public radio news and fine arts twenty four hours a day from houston, texas
Music From The Movies,
Saturday, March 20th at 7pm
ONE TOUGH BROAD...that was actress Barbara Stanwyck (1907-1990) over her 60-year career! Enjoy music from The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Miklos Rozsa), Sorry, Wrong Number (pictured; music by Franz Waxman), The Thorn Birds (Henry Mancini), and Double Indemnity (also Rozsa). In reviews, Regina ponders Jennifer Aniston's latest attempt at romantic-comedy stardom, The Bounty Hunter. Jared reports on the SXSW Film Festival.
****NEW IN THEATERS (by Regina with Jared Counts)****
GREEN ZONE. (Universal Pictures. 1 hour, 55 minutes. Rated R for violence and language. Directed by Paul Greengrass.) Matt Damon (Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller), Greg Kinnear (Clark Poundstone), Brendan Gleeson (Martin Brown), Amy Ryan (Lawrie Dayne), Khalid Abdalla (Freddy). Music by John Powell. Inspired by the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Green Zone follows Roy Miller (Damon), an Army officer tasked with searching for ever-elusive WMDs in post-occupation Iraq. Miller begins to question the validity of the government's intel as more and more sites turn up empty, but a tip from a friendly Iraqi (Abdalla) sets off an investigation that threatens to uncover the truth behind America's invasion of Iraq. An interesting tale of political intrigue marred by hyperactive visuals.
Even though Green Zone stretches believability in places, it delivers a compelling narrative that is politically complex but remarkably easy to follow. The film's depiction of Baghdad, and the arrogance and short-sightedness running rampant within it, are captured vividly enough to overshadow the relative thinness of the characters (of which Abdalla's patriotic-but-conflicted Freddy is a standout). Greengrass employs some cinematic shorthand in place of detailed characterization, which is an overall benefit to the film's breakneck pace. Also, I realize that this is Greengrass's bread-and-butter style, but can we please cut back on the constant barrage of jittery-cam footage? Attempting to put the audience "in the moment" and intensifying the action/drama is one thing, but many action scenes are reduced to speed blurs and the sound of people grunting. That said, if you can overlook the style and focus on the plot, it's a worthwhile film. —Jared
REMEMBER ME. (Summit Entertainment. 1 hour, 53 minutes. Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual content, language and smoking. Directed by Allen Coulter.) Robert Pattinson (Tyler Hawkins), Emilie de Ravin (Ally Craig), Chris Cooper (Sgt. Neil Craig), Lena Olin (Diane Hirsch), Tate Ellington (Aidan Hall), Pierce Brosnan (Charles Hawkins), Kate Burton (Janine). Music by Marcelo Zarvos. OK drama about two broken families whose lives intersect. Twilight star Pattinson (who also co-produced) plays Tyler, whose strained relationship with his businessman father (Brosnan) stems from a family tragedy. Tyler's holed up in a crummy NYC apartment with the required wacky-yet-charming roommate (Ellington, amusing). He meets and gets involved with Ally (de Ravin), whose own strained relationship with her policeman father stems from another family tragedy. Movie starts slowly, moves through some plot twists and turns, and gets a little better as it goes along (until the resolution, which some won't like). Good performances in general, but I'm sorry, I still don't see Pattinson's appeal. At all times he looks like he just woke up, which probably makes for a better vampire then it does an actual live human. (His best scene is when he finally dresses down Dear Old Dad.) Coulter is a TV director who's made one other feature, the well-regarded Hollywoodland. —Regina
ALICE IN WONDERLAND (3-D). (Disney. 1 hour, 48 minutes. Rated PG. Directed by Tim Burton.) Johnny Depp (Mad Hatter), Mia Wasikowska (Alice Kingsleigh), Anne Hathaway (White Queen), Helena Bonham Carter (Red Queen), Crispin Glover (Stayne – Knave of Hearts), Matt Lucas (Tweedledee/Tweedledum), Alan Rickman (Absolem the Caterpillar), Timothy Spall (Bayard the Bloodhound), Imelda Staunton (Tall Flower Faces), Michael Sheen (White Rabbit), Stephen Fry (Cheshire Cat), Barbara Windsor (Dormouse), Christopher Lee (Jabberwocky) Michael Gough (Dodo), Paul Whitehouse (March Hare). Music by Danny Elfman. Wrongheaded "reimagining" of Lewis Carroll's famous stories about a 7-year-old girl and her tumble down a rabbit hole, and the Victorian-era acid trip which results. Here, Alice is 19, having weird dreams she can't explain, and finding herself being forced into an engagement to a nitwit lord. She escapes the engagement party when she spots the White Rabbit again, follows him, and falls down the hole yet again. She doesn't remember her previous visit, but everyone remembers her. Unfortunately, not much happens for most of the movie until a climactic battle between Alice and the dragon-like Jabberwock.
Burton (or his Disney bosses) has been influenced not only by J.K. Rowling, but also Stephanie Meyer: this is Alice for the Twilight crowd (probably why most of Carroll's wonderful language is sadly missing). Bonham Carter, with her digitally-enlarged noggin, has some moments as the Red Queen ("Off with their heads!"). Hathaway, as her sister the White Queen, leaves no impression. Depp, supposedly "mad," pulls a few tricks out of his hat but nothing we hadn't seen already in his previous bizarro characterizations. If anything, he's too low-key. The 3-D effects don't add much to the dull proceedings. My suggestion: go old-school and read (or re-read) the books. Best is The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, with notes by Martin Gardner and the original illustrations by John Tenniel.
"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here." —Regina
THE GHOST WRITER. (Summit Entertainment. 2 hours, 8 minutes. Rated PG-13 for language, brief nudity/sexuality, some violence and a drug reference. Directed by Roman Polanski.) Ewan MacGregor (The Ghost), Kim Cattrall (Amelia Bly), Olivia Williams (Ruth Lang), Pierce Brosnan (Adam Lang), Timothy Hutton (Sidney Kroll), Tom Wilkinson (Paul Emmett), James Belushi (John Maddox), Eli Wallach (Old Man). Music by Alexandre Desplat. Well-done political thriller which many critics are likening to Polanski's great Chinatown. I wouldn't go that far, but I'd compare it to his lesser-known movie with Harrison Ford, Frantic, as well as some Chinatown-era movies of the 1970s such as Sydney Pollack's Three Days of the Condor and Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View. MacGregor (whose character never has a name) is a successful British ghostwriter who's persuaded by his pushy agent to travel to the U.S. to complete the potentially-explosive memoirs of a former Prime Minister, Adam Lang (Brosnan). What seems like a great opportunity is tainted by the fact that the previous “ghost” really became one: he died under mysterious circumstances. Complicating matters, Lang is then accused of collusion with the CIA while he was in office in enabling the U.S. government to torture suspected terrorists.
Aaaaand, there's a possible love triangle with Lang, his prickly-yet-attractive wife (Williams), and his personal assistant Amelia (Cattrall, with a slightly-wavering British accent, a bit strange since she was born in Liverpool). The Ghost senses more trouble when, ensconced in Lang's fortress-like house on Cape Cod to work on the memoirs, finds that Lang's called away a lot, leaving him alone with Ruth. Robert Harris, who wrote the novel on which the story is based, was a political aide with ties to real-life former PM Tony Blair, whom Adam Lang is supposed to evoke. The movie has a Hitchcockian sensibility (i.e., an ordinary man finds himself in extraordinary circumstances; his instinct tells him to get out, but he wants to solve the mystery). It's aided by the performances, the atmospheric production design, a crackling script, and Desplat's Herrmann-like score. It's nice to see the gifted and handsome MacGregor in a movie which matches his talents. A shout-out to Eli Wallach, who seems to be having a career resurgence at age 94. The Ghost Writer is a very good little movie, made for adults, and Polanski's best effort in years. It won't stay with you, like Chinatown does, but you'll enjoy it while it lasts. —Regina
DISTRICT B13: ULTIMATUM. (Magnet Releasing. 1 hour, 31 minutes. Rated R for some violence, language and drug material. Directed by Patrick Alessandrin.) Cyril Raffaelli (Capt. Damien Tomaso), David Belle (Leïto), Philippe Torreton (Le président de la République), Daniel Duval (Walter Gassman), Elodie Yung (Tao), MC Jean Gab'1 (Molko). In the near future, a wealthy developer (unironically named Harriburton) wants to demolish a walled-off section of Paris known as District B13, an area run by a collection of ethnic gangs. To do so, police captain Damien Tomaso (Raffaelli) is framed for murder, and it is up to Tomaso's friend Leito (Belle) to uncover the plot and set things right. An intense and thrilling action-adventure.
The latest film from writer Luc Besson, District B13: Ultimatum is a very good sequel. This film embellishes what the previous one did well (acrobatic, jaw-dropping parkour sequences and brutal but creative melees) without succumbing to the common sequel pitfall of "more/bigger/flashier." The scope of the film is expanded from its predecessor, but while there is a more political bent to the movie, the plot never oversteps its main function: to act as a framework for the action. Speaking of which, the film does a great job of showcasing Belle and Raffaelli's respective talents, favoring longer cuts and wider shots, as opposed to the hyper-edited shaky-cam footage you can usually expect in this type of movie. But honestly, how can you turn down a film in which a Van Gogh is not only used as a prop, but a weapon? Now that's talent. Second verse same as the first, but that's actually a good thing. —Jared
BROOKLYN'S FINEST. (Overture Films. Rated R for bloody violence throughout, strong sexuality, nudity, drug content and pervasive language. 2 hours, 13 minutes. Directed by Antoine Fuqua.) Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes, Ethan Hawke, Ellen Barkin, Will Patton, Brian F. O'Byrne, Vincent D'Onofrio. Music by Marcelos Zarvos. Not-so-fine crime drama which attempts to interweave separate stories about 3 cops, each working in New York's tough East Brooklyn precinct. It's a handsome production, set on location; the main problem is the convoluted, violent, bleak script, by a former NYC transit worker who grew up in the borough. The comparisons being made to Crash, The Departed, and Fuqua's own Training Day, or any number of dirty-cop movies signal that there's not a lot here you haven't already seen, many times. The actors all acquit themselves well. Gere, still handsome at 60, plays a burnout beat cop one week away from retirement. He's already checked out mentally, counting the days with liquor, playing possible-suicide with his revolver, and treating the hooker (Shannon Kane) he sees as his girlfriend.
Hawke plays Sal, Brooklyn's most Irish-looking Italian-American, with a brood of kids and a sickly wife (Lili Taylor, blink and you'll miss her) expecting twins. The most corrupt of the three, he skims from drug busts in order to pay the bills. The always-good Cheadle's an undercover cop nicknamed Tango, whose wife has left him; he's dying for a desk job (and his wife back), but may have to betray his drug-dealer pal Casanova (Snipes) in order to get it. (Tango and Cas?) Hawke's unraveling is the most interesting thing to watch, but the denouement, where all three cops end up at the same housing project building, is implausible at best, like most everything that came before. Didn't Gere star in a movie called Internal Affairs? Just wondering how these cops all get to run amok the way they do without anybody calling them on it. This movie premiered at Sundance last year; the ending's been changed since then (originally there was a suicide). I wonder if it might have worked better than the awkward freeze-frame close they've got now. Well, maybe not. Good support from Barkin, Patton, O'Bryne, and D'Onofrio. —Regina
SAINT JOHN OF LAS VEGAS. (IndieVest Pictures. 1 hour, 25 minutes. Rated R for language and some nudity. Directed by Hue Rhodes.) Steve Buscemi (John), Romany Malco (Virgil), Sarah Silverman (Jill), Peter Dinklage (Mr. Townsend). Music by David Torn. John Aligheri (Buscemi), a former Vegas high-roller turned insurance company drone, is sent on a fraud investigation with company hotshot Virgil (Malco), and the pair experience an increasingly bizarre series of events as they search for the truth. I wish this movie were a sum of its parts, because the parts sound really good. It's a modern-day adaptation of Dante's Inferno starring Buscemi (always a pleaser), Malco, Silverman, Dinklage and Tim Blake Nelson, and set in the Las Vegas desert. Unfortunately, what we get is a disjointed, confusing and disappointing tale. It may have only felt disjointed since my knowledge of the Inferno is shaky at best, but a movie should be able to stand on its own without supplemental materials. Thankfully, a great effort by the cast and several standout scenes, such as one involving a man who is randomly engulfed in flames but just wants a cigarette, make the experience more palatable. It's never unwatchable, but it's also nowhere near as good as it should have been. Beatrice, a little help here? —Jared
VALENTINE'S DAY. (Warner Bros. 1 hour, 57 minutes. Rated PG-13 for some sexual material and brief partial nudity. Directed by Garry Marshall.) Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, George Lopez, Shirley MacLaine, Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts, Taylor Swift. Music by John Debney. Director Marshall apparently trotted through the Polo Lounge at lunch one day, chirping, "Hey! Anybody free next week? I'll pay you one-tenth your usual fee to be in my movie for five minutes." The critics are pummeling this one, and not without some reason: 862 main characters means that nobody gets much screen time. Still, this disjointed, frequently-illogical fable has some pleasant moments and ends up being a harmless way to pass two hours if you're looking for something mindless and more than a little sentimental. It's obviously hit the right chord with the public, to the tune of $100 million at the box office so far.
The character around which much of the action revolves seems to be Kutcher's florist (sure he is; I mean Ashton's who I would think of as a florist); Garner's a schoolteacher who thinks she's found "the one" in Dempsey, who plays a doctor (where did they get that idea); Hathaway's a phone-sex worker (of course she is) trying to keep that fact from potential love-interest Forman, I mean Topher Grace; Julia Roberts (Marshall's "Pretty Woman") is an army captain (naturally) flying home for a 24-hour leave, stuck next to gabby Cooper; and so on (make up your own farfetched character or relationship, it's probably in here). Elizondo (who's been in every Marshall movie) and MacLaine are the vets, playing a couple in a strained marriage (there's a cool scene of MacLaine in front of a clip of an obscure old movie of hers from 52 years ago). The advantage of a movie like this is that if one character annoys you (ahem, Taylor Swift and George Lopez), another comes along pretty quickly. And oh yeah, five points to Marshall for putting Eric Dane in that shower scene. Thanks. —Regina
COP OUT. (Warner Brothers. 1 hour, 47 minutes. Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violence and brief sexuality. Directed by Kevin Smith.) Bruce Willis (Jimmy Monroe), Tracy Morgan (Paul Hodges), Guillermo Díaz (Poh Boy), Seann William Scott (Dave), Ana de la Reguera (Gabriela), Kevin Pollak (Hunsaker), Adam Brody (Barry Mangold). Music by Harold Faltermeyer. Jimmy and Paul (Willis and Morgan) are two long-time partners who get suspended from the force for botching an investigation. In need of money for Jimmy's daughter's wedding, Jimmy, with help/hinderance from Paul, gets dragged into a messy plot involving a Mexican drug lord (Díaz), a stolen car and a rare baseball card. An entertaining love letter to the buddy cop genre.
As I said in my Zack and Miri review, I've always been a fan of Kevin Smith's movies, and Cop Out hasn't changed that opinion. If you haven't liked his previous works, you'll probably want to sit this one out, because all of his hallmarks are present: foul language, bizarre but amusing conversations, pop-culture (*cough*Star Wars*cough*) references and Jason Lee. The cast seems to be having fun as they tear through the tenets of the genre, even down to the 80s-style synth soundtrack (courtesy of Faltermeyer, who scored such films as Beverly Hills Cop and Fletch). Willis and Morgan make a surprisingly good team, with Willis as a capable (if mischievous) straight man, and Morgan proving he's a better comic than I previously thought. Sure, the pacing gets a bit sluggish in places, and some of the jokes don't land, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. And sometimes, isn't being entertained enough? —Jared
Music From The Movies,
Saturday, March 13th at 7pm
BLOCKBUSTERS...new music from two big box-office hits: Valentine's Day (music by John Debney) and Alice in Wonderland (score by Danny Elfman). Also, rare music of Bernard Herrmann from the 1945 drama Hangover Square. In reviews, Regina observes very little neck-biting in Twilight star Robert Pattinson's drama, Remember Me. Jared enters the Green Zone with Matt Damon.
> read complete article
Music From The Movies,
Saturday, March 6th at 7pm
THEY'RE ALL WINNERS...On this Academy Awards weekend, great music from past Best Scores! Included are Ben-Hur (Miklos Rozsa), The Lord of the Rings (Howard Shore), Out of Africa (John Barry), and The Lion King (Hans Zimmer). Plus John Williams conducts a medley of Best Songs. In new reviews, Jared checks out District B13: Ultimatum and Saint John of Las Vegas. Regina reports on Alice in Wonderland, Brooklyn's Finest, The Ghost Writer and Valentine's Day.
> read complete article
Music From The Movies,
Saturday, February 27th at 7pm
A MODEST MAN...author C.S. Lewis' series of books known as The Chronicles of Narnia are beloved around the world! We'll listen to music by Geoffrey Burgon and Harry Gregson-Williams from TV and film adaptations. Plus George Fenton's score to Shadowlands, which starred Anthony Hopkins as Lewis himself. In new reviews, Jared's checked out Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan cutting up in Kevin Smith's latest, Cop Out.
> read complete article
Music From The Movies,
Saturday, February 20th at 7pm
SHALL WE DANCE...in this Oscar season, let's remember six-time nominee, actress Deborah Kerr (1921-2007). Music includes An Affair to Remember (Harry Warren and Hugo Friedhofer), Julius Caesar (Miklos Rozsa), The Innocents (Georges Auric), Quo Vadis (also Rozsa), and of course The King and I (Rodgers & Hammerstein). In new reviews, Jared's all right with Parker Posey in Happy Tears, while Regina's not happy about Martin Scorsese's latest, the long-awaited Shutter Island.
> read complete article
Music From The Movies,
Saturday, February 13th at 7pm
HAPPY PRESIDENT'S DAY...our Commander-in-Chief is a favorite role for actors to play. Harrison Ford was a memorable President in Air Force One (music by Jerry Goldsmith). Ralph Bellamy (pictured) played FDR on stage and screen in Sunrise at Campobello (score by Franz Waxman). Michael Douglas took his turn in The American President (music by Marc Shaiman). And we say Happy Birthday to composer John Williams (age 78 on February 8) by including music from JFK. In new reviews, Regina considers the latest incarnation of The Wolfman, and Jared checks out Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.
> read complete article
Music From The Movies,
Saturday, February 6th at 7pm
THE OSCAR NOMINATIONS...Walt Disney was a big winner for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1939. In 2010, we've got five outstanding nominees for Best Original Score. We'll hear music from Avatar, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Hurt Locker, Sherlock Holmes, and Up! In new reviews, Regina watches John Travolta channel Bruce Willis in From Paris With Love, and Jared considers love and war in Dear John.
> read complete article
Music From The Movies,
Saturday, January 30th at 7pm
IT'S COMPLICATED...when Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin reconnect after divorce (music by Hans Zimmer and Heitor Pereira). Also new on the soundtrack shelf: Extraordinary Measures (Andrea Guerra), Creation (Christopher Young), and The Book of Eli (Atticus Ross). In new reviews, Regina reports on Mel Gibson's comeback in Edge of Darkness, and Jared sees Europe with When in Rome. Plus the baby-boomer TV shows keep coming with The Paper Chase and The Patty Duke Show on DVD.
> read complete article
Music From The Movies,
Saturday, January 23rd at 7pm
THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT...this week we feature some great movie musicals played by the Boston Pops with John Williams. A favorite is Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun (Betty Hutton replaced Judy Garland as as Annie Oakley). We've also got music from A Chorus Line, Gigi, On the Town, Singin' in the Rain, and one Judy did do, Meet Me in St. Louis (pictured). Gather around the radio and sing along!
> read complete article
Music From The Movies,
Saturday, January 16th at 7pm
WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS A MAN...especially if that man is Mel Gibson, when he took on the role of Shakespeare's melancholy Dane Hamlet in 1990. Score by Ennio Morricone. Plus more Hamlet music by William Walton, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Patrick Doyle. In new reviews, Regina's crazed from Tim Allen's Crazy on the Outside but loves Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. Jared checks out Denzel Washington's latest, The Book of Eli. Plus we have DVD Short Takes.
> read complete article
Music From The Movies,
Saturday, January 9th at 7pm
PIANO PRODIGY...Australian eccentric and musician David Helfgott (pictured) was the subject of a great movie called Shine in 1996. Music by David Hirschfelder. We also listen to more piano music at the movies, including Summer of '42 (Michel Legrand); the New England Concerto, based on themes by Miklos Rozsa; and the famous Cornish Rhapsody by Hubert Bath, from the movie Love Story (no, not the one with Ryan O'Neal).
> read complete article
Music From The Movies,
Saturday, January 2nd at 7pm
BROWN-EYED GIRL...actress Jennifer Jones has passed away at age 90. Five-time Oscar nominee for Best Actress (with one win), her private life was as fascinating as her public career. She was married 3 times: to a famous actor, a famous producer, and a famous philanthropist. We’ll hear all about that, plus music from Since You Went Away (Max Steiner), The Song of Bernadette (Alfred Newman), Duel in the Sun (Dmitri Tiomkin), Tender is the Night (Bernard Herrmann), and The Towering Inferno (John Williams). Happy New Year!
> read complete article
> view archived music from the movies articles
