Young Adam
REVIEWED 06/04, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

Based on acclaimed Scots-born leading Beat Generation literary influence and heroin-addicted erotic novelist Alexander Trocchi's (1925-1984) 1954 first book, this overtly grey and weirdly non-linear 2003 period film starring Ewan McGregor as failed burgeoning writer turned emotionally shipwrecked coal barge hand Joe Taylor turns out to be a fairly miserable time. His former lover of two years Cathie Dimly (Emily Mortimer) has turned up dead; her lifeless scantily clad body pulled from the River Clyde, starting a series of events that result in her last suitor standing trial for murder. Joe knows what actually happened, but remains silent and brooding until he realizes what needs to be done.

Unfortunately, writer/director David Mackenzie spends the majority of this meandering introverted flick exploiting Taylor's rather lascivious affairs with his boss' dowdy wife Ella Gault (Tilda Swinton), her widowed sister Gwen (Therese Bradley), Dimly and his subsequent landlord's spouse, that there's not a whole lot for a paying audience to really tap into - except for the surprisingly heavy doses of peep show full-frontal pornography thumped in throughout. I guess that makes this stinker true to the book. The over-all Art House acting from this cast, and the mind-numbing snail's pace made virtually unbearable by Talking Heads lead singer David Byrne's plodding violin soundtrack, left me imaginatively fighting off a coma by secretly hoping someone onscreen would muse, "Is that a lightsabre in your pocket or are you just happy to see me, Obi-wan?" just to kick start any sort of interest in what happens. This Edinburgh International Film Festival winner truly is an hour and a half of monotonously dull cinematography, lazily spiced with sometimes desperately raw sex, that did have the potential to be a far superior character study if McGregor and crew had been given a better script. Apparently stunted by some juvenile need to present these various peripheral sweaty dalliances, Mackenzie fails to keep you involved in the rather amateurishly presented main story of Cathie's torrential relationship with Joe that eventually leads to her untimely demise. Ultimately relying on scene after scene of speechless Taylor staring blankly into the camera from the smoky shadows as though those of us who forgot to take our psychic pills will magically pick up on his tortured and confused interior monologue through osmosis. Well, that doesn't happen. It's obvious that wasn't going to happen, as the story detours back to yet another steamy quickie with this or that quivering conquest. It's interesting that Joe wanted to write a different kind of novel. His time with Dimly, and the awkward sometimes-haunted aftermath of that is definitely captivating. So is the court case that draws Joe back to those days. However, this intensely disappointing snooze fest consciously avoids those obvious highlights, pretty well wasting everyone's time here.

While McGregor, Mortimer and Swinton do bust their chops attempting to work in semblances of worthwhile dramatic performances, this aggravatingly boring feature manages to kill their efforts and any real reason to bother going to see it - other than as a curious badly-lit marital aid. Yawn.

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Yu-Gi-Oh!
REVIEWED 08/04, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

Reportedly picking up from the third season of the popular children's animated program brought to North American television by 4 Kids Entertainment in 2001, after being heavily adapted from Japan's original wizards and warriors card dueling anime seen on Toei and then on TV-Tokyo, all spawned from comic series creator Kazuki Takahahi's 'Yûgiô' (which translates to 'King of Games') that first appeared in the weekly manga anthology Shonen Jump in 1996, this overtly corny yet selectively imaginative movie finds young Duel Monsters champion and lowly teenager Yugi Moto (voiced by Dan Green ('Yu-Gi-Oh!" TV series (2001-2004), 'Pokemon 4Ever' (2002)) shortly after winning the big Battle City Tournament and now having to face his most tenacious and long-standing rival yet again. High schooler Seto Kaiba (Eric Stuart), the millionaire heir and CEO of KaibaCorp - manufacturer of the patented holographic equipment gamers use to enhance their experience while playing one-on-one - is determined to beat Yugi. And, after bumping up his deck with two incredibly powerful cards whose malicious powers seem to have originated from another dimension, where the evil five thousand year-old Anubis, Lord of the Dead, awaits to mete out his revenge upon Moto's secret alter ego - the dark ethereal Egyptian figure whose soul lives in this boyish hero's Millennium Pyramid puzzle necklace and is named Pharaoh Atem - possessed with greed Kaiba's unfair victory appears already won.

Admittedly, I'd never seen or heard of the show until this flick's summer release. And, quite frankly, I felt as though I needed far more strong coffee and sugar-saturated snacks pumping through my blood stream than normal in order to keep up with the impressively high tech but relentlessly complicated card dueling that did seem progressively contrived as the action built to a feverish pitch. The Dungeons and Dragons-like rules and points system were so utterly labyrinthine at times that I could see how kids and young teens would eagerly gobble up that aspect of the show and its related actual role playing card game, as well as push director Hatsuki Tsuji's American-intended movie into the top ten first weekend theatre releases, but this cartoon is definitely intended for already inculcated followers. Which is fine. Some of the conjured creatures, such as Yugi's God Card warrior Obelisk the Tormentor and Seto's Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, truly are great. However, writer Michael Pecoriello's script does run out of steam throughout the rest of this ninety-minute screening, giving a paying audience fairly familiar bouts of sometimes silly humour, a poorly edited plotline and simplistic dialogue to sit through until the next round of wonderfully aggravating-to-understand strategic sorcery and beast-filled mayhem ensues. I suspect the teleplays must be smarter to have lasted this long. Sadly, the opportunity to possibly turn this cobbled together picture into the next superior cross-platform phenomenon on par with 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' (1990) was clearly apparent but obviously not pursued by investing more time with character development and story for those ticket holders interested in such unimportant things.

You'll probably enjoy this one if you're already a staunch fan of 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' the television series or keen on the card dueling game. Otherwise, I really wouldn't recommend checking it out as anything other than a curious and sometimes inventive rental for kids or kids at heart who aren't too picky about seeing anything anime.

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The Year of the Yao
REVIEWED 05/05, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

In 2002, 7 years after the Houston Rockets had won their second NBA Championship in 1995, this red, white and silver clad Texan team based in the third largest country in the world, in the fourth largest US city boasting a population of 2,167,460, would recruit their number one draft pick from 7,591 miles West, out of the world's fourth largest country and the People's Republic of China's largest city: Shanghai, population 16.7 million. 7' 5" tall, 22 year-old Yao Ming, already considered a homeland sports hero and having reportedly performed well for his country at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, barely managed a rudimentary understanding of the English language when the plane carrying him and his proud father, Yao Zhiyuan (6' 10"), finally touched down in the United States to be greeted by his mother, Fengdi Fang (6' 4"), rookie translator Colin Pine (5' 10"), and scores of Rocket basketball fans. Many were hopeful, but skeptical. Ming was big, but outwardly clumsy and lacking the immediately recognizable aggressive demeanour of contemporary professional athletes that the media expected. He was also a displaced foreigner, and a relative unknown to this continent. This draft choice was a first in the US, with a lot of expectations pinned on him from both sides of the Pacific. Former 9-time All-Star and retired Houston Rockets power forward Charles Barkley (6' 5") openly criticized Coach Rudy Tomjanovich's gamble, smugly betting his TV sports co-analyst Kenny Smith that Yao wouldn't score 20 points - despite apparently scoring 32 the previous year with the Shanghai Sharks in China. Pine had his own doubts, pointing out that Chinese was his second language and that the Rockets' plays shorthand was yet another form of verbal communication that he had to learn on the fly, while translating both for Yao on and off of the practice court before their season opener. Everything seemed to conspire against this gentle giant. Worse still, it would only be a matter of time before all of Yao's training would be put to the test as his team's new center, facing off against 1994 World Champion and 1996 Olympic US Dream Team gold winner, then-two-time consecutive NBA Championship MVP and the Los Angeles Lakers' highest scoring center in NBA Finals history, 7' 1" Shaquille Rashaun 'Shaq' O'Neal...

There's a specific moment during this partially subtitled, 2004 documentary - early on, when Yao seems visibly overwhelmed by jet lag and culture shock, the pressures and the impatient, apparently high expectations of two distinctly different countries - where you almost expect him, or Pine, or a team mate, or Barkley to mutter the obvious quip: "Houston, we have a problem." It never comes. The momentum of this towering rookie's first year on the NBA circuit is wonderfully captured throughout co-directors James D. Stern's ('Michael Jordan to the Max' (2000)) and Adam Del Deo's effort, though. It's contagious, even if you're not particularly interested in basketball - invented by a Canadian, Dr. James Naismith, the Minister of a Springfield, Massachusetts YMCA, in 1891 - simply because this is a human story put into extremely well-crafted context for a wider audience of moviegoers to easily tap into. Not quite an underdog, Yao is still presented as the proverbial fish out of water hurled head first into needing to absorb everything around him in order to function. He's portrayed as a likable, intelligent and modest man with a wry sense of humour. It pulls you in, to the point where you can't help but cheer on both aspects of him that this film explores. Namely, the player and the person. Awesome. Sure, it does feel slightly contrived. There are times when this eighty-eight minute picture also tends to over exaggerate certain plot points. For instance, only true fans of the game will likely fully appreciate the importance of the Yao/Shaq face-offs on the court as being the intensely defining clash of titans as depicted here. However, there's far more to 'The Year of the Yao' than a lot of glossy ESPN-like hyperbole. You see America through his eyes, albeit mostly from under the glare of the media spotlight. You're shown surprisingly candid, brief snap shots of what Yao cites as him being reborn, discovering the world all over again within an adopted perspective still basically alien to him, appreciating simple things like the high ceilings and doorways in his new Houston home while maintaining his humble, spiritual roots. All making this well paced glimpse into one American Dream come true all the more captivating and hugely enjoyable from beginning to closing credits.

Definitely do yourself a favour and check out this delightfully entertaining sports documentary for more than its somewhat overblown hoop shot rivalries.

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You, Me and Dupree
REVIEWED 07/06, © STEPHEN BOURNE
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REVIEW:

Still in the throes of their honeymoon, California public school teacher Molly (Kate Hudson; 'Almost Famous' (2000), 'The Skeleton Key' (2005)) and housing planner Carl Peterson (Matt Dillon; 'The Flamingo Kid' (1984), 'Crash' (2004)) end up with more than they bargain for when they take in joyfully eccentric bohemian and their suddenly destitute best man Randolph H. Dupree (Owen Wilson; 'Anaconda' (1997), 'Wedding Crashers' (2005)) for a couple of days that seem like an exhaustive, nightmarish eternity, in directing brothers' Anthony and Joe Russo's ('Welcome to Collinwood' (2002)) disappointingly ineffective mature satire of dragged out skits featuring Dupree's relentlessly infantile attempts to justify his stunted maturity that push his twenty-five year friendship with Carl to the breaking point, while the pernicious mind games of Carl's millionaire land development boss - who also happens to be Molly's overprotective father - Bob Thompson (Michael Douglas; 'Romancing the Stone' (1984), 'The Sentinel' (2006)) threatens to sabotage that marriage even further.

Surprisingly, there's not a whole lot going for this hundred and eight-minute comedy of errors, except that most of the remotely funny scenes are used for the ads in order to fill movie theatre seats. 'You, Me and Dupree' isn't so much a successfully funny flick as it is an aggravatingly self indulgent show boat for Wilson's hit-and-miss brand of subtle wry wit throughout. He's chuckling most of the time here, but the biggest joke is that writer Mike LeSieur's screenplay feels a lot like a terribly cobbled contemporary retooling of 'The Man Who Came to Dinner' (1941) - where stink gags replace exotic deliveries - meets 'The Odd Couple' (1968) in reverse polarity, tinged with vague shades of 'My Best Friend's Wedding' (1997) through Douglas' role, without a paying audience experiencing the luxury of laughing at much of what clicks along on the big screen. It wants to be a drama that's humourous, and yet betrays that apparent intention throughout by also failing to present reasonably interesting characters or a measurably cohesive plot for you to care about. This picture doesn't hold together. It's definitely not as outlandishly funny as it could have been - nor as much as you're led to believe it is, before buying a ticket. Sure, it's still mildly fun watching Wilson lazily default to jabbering out a couple of trademark strange monologues in his coy, vacuously knowing drawl seen previously. Yes, Dillon clearly attempts to pull punch lines from little more than thin air during his part as a systematically beleaguered straight man slowly percolating towards a handful of somewhat comedic fits of rage. In that sense, one fantasy scene stands out as a notable bright point. However, as if to add insult to injury, the Russo Brothers can't seem to decide whose plight is supposed to be more captivating or laugh inducing. The man child, or the unsure hubby? It's a mess. Hudson's input seems completely superfluous until the last few closing moments, when it doesn't matter any more. Hers is strictly phone-in dialogue. The rest of 'You, Me and Dupree' quickly becomes and curiously remains a wrestling match for your increasingly divided attention, unnecessarily boring you with a minor barrage of unimportant side stories that undermine this movie's impact even further. I kept wondering to myself if my reaction would have been different if it had been a French or Italian film with subtitles, until I realized that it would likely have been entirely different and more cleverly put together if it had come from Europe. This one has the feel of it ineptly trying to remake something that's smarter. The winning elements do exist in the final cut, but nobody involved seems to have the slightest idea about how to capably piece it together so that more than the fleeting memory of three or four brief scenes are heavily relied upon to keep a paying audience entertained for the duration.

Steer clear of this turkey, unless you really need to take a snooze in a dark, air conditioned room for an hour and a half.

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