Flashpoint, (Ion cable Channel), is about a fictional elite tactical unit, called the Strategic Response Unit (SRU), within a Canadian metropolitan police force (styled on the Toronto Police Emergency Task Force. The SRU are tasked to resolve extreme situations that regular officers are not trained to handle including hostage-taking, bomb threats and heavily armed criminals. Equipped with high-tech tools and a cache of weapons and explosives, members use negotiation tactics and intuition to try to avoid the use of force.

The plots are involuted and the characters are extremely well written and convincing. For each scenario, there is a sequestered officer referred to as “Spike” who has at his disposal an omniscent computer access to virtually any facet of the investigation at hand. The leader of the team, Enrico Colantoni (previously seen as Elliot DiMauro, the photographer in “Just shoot me), is always called “Boss”, an expert in psychological profiling as well as strategy. The steely-eyed tactical leader is Kevin Dillon, (previously the lead singer for the Kingston hard rock band “The Headstones” from 1987 until 2003).

The team deals with frightening situations where lives can be threatened during escalations of emotional issues affecting the participants.  Every effort is made to intervene using psychological manipulation as the options of the participants are progressively ratcheted down. But at some point, the option of killing a subject to avoid further carnage is available to the team.

It’s chilling. When a sniper gets access to a subject, he reports he “has the solution”.  If it appears all other options to divert disaster evaporate, the Boss articulates the word “Scorpio”, following which the subject is instantly eliminated. The timing in these situations is incredibly scary and I assure you I would not want to be the one making that decision. (see enclosed clip- my wife was in tears).

This is a VERY well written and well-interpreted series and I highly recommend it.

I give it five of five steely-eyed sightings down a gun barrel.

TV cable entertainment has buried most shows put forth on establishment networks.  Most of the network shows are still laboring under the 50s assumption that the only way to attract viewers was to insult the intelligence and/or maturity of anyone over 8 years of age. Laugh tracks prompting viewers to guffaw on cue. Insipid and inane plot lines.  Endless advertisements hawking products that aren’t what they’re hyped to be.

Cable producers figured out quickly that they could portray the real drama or comedy of the world and in so doing, attracted the biggest talents in filmdom.  Shawn Ryan, Vince Gilligan, David Milch among many others. “”The Shield” won multiple awards for writing, acting and direction. “Breaking bad” collected a long list of multi-faceted awards. “Men of a certain age” is emerging quickly.  “Deadwood” accumulated a cadre of fanatical followers whose lives stopped on Sunday nights. Tim Oliphant went on to create the character of Raylan Givens in “Justified”, one of the highest rated shows on cable.

One low key cable comedy that missed much notice is “Weeds” (Showtime), now gearing up for it’s seventh season, starring the delightfully quirky Mary-Louise Parker and the wackily Machiavellian Elizabeth Perkins (nominated for three Emmys and two Golden Globes).

In it’s essence, “Weeds” is a story about women. Real women, not airhead bimbos masquerading as urban professionals (Sex in the City).  Nancy Botwin (Parker) is a newly widowed mother of two precocious adolescents struggling to maintain her suburban lifestyle after her husband drops dead with no appreciable insurance. She has no particularly marketable talents and quickly drifts into the path of least resistance, selling marijuana to the high end users in her neighborhood. Perkins as Celia Hodse is Nancy’s ditzy foil.  Between them, they stabilize the plot while enhancing all the other talents that interact through them.

Distilled to its essence, this is a view of real women struggling to survive in middle age after dead husbands, dorky live ones, strange kids and manipulative relatives.

The show portrays a likely accurate vision of the California marijuana trade as the motley collection of characters bumble through it. Unfortunately, it’s suffering from the “House Syndrome” (“House, MD”, Fox Channel).  An interesting concept that gets stale in time but the producers drag it out interminably as long as it makes money. Season six is a bit of a stretch now, indulging too many variations on the same theme.  Perhaps they should have ended it when Elizabeth Perkins left before Season 5.

At any rate, Seasons one through five are creative, interesting and even thought provoking. The episodes are easily pulled off the torrents on Pirate Bay and others.

I give it four of five Jagged leaves.

“In times of war…..the law is silent”

” The Conspirator” got mixed reviews for meddling with history, the most interesting by Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post*.  But in the end a film less about history than an exploration of the rule of law, which it performs with great passion. In order to fully explore this theme, it’s necessary to forgive Redford for slanting a historical backdrop a bit to provide that obligatory backdrop.

The story line revolves around Mary Surratt, who ran a boarding house in Washington, DC said to have harbored the conspirators that shot Lincoln and assaulted the Vice President and Secretary of State in 1865. “If she did know, she’s guilty. If she didn’t know, she should have”. The outcome was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Any lawyer that attempted a defense was damned to be a public pariah no matter what the outcome.

The film distills quickly to courtroom drama exploring whether an association with guilt should be as equally punished as authentic guilt for the purpose of healing the country’s wound.  And whether the quickest and most effective way to deter future attacks from enemy stragglers is to suspend the rule of law, the presumption of innocence, burdens of proof and jury by peers. There are obvious implications to the rounding up of potential and otherwise conspirators after 9/11, denying them the same due process.

This film is infinitely better than Redford’s last dud (Lions for lambs) that stunk up theaters for about a week in 2007. He gets his point across expertly and prompts the audience to think about the issue. The film is immaculately produced, consummate period costuming, excellent cinematography and impeccable interpretation by the actors including James McAvoy, Robin Wright and Kevin Kline. The courtroom scenes are a little stagey and the end a bit melodramatic. IMDB gives is a respectable 7/10.  Rotten Tomatoes isn’t as generous with a 55% rating.

I think it’s interesting and deserves a solid 4/5 smoky courtrooms for the production and performances.  3/5 cackling laugh-machines for the history.

*  http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the_conspirator_and_the_lost_union_cause/2011/04/14/AFhcYjeD_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage

The benchmark for excellence in television is the writing followed closely by its interpretation by the actors. There have been very few really creative television programs, and most have dragged out a good thing far too long. “House, MD” started out interesting and now is a caricature of its previous life and refuses to die. “24” was brilliant for the first few years, than simply ran out of ideas, becoming a predictable clone of itself.

Pound for pound, the all time greatest TV show of the last 20 years or so is “Deadwood” (HBO). Head writer David Milch remarked in an interview that it was just an accident of nature. They got a blank check to create anything and take it anywhere they wanted. They found actors no one ever heard of, they wrote incredibly creative scripts and the actors lived the roles to perfection. Deadwood was simply incredible. The true believers simply stopped their lives an hour a week to watch it.

One of the revelations learned was the fact that they could make it burn bright but they couldn’t keep it up indefinitely. They vowed to make Deadwood flash across the sky in a brilliant display, then quietly disappear before it got stale. Deadwood was stopped after three seasons, despite heavy demand for its continuance. The principal actors moved on, some more successful than others.

One of those actors is Timothy Oliphant, who is now playing Raylan Givens in “Justified” (FX, Wednesday night 10 pm), a TV drama that I will eventually rate as “almost as good as Deadwood”. I don’t believe anything will ever match the “Deadwood” in my lifetime, but I’m willing to be surprised.

“Justified” is not for the usual couch potato remote clicker. The story line is complex, involuted and takes it’s time getting where it wants to go. Initial reviewers yawned. Another dime a dozen laconic cowboy getting crosswise with the system. But the true believer knew the stage was being intricately set, and it took a year to do so. Then it started getting interesting, and now due to an amazing array of little known actors including Walton Groggins as Boyd Crowder and Margo Martindale as Mags Bennett.

The key in “Justified” as it was perfected in “Deadwood” is a slowly accumulating story line that slowly draws the audience in then traps them. The principal protagonist acts to bring together the talent of those around him. In “Deadwood” the incomparable Ian McShane acted as a conductor for the symphonic interpretation. Oliphant learned his lessons well, and “Justified” succeeds in the same mode.

Both “Deadwood” and “Justified” are rare events that find form from void, coming together like random molecules creating an element, or they don’t. Sometimes they form a lethal mutation. Milch’s subsequent effort on HBO “John from Cincinnati” flopped immediately. Similarly, Michael Cimino created the brilliant “Deer Hunter” in 1978, then in 1980 directed “Heaven’s Gate”, a box office disaster that single handedly collapsed United Artists and destroyed the director’s career. Vincent Canby comparing it to “a forced four-hour walking tour of one’s own living room.

I think “Justified” started out good, got better and is now in it’s second season approaching brilliant. We are lucky to have “Justified” and we probably won’t have it for long.

That said, don’t think you can tune in tomorrow without knowing the extensive backdrop. It won’t make any sense. If you have an interest, you will need to go back to the beginning and fill yourself with the ambience. Sorry, price to pay to absorb the best. Not willing to put that into it? Seek out “Celebrity Apprentice”.’ Makes no sense no matter when you find it.

Justified got a whopping 8.9/10 review from IMDB and a recent Peabody Award. I give it an “almost as good as “Deadwood”, with a bullet.

Best and Worst (not up to date)

Your humble reviewer (moi) picks the top ten best and worst movies ever made (in no particular order).

BEST:

Animal House (1978): We really were like that in 1964.

In the Heat of the Night (1968): Bold film making still in the era of civil rights violence.

M*A*S*H (1970): Written by a doctor. Korea morphed to Vietnam. Suicide is painless.

Brokeback Mountain (2005): That an undying passion for “the one” can be gender neutral.

Dr Strangelove (1964): “Mein Fuhrer…….I can walk!!”

One Eyed-Jacks (1961): Best Western ever filmed, in range of “Unforgiven”.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962): cinematographic masterpiece. Defines visual overload.

The Deer hunter (1978) I have not been able to bring myself to watch it again since 1978.

Airplane (1980): The most consistently hysterical farce ever made. Still funny today.

American Graffiti (1973): First movie to use rock and roll music through the entire soundtrack and it defines the genre.

The Godfather I and II.

WORST (not counting Plan 9 from outer space):

Mars Attacks (1996). Stunningly stupid and unwatchable. Only movie in my life I actually walked out of…….into the blessed relief of a rainstorm.

What Dreams May Come (1998). A film so profoundly depressing half the patrons went straight home to stick their heads in an oven. Should have finished Robin Williams’ career.

Stayin’ Alive (1977). Do the math. The fourth-rate sequel of a third-rate film featuring a second-rate male lead, fifth-rate director and a score by a sixth-rate musical act. Said by critics to be a vision of the end of film as an art form.

Catwoman (2004): Halle Berry in a leather S&M outfit that would embarrass Grace Jones. Not to be catty about it, but the stench of the litter pan was all over this big-screen $90 million disaster.

Patch Adams (1998). Did for doctors what Theodoric of York did for the Renaissance. Showed the public that medicine could descend to the pits of insipid inanity and still not be funny. Ate seven of Robin Williams’ nine career lives.

Howard the Duck (1986): Heckled, maligned and insulted, more people made fun of the movie than actually saw it. Howard was run out of theaters in a flash. Howard in the sack with a shapely babe? Don’t dwell on it.

Battlefield Earth (2000): The most universally shellacked movie of the last ten year. Vividly shows they don’t make bad movies like they used to. The next actor that wants to blow thirty one million on a showcase for his quasi-religion will be lined up against the wall and summarily shot.

Heaven’s Gate (1980): Box office disaster single handedly collapsed United Artists, ended Director driven film productions. Vincent Canby comparing it to “a forced four-hour walking tour of one’s own living room. Destroyed the director’s career

Glitter (2001: Likened by critics to a cinematic Sir Edmund Hillary on a frenzied quest for the highest peak of Mount Bad. Mariah’s idea of acting consists of opening her eyes as wide as she can and delivering her lines with an emotion and depth usually only heard during dinnertime telemarketing calls. Not even the obligatory Mariah overhang could save this one. Beyond the cringe.

Gigli (2003). The New York Times gave the movie the rating below their lowest possible score of 0 stars, the only movie in their history to receive this score. Proved a dud movie will end any relationship anywhere.

Ishtar (1987): It’s so synonymous with expensive flops that when Waterworld proved disastrous, people called it Fishtar. Roger Ebert gave it half a star. Never released on DVD.

A film about a stammering Royal in the King’s Court seemed like an anti-Pygmalion makeover and I passed it over the first time around. Then the reviews started arriving and I noted a whopping, first ever 97% approval from the top critics of “Rotten Tomatoes” (excellent reviews despite the name). I’m very glad I made the effort to see it.

There is lots entertainment variety in the pyrotechnic world of film. “Avatar” engages the audience interactively. “Inception” teases the brain, The audience goes down with the ship in “Titanic”, explores the brain in “A beautiful mind”, weeps copious tears in “The Bridges of Madison County”, gets blown up in “The Hurt Locker”, gets quits in “Gran Torino, taken for a ride in “Quantum of Solace”, time warped in “Groundhog Day” and mind boggled in “2001- A space Odyssey”.

But for the true believer, the real joy of film is divine simplicity. Simple plot, uncomplicated progression of events and actors empowered to take the audience where they are capable relying on a minimalist platform of expression. Such films are “No Country for Old Men” and Get low”. In TV medium, the one series that accumulated the most hoards of rabid fans was “Deadwood” (HBO), a simple film about daily life in an old Western town. “Deadwood” only ran two astonishing seasons and blew away the entire concept of TV drama. Nothing has approached it to this day.

“The King’s Speech” is such a film. The story line expands to the circumstances of Edward VIII abdicating the throne of England for his love of an American divorcee (who comes off quite shabbily in the film). To be replaced by his brother, the quite capable George V but for his stammer, rendering him incapable of the communication necessary for the office. The stuttering king forges an unlikely friendship with an unconventional speech therapist in the midst of the gathering cloud of Nazi Germany.

Colin Firth is simply incredible in his portrayal of the subtleties involved. His range is immeasurable. This is the first time I have seen Helena Carter Bonham really get into a part and own it. But the real kudos go to Geoffrey Rush who effortlessly upstaged every scene. The cinematography and costuming is world class. Even the sound editing enhances every movement.

Simply put- The King’s Speech is a masterpiece. Oscars will litter the stage when it’s called upon in February 12. I predict Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, best Supporting actress, Best Direction, Best Cinematography at the least. Probably more.

I give it 5 (YES FIVE) of 5 “M-m-m-my Generation’s”. Must see.

Fair game

This will be an attenuated review because I cannot give it justice
without resorting to discussing politics, and I am prohibited from
doing that on CCM-L by that evil taskmaster………..me.

Briefly, it relates the story of Valerie Plame’s status as a CIA
agent revealed by White House officials allegedly out to discredit
her husband after he wrote a 2003 New York Times op-ed piece saying
that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence about
weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq.

You now have exactly what results when you portray a political
situation. A historical docu-drama in which critics will line up
precisely according to their personal political biases, and that’s
exactly what happens. Go look at the reviews. Where is the middle
ground? No one knows. The story is told from Plame’s viewpoint which
is very clear. None of the other factions involved were empowered to
offer variant opinions. So it’s best left there for what its worth.

That said, if you consider the film on the merits of skillful
portrayal of the personalities, it’s a winner. Naomi Watts is just
about a dead ringer for the real Valerie Plame and masterfully
exhibits the breaking point when her personal life and career
collapse. Sean Penn is marginally a little too indignant (his
trademark) but meshes perfectly with Ms. Watts. Karl Rove and
“Scooter Libbby (and by proxy Cheney) are portrayed as so
spectacularly evil they glow in the dark. You’ll remember Bruce
McGill (D-Day in Animal House) as a CIA wonk.

I think this film is a very interesting and probably reasonably
accurate drama that examines a lot of tough questions about what’s
“fair game” in power politics. However, whatever impression you get
will be influenced by your personal politics because one way or
another, the movie will look like it’s taking sides.

I give it four of five dead pan, straight faced lies.
—

The Thin Red Line,

Terrence Malick’s return to the director’s chair after a twenty year absence was greeted as the cinematic equivalent of J. D. Salinger popping open his Smith-Corona to give it another go. MallickÕs only two previous films — Badlands and Days of Heaven — are considered authentic genius and a number of the actors in this film took low billing, even cameo status just to work with him.

As I recall, The Thin Red Line was written in 1962 and I remember it well, having absorbed it in high school.

– it tells the tale of the 1942-43 World War II Guadalcanal campaign through the eyes of several members of a U.S. Army rifle company Charlie. Malick weaves his way through the minds and eyes of several characters as C-for-Charlie prepares for its first action.

The result is colorful and full of texture but somewhat overwrought and gratingly philosophical. Malick is no slouch in the action sequences, as the grunts venture inland and are ordered to make a suicidal charge on an impregnable Japanese position, forcing analysis of the question of who should take responsibility for lives lost in pursuit of a larger goal. But then, we are faced with an entire generation of young people who have never seen a shooting war up close, and so any screen substitute must necessarily be surreal and contrived.

xA natural comparison for Malick’s picture is Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. In both films the setting is not just a location but an underpinning metaphor. From the opening shot of a crocodile slipping into primordial ooze, Malick uses the jungles,
swamps and grasslands that await the infantrymen in Charlie Company on Guadalcanal as an artist’s canvas rather than a mere backdrop to slaughter. Every line in The Thin Red Line is carefully drawn – and gorgeously filmed by cinematographer John Toll.

All the characters worked well in their roles, but the single standout performance was turned in by Nick Nolte. The best scene is when Nick Nolte’s character, is forced to deal with the direct refusal by an underling to execute an order. Nolte’s reaction and
transformation may have been said to be the best work of his career. He will own the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

It’s probably accurate to call The Thin Red Line a thinking person’s war movie – with all the advantages and drawbacks that description suggests.

I give it three of five full metal jacket rounds………. with a bullet.

Wild hogs

A paradox. Silly sight gags, tiresome slapstick, lame gay jokes. Scathing reviews from the critics, but packed theaters and number one for the week at the box office.

By history, the critics and film going public rarely see eye to eye. The most notable example being “Used Cars” directed in 1980 by a young Robert Zemeckis, starring Kurt Russell. Released to theaters, it flopped instantly and lasted about a week. One of the first films sold (cheap) to HBO and released without fanfare as a new experiment in TV movies. It then proceeded to break every known record and ran for five years, making HBO a bundle and setting the stage for the now monster TV movie industry. It’s hysterical. TV audiences howled. Possibly one of the funniest films in history, depending on your taste. What did TV viewers see that critics didn’t? I think critics see art, and the public sees entertainment, and the reason Used Cars flew was it found an audience that the critics didn’t get to first.

In 2007, the critics are still right, but the audience still rules. Wild Hogs is an entertaining film with an interesting core that only an authentic Walter Mitty can fully appreciate. Bored work-a-day guys, caught up in a mundane existence finding adventure on the open road. A commonly recurring scene popularized in the 50s by Jack Kerouac and extended in 60s flower power counterculture. The lure of the open road. It’s unclear if the Director intended the actual vision in real life but it emerges. A collection of slovenly, mean spirited and hostile antagonists looking to find blame for their miserable lot. What better blame than “posers”, comfortable, conformist pretenders role playing for a time, then returning to their alternate universe in time for supper.

Pivotal joker in the deck is cameo role by the original highway nomad of the 60s, Peter Fonda, who incidentally hasn’t aged very well. Fonda reminds the outlaws, not very convincingly, that the “real” ethos of the open road are those willing to take chances by moving out of a safe niche into the unknown, to stand or fall by their wits. The outlaws didn’t look too impressed by this revelation, but the whole point of an elder statesman is to interpret nuances in standing law.

The reality is that the real open road has been heavily romanticized and mythicized. History shows that the open road leads mainly to isolation and insanity as befell most of the 50’s Beat Generation. The caption on the “Easy Rider” poster in my den reads: “A Man went looking for America……and couldn’t find it”. Hunter Thompson captured denizens of the open road immaculately in “Hell’s Angels”: “They were a bunch of overgrown adolescents, stuck in their religious mind-set as a way of life. They defined themselves by their opposition to any and everything. The strength of their antagonism was the source of their faith, and like all holy wars, their greatest enemies and their greatest source of bloodshed was from within, battles against rival factions competing for bottom of the barrel status”.

The higher reality is never revealed. That a Harley-Davidson is not a magic carpet and the open road has effectively been pasteurized, homogenized, standardized and the loose ends connected. The highest rate of death and disability in motorcycle accidents is in middle-aged men who have never ridden a two-wheel vehicle since they were ten years old. Real Wild Hogs of our day travel intricately planned routes from Hilton to Hilton with the accompaniment of Blackberries and cell phones. Perhaps lessons of the past have been heeded.

Otherwise, it’s an entertaining film with a lot of laughs.

In Bruges

Recall I remarked about a change in the thrust of film, predicted in my last two reviews (“There will be blood”, “No country for old men”). I think the days of extravaganza and spectacle are numbered, and we are coming around to film In which the actors are allowed to roam free through a “day in the life” rather than a structured plot. You’ll also recall that I noted these films to be rather poorly attended by filmgoers steeped in the tradition of sensory saturation.

“In Bruges”, written by potty-mouthed Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, starring Irish/English actors Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes and a host of others you probably won’t recognize is representative of this trend. It is a very, VERY dark comedy. Contract killing a priest in a confessional is about as dark as it gets. In many respects it deserves this designation, and film promoters have not been enthusiastic about wide distribution. Although this film got rave reviews from most if not all the critics, it is only playing at a total of ONE rather small, seedy theater in urban Pittsburgh. All the big mall theaters are playing high profile, formulaic musicals and comedy starring retreads from Saturday Night Live (was never funny, still isn’t)

In Bruges takes some getting used to. Like most gritty, textured films it grows on you slowly. There are no big, expansive blockbuster scenes. The viewer simply absorbs a day in the life of the characters who plum the depths of their reality. The musicality of the language transcends the scarcity of the plot. Colin Farrell has always been an underrated actor and in this film he truly shines (first time using his natural brogue). Ralph Fiennes is a jewel, a masterpiece of the acting trade. The rest of the characters are perfectly cast. The scenery will inspire a desperate need to visit Bruges. The plot, such as it is, explores many of the ethical choices we will never experience but are fascinated to watch others make, and to vicariously feel the emotions of professional killers.

Of particular note is the outstanding performance of Ralph Fiennes, most assuredly one of the top ten greatest actors of our generation. Fiennes musters a look during: “THE BALCONY IS CLOSED (finger jabs to forehead) MISTER….. ENGLISH….. MAN…..”, expressing texture in a minimalist expression much like B.B. King expresses a generation of pain and suffering in one note. You don’t know whether to laugh or gasp at what you intuitively know is coming next.

This film is getting the best reviews of the season. It might take you a while to actually find where it’s playing, but this is the future of film as art and rates taking notice. Beware much graphic violence and verbiage.

I give it five of five eggshell fractured skulls.