Review: Charlie Victor Romeo

Image courtesy of 'Charlie Victor Romeo' Facebook page.

"Charlie Victor Romeo" is an example of an intriguing concept with a mediocre execution. The film is intermittently nerve-wracking and stultifying.

Based on a 1999 play, the film takes a documentary-style approach to portraying six airline emergencies that were based on 'Black Box' recordings. In other words, the scenes being acted out by the film's cast is, mostly, a word-for-word reenactment of actual airplane crashes that took place prior to 9/11.

At its best, the film makes for a slightly queasy and occasionally riveting experience of watching professionals under pressure. The film is being presented in 3-D, which I thought to be a little strange, considering that all we see throughout the entire picture is a tight shot of the various pilots involved in the crashes. A friend pointed out that the format was, perhaps, utilized to create a claustrophobic feel and she is very likely correct. Regardless, the use of 3-D does not add much to the experience.

Despite the obviously intense nature of the film's material, "Charlie Victor Romeo" becomes a bit dull for long stretches. On the one hand, I was thankful that the filmmakers did not melodramatize the proceedings with speech making or sentimentality. But, on the other, the shouting of technical jargon does not make for the most riveting filmgoing experience.

Another problem with "Charlie Victor Romeo" is that its performances often feel as if they belong more to the stage than to a feature film. The movie is, after all, based on a play, but the transition from stage to screen does not completely work.

I'll give the directors - Robert Berger, Patrick Daniels and Karlyn Michelson - credit for attempting something something different with this film, which is fairly unique in concept. Unfortunately, its execution leaves a little too much to be desired.

Review: The Monuments Men

Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

George Clooney's "The Monuments Men" is not the bomb you might expect it to be if you've been browsing Rotten Tomatoes during the past few days. It's surely not the Oscar hopeful that it was once believed to be, but it's an amusing enough war-time drama with a unique twist.

One of the film's problems is that it is short on characterization, relying more on the personas of its talented cast to fill in the blanks. So, in other words, you're watching Bill Murray or Matt Damon in a World War II setting, rather than those actors delving into particular characters.

On the other hand, it's pretty entertaining and sheds light on a mission during the war that is rarely mentioned. I'd never heard of it.

In the film, Clooney plays Frank Stokes, an art historian who has been tasked with leading a platoon of architects, art specialists and several other non-combatants into Germany to safeguard works of art being eyed by the Nazis for Adolf Hitler's Fuhrer Museum or steal back ones that have already been snatched from locales across France and Belgium.

His team consists of a Who's Who of name actors, including Damon, Murray, Bob Balaban, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville and John Goodman. Cate Blanchett also turns up as a resistance fighter and art gallery worker who provides clues to the team.

"The Monuments Men" remains fairly entertaining without ever being particularly intense. Although much is at stake in Stokes' team's mission, we're never given the indication that they are going to fail.

Clooney attempts to recreate the feel of a classic war drama, including "The Bridge on the River Kwai," which composer Alexandre Desplat appears to have used for inspiration here, or "The Train," which also featured a mission to prevent the Germans from getting their hands on art.

As a director, Clooney tends to be drawn to period pieces. "The Monuments Men" is not nearly as good as "Good Night and Good Luck," which is easily Clooney's best film behind the camera, and not quite as involving as the flawed, but interesting, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind." His latest ranks more with the football movie "Leatherheads," which was enjoyable enough, if not the best representation of Clooney's talents. "The Monuments Men" is a somewhat lightweight entry into the canon of World War II movies, but it's likable nonetheless.

Review: Labor Day

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures. 

Here's a movie made by extremely talented people - director Jason Reitman and actors Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet - that just doesn't work.

Reitman's previous films have mostly been comedies of a satirical or scathing nature that include moments that are truly heartfelt. Here, he aims for sentimental and something just feels off.

The film, which is based on the novel by Joyce Maynard, follows the story of a boy named Henry (Gattlin Griffith) who lives with his depressed mother (Winslet) in a small New Hampshire town circa 1987. The boy's father (Clark Gregg) left the family to marry his secretary after Winslet's Adele fell to pieces following a series of tragedies that are revealed slowly during the movie, but won't be disclosed here.

One day in the grocery store, they are approached by a man with a bloody mark on his white T-shirt named Frank (Josh Brolin), who, as it turns out, has just escaped from prison and demands that Adele and Henry allow him to hide for a few hours in their home.

But Frank ends up staying the night and then for several days, first due to necessity and then because he develops a relationship with Adele. You've heard of the stock character known as the Hooker with a Heart of Gold? Well, Frank is not only the Convict with a Heart of Gold, but also the Best Handyman/Husband in Four Counties.

First, he cleans their house and cooks up some chili, which he hand feeds to Adele. He teaches Henry to play baseball and, during a later sequence - and I kid you not - he does the same for a boy in a wheelchair. He repairs the house's generator and not only fixes up Adele's car, but teaches Henry how to do so in the process. I'd imagine a scene exists during which Frank builds an orphanage in the backyard, but that must have ended up on the floor of the editing room.

And then, there's the now-notorious bake-off sequence that does for peach cobbler-making what "Ghost" did for clay molding. A neighbor drops off some peaches as a gift to Adele and Frank instructs Adele and Henry on how to make cobbler by standing behind Adele and using her hands to smoosh and knead the ingredients in a bowl, all the while as they give each other meaningful looks that do not escape Henry's notice. The sequence is memorable, but in the same way that the one in "The Counselor" during which Cameron Diaz had sex with a car's windshield was unforgettable.

It may sound as if I'm describing "Labor Day" as an outright disaster, but it's not. Winslet and Brolin make the best of the material, but it's the script and plotting that are off here. I'm not the type to nitpick about logic in a movie or point out script inaccuracies, but there are a few here that are glaring. And what's with the denizens of the town being so nosy and suspicious? There's a scene during which Adele asks to take out money from her bank and you'd think she'd asked them for the security code to the vault.

"Labor Day" is not so much a bad movie as it is a misguided one. And as tends to be the case of misfires made by very talented people, it has its heart in the right place and some elements that work.

But, on the whole, it doesn't live up to what you might expect based on the people involved. I will say, however, that the pie looks pretty damn good.

Review: That Awkward Moment

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

It's a little unclear to which awkward moment the title of this new comedy, which clearly aims for a mixture of schmaltz and low brow humor in the vein of the "American Pie" films, refers.

But no matter. Here's a movie that is fueled solely on screenplay cliches of how males and females of a certain age act when it comes to matters of love. As portrayed here, men are afraid to feel emotion and settle down, opting instead to sleep around with as many women as possible before realizing they live a shallow existence and deciding to do the thing they originally dreaded after all. And women, according to this movie, just want to settle down, beginning their conversations of a serious matter with men by saying, "So..."

For those of you who have made it this far, I can only assume that the aforementioned movie cliches potentially haven't turned you off toward "That Awkward Moment." So, to be fair, the film is not as bad as many others of its type, which is not to say that it's good.

It's occasionally fun to watch the cast if for no other reason than to think back fondly on their previously more substantial work - that is, Miles Teller, who gave such a sincere performance in last year's "The Spectacular Now," and Michael B. Jordan, who was so great in "Fruitvale Station" and on "The Wire."

Here, they - as well as Zac Efron and Imogen Poots - are mostly wasted, forced to rattle off numerous jokes involving male genitalia, prostitution, sexual acts and - let's not forget that old comedic goldmine - poop.

Basically, you could do a whole lot worse than "That Awkward Moment." But, c'mon people, let's set the bar higher in 2014. I have yet to recommend a comedy this year to see instead of this one, but the year is still young. There's got to be something a little more fresh than this one coming down the pike.

I, Frankenstein

Image courtesy of Lionsgate.

I see a number of pretty rotten films every year, but I can usually count on there being at least one example of a grave miscalculation, a film of such bad judgment that it blows my mind. You could list 2000's hilariously awful "Battlefield Earth" as an example or 2013's "Movie 43," which aims to be hilariously awful and merely achieves the latter.

This year's specimen could very well be "I, Frankenstein," a movie so completely ill conceived, poorly executed and utterly nonsensical - both visually and thematically - that it sets the bar pretty high for bad films to come for the rest of the year.

In the movie, Aaron Eckhart plays Frankenstein's monster who is named - just wait for it - Adam by the queen of the gargoyles. Who's that? Well, thanks for asking! The gargoyles, you see, have been engaged in a centuries-long war with - who else? - the demons and the fate of mankind naturally hangs in the balance.

So, here comes Adam, who has been alive now for several centuries and wearing a broody scowl that puts the entire "Twilight" gang to shame, to save mankind because... wait, why is he involved in this epic battle, which is led on one side by the aforementioned gargoyle queen and, on the other, by a demon played by no less than Bill Nighy?

The picture is loaded with countless fight sequences between the two supernatural forces that make no sense visually. If you've seen one CGI-loaded sequence during which creatures run at each other and explode upon impact, you've seen them all. And when several of the villains put on their "demon face," they bear a resemblance to the titular creatures of "Troll 2."

And poor Aaron Eckhart. He's given little to do here, other than utter lines such as "Descend in pain, demon!" Another of my favorite lines in the film, which is spoken with absolutely no sense of irony, is "God did not put Adam on this earth..." Yes, such are the joys of "I, Frankenstein."

Review: Stranger By the Lake

Image courtesy of Strand Releasing.

Alain Guiraudie's "Stranger By the Lake" falls into the realm of Hitchcock territory and is frequently mysterious and involving - but, ultimately, also a bit repetitive and opaque.

In the film Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps) cruises the lovely French lakeside locale where the entire film is set, searching for flings and, quite possibly, love.

He first strikes up a friendship with a lonely, but straight, man named named Henry (Patrick d'Assumcao), who spends his days at the lake not to hook up, but to spend some time alone in a serene environment. He has recently broken off a long-term relationship.

But Franck's true reason for returning every day to swim in the lake is that he has his eye on Michel (Christophe Paou), a slightly older guy and strong swimmer - I mention this only because the film takes great pains to point this out - who is first seen with another man roaming the beach.

After having stayed a little later than usual one evening, Franck takes a walk in the woods and spots Michel and his current lover swimming in the lake alone. He is a bit shocked to witness what appears to be a murder as Michel seemingly drowns the other man.

Nevertheless, Franck is drawn to Michel and, against all good judgment, gets involved - well, sort of. Soon afterward, a police investigator starts snooping around and, in typical Hitchockian wrong-man fashion, Franck finds himself in an increasingly tense situation.

"Stranger By the Lake" received mostly glowing reviews following its debut last year at the Cannes Film Festival. It's easy to see why many were drawn to it. It's a slow-moving, but methodical, thriller that emphasizes mood and location over plot twists and characterization. It's also often lovely to look at with its shots of trees swaying in the breeze and sun shining on the scenic lake where all of the action is set.

The film also, unfortunately, becomes a bit repetitive - Franck shows up at the beach, everyone turns to stare at him, he has a conversation with Henri, hooks up with Michel, runs into the detective and is questioned. Then, rinse and repeat. Also, I'm all for open-ended narratives, but the finale in "Stranger By the Lake" left me feeling a little cheated. All in all, it's a pretty bold movie and has its moments of interest, but it didn't quite bowl me over.

Review: Maidentrip

Image courtesy of First Run Features.

"Maidentrip" is a movie Werner Herzog might have made had director Jillian Schlesinger not gotten there first. For those unfamiliar with the German filmmaker's oeuvre, many of his documentaries chronicle the tales of individuals with unique quirks or strange stories, such as a man who goes to live among bears ("Grizzly Man") or a ski-jumper obsessed with carpentry ("The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner").

Schlesinger's film fits into that mold, telling the pretty amazing story of a 14-year-old Dutch girl named Laura Dekker who sailed alone around the world during a period of two years. What's most amazing about her adventure, perhaps, is that her parents were OK with it in the first place.

In 2010, Dekker began looking for sponsors for her voyage and was met with criticism from the Dutch government, which attempted to prevent her from taking her trip. Eventually, she won the day and set sail in August 2010, crossing through the Galapagos Islands, three oceans, an especially treacherous area near Australia, the equator and the Cape of Good Hope.

Interspersed throughout her trip were meet-ups between Dekker and her father, mother and sister and an American couple on their own voyage. We also see the world through the young precocious girl's eyes as she becomes more of an adult during the two years she spent on the water.

During a question and answer session at Manhattan's IFC Center this weekend, the director said that Dekker experienced some bumps during her journey that were not recorded on camera. So if it seems as if Dekker's trip were all smooth sailing, that is, most likely and unfortunately, because much of the filming of "Maidentrip" was left in the hands of Dekker, who obviously had to prioritize safety over camera work.

Schlesinger's film is meant to inspire and it does. Dekker is spunky and headstrong, making her a compelling heroine. Her journey is one worth taking, even if you can't possibly ever imagine allowing your own kids to do the same.