Land of the Dead
Long live the king! George Romero heard my plea (See "Romero, Romero, where forth art thou?") and returns to claim his crown as master of the zombie genre with Land of the Dead. In Land of the Dead, the fourth installment in Romero's Dead series (1968's Night of the Living Dead, 1978's Dawn of the Dead, and 1985's Day of the Dead), we learn there are still pockets of civilization living in guarded, walled-up sections of cities. But of course, in Romero style, these pockets are divided by social class where the "haves," lead by the blood-sucking executive Kaufman (played to the brim by the legendary Dennis Hopper, who delivers some of the best lines in the film), live by feeding off the "have-nots," who look to the mercenary Riley (The Ring Two's Simon Baker) for their salvation. In this brave new world, Riley, along with his partner, Cholo (John Leguizamo), and a small misfit attack force have the job of raiding nearby towns for food and medicine, which go to the wealthy survivors first, leaving the lower class to feed off a Kaufman-controlled black market. Of course the real risk for Riley and his crew is that the world outside their sanctuary is plagued by the living dead. If you're thinking this isn't just another simple "man fights zombie" film, you're correct, because in the third plot layer, the zombies have learned to communicate with each other and are moving on the city. Don't forget, zombies also have needs. I'll let you see the film to find out what happens when the three groups finally come together, but if you think you've seen everything there is to see in zombie films, you haven't! Romero still comes up with new ways for zombies to enjoy their meals and shows us some of the best, coolest-looking zombies I've ever seen. Zombie fans will find Land of the Dead hysterical at times (in a sick sort of way), but thoroughly entertaining. See this one in a theater with a crowd and don't forget to look for Tom Savini in a cameo as the "machete zombie." So what's next for Romero? World of the Dead?
Lake Placid
A few good moments—too few.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
It's the turn of the 19th Century and the world is headed toward a devastating war orchestrated by "The Phantom," so the British Empire calls upon Allan Quarterman (Sean Connery), Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), The Invisible Man (Tony Curran), Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), Tom Sawyer (Shane West), and Dr. Jekyll (Jason Flemyng)—the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen—to save the day in this action-packed graphic-novel-turned-film. As a former literature instructor, I was intrigued with the concept of these famous-literary-characters-turned-super-heroes. It seemed imaginative and innovative. And I wasn't disappointed when the first few minutes of this film started with such action-packed power. But could it keep up the pace? It almost does, so that wasn't the problem. Actually, there's so much action, it almost became numbing. The problem was having too many possible leading characters to give any of them any depth. They do try to develop a father-son thing between Quarterman and Sawyer, but it was too expected and cliché. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad film if you want to see sci-fi action-adventure, but don't expect anything knew from the comic book evil-madman-wants-to-conquer-the-world plot where innovation becomes the same old thing.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Director Brad Siberling (1995's Casper, but mostly television, with episodes of Felicity, NYPD Blue, Judging Amy) has his hands full trying to bring three of Lemony Snicket's macabre children's books to the screen, but manages to handle the task quite well. The story follows the Baudelaire children (Emily Browning as Violet, Liam Aiken as Klaus, and Kara and Shelby Hoffman as Sunny), orphaned when a fire destroys their mansion and kills their wealthy parents. (Author Lemony Snicket (Jude Law) warns the audience at the beginning of the film, "if you came to see a story about happy elves you'd better leave the theater.") The executor of their parent's will (Timothy Poe) needs to find suitable relatives (Meryl Streep as Aunt Josephine and Billy Connolly as Uncle Monty) to care for the children and their fortune. Of course, the most prominent, Count Olaf (Jim Carrey) wants the fortune and plots ways to dispose of the children and any relatives who get in the way. (Remember, you can always go see the elf story). While the child actors are wonderful using their special talents: Violet is the inventor, Klaus is the reader, and Sunny bites; and Jim Carrey is well over the top appearing to have plenty of fun with his role—to the audience's delight; the real stars of this film are the surrealistic sets. Having almost an Ed Gorey style, the sets are as close to a book coming alive as I've ever seen. I actually felt as though I was looking at the pages of a book jumping off the screen. The plot moves along fast enough to keep the kids in the audience riveted and even manages to get them to jump out of their seats and scream. In fact, many of the under-five group crawled into the safety of their parent's laps. This is definitely a pleasant diversion from all the snappy, happy holiday films (all of which I've seen). Tim Burton would have fit in well as the director of this one. So if you're looking for a diversion from those elf films and want to be entertained in a quirky, dark macabre way, this one's for you Chiaroscuro families.
Leprechaun in the Hood (direct to Video/DVD)
Warwick Davis must be counting his lucky charms as he appears in
yet another "Leprechaun" film. I think this may be is
fifth or sixth in the series. I'll admit, I've seen most of them
so how could I refuse grabbing this title from the rental shelf.
In this one, a rapper (none other than Ice-T) steals the Leprechaun's
magic flute and the magic instrument launches him to stardom. Enter
a trio of wanna-be rap stars who accidentally steal the flute from
Ice-T, only to be pursued by the aged rapper and the killer Leprechaun.
As with the other films in the series, the fun comes from watching
the Leprechaun come up with magical ways to kill his victims, but
this time we even get to hear him "rap." The jokes are
lame, the acting ridiculous, but this is so bad, I couldn't stop
watching it. So hang on for a twist ending and a leprechaun rap
number from Warwick Davis, accompanied by some hot zombie babes.
Little Otik
A Czech fairytale takes life in modern day Prague when the
husband of a childless wife gives her an infant-shaped tree stump as a
joke. But things soon get out of hand when his wife's belief thatitis
really a baby breathes life into the little stump. But don't stop there,
as Little Otik grows, so does his appetite, at first satiated with the
couples' pet cat, but soon moving on to people. Although about twenty minutes
too long, you will be fascinated, amused, and thoroughly entertained by
the wonderful assortment of quirky characters in this imaginative and twisted
comedy horror from writer-director, Jan Svankmajer.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Peter Jackson weaves a magic wand creating hobbits, elves, orcs and all
the other Tolkien characters just as we imagined them. The wizardry of
his lens leaves you wondering, "where did he get real Hobbits and elves?"
Wielding even more suspense than the book, this first installment is
picture perfect, a classic that leaves you wanting more. But oh the wait!
I'm going back again tomorrow.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Gollum Rules the greatest fantasy film ever made. Move over George Lucas, Peter Jackson is king! Not since The Empire Strikes Back, (remember the Battle for Hoth scene with the giant Imperial Walkers?) have I experienced such awe and wonder during a film. I found myself smiling like a child on Christmas morning. Again Peter Jackson took me into the realm of true fantasy, where the fantasy was fantastic, and the drama serious enough to make me whisper under my breath during tense moments, "Please, don't let that character get killed." If CGI characters could be nominated for acting, Gollum would win hands down. The scenes with his dueling personalities were pure magic, with daring dramatic close-ups to match. Again, not since the original Star Wars Trilogy have I found myself anticipating the next film in the series.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
As often happens with trilogies, each film becomes an act in a three act screenplay format with Act One introducing characters and conflict (The Fellowship of the Ring), Act Two focusing on confrontations (The Two Towers), and Act Three (Return of the King) focusing on resolution of that conflict. (Read my article—Film: A Three Ring Circus at http://thechiaroscuro.com/lordrings.htm for an explanation). Continuing where the last film ended, the Hobbits (Elijah Wood, Sean Astin) are close to getting the ring to Mordor where it can finally be destroyed. Gollum (Andy Serkis) is running out of time to reclaim his precious. The Elves (led by Hugo weaving) and Humans (led by Viggo Mortensen) are ready to make their last stand against Sauron's armies with battles even more grand than The Two Towers. And so we wonder: Will Aragon become king and win Arwen's (Liv Tyler) hand? Will Frodo and Sam complete their quest? Will Gollum reclaim his precious? Will Gandalf (Ian McKellan) rally the human armies for a final stand? And most important, who will live . . . and who will die? Again, the fantasy is fantastic with enough drama to make you bite your nails. But as with most third films in a trilogy (Star Wars, Aliens) just a little bit of steam runs out of the engine as the whole thing prepares to come to an end. And there did seem to be more dialogue slowing the pace here and there in this film than the others. But once things get moving, you quickly forget, again becoming totally absorbed making this last installment of Peter Jackson's LOTR convince me that this trilogy is the greatest fantasy ever made. But unfortunately, the release of the final film was bitter-sweet. While I couldn't wait to see it, I knew it was the last . . . and that means it's over. All I can do now is see it again tomorrow, and when the third film comes out on DVD you can bet I will watch all three in one sitting from my living room couch. Now I have something to look forward to again.
Some interesting facts about making the trilogy:
There were 1,600 pairs of prosthetic hobbit feet and 48,000 swords, axes, shields and other weapons; 20,602 background actors,.with 10,000 New Zealand cricket fans making the orc grunts; 15,000 costumes; 250 horses in one scene; 2,400 behind the scenes crew members at the height of production; 200 handmade orc masks, 180 computer special-effects, 114 speaking roles, 100 New Zealand locations; with 3 million feet of film shot during production, which is why I only buy the director's cut DVD.
Lost Souls
Directed by the cinematographer of Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler's
List, it looks nice, but nothing happens. Skip this one.
|
