“The Sixth Man” juggles three attractions at once — it’s a
terrific ghost story; it’s a fast-action, realistic basketball movie (at the
height of March Madness!); and it stars Marlon Wayans, kid brother of Shawn
and Keenan.
About Wayans (“In Living Color”), one has to say: Move over Jim
Carrey and make room for another guy who becomes amazingly elastic in
physical comedy gags. Wayans, in his first big starring role, also has one
of the most beguiling, goofy grins on the big screen.
Basketball is hot and heavy in “The Sixth Man” — anybody who
doesn’t get enough hoops this weekend can easily keep the high going with
this film.
The plot follows a University of Washington Huskies team through
the Pac-10 conference tournament and on to the Final Four in the NCAA
playoffs. Real teams (some with real players) meet the movie Huskies as they
advance to a national showdown against the University of Massachusetts.
But “The Sixth Man” doesn’t
require an interest in basketball to work its often heartfelt magic as a
ghost story.
Wayans plays Kenny Tyler, a hoopster made sharper by big brother
Antoine (Kadeem Hardison). Through school they form a formidable partnership
on the court, leading to a fearsome college career. Kenny is not a great
shooter, but Antoine hits three-
point shots like clockwork or takes passes from ball handler Kenny to dunk
like an acrobat.
In a fateful dunk, Antoine suffers a fatal heart attack. Kenny
is not only without his brother, but also his basketball partner. The Pac-10
leading Huskies quickly falter. Soon, Antoine comes back as a ghost to help
Kenny and the team.
Basketball is terrific for movie tricks, and the
special-effects folks did a remarkable job of integrating the ghost of
Antoine into court action. Antoine helps guide shots, makes rebounds, tricks
opposing players and blocks enemy baskets. Nobody but Kenny knows what’s
going on, but the Huskies are winning games again and the audience is
scoring on laughs.
The big fun is Kenny’s relationship with the ghost. He sees
the ghost; nobody else does. He alone talks to the ghost. And hugs and
wrestles and argues with the ghost. Everybody else sees a crazy guy doing
crazy things. One perplexed witness is prospective girlfriend R.C. (Michael
Michele of TV’s “Central Park West”), who as a sportswriter notices
Kenny’s odd ways both as a guy and a basketball player.
They push the ghost thing a little too far in “The Sixth
Man,” taking special effects to the hope
lessly hokey. But the film has sports-movie energy and Wayans is appealing
even after the brotherly love angle gets sappy.
David Paymer (“Nixon,” “Get Shorty”) is brilliant as the
Huskies’ coach. Sports fans will get a kick out of seeing ESPN sportscasters
Dick Vitale and Brad Nessler and CNN’s Billy Packer and George Raveling on
the big screen.
I’m not a Sylvester Stallone addict, but I love Cliffhanger. Chicken soup for an power movie lover’s human being, this mindless, head start-of-your-seat flutter ride packs itself with all the genus staples fans adore—implausible story, reluctant man of the hour, cute and spunky love interest, death-defying stunts, dozens of narrow escapes, a sadistically suave villain, high-octane explosions, chase scenes aplenty. You name it, Cliffhanger squeezes it into its 112-little match at intervals. And in maybe his best work to friend, director Renny Harlin effortlessly juggles all the elements and dresses them up with spectacular alpine scenery, a first-rate cast, and a awesome music score by Trevor Jones. Comparisons to another aged-altitude adventure, Vertical Limit, are unavoidable, but Cliffhanger came first and stands on its own a decade after its release as a scale-cleft action entry.
Anyone who’s ever seen the film’s opening sequence intention never lose it. In a nameless national park somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, two stranded climbers signal because of help from atop a craggy peak. But what begins as a take care of-of-the-mill mission as ranger Gabe Walker (Sylvester Stallone) takes a harrowing turn when equipment failure leaves a hysterical unfledged woman (Michelle Joyner) dangling from a loosening harness strap above a 4,000-foot gill. For an agonizing few minutes, Gabe struggles to rib her to safe keeping, but her hand slips be means of his clutch, and as she plummets to her death, her piercing screams echo in Gabe’s ears.
Eight months pass. An AWOL, guilt-ridden Gabe returns to the park to mend fences with his co-worker/girlfriend, Jessie Deighan (Janine Turner), whom he abandoned (along with his job) right away after the blow. Hurt and resentful, Jessie spurns him, yet an emergency rescue mission sucks Gabe back into the fold and into her life. A private level surface has crash-landed on a mountaintop, and the remote topography requires an experienced climber. Gabe, of progress, is the simply man through despite the occupation, but little does he know a merge of ruthless thieves mood in wait, and plan to use his extensive park knowledge to recover three suitcases—lost during a botched mid-disclose transfer—filled with $100 million of stolen cash.
John Lithgow portrays criminal mastermind Eric Qualen, and like Alan Rickman in Die Steadfastly, creates one of the screen’s classic villains. Posh, refined, regardless rotten to his very gist, Qualen pits his brains against Gabe’s strength, and smoothly manipulates both his henchmen and hostage guides. Initially, Lithgow seems equal an anomaly in a Stallone mist, but he quickly settles in and seems to savor every evil smirk and wild mention. He adopts a British accent, which adds extra venom to his campy chat, but don’t let his impeccable elocution fool you. Lithgow can also kick join, and proves himself one of Stallone’s most powerful adversaries. Their climactic confrontation on an overturned helicopter clinging to the be seen of a crag is a brutal fight-to-the-finish, and nonetheless the result is never in have misgivings about, both men disgust on a enlivening physical usher.
The comely Janine Turner of Northern Endangerment illustriousness (what ever happened to her?) shows stacks of steadfastness, while such old-timers as Papa Walton (a.k.a. Ralph Waite) and Paul Winfield lend the picture a ardour of prestige. Yet Cliffhanger is Stallone’s show from start to carry out, and the film—albeit briefly—jumpstarted his faltering bolt. At age 47, Sly proves conditions and again he can still cut the action mustard, whether he’s duking it out with thugs or outrunning a raging avalanche. And while it’s bite to see the actor (who also co-wrote the screenplay) paint a superstar other than Rocky or Rambo, we’re lucky the movie’s extreme scenery and surprised pacing draw away us from his constantly bulging biceps and marble-mouthed line deliveries.
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The depth of Cliffhanger doesn’t go beyond its “crime doesn’t pay” message, and the film would only be half as much fun if it did. In preference to, this tense thriller wears its clichés kidney honor badges, at no time takes itself too gravely, and, like most action fantasies, isn’t afraid to go over the top—way upon the top—to keep us entertained. So grab a blanket, tighten that harness, and get ready fit one ravishing trip. And, oh yeah—don’t look down.
By AMY BIANCOLLI Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Dec. 18, 2007, 2:51PM
Focus Features
Keira Knightley stars as older sister Cecilia and Saoirse Ronan as Briony in a romance based on Ian McEwan's award-winning best-selling novel,
Atonement
.
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Flicks details
Atonement
MPAA Rating
R
for disturbing war images, language and some sexuality
Running Time
123 minutes
Released
Dec 14, 2007
(Limited)
Distributed By
Focus Features
How rare the film that makes me glad I never read the book, but that's
Atonement
. Ian McEwan's widely lauded novel was on my short list for months, even years, after publication, but somehow I never got around to reading it.
And by the time the movie adaptation lurked around the bend, it was too late: I hate cramming a novel right before seeing a film, primarily because it's no fun, but also because I then spend the entire running time comparing it with its literary source material. The book is too fresh on the brain. And the brain is unfair to the movie.
So I hadn't read
Atonement
when I sat down to watch Joe Wright's lush, lusty and altogether quivering adaptation. I knew nothing of the plot beyond what I had gleaned from the trailer: that it involves two young lovers (circa World War II) and one young girl, a 13-year-old named Briony who witnesses something scandalous and twists it with destructive force. I knew the story involved prevarication and storytelling, and I knew it starred two actors I like, Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, as the lovers. I also knew Wright had directed 2005's finely human take on
Pride & Prejudice
.
And I knew precisely nothing else walking into
Atonement
. For all those in a similarly ignorant state I'll refrain from spilling more plot turns, except to note a grim panorama of a historic retreat and an ending that combines a gasp of surprise with the dam-bursting pathos of a classic romance.
But for a few choice profanities (including, in Briony's phrasing, "the worst word you can possibly imagine") and a few choice moments in a library, Wright's film might have been made 60 or 70 years ago. It isn't so much the look of the thing (pastel and misty, like faded wallpaper) or the structure of it (which doubles back to alternate points of view) as its unshakable faith in One True Love and the stubborn will of conscience.
This is a simple, old-fashioned saga with one or two logical hiccups; a key character change occurs off-screen, presto chango, with scant explanation over five quickly elapsed years. But it isn't pulpy, and it's never cheap. It is mindful art doubling as unapologetic entertainment, an ode to eros and errors assembled with vision and meticulous care. The acting is fervid (Saoirse Ronan chills as the girl Briony, later played by Romola Garai), Seamus McGarvey's cinematography astounds, and the direction is pregnant with meaning. The screenplay (by Christopher Hampton, who also worked on
The Quiet American
) uses a minimum of words for a maximum effect, wholeheartedly exploiting the standard lover's lexicon of desire.
Words don't express all of it. Even more is said by Dario Marianelli's huge bubbling hot tub of a late-Romantic score, touched with the sweep of Rachmaninoff and the longing of Puccini in piano-and-orchestra motifs composed in the minor key of sorrow. (Listen for the killer French soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.) In a further inspired touch, Marianelli employs the percussive clack of a manual typewriter as a rhythm instrument, reflecting both a central character's writerly impulses and the urgent push of McEwan's narrative.
Atonement
is a film about writing tales and righting wrongs. But it's also a film about the justice of fiction: the imperative that makes us change the facts so they're true to the heart of the story. It is a big one. It beats loudly. And by the time it stops, you might find that yours is broken.
Showtimes:
It isn't surprising that the gay-rights documentary "Out of the Past" practically ignores the other side of the story. What is surprising is that it botches the job of presenting its intended storyline.
That isn't to say the movie is completely worthless. It has some intermittently interesting moments, most of which are the interview segments with Kelli Peterson, the Salt Lake woman who co-founded the controversial Gay Straight Alliance at East High School in 1996.
Actually, concentrating solely on Peterson's story would have made a much better movie. She's a charismatic and well-spoken personality, and even if you disagree with her logic or her arguments, at least she might provoke some thought about them.
However, director Jeff Dupre and screenwriter Michelle Ferrari take so much time trying to broaden the film's scope ? by comparing Peterson's efforts to those of other historic gay-rights activists ? that the interviews with Peterson and her family wind up taking a back seat.
The real kicker is an emotional meeting between Peterson and Barbara Gittings, who has lobbied for gay rights for more than 40 years, but it, too, is glanced at all too briefly.
In addition, the superficial life sketches of other activists ? 17th-century Puritan cleric Michael Wigglesworth; 19th-century novelist Sarah Orne Jewett and her companion, philanthropist Annie Fields; and early 20th-century organizer Henry Gerber ? don't do any of their stories justice.
Making things worse are the emotionless readings of their diary entries and other writings, which are given nondescript narration by actors Edward Norton, Gwyneth Paltrow and Linda Hunt.
"Out of the Past" is not rated but would probably receive a PG-13 for some scenes of homosexual affection, frank discussion of homosexual activities, use of some vulgar gestures and mild profanity.
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The Case
I recently reviewed the 2006 release
School for Scoundrels
, which I
didn't realize was a remake—though I should have since new ideas are so
rare these days. Having watched that one, I thought it might be interesting to
have a chance a see the original 1960s movie. How similar would the two be? What
constituted a "scoundrel" back in the day? Which would be the better
of the two?
Henry Palfrey (Ian Carmichael,
The Royal
) is a nice guy who finishes
last. Everything seems to go against him and everyone walks over him. Fortune
did seem to smile on him when he bumped into April Smith (Janette Scott,
Crack in the World
) on the bus. The two made a connection and Henry took
her out on a date. Unfortunately while at the posh restaurant, rogue Raymond
Delauney (Terry-Thomas,
Don't Raise
the Bridge, Lower the River
) took an immediate liking to April and brazenly
put all the moves on her. She seemed to like it, and Henry sat helpless. That
was the last straw. He's had enough of the abuse and has enrolled in Mr.
Potter's (Alastair Sim,
Waterloo Road
) School of Lifemanship. Here, men
like Henry learn the art of self-confidence and the skills necessary to always
be "one up" on your opponent. Upon completing schooling, he takes aim
at all the people who have walked over him. At the center of his sights is
Raymond. He will knock the arrogant man down a few notches and hopefully win
back the beautiful April.
The two films are similar as long as you look at it from a general, thematic
perspective. Both films detail a hapless man looking to change his course in
life; both have a man with a budding love interest being stolen by another man;
both center around a school teaching "lifemanship"; and both have a
pivotal scene on a tennis court. Hence, both follow the same plotline. But it's
getting from start to finish that's drastically different, and that centers on
the definition of "scoundrel."
This original British movie is different because much has changed over the
past forty-five years. What was considering scurrilous behavior then is seen as
no big deal today. In 1960, being a scoundrel was simply attending such a school
and being somewhat manipulative. In 2006, being a scoundrel involves excessive
foul language, humiliation, total manipulation, vandalism, poor sportsmanship,
lying, cheating, stealing, and any other dirty trick necessary to make sure you
trample your opponent. It's gone from being "one up" to burying your
nemesis.
As such, this original version of the film is better and more enjoyable. Its
sense of innocence and dry British wit was a pleasant, refreshing change of pace
from the frenetic mean-spiritedness of its remake. The gentle, quaint
manipulations from that time seem a more respectable, gentlemanly way of
accomplishing things. It's making sure you succeed and not making sure you're
ruining someone else's life. I appreciated the throwback to simpler times.
Beyond that, while I liked the acting from Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder, I
enjoyed Ian Carmichael and Terry-Thomas' playful, pressured banter more. (Though
why is the gap-toothed Terry-Thomas the star, let alone such a debonair bachelor
in this film?) In the remake, headmaster Thornton is downright evil, being the
man trying to steal Heder's girlfriend. In the original, the headmaster is a
wizened, grandfatherly figure who is always there to support his students.
School for Scoundrels (1960)
is a black and white film (contrary to
the colorized DVD cover). Overall, the contrast in the blacks and grays is
respectable, with crisp distinctions. I did not notice any transfer errors on
the print. Due to lack of any technical data, I made an educated deduction that
this print is non-anamorphic. A Dolby 2.0 mono track makes up your only audio
choice; the dialogue is clean and easy to understand, creating to a satisfying
listening experience. Oddly, the only subtitle choice is Spanish. There are no
bonus items available.
In remake-obsessed Hollywood, the tradition continues—even when we
don't realize it.
School for Scoundrels (1960)
is a charming, sweet, fun
film. I enjoyed watching this one, though I do wish the ending wasn't as trite
as it was. Give this one a rental at your favorite DVD establishment.
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School For Scoundrels (1960)
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?
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Jury Room
This is the story of Norma Jean Baker, who finds her corps ungovernable to men and uses it to fulfill her ambitions of appropriate a movie star, Marilyn Monroe.
Starting in 1941, earlier she is raped by a motor cycle officer in lieu of a speeding ticket, which seemingly leaves her disliking sex. She works in a munitions factory, and wins a beauty contest.
Soon it becomes an endless succession of influential film men. Eventually a retired and ailing movie mogul, Hal James (Preston Hanson), takes a presumably platonic interest in her and grooms her into the Marilyn Monroe image.
Thesping is mostly sound with Misty Rowe, in the title role, giving a fine and sensitive performance, catching the star’s own voice exactly.
funny here.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A tepid, contrived, lightweight, clean fun religious comedy, going
against the rebellious trend in 1968 for wilder pics that reflected more
earnestly and radically on the changing times. It’s directed by the mediocre
filmmaker James Neilson (“Return of the Gunfighter”/”The Adventures of
Bullwhip Griffin”/”Bon Voyage!”), and is a much inferior sequel to the
hit family comedy The Trouble With Angels (1966). Nothing much interesting
or funny here, as it tries to make funny without offering much in insight
over the conservative Catholic Church becoming more liberal since the early
1960s due to Vatican II. This convent film pits the pious conservative
Mother Superior Rosalind Russell against the enlightened younger upstart
streetwise hip nun Stella Stevens. The one-joke comedy looks a lot like
a made-for-television movie and has elderly stars like Milton Berle, Arthur
Godfrey, Van Johnson and Robert Taylor make cameos. It could have benefited
greatly if Luis Bunuel was the director and not a graduate of Disney. The
bland theme song is by the composers Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, known
for their bubblegum hits that include most of the Monkees’ classics.
The pious old-fashioned Mother Superior Simplicia (Rosalind Russell)
resignedly accompanies the liberal Sister George (Stella Stevens) to chaperone
the high-spirited girls of St. Francis Academy in Pennsylvania to an ecumenical
peace rally in Santa Barbara, California, after the young nun got permission
from the bishop (Arthur Godfrey), and they trek there by bus. En route
they encounter unusual bus trouble in their new bus; attend an amusement
park; run into a Hell’s Angels-like gang of menacing motorcyclists; spend
a night at a Catholic boys’ school run by Father Chase (Van Johnson), where
they attend a rock dance; in New Mexico they are hosted in a dude ranch
by the gracious millionaire Mr. Farriday (Robert Taylor) and his six sons;
in Arizona they are attacked by Indian extras and then the enraged film
director (Milton Berle), who becomes testy because the bus ruined his cowboy
and Indian chase scene. During the California rally, the nuns resolve their
differences as a good will gesture to their faith and change their former
habits for short skirts and ebony hose (which goes for the film’s biggest
chuckle).
Mary Wickes, Binnie Barnes and Dolores Sutton reprise their roles
in the original as sister teachers in the Catholic school, while the stowaway
Susan Saint James and her best friend Barbara Hunter play the two most
mischevious students in the unruly bunch.
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Streaming movie sites have become popular with people who spend a lot of time online these days. These sites make it possible to watch full-length feature films, clips, and even streaming television shows right on your computer screen using a technology known as ?streaming-video.? On some of these web resources you can even play interactive games in HD with 3D graphics. There are numerous websites providing these services, some free and others requiring paid memberships. The best free movie sharing site is watch-funny-movies.com
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This is not a new or original story someone is concerned the screen, but it is exemplar starring material on the side of Peter Lorre, making his triumph appearance in a Hollywood-milled product. Ideal as this French-written romance [Hands of Orlac by Maurice Renard] may be for Lorre, however, the results are disappointing.
Settings are strikingly effective and the camerawork far above average, director Karl Freund being a former cameraman and one of the best. Lorre’s fine performance does the rest.
Hands of Orlac, under that title, was made in 1928 as a silent by Aywon, an independent company. Main character, in the hands of Lorre, is that of a surgeon-scientist with sadistic tendencies. Among other things, he never misses a guillotining.
Lorre buys a statue of an actress and idolizes it, refusing to recognize that she is in love with her husband, a distinguished pianist (Orlac). When the latter is injured in a train wreck and his hands have to be amputated, the doctor grafts on the mitts of a murderer who choked his victim and who has just been guillotined. Thus the pianist husband finally kills his stepfather.
The girl is Frances Drake, and the husband is played acceptably by Colin Clive.