Movie column by Eleanor Ringel Cater
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
When I first heard the title “Colombiana,” I figured it was some sort of arty thing that would be in and out of the Landmark or the Lefont in a week.
Then I realized, not only was it playing all over Atlanta; it was playing and playing and playing. Weeks after opening, the movie is still around.
And, I blush to admit, no wonder. With an action-babe protagonist (Zoe Soldana) who makes Angelina Jolie look like June Cleaver, “Colombiana” is a grrrl-power guilty pleasure.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
In the movies, characters are generally less likely to whistle while they work (unless they’re cartoon dwarfs), than blow the whistle on unscrupulous employers.
From “Serpico” to “Silkwood” to “The Insider,” heroically challenging the System has been a good route to the Oscar short list.
Rachel Weisz already has an Oscar (for “The Constant Gardener”), but I think she’d be in the running again if her new movie, “The Whistleblower” had some studio heft behind it. Instead, it’s one of those game, low-budget, low-profile efforts that just won’t attract enough attention.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
“The Debt,” a moral debate wrapped inside a thriller, doesn’t actually open in Atlanta until next Wednesday, August 31.
And Helen Mirren, despite ads to the contrary, doesn’t actually star in “The Debt.”
But she is featured, heavily — heavily enough, I hope, for a best supporting actress nomination.
Much like the current “Sarah’s Key,” “The Debt” owes a dramatic debt to the horror of the Holocaust. And, like that film, it splits its time between the “present” and the past.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
I expected monkey business as usual from “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”
And why not? I’ve been over, under, around, beyond, and below this particular “Planet” many times before. I’d even had enough faith to go back with Markey Mark and Tim Burton.
But none of these sequels, prequels and re-imaginings was anything to go ape over. There remained only the one, the original, the wonderful, the classic, “Planet of the Apes,” released in 1968 and starring Charlton Heston as an astronaut so lost in space he truly does go where no man has ever gone before.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
I wish I didn’t have to say this, but “The Help” is a chore.
Of all the summer movies, it’s the one most people have asked me about — with the possible exception of “The Tree of Life…” People still stop me so they can rant about how terrible it is.
Well, can’t say I didn’t warn you.
“The Help” isn’t a cheat. Nor is it pretentious. But it is, alas, pretty inept and, more than that, a disappointment.
As a native Atlantan, raised with “help,” the movie obviously hits close to home, which is probably why I wish it were better.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
Come on now, just what is one to expect from a movie called “Cowboys & Aliens?”
Cowboys. Check
Aliens. Check
A dusty western town with an apocalyptic name like Absolution. Check.
An alien probe. Check.
Well, filmmaker Jon Favreau (“Iron Man” and “Swingers”) has provided all of the above. And I happily stayed until the very end of the movie, watching Harrison Ford do a Gruff Old Harrison Ford, as a crusty rancher, and Daniel Crag as a kind of Young Harrison Ford as a cowboy who’s been, well, for lack pf a better word, probed.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
There’s an old saying: Better lucky than smart.
I’ve applied it myself to more than a few of our former presidents.
It certainly applies to the new romantic comedy, “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” Written by Dan Fogelman and co-directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (they did the similarly schizoid but under-rated “I Love Philip Morris”), the movie is intermittently smart.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
According to the calendar, we’ve got plenty of summer left, but according to the peculiar calendar Hollywood keeps, fall is almost upon us. Translation: bye-bye superheroes and hello Oscar bait.
Right now, probably the only movie in theaters with Oscar potential is “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.” And that’s not only because it’s a good movie; it’s also a very good end to a popular series.
So if you want a jump of the annual Oscar chaos, you may want to check it
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
All’s well that ends well.
And the much-loved “Harry Potter” series has ended very well indeed.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” the last film based on J.K. Rowling’s extraordinary books, wraps up things wonderfully well for the best-known wizard this side of Oz (and who knows? By now, Baum’s clever humbug may well have to settle for second place…or third.)
True, “Deathly Hallows” doesn’t begin well. If you aren’t already steeped in Harry Potter lore, you may feel a bit muggle-ish (and if you don’t know what a muggle is, you’ll be really stuck.)
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
I’m afraid I am part of the demographic who is supposed to be thrilled that Hollywood has tossed me a bone this summer.
To wit: the “adult” romantic comedy, “Larry Crowne,” starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.
Lord. Gimme “Transformers 3” any day.
Based on an idea by Hanks and co-scripted by Nia Vardalos, star/writer of the inexpicable mega-hit, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (which Hanks produced), “Larry Crowne” could be subtitled, “My Big Fat Mid-Life Crisis.”
Larry (Hanks, who also directed) is downsized from his job at U-Mart (read Wal-Mart or Target or whatever) and told the reason is, he lacks a college diploma.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
About the only thing lacking in this heavily cosmetic-ized “insider” look at the great Gray Lady is a pair of breast implants.
Maybe that’s because there are so few women featured in the movie (though, to be fair, both females at the daily morning power meeting opted out of being interviewed).
Not that it matters much. “Front Page: A Year Inside The New York Times” is shameless hagiography poorly disguised as a we-can-take-it/warts-and-all documentary.
To begin with, you must accept the notion that the Times is something sacred: the Valhalla of print, the Light beside the Golden Shore.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
Before he found his perfect persona in a rumpled trenchcoat and a shambling manner…
That is, before he became world-famous as the TV detective, Columbo, Peter Falk had a strong movie career, which included two Oscar nominations for best supporting actor.
The first was for playing a homicidal thug in 1960‘s “Murder Inc.”
The second was for a light-hearted riff on the same sort of mobster in Frank Capra’s last movie, “A Pocketful of Miracles.”
Falk was headed toward becoming the Joe Pesci of his era — the go-to guy if you had a gangster role to cast, funny or murderous. Falk did play another bad guy — again, more of a spoof than a killer — in “Robin and the Seven Hoods” He was the villain to Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
Something in me thinks the late Steve McQueen would be honored that future generations may know him best as a shiny red race car named Lightning McQueen, the animated star of Pixar’s “Cars” movies.
The first “Cars” earned more than $460 million worldwide (peanuts, actually, compared to other Pixar hits, but still a lot of cash). In the sequel, “Cars 2,” McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) takes a back seat to his buck-toothed, rust-bucket best buddy, Mater, a down-home tow truck (Larry the Cable Guy).
Lightning takes Mater with him when he goes overseas for the World Grand Prix, sponsored by a squirrel-y proponent of alternative fuel, a former oil baron named Sir Miles Axelrod (Eddie Izzard).
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
The movie scene in Atlanta is a little darker these days. Last week, Linda Dubler died. She’s been the Film/Video/Media Curator at the High Museum since the program’s inception in 1985.
The cause of her death: something both painful and unpronounceable, called myelofibrosis, a form of bone marrow cancer. Ironically…sadly…her father died of the same disease.
In many ways, Linda was film in Atlanta. She had a hand in the creation and direction of Women in Film and IMAGE Film & Video Center where the Atlanta Film Festival originated decades ago. I can’t begin to count the number of times I quoted her when I needed a credentialed film expert.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
Time to trash all the Captain von Trapp jokes.
And I’m not just talking about movie lovers. I’m talking to YOU
Christopher Plummer. Yes, YOU, who once said that acting with your “The Sound of Music” co-star, Julie Andrews, was like “acting with a Hallmark Card.”
And yet, she got an Oscar and you…?
Actually, Plummer, now 80, has long since apologized for dumping on the movie that made him famous world-wide. But the proof, as we crix like to say, is in the acting.
And Lord, can Plummer act.
Actually, many of us have known that for a while. Say, anyone who caught him on-stage in ”The Royal Hunt of the Sun” or saw unsung sleepers like a marvelous little mystery-thriller from the late ‘70s called “The Silent Partner.” Or his Oscar-nominated turn as Leo Tolstoy in “The Last Station.” Or his Kipling in “The Man Who Would Be King.” Or as Mike Wallace in “The Insider.”
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
Bad news, Big Apple.
Woody Allen has found himself a new love. Her name is Paris.
And, almost as if to rub it in, Allen opens his new feather-light “Midnight in Paris” with a montage of the City of Light that’s similar to the classic opening of 1979’s “Manhattan,” with its luscious George Gershwin score.
However, “Midnight in Paris” doesn’t present itself quite so grandly. The music is jauntily nostalgic, more Edith Piaf in a good mood.
As it turns out, Allen is in a good mood, too. First indicator: he’s cast Golden Boy Owen Wilson as his surrogate self.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
If the “Star Trek” franchise can be re-booted, with a younger cast, why not “X-Men?”
Well, several reasons, the first being Englishman Matthew Vaughn. Though he has some decent kick-ass credits (including the endearing oddity, “Kick-Ass”), he’s no J.J. Abrams who similarly kick-started (sorry) 2009’s ”Star Trek.”
The second reason is a bit murkier. As a fan of both “Star Trek” (the TV series and “Wrath of Khan” mostly) and “The X-Men” (the comic books in the ‘70s mostly), I think the former engenders more affection than the latter.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
Boy, how I wish I owned the eyeliner franchise on Disney’s newest treasure chest, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.”
Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow is, of course, already famous for his kohl-circled eyes, reminiscent of the cat’s eye look from the mini-mod ‘60s (check out an old James Bond movie or “Blow Up” if you don’t know what I mean).
But now, his new leading lady, Penelope Cruz, lays on the liner as thickly as Depp does, as does Ian McShane as her father, the infamous Blackbeard, whose eye-rims are as black as his beard and his temper.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
Toss a bouquet — and a big fat development deal for her next movie — to Kristen Wiig, the co-writer and star of the wondrous new “Bridesmaids.”
Possibly the brightest romantic comedy to come along since “The 40-year-Old Virgin,” “Bridesmaids” actually has a coupla things in common with the movie that put Steve Carell on the map. One, they both offer a sweet human side to balance the out-there outrageousness which is as raunchy as it is embarrassing.
Second, a certain Judd Apatow (eternally cursed for “Knocked Up,” eternally blessed for these films) had a hand in both.
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
THOR, directed by Kenneth Branagh. Starring Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman.
Ah, “Thor.”
As in…gore?
Not that much really.
As in…lore?
What’s there is pretty skewed.
As in…more?
I’d say at least one sequel.
As in…bore?
Bingo.
