Day 27 -- Ten Inch Hero

Released: February 29th, 2009

Starring: Elisabeth Harnois, Danneel Harris, Jensen Ackles, Clea DuVall, Sean Patrick Flanery

Writer/Director: Betsy Morris/David Mackey

Description: Ten Inch Hero follows the love lives of several young adults who work together at a sandwich shop, The Beach City Grill, owned by a child of the sixties who adheres to the surfing lifestyle.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

***

Surprisingly good films are something I expected to find during this project, but honestly, this wasn't one I had considered. My choice of the film was mostly because of my love of "One Tree Hill", particularly season three. With two cast members from that season in this movie, it was something I added with crossed-fingers and a hope that it would be passable. Well, it was that and more.

"Ten Inch Hero" is one of those rare combinations of a romantic comedy and a coming-of-age story that doesn't make you roll your eyes. It follows the lives of young employees of a sandwich shop in California. We meet Piper (Harnois), Tish (Harris), Jen (DuVall) and Priestly (Ackles) on Piper's first day on the job, and she immediately meets all of your typical characters in romantic comedies: The "slut" (Tish), the sheltered one (Jen) and the comic relief (Priestly). To be honest, this would make a pretty good CW series because the four stories (five if you include the shop owner) could easily be spread out over a few seasons, and a sandwich shop makes a perfect central locale.

As the movie continues, the same cliches from this genre begin to appear, but something's different. Not in the story, but the way it's being told. The chemistry between the actors, which is one of the hardest things to create, is what makes this film believable and entertaining. The actors did an amazing job of taking a bare-bones story and making the audience care about the outcome, even though veteran watchers of the genre already knew the ending. 

The writing in this movie is top-notch for a romantic comedy. It doesn't miss any of the beats, such as, Tish's storyline where she realizes that she is worth more than sex and stops looking at the superficial. Even the twists in the movie are pulled off without much groaning, except for the end when Priestly cleans himself up to gain the courage to ask out Tish. 

This is the big swing and miss in the film, as it completely undoes everything that he stood for, and confirms everything that Jen says occurs to her. Also, it doesn't completely allow Tish's character to grow. And their bonding moment of having weird first names (Boaz and Platisha) is a too contrived.

All of the actors, which was a who's who of the WB and CW, were stellar in their roles. Sure, it's not like any of them are going to win awards for their performances, but they did something that I believe is tougher than acting in a drama: being good in a Rom-Com. There is a balance of comedy and drama that one needs to show in these films that few do well. Harris and Ackels, who are married in real life, are the standouts on the comedy end, and DuVall and Harnois hold down the drama side, with each actor not failing when needing to crossover. 

"Ten Inch Hero" could easily become a guilty pleasure for me because it has three thing I look for: beautiful actresses, writing and performances that make laugh and a fun story. The romantic comedy gets a lot of negative buzz, and rightfully so, because most of it is crap, but every once in a while a movie shows exactly what the genre should be. There's no love triangle, no obvious choice for the protagonist and no script that looks like it was written from a template, but what it does have is a truly romantic story (but not self indulging) that feels like it could happen in reality.

Rating: 7/10 -- Fun movie with four underrated actors, who create characters that I could see working at my local sandwich shop. The story is so down-to-earth that I could see any of the storylines being told to me by a friend over drinks. If you enjoy the genre, it's definitely one to pick up. Maybe I'm just a sucker for a well-told, WB-ish story, but dammit I liked it.

Day 26 -- Maze

Released: June 18th, 1993

Starring: Rob Morrow, Laura Linney, Craig Sheffer

Writer/Director: Rob Morrow, Bradley White and Nicole Burdette/Rob Morrow

Description: An artist with Tourette Syndrome falls in love with his best friend's pregnant girlfriend.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

***

Love stories can be told in many ways, and ever since the time of Shakespeare, they have. You have your straight forward star-crossed lover to your destined to be together, and everything in between. With that type of saturation in a genre, it's always the unique ones that draw my interest.

"Maze" is definitely a unique story. Rob Morrow plays artist Lyle Maze, who was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome as a child, but has found away to be successful. Maze is just looking for inspiration for his next art piece, and ends up falling in love with his best friend's pregnant girlfriend (Linney). The majority of the movie is their budding relationship as he look after her while boyfriend, Mike (Sheffer), is out of the country with Doctors Without Boarders.

 

Morrow's performance as maze is as realistic as one can get without suffering from the disease. It's quite a change from the roles he is most know for from "Northern Exposure" and "Numb3rs", and probably the best of his career. But it's a shame that the rest of the movie didn't raise to the same level.

Linney is her usual adorable, vulnerable self, but there's something missing from her performance. The movie has some odd pacing issues. It feels like it should be a lot longer than its 90+ minute running time, which was most obvious by the ending that few rushed because it was missing a few scenes.

With Morrow in the director's chair as well, it's obvious that his performance would be the standout one. This mostly comes from maybe a lack of explaining his vision to the other actors, and not needing to explain it to himself, which is understandable since this was his first time directing a feature. He does a pretty solid job overall, but I wonder what a veteran director could have done.

"Maze" is a unique tale with an interesting protagonist, but only shows flashes of charm that most independent romance movies should. Not a bad film by any stretch, but not one that you need to purchase; a rent should do.

Rating: 6/10 -- Good first effort in the directing chair by Morrow. Interesting protagonist, but an uninteresting story with a rushed ending.

Day 25 -- Last Action Hero

Released: June 18th, 1993

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austin O'Brien, F. Murray Abraham

Writer/Director: Shane Black and David Arnott/John McTiernan

Description: A young movie fan gets thrown into the movie world of his favorite action film character.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

***

In recent years, there's been an explosion of parody movies. Whether it be scary, disaster or vampire movies, they have all gotten the comedy treatment. Parodies are nothing new, they have been a part of film for at least the last generation with "Airplane" being the most notorious.

"Last Action Hero" does something that few parodies (At least, I consider it a parody) do, it's also a solid action film. It doesn't just go from joke to joke, but actually follows a lot of traditional set pieces for action films of the time. 

It's a little ironic that this movie was released at practically the tail end of the testosterone, larger than life action hero era that was headlined by Schwarzenegger and Stallone throughout the 80s. While it was an okay representation of the genre, the style was showing its age. Like all genres, the big budget action flick was getting over saturated and showing fatigue. Hindsight is always 20-20, but I wonder if the producers felt the same thing and made this movie as a way to hopefully jump start it.

I enjoyed the integration of every crime action movie of the time, there's a little "Lethal Weapon" and "Die Hard" in just about every gag. It was smartly done, and didn't scream, 'look how cleaver we are,'

at any point. The introduction of an animated cat detective was a nice nod to recent resurgence of animated movies, and also a joke directed at MC Skat Kat from Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract" music video. And having the ending be a call back to the beginning was a nice job of story telling.

 

Schwarzenegger gave his typical macho action movie performance. He has the catchphrases and the attitude that you've seen for the decade-plus prior, but he's added some comedic elements that don't fall flat. The writers do a good job of combining all of his most famous characters into Jack Slater, and he appears to have a good time with the role.

The movie overall is an entertaining ride that makes me reminisce for these mindless action movies. Sure, at the time the genre was fatiguing, but now they are few and far between that these films are seen in a better light than in their own time.

Rating: 6.5/10 -- Fun movie that does a good job of making fun of itself. Wish more parody movies were like this.

Day 24 -- Edmound

Released: July 14th, 2006

Starring: William H. Macy, Julia Stiles, Joe Mantegna, Mena Suvari

Writer/Director: David Mamet/Stuart Gordon

Description: A fortune-tellers teasing rumination sends Edmond Burke lurching into New York City's hellish underworld.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

***

Some movies attempt to be controversial by having lots of swearing, lots of sex or lots of ultra-violence. This is all in an attempt to make the audience uncomfortable with the subject matter on the screen. It's supposed to show racism, murder or sexuality in a way that people don't expect in film. But with society becoming so desensitized to violence, nudity and slurs/"bad" words, writers and directors are finding it tougher to shock the public. The closest movie to do this in recent years was "The Human Centipede".

"Edmond" tries it's best to be a shock driven movie. Right from the first encounter with a man in a bar played by Joe Mantegna, where he freely says "nigger" without hesitation, and then constantly uses it throughout the rest of the conversation, the writer is trying to say, 'hey, look i used this taboo racial slur. Ain't I edgy?' And the movie proceeds from there, as Edmond (Macy) goes through every self destructive avenue a city can offer: prostitution, gambling, pawning and casual sex. 

As Edmond, who Macy embodies perfectly, slowly descends madness, the events that take place become more and more outlandish. His entire conversation with Julia Stiles, whether it be at the restaurant or in her room after sex,  is ridiculous. I can't believe the writer thinks we are dumb enough to accept that she would sleep with him after his insane monologue. She eventually catches on that he's a bit crazy, but it's too late as he murder her in a "gruesome" scene that made me laughed out loud.

The arc of "Edmond" is to show his transition from a dweeb to a zealot. He begins his night looking for sex, but it ends with him releasing his built up sexual desire in a violent explosion. Macy shows this transformation in a very organic way, but I saw no real spark that made him snap. Maybe that was the point, but it felt like it was missing a scene.

Macy does what he does, which is to give a grade-A performance despite every thing around him being crap. If you need a completely worn-down man who is chronically depressed, there is no one better than Macy. He has the ability mix self-deprecating humor with dramatic moments, and never really turns in a bad performance. I can't say the same thing about the other actor in the film. It really seemed like everyone took their checks and gave C-grade performances, even Stiles, who's usually pretty solid, looked over-matched when trying to be a homophobic waitress.

"Edmond" tries to follow in the footsteps of "Crash" in theaters, but there was something lacking in the execution of the film. I found myself laughing more than being uncomfortable. Maybe I'm more cynical or desensitized than others, but I don't think that was the case because I really feel they were caught between being a parody and controversial.

Rating: 5.5/10 -- Great performance by Macy, and good for some cheap, unintended laughs. There seems to be a great story of the downfall of a man, but the situations get out-of-hand so quickly that it's not believable.

Day 23 -- Twisted

Released: February 27th, 2004

Starring: Andy Garcia, Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson

Writer/Director: Sarah Thorp/Philip Kaufman

Description: Jessica, whose father was a serial killer, is a female police officer. While investigating a murder, she finds herself in the center of her own investigation, when her former lovers start dying around her at a furious pace.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

***

The crime thriller genre is an interesting one. It's always a crapshoot, you either get a well-written, well-acted drama, or you get an extended episode of Law and Order. Some of the best keep me guessing while some give away the ending in the first half-hour.

"Twisted", unfortunately, is the latter. The movie stars the queen of the crime drama, Ashley Judd, who starred in five movies of this genre between 1997 and 2004, as Inspector Jessica Shepard, the first female detective in San Fransisco homicide. 

Once she takes her new job, a serial killer decides to kill people that Shepard's slept with in the past, which makes her the prime suspect. After she finally cracks and is arrested for the murders, it is revealed that it was Samuel Jackson's character all along who has been killing those men along with her father, her mother and the men she slept with, too. This all occurs after he tries to set up, Andy Garcia's character for the recent murders like he did her father for the past ones.

Despite the talent in the movie, "Twisted" is very flat and kind of boring. Jackson mails it in, and Andy Garcia does an Al Pacino impersonation in ever intense scene. You know, his voice gets way too loud, and he over-acts. Judd plays the same character she plays in these movies: smart, tough as nails women with a dark past. It's like they all played it safe and didn't give the movie much emotion.

The direction was on par with the rest of the genre. Lots of jump cuts, dramatic music, and a ton of dark locations. Like every thing else, there was nothing that really stuck out.

Most crime thrillers like to have their twist endings to have a link to something that was threaded throughout the film. This is the one case where I thought they did something interesting. At multiple times in the movie, Jackson's character gives Shepard a "test", which mainly consist of memorizing certain things in the room, and her skills in this "test" help her to realize that Jackson's character (who raised her after her parents died) has been the villain all along. It was a cool use of a seemingly throwaway scene in the movie. But again, not outstanding enough to make the film stand out.

Rating: 5.5/10 -- Very bland crime thriller, which is inexcusable given who was cast in the movie. One positive is that I forgot Judd is one of only three women who I think look just as hot with their hair short and long (Natalie Portman and Carey Mulligan).

Day 22 -- Southland Tales

Released: November 14th, 2007

Starring: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sean William Scott, Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake

Writer/Director: Richard Kelly

Description: Southland Tales is an ensemble piece set in the futuristic landscape of Los Angeles on July 4, 2008, as it stands on the brink of social, economic and environmental disaster. Boxer Santaros is an action star who's stricken with amnesia. His life intertwines with Krysta Now, an adult film star developing her own reality television project, and Ronald Taverner, a Hermosa Beach police officer who holds the key to a vast conspiracy.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

***

I was always taught that movies should have some sort of narrative, a story line that one could follow. There's always room to cross genres, and hell even, time periods, but it needs to make sense. It can't look like the writer threw a bunch of ideas at the wall and didn't care how they stringed together.

"Southland Tales" didn't heed this advice. It's a sci-fi/political/conspiratorial/apocalyptic/thriller rolled into one movie. I've watched it twice and have no idea what it is trying to get across. If it's supposed to be a parody, it's not very funny, and I can't figure our what they are parodying. It has this giant ensemble cast, who are all somehow used terribly throughout the movie.  

The call sheet includes: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sean William Scott, Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake, and for some reason, John Larroquette. My imagination makes me believe that they did this movie on a dare, or high, either way it's probably one they'd all like back. Even Kevin Smith makes a cameo.

The writer/director is Richard Kelly, who was responsible for the extremely polarizing "Donnie Darko", which I change my opinion on each time I watch it, so you knew what this could be going in. But this one makes even less sense that "Darko". Also, there no reason this movie needed to be two and half hours long; 90 minutes would've sufficed. The extra hour was just Kelly showing us how clever he can be.

There are more twist in this film than the last five minutes of a M. Night Shyamalan movie. I couldn't keep track of all the double crosses, and who was in what faction. Even when the movie tries to explain everything at the end, I actually come away more confused. The only conclusion I can come up with is this is supposed to be a modern telling of the Book of Revelation, and even that I'm unsure of.

Rating: 4/10 -- Insane movie that you may need to be on mushrooms to understand, or laugh at. Honestly, it felt like four plots in one with the thinnest of ties between them. Oh, there's a Timberlake musical number where he lip-syncs the Killers, "All These Things That I've Done". Yeah, that happened.

Day 21 -- Daybreakers

 

Released: January 18th, 2010


Starring: Ethan Hawke, William Defoe, Sam Neill, Claudia Karvan

Writer/Director: Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig


Description: In the year 2019, a plague has transformed most every human into vampires. Faced with a dwindling blood supply, the fractured dominant race plots their survival; meanwhile, a researcher works with a covert band of vamps on a way to save humankind.

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

***

Movie or TV shows involving vampires always draw an interest from me. Shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Angel" and "The Vampire Dairies", and movies like, "Blade" and "Underworld" rank high on my list of favorite entertainment choices. So when I saw "Daybreakers" in the Instant Queue I quickly added it.

The 2010 film takes a twist on genre by having the vampires be the dominate species on earth, which honestly is how it should be. The idea that vampires could never adapt enough to overthrow the human establishment is ludicrous. But the issue that occurs with this world is that as the number of vampire grows, the human population dwindles, and ergo the food supply becomes scarce. Maybe I missed a movie, but this seems to be a concept I haven't seen much. Even the story that sunlight can actually cure vampire is a novel idea I'd like to see explored more.

The movie itself isn't all that exciting in terms of action, but the times when it does ramp up it is very dynamic. This is because of the good direction and cinematography by the Spierig Brothers and Ben Nott, respectfully. I especially like the crane shot when a caravan of humans were surrounded by the vampire army and used the lights on their truck (infused with UV) to light the area and create a barrier to keep vampires out. It's a great shot for building tension, and there were multiple shots like this through out the movie.

There's not a single stand out performance. Sam Neill, Ethan Hawke and William Dafoe turn in very professional, solid work. The failure lies with the supporting actors, who really didn't do much to, I guess, support the lead actors. The movie needed a memorable performance, such as Wesley Snipes in "Blade", to make this film more than just a decent effort.

Mediocrity is this movie's biggest problem. Outside of some solid writing, and a very plausible story (well, as plausible as a vampire story can be), the movie just doesn't have anything else going for it. It's watchable, but I wouldn't really go out of my way.

Rating: 6/10 -- Nice twist on the vampire genre. Hawke, Neill and Dafoe keep the it from become a snooze-fest. The vampires don't sparkle.