What a Girl Wants (2003) [PG] ***

A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net in 2003.

Forget Halloween. Forget The Shining. Forget The Exorcist and The Ring. The movie to truly horrify a grown man is What a Girl Wants, a motion picture that only a female (preferably between the ages of 8 and 16) could love. This goes beyond the term chick flick to something more estrogen-driven than a romantic comedy. It's a variation of the Cinderella fairy tale that knows its target audience. Pre-teen and teenage girls (and maybe a few older women) will adore this motion picture. They will identify with the main character as a fantasy object, sigh over older hunk Colin Firth and younger hunk Oliver James, and hiss and spit at wicked, nasty Anna Chancellor. In fact, the only thing surprising about What a Girl Wants is that it's not from Disney, the company that foisted the oh-too-similar Princess Diaries upon us.

Predictable, giddy movies with contrived plot devices and relentlessly upbeat endings are not my kind of thing. I don't like films where I'm always at least two steps ahead of the screenwriter and three ahead of the characters. It is possible to construct a modern-day fairy tale with a smart script (try Drew Barrymore's Ever After, if you don't believe me), but that would take more effort than what has occurred here – slapping together a bunch of tried-and-true elements and throwing them up on the screen. I didn't hate What a Girl Wants, but there were plenty of times when I found myself wishing it would have the gumption to be more than it is. The 100 minutes go by effortlessly, although they aren't spent profitably.

Daphne Reynolds (Amanda Bynes) is a typical 17-year old teenage girl being raised by a single parent, Libby (Kelly Preston). She has never met her father because he doesn't know about her. Eighteen years ago, Libby met Henry Dashwood (Colin Firth), in Morocco, where they were married in a desert Bedouin ceremony. But the marriage fell apart when Henry returned to England and his senior advisor learned that Libby was pregnant, feared it would ruin Henry’s political career and convinced Libby to go home to America. Now, eighteen years later, Daphne tracks down her father and shows up unannounced in his back garden, upsetting his life, his bid for a seat in Parliament, and his prospective marriage to the haughty Glynnis (Anna Chancellor). Aside from Henry, the only one delighted to meet Daphne is her grandmother (Eileen Atkins). Thus begins a tug-of-war, as Daphne and Henry work to change one another. She tries to loosen him up; he tries to teach her decorum. Along the way, she also finds time to fall in love with Ian (Oliver James), a local musician.

Lead actress Amanda Bynes is perky and energetic, and does a good job when the screenplay doesn't require much in the way of emotional range or depth. After a while, however, the non-stop cheerfulness and high-wattage smile begin to wear on one's nerves. Colin Firth does his best not to appear constantly embarrassed, which is something of a challenge, especially when he's put in the position of having to try on tight leather pants. Kelly Preston is relaxed and in her element. This is the kind of role she can play without trying. Both Anna Chancellor, as the wicked stepmother type, and Jonathan Pryce, as her father, look constantly constipated.

What a Girl Wants is not only the victim of mediocre writing, it is hamstrung by amateurish camerawork. Director Dennie Gordon only has one feature film on her resume (Joe Dirt), and her lack of skill is apparent. She is overly fond of close-ups (probably as a result of her numerous television credits) and many of her shots are static and composed with a 1.33:1 aspect ratio in mind (despite the fact that the movie is projected at 2:35:1). The result is a movie whose flat look seems strangely appropriate for its lightweight story. This is a throwaway TV movie packaged for a theatrical release. Anyone not in the target demographic is advised to give it a wide berth. [Berardinelli’s rating: 2 stars out of 4 or 50%]

Amanda Bynes was born in California in April, 1986 so she is 34 as of this writing (2020). She began acting in 1998 at the age of 12 and had accumulated 21 acting credits by the age of 24 in 2010, when she announced her retirement from acting.

Labels: Cinderella-story, comedy, cross-cultural, drama, family, reunion, romance
IMDb 58/100 
MetaScore (critics=41, viewers=66) 
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=48, viewers=71)
Amanda Bynes biography 

 

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) [PG-13] ****

A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net on July 18 2018.

Even recognizing that it’s among the most unnecessary sequels ever made and that it exists purely because of how much money the original Mamma Mia! made ($144M domestic, $610M worldwide), it’s difficult to hate Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. It’s tough to complain about an unfocused story because the same criticism could be leveled against the first film – that’s what happens when a story is constructed around a bunch of popular songs that were written decades ago for entirely different purposes. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is more of the same. One senses viewers [who enjoyed the first one] wouldn’t want anything different.

One problem faced by the filmmakers (with director Ol Parker replacing Phyllida Lloyd) is that nearly all of ABBA’s A-list songs were used in Mamma Mia! While the group has an impressively large catalogue, audience appreciation is going to differ between something that gets Oldies radio play today and something that most people haven’t heard since the ‘70s (if ever). Consequently, the majority of Here We Go Again’s soundtrack is comprised of songs from two categories: B-list tunes that will be familiar only to die-hard ABBA fans and repeats of songs from Mamma Mia! There are more of the latter than the former. Also included are the two hits that didn’t make it into the first film: Waterloo (which was shoehorned into the end credit fantasy sequence) and Fernando.

Mamma Mia! began life as stage musical, traveling around the world and playing to sold-out audiences on Broadway for many months before the movie arrived. Here We Go Again is a straight-to-screen production. Most of the cast has returned with one notable exception: Meryl Streep. While Streep didn’t completely abandon the production (she has a cameo that took a few days to film), the character of Donna is dead when the movie begins and appears only in flashbacks, where she’s played by another actress (Lily James). One has to wonder whether this is a case of the tail wagging the dog. Was the decision to kill off Donna because Streep wanted to limit her participation? That seems at least possible because it results in a weirdly bittersweet tone where the sometimes-funereal atmosphere clashes with the kitschy pop of the ABBA tunes.

Because there’s not sufficient story in the present time frame to fill up the two-hour running length, the movie resorts to telling the entire tale of how Donna became pregnant with Sophie. These extended flashbacks take us 25 years into the past and introduce a new group of actors playing younger versions of the familiar characters. In the present time-frame, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), is preparing to re-open the Greek island restaurant founded by her mother, who died a year ago. She is joined in the endeavor by her mother’s lover, Sam (Pierce Brosnan), who has lived on the island since reuniting with his lost love in the first film. Also on hand is Fernando (Andy Garcia), the ultra-polite gentleman hired to manage the restaurant. Missing in action are Sophie’s other two fathers, Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill (Skellan Skarsgard); her husband, Sky (Dominic Cooper); and her grandmother, Ruby (Cher). Making the trip for the festivities are Donna’s best pals and bandmates, Tanya (the scene-stealing Christine Baranski) and Rosie (the equally scene-stealing Julie Walters).

Meanwhile, in the past, we see how a younger Donna (Lily James) leaves behind Tanya (Jessica Keenan Wynn) and Rosie (Alexa Davies) and heads out to see the world, ending up in Greece. On the way there, she has a brief tryst with Harry (Hugh Skinner) before embarking on a wild affair with Sam (Jeremy Irvine). After that ends poorly, she has a fling with Bill (Josh Dylan), who owns a boat with a bed that comfortably sleeps two.

No, it’s not Shakespeare, but what do you expect? The whole point of the movie is to present a music video for a large collection of ABBA tunes as covered by legitimate actors, not all of whom can sing. There’s nothing wrong with that except that it has already been done and mostly with the same songs.

To give the filmmakers their due, they did an excellent job of casting the younger versions of the familiar characters. All resemble their older selves and exhibit the same mannerisms. (This is something Lucasfilm should have considered when re-casting Han Solo.) At least the pointlessness of the flashbacks is limited by not having a disconnect between the younger and older versions of the characters. An unusually footloose and fancy-free Lily James is as good here as Donna as Meryl Streep was in the first film. The two versions of the cast don’t meet until the end credits where fantasy takes over for reality.

As for the ABBA songs, there’s a sense of going to the well too many times. This movie’s version of Dancing Queen may be the only number that’s done better in the sequel than in the first film; most of the others feel obligatory and there are about ten regurgitations. Of the new songs, only Fernando stands out, and that may because of the novelty of having Cher, with her distinctive voice, singing an ABBA song.

Those who hated Mamma Mia! may become dangerously unstable if forced to sit through the sequel. Fans of the first movie will find that a lot of the magic is gone and everything loses some of its luster the second time around. As for the majority of the movie-going community, which exists between those two camps, there’s no cogent reason to see Here We Go Again. The first movie does a better job of everything this one does rendering the second installment redundant – painless but purposeless. [Berardinelli’s rating: 2.5 out of 4 stars]

Labels: comedy, musical, reunion, romance

Internet Movie Database 67 

MetaScore (critics=60, viewers=66) 

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=63, viewers=72) 

Blu-ray 

Home Again (2017) [PG-13] ***

A film review by James Berardinelli, for ReelViews.net on Sept. 8, 2017.

Home Again, writer/director Hallie Meyers-Shyer’s contribution to the dying romantic comedy genre, isn’t likely to cause an instant revival. Artificial and reeking of white privilege, this is the kind of movie that causes regular folks to shake their heads and mutter things about entitlement when speaking of the Hollywood elite. Indeed, one wonders whether Meyers-Shyer, whose plodding screenplay is steeped in artificiality, movie business insider fantasy, and all-around shallowness, would have gotten a hearing from anyone at any studio (let alone a production deal) without the power associated with her hyphenated last name.

On the surface, this seems to be the kind of story that Meyers-Shyer’s mother, Nancy Meyers, has told with some degree of confidence and no small amount of box office success. However, while movies like Something’s Gotta Give and It’s Complicated have contained enough breezy dialogue to generate laughter, Home Again strains to find effective moments of comedy despite numerous opportunities. The film is further damaged by the boorishness of any character with XY chromosomes (males) and the lack of chemistry between the immensely appealing Reese Witherspoon and anyone else.

Home Again features two intersecting story arcs. In the first, newly separated single mom Alice (Witherspoon) relocates across country from New York to Los Angeles with her two daughters, Isabel (Lola Flanery) and Rosie (Eden Grace Redfield), in tow. She moves into the gorgeous, sprawling house previously owned by her deceased director-father, a John Cassavetes type. Her mother, former actress Lillian Stewart (Candice Bergen), stops by every so often when she’s in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, her husband, music mogul Austen (Michael Sheen), hems and haws about when he’s going to come out to L.A. to see his daughters and (maybe) repair his marriage.

Meanwhile, three twentysomething filmmakers – director Harry (Pico Alexander), actor Teddy (Nat Wolff), and writer George (Jon Rudnitsky) – arrive in L.A. with the promise of turning their existing short into a full-length feature. Through a series of contrivances, they meet Alice and, after charming her daughters and mother, they are invited to move into the guest house on her property. Responsible Alice begins a romance with self-absorbed Harry while George, despite being attracted to the older woman, has the good sense to remain hands-off. The three men take meetings and accept side jobs while waiting for the financing to come together.

Alice is one of those characters we don’t need to see another movie about – the entitled white woman who, with no financial burden whatsoever, is able to concentrate on romance while getting a vanity job off the ground. Her biggest problem in life is when a much younger boyfriend stands her up at a dinner party. Reese Witherspoon is a good enough actress to make us care about Alice but even her winning performance can’t paper over the character’s superficiality. Meanwhile, the three filmmakers are whining louts, especially Harry, but the disturbing thing is that the screenplay doesn’t seem to realize how obnoxious and reprehensible they are. Acting-wise, none of these three performers is in the same league as Witherspoon, Sheen or Bergen, as becomes apparent when they share scenes.

It doesn’t take long to figure out that the men in this movie are such losers that it would be an unhappy ending for Alice to end up with any of them. So Home Again becomes more about whether she’ll come to her senses or not. Maybe that makes this an anti-romantic comedy. (Comedy should probably be in quotes because of how infrequently things are funny.) The film spends such an inordinate amount of time on the men’s attempts to get their movie made, that any potential narrative momentum generated from the interpersonal relationships comes to a grinding halt. The satirical element in the meetings is too obvious to be deemed clever and it doesn’t occur to Meyers-Shyer that, of all the things we might choose to care about in Home Again, the unmade movie isn’t high on the list.

This is Meyers-Shyer’s writing and directorial debut and there’s no evidence she has tried to challenge herself with an insightful story. Yes, Alice is a strong, self-sufficient woman, but that’s less of a premise than a character description and the narrative that tries to emerge is stillborn. Home Again feels like a diluted attempt to echo one of Meyers’ films and the distributor, aware of this, is marketing it as such. I’m not predisposed to like movies focused on hollow characters floating in their own bubble of self-absorption, whether they’re men (Entourage) or women (Sex and the City), and as soon as I realized that’s what Home Again was offering, I knew I was in for a long 97 minutes. Unfortunately, I was right. [Berardinelli’s rating: 1.5 out of 4 stars]

Blogger’s comment: Berardinelli echoes my feelings about this film perfectly. Hallie Meyers-Shyer, like her mother Nancy Meyers, is great at costume and set design and terrible at character development and drama depth. As evidence I give you five films Nancy Meyers wrote and directed between 1998 and 2015: The Parent Trap, Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday, It’s Complicated and The Intern. This film is, in fact, on a par with a typical Hallmark movie, and causes me to reflect, while the credits are rolling that, Damn, I could have written a better screenplay than that!

And, for a bit of Hollywood trivia, Nancy Meyers was married (1980-99) to writer/director/producer Charles Shyer. They had two girls, Hallie and Annie, and the twin girls in The Parent Trap (1998) are named after their daughters.

Labels: comedy, drama, reunion, romance

Internet Movie Database 58 

MetaScore (critics=41, viewers=54) 

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=47, viewers=61) 

Blu-ray 

Lion (Australia, 2016) [PG-13] ****/*****

A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net on Dec. 26, 2016.

Sometimes, it is said, truth is stranger than fiction. And, as director Garth Davis has perhaps discovered, filming such truths can be more difficult than filming fiction. Lion, based on the autobiographical tale of Saroo Brierley, tells of the author’s amazing journey from being lost at age five on the streets of Calcutta, more than a thousand miles from home, to his return journey as an adult to discover the place and people he left behind. By turns sad, frightening, and inspirational, the movie is impeded only by the difficulty of bridging the 25-year span between segments and accepting the older lead (Dev Patel) as a replacement for his younger self (Sunny Pawar).

Lion begins in a small village in India in 1986 where a young boy, Saroo (Sunny Pawar), works with his older brother, Guddu (Abhishek Bharate), to complete chores that will help their mother, Kamla (Pryanka Bose), put a little more food on the table. One day, Guddu tells Saroo that he will be traveling by train to a distant city to find work. Despite his young age, Saroo insists that he comes along. His stubbornness is such that Guddu eventually relents but, along the way, the two brothers become separated and Saroo eventually disembarks in Calcutta not knowing where he is, how to speak the language, or the name of the village he has come from. Fortune smiles on the confused and frightened young boy - he is eventually adopted by an Australian couple, Sue and John Brierley (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham), and grows up with only dim memories of his biological mother and siblings. A quarter-century later, an adult Saroo (Dev Patel), uses Google Earth to research his past and make the decision to seek out his birthplace and contact any surviving relatives. More than anything, he hopes to be reunited with his mother and Guddu.

Lion’s first half, which focuses on the young Saroo, is exceptionally well done. Davis effectively captures the boy’s fear and confusion at being separated from his brother then stranded in a strange country where he understands nothing, can’t speak the language and doesn’t know the culture. Non-professionally trained actor Sunny Pawar (who doesn’t speak English) conveys the essence of a child’s view of this big, frightening world.

The film loses traction when it shifts to the modern day. Although there’s nothing wrong with Dev Patel’s portrayal, there’s a disconnect between his interpretation of Saroo and Pawar’s. Admittedly, 25 years have passed, but it’s difficult for the viewer to accept these two actors as playing the same person. And, although Saroo’s trek back to the town of his birth is critical to finishing the film’s narrative arc, the character is less interesting as an adult than as a child and the story lacks the intensity evident during the first segment. Rooney Mara’s role as Saroo’s girlfriend, Lucy, is superfluous. She’s intended to illustrate the success he has achieved in assimilating and provide a sounding board for him but the part seems shoehorned in.

Although Mara is a poor fit for the storyline, the same can’t be said of Nicole Kidman, who puts aside her Hollywood stardom to take on a small, unglamorous role. This isn’t a flashy part but Kidman was drawn to the story and the real Sue Brierley (whom she plays) endorsed the Australian-raised actress to be her cinematic doppelganger. Although some of the key actors in Khandwa and Calcutta are professional, many are not. In the final scene, for example, there are no hired extras. Everyone is an actual resident of the area.

For Davis, the producers, and the cast, telling the story has been a passion. The documentary footage that closes the film was shot by Davis for a 60 Minutes special detailing Saroo’s life. Patel immersed himself in the history of his character in order to be better able to play him. And the production team refused to move the setting from Australia to America to acquire the support of a major studio (and the associated money). Lion represents a commitment from those involved and, flaws aside, it’s an amazing tale of resilience and determination. [Berardinelli’s rating: *** out of 4 stars]

Blogger’s notes: As a child, Saroo mispronounced his own name, so he grew up thinking it was Saroo, when actually it was Sheru, an endearing form of the name Sher which is Hindi for Lion.

If you want to take Saroo's journey yourself, simply google "ganesha talai india to kolkata india" Click on the map and start zooming in (+). You will be able to zoom in 14 or 15 times, shifting the map to keep Ganesha Talai in center, before you run out of resolution. Click the Satellite box in the lower left corner for an aerial view of Ganesha Talai.

It's interesting that Saroo remembered the word "Ganestalay" but never thought that it might be "Ganesh talay". There are probably hundreds (literally) of tiny villages named "Ganesh" or "Ganesha" in India. One example is the ashram of Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, named Gurudev Siddha Peeth, located near the tiny village of Ganeshpuri, seventy miles northeast of Mumbai.

Ganesh, or Ganesha is the name of the son of Shiva and Parvati. He is traditionally pictured as a boy with an elephant's head. The story is that Shiva impregnated Parvati but was away from home when the boy was born. When Shiva finally showed up, Ganesha, who was protecting Parvati, would not let him in the house. Angered, Shiva took Ganesha's head off with his sword, upon which Parvati told him that was his son, and what had he done? Shiva immediately began looking for a head to put on the boy's body and searched far and wide for a sinner he could kill, until he found a baby elephant who was sleeping with his head facing north. He killed the baby elephant, brought his head home and placed it on the body of his son Ganesha. True story. Wikipedia

Labels: biography, cross-cultural, drama, Nicole Kidman, reunion

Internet Movie Database 80 

MetaScore (critics=69, viewers=78 

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=73, viewers=85) 

Blu-ray 

Wikipedia 

The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) [PG-13] ***/****

A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net.

With The Legend of Bagger Vance, director Robert Redford has attempted, with only limited success, to do for golf what movies like The Natural and Field of Dreams did for baseball. There are three elements at work in this film. The first is the use of the game as a metaphor for life. The second is a plunge deep into the lore of the sport, throwing away the unsavory modern trappings that have become associated with it and getting back to the purity of the game. Finally, there's the traditional sports movie storyline that culminates in a big game scenario pitting the underdog against a stronger, more experienced champion. Stirring these ingredients together as called for by the recipe should result in an engaging motion picture. Strangely, however, The Legend of Bagger Vance comes across as incomplete and uninvolving. In his zeal to get the period details right and craft a reverent, almost mystical atmosphere, Redford committed a key blunder: he lost sight of the characters' humanity. The men and women inhabiting this motion pictures are types, ciphers, and mouthpieces for slogans, not individuals we can believe in and care for.

With the exception of a framing story that transpires in modern day (and features an uncredited cameo by Jack Lemmon as the narrator), the majority of The Legend of Bagger Vance takes place in 1928 in Savannah, Georgia. Adele Invergordon (Charlize Theron), the inheritor of her late father's golf resort, has decided to erase her debts by staging a celebrity golf exhibition with a $10,000 prize. There are to be three participants: Bobby Jones (Joel Gretsch), Walter Hagen (Bruce McGill), and a local hero, Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon), who was once considered to be one of the country's top prospects on the links. But that was before the war, from which he returned damaged and with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Now, Adele, who was once the love of his life, who still loves him and doesn’t understand why he has spent a decade lost and alone, must convince him to give up his drinking and start swinging the clubs again. It would be an impossible task if not for the aid of a local boy, Hardy Greaves (J. Michael Moncrief), who idolizes Junuh, and the mysterious Bagger Vance (Will Smith), who wanders into Junuh's life one night with a proposal to be his caddy for a guaranteed $5. In the process, he offers all the wisdom he possesses about golf and life.

Despite relying on several tried-and-true sports clichés, The Legend of Bagger Vance often comes across as pretentious. Redford hammers home the connection between golf and life with a host of half-baked lines that sound like bad dialogue from a self-help book: The rhythm of the game is like the rhythm of life, Inside each and every one of us is one true authentic swing, and The golf course lives and breathes just like us. The capper is that, like life, golf is a game that can't be won, only played. All of these lessons, and many more, come out of the mouth of Bagger Vance, who is like Obi-Wan Kenobi to Junuh's Luke Skywalker. He doles out sage advice, transforming his pupil from a burnt-out drunk into a self-assured man who can face the future.

Not one of these characters has an iota of personality that wasn't clearly manufactured on a screenwriter's word processor. Other than his slogans and sunny smile, there's nothing to Bagger. For all we know, he could be an angel on vacation. We learn plenty about Junuh, but too many of his characteristics are telegraphed, and his background is pieced together via a narrative voiceover accompanied by flashbacks. In the end, he seems more like a construct than a character, and it's difficult to muster much sympathy for him. Adele is a stereotypical tough Southern woman and is used primarily for comic relief and a little romantic tension. The only one who seems remotely real is Hardy, who at least behaves in a way that is consistent with someone his age.

In his best films (such as The Horse Whisperer and A River Runs Through It), Redford has the ability to draw an audience into the story, building invisible bonds between viewers and characters while filling the screen with sumptuous images. The Legend of Bagger Vance only gets half of the equation right. The movie consistently looks great - there are some twilight and sunset shots that are nothing short of stunning. But the character empathy simply isn't there. We don't care much about what happens to Junuh. His story may be interesting, but he isn't.

One of the questions many people have been asking is whether Will Smith, who is best known for action and comedy roles, can convincingly pull off a low-key, dramatic role (much as he did 7 years ago in Six Degrees of Separation). The Legend of Bagger Vance does not provide an answer, since Smith is given so little to do that almost any actor (excepting the likes of a Schwarzenegger or Stallone) could have convincingly pulled it off. Likewise, neither Matt Damon nor Charlize Theron has anything to be ashamed of, but Jeremy Leven's screenplay (based on the novel by Steven Pressfield) doesn't give them enough to work with. If there's an acting standout, it's the underrated character actor Bruce McGill, who puts gusto into his portrayal of real-life golfing legend Walter Hagen. McGill's performance brings life to a movie that is too often bogged down in its attempts to raise aspects of golf to an almost-religious level (choral music is even used at one point).

Impeccably crafted movies by respected directors and starring talented young actors don't always work, and The Legend of Bagger Vance is a case in point. For a film that runs a little over two hours, not a lot happens. One might logically anticipate that golfers will get more out of the film than those who shun the sport, but I don't think that's an accurate assumption. Redford has gone out of his way to make The Legend of Bagger Vance inclusive (that's the reason the game/life parallels are spelled out so blatantly). Despite its length, the movie isn't dull, but, once the end credits start rolling, it's unlikely to provoke a stronger reaction than a shrug. And, for a sports film that is striving for Olympian heights, such a lackluster response falls considerably short of what Redford was hoping to achieve. © 2000 James Berardinelli [Berardinelli’s rating: 2.5 stars out of 4 = 62.5%]

Labels: drama, fantasy, Matt Damon, reunion, Robert Redford, sport
IMDb 67/100 
MetaCritic (critics=47, viewers=78) 
RottenTomatoes (critics=43, viewers=65) 
Blu-ray

 

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015) [PG] ***

A film review by Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, on Mar. 5, 2015.

Honestly, when a sequel is called Second Best the joke is just right there, waiting. And so when it turns out that The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is, in fact, a lesser follow-up to its surprise 2012 hit predecessor, it tests one's sense of restraint not to go right for the obvious puns.

It was often noted that The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, about a group of British retirees living in India, was like an aging Avengers for the way it brought together an all-star cast of acting talent. In this sequel, the director inadvertently continues that inside joke by making something that feels obligatory and cobbled together like a late franchise entry. The film has only the sheer charm of its cast to get it by, and it says a lot about the actors that they nearly pull it off.

Muriel Donnelly (Maggie Smith) is co-managing the hotel with the more enthusiastic than wise Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel), and as the film opens the two are attempting to expand in partnership with an American company. Evelyn Greenslade (Judi Dench) and Douglas Ainslie (Bill Nighy) are tentatively forging a relationship together while the romantic complications of their other neighbors swirl around them. New to the mix is Richard Gere as a charmingly mysterious Richard Gere-type, a soulful silver fox.

The first Best Exotic film was adapted from the novel These Foolish Things; the new film has the unwieldy credit of “characters created in Deborah Moggach's original novel.” The screen story is credited to John Madden and Ol Parker with the screenplay by Parker. So in a sense the new film is fan fiction of the original from the start, akin to later James Bond films when producers had run out of original stories to adapt.

This could explain why the characters all seem to be flailing about, unsure of what to do. Dench often seems to wander alone through the film in what is intended as a series of missed connections with Nighy's character but plays more like some kind of scheduling issue they were trying to work around.

The first film had some basis in the idea of retirees outsourcing their retirements to India, looking to stretch whatever money they had. This gave the story a grounded connection to the here-and-now, which the new film sorely lacks. David Strathairn, as head of an elder-focused chain of hotels who is a potential partner, is underutilized, as is any implied tension between small boutique hotels and larger chains.

Shot in the city of Jaipur, in the northern state of Rajasthan, it's not even that the film is patronizing to the Indian locations and culture — it just sort of ignores them, aside from background colors, boisterous parties and funny cab rides. By the time it all ends, predictably, with a faux Bollywood-style dance number, even the goofy kick of seeing Richard Gere doing air guitar has been muted. The first Exotic Marigold was like a pleasant package vacation, delivering solid and reliable service, but this return feels like a trip that's gone on too long. [Olsen’s rating: 2 out of 4 stars]

Labels: comedy, cross-cultural, drama, reunion

Internet Movie Database 

Metacritic 51/100 

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=60, viewers=70) 

Blu-ray 

Space Cowboys (2000) [PG-13] ****

A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net

In a year of debacles and big budget implosions like Supernova, Mission to Mars, and the unforgettable Battlefield Earth, the task of creating the most satisfying science fiction movie (to date) has been left to veteran director Clint Eastwood. While his overlong Space Cowboys is not a portrait of cinematic perfection, it is consistently engaging, features likable, irascible characters, and does not descend into the shoot-and-scoot idiocy that has marked far too many recent outer space endeavors. While there are definitely a few plot point similarities between Space Cowboys and Armageddon, in tone and approach, Eastwood's effort owes more to Contact.

During the course of a long and productive career as an actor, producer, and director, Eastwood has worked in a wide variety of genres. As the Man With No Name, he strode through several of the best-known Spaghetti Westerns. As Dirty Harry Callahan, his lips spat out one-liners as quickly as his gun spewed lead. He has also been a secret service agent in In the Line of Fire, an investigative journalist in True Crime, a thoughtful photographer in The Bridges of Madison County, and Clyde the orangutan's best friend in Every Which Way But Loose/Every Which Way You Can. Behind the camera, he has directed such well-respected movies as Heartbreak Ridge, White Hunter Black Heart, and Unforgiven. However, before Space Cowboys, he has never been into outer space, nor has he worked with such a lavish special effects budget. (Virtually every shot in the last 45 minutes appears to have been visually enhanced.)

In 1958, the four men of Team Daedalus were the most experienced and daring that the Air Force had to offer. With their eyes on some day reaching outer space, they piloted prototype airplanes that broke speed and altitude records until their boss, Bob Gerson, shut them down when NASA was created. The team broke apart, each of them heading in separate directions - until 40 years later, when the orbit of the Russian communications satellite Icon begins to decay. The satellite has only five weeks before it burns up in the atmosphere, and the Russians are worried that its loss will cripple their telecommunications infrastructure and perhaps start a civil war. Gerson (James Cromwell), now a big shot at NASA, sees an opportunity to help the Russians save face. But Icon's antiquated guidance system will not respond to commands sent from Earth and no one currently at NASA knows how to fix it. So, grudgingly, Gerson approaches Frank Corvin (Eastwood), the leader of Team Daedalus and the creator of Icon's dinosaur guidance system. Frank agrees to help, but there's a condition: he and the other three members of his team - pilot Hawk Hawkins (Tommy Lee Jones), navigator Tank Sullivan (James Garner), and structural engineer Jerry O'Neill (Donald Sutherland) - must be on the space shuttle when it launches. NASA counters with terms of its own. Frank must agree to take two current astronauts, Ethan Glance (Loren Dean) and Roger Hines (Courtney B. Vance), with him, and the members of Team Daedalus must be able to qualify for the trip by passing the training program.

The longest portion of Space Cowboys is the setup, which comprises about 60% of the running length. While I appreciate movies that take the time to introduce the characters and situations and slowly ease into the action, Space Cowboys lets this part of the film run too long. Some of the material presented during this portion is redundant and unnecessary, such as the lengthy sequence in which the Team Daedalus members are reunited and the obligatory barroom brawl which emphasizes interpersonal friction we're already aware of. The same degree of character development and background material could have been presented in about two-thirds of the time. Once the action shifts to the space shuttle, however, things move at a taut pace.

Those going to Space Cowboys expecting aliens and space warfare will have wandered into the wrong theater. The film's intent is not to challenge the likes of Independence Day and Star Wars. The premise is not designed to test a viewer's willing suspension of disbelief. Space Cowboys uses technology that is currently available, and, as an engineer, I didn't notice any obvious goofs. But, as Apollo 13 taught viewers, it's possible to have a low-key space adventure with a great deal of tension - all that must happen is for something to go wrong. And that's exactly what fuels this movie's climactic segments.

A significant portion of Space Cowboys' appeal results from the four leads, all of whom possess high viewer recognition and comfort levels. We like these guys and enjoy being in their company for two hours. Eastwood is careful to balance the ensemble, not giving himself all the prime material. For example, Garner and Sutherland share the best one-liners and Jones gets the girl (in this case, Marcia Gay Harden). This allows Eastwood to do what he does best - stay calm under pressure and perform some low key heroics. The sense of camaraderie within the group is more tangible than in many of the conventional buddy movies that invade multiplexes on a regular basis.

The second half of Space Cowboys is special effects-laden. These are not cutting-edge, Star Wars visuals; they're merely designed to convince viewers that the action is transpiring in space. Except for an occasional glitch, they succeed at that, and the few awkward moments do not distract for long. There is, however, one instance in which post-production work creates an odd effect. During the ten minute, black-and-white, 1958 prologue, the five main characters (the Team Daedalus members and Gerson) are played by younger actors, but their dialogue is dubbed by Eastwood, Jones, Garner, Sutherland, and Cromwell. This generates an unusual audio/visual disconnect.

Undoubtedly, the return of John Glenn to space was the inspiration for Ken Kaufman & Howard Klausner's screenplay. In the movies, putting senior citizens in space is nothing new (consider the crew of the Starship Enterprise), but this is the first time it has been done semi-realistically. The screenplay incorporates a lot of material, including secret cold war politics, cover-ups, political infighting, melodrama, media manipulation, male bonding, and, of course, science fiction action/adventure. Some of these elements work better than others, but, taken as a whole, they make for an entertaining ride. Space Cowboys is a blast for those who don't mind geriatric heroes. [Berardinelli's rating: 3 stars out of 4]

Labels: action, adventure, Fifties, reunion, thriller
IMDb 65/100
MetaScore (critics=73, viewers=63)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=68, viewers=66)
Blu-ray

Casablanca (1942) [PG] *****

A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net.

It's probably no stretch to say that Casablanca, arguably America's best-loved movie, has had more words written about it than any other motion picture. Over the years since its January, 1943 release, the legends and rumors surrounding the making of the film have generated almost as much attention as the finished product. Some of the best-known and most often repeated anecdotes include producer Hal B. Wallis' near-casting of Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan as Rick and Ilsa, the existence of two scripts for the last day of shooting (one version had the ending as filmed; the other, unproduced version kept Rick and Ilsa together), and the reported backstage tension between several of the principal actors.

Ultimately, however, while it's fascinating to examine and dissect all that went into the making of Casablanca, the greatest pleasure anyone can derive from this movie comes through simply watching it. Aside from some basic knowledge of recent world history, little background is needed to appreciate the strength and power of the film. Casablanca accomplishes that which only a truly great film can: enveloping the viewer in the story, forging an unbreakable link with the characters, and only letting go with the end credits.

Unlike many films that later became classics, Casablanca was popular in its day, although a cadre of officials at Warner Brothers were convinced that it would be a box-office failure. The movie earned 8 Academy Award nominations, leading to three Oscars (Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture). The picture went on to have a long, healthy life in re-releases, television, and eventually video. It contains a slew of recognizable lines (Here's looking at you, kid, Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine, Round up the usual suspects, Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, We'll always have Paris, The problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world). Ironically, however, the best-known bit of dialogue from Casablanca, Play it again, Sam, isn't even in the movie. Like Captain Kirk's Beam me up, Scotty, it's an apocryphal line. The closest the movie gets is either Play it or Play 'As Time Goes By.'

The first time I saw Casablanca, I remember remarking how modern it seemed. While many movies from the '30s and '40s appear horribly dated when viewed today, Casablanca stands up markedly well. The themes of valor, sacrifice, and heroism still ring true. The dialogue has lost none of its wit or cleverness. The atmosphere (enhanced by the sterling black-and-white cinematography), that of encroaching gloom, is as palpable as ever. And the characters are still as perfectly-acted and three-dimensional as they were seventy-five years ago (in 2017).

Just about everyone knows the story, which takes place about a year after the Germans invaded France. Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) and her husband, Czech freedom fighter Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), wander into Rick's Cafe in Casablanca. The two are on the run from the Nazis, and have come to the American-owned nightspot to lie low. But the German-controlled local government, headed by French Police Prefect Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains), is on the move, and Laszlo has to act quickly to get the letters of transit he came for, then escape. Little does Ilsa know that the cafe is run by Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), the one true love of her life. When the two see each other, sparks fly, and memories of an enchanted time in Paris come flooding back.

Bogart and Bergman. When anyone mentions Casablanca, these are the two names that come to mind. The actors are both so perfectly cast, and create such a palpable level of romantic tension, that it's impossible to envision anyone else in their parts (and inconceivable to consider that they possibly weren't the producer's first choices). Bogart is at his best here as the tough cynic who hides a broken heart beneath a fractured layer of sarcasm. Ilsa's arrival in Casablanca rips open the fissures in Rick's shield, revealing a complex personality that demands Bogart's full range of acting. As Ilsa, Bergman lights up the screen. What man in the audience wouldn't give up everything to run away with her.

Less known is Paul Henreid, a romantic lead who was on loan to Warner Brothers for this project. Most viewers know Henreid as the other guy in the romantic triangle, and, while his performance isn't on the same level as that of his better-known co-stars, Henreid nevertheless does a respectable job. Casablanca features some other well-known faces. Conrad Veidt plays the German Major Heinrich Strasser on Laszlo's trail, Peter Lorre is Ugarte, the man who steals the letters of transit, and Sydney Greenstreet is Signor Ferrari, the city's black market overlord. But the best performance in the film belongs to Claude Rains (Police Captain Renault), who is magnificent. Bogart and Bergman are great, but Rains is better. This is the top role in an impressive career, and it's a shame that the actor didn't win the Best Supporting Oscar for which he was deservedly nominated. Rains is a standout in nearly his every scene, but, like the consummate professional, he constantly cedes the spotlight to the higher-profile star.

Another curious thing about Casablanca is that hardly anyone ever talks about the director. It isn't as if Michael Curtiz is a journeyman hack who got lucky here. From the '20s to the '50s, Curtiz was one of the hardest working directors in Hollywood, helming over 100 films including White Christmas, Mildred Pierce, and Yankee Doodle Dandy. (Before that, he made nearly 50 movies in Europe, where he began his career in 1912.) Curtiz was a well-respected film maker and his work on Casablanca was first rate, but, for some reason, few non-cineastes associate his name with this picture.

It's not much of a stretch to say that Hollywood doesn't make movies like this anymore, because the bittersweet ending has gone the way of black-and-white cinematography. If Casablanca was made in today's climate, Rick and Ilsa would escape on the plane after avoiding a hail of gunfire (Rick would probably be doing the two-fisted gun thing that John Woo loves). There would be no beautiful friendship between Louis and Rick. Who knows what would have happened to Victor Laszlo, but he wouldn't have gotten the girl. One of the things that makes Casablanca unique is that it stays true to itself without giving in to commonly held perceptions of crowd-pleasing tactics. And because of this, not despite it, Casablanca has become known as one of the greatest movies ever made. Maybe the modern generation of screenwriters should consider this before they tack on the obligatory happily ever after ending.

From time-to-time, someone tries to remake the film, but even the best re-tread has been less than a pale shadow of the original. The most recent serious attempt was Havana, Sydney Pollack's ill-advised misfire (incidentally, the word serious rules out Barb Wire). Despite a good cast (Robert Redford, Lena Olin, and Raul Julia) and a change in venue, this is clearly an updated Casablanca, and Casablanca isn't Casablanca without Bogart and Bergman. So, although just about everyone involved with this legendary motion picture has departed this life, the film itself has withstood the test of three-quarters of a century to rise, like cream, to the top. One can only imagine that, in another fifty years, its position in the hierarchy of all-time greats will be even higher. [Berardinelli’s rating: **** out of 4 stars]

Labels: drama, Ingrid Bergman, reunion, romance, rom-drama-faves, thriller, WWII

Internet Movie Database 8.5/10
MetaScore (critics=100, viewers=89)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=93, viewers=82)

Blu-ray