June 12th, 2009

The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3        reviewed by Andrew Johnson
There is a world of difference between the original Walter Matthau-Robert Shaw “Pelham” and this Tony Scott mostly action remake, though the basic premise of a hijacked subway car in the NYC transit system is the film’s focus. Characters differ in this one as hostages are killed and the film maintains a terrific pace leaving you breathless. Ryder, the mastermind (John Travolta) in this one, is a psychotic individual who will maintain his time limit for the ransom of the train and passengers and not hesitate to kill one at a time when his conditions are not met. He is in constant touch with dispatcher Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) at MTA transit headquarters. A new character, Lt. Camonetti (John Turturro), a police negotiator, appears in this one and not in the original. I’m told there were no police negotiators at that time. This individual is a savvy one, no nonsense and straight forward in manner. Playing the Mayor of New York City is John Gandolfini, who has a brilliant line when told he must handle this hostage situation in an affirmative manner for the public: “I left my Rudy Giuliani suit at home.”

  Many liberties are taken in the telling of the tale. For starters, no IRT train goes to Coney Island to run on the Brighton BMT tracks; the two lines never merge as the width of the train cars for the lines differ. Second, I question an abandoned subway station and tunnel directly under the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. But those not that familiar with the Big Apple will not notice these incongruities. (Attribute it to possible poetic license taken in the film?)

The scenario differs in many respects with this new version of the story. Poor Walter Garber’s day as dispatcher is thrown into a chaotic mode as the group of five hijack the train and hold passengers hostage in the first detached car with a huge ransom to be paid by the city in one hour for the release of train and hostages. One wonders how these desperados can succeed with such a caper and escape. An unanswered question, at least for me, is brought forth with the subway dispatcher under suspension and investigation, now demoted and doing this job, after having been accused of taking a bribe in Japan when selecting subway cars when he held a more exalted Transit Authority position. Did he or did he not take the bribe? All along he claimed innocence until confronted with Ryder in threatening to kill a passenger unless he told him how he did it. He admits to it, but is it a lie to save a passenger or did he really commit the crime? I look at this as a loose end in the film rather than left to those in the audience to make up their own minds.

 Filming in the actual subway tunnels plus the marvelous NYC locales used bring a tremendous reality to this film. I understand too that there are places, such as MTA headquarters where the whole system is monitored in operation, which have never before been filmed or seen before by the general public. All this adds to the authenticity of the drama. Both a sense of suspense and an atmosphere of dread prevail throughout the machinations of the plot.
 This new version of “THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3” has been updated to the present time, though at the time of filming, the Dow Jones Industrial stock average is so much higher than today what with all that has happened since making this motion picture. I must admit that this film is quite exciting, well done, and one to see for pretty good escapist entertainment.
The Players:  Denzel Washington, John Travolta, John Turturro, Luis Guzman, Michael Rispoli, and James Gandolfini

The Filmmakers:
Directed by Tony Scott
Screenplay by Brian Helgeland
        Based on the novel by John Godey
Director of Photography: Tobias Schliessler
Music by Harry Gregson-Williams
From Columbia Pictures and MGM



Imagine That
Eddie Murphy's career gets a life preserver in the form of this harmless amusing fantasy that neither boosts nor injures. Murphy's track recordsince the remake of Nutty Professor has been less than stellar and some will say NP wasn't such a hit either. '' Imagine That'' being a co-production with Nickleodeon, tries to please adults and beguile children at the same time , garnering a larger audience than the rude, crude films of Murphy's recent past would. Well...maybe... 

Evan Danielson ( Eddie Murphy ) is a driven financial executive with an ex-wife Trish ( Nicole Ari Parker ) and a young daughter who doesn't get her share of her father's time.  He spends his time on his Blackberry, on the phone and rushing from meeting to meeting withhis team leader Tom Stevens (Ronny Cox ). Evan starts to stress out when his career is in jeopardy when a rival named Johnny Whitefeather ( Thomas Hayden Church ) who extols native American values, goes after an impending promotion that will happen when the big boss Dante D'Enzo ( Martin Sheen ) retires. Evan is beside himself to twart the slick tactics of Whitefeather until his daughter accidentally gives him some insider information she got from a secret source that puts him back on top.

When Evan asks Olivia ( Yara Shahidi ) how she got the investment data, he is shocked when she  introduces him to the inhabitants of her imaginary land, three invisible princesses and their Queen mother.  Evan rediscovers his inner child and finds the answers to all his problems...and lots of near magical financial data that makes him the wonderkind of the office as he scopps Whitefeather every time. But, when push comes to shove, whats more important to Evan - his daughter or the promotion?

Pleasant is the best we can do with this one and I contemplate how the film would have fared if we had seen Ollivia's princesses and their world? Anyway, if you have pre-teen girls they may get a minor thrill from this one.

The Players: Eddie Murphy, Thomas Hayden Church, Vanessa Williams, Ronnie Cox, and Michael Sheen

The Filmmakers:
Directed by Karey Kirkpatrick
Screenplay by Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson
Released by Paramount Pictures



Moon        reviewed by Andrew Johnson
 Human beings, by nature, must interact with others. I often think that being put into solitary confinement in prison must be devastating. 
 In “MOON,” Sam, a young man, had been contracted by a corporation to spend a three year period on a base on the far side of the moon that’s mining energy from rocks: a Helium-3 facility extracting fuel for fusion powered generators. Sam is in such a lonely place, but is nearing the end of his contract and will soon be back on earth with his wife and young daughter with whom he is able to communicate both visually and audibly from this moon station. The only face-to-face live conversation he is able to have in his present setting is with a HAL-like machine (remember “2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY”?) named Gerty. This almost human robotic piece has a smiley face in front to denote emotions and is, unlike HAL, uncomplicated and well-intentioned. 

 Leaving Sarang, the moon base Sam has called home, is now the paramount thought occupying his mind. But his health begins to deteriorate. He has hallucinations, headaches, lacks focus, and is beginning to cough up blood. Even his link to earth and his wife and daughter suddenly goes off line.  Sam takes out a lunar vehicle for a drive to investigate and accidentally crashes into a huge obstacle. He awakens recuperating on the base with no memory of how he got back. It’s then that the strangest thing happens: he meets a younger version of himself who claims to be Sam and has a new three year contract. Sam is perplexed as to what is happening. Is this double a clone? Worse yet, the double accuses him of being a clone.

“MOON” is a three man drama with Sam Rockwell marvelously playing the roles of supposedly the same person. The voice of the computer Gerty is masterfully accomplished by Kevin Spacey. Director Duncan Jones, from his own story idea, has put together an independent sci-fi film that leaves much food for thought for the viewer. Mystery and intrigue are there as corporate doings for the sake of the almighty buck smell of wheeling and dealing with wrong doings in order to cut corners. The tale raises moral questions and brings to mind not only the aforementioned “2001” but “BLADE RUNNER” as well.

 The director in a Q&A brought out the following points concerning his film:
“If you met yourself in person, would you like yourself?”
“Sam’s life for the three year contracted period was supposed to be easy.”
“There is no good or evil in the film but shades of gray.”
“Finally we question: Is there moral finality?”
“What might even the most benign ‘green’ corporation be willing to do? What would they do to a lone blue-collar caretaker on a base on the far side of the moon?”
 One does conjecture that companies want the maximum out of their endeavors with the minimum outlay of cost. And if there are no “watchdogs,” who knows what they will try to get away with?
 “MOON” is one brilliant piece of filmmaking that holds your attention throughout as you empathize with Sam and his dilemma. Alienation, technology, paranoia, and accepting oneself are all factors in the weaving of this provocative story. Even if science fiction is not your cup of tea, this is still one film to see
The Players:  Sam Rockwell, (voice of) Kevin Spacey

The Filmmakers:
Directed by Duncan Jones
Story by Duncan Jones, written by Nathan Parker
Director of Photography: Gary Shaw
Released through Sony Pictures Classics


Food        reviewed by Andrew Johnson
“FOOD, inc.” is a new documentary film that gives you much to ponder – literally “food for thought.” One speculates how the food you see beautifully packaged in the supermarket came to be processed before getting there. Corporate greed and corruption seem to have taken over with inhumane treatment for animals before and in the slaughterhouse just to make that much more of the almighty buck.

 There are 47,000 products in the average supermarket. If you know how they got there, you might not want to eat them.
 Seems a group of multinational organizations control everything with not only animal abuse but abuses for their workers as well. Factories have replaced farms for breeding and growing. A handful of suppliers also control our food supplies. A lot of food on a small amount of land leads to affordable prices. The beautiful farms depicted on the packaging do not exist.

 Corn is fed to cows rather than grass which help form E. coli bacteria. Processing plants have become more and more contaminated. Cheaper, cheaper, cheaper for money, money, money! The corn fed to cows because it is cheaper than grass. The cows were not designed by evolution to eat corn. If a cow is fed grass for five days, it will shed 80 percent of the E. coli it forms from corn in their gut. One can say that there has been no government protection.

 Eating a burger killed a healthy child in twelve days thanks to the contained E. coli bacteria. His mother for years has been on a crusade to right the wrongs causing her child’s death and to prevent it from happening to another mother’s child. Remarkable what was thrown against her in lawsuits and court delays. Consumers have the right to know what’s in the food they eat and how it’s manufactured.   Monsanto Chemical has mandated that a genetically changed soy bean be grown by farmers. Seems pesticides used have no effect on these beans. Farmers must destroy seeds and not replant them, lest they lose their contract with the corporation for growing. The farmers are totally controlled by the corporation and owe more money than they take in.
 Profit is put ahead of consumer health. There are voices of dissention raised, and it’s up to the public to start demanding good wholesome food; farmers will respond if this happens.

 In the film, we see chickens bunched together in a large facility, never lit by sunlight or even artificial light. They are fed to bursting in order to have fatter, plumper poultry for the table. Most of them cannot even get up in a standing position let alone walk. What inhumane treatment! The world seems to be running out of food and nobody even talks about it. To eat well costs so much more than to eat junk food. One out of three born after 2000 will get diabetes.
 What an eye opener with these facts put forth by this film! It even offers so much more unbelievable things not mentioned in this review. Even Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was Monsanto’s attorney for four years, and after his appointment to the Supreme Court, he wrote a majority opinion in a case that helped Monsanto enforce its seed patents. Talk about conflict of interest!
 Director Robert Kenner has given us an extraordinary document that should be seen by those in this country who eat, which means everyone.

The Filmmakers:
Directed by Robert Kenner
Director of Photography: Richard Pearce
Released by Magnolia Pictures





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