagan, Nixon, Johnson, and Carter, not in that order of course). He believes that they might be surfers because one of the robbers has a tan line. So he goes undercover as a budding surfer and falls in with a group of adrenaline junkies who may turn out to be the robbers he’s after.

When you hear the plot for “Point Break,” you’d probably think of it as a spoof of action movies, but you’d be wrong. The movie is taken as seriously as it could be taken, and it’s an effective thriller with a theme of self-discovery and some breathtaking action sequences.

Keanu Reeves is the hero Johnny Utah. He’s a former Rose Bowl star with a bum knee. Now, he’s an FBI agent assigned in Los Angeles to get on the case of the Ex-Presidents’ robberies. The robbers leave no clues behind, but Johnny’s partner Pappas (Gary Busey) notices a tan line on one of the robbers when he watches a surveillance tape of a robbery. Also, a strand of hair is found and after analyzing it, Pappas observes that the strand was polluted with the same hair gel sold on a popular surfing beach. He states, “The Ex-Presidents are surfers!”

So, Johnny goes undercover and learns how to surf in order to get closer to anyone who seems interesting. That’s when he meets Bodhi (Patrick Swayze), the most extreme of his pack of surfers. Johnny also falls in love with Bodhi’s ex-girlfriend (Lori Petty). It becomes clear that they rob banks to support their surfing. Bodhi puts Johnny under his spell and explains to him why surfing and other extreme activities are so important to him. He also explains how he would like to die—by riding a wave driven by a winter storm.

Here we have a tale of a young cop who falls in with a different crowd than who he would usually hang out with. He starts to like his second life of fun and danger. It’s a great seduction story. But also in this movie is a lot of action. We get a footchase all over Santa Monica (through backyards, living rooms, and alleys) and two skydiving sequences. One sequence shows tension in which Johnny’s cover is blown and Bodhi packs his chute. The other is a great action scene in which Johnny becomes so mad he jumps out of a plane without a parachute, grabs onto a person who has one, and puts a gun to his head, threatening him to pull the chute.

Director Kathryn Bigelow is an interesting director for this material. It’s amazing how she directs these action sequences, but even more amazing how she puts the characters in them as realistically as humanly possible. We get to know these characters in the midst of the action. “Point Break” isn’t just a movie about cops and robbers. It’s simply a movie about a young cop who is seduced by a new lifestyle and questions his own values while trying to catch a possible robber.

It all leads down to the big ending in which everything that has been shown before has become meaningful and effective. I will not give it away, but I will say that “Point Break” does not end at the point where you would expect it to.

Smith’s Verdict: ***1/2

Reviewed by Tanner Smith

“Bandslam” is advertised as sort of a “High School Musical” or “Camp Rock” clone. If you’re not familiar with those two references, you probably have a kid or two in your family that can explain. But you think that the actual film “Bandslam” really is a clone of those two full-of-pep, bit overly energetic Disney Channel movies, you’d be wrong. This is a really good teen film with fully-realized teen characters, snappy dialogue, good coming-of-age drama, and entertainment.

On second thought, this does have a lot of music and teenagers involved. And it is a feel-good movie. I don’t think it’s fair to blame the advertisements for selling it as an “HSM” clone but the film doesn’t go for the pep and energy all throughout.

The film’s central character is Will Burton (Gaelon Connell), who lives in a world all his own. He goes to high school, is new in town, and doesn’t fit in, like most teenagers. But he knows a lot about music and has a shrine dedicated to David Bowie. (The film’s narration comes from his writing letters to Bowie, who never responds.) He even judges people by what kind of music they listen to.

One day, he meets popular, attractive high school senior Charlotte (Aly Michalka, from that lame Disney Channel sitcom “Phil of the Future,” and of Aly & AJ). She shows him her band, complete with a drum loop, bass-playing Flea-wannabe “Bug,” and electric guitar-playing Asian-American British-wannabe Omar. They want to enter “Bandslam,” a battle-of-the-bands competition that everyone in school anxiously awaits. But Will doesn’t think they have a chance. Charlotte knows he knows a lot about music, so she appoints him as band manager.

One of the best things about this film is that the film and its stars really do know a lot about music. The script is very fresh and funny with references to Bowie, Springsteen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the CBGB, a legendary New York club that was the start of punk rock. The film also delivers not the kind of teen characters we would expect in a film like this—an example is the third central character Sa5m (the “5” is silent). Vanessa Hudgens (HSM alum) portrays Sa5m not the way I would’ve imagined. She is NOT the Girl Who’s Full of Pep and Enthusiasm Who Falls for the Guy that she usually plays. Here, she’s an original—a loner, secret-keeping girl dressed usually in black who talks deadpan to keep herself from stuttering. She befriends Will as they work together on a human studies project and she has a musical talent too.

As the band—now labeled (get this) I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On—gains new members, which include a drummer with anger issues and a girl who plays classic piano, but is really good on a pop keyboard, Will starts to have fun for the first time in this new town. He teaches the band to improve at crucial points (I love the scene in which he makes them start out with “blue-beat” and work their way up), his friendship with Charlotte grows, as well as his friendship (and possible relationship) with Sa5m.

“Bandslam” is a very satisfying film—it’s intelligent in the way that it avoids the teen film clichés and gives us original, quirky characters and is also nonoffensive. Here’s a nice touch—none of the three main female characters (including Lisa Kudrow, who has a good role as Will’s supportive single mother) fall into the romantic comedy trap. Only one scene in this film falls into that category and that is the scene that we’ve all seen before—Sa5m wants Will to go see “Evil Dead 2” with her, but Charlotte has provided tickets to a rock band and Will totally forgets about the date with Sa5m, upsetting her. But luckily, the movie redeems itself with a satisfying scene in which Will and Sa5m present their own human study project.

The actors here are very good. Newcomer Gaelon Connell is especially good as the film’s lead—a likable awkward teen that makes us feel for him in the moments of drama (yes, there is drama involved, so take that into consideration). Vanessa Hudgens is compelling here as well—lovely singing voice too, but I already knew that. What also surprised me was the performance by Aly Michalka. After seeing her as the peppy, dumb girl in “Phil of the Future,” I was surprised by how well she can act and be taken seriously as an actress. When she shows how upset she is in those moments of drama, we believe her. We wonder what she’s doing hanging around with a few outcasts for a band, but the answer is revealed later in the movie and I will not give it away. Lisa Kudrow, as the mother, avoids the clichés of the overprotective mother and gives credible reasons for why she’s concerned about her son.

I enjoyed “Bandslam” very much. It has a good script and appealing characters—it does have a competition at the end between I Don’t Go On, I Go On and Charlotte’s boyfriend’s band, but even that scene is well done too. Parents, if you’re looking for a “High School Musical/Camp Rock” clone to dump the kids to see, my advice—keep looking, because “Bandslam” has a lot more on its mind than the advertisements gave itself credit for. I liked it very much.

Smith’s Verdict: ***1/2

Reviewed by Tanner Smith

“Home of the Giants” may seem to you like an average high school basketball movie in the same league as “Hoosiers” (indeed, this film takes place in Indiana), but you’d be wrong to assume that. Actually, describing what it really is might lose the film of its dignity, but I’ll try and make it seem as special as possible, because the truth is I really liked this movie.

“Home of the Giants” is actually a coming-of-age high school drama mixed with a crime thriller. It involves two teenage friends—a basketball jock, Matt (Ryan Merriman), who plays for his team called the Giants, and his entourage, Gar (Haley Joel Osment), who writes for the school paper. Matt is the big man on campus and can pretty much get away with anything. That’s how Gar sees Matt—he looks to Matt like a role model just as Matt looks to his ex-con older brother Keith (Kenneth Mitchell) as a role model. Keith has a job for Matt, and Matt fills Gar in on the plan to break into a possible drug dealer’s house and steal what is said to be a fortune. Gar isn’t so sure at first, but Matt talks him into it. But on the night of the heist, the guy (Brent Briscoe) comes home and it seems that Keith has cut off a finger or two while interrogating him. The days after, Matt and Gar find themselves in hot water, as the ticked-off guy stalks them and sends threatening notes, saying he plans to cut off Matt’s fingers as well. As you can plainly tell from that plot description, “Home of the Giants” is not your typical teen film.

The story development for “Home of the Giants” is smarter than you might think. The main conflict that these two kids face, other than the consequences they fear for themselves, is the difference between their friends and their heroes. If you help the person you look up to the most, why exactly are you doing that? Would he help you in a jam to return the favor? Is this really the person you’d want to be like? Etc. This is what makes “Home of the Giants” more of a coming-of-age story than anything else. The basketball scenes and the crime drama mesh surprisingly well together, and lead to a great payoff that comes with the final basket—I hardly ever felt as much suspense as I did with the final basket at the end of the final basketball game in a movie. Even the little details feel authentic, compared to most movies that feature high school sports. For example, neither of the boys’ fathers is abusive or a one-dimensional jerk that just slows things down for them. They have their reasons for worrying about their sons.

But there’s one very important element that I want to bring up. Whenever Matt wants Gar to do something that Gar doesn’t really want to do, Matt pulls the “I thought we were friends” card and Gar goes through with it. I’ve been through that situation many times with a high school friend before. Back in high school, I was an average guy and I was constantly caught between my friends, my heroes, and those who just tried to drag me down. I related to the character of Gar throughout this movie.

Speaking of whom, Haley Joel Osment, as Gar, has stepped out of his bright-little-boy roles and is acting his age. His acting isn’t as awkward as his obvious early-puberty stage in “Secondhand Lions.” As a conflicted high school student, Osment is totally convincing and sympathetic. Ryan Merriman is solid and winning as Matt, Kenneth Mitchell is suitably smarmy as Keith, and Brent Briscoe, almost reprising his similarly-slimy bad-guy role in “A Simple Plan,” has a good moment or two when he’s not merely looking intimidating. I wish that cute Danielle Panabaker, as Gar’s potential girlfriend Bridgette, had more to do, but she makes the most of her scenes.

“Home of the Giants” may sound like an odd idea for a coming-of-age high school drama, but it’s handled nicely and it’s neither dumb nor boring. The acting is solid, the direction is well-done, and the message of friends and heroes is very effective. This is a great film for teenagers who should seek this out, because it will be worth their time, and I think they’ll even see themselves portrayed here as well.