Based on the critically acclaimed BBC Mini series, director Martin Campbell’s revenge thriller is a hefty mixing of genres that begins as a family drama, continues on as a revenge action film and ends as a conspiracy mystery where Mel Gibson is able to shine yet again as grieving single father Thomas Craven. Possessing a passable and forgivable Boston accent, Gibson as Craven is a man whose life has garnered him a distance from his only living family member, his daughter Emma. Noticeably disturbed and ill, Emma and Thomas re-connect and attempt to seal their relationship but all fate is sealed when a sick Emma is shot outside of Thomas’ house by a masked gunman. Working outside the law, Thomas decides that there is much more to the murder than meets the eye, and he begins unraveling a mystery that is beyond anything he could have imagined.
Valentine's Day (2010)
What with director Richard Curtis’s “Love Actually” becoming a bonafide crowd pleasing classic featuring an ensemble of the greatest British actors around with the heavy theme of love conquering all, it was only a matter of time until American studios decided that Americans needed their own love themed ensemble classic, in spite of the fact that most people who love “Love Actually” don’t mind that it’s British. Nevertheless not ones to just stand back and let the Brits have the love, “Valentine’s Day” is a two hour Hallmark card, one that doesn’t enlist the best American cast, but the hottest, with the newest and most in vogue engaging in their own mini-plots vested in the themes of the exploitative of holidays: “Valentine’s Day.”
The Theology of "Toy Story 3"
We must warn you that there are immense spoilers and plot twists to “Toy Story 3” revealed in the following essay, so please display caution and read at your leisure.
Ultimately the “Toy Story” series comes full circle when we learn it’s all one big metaphor for the power of love, the sadness of growing up, and god. Many will dispute this fact, they’ll claim others are looking far too deep in to what is just a kids adventure film, but since when has a movie by Pixar ever been just about adventures and laughs? “Up” was about the sanctity of life and love, “Wall-E” about mass consumerism destroying the world and how love can save humanity, et al.
“Toy Story 3” is very much a take on religion in the end as while the first installment explored the blooming maturity of Woody’s master and the threat of being replace, and “Toy Story 2” focusing on the lessening importance of mementos, “Toy Story 3” dares to delve in to the after life of toys and dabbles with the concepts of these characters beliefs and their faith that could lead them down an interesting path in an after life that’s alluded toward but never revealed for us after the credits have rolled in front of our eyes. When the question of an after life and the potential death for the toys arises we’re immediately drawn in to a discussion about their fates that could have potentially varying degrees of experiences.
Death Wish (1974)
Before “The Punisher” ever graced the big screen director Michael winner’s 1974 revenge flick brought to screen a psychotic man armed with a hand gun avenging his family who suffered a wicked fate by the hands of senseless crime. In a time where violence and rape was rampant in New York City, “Death Wish” is still a surprising little thriller that not only puts on display the grim and grimy depths of the Big Apple in the seventies, but the descent in to sheer lunacy one mild mannered man takes when his wife and daughter are attacked and raped in their apartment. The thugs get away but protagonist Paul Kersey’s wife dies and he’s forced to bear witness to his daughter lose her sanity due to the severity of the attack she and her mother endured.
Toy Story 3 (2010)
What many are assuming is the final installment in the “Toy Story” franchise (until Disney assigns these characters to a new child protagonist) is an otherwise classy and entertaining finisher to what has been a three part exploration in to childhood and the doldrums of growing up and getting rid of the past. While the child audience has taken great joy in the adventures of Buzz Lightyear and Woody for the last ten years, like every other Pixar production it’s about much more than what’s on the surface. “Toy Story 3” much like its predecessors is about recalling a more innocent time and the relics of our past having to face that they’re just not needed anymore.
Knock 'Em Dead Kid (2009)
Director Christopher L. Golon’s coming of age drama could very well be mistaken for your average mumblecore flick that is storming independent film festivals of late. With a gritty realistic sense of direction, dialogue flows from the cast with startling energy. “Knock ‘Em Dead Kid” almost feels like something specifically tailor made of the more high brow festivals. While I did appreciate Mr. Golon’s appreciation for naturalism and depicting the reality of everyday monotony, he’s often much too obsessed with staging sleek scenes and character interaction to bring us on course for the actual story which involves protagonist Bret realizing that he’s outgrowing his friends and must move on and grow up. Channeling the likes of Larry Clark, director Golon follows these individuals around town as they walk around, chatter endlessly about their sexual preferences and engage in sexual activities with their lady friends.
The movie sets up a particular conundrum as its progresses as when we’re focused on Bret interacting with his friends he’s natural and down to Earth, but when we finally get to key scenes involving his development, especially one where a party guest approaches and flirts with him, the dialogue is noticeably stifled and stilted. The actors overplay their roles too strongly, and they never feel like they’re genuinely interacting, just going through the motions for Golon’s dialogue, and it restrains an otherwise potentially engrossing little slice of life. While I’m sure there are reasons for it, Golon never quite manages to stage the more important scenes in the movie well enough. If two characters are interacting he keeps one off frame, he sloppily cuts back and forth, and there isn’t a lot of dynamic when they’re being confronted.
Especially in the scene where Bret is approached by a cop questioning him about the beating he and his friends gave one of their rivals the night before. The ultimate weight on Bret is downplayed considerably as he never seems to be really disturbed about the fact that the cops may be on to his part in the beating which could mean definite jail time, and when he does obsess over it, he seems very calm as does his girlfriend who plays it off instead of offering the idea that what he did was horrible whether it was justified or not. There are elements that are unusual like the weird cutting away from Bret and his girlfriend to a montage when they’re discussing the incident in the beginning of the film. And of course there’s the female antagonist threatening to turn Bret over to infidelity which ultimately feels arbitrary and present just to create obligatory conflict in a story that already has a hefty portion of it.
I was never sure where to stand with Bret so I wasn’t positive if I should root him on or just wait for his downfall. Was he having trouble grasping his maturity and responsibilities or was he just a grade A prick? I juxtaposed the premise here with that of “Saturday Night Fever” and with some tweaking, Golon could have the same story with the same power. In the aforementioned film you could sense Tony Manero trapped in irresponsibility and stupidity to the point where he’d had enough and decided to grow up, but with Bret, I could never figure out what he had in mind and what he wanted to do with himself. Golon has on his hands a script that could work given better circumstances.
It’s a story with themes that requires actors with much more presence, and emotional turmoil and they sadly don’t deliver such promise in key sequences that should have been turbulent but are otherwise haphazardly conducted and rendered irrelevant to the overall result of Bret’s situation. While not a waste of time, “Knock ‘Em Dead Kid” isn’t as good as it has the possibility to be, and I hope Golon tries again with this premise in the future. Director Christopher L. Golon has the right idea and the right themes present for a movie that combines Larry Clark and classic mumblecore for a potentially great coming of age drama, but sadly its lack of focus, wonky editing, and uneven acting drown out most of its promise. It’s not the worst effort I’ve ever seen, but it can be so much more with a tightened second cut.
Splice (2010)
Vincenzo Natali’s science fiction Frankenstein tale of 2010 may and will eventually be misunderstood by a greater portion of the movie audiences expecting a simple monster flick about an experiment gone awry. While in essence it is just that, “Splice” is much more an on the nose satire of parenting and the intervening of the drug industry raising children, and the dynamic between father and daughter and mother and daughter. Ultimately while sometimes absurd and just filled with dark twisted humor, “Splice” offers the question if children are born and develop in to chaotic monsters, or if their parents and their own insecurities and misery eventually turn them in to such beings. What starts out as two scientists forming a bond with their own special creation turns in to a battle between two feminine species for the love of a man who begins to form unusual and abstract feelings for the both of them.