Just Like Heaven (DVD) Review

One of the hidden gems of 2005, Just Like Heaven was overshadowed by the usual commercial blockbusters and Academy Award nominees. But this cute little film is the very embodiment of the movie going experience. Fitting easily into the "chick flick" genre, Just Like Heaven isn't a sappy, drawn-out love story filled with clichés and over-the-top dialogue. It's actually funny and likeable enough to appeal to males as well as females. Mark Waters, director of such films as Mean Girls and Freaky Friday, minted himself a successful film during the casting stage when he picked the perfect combination of onscreen talent to illustrate his story. The chemistry between Mark Ruffalo and Reese Witherspoon makes this film a lot more interesting than it would otherwise be with a lesser combination of talent...

Just Like Heaven begins by following the life of Elizabeth Masterson (Reese Witherspoon), a workaholic staff doctor in a San Francisco hospital. Driven to achieve, Masterson excels in her career, but only at the expense of her personal life. Taking on extra shifts in an effort to get promoted, she continually misses lunch and dinner appointments with her sister Abby (Dina Spybey). On the night she gets her long-awaited promotion, Elizabeth is en route to her sister's house for a dinner party when her car is smashed head-on by a tractor trailer.

Meanwhile, David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo) moves into a new apartment in the aftermath of his wife's tragic death. Although his best friend Jack (Donal Logue) tells him it's time to move on, David can't seem to get over her passing. Late one night as he guzzles beer on the couch, he's confronted by Elizabeth who is angry to see him camping out in her apartment. Mark insists that the apartment is his, and the two soon discover that Elizabeth is a ghost. As their confrontational relationship grows into friendship, Mark and Elizabeth work together to find out what really happened to her. The result is a series of often hilarious mishaps such as when Mark reluctantly saves a dying man's life using Elizabeth's vast medical knowledge.

Searching for some answers to Elizabeth's strange condition, David visits a bookstore specializing in paranormal occurrences where he meets up with a clerk named Darryl (Jon Heder) who is endowed with unworldly wisdom. Darryl provides a few clues as to the origin and intentions of the spirit haunting Mark and his guidance leads Mark to the discovery of a shocking truth - Elizabeth is still alive. Dependent on life support for the past six months, she hasn't shown any signs of recovery. Her sister Abby, struggling to make the right decision, comes to the conclusion that Elizabeth would want to have the plug pulled. But Elizabeth, who originally felt she would not want to remain on life support, feels very much alive, and she wants to stay that way. Now, Mark and Elizabeth must work together if she has any chance of survival...

Veteran screenplay writers Peter Tolan and Leslie Dixon collaborate well together in creating a well integrated plotline with interesting dialogue. An unorthodox love story, Just Like Heaven showcases Mark Ruffalo's growing appeal as a leading man. Much like Tom Hanks, his everyman look exudes a rare charisma on the big screen. Similar to his standout role in 13 Going On 30 (where he stole the show from Jennifer Garner), the film highlights his likeability among both male and female audiences. But the role would be less of a breakout performance if it weren't for the outstanding chemistry between the actor and his co-star. As she exhibited with her recent Oscar-winning performance, Reese Witherspoon is no slouch herself. Overall, these types of films do little for me, but Just Like Heaven earns my highest recommendation...

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a movie review site [http://thedvdreport.blogspot.com] where you can find more reviews like this one of the Just Like Heaven (DVD) Review [http://thedvdreport.blogspot.com/2006/05/just-like-heaven-dvd.html].

Bruce Almighty (DVD) Review

Personally, Bruce Almighty is my favorite Jim Carrey movie ever. It's never outlandish in its approach, and at times, it's quite serious and adult. In fact, for a comedy, it presents some surprisingly deep philosophical questions concerning the actions of a just God and our place in the universe. Inevitably, it sparks internal and external debate among viewers in regard to what we would personally do if we held the power of God in the palm of our hand...

In Bruce Almighty, Carrey plays the role of Bruce Nolan, a local television reporter always assigned to cover less than thrilling events in and around his hometown. Dreaming of the network anchor chair, he works tirelessly to rid himself of the "funny guy" image. He lives with girlfriend Grace Connelly (Jennifer Aniston), but the two get into a major argument when Bruce, who loses his bid for anchorman to the underhanded Evan Baxter (Steve Carell), flies off the handle and loses his job. Discontent with his failure, and constantly blaming God, Bruce directs his anger at those around him. But in the interim, he receives numerous calls from an unknown phone number. When he finally calls the number, he's offered an interview for "the job of his life". Curious, Bruce attends the interview in a bleach-white building where he's confronted by a mysterious janitor who claims to be God (Morgan Freeman).

God confronts Bruce with all the complaints he's made, and then makes a surprising offer. God will let Bruce take his job for two weeks. God will go on vacation, and Bruce will be granted all the powers of the Almighty...

The result is an hour and a half of utter hilarity. Bruce begins by parting his tomato soup and proclaiming himself "Bruce Almighty". He then uncovers the biggest story of the year when he "happens upon" the recovery of Jimmy Hoffa's body. Inserting himself in the backdrop of an endless string of amazing news stories, Bruce gets his old job back and watches his personal stock soar. Sabotaging Evan's career, Bruce is given the anchor chair he so covets.

But along the way, his relationship with Grace falls apart, the world around him edges closer to anarchy, and the powers of God become too much for Bruce to handle. Unable to cope with the looming disaster of his actions, Bruce encounters God once again, but this time his life perspective is far different than before...

Some of the scenes in this film are beyond description, they're so funny. In one such scene, Bruce (now having the power of God) faces down a gang which had previously beat him senseless. What he does to their leader will make every viewer cringe. More than just a comedy, Bruce Almighty forces the audience to imagine themselves in a similar situation. A wonderful and intriguing idea for a story, Jim Carrey brings the film to life and entertains audiences with a comedic omnipotence of which God himself can be proud...

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a movie review site [http://thedvdreport.blogspot.com] where you can find more reviews like this one of the Bruce Almighty (DVD) Review [http://thedvdreport.blogspot.com/2006/02/bruce-almighty-dvd.html].

The Terminal (DVD) Review

Winner of the Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design award, The Terminal is a fascinating and humorous romantic comedy based on a novel premise. Directed by Steven Spielberg, who previously collaborated with Tom Hanks on The Money Pit (1986), Joe Versus The Volcano (1990), and Saving Private Ryan (1998), the film's eccentricity tends to transform an otherwise lackluster film into an endearingly comedic one. The product of veteran screenwriters Sacha Gervasi and Andrew Niccol, the latter being credited with the smash hit The Truman Show (1998), The Terminal isn't quite on par with the aforementioned Jim Carey film, but neither is it a waste of time. Sporting an out-of-the-ordinary plot and a strange array of characters, it's a film you're certain to either love or hate...

The Terminal follows the life of Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), a citizen of the fictional Republic of Krakozhia, who decides to vacation in New York City. Stepping off his plane and onto the terminal at JFK International, he remains unaware of the civil war that erupted in Krakozhia during his flight, a war resulting in the dissolution of the Republic and Viktor's status as an official citizen of nowhere. Because the United States has yet to establish a working relationship with the newly created nation, Viktor can not leave the terminal. Neither can he return to Krakozhia, nor can he set foot on US soil outside the boundaries of terminal.

Following the explanation of this snafu by the head of terminal security Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), Viktor slowly, despite the language barrier, realizes the implications of the war. Dixon's first inclination is to convince Viktor he can make a run for it when the security detail changes shifts, when in reality, he plans to have Viktor arrested so he's no longer a problem. But Viktor doesn't bite. Instead, he makes a decision to stay in the terminal. The result is a hilarious and sometimes inspiring cacophony of events that force Viktor to uncover his own means of survival.

Running out of food coupons, Viktor returns luggage carts and collects the deposits so he can buy cheeseburgers at Burger King. But Dixon stops him by declaring that only security officials can gather carts. As the days pass, Dixon continues to obstruct Viktor's efforts. He makes friends with many of the airport personnel, builds his own dwelling, and acquires an undocumented job working as a carpenter inside the airport. Along the way, he also strikes up a sporadic romance with airline stewardess Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones).

When Dixon is promoted to the top position at JFK, Viktor spoils his plans with some creative interpretation on behalf of a foreign passenger detained with illegal prescription drugs. Telling Dixon the drugs are for the man's goat, rather than his father, he is able to grant the man passage much to Dixon's dismay. In the end, Viktor reaches celebrity status among the employees and regulars of the airport terminal. But will Viktor ever escape the vagabond life of living in an airport terminal?

A fascinating "what if" concept, The Terminal may be an implausible scenario, but it's nevertheless an entertaining one. Tom Hanks does a superb job in moving Viktor's character from a man who barely speaks English to a man who is fully functional in a foreign airport terminal. Not to be confused with one of the great films of its time, movie buffs could still do far worse than to spend a relaxing evening watching this one. The talent of Tom Hanks is on full display, and Steven Spielberg rarely produces a flop...

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a movie review site [http://thedvdreport.blogspot.com] where you can find more reviews like this one of The Terminal (DVD) Review [http://thedvdreport.blogspot.com/2006/02/terminal-dvd.html].

The Chameleon

How difficult would it be to pass yourself off as someone else...specifically, a missing person?  As Frederic Bourdin discovered along his infamous journey as a serial impostor, it's not that tough.

Based on the novel by journalist Christophe D'Antonio, The Chameleon focuses on the true story of Bourdin, who traveled extensively for years under one false identity after another.  Eventually, after posing as several dozens different people, he was imprisoned for some of his crimes.

The film examines one particular account that eventually leads to his arrest, taking place in a small Louisiana bayou outside of Baton Rouge.  After disappearing for several years as a pre-teen, the son of a distressed working class family appears out of nowhere, now a young man, in France.

With many memories missing and a distressed demeanor, Nick (Marc-André Grondin) returns to his family...who exhibit bizarre reactions.  His sister (Emilie de Ravin) welcomes him warmly, while his drug-addicted, alcoholic mother (Ellen Barkin) seems troubled by his reappearance.

Even more peculiar, his trouble-making half-brother (Nick Stall) seems more infuriated than relieved to see Nick again.  All the while, not one of these people questions the identity of the young man claiming to be their family member. 

A local FBI agent (Famke Janssen) smells a rat, and begins to dig through the facts surrounding the disappearance and reappearance of Nick.  There are many missing pieces to the puzzle...but neither Nick nor his family care to assist in her relentless pursuit of the truth.

Director Jean-Paul Salome seamlessly handles the intricacies of Nick's family unit against the soggy bayou setting.  The internal tension amongst the family, which can be seen in their eyes, reflects years of abuse of torment.  These people have been hurting for so long that they no longer feel the pain.

Yet, instead of rejecting these people as repulsive and dysfunctional, the audience is strangely drawn to them.  The characters might be as pathetic as they come, but we still feel for them, and want to get to know them further.  This is, of course, thanks in part to the brilliant performances from the well-selected cast members.

Leading the cast is the brilliant Ellen Barkin and Marc-André Grondin, who create a multi-layered and complex emotional bond as the mother and her alleged son.  Barkin delivers one of the most stirring performances of her career, and is almost unrecognizable in the role.

Clearly a method actor, Barkin completely loses herself in the character, embracing the emotional intensity with a cold, bitter numbness.  She could easily find herself nominated for best supporting actress come awards season.

Grondin, in a role which could have easily been overplayed, delivers a restrained and controlled performance, one that captures the quirks and eccentricity of the title character...but does so in an unexpected light that keeps the audience at bay yet acquires their affection, all at the same time. 

During the third act, the film reveals some of its most pressing secrets, but fails to explore them in a fashion that satisfies the cravings it created in the first two acts.  Still, while the movie is guilty of spending a bit too much time in the wrong places, the spellbinding journey of The Chameleon is no less captivating.

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Horrible Bosses

Winner of several imaginary literary and filmmaking awards.

In a summer that has inundated audiences with heinous sequels and awful comic book adaptations, it's ironically refreshing that a film with the word "horrible" baked right into its title would end up being absolutely fantastic. Horrible Bosses is wryly hilarious from start to finish, a summer comedy that relishes the zany and ridiculous but approaches the madcap material with cleverness and wit. It's a big-joke comedy that is also in on the joke, a welcome respite from the onslaught of self-serious action duds and dingy hologram 3-D imagery.

Perhaps labeling a film centered around pre-meditated murder "giddily infectious" is oxymoronic, but this one has a way of making a dark premise feel lighter than air. I smiled during the film's opening sequence, and it gradually built to a sustained goofy chuckle that quite often gave way to deep belly laughs. Horrible Bosses builds a carefully controlled chaos that simultaneously lends believability to its high-wire premise and blunts the impact of its decidedly morbid implications. In a film centered around hate, there is nothing to be found but joy.

A great deal of that joy can be credited to the cast, which is populated from headliners to cameos with unbelievable talent -- talent that is not merely brought on to mug for the camera and devour scenery, but which adds unique verve to even the smallest of moments. Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis play the three jaded souls at the center of the film, and Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, and Colin Farrell play their bosses, each of whom is so blisteringly appalling that...well, they deserve to die. And so our heroes hatch a plot to kill all three of them. Such a premise is dicey at best and disastrous at worst, but these actors develop such seamless chemistry, such fine-tuned rhythm, that all dangers fade away and we become instantly engaged with the resulting product of what seems to be the happiest movie set of the year.

Each of the bosses is particularly monstrous in his or her own special way, and the actors who embody them dig in with a vigor we really haven't seen before, even from stars as accomplished as these. Spacey has played hard-ass bosses before, but he reaches an unexplored level of vicious narcissism as the smug company president who grooms Bateman to become his VP and then sabotages him with one cruel manipulation after another. Farrell goes over the top in ways we've never seen as the absolutely gross new boss who snorts cocaine in the bathroom, brings prostitutes into the office, and forces underling Sudeikis to fire people based on physical appearance -- even though this particular boss's biggest offense is most certainly his tacky combover. Aniston might have the most fun of all, playing against type and against her history to deliver one of the happiest psychotic nymphomaniacs to ever grace the screen. The ways in which she harasses Day -- who is loyal like a puppy to his fiance and just wants to be left alone -- build to uncomfortable new heights every time Aniston appears on screen.

Wonderful as all these elements are, the film is not quite perfect. Such frenzied comedic material leads to some frayed screenplay edges, and while the story packs a satisfying amount of turns and surprises, the end result adds up to less than the sum of its parts. It would've helped to open the film -- which takes on the properties of a chamber drama between the three central characters -- up to a few more intriguing characters, including a female or two who actually isn't a sex-crazed bitch. And while the film is a near-constant laugh blast, it lacks the psychological depth that colored in the edges of the summer's other great comedy, Bridesmaids.

And yet the film works just about seamlessly as it is. A major part of that success is the film's tone, which is especially crucial to a plot like this. Credit is due not only to the spirit of the actors but to director Seth Gordon and screenwriters John Markowitz, John Francis Daley, and Jonathan Goldstein. Gordon, who debuted with one of the most entertaining documentaries of recent years, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, and experienced an uneasy transition to narrative features with Four Christmases, has very quickly found his footing as a comedy director. His timing as an orchestrator of big comedic moments is impeccable. That timing, applied to this very witty screenplay, which in turn is brought to life by actors who imbue every scene with unexpected kink and irresistible pathos, results in that most difficult of cinematic feats: comedy that works on nearly every level.

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Tabloid

Call it a godsend that Errol Morris found Joyce McKinney. The former Ms. Wyoming, now in her sixties, is a prime addition to the great documentarian's gallery of rogues, which includes former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and execution expert (and published Holocaust denier) Fred A. Leuchter. Like many of her colleagues in Morris's clown car, a great deal of hash has been made in the public forum about McKinney's exploits. Indeed, while watching Morris's wonderfully entertaining new documentary, Tabloid, you can't help but wonder how this woman, who made a splash in England for supposedly kidnapping her ex-fiancé from the Mormon church, where he was a missionary, chaining him to a bed and raping him for three days in a small cabin in Devonshire, hasn't become the source material for an American narrative, or a tempting slab of perversion for Stephen Frears or Peter Greenaway to toy with. Perhaps the lack of interest or ability stemmed from McKinney herself, who spins a myriad of fantastical scenarios and conspiracies to explain away her erstwhile fugitive status and the popular belief that she is an eccentric loon, which she (not surprisingly) sees as a misconception, if not an assault.

Morris's interview with McKinney makes up more than half of Tabloid, and it is no small feat that we are partially seduced by McKinney and her take on the entire fiasco. As this old-fashioned American gal has it, when she met Mormon hot-rodder Kirk Anderson, it was love at first sight, with an engagement decided upon only days later. McKinney was prepped for a life of white picket fences when Anderson was presumably kidnapped by Mormon overlords, whose practices are given extravagant, preposterous assaying by McKinney and some far more believable hashing by Mormon ex-pat Troy Williams, who many now refer to as the "gay mayor of Salt Lake City." With hired cronies in tow, not to mention creepy hanger-on KJ, McKinney jets of to London to rescue her betrothed, her own devout mission that concludes with the aforementioned three-day love-in and her eventual arrest by authorities.        

On trial, McKinney is steadfast in her belief of love, famously offering to ski down Mount Everest nude with a carnation in her nose for Anderson, who has since gone back to the church. This obsessive devotion bleeds over into a book (A Very Special Love Story) which remains unfinished to this day but was anticipated enough to garner a promotional video featuring McKinney wandering through the English countryside, evoking Brother Sun, Sister Moon as much as The Wicker Man. Indeed, as much as she may deride the tabloid rag that outed her as a one-time sex model and escort who brought her beloved sheepdog Millie along with her on the job, McKinney is selling a number of versions of herself; the all-American girl, the fairy-tale princess, the 168-IQ ballbuster, the renegade, the romantic, and the misunderstood celeb. Morris takes it in with glee and offers yet another lens for his muse, periodically using a still-shot of a television running a story on McKinney or an interview with the soon-to-be-published author.

Settled comfortably into post-on-the-lam life as an agoraphobic North Carolina nobody, McKinney appears in the papers once more when she becomes the recipient of a litter of dogs, cloned from her pit bull, Booger, in North Korea. McKinney recants how Booger, a stray, saved her from being mauled to death by her previous dog, eventually crumbling into tears in a way we never see when she speaks of Anderson, or anyone else. Unconditional love provides McKinney with the certainties and assurances that many find in Providence, and Morris is not lost on this concept. In its tale of accumulating, conflicting versions of one story (not to mention one person), Tabloid is certainly in line with the director's other probing studies of depiction, whether through photographs (Standard Operating Procedure), laws (The Thin Blue Line), or history (The Fog of War), but it is perhaps his most intimate since Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control. In McKinney, Morris sees not only a specimen for his particular style but also a kindred soul, buried beneath the dense snow of madness, fame, and misfortune. 

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Zookeeper

Winner of several imaginary literary and filmmaking awards.When little kids walk out of a movie called Zookeeper and call it "stupid," you know it must be really bad. Here is a comedy that consists of equal parts scatology and schmaltz, that is aimed directly for the center of a 7-year-old's happy sensors -- blending talking animals, bumbling pratfalls, lovable goofball heroes, and cartoon-simple villains -- and it can't even wring a positive review out of little kids souped up on candy and popcorn. Not a good sign.

Most interesting of all is, there is no more accurate description of Zookeeper than the efficient, one-word response of its child detractors. This movie is stupid. Strikingly, mind-numbingly stupid for such a sustained length that by the end, when the inevitable singing animal montage plays over the credits, I could barely muster the brain strength to be offended.

If you are entertained by the notion of Kevin James hurdling himself through one embarrassing stunt after another and bonding with an uncomfortably ugly ape suit that flaps its badly animated lips to the disembodied voice of Nick Nolte, then Zookeeper is the movie for you. Your will be rewarded with sequences in which the bosom buddies go out on the town, play foosball as TGI Friday's, engage in heartfelt talks, and scale a bridge in order to express love for Rosario Dawson. On the other hand, if you are confused or repulsed by visions of those scenes, I'd advise picking another movie.

Yes, the Nolte ape opines about life and love, but so do most of the animals at the movie's soundstage version of a zoo. They are vividly personified with the likes of celebrity voices such as Sylvester Stallone, Cher, Jon Favreau, Adam Sandler and others, and they counsel giant ball of energy James on his love life. You see, five years ago his romantic proposal was turned down by his superficial gold-digging girlfriend (Leslie Bibb), and she has suddenly arrived back in his life, due to machinations of the plot that are less consequential than the plot itself. The zoo animals teach James to behave like an animal, which makes him irresistible to his ex (just go with it). Of course, there is another woman (played by Rosario Dawson, who better enjoy this paycheck) who is obviously perfect for our hero (I mean, can't you just picture them together?), but who he ignores in order to pine for his heinous ex.

Hard to believe I found a way to fill a whole paragraph discussing this plot, which was apparently so hard to formulate that the screenplay is credited to five writers, but which could've been written better by the animals. Zookeeper represents Kevin James' second foray into high-concept leading man territory, after 2009's Paul Blart: Mall Cop. That film was barely competent, but on the basis of this, one might think James lost his magic touch. Zookeeper uncannily resembles the very substance a Sandler-voiced monkey encourages James to throw at his ex-girlfriend.

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