Munich

Munich - Dir. Steven Spielberg (2005)

It goes without saying that Steven Spielberg is a filmmaker in a league of his own. His films have become essential components of our pop culture lexicon. For better or worse, the Hollywood blockbuster exists because of Spielberg and his comrade, George Lucas. Munich lightly mixes Spielberg's slam, bang, blockbuster techniques with the schmaltzy pap that he is, oftentimes, criticized for to create a powerfully, dramatic affair.

During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, operatives of the Palestinian terrorist group, Black September held 11 members of the Israeli team hostage. Two were killed in their quarters, the rest (plus, most of the terrorists) were shot during a botched rescue attempt. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir (Lynn Cohen) called for swift retribution against those responsible and hands the task to her former bodyguard, Avner (Eric Bana). Avner heads a covert task force that includes: the gung-ho South African Steve (Daniel Craig); Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), a Belgian toymaker turned bomb maker; the German Hans (Hanns Zischler), who handles false documents; and Carl (Ciaran Hinds), the man in charge of cleaning up any traces of evidence.

Avner believes in his mission (one that may take years) so much that he leaves behind his pregnant wife, who is close to giving birth. Ironically, Avner's own father (a fellow Mossad agent with a heroic reputation) was absent from his life due to duties of the state. Avner's father is mentioned, but never seen during the film.

This year's summer movie season began with Mission: Impossible III and Munich gives us a peek at real life subterfuge. Like Mission: Impossible, the Israeli government disavows any knowledge of Avner and his operation. That's where the similarities end as nothing is at all like the sensationalized worlds of James Bond and Ethan Hunt. Avner's targets aren't at all like the bad guys you'd see in True Lies. The first two on the hit squad's list are elderly, living posh lives in Europe. One is even a poet; it doesn't save him from being gunned down in his apartment building.

Confronting the man face to face, Avner and Robert find themselves freezing at the last moment. It's not quite the quick and clean kill they had planned. The same goes for some of their other assassinations. One bomb isn't powerful enough, another is too powerful, and another doesn't work at all. In a harrowing moment, the team nearly kills a young girl with a remote-controlled bomb hidden in a telephone.

More and more, Avner finds that his mission may not be as righteous as he originally believed. At one point, the Mossad team shares a safe house with members of the PLO due to an angered information broker. Avner discusses the struggle between Israel and Palestine and, for the first time, attaches a human face to the people that are supposed to be his mortal enemy. Avner questions the orders he is given, are they even killing the right men? He questions the futility of his actions. Each man they kill will be replaced by someone else. Each kill brings about a brutal response from the other side. Numerous bombings and hijackings leave hundreds dead. What's the point of it all?

Bana put in fine performances in Troy and Hulk. Here, he's given far better material and truly carries the film. His gaunt face and sunken eyes reveal how much his ideology has been shattered. Bana completes Avner's breakdown by channeling Gene Hackman in The Conversation, when he tears apart his room looking for the very explosive devices he had readily used earlier. The actors filling out Avner's team do well, but aren't given anything as meaty since their roles lean towards standard archetypes, rather than fleshed out characters.

Spielberg has quite the habit by tacking on a happy ending whether it's appropriate for the story or not. One can look at the ridiculous finale of A.I. to see this in full effect. Munich ends on a much more somber note with just a hint of pessimism. In contrast to Schindler's List, there is no clear cut line between the good guys and the bad guys. Munich is a world with shades of gray. Avner tensely confronts his handler, Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush), about the work he has done. The scene is made more powerful against the backdrop of New York City, the Twin Towers still standing tall. In the city that is supposed to be the ultimate melting pot, two fellow Jews cannot see eye to eye.

Video/Audio: (****)
The video is presented in 1080p with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Spielberg and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski deftly capture the look of the era with a slightly muted color palette. Nothing comes off to soft or too dark.

The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The sound is excellent and highlighted by the somber score by John Williams. Set pieces involving gunfire and explosions work to accentuate the crisp dialogue.

Extras: (***)

The Blu-ray bonus features have been ported over from the 2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD and are presented in standard definition.

Introduction by Steven Spielberg (4:34) sees the director give us some quick thoughts about how he came on board the project and why it was important to him.

The Mission, The Team (13:10) is all about assembling the major players including the leads and screenwriter Tony Kushner.

Members of the cast and crew give their thoughts and remembrances of the terrorist attack in Memories of the Event (8:36).

Portrait of an Era (13:17) is a featurette about how the filmmakers recreated the look and locations of the 70's.

The On-Set Experience (14:24) features interviews with the cast and crew as they look back at filming some of the movie's most pivotal sequences.

The International Cast (12:41) looks at the worldwide casting net that was used to create the large supporting cast.

Editing, Sound, and Music (12:23) looks at the lengthy post-production process with Spielberg and Editor Michael Kahn discussing how they still cut the picture on film as well as a few words from legendary sound designer Ben Burtt.

Film Value: (****)
Normally, I'd complain about almost 3-hour runtime of the film. I think being able to view it at home and being able to pause, stretch, etc. made it easier to swallow. Munich does have some extra fat that could be trimmed away. Yes, I'd describe Munich as long. I'd also describe it as engrossing, thought-provoking, and one of the best films of 2005. Spielberg proves himself as a master of the medium and I shall forgive him for The Terminal and War of the Worlds.

John Carter

John Carter - Dir. Andrew Stanton (2012)

"When I saw you, I believed it was a sign that something new can come into this world."

Edgar Rice Burroughs is famed for writing two classic adventure novels, Tarzan of the Apes and A Princess of Mars. Tarzan became more familiar across the spectrum of pop culture while A Princess of Mars, the first in Burroughs' Barsoom series, became a progenitor of 20^th century sci-fi and fantasy. The name of its lead protagonist, John Carter, a Civil War soldier mysteriously transported to Mars, will resonate with genre fans. Sadly, that same name is now synonymous with one of the biggest box office disasters in movie history.

An adaptation of A Princess of Mars had been in development for decades as far back as 1931 when Bob Clampett of Looney Tunes fame pitched the idea of an animated version to Burroughs. In 2004, Robert Rodriguez was attached to direct a live-action film at Paramount with Frank Frazetta as conceptual artist. The project passed through the hands of Kerry Conron, the writer/director of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and Jon Favreau, who ultimately abandoned the picture to helm Iron Man. The rights passed back to Disney, who previously held them back in the 80's. Pixar's Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E), a die-hard fan of the books, enthusiastically stepped into the director's chair and co-wrote the screenplay with fellow Pixar employee Mark Andrews and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon.

Another Pixar peer, Brad Bird, knocked it out of the park when he made his live-action debut with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which had been released four months earlier. But, Stanton found himself well outside his comfort zone, requiring extensive reshoots for the troubled production. Negative buzz built around the film with the budget estimated to be $250 million with a marketing campaign rumored to add another $100 million on top of that. That same marketing campaign did nothing to stave off the negative buzz that was quickly building. Stanton stubbornly took charge of the advertising that included lackluster posters and uneventful trailers. The generic title didn't help matters either. A Princess of Mars became John Carter of Mars to distance itself from being a frilly girls' movie. Mars was eventually ditched because movies with the word 'Mars' in their title did poorly. Disney was still reeling from another monumental flop in Mars Needs Moms, which led to the shutdown of Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital and the cancellation of his planned 3D remake of Yellow Submarine. Thus, we were left with plain old John Carter, which makes the whole thing sound like the story of Jimmy Carter's cousin who works as a CPA.

No, John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is a former captain in the Confederate Army now mining for gold in the Arizona desert. While being press ganged into a Union regiment by Col. Powell (Bryan Cranston), they are ambushed by the Apache. Carter seeks refuge in a cave where he somehow wakes up on Mars, which the natives refer to as Barsoom. Due to the lower gravity, Carter is blessed with superior strength and the ability to leap great distances. He is taken prisoner by the Tharks, a tribe of green skinned, multi-limbed Martians, led by Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe). Carter is soon pulled into a war between red skinned humans from the cities of Helium and Zodanga. The peaceful city of Helium is led Tardos Mors (Ciarán Hinds) and his daughter, the titular princess of Mars, Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). The Zodangans follow the ruthless Sab Than (Dominic West), who wields a powerful force known as the 9^th Ray given to him by clandestine beings known as Therns, led by Matai Shang (Mark Strong).

John Carter may have been cursed with being too faithful to the source material. There is an inordinate amount of plot to wade through as the film laboriously details the entire geopolitical history of the planet. It doesn't help that you need a scorecard to keep track of all the characters with their hard to remember names. Secondly, Stanton does little to differentiate John Carter from other sci-fi spectacles of recent years. While the original book may have spawned Avatar and Star Wars, in the eyes of the general public, John Carter looks like a rip-off. It has the same storyline about an Earthling saving an alien race, a gladiatorial battle recalling one from Attack of the Clones, and speeder bikes ala Return of the Jedi. Worse yet, its mix of science fiction and Western elements is superficially reminiscent of Cowboys & Aliens with a hero, who looks too much like the one from Prince of Persia, both big budget failures no one should associate with.

Taylor Kitsch has received a huge push as a leading man in 2012. While he's given fine performances as Tim Riggins on Friday Night Lights, he's little more than a bland hunk of meat as John Carter. Lynn Collins fares better as her Dejah Thoris is more than just a scantily-clad princess; she is a scholar and a warrior. It's easy to see why Collins jumped to the forefront as a possible candidate to play Wonder Woman. But, the best character by far happens to be Woola, a swift six-legged beast resembling a cross between a bulldog and a lizard. It says a lot when a CGI creation is far more interesting than any living, breathing human being.

Disney made headlines when it posted a $200 million loss on the production of John Carter with Walt Disney Studios' head Rich Ross resigning a month later. John Carter doesn't deserve to be placed alongside notorious bombs like Ishtar or Heaven's Gate. It has the tone of old school adventure serials with a strong opening in which Stanton emulates John Ford and Sergio Leone. John Carter ultimately lacks the sense of wonder and majesty necessary to make it a sci-fi classic.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Dir. Tomas Alfredson (2011)

"We're not so very different, you and I. We've both spent our lives looking for the weaknesses in one another. Don't you think it's time to recognize there is as little worth on your side as there is on mine?"

John le Carré became a prolific author of spy fiction, who was inspired by years of working for British intelligence. Unlike Ian Fleming's James Bond series, le Carré's spies aren't dapper agents clad in expensive tuxedos jet setting around the world and sipping on martinis. In his acclaimed novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, there are no megalomaniacal supervillains bent on world domination or exotic locales. The murky events transpire under the equally gray and murky skies of London, England. Tinker Tailor had previously been adapted into highly regarded BBC mini-series starring Sir Alec Guinness as protagonist George Smiley. Tomas Alfredson, the director of Let the Right One In, and the husband-wife screenwriting duo of Peter Straughan and Bridget O'Connor (who passed away in 2010 of cancer) had the unenviable task of turning le Carré's incredibly dense narrative into a feature-length film. The results are absolutely stunning and, if not for Drive, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy would have been my pick for best film of 2011.

Set in the 1970's, the film opens with a botched mission in Hungary when Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) is shot and captured by enemy agents under the guise of contacting a defector. The failure and embarrassment leads the head of British Intelligence, known only as Control (John Hurt), to retire in disgrace along with his right-hand man, George Smiley (Gary Oldman). In their place is a new inner circle consisting of Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds), Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), and the obsequious Toby Esterhase (David Dencik).

Following Control's death, Smiley is called back into action when it is discovered that Control had been attempting to root out a mole within their highest ranks. Each suspect is given a codename taken from the nursery rhyme, "Tinker" (Alleline), "Tailor" (Haydon), "Soldier" (Bland), and "Poorman" (Esterhase). Smiley himself was not above Control's suspicions, having been tagged with the nom de plume of "Beggarman."

One of the most striking qualities of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the overwhelming aura of authenticity that starts with the colorful terminology used by le Carré. British Intelligence is referred to as "the Circus," the CIA are "the cousins," and interrogators are "inquisitors." It also helps that the plot is loosely inspired by the real-life events surrounding the Cambridge Five, a group of intelligence agents who were secretly working for the Soviets. To top it off, there's the immaculate direction of Alfredson and the production design by Maria Djurkovic. These aspects go beyond accurate fashion, but the way in which every shot is so precisely composed. When we are taken into the den of the Circus, we see a series of winding staircases and endless shelves as if the building were designed by M.C. Escher. The labyrinthine offices symbolize how easily it is for these men to become lost the deception and politics of their work.

Each of those men is brought to life by a wide array of talented British thespians that include noted character actors like Ciarán Hinds, Mark Strong, Simon McBurney, and Stephen Graham. At the center is Gary Oldman, who earned his first ever Oscar nomination for his portrayal of George Smiley. Oldman is known for playing wildly over-the-top villains, but his Smiley is the epitome of understated. He hardly ever raises his voice and the one time he does will snap you to attention. In one of the film's most gripping moments, the camera closes in tight on Oldman's weathered face as he flows into a monologue about his one encounter with his Russian counterpart, the spymaster codenamed Karla, whose face is never seen. Also never seen is Smiley's adulterous wife, Anne. Both are like looming specters in Smiley's life and constant testaments to his personal and professional failures. Then, there's Colin Firth as Bill Haydon, who is handsome and suave, everything Smiley isn't. Firth is the master at playing these smooth Brits.

Younger actors also get their chance to shine with the vets. It's hard to take your eyes off Tom Hardy as Ricki Tarr, a fugitive agent (and a bit of a scoundrel), who initially revealed the existence of the mole. Benedict Cumberbatch from BBC's Sherlock is another actor to watch out for. He had a strong 2011 with the second season of Sherlock. a solid supporting turn in War Horse, and an excellent performance here as Tarr's handler, Peter Guillam, who becomes Smiley's protégé during his investigation. Cumberbatch is a part of one of the film's major set pieces and it doesn't involve a car chase, a shootout, or hand-to-hand combat. The sequence sees Guillam attempting to sneak documents out of the Circus's archives.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy explores the effects of Cold War paranoia on the men and women charged with protecting the Western world from the Communist menace as a richly layered and engrossing potboiler. It's the rare picture that reveals more of itself upon each repeated viewing and gets better every time.

Rating: **** (*****)

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance - Dirs. Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor (2012)

Ghost Rider isn't one of Marvel's most well-known characters, but he is one of the coolest looking ones. Inspired by the popularity of Evel Knievel, Ghost Rider was created in 1972 as stunt rider Johnny Blaze, who is transformed into a fiery spirit of vengeance after making a pact with the devil to save the life of his mentor. During the grim and gritty era of the early-90's, the Rider was remade into a spiky leather wearing biker named Danny Ketch. The original Ghost Rider film featured a combination of both characters as played by the shamanic assassin of acting Nicolas Cage. You'd think it would be difficult to screw up a movie about a flaming skeleton on a badass motorcycle, but somehow Sony did thanks in part to the pedestrian direction of Mark Steven Johnson. The bane of comic book fans everywhere, Johnson also wrote and directed the poorly received Daredevil.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is Sony's attempt at a mulligan, dusting off an old script by David S. Goyer. Part reboot/part sequel, Spirit of Vengeance glances over the Rider's origins and is connected only tangentially to the original picture. Cage is back as Johnny Blaze, who has been living a nomadic existence in Eastern Europe. He is roped into protecting Nadya (Violante Placido) and her son Danny (Fergus Riordan), who turns out to be the spawn of Satan himself. Comic readers know that the Marvel version of the devil is Mephisto, played in the first Ghost Rider by Peter Fonda. Here, it's Ciarán Hinds in the role and he's simply known as Roark.

Roark needs the boy for a ritual that will allow him to walk unfettered on Earth. To defeat Ghost Rider and capture Danny, Roark transforms a nasty mercenary named Carrigan (Johnny Whitworth) into a creature fans know as Blackout. In his new form, Carrigan looks like a member of the Edgar Winter Group and has the power to sap light around his victims and decay anything he touches. Well, anything except a Twinkie and steering wheels because he still has no problems driving.

The first Ghost Rider was a slick looking blockbuster, but suffered from unimaginative action sequences. These problems should have been corrected since the sequel has the directing duo of Neveldine/Taylor behind the wheel. The filmmakers behind the Crank series utilized adrenaline junkie techniques during the shooting of Spirit of Vengeance. They bungee jumped off rooftops and performed handheld shots on rollerblades. Somehow, their set pieces aren't any more exciting than those of the previous movie or of any other generic action film playing on late night cable. It's mostly Ghost Rider whipping his chain around and burning armies of henchmen into ash. Only rarely do Neveldine/Taylor inject a bit of excitement into Spirit of Vengeance. There's a cool shot of Idris Elba flying backwards in slow motion off a cliff side while firing his shotgun and a sequence where Ghost Rider turns a gigantic construction machine into a demonic engine of death. Neveldine/Taylor also utilize some cool effects for Carrigan's blackout powers by switching to a distorted fish eye lens. They never make the most of the exotic locations either. The film was shot on location in Turkey and Romania where the setting could have lent a classic Italian Giallo flavor to the proceedings. Instead, Neveldine/Taylor shoot in such a manner that Spirit of Vengeance looks like a cheap Sci-Fi Channel movie-of-the-week.

The special effects used to create Ghost Rider have improved. He's grimier with a smoked out skull and a charred leather jacket. He's less intimidating the second time around. This is mostly due to Cage's motion capture work as he decided to have the Rider sway back and forth as if he were at a Bauhaus concert. Also missing is the Penance Stare, Ghost Rider's ability to turn his victims into a desiccated husk by forcing them to feel the pain they've caused a hundredfold. Johnson used fire and brimstone to capture the Penance Stare. Neveldine/Taylor just have Ghost Rider stare lovingly into the eyes of his enemies.

Cage fails to bring the Rider's alter-ego to life too. At least, he was eating jelly beans from a martini glass and listening to the Carpenters before. Here, he's just plain old Nic Cage and not maniacally hammy Nic Cage. His unique acting style can work if fired with precision like a hollow point bullet through a high caliber sniper rifle. So far, the only auteur to truly harness the frenzy of Nic Cage is Werner Herzog. Neveldine/Taylor surprisingly keep Cage tightly on a leash. There's no sign of the cartoony Cage that has become popular YouTube fodder ("Not the bees!"). The one time he does freak out is during an interrogation scene where Blaze threatens to release the Rider.

Picking up the slack in the ham department is Ciarán Hinds, who realizes how ridiculous it all is and plays it accordingly. Criminally underused is comic book mainstay Idris Elba as Moreau, a hard-drinking French priest, who mostly serves to spout exposition at convenient moments. There's also Christopher Lambert as a tattooed, sword-wielding monk and Buffy alumnus Anthony Stewart Head as another monk.

Was I expecting a masterpiece from Spirit of Vengeance? No. At the very least, I hoped for something similar to Punisher: War Zone, where the sequel upped the action and stood as an enjoyable B-movie. Unfortunately, there's nothing here, except a thin, poorly conceived plot that barely covers the scant eighty-plus minute run time.

Rating: * (*****)

The Debt

The Debt - Dir. John Madden (2011)

The Debt is a slick Hollywood remake of a little seen Israeli film called Ha-Hov, which was released in 2007. A throwback to the Cold War thrillers of the 1970’s, The Debt follows the lives of three Mossad agents on a secret mission to apprehend a Nazi war criminal.

In 1965, David Peretz (Sam Worthington) and Stephan Gold (Marton Csokas) are deep undercover in East Berlin and tasked by Mossad with finding the fugitive Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen), whose sadistic human experiments earned him infamy as “The Surgeon of Birkenau.” Learning that Vogel has been living in anonymity as a gynecologist, they are joined by Rachel Singer (Jessica Chastain), a young translator on her first field mission. Posing as David’s wife, Singer visits Vogel’s office to capture him, but their plan to spirit him into West Berlin goes awry. Now, the agents are forced to hold up in a rundown flat with their sadistic prisoner.

In 1997, David, Stephan, and Rachel are now played by Ciaran Hinds, Tom Wilkinson, and Helen Mirren. All three are heralded as national heroes, despite the obvious emotional fallout. Rachel is singled out for killing Vogel when he tried to escape custody. Stephan married and divorced Rachel while rising to a high-ranking position within Mossad. David, meanwhile, has been traveling off the grid for years. The trio is supposed to be reunited in honor of the publication of a book about the mission by Rachel’s daughter. The celebration comes to a screeching halt when David finally resurfaces only to commit suicide by stepping in front of a truck.

The narrative progresses between two parallel storylines set in two time periods. The mystery of what really happened on that ill-fated mission slowly unravels piece by piece thanks to the workmanlike direction from John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) and the script by Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and the team of Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman (Stardust, Kick-Ass). The early scenes set in East Berlin are fraught with tension, especially the uneasy moments where Rachel must be examined by a man obviously inspired by real-life Nazi butcher Josef Mengele. The tension rises during a tightly crafted sequence at a train stop where the protagonists attempt to smuggle their prey across the border. When that fails, they are forced to guard Vogel in their flat until a contingency plan is put together. There, Vogel plays mind games with the nervous agents, taunting them and the loved ones they lost in the Holocaust. Exacerbating the already edgy Israelis is the simmering love triangle revolving around Rachel, David, and Stephan. It's obvious a romance would happen with Rachel being the sole woman between two lonely men.

However, The Debt loses its way in the third act with a resolution that stinks of the studio demanding an ending that wraps everything up in a neat, little bow. These final moments lack the power that the rest of the film had.

Rather than utilizing copious amounts of makeup, the filmmakers cast two sets of actors to play the younger and older characters. On the plus side, we don't have to deal with unconvincing putty jobs like the recently released J. Edgar. The drawback is making sure the actors resemble one another. While Jessica Chastain could pass for Helen Mirren, their male counterparts don't match up quite right. Marton Csokas actually looks more like a young Ciaran Hinds than he does a young Tom Wilkinson who could pass for an older Sam Worthington if you squint your eyes just right. Still, each man gives a good performance though the film is largely commanded by Chastain and the ever-regal Mirren. The omnipresent Chastain has broken through this year with acclaimed turns in arthouse titles like The Tree of Life and Take Shelter as well as the highly successful The Help. The Debt features another winning performance from Chastain as the vulnerable Rachel with Mirren adding an extra layer of weariness for her scenes. Jesper Christensen, best known as Mr. White in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, really ups the creepy factor as the movie's sneering and remorseless villain.

The Debt almost feels like a comment on Jewish guilt and self-loathing. While it's doubtful that was anybody's intention, those themes feel like their bubbling underneath the surface. The Debt is a slightly pedestrian, but competently made thriller that stands in the shadow of Steven Spielberg's far superior Munich.

Rating: ** (*****)

Race to Witch Mountain

Race to Witch Mountain - Dir. Andy Fickman (2009)


Disney somehow manages to move forward by going backwards as they once again cannibalize their past. I watched the original Escape to Witch Mountain numerous times as it was constantly rerun on the Disney Channel. It hasn’t really stood up to the test of time. Maybe my tastes have grown more sophisticated over time. Race to Witch Mountain will appeal to the younger demographics today as the original did to the children of the 70’s. The original relied on easy contrivances and hokey special effects. The remake does exactly the same, but with a bigger budget.

Dwayne Johnson (no longer the Rock) is the manly named Jack Bruno, a former ex-con, now working as a cab driver in Vegas. After a run-in with the henchmen of his former boss, Jack finds a pair of siblings named Seth (Alexander Ludwig) and Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) who hand him a wad of cash and tell him to drive. Seth and Sara are aliens whose ship has crash landed in the Nevada desert. The former has telepathic and telekinetic powers while the latter has the ability to shift his molecular density. The two kids must retrieve an alien doohickey and return to their craft or their home planet will be destroyed and Earth will be invaded. There’s also an assassin called the Siphon that kills everything in its path to capture the children. Jack receives assistance from astrophysicist Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino). In an interesting note (one of the film’s few), Dr. Friedman is respected by neither her serious-minded colleagues who mock her beliefs in extraterrestrial life or UFO enthusiasts who only want to hear stories about anal probes and cattle mutilation.

The original film had the right idea in packing the supporting cast with veteran actors, such as Donald Pleasance and Eddie Albert, to lend some credibility to the goofiness around them. The remake does the same casting Ciaran Hinds as a humorless Man in Black, Garry Marshall as a renowned UFO expert, and Cheech in a thankless bit role as an auto mechanic. Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann, who starred in the original, make cameo appearances as a waitress and small-town sheriff.

Johnson equates himself well in the role even if he’s not the most multi-faceted actor around. He’s likeable and charismatic, but not enough to carry the weak material.

Rating: * ½

Margot at the Wedding

Margot at the Wedding - Dir. Noah Baumbach (2007)

Clash of the titanic, emotionally damaged, narcissistic intelligentsia.

Woody Allen and Eric Rohmer did it better. Nonetheless, Nicole Kidman is splendid as the neurotic, passive-aggressive title character.