One Hour Photo
REVIEWED 09/02, © STEPHEN BOURNE
www.ofrb.gov.on.ca | www.rcq.gouv.qc.ca


REVIEW:

"The things you fear most have already happened." Remember that line. It's from a book by motivational spiritualist Deepak Choprah. Read aloud, in a seemingly deceptive, soothing voice by Seymour Parrish (Robin Williams), to the wife of a man who he will later do terrifying things to.

Williams gives an outstanding, almost pressure cooker-like performance as an unassuming yet obsessive film processing clerk whose hobby has been to live vicariously through other people's photographs that he's developed at work for at least the past nine years. Specifically, the wealth of simple domestic snapshots taken by one young couple, the Yorkins, that he's surrepticiously collected for his own private pleasure. He's not really stalking this couple and their son, though. His reasons seem to have always been fairly benign, like those of a lonely admirer. Parrish is a fan of their life, as their cameras have recorded it over time. To him, it is picture perfect. His dream life. These ordinary, untainted folk are celebrities he aches to get closer to. However, just when his own small and self-controlled world begins to unravel around him, Seymour discovers a terrible secret about them that shatters his Kodachromatic fantasies, and turns his mind to evil thoughts. Of splintered anger, and embittered revenge.

This incredible movie is the type of suspenseful shocker where impending menace slowly and relentlessly builds to claustrophobic proportions before your eyes. You think you know exactly why our pariah-like antagonist is going to violently explode, but the film never let's the audience foresee how or when. It's also an extremely intelligent offering, in that it uses your worst fears against you while carefully suggesting and then clearly explaining this complex character's true motivations for initially adopting and then eventually destroying these flawed strangers. Quite frankly, his creepy truth is so horribly sick that my giving it away would ruin the surprise pay-off. This tremendous flick is argueably an intriguing new breed of psychological thriller that would likely make even Hitchcock cringe.

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Open Range
REVIEWED 09/03, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

Cow-poking along across the wide open Big Sky plains of the 1880s' American Old West, four quietly self-reliant outcasts are given little choice but to put their nine-year nomadic herding way of life on hold after one of them gets into a fight with a small gang of malevolent ranch owner Denton Baxter's (Michael Gambon) thugs during a supply run and lands in the Harmonville Jail. See, Denton built that tiny one-road town he lords over with an iron fist, and he hates 'free grazers'. To him, they're vermin that deserve what's coming to them. So much so that, when wily old-timer Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall) and simmering ex-soldier Charley Waite (Kevin Costner) make the day-long ride in to collect their beat-up and behind bars compadré, they're greeted with a fairly cold welcome by most of the townsfolk and their crooked Sheriff. So, our quiet trio pays a short visit to the local doctor, before making a hasty retreat back to their camp. However, when they heavy-handedly protect their four-legged property in a moonlit pre-emptive assault against those same men watching them at an uncomfortably close distance, and return to find their plans failed with deadly consequences, Boss and Charley defy Baxter's warnings to disappear and choose instead to mete out vengeful justice upon all who are responsible.

If that sounds vaguely familiar, it's probably because I couldn't help but be reminded of another far better oater called 'Unforgiven' (1992) while sitting through this painfully slow and somewhat esoteric slice-of-life romance-sprinkled Western. The people of this one's world are little more than tired stereotypes struggling for dialogue or a convincing reason for a paying audience to care about any of them, though. Duvall does chew out a few good lines throughout, but they're not enough to hold things together. Frankly, the first half of this flick runs at such a coma-inducing snail's pace that it's hard to believe that part of the script had been finished before the cameras started to roll. And, even when the glimmer of an interesting plotline between actor/director Costner's character and his tentative love interest (Annette Bening's small-town nurse Sue Barlow) begins, things still don't really get moving until you're already fed up waiting for these two nervously smitten maturing yokels to act on their shy passion for each other. So, pretty well all you're left remembering after the ending credits send you out of the theatre are the surprisingly out of place high-velocity gunfights that suddenly thunder across the last quarter reel. These are the kinds of bullet-riddled duels where, without a hint of recoil affecting our slow-paced heroes' trigger hands, moving targets in black hats are violently punched backwards a few yards - as though clobbered by a giant invisible sledgehammer - with every shot. I realize the idea was to show the blunt brutality of gunplay, but it just becomes goofy after a while, wildly detracting from the over-all low key nature of this disappointingly under-written picture.

I think it's great fun that these stars wanted to record themselves in dusty period costume riding horses in front of panoramic unspoiled wilderness, but why they felt the need to package it as a finished two-hour movie when it would still be unfinished edited down to thirty minutes is beyond all acting career-sustaining wisdom. Yawn.

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The Order
REVIEWED 09/03, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

The dawn of a ferocious era is rising from deep within the sacred ancient walls of The Vatican in Rome. As concern for the current seventy year-old Pope's failing health continues to inspire those eager to ascend as his replacement from behind the scenes very soon, the systematically corrupt machinations of a secretly dark Pagan-like leader wielding inhuman control over his growing followers from haunted crumbling catacombs far below these hallowed streets finally appear to be near fruition. See, this respected Bishop turned merciless masked fiend has made an unholy pact with a force that has rocked the very foundation of Roman Catholicism for ages. Not with the Devil, but with a shadowy man of arcane power known as William Eden (Benno Fürmann), who walks the Earth as a rogue conduit of Divine Absolution for the excommunicated and the damned from beyond the reach of Italy's sovereign one hundred and eight acre Fortress of Christendom's towering St. Peter's Basilica. He is the Sin Eater; a Last Rites-administering mystic from the distant past who has been, in some ways, a Christ-like heretic since donning this self-destructive Heavenly mantle at the tender age of eight – two Centuries ago. And, when Eden's brutally 'altruistic' actions lead to the horrifying death of the last aged keeper of the Carolingians - a once mighty Catholic order that has existed since the 8th Century (in reality) - two remaining priests of that now dying sect, Father Alex Bernier (Heath Ledger) and Father Thomas Garrett (Mark Addy), are quietly summoned from their simple posts in New York and Paris to kill him. However, Alex has his own problems. Not only is he in mourning over the loss of his beloved mentor, and his faith is rocked by the scattered politics of a weakened Papacy, but the unspoken passion for a woman (Shannyn Sossman as Mara) now returned to his side who he freed from demonic possession through exorcism a year earlier is forcing this handsome young priest to question his ability to continue untainted in preaching the Word of God. At the same time, while Bernier and Garrett's hunt leads them on a treacherous labyrinthine path that few would dare travel in order to complete their terrible task against the Sin Eater, they are unaware that William has shaped the course of Alex’s fate for quite some time and awaits their meeting as a sign of ominous prophetic fulfillment...

Well, this flick had all the makings of a good religion-based detective story along the lines of 'The Name of the Rose' (1986), until the bottom fell out shortly after the opening credits. The Holy Roman Empire and The Vatican probably wouldn't have existed without the Carolingians under Charlemagne's far-reaching reign, yet that fairly interesting factoid is never mentioned here. Nor does this disappointing movie bother attempting to establish any real conflict between those who uphold and protect The Holy See's historic place at the apex of Catholic power and that of this dark yet wimpy loner who performs ritualistic ceremonies of redemption as a sort of Gucci-clothed savior of errant souls operating under their noses without Papal blessing. It's almost as though the scriptwriter couldn't decide whether this was supposed to be a drama or a horror picture and was afraid to ruffle some feathers, so he watered everything down and just made it a boring showcase for Ledger's often lukewarm performance as an annoyingly internalizing angst-riddled hunky priest. As usual, the ads are ridiculously misleading, since there's no action or dangerous adventure to speak of in this one either. Sure, you get a couple of strangely ghoulish scenes of evil rearing its ugly head at times, but they feel wildly out of place and rather silly once you realize just how lame the Eden character is as an antagonist. He's not scary. What he does isn't horrible. And, the one hidden behind all the nasty mayhem is left there far too long to make any sense. Simply put, there's no focus or guidance to what you're supposed to be paying attention to. You're not really given a reason to care about anything other than the slightly disjointed fatal love story between Alex and Mara (just because they're a couple of heart-struck kids lost together in a crazy mixed up world, I guess). It's obvious that there was a wealth of opportunity missed to create some captivating background and tension that nobody knew how to follow through with imaginatively. Without my giving away too much, even if the plot had introduced a band of goons with deadly intensions dispatched by either the church or the conniving Bishop for our ragged heroes to actually fight against while everyone chased after the Sin Eater, that would have made this a far more satisfying film than what a paying audience ends up sitting through here.

I'm not going to bash 'The Order' as vehemently as I normally would, because most of the acting is pretty good over-all and it does touch on one or two fresh ideas that do nudge it above being a complete turkey, but don't waste a lot of time or money expecting to get much out of this overly depressing and slow-paced offering. The novel - or The Book - is likely a whole lot better.

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Once Upon a Time in Mexico
REVIEWED 09/03, © STEPHEN BOURNE
www.ofrb.gov.on.ca | www.rcq.gouv.qc.ca


REVIEW:

The ultra-violent legend of struggling nightclub guitarist turned drug lord killer El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) continues in this stylishly high-velocity yet erratically-edited sequel that not only relives the main points of its 1995 predecessor 'Desperado', but rehashes a lot of that one's hugely irreverent action and silliness. This time around, our mythic indestructible hero returns in his now signature scorpion-emblazoned black matador jacket as a brooding simmering recluse haunted by the vicious murder of his wife and young daughter. He's soon hired by personably unscrupulous CIA operative Sands (Johnny Depp) to kill a terrible spectre from this shattered hero's past. Meanwhile, criminal kingpin Armando Barillo (Willem Dafoe) has developed suspicious political aspirations that include the summary assassination of Mexico's President during a military coup he's masterminded with the aid of a mercilessly power-hungry General named Marquez (Gerardo Vigil) who Sands wants dead. Strangely enough, Sands' plans don't include sparing that outspoken politician's life, and it soon becomes clear that he's far more dedicated to stealing Barillo's twenty million peso stack of blood money that's awaiting the General upon completion of his small but (of course) heavily-armed army's Revolutionary attack. Luckily, El Mariachi has a smoldering vendetta to settle with Marquez - the man who shot him and his family at point blank range, and left them all for dead in the street - and so, with the help of his ragtag team of guitar case arsenal-toting sharpshooters, he casts his tall silhouette of homegrown defiance against the blazing Southern Sun on a dusty path of mayhem and carnage as the People's Champion once again.

Well, there's certainly a lot of gunplay-as-fun set to a trippy backbeat crammed into this wildly over the top big screen adventure from writer/director Robert Rodriguez, who apparently returned to his Spaghetti Western-like cinematic roots in reprising his first critically and fan-acclaimed $7000 breakthrough hit 'El Mariachi' (1992) after being inspired by Quentin Tarantino (who had a cameo in 'Desperado'). And, although Banderas easily makes a comeback in the role that arguably started his Hollywood career, he seems a tad too introspectively uninterested and almost secondary to the mishmash of double cross subplots that overwhelmingly bloat and confuse this slick-looking bullet-riddled live action cartoon. You've got Depp's quirky wild card character attempting to play puppet master with virtually everyone he comes into contact with. There's a weirdly familiar side story between Sands and a disgruntled S.W.A.T.-like femme fatale that harkens back to Salma Hayek's turncoat sexpot from this trilogy's second installment. Burnt out wax-faced Mickey Roarke puts in time as a slightly effeminate Chihuahua-doting ex-patriot goon who merely seems to be along for the ride as a lazy in for an unimpressively vengeful retired FBI agent plotting against Barillo. Even the President's relentless hatred for Dafoe's darkly passionless cartel leader gets far more screen time than is necessary. Sure, Johnny Depp is outlandishly hilarious here as the predominant source of entertainment value, but he actually feels miscast and overly used, further weakening the already muddled main story that's bogged down by an altogether mismanaged ensemble-driven script, to the point where it's difficult to care what happens to anyone else but Sands come the mildly propaganda-charged flag waving end.

I'd be more inclined to suggest you check out Rodriguez's tightly original and thoroughly enjoyable low budget 'El Mariachi', rather than spend your time with this somewhat disappointing romp. Moco.

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Owning Mahowny
REVIEWED 09/03, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

"Everyone has a public life, a private life, and a secret life." Those are the words of introverted yet shrewdly charming Dan Mahowny (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the recently promoted and youngest assistant manager at a Toronto bank in 1980. Outwardly, this drably dressed overweight penny-pincher who lives on fast food has just moved in to a rather dingy apartment block with his mousy co-worker and girlfriend of four years named Belinda (Minnie Driver). However modest his life appears, Dan is a rising star. Unfortunately, Dan is also a compulsive gambler who's winning streak never lasts very long - building up a small fortune in debt betting on the horses and sports teams through slobbish bookie Frank Perlin (Maury Chaykin) that his relatively paltry $22,000 a year paycheque can't cover. That's when Mahowny starts embezzling, using his spotless reputation at work to initially sign off on a $15,000 bank draft under a phony name to settle his money problems, and then quietly swindle much larger sums of cash from his Downtown branch to finance weekend Casino binges in Atlantic City. It all seems so easy, systematically skimming from tens of thousands of dollars in credit under the noses of everyone - including Dan's otherwise meticulous boss and a team of internal auditors. His luck has taken an erratic up-swing. And soon, this unassuming but obsessive regular player who unflinchingly wins and then loses ridiculously huge stacks of chips at the Craps and Blackjack tables sparks the interest of that Boardwalk pleasure palace's Machiavellian-like owner Victor Foss (John Hurt), who gives Mahowny the star treatment with free everything and top-notch accommodations to keep him coming back. At the same time, a detective (Ian Tracey as Ben Lock) who's inconspicuously investigating Perlin back in Hogtown stumbles upon Dan's high-rolling junkets to New Jersey and Vegas and, erroneously suspecting that drugs are involved, begins to dig a little deeper into this banker's public and private and secret life...

This fairly low key but surprisingly entertaining Canadian/U.K. flick is actually based on the true crime novel, 'Stung: The Incredible Obsession of Brian Molony', by Gary S. Ross, a former Saturday Night magazine senior editor and fifteen year co-partner of the award-winning but recently defunct Vancouver/Toronto based non-fiction publisher Macfarlane Walter & Ross. Molony, a gambling-addicted banker with the CIBC, really did end up serving six years in prison for bilking $18 million in the largest case of this kind to date in Canada, during the early 1980's. What Brit director Richard Kwietniowski does is successfully expose the captivating double life of this infamous white-collar criminal - who apparently has a day named after him in Casino circles - through the script's renamed Mahowny. Even the entire look of this movie smacks of that time; to the point where it's easy to believe it was shot during the few years that this drama takes place in. Amazingly accurate. Hoffman is superb here, brilliantly allowing you to almost see the cogs turning behind his expansive forehead as his character first struggles over the first fake loan application and then builds lies upon lies to conceal what he's doing from everyone around him - including himself, on some levels. His part is a complicated one, because this guy isn't the usual stereotype who flaunts his fantasy lifestyle throwing fistfuls of money around, but keeps the facets of his duality single-mindedly tight. Full marks should also go to Hurt, for his wonderfully devilish role as a high class sleazebag who becomes increasingly possessive of Mahowny, greedily attempting to control him and his cash by any means available, to the detriment of everybody but Dan. The major downside of this picture is the clumsy and virtually disinterested way in which Lock's entire subplot is handled. There's really nothing about this numbingly uninteresting detective that immediately jumps off the screen at you to make you care about what he's doing or plans to do in breaking this case. He's the primary antagonist, yet you actually learn more, from an investigation standpoint, from the short-scened American private eye Victor than you do from this annoyingly bland Canuck cop who seems wrongly transplanted from some cheesy CBC TV show.

So, the main story is a fascinating one to follow and the main cast does deliver some great results, but the bottom does fall out of this slow-paced caper by the last reel when you realize that nobody seems to know how to tie up the loose ends, in order to make this one a completely satisfying film come the closing credits. Check it out for the humourous nostalgia and Hoffman's incredibly impressive ante of well-measured talent, but don't expect much of a memorable pay-off.

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Out of Time
REVIEWED 10/03, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

Banyon Key's Chief of Police Matt Woodlock (Denzel Washington) had four hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars in his headquarters' safe until a couple of days ago. And, it would be easy enough for this well-liked Florida County peace officer to explain to the Federal agents why all of that seized drug money has gone missing, if he hadn't stolen it himself. See, Matt was just trying to do the right thing. Recently separated, and in the throngs of a heavy affair with former high school sweetheart and very married Anne Harrison (Sanaa Lathan), he'd planned to lie about the money being transferred to a safety deposit box until the expected court hearing months from now, giving it to Ann to pay for the aggressive cancer treatment that she'd just been diagnosed as needing. Well, the Feds need it for another related case and are on their way to pick it up. And, shortly after that loot changed hands, Mrs. - and Mr. Harrison (Dean Caine as Chris) - were reported killed in a terrible arson fire at their now charred and smoldering bungalow. What's worse, there's a paper trail that includes his lover's million dollar life insurance policy leading straight back to Woodlock. Forcing him to stay one step ahead of his soon-to-be ex-wife and city detective Alex Diaz-Whitlock (Eva Mendes), in order to sway any suspicion of his guilt of adultery and stealing evidence, and of possibly being her number one suspect in the Harrison’s' murder. That is, until Matt discovers Anne's doctor was a fake, and all clues begin to point to Hospital security guard Chris' mysterious survival...

From the outset, this fairly well-acted mystery truly gives its all in presenting a thoroughly invigorating cat and mouse thriller. The smart intensity that's bandied back and forth between most of the main players is captivatingly clever throughout, with Washington showing us just what a phenomenal actor he is here. Problem is, the editing gets overly choppy as the tense race against time action unfolds, whipping the audience through some pretty complicated twists and turns at a virtually breakneck speed. In the hands of a more capable editor, this would be great nail-biting stuff. Unfortunately, what happens is you end up with a whiplash-induced headache trying to keep up with what's done to who and where's it all leading. It's almost as though the mystery itself became secondary about halfway through, and this flick somehow turned into a series of 'see Denzel run' scenes strung together by the quickly thinning main storyline. Maybe it's because he is clearly guilty, but not of what he's hiding from, and the two parallel investigations of the money and the murders get convoluted as Mendes' character gets closer to the truth. Frankly, it would have been a better movie if Woodlock had been suspected more openly near the beginning and, much like what Harrison Ford did with 'The Fugitive' (1993), was forced to convince people of his innocence while both covering his tracks regarding the cash and solving the murder mystery. What we end up getting is more of a mishmash that clumsily ends with a disappointing shoot-out and a pretty lame feel good group hug.

Rent this one for the impressive acting, but be ready to pause and replay a lot of the action scenes if you're hoping to keep track of the main story.

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Open Water
REVIEWED 08/04, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

Apparently heavily inspired by the actual events surrounding Eileen and Tom Lonergan's disappearance near the Great Barrier Reef in 1998, writer/director Chris Kentis' fairly grainy, shot-on-video independent picture chronicles the arduous twenty plus hours that Susan Watkins (Blanchard Ryan) and Daniel Kintner (Daniel Travis) spend adrift and hopelessly lost to the elements after they're mistakenly left behind during the deep sea diving portion of this fictitious American couple's tropical getaway vacation. It shouldn't have happened, considering the air tanks they'd rented were missing from the boat when it returned to port three hours after leaving the dive site. However, the worse has happened. Plunging these two hapless tourists into a maelstrom of panic-fuelled dread as they struggle to survive miles from land, try to signal distant ships for help, and avoid unthinkably horrifying deaths. Well, this critically acclaimed summer release sure isn't the cheeriest of big screen offerings. Running at approximately eighty minutes in length, 'Open Water' is definitely an ambitious endeavor. However, nothing of any great interest materializes after the first twenty minutes to sustain a paying audience's attention throughout, until the ocean's beasties move in during the last twenty minutes or so. It's almost as though Kentis fell in love with the idea of focusing on something similar to the memorable opening night scene from 'Jaws' (1975), vaguely trying to flesh it out with a fairly mediocre back story and a hefty dose of camera tricks in order to make it a marketable full-length movie, without really paying much attention to actually creating a captivating character-driven story here. It's obvious there's not much of a plot, and that not a lot of time was put into initially imprinting these two accidental victims on you towards any real feeling of empathy or caring, as their plight becomes more and more bleak. Frankly, the more one pays attention to this cinematic lame duck, the less it feels as though any pre-production or physical script existed at all. Why was Susan suddenly not in the mood, seconds after laying seductively in their hotel room bed for Dan to find? Why was he so willing to just roll over and say good night? If this is what realistic onscreen relationships have come to these days, "Let's just be friends" might as well be the next over-used pick up line at the singles clubs. I mean, I could be wrong, but these two of many questions do present themselves as perfectly legitimate opportunities for this couple to deliver some relatively provocative dialogue later on when they're faced with little else to do but talk to each other while huddled together in their scuba suits - long before the jellyfish and sharks demand their undivided fearful attention - that were completely overlooked in favour of petty bickering and boring chit chat that all simply served to raise my blood lust and dreams of the sweet sweet freedom of the far too distant closing credits. What was Lion's Gate thinking, paying a reported $2.5 million for this tush-numbing coma inducing flotsam?

Steer clear of this aggravatingly disappointing stinker that ended up biting off more than it could chew... and quite frankly deserves to be lazily tagged with such a cheesy, clichéd closing remark.

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Ocean's Twelve
REVIEWED 12/04, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

Humbly facing dreary retirement in suburbia as former high school basketball coach Miguel Diaz, Danny Ocean's (George Clooney; 'The Peacemaker' (1997), 'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind' (2002)) days as the best thief in the world following his gang's renowned Las Vegas heist of the Bellagio, Mirage and MGM Grand Casinos' vault three years ago seem put to rest. That is, until a determined ultimatum gives Ocean no other alternative but to reteam all eleven of his former criminal associates - including Robert 'Rusty' Ryan (Brad Pitt; 'Thelma & Louise' (1991), 'Troy' (2004)), Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle; 'Hamburger Hill' (1987), 'After the Sunset' (2004)), Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon; 'Good Will Hunting' (1997), 'The Bourne Supremacy' (2004)), Turk and Virgil Malloy (Scott Caan and Casey Affleck), Frank Catton (Bernie Mac; 'Mr. 3000' (2004)), Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner; 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World' (1963)), and Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould; 'MASH' (1970)). It seems that Danny's wife Tess' (Julia Roberts; 'Sleeping with the Enemy' (1991), 'Mona Lisa Smile' (2003)) ex-boyfriend, Bellagio Casino manager Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia; 'Black Rain' (1989), 'Twisted' (2004)), has relentlessly hunted down every one of them and wants all of that daring 2001 caper's $160 million win fall repaid in full. $17.34 million each, plus inflated interest. In two weeks. Or else, everybody dies. They're still too hot on the authorities' radar in the States, so they turn to Europe, where Ocean's Eleven eventually hatches an ingenious plot to steal the priceless gold-banded 1897 Fabergé Coronation Egg due for display in Rome under impenetrable security. However, Rusty's jilted Rome fling, Europol investigator and crime expert Isabel Lahiri (Catherine Zeta-Jones; 'The Mask of Zorro' (1998), 'Intolerable Cruelty' (2003)) has already tracked them down during an elaborate robbery in Amsterdam and seems obsessively determined to stop them from meeting their ever-nearing deadline.

Wow. Co-cinematographer/director Steven Soderbergh ('Sex, Lies, and Videotape' (1989), 'Traffic' (2000)) does an outstanding job of capturing the swagger and attitude reprised by this returning ensemble cast of the acclaimed smash remake 'Ocean's Eleven' (2001). It's clear this much-anticipated sequel's crew had an absolute blast, and it's tough not to compare their thoroughly captivating, playfully ultra cool enthusiasm with that of the legends that starred in the stylish 1960 original. Pitt's charisma and mannerisms actually more resemble those of a young Robert Redford from the crime comedy 'The Hot Rock' (1972) here, while easily sharing the spotlight with Clooney's more subdued performance and Damon's clumsily eager protégé turned bag man. There's so much packed into this completely enjoyable two-hour romp, and yet none of the side stories manage to overwhelm George Nolfi's slightly thin but tightly paced screenplay. Legend has it that Frank Sinatra (1915-1998); missing the wild weekend Holmby Hills Rat Pack parties with screen idols Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) and Judy Garland (1922-1969) after Bogie passed away, gathered his own exclusive clan featuring Dean Martin (1917-1995), Sammy Davis Jr. (1925-1990), Peter Lawford (1923-1984) and Joey Bishop - reportedly first named The Rat Pack by Bogart's widow Lauren Bacall - to keep alive the irreverent late night fun, which was soon adapted as an hilariously bawdy Las Vegas stage act and then worked into a handful of Hollywood movies during the Sixties. Well, 'Ocean's Twelve' truly revives that hip free spirit within its otherwise structured plot line, giving a paying audience a real sense that a lot of footage likely needed to be edited out of the final cut. Cheadle's bleeping studio replay, and the entire bit with Tess 'impersonating' Julia Roberts opposite Bruce Willis (as himself), are pure gold, for instance.

Sure, it's easy to say that Nolfi's script merely gave a contrivance-filled reason to bring these Hollywood stars together again, and that a lot of what makes this picture successful has more to do with pointing director of photography Chris Connier's camera in the right direction at the right moment during what look like scene after scene of improvisation. And, yeah, Vincent Cassel ('The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc' (1999)) dancing through motion detector laser beams as French master thief François Toulour - similar to what's seen in the awful Sean Connery/Zeta-Jones turkey 'Entrapment' (1999) - is a fairly lame homage. However, scratch the surface over-all and you can obviously see why Soderbergh is rightfully considered a genius of our time. Definitely check out this thoroughly entertaining, upbeat star-studded cavalcade that's absolutely well worth seeing on the big screen.

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Ong-Bak
REVIEWED 02/05, © STEPHEN BOURNE
www.ofrb.gov.on.ca | www.rcq.gouv.qc.ca


REVIEW:

Mere days before the closely-knit community of Nong Trad Village, Thailand prepare for their elaborate, Buddhist ceremonies celebrating their stoic stone idol Ong-Bak every twenty-four years, that statue's head is cruelly severed and stolen by a band of ruthless thieves under the cover of darkness. One champion must step forward to bring back this lost treasure or the village will be doomed by famine and drought. So, young Ting ('Mortal Kombat: Annihilation' (1997) stunt double Panom 'Tony Jaa' Yeerum), an agile and formidable student of Muay Thai - a Centuries old, deadly form of weaponless Martial Arts - who had just won a fairly brutal tournament retrieving an orange sash from atop an ancient gnarled tree nearby, naively volunteers to track down those looters in faraway Bangkok and return Ong-Bak's head before their holy festival begins. It's in that bustling, over crowded city that Ting first finds the Chief's estranged son Hum Lae (Petchtai Wongkamlao; 'Killer Tattoo' (2001)) - now calling himself George, and heavily involved in several gambling scams with his precocious partner Muaylek (Pumwaree Yodkamol) - delivering his leader's handwritten letter, while obsessively searching for leads to the gang's lair. However, when George steals Ting's money and bets it all on a losing wager at the local gang-run Kaosan Fight Club, this unassuming country boy unwittingly makes his inaugural debut as the club's new undefeatable winner against the crowd's towering, brutal favourite. Ting has been warned by his aged village monk not to foolishly play with his skillful fighting abilities, so he quickly leaves with his money, with George and Muaylek trying to convince him to help them make a lot of easy cash by going back to that dim and smoky ring. It's only when George's debts finally catch up to him that Ting is given little choice but to strike a mortal deal that will bring him closer to the prized stone head of Ong-Bak. A pact with the gang's merciless boss, to face their own blood thirsty Muay Thai fighter, near the border in a moonlit no holds barred match that's been rigged to win thousands at the risk of one heroic soul.

Well, this award-winning 2003 flick definitely feels like a blast from the past for the most part. Just as the heavily hyped ads proclaim, Jaa masterfully steps into the very big shoes of Kung-Fu legend Bruce Lee during this flick's hugely exhilarating fight scenes throughout, deftly exhibiting the brutal velocity of this kickboxing technique's Science of Eight Limbs that uses the hands, the elbows, the knees and the feet. Apparently, Muay Thai is an immensely popular indigenous sport first recorded there in the 13th Century, born from the much older military weaponry art of Krabi Krabong, and then Westernized with gloves and rules due to rising injuries and mortality concerns by Thailand's government after World War II. Clearly, it's far more raw and aggressive in the pre-1940's form shown here, when compared to Lee's familiar stylish and slightly swaggering combative mode seen in the penultimate 1973 favourites, 'Enter the Dragon' and 'Return of the Dragon'. The jury's still out on whether Jackie Chan or Jet Lee need to be worried, though. And, yes. Co-writer and debut director Prachya Pinkaew's and Panna Rittikrai's screenplay is little more than vaguely cobbled Seventies-like pretense here. 'Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior' (its International title) isn't really about capably telling a fresh story, heavily relying on this small cast's tenuous screen presence while mainly focusing on tossing this or that hairy knuckled bar brawler into Ting's wonderfully choreographed blunt path. It's all about the fighting stunts. Unfortunately, this subtitled movie as a whole is badly put together, actually detracting from its adrenaline-thumping action. Lousy lighting, amateurish dialogue and silly acting, poorly blocked shots and lazy editing all conspire to detrimentally betray a paying audience's full enjoyment in experiencing the full force of this otherwise impressive cinematic roundhouse romp. I actually felt as though I was sitting in a buddy's basement instead of a movie theatre, as though watching a thirty year-old copy of an 8mm print dug out from behind the family furnace and played on a dusty old, broken projector. The production value truly is that disheartening, folks.

Definitely check out this hundred and five-minute bruiser if you're a rabid fan of Martial Arts, but it seriously lacks a lot of what could have made it more than a probable cult film footnote.

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Old Boy
REVIEWED 05/05, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

The first three or four years were hell for Dae-su Oh (Min-sik Choi). The relentless ticking of that old wooden cuckoo clock on the wall, like water torture, day in and day out. Not that he really knew one day as being any different from any other day, locked away in that small room with little more than that damnable clock, a stained mattress in rusted iron rails for a bed, a fake window with a fake view of a fake grassy field, and a painting. "Smile, and the whole world smiles with you," the hand scrawled words read under the weird grinning portrait. He tried that. It hurt to smile in that forced solitude, but he did it anyways. It didn't work. He was still alone. Four years. Six years. Eight years. The world that stole it's way into his cell through the television they - his unseen captors who refused to tell him why he'd been taken - had left in there for him was cruelly passing him by. They wouldn't tell him why he'd been kidnapped into the darkness at that street side pay phone on that rainy night, on his young daughter's birthday. Ten years go by. He barely remembers that he'd bought her a present that day, but had lost it when they'd taken him. Twelve years. Dae-su continued to rot away, closed off from any human touch, any real voice. Left alone with the madness that was seeping into his bones and his brains, poisoning his mind and making him see things that no man should have to endure. Terrifying. Fifteen years after he'd first awakened in that room with the cuckoo clock, on a blinding sunny day in July, they'd suddenly let him out without so much as an explanation. He was just as puzzled about that as he was about why they had confined him in the first place. But, he was out. Free. Walking the streets. Breathing the air. Seeing real people bustle past him in this familiar city that had all but forgotten about him. Leaving him to wander aimlessly. To think, hard, about how to find the answers that he desperately needed to be answered. To find them. To stop at nothing to find those who had stolen away his life. To get to them - through what ever or whom ever had enough of a death wish to get in his way - and to hurt them for what they had done to him. Punish them, to the fullest, torturous extent that the blunt weapon he had become could heap upon them all...

Reportedly based on Minegishi Nobuaki's and Tsuchiya Garon's same-titled Japanese comic book, this critically acclaimed and award-winning vengeance flick from South Korea certainly inspires memories of 'Reservoir Dogs', 'Death Wish' and Blaxploitation films, with a nod to 'Escape from Alcatraz', all rolled into one. Director Chan-wook Park creates a truly artful and gritty, sporadically violent crime mystery here, with co-writers Jo-yun Hwang's and Chun-hyeong Lim's wonderfully moody screenplay starting out at an impressive click and successfully maintaining that momentum throughout the first two-thirds of this hundred and twenty-minute, subtitled 2003 offering. Clearly, Park had a specific vision for Choi's disoriented anti-hero character to pummel his way through, which cinematographer Jeong-hun Jeong beautifully captures under dim lighting and tight compositions as each brutal and candid moment unfolds across the big screen. The extended single take hallway fight is just one of a small handful of absolutely brilliant scenes surely to be considered modern classics. However, the story does stumble with its slightly inadequate last act, primarily because the answer to this so-called terrible mystery isn't really compelling enough within the context of this self-professed sinful man's prior actions. Apart from him feeling somewhat bereft of the kind of depth that might inspire a paying audience to gasp in honest, empathetic shock, because his shadowy antagonist remains fairly enigmatic until the closing credits, the plot twist's intended surprise falls flat for the most part. It becomes unconvincing pretense, feeling cobbled together at the last minute instead of existing as tiny underlying clues that pull everything together near the end. Besides, by that time, you just want to see Dae-su soullessly clobber a few more bad guys out of purely unadulterated, blood thirsty gratification. The depth of 'Old Boy' comes too late to really matter too much, unfortunately. All the same, it's still an exceptionally worthwhile, adult oriented cinematic pot boiler both visually and for it's impressively raw acting.

Check it out as a good rental for its sheer power and oftentimes bizarre violence, but put your logical deduction skills to bed early - even though the story attempts to resemble a detective yarn from time to time.

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Oliver Twist
REVIEWED 10/05, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

According to the Internet Movie Data Base (www.imdb.com), there have been ten previous big screen adaptations of renowned English humourist Charles Dickens' (1812-1870) acclaimed 1838 novel - that you can read online at the Project Gutenberg site (www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext96/olivr11.txt) - about the famous young English work house orphan who asked for more. The first was a Silent Film released almost a hundred years ago, in 1909 by the Vitagraph Company of America, a Victorian Era studio reportedly bought by Warner Bros. in 1925. Like me, you probably remember seeing the hugely dramatic 1948 black and white version that starred Alec Guinness (1914-2000) ('The Bridge on the River Kwai' (1957), 'Star Wars' (1977)) playing the cagey old master of child thieves Fagin. There's also the far more well-known five-time Oscar-winning 1968 musical 'Oliver!', that featured Oliver Reed's (1938-1999) ('The Curse of the Werewolf' (1961), 'Gladiator' (2000)) brutal thug Bill Sikes, as well as US television's 'H.R. Pufnstuf' (1969) child star Jack Wild's ('Pufnstuf' (1970), 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' (1991)) Artful Dodger inviting Oliver (Mark Lester; 'Black Beauty' (1971)) to "Con-sider yoursewf at home..." (words and music by Lionel Bart (1930-1999)).

Okay, enough movie memory lane stuff. What Academy Award-winning director Roman Polanski does with this entirely sober cinematic retelling is attempt to thoroughly realize the original classic tale, complete with richly detailed Period scenery and a certain bend towards satirical 19th Century caricature. It definitely has everything going for it to easily be considered a truly worthwhile dramatic endeavour, but something's missing over-all. Writer Ronald Harwood's screenplay simply feels uninspired - or too constrained by overwhelming respect of the manuscript - throughout. This 'Oliver Twist' almost runs flat, like a stage to screen production that's forgotten it's a movie. It also doesn't seem to want to overly embellish upon the smaller moments for the camera that likely could have largely benefited from some extra work beyond Dickens' prose, as though this (I guess) wide-eyed cast and crew were so intensely hung up on the mechanics of getting it perfect, that the intrinsic life of the piece ended up being rehearsed out of the final cut. Even during Ben Kingsley's ('Bugsy' (1991), 'Sexy Beast' (2000)) mildly interesting yet horrendously affected anti-Semitic portrayal of Fagin, memories of Pacino's enormously fresh interpretation of Shylock in 'The Merchant of Venice' (2004) left me wanting more from this Twist notable as depicted here, because there were obvious facets of Kingsley's role that could have been embellished upon but were left completely ignored. I actually hate tearing apart this hundred and thirty-minute film, because I really wanted to enjoy it during the almost empty screening that I'd attended, but really was left feeling disappointed. Barney Clark ('The Lawless Heart' (2001)) clearly gives as much as he's able to as Oliver, but there's hardly anything about his performance that makes it resonate with a paying audience expected to care what happens to him, and he merely becomes little more than a raggedy human finger puppet throughout most of the surprisingly awkward third act and epilogue.

As much as I fought to embrace this new, truer version of the literary masterpiece, I can't honestly recommend it as anything more than a superficially great-looking entry point towards far greater enjoyment in reading the actual novel.

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Over the Hedge
REVIEWED 05/06, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

Springtime has arrived in the forest and Verne the Turtle's (voiced by Garry Shandling) extended family of Ozzie (William Shatner) and daughter Heather (Avril Lavigne) the Possums, Lou (Eugene Levy) and Penny (Catherine O'Hara) the Porcupines and their brood of three kids, Hammy the Squirrel (Steve Carell) and Stella the Skunk (Wanda Sykes) have two hundred and seventy-four days to forage enough bark and berries to fill their log home and see them through the next winter in this delightfully irreverent computer animated feature from co-director Tim Johnson ('Antz' (1998), 'Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas' (2003)) and co-writer/debuting co-director Karey Kirkpatrick ('The Rescuers Down Under' (1990), 'Chicken Run' (2000)), where RJ the Raccoon (Bruce Willis) suddenly appears to inform these friendly critters that their small patch of the woods has become surrounded by the El Rancho Camelot suburb that now sprawls beyond the new big scary hedge, and that he has a plan to "help" them gather up all of the food they'll need from their human neighbours - forgetting to mention that RJ has one short week to save his own skin by getting those animals to help him replace the load of food that he'd destroyed while stealing from Vincent the Bear (Nick Nolte).

Holy cripes, this is such an hilariously enjoyable movie from beginning to closing credits. Sure, there are a few elements seen here that feel vaguely familiar, but most of what's presented in this fast paced ninety-six minute picture truly plays out as being completely fresh and original. Awesome. What makes 'Over the Hedge' an incredibly fun time at the movies over-all is that it has a straight forward story that's creatively embellished upon by the various and oftentimes over-the-top antics that RJ and the rest of these characters get into throughout. Such as RJ mesmerizing this group with robust tales of easy pickings from that housing development's unwitting inhabitants, Verne's apprehension about trusting RJ getting him into trouble, and Hammy's manic energy flat out stealing the show at ever turn. Unlike recently released cinematic peers 'Hoodwinked' (2004), 'Ice Age 2' (2006) and 'The Wild' (2006), this one thankfully doesn't heavily rely on cheesy references to famous Hollywood flicks for the enormous number of laughs that are served up. Favourite moments would definitely include the hugely rollicking ride involving a neighbourhood dog wanting to play eventually sending a wagon of junk food flying skyward with RJ and Verne on board, and when Stella is sent in disguise to seduce a pompous Persian cat (voiced by Omid Djalili; 'The Mummy' (1999), 'Casanova' (2005)). Good stuff. The most refreshing aspect of this one is that its ensemble cast of predominantly recognizable voices seamlessly play off of each other, sharing a paying audience's attention while still effortlessly defining their individual characters. Yes, I realize that's in large part thanks to the wizardly of the animators involved, but the voices do give an added dimension to these anthropomorphized beasties through their definite tones and inflections that probably wouldn't have existed if 'Over the Hedge' had been cast differently.

Absolutely do yourself a huge favour and check out this riotous comedy packed with outstanding laughs and a memorably impressive family friendly story.

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The Omen
REVIEWED 06/06, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

Recently promoted U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain Robert Thorn (Liev Schreiber; 'Kate & Leopold' (2001), 'The Manchurian Candidate' (2004)) is thrown into an arcane quest to unravel the terrible truth in this fairly disjointed and surprisingly unimaginative supernatural thriller from director John Moore ('Behind Enemy Lines' (2001), 'Flight of the Phoenix' (2004)) that remakes the 1976 horror classic almost scene by scene, where bizarre and gruesome death comes to those who believe that the newborn boy Thorn secretly adopted in Rome five years ago to replace his unwitting wife Kate's (Julia Stiles; 'Mona Lisa Smile' (2003), 'The Bourne Supremacy' (2004)) dead baby is the Anti-Christ - prophecised in The Bible as being the Son of the Devil - who will ultimately bring destruction to Mankind if allowed to live. Admittedly, I was more than a little skeptical about this one before sitting through it. Not because I'm particularly a fan of the somewhat cheesy original. I'm not. It's because I'd just seen much of the same thing played out a few months ago in 'Final Destination 3' (2005), which heavily borrows its non-religious premise from 'The Omen' story, where photos give clues to how an unseen malevolent force will kill people. There's really nothing new here.

This hundred and ten-minute version of 'The Omen' ends up being little more than a poor drama populated by a cast of previously proven serious actors with nothing much to do here, that relentlessly winces at the fact that it's supposed to be scary and gory (it's neither). Schreiber's relentlessly confused performance seems to have more to do with his frustration over this picture not making any sense a lot of the time, rather than from his character coming to terms with him rearing evil incarnate. Sure, David Seltzer's screenplay attempts to fascinate a paying audience with creatively interpreted contemporary references that suggest The New Testament's Book of Revelations was written by famed seer Nostradamus, in much the same way that the slightly similar 'End of Days' does, but 'The Omen' quickly runs out of smart juice. Even 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' (2004) made an effort to put a fresh spin on Lucifer's horrific machinations. This feature doesn't really want you to think too much about what transpires on the big screen, despite giving the impression that it's a detective story of sorts. The script also fails miserably at giving you any reason to care about what happens to Thorn or his systematically victimized wife - or to Father Brennan (Pete Postlethwaite; 'Alien³' (1992), 'The Constant Gardener' (2005)) and photographer Keith Jennings (David Thewlis; 'Seven Years in Tibet' (1997), 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' (2004)) who both warn Robert about the devilish signs swirling around this pale prepubescent menace, before Satan (I guess) spurs a kind of Rube Goldberg inspired series of Murphy's Law events that end in tragedy - to the point where you're forced to try reading into every suspected mannerism and dead pan frown that's barely expressed by that perpetually sullen little boy Damien (first timer Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick). A roofer knocks a hammer, the hammer precisely falls on a rusted bolt, the shattered bolt loosens a metal sign, the sign swings down like a pendulum, decapitating a passerby. Huh? It's an unnecessary chore that's further aggravated by this flick's weird bouts of lazy story telling. For instance, why is an Italian hobo walking a heavy metal man hole cover by a chain at one point? Are dogs that scarce in Italy? Later on, why is there a huge stained glass window suspended high above the entrance of a London church during a thunderstorm? That's never explained either. Worse still, how is Thorn so easily able to switch from his resolve that Damien must die, to him then running away in shock at the thought that Damien must die, at a pivotal point in this movie? Unanswered questions, lazy continuity and a sheer lack of interest in this story thoughtfully exploring its true potential throughout all become increasingly disappointing as it plods along.

The original spawned two easily forgettable cinematic offspring, but 'The Omen' is hardly worth the price of admission on its own and merely offers signs that the intended sequel suggested by some of its disconnected moments will probably be equally nonsensical and talent wasting.

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Omkara
REVIEWED 07/06, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

Co-writer/director Vishal Bharadwaj loosely adapts William Shakespeare's (1564-1616) The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice (1603) in this grim and thoroughly captivating subtitled Bollywood tragedy, where recently appointed criminal chieftain Omkara "Omi" Sukla's (Ajay Devgan; 'The Legend of Bhagat Singh' (2002), 'Kaal' (2005)) clear judgment is systematically twisted into seething paranoia by bitterly scheming Langda Tyagi (Saif Ali Khan; 'Hum Tum' (2004), 'Salaam Namaste' (2005) - his loyal friend of fifteen years, whose hopes for promotion are ignored when Kesu Firangi (Vivek Oberoi; 'Kyun...! Ho Gaya Na' (2004), 'Kisna: The Warrior Poet' (2005)) is made that underworld's new chief lieutenant - and Omi is led to suspect that his adoring fiancé Dolly Mishra (Kareena Kapoor; 'Asoka' (2001), 'Kyon Ki' (2005)) is being unfaithful with an increasingly temperamental Kesu. Holy cripes, this is such an incredibly inspired version of one of Shakespeare's lesser known yet famous plays. Cite jealousy as being a green-eyed monster, or talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve, you're paraphrasing The Tragedy of Othello. It's a challenge, but you can find the play's complete transcript at the Project Gutenburg website (www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext00/0ws3210.txt). The original stage performance was reportedly based on a story by Italian writer Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio (1504-1573) first published in his compilation Hecatommithi (1565), with Shakespeare later fleshing out the primary theme of spurn spawned vengeance and renaming all of the primary characters except for that of the unwittingly doomed Desdemona. His Iago is arguably still the ultimate serpentine antagonist of all time.

This latest picture is apparently director Bharadwaj's third return to the Classics, and his second retooling of Shakespeare's work, after the Macbeth based 'Maqbool'. In 'Omkara', Bharadwaj masterfully weaves familiar elements from the Bard's play into this heavy cinematic tapestry of pernicious meddling and conniving betrayal set in India's contemporary outskirts. Khan's Langda is portrayed as a brutish murderous lout, whose lust for power poisons his loyalty to his newly crowned boss and fuels his sneering opportunism when ever the chance to use purely innocent circumstances against Omkara and Kesu arise. When he chillingly confesses, "I'd like to drink some blood," you know he's not kidding. It's a deliciously nasty delight to watch, as his scheming with Dolly's jilted lover Rajju methodically shatters all reasoning in the minds of those marked for destruction on the eve of Omi's marriage to Dolly. In fact, each performance from this outstanding cast of talent crackles with unfettered originality and believability throughout. Devgan is outstanding as this hundred and fifty-minute feature's protagonist, effortlessly consuming the lion's share of co-writers Bharadwaj, Robin Bhatt and Abhishek Chaubey's screenplay with his starring role's predominantly subdued tone of stoic leadership that slowly erodes and peculates towards insane volcanic rage. Awesome. Another notably astounding aspect of 'Omkara' is the over-all look of this film, where cinematographer Tassaduq Hussain deftly combines the richly stylish lighting techniques of Film Noir with Cinema Verité's independent sense enacted realism, further strengthening this entire effort's oftentimes overwhelming visual impact. This is clearly evident during a pivotal moment on a rainy night ambush of a rival crime boss, where Omi obsessively confronts Langda about what's really going on behind his back. Yes, there are song and dance numbers as well - performed by Bipasha Basu ('No Entry' (2005), 'Phir Hera Pheri' (2006)) as night club siren and Kesu's girlfriend Billo - but, they're carefully introduced as peripheral entertainment as opposed to those musical moments being whimsical distractions. This isn't a typical Bollywood Masala by any stretch of the imagination. It's not a starchy regurgitation of Othello, either. And, while some of the editing does seem slightly disjointed, the subtitling could be better, and there's also a curious need to rely on slightly cheesy high drama during the opener that precedes the main credits, much of those minor annoyances are easily shaken off before the core dynamics kick into gear. This truly is a big screen marvel, that's sure to entertain fans of South Asian Cinema and Shakespeare aficionados alike.

Absolutely check out this thoroughly impressive updated telling of Classic Theatre, that's well worth the price of admission and memorably stands as an over-all exceptional piece of foreign movie making.

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Open Season
REVIEWED 10/06, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

The mountain valley town of Timberline's Forest Ranger Beth's (voiced by Debra Messing; 'The Mothman Prophecies' (2002), 'The Wedding Date' (2005)) fully grown pet grizzly bear Boog (Martin Lawrence; 'Bad Boys' (1995), 'Big Momma's House 2' (2006)) thought nothing of freeing recently hit, tied and one antler shy of a full rack young buck Elliot (Ashton Kutcher; 'Dude, Where's My Car?' (2000), 'Guess Who' (2005)) from the hood of the town's merciless game hunter Shaw's (Gary Sinise; 'Ransom' (1996), 'The Forgotten' (2004)) pick up truck, but when Elliot's unexpected appearance behind the stage of Boog's otherwise crowd pleasing outdoor performance leads to panicking a horrified audience, Beth painfully realizes that she must return her completely domesticated bear to the forest that he was saved from as a cub, in this absolutely charming and delightfully irreverent Sony Pictures animated romp from co-director Roger Allers ('The Lion King' (1994)) and debuting feature co-directors Jill Culton and Anthony Stacchi, where Boog and Elliot form an uneasy bond far from Chocolate Nummy Bars, working indoor toilets and Beth's soothing bed time song in the hopes of quickly returning to the creature comforts of civilization far from Guardian of the Pine squirrel McSquizzy (Billy Connolly; 'Mrs. Brown' (1997), 'Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events' (2004)) and his Furry Clan army of fuzzy tailed acorn chuckers, and the deer herd's bully Ian (Patrick Warburton; 'Scream 3' (2000), 'The Wild' (2006)) mere days before hunting season begins, while Shaw slowly realizes that Boog must be the ring leader of a world wide conspiracy where animals will rule over people if he doesn't track down and stop the impending overthrow first.

First of all, this isn't a remake of the same named 1974 Peter Fonda horror that takes place in a secluded forest cabin. Yes, there's a secluded forest cabin, but Peter Fonda is in the upcoming 'Ghost Rider' (2007), not here. With that out of the way, holy cripes! This new 'Open Season' is an incredibly enjoyable family-friendly film that does feature a few intense moments that might frighten smaller tots, but the pre-schoolers I checked out this opening weekend matinee with had a blast with it. Lawrence really should have started lending his wonderfully expressive voice to the big screen cartoon world long ago, frankly. His last few live action efforts have been painful to sit through, but his performance here with writers Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman's fresh and clever script completely exonerates any past fumbles of Lawrence's brilliant comic timing. Kutcher also clearly has fun with his role, with the most memorably hilarious scene consisting of his character's bizarre version of Irish lyricist Jimmy Kennedy's famous 1932 words to American composer John Walter Bratton's equally recognizable 1907 melody, Teddy Bears Picnic, where Elliot instead sings about a magical elf who lives in a rainbow tree and, well, has a small bladder. Much of the humour is intended for the amusement of contemporary kids, but there's also quite a lot crammed into this surprisingly sharp and fast paced ninety-nine minute movie for adults to laugh out loud at. A four year-old shushed at me, I laughed out loud so much during this screening. Plus, along with you being presented with a superior story that truly pulls you in and gives you several reasons to care about what happens to these anthropomorphized goofball critters, the animation itself is oftentimes overwhelmingly spectacular. Remember being astounded by the pure art of crisp drawing and colour use that Disney Studios productions guaranteed when they were at their pinnacle a few decades ago? Visually, 'Open Season' gives all of those classic favourites a run for their money. For instance, there's one scene where all you're looking at is a close up of Boog's wind blown fur, and the flawlessly realistic quality of it looks like something taken from 'Bambi' (1942) or 'Fantasia' (1940), regardless of the fact that the technologies used then and now are somewhat different. The eye-popping attention to detail consistently defies scrutiny here. Everything works. The story clicks together and keeps you captivated by how it's so impressively presented through the masterfully balanced dialogue and seamlessly gorgeous images. Sure, there seem to have been a lot of animated animal movies released in the past while - with more to come - but, 'Open Season' is one that you'll definitely want to see on the big screen with a huge crowd that spans all ages for the full effect. Don't worry, just as with 'Curious George' (2005), most of the crying tantrums will likely come after this film's closing credits, when the kids don't want to go home yet because they insist on seeing it again. I humbly bow to the only reliable critics of children's movies: Children. That is, knowing full well that I completely agree with their resounding approval and personally look forward to seeing it at least one more time in the theatre.

Absolutely do yourself a huge favour and check out this thoroughly entertaining and incredibly satisfying animated comedy perfectly created for kids and kids at heart. Awesome.

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