The folks at Maxim obviously watch television (making the cut: Yunjim Kim, Ali Larter, et al), but I guess just not The Office. To quote Cartman from South Park: “It’s wrong, it’s wronnnng!” For another, perfectly beatific picture, as well as an analysis of Fischer’s transition to film roles, click here.
Ever feel like you needed to marry Shelley Duvall’s screams and Jack Nicholson’s enthusiastic door-splintering from The Shining to a cuckoo clock? Then click here.
“If you want to know the truth about someone, find a dream
and work backwards,” says the opening line of voice-over narration from Even Money, a
sprawling drama that tries to take a panoramic, bird’s-eye view of
gambling and addiction. If true in movies as in life, the roots of this ensemble film (whose cast includes Kim Basinger and Danny DeVito, above, as well as Forest Whitaker, Ray Liotta, Tim Roth, Jay Mohr and Nick Cannon) most
likely lie in a gassy fever dream induced by a bad Mexican meal.
Directed by Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond), the movie tries to
inject just a pinch of The Usual Suspects-type mystery into the proceedings, through
the frequent invocation of an offscreen mob kingpin named Ivan. As scripted by Robert
Tannen, though, Even Money is formless — there’s no hold to its overcooked drama,
and certainly no building momentum. Characters are either functionary, vague, shriekingly
contrived or some combination thereof. Coming on the heels of Lucky You just two weeks ago, this movie represents yet another losing Hollywood hand. For the full review, from FilmStew, click here.
For those in or around Washington, D.C. and looking for something to do over Memorial Day weekend, the first annual GI Film Festival will unfold May 25 through 28, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. Honoring America’s armed forces through the medium of film, the festival will consist of 22 screenings, two panel discussions and three VIP cocktail receptions; guests will include Gary Sinise, Texas Chainsaw Massacre‘s R. Lee Ermey, musician Pat Boone, comedian Jeff Ross, director John Dahl and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard B. Myers. To purchase tickets and for more information, click here. Also, if you can’t make it but are interested in doing so, you can help send a veteran to the festival in your place.
Former actor Ari Ryan makes his directorial debut with this twisty,
mashed-up heist picture, a movie of desperate characters colliding together in
desperate ways. The film is marginally distinguished by its cast, which
includes Henry Thomas, David Boreanaz, Peter Weller, The Departed’s
Vera Farmiga, Nick Lachey, Bruce Dern and Gary Busey, but otherwise about what
one can expect from a hastily shot, conventionally scripted indie genre flick
grinding through as many set-ups per day as possible.
The story centers on Paul Weston (Thomas), a sad-sack inveterate
gambler with a rising debt, and Roger Hargitay (Boreanaz), a yuppie financial
broker who, together with his colleagues, has bent some rules in the pursuit of
a quick payday. The pair doesn’t know each other, but they share a similar
problem — each owes a lot of money, and has no conceivable way to pay it back. Opportunity
and filmic coincidence collide when Paul and Roger are both approached by
separate groups of thieves looking for accomplices in a bank robbery. At the outset,
the heists look simple. Naturally, however, the “easy” job gets
complicated, and the men find themselves involved in the same hold-up at the
same time — a situation that eventually devolves into a stand-off and gun
battle with each other and the authorities.
Jon Lindstrom and Tom Schanley’s script has this madcap nut
at its core, and not a whole lot else. The cast for the most part supply game
efforts — Thomas has a few nice drunk scenes early on, and as Roger’s boss Ed, Weller injects some levity into the proceedings, chewing scenery and exclaiming
“Gonad!” when something doesn’t go his way — but are often hamstrung by lame or
awkward dialogue. Furthermore, Ryan over-directs the material a bit, achieving
clear compositions and nicely distinguished color palettes for each setting,
but shooting flat masters and then overcompensating with silly, quick-cut
action.
Also, as I’ve mentioned before,
Boreanaz is an actor who is successful only to the degree that he’s an empty vessel for (mostly female)
audience projection. The Hard Easy
doesn’t really afford him that opportunity (though it does get his shirt off in
one scene, a wretchedly staged rooftop basketball encounter with Weller), and
his portrayal of an angsty white collar type, crucial to the differentiation of
the material in his contrast with Thomas’ Lake Tahoe gadfly, doesn’t float. Roger seems a contrived follower, not believably cowed by panic related to his
circumstances.
The Hard Easy is presented
in widescreen, enhanced for 16×9 televisions, and comes with a slightly subpar English
language 5.1 audio mix, optional subtitles in English and Spanish, and an audio
commentary track with Ryan and producer Scott Gold. There’s also a
seven-minute-plus interview with Ryan, filmed overlooking mid-Wilshire Los
Angeles, in which he makes copious, nervous mention of his own “theatrical
roots” (as if this is an audition to vet his credentials to direct) and also
discusses — quite straightforward and reasonably actually — how he feels a
filmmaker should communicate and rely on the strengths of each of his or her
film’s specific departments. C (Movie) C+ (Disc)
