Square Eyes

The Corporation

If the conservatives want to get sweaty about a documentary film this summer, Michael Moore's may not be it. Sure, it's gonna make a jillion dollars, get seen by a jillion people and maybe even influence the election - But it's nowhere near as gangsta a film as this one is.

The Corporation is a film about the unfortunate fact that under US Law, corporations are allowed to function as "persons." They present themselves to the consumer as persons. They have all of the legal protections of actual persons, and some that actual persons don't get.

The gimmick of the film is to use the DSM-IV to diagnose exactly what kind of person corporations are, based on their behavior and mandates. I'm not blowing up their spot too much to say that their diagnosis is psychopath.

The gimmick is less than half the story, though. The movie is mostly case studies and commentary, but it lays out a very powerful case for changing the laws that govern corporations and returning to the days when their charters had meaning and they had some sort of obligation to the communities they extract their profits from.

If Moore's movie is designed to make people register to vote, this one is designed to make people show up and protest the WTO. Definitely worth a viewing no matter where you sit on the political spectrum.

See it quick.

Stepford Wives

One: It didn't need a remake.

Two: It's a tricky business to create intentional High Camp. Clearly too tricky by half for the crew assembled here.

Three: You've already got Bette Midler and Matthew Broderick, and Chris Walken to boot. Shouldn't someone have just gone straight to Broadway with this thing? Now THERE a campy version of Stepford might be welcomed.

Not enough pathos to be affecting, not enough funny to be a comedy, and too much Bette Midler altogether. Save your pennies. Watch the original. It's not that great either, but it knows what it wants to be.

Farenheit 9/11

It's a big step forward for Michael Moore. I thought Bowling for Columbine was a muddled but affecting examination of the highly-armed culture of fear. As a fan of the documentary form, I've always been impressed with his knack for getting this kind of movie across to a mainstream audience, and I've always wished he could rein himself in a little and see if the stories could tell themselves more.

He does that here, with mixed but intriguing results. There are only two stunts here of the "TV Nation" variety. He narrates, but stays off camera for the majority of the picture. This has the effect I was hoping for. It makes the people in the stories protagonists rather than sidekicks.

I'm not gonna waste a lot of energy disputing or defending his view of events. That's what documentaries are for - for framing the world in a way that tells the story you want to tell. He's under no obligation to counter his own arguments, or to perfectly summarize the anti-Bush cause.

There aren't a lot of bombshells here, at least not the kind you haven't seen on the daily show, or read about in the alternative press. Despite the attempts of Chris Hitchens and others to cancel the "revelations" they imagine the filmgoing public will react most strongly to, the most moving and disturbing parts of this film are simple interviews. We spend a fair amount of time with soldiers in theater, with recruiters in Flint, and with a mother whose son didn't make it back from Iraq.

There are a few bombs thrown (hint: listen for the riff from Eric Clapton's "Cocaine") and some seriously unflattering video clips of the President's more inarticulate moments. There are montages of administration officials saying unwise things and contradicting themselves. There is the pitiable Colin Powell and his satellite photos. For the most part, however, this isn't the film the right has been expecting. It's both less vicous and more humane than even I was expecting.

I could say that I would like Moore to do a better job of constructing arguments, but it might be beside the point by now. He has created a sort of populist advocacy cinema style all for himself and he's getting better with every film. His next project is rumored to be about the health care industry. I'll certainly be interested in seeing it.

DodgeBall

I gotta imagine that this movie was a lot better in the pitch room than in the theater. I mean, how can you lose? You've got Stiller. You've got Vaughan. You've got the lollipop-headed woman who married Stiller. (She wasn't always a lollipop head - she's just skinnier every time i see her and it's making her head look gargantuan.) You've got a sport that allows for lots of people getting hit in the nads. It can't miss - pure comedy gold....

You will chuckle. You will occasionally outright laugh. More people get hit in the nuts than a "Funniest Home Videos" marathon. If that's enough for you, go right ahead.

But here's the thing. Ben Stiller is on a real powerslide. He's been in a huge string of movies that aren't worthy of him. I miss the Ben Stiller show Ben - the one who occasionally peeks out of movies like Zoolander and then vanishes for crap like The Apartment and Along Came Polly.

This one is about halfway between Zoolander and Polly.

I heard an interview with Ben where he said an earlier version of the script was more of a satire of eighties sports films like Rocky. If they had made that, instead of just making a mediocre one, I'd be recommending this right now.

Saved

Mac is Back, baby.

Macaulay Culkin is not the star of this movie. He is most decidedly a secondary character. Nonetheless, there's somthing heartwarming about seeing the home alone kid with the crazy-ass dad finally get back on the movie horse. it looked for a while like all the parts that could be played by little Mac were gonna get scooped up by his usurper of a little brother kieran.

But he's back, and he acquits himself nobly. Who says American lives have no second acts?

On the subject of the actual film, it's sort of sweet, often quite funny and except for a really preachy final five minutes it rises well above the usual teen comedy. Lots of great character parts, including the first time i can remember seeing martin donovan emoting. And revelation of revelations, Mandy Moore is in this movie and I didn't hate her.

The ending is too happy, too preachy and too forced, but i had a decent time.

All in all, a decent piece of work.

Shrek2

It's making like a jillion dollars. It's funny, just like they say. Antonio Banderas is hilarious as Puss-in-Boots, just like they say. It really does avoid most of the traps inherent in big-money sequels.

You'll have a good time. Kids will like it too. It's as good an animated entertainment as you're likely to get until The Incredibles comes out this fall.

Harry Potter:the Prisoner of Azkaban

Someone in the Rowling juggernaut is thinking.

Instead of the serviceable but lame direction of Chris Columbus, they chose the dude who directed "Y Tu Mama Tambien" this time. That's kind of genius.

The result is a movie truer to the heart of the stories that kids really love - not the Hallmark cuteness of Diagon Alley but the genuine sense of peril and consequence that must motivate any worthwhile thriller.
There is more real malice in the villains here, and that makes the bravery and resourcefulness of young Potter and his cohort much more worthy of our attention.

The same ice effect from "The Day After Tomorrow" makes an appearance here, and is used to much better effect.

The kids are aging - Ron's older brothers are ripe for soccer hooliganism already - but they're supposed to. Their confidence in the roles seems to be growing as well.

As I was reminded by a member of my party who is squarely in the film's target demographic, there's a lot of editing here. She seemed disappointed at the number of things she remembered from the book that didn't make it into the film. I, on the other hand, think that the tighter story arc served the movie -it seemed much less bloated and slow than its predecessors, and except for the Quidditch, I didn't miss anything that was dropped.

All in all, a pleasant surprise.

What the Bleep Do We Know

Shirley MacLaine's guru/channeler Ramtha made a movie. It stars Marlee Matlin from Children of a Lesser God. It's about quantum physics. It employs various academicians and spritual types to make conenctions between recent discoveries in subatomic theory with human behavior as a prescription for improving your life.

If what I've said so far hasn't sent you screaming from the room, it's worth checking out. It was more interesting than I expected, but it's still pretty weird. I'll write more as I consider it more.

The Day After Tomorrow

First things first: you can get 80% of the experience from the trailer. If your movie dollars are constrained by the conditions of the economy, watch the trailer 3 or 4 times and call it good.

Second things second: Ice is a really lame supervillain, unless there's Xmas claymation and it's fighting with the Heat Miser. I know this special effects season ice is the new fire or whatever, but it's kinda slow and doesn't do enough meanmugging.

I don't normally expect a lot out of summer popcorn films. I want action, and suspense, and excessive loudness. I'm not gonna complain about plot holes, or the physics of drilling a hole to the center of the earth, or why all the scientists are hot. So if you're one of those people, stop reading here and go watch the discovery channel. This is a B movie and I don't consider that a bad thing.

Visually, this film delivers. I promise that you will see every dollar of that giant budget on the screen. I promise that however implausible the dangers, they are rendered in lavish and loving fashion. If there had been a little less "emotion" and "human drama" I think i would really have enjoyed this thing. If only they could have fought the Spielbergian impulse to make everything about absent fathers and drifting sons.

You will be entertained, and you won't learn anything - I like that in a blockbuster. If it had a little less self-importance and cheese it would have been a real summer contender. As it is, if you want to see it, get there soon.