Opens
Friday, April 30
Taking in "Envy", the new Barry Levinson comedy starring the ubiquitous Ben Stiller and manic Jack Black (and featuring a scene-stealing Christopher Walken) is sort of like watching a TV talk show with a particularly strong guest lineup.
The banter is sufficiently witty and engaging for the duration of the broadcast, but any lingering effects are permanently banished with a casual flick of the remote control.
Hanging at times precariously by the thread of Steve Adams' seriously under-plotted script, the low-key picture gets by on the genial charisma of its cast, but it fails to rise to the occasion when it comes to building to a necessary comic pitch.
With Stiller on a roll after "Starsky & Hutch" and "Along Came Polly", and Black Red Hot on the heels of "School of Rock", the DreamWorks release (Columbia is handling international distribution) could initially draw fans, but ultimately DreamWorks will have to wait for "Shrek 2" because their coffers probably won't be turning green with "Envy".
Stiller's Tim Dingman and Black's Nick Vanderpark are best friends, next-door neighbors and co-workers whose relationship is seriously put to the test when one of them becomes ridiculously successful.
That would be Vanderpark. After driving his buddy crazy with his harebrained ideas for wild inventions without a shred of scientific data to back them up, Vanderpark manages to hit one out of the ballpark after his notion of making dog poop evaporate into thin air with a single spray of Vapoorizer becomes a multimillion-dollar industry.
Dubious from the start, Dingman passed on the opportunity to invest a couple thousand dollars in the pie-in-the-sky enterprise, and now he's literally living in the shadow of Vanderpark's triumph -- cast by a sprawling new mansion complete with vintage merry-go-round, bowling alley, archery range and imported Roman fountains.
Consumed with envy, much to the growing frustration of his wife (Rachel Weisz), Dingman strikes up a relationship with a nutty drifter (paging Mr. Walken), and that's when things really start spiraling out of control.
Levinson, as always, creates a comfortable working environment for his comic ensemble to strut its stuff, but this time out there just isn't very much to work with, thanks to a warmed-over plot that's all setup with insufficient payoff.
As a result, the laughs tend to come in fits and starts, built around individual set pieces rather than being generated organically out of the storytelling.
That may be why the Stiller-Black matchup doesn't generate the anticipated comic sparks, leaving Walken to effectively walk away with the picture. As the off-kilter and opportunistic J-Man, he manages to spin the most mundane of lines into comic gold with the mere accentuation of a single preposition.
Behind-the-scenes contributions are generally on the money, especially the wardrobe selected by Levinson's longtime costume designer Gloria Gresham, while Dan Navarro does his best Leon Redbone as the film's off-camera troubadour.
Envy
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures and Columbia Pictures present in association with Castle Rock Entertainment a Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures production
A Barry Levinson film
Credits:
Director: Barry Levinson
Producers: Barry Levinson, Paula Weinstein
Screenwriter: Steve Adams
Executive producer: Mary McLaglen
Director of photography: Tim Maurice-Jones
Production designer: Victor Kempster
Editors: Stu Linder, Blair Daily
Costume designer: Gloria Gresham
Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh
Cast:
Tim Dingman: Ben Stiller
Nick Vanderpark: Jack Black
Debbie Dingman: Rachel Weisz
Natalie Vanderpark: Amy Poehler
J-Man: Christopher Walken
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Friday, April 30
Taking in "Envy", the new Barry Levinson comedy starring the ubiquitous Ben Stiller and manic Jack Black (and featuring a scene-stealing Christopher Walken) is sort of like watching a TV talk show with a particularly strong guest lineup.
The banter is sufficiently witty and engaging for the duration of the broadcast, but any lingering effects are permanently banished with a casual flick of the remote control.
Hanging at times precariously by the thread of Steve Adams' seriously under-plotted script, the low-key picture gets by on the genial charisma of its cast, but it fails to rise to the occasion when it comes to building to a necessary comic pitch.
With Stiller on a roll after "Starsky & Hutch" and "Along Came Polly", and Black Red Hot on the heels of "School of Rock", the DreamWorks release (Columbia is handling international distribution) could initially draw fans, but ultimately DreamWorks will have to wait for "Shrek 2" because their coffers probably won't be turning green with "Envy".
Stiller's Tim Dingman and Black's Nick Vanderpark are best friends, next-door neighbors and co-workers whose relationship is seriously put to the test when one of them becomes ridiculously successful.
That would be Vanderpark. After driving his buddy crazy with his harebrained ideas for wild inventions without a shred of scientific data to back them up, Vanderpark manages to hit one out of the ballpark after his notion of making dog poop evaporate into thin air with a single spray of Vapoorizer becomes a multimillion-dollar industry.
Dubious from the start, Dingman passed on the opportunity to invest a couple thousand dollars in the pie-in-the-sky enterprise, and now he's literally living in the shadow of Vanderpark's triumph -- cast by a sprawling new mansion complete with vintage merry-go-round, bowling alley, archery range and imported Roman fountains.
Consumed with envy, much to the growing frustration of his wife (Rachel Weisz), Dingman strikes up a relationship with a nutty drifter (paging Mr. Walken), and that's when things really start spiraling out of control.
Levinson, as always, creates a comfortable working environment for his comic ensemble to strut its stuff, but this time out there just isn't very much to work with, thanks to a warmed-over plot that's all setup with insufficient payoff.
As a result, the laughs tend to come in fits and starts, built around individual set pieces rather than being generated organically out of the storytelling.
That may be why the Stiller-Black matchup doesn't generate the anticipated comic sparks, leaving Walken to effectively walk away with the picture. As the off-kilter and opportunistic J-Man, he manages to spin the most mundane of lines into comic gold with the mere accentuation of a single preposition.
Behind-the-scenes contributions are generally on the money, especially the wardrobe selected by Levinson's longtime costume designer Gloria Gresham, while Dan Navarro does his best Leon Redbone as the film's off-camera troubadour.
Envy
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures and Columbia Pictures present in association with Castle Rock Entertainment a Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures production
A Barry Levinson film
Credits:
Director: Barry Levinson
Producers: Barry Levinson, Paula Weinstein
Screenwriter: Steve Adams
Executive producer: Mary McLaglen
Director of photography: Tim Maurice-Jones
Production designer: Victor Kempster
Editors: Stu Linder, Blair Daily
Costume designer: Gloria Gresham
Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh
Cast:
Tim Dingman: Ben Stiller
Nick Vanderpark: Jack Black
Debbie Dingman: Rachel Weisz
Natalie Vanderpark: Amy Poehler
J-Man: Christopher Walken
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Opens
Friday, April 30
Taking in "Envy", the new Barry Levinson comedy starring the ubiquitous Ben Stiller and manic Jack Black (and featuring a scene-stealing Christopher Walken) is sort of like watching a TV talk show with a particularly strong guest lineup.
The banter is sufficiently witty and engaging for the duration of the broadcast, but any lingering effects are permanently banished with a casual flick of the remote control.
Hanging at times precariously by the thread of Steve Adams' seriously under-plotted script, the low-key picture gets by on the genial charisma of its cast, but it fails to rise to the occasion when it comes to building to a necessary comic pitch.
With Stiller on a roll after "Starsky & Hutch" and "Along Came Polly", and Black Red Hot on the heels of "School of Rock", the DreamWorks release (Columbia is handling international distribution) could initially draw fans, but ultimately DreamWorks will have to wait for "Shrek 2" because their coffers probably won't be turning green with "Envy".
Stiller's Tim Dingman and Black's Nick Vanderpark are best friends, next-door neighbors and co-workers whose relationship is seriously put to the test when one of them becomes ridiculously successful.
That would be Vanderpark. After driving his buddy crazy with his harebrained ideas for wild inventions without a shred of scientific data to back them up, Vanderpark manages to hit one out of the ballpark after his notion of making dog poop evaporate into thin air with a single spray of Vapoorizer becomes a multimillion-dollar industry.
Dubious from the start, Dingman passed on the opportunity to invest a couple thousand dollars in the pie-in-the-sky enterprise, and now he's literally living in the shadow of Vanderpark's triumph -- cast by a sprawling new mansion complete with vintage merry-go-round, bowling alley, archery range and imported Roman fountains.
Consumed with envy, much to the growing frustration of his wife (Rachel Weisz), Dingman strikes up a relationship with a nutty drifter (paging Mr. Walken), and that's when things really start spiraling out of control.
Levinson, as always, creates a comfortable working environment for his comic ensemble to strut its stuff, but this time out there just isn't very much to work with, thanks to a warmed-over plot that's all setup with insufficient payoff.
As a result, the laughs tend to come in fits and starts, built around individual set pieces rather than being generated organically out of the storytelling.
That may be why the Stiller-Black matchup doesn't generate the anticipated comic sparks, leaving Walken to effectively walk away with the picture. As the off-kilter and opportunistic J-Man, he manages to spin the most mundane of lines into comic gold with the mere accentuation of a single preposition.
Behind-the-scenes contributions are generally on the money, especially the wardrobe selected by Levinson's longtime costume designer Gloria Gresham, while Dan Navarro does his best Leon Redbone as the film's off-camera troubadour.
Envy
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures and Columbia Pictures present in association with Castle Rock Entertainment a Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures production
A Barry Levinson film
Credits:
Director: Barry Levinson
Producers: Barry Levinson, Paula Weinstein
Screenwriter: Steve Adams
Executive producer: Mary McLaglen
Director of photography: Tim Maurice-Jones
Production designer: Victor Kempster
Editors: Stu Linder, Blair Daily
Costume designer: Gloria Gresham
Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh
Cast:
Tim Dingman: Ben Stiller
Nick Vanderpark: Jack Black
Debbie Dingman: Rachel Weisz
Natalie Vanderpark: Amy Poehler
J-Man: Christopher Walken
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Friday, April 30
Taking in "Envy", the new Barry Levinson comedy starring the ubiquitous Ben Stiller and manic Jack Black (and featuring a scene-stealing Christopher Walken) is sort of like watching a TV talk show with a particularly strong guest lineup.
The banter is sufficiently witty and engaging for the duration of the broadcast, but any lingering effects are permanently banished with a casual flick of the remote control.
Hanging at times precariously by the thread of Steve Adams' seriously under-plotted script, the low-key picture gets by on the genial charisma of its cast, but it fails to rise to the occasion when it comes to building to a necessary comic pitch.
With Stiller on a roll after "Starsky & Hutch" and "Along Came Polly", and Black Red Hot on the heels of "School of Rock", the DreamWorks release (Columbia is handling international distribution) could initially draw fans, but ultimately DreamWorks will have to wait for "Shrek 2" because their coffers probably won't be turning green with "Envy".
Stiller's Tim Dingman and Black's Nick Vanderpark are best friends, next-door neighbors and co-workers whose relationship is seriously put to the test when one of them becomes ridiculously successful.
That would be Vanderpark. After driving his buddy crazy with his harebrained ideas for wild inventions without a shred of scientific data to back them up, Vanderpark manages to hit one out of the ballpark after his notion of making dog poop evaporate into thin air with a single spray of Vapoorizer becomes a multimillion-dollar industry.
Dubious from the start, Dingman passed on the opportunity to invest a couple thousand dollars in the pie-in-the-sky enterprise, and now he's literally living in the shadow of Vanderpark's triumph -- cast by a sprawling new mansion complete with vintage merry-go-round, bowling alley, archery range and imported Roman fountains.
Consumed with envy, much to the growing frustration of his wife (Rachel Weisz), Dingman strikes up a relationship with a nutty drifter (paging Mr. Walken), and that's when things really start spiraling out of control.
Levinson, as always, creates a comfortable working environment for his comic ensemble to strut its stuff, but this time out there just isn't very much to work with, thanks to a warmed-over plot that's all setup with insufficient payoff.
As a result, the laughs tend to come in fits and starts, built around individual set pieces rather than being generated organically out of the storytelling.
That may be why the Stiller-Black matchup doesn't generate the anticipated comic sparks, leaving Walken to effectively walk away with the picture. As the off-kilter and opportunistic J-Man, he manages to spin the most mundane of lines into comic gold with the mere accentuation of a single preposition.
Behind-the-scenes contributions are generally on the money, especially the wardrobe selected by Levinson's longtime costume designer Gloria Gresham, while Dan Navarro does his best Leon Redbone as the film's off-camera troubadour.
Envy
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures and Columbia Pictures present in association with Castle Rock Entertainment a Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures production
A Barry Levinson film
Credits:
Director: Barry Levinson
Producers: Barry Levinson, Paula Weinstein
Screenwriter: Steve Adams
Executive producer: Mary McLaglen
Director of photography: Tim Maurice-Jones
Production designer: Victor Kempster
Editors: Stu Linder, Blair Daily
Costume designer: Gloria Gresham
Composer: Mark Mothersbaugh
Cast:
Tim Dingman: Ben Stiller
Nick Vanderpark: Jack Black
Debbie Dingman: Rachel Weisz
Natalie Vanderpark: Amy Poehler
J-Man: Christopher Walken
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 4/30/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Opens Friday, March 14
"The Hunted" is about as basic as a chase movie gets. Tommy Lee Jones, a retired teacher in survival and assassination techniques, is called in to hunt down Benicio Del Toro, a former pupil gone bad. Jones hunts Del Toro down. Government operatives let him escape. So Jones hunts Del Toro again and the two fight to the finish. By stripping an action thriller this close to the bone, director William Friedkin has removed too much meat. Because these two guys intrigue an audience, especially given the relative nature of good and evil in their mano a mano conflict, one feels cheated by the movie's relentless drive to oversimplify the narrative. The urge is strong to cry out: Where's the rest of the movie?
The film's bloody action includes enough knife fights and suspenseful tracking sequences to hold its mostly male target audience. Del Toro should create female interest in the movie as well, so Paramount can expect above-average results. But they missed out on a classic thriller when Friedkin and writers David and Peter Griffiths and Art Monterastelli decided to cut to the chase and leave the potential for thematic complexity to the audience's imagination.
In a sense, this is a bold movie. Friedkin wants us to read volumes into the film's silences, into the men's physical movements and eye contact with each other. But in an action movie, this is asking too much even of actors this talented. We sense their connection but have no idea how they feel about each other.
In long-ago training sessions, Jones' L.T. Bonham turned Del Toro's Aaron Hallam into a killing machine. Yet L.T. has never harmed a fly. Hallam has killed so many at the behest of the U.S. government that he has lost all sense of moral control. Each gets an opening "credentials" sequence: In 1999, Hallam slips into the nighttime chaos of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and without being seen or heard swiftly kills a murderous Serb officer. In the British Columbia wilderness, L.T. tracks down and gently heals a wolf wounded by a hunter's snare.
Four years later, Hallam is stalking and butchering hunters in the Oregon forest. The FBI calls in his teacher to track him down. Does L.T. feel any guilt? Does Hallam? Might not L.T. empathize with Hallam to the point he really doesn't want to kill him? Why is he so willing to kill a pupil for a government that has exploited them both?
Their brief, tenuous scenes together fail to answer any of these and so many more questions. A young woman (Leslie Stefanson) and her child are part of Hallam's world, but how they are involved is anybody's guess. A glimmer of a relationship develops between L.T. and an FBI agent (Connie Nielsen), but the movie has no time for that. What it does have time for are absurdities.
Hallam escapes from gray-suited government operatives in Portland. The city, L.T. remarks earlier, is a wilderness, and the movie means to prove his point. As if he were back in British Columbia, L.T. tracks Hallam through the city's tunnels, artificial waterfalls and riverway -- much of this implausible, to say the least. An elaborate sequence on the Interstate Bridge, where Hallam is exposed to SWAT sharpshooters for minutes but emerges unharmed, stretches things even further. But the final absurdity comes when the two men stop their hunt to give us a primer in turning urban debris into flint and steel weapons. OK, Hallam must do so since he has no weapon. But can't L.T. just grab a good hunting knife?
Their one-on-one fight is well-choreographed and contains visceral tension. This is a far cry from the martial arts follies in most action movies. But the stakes aren't high enough. Instead of two guys struggling to kill each other, we should sense their ambivalence. Truffaut once said Hitchcock filmed his murder scenes like love scenes. That should be the case here.
Fine location work by a superb crew -- cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, production designer William Cruse and costume designer Gloria Gresham -- adds compelling elements to the chase. Augie Hess' razor-sharp editing lets the movie flow gracefully.
THE HUNTED
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures in association with Lakeshore Entertainment a Ricardo Mestres/Alphaville production
Credits:
Director: William Friedkin
Screenwriters: David Griffiths, Peter Griffiths, Art Monterastelli
Producers: Ricardo Mestres, James Jacks
Executive producers: David Griffiths, Peter Griffiths, Marcus Viscadi, Sean Daniel
Director of photography: Caleb Deschanel
Production designer: William Cruse
Music: Brian Tyler
Co-producer: Art Montersatelli
Costume designer: Gloria Gresham
Editor: Augie Hess
Cast:
L.T. Bonham: Tommy Lee Jones
Aaron Hallam: Benicio Del Toro
Abby: Connie Nielsen, Irene: Leslie Stefanson
Ted: John Finn
Moret: Jose Zuniga
Van Zandt: Ron Canada
Dale Hewitt: Mark Pellegrino
Running time -- 94 minutes
MPAA rating R...
"The Hunted" is about as basic as a chase movie gets. Tommy Lee Jones, a retired teacher in survival and assassination techniques, is called in to hunt down Benicio Del Toro, a former pupil gone bad. Jones hunts Del Toro down. Government operatives let him escape. So Jones hunts Del Toro again and the two fight to the finish. By stripping an action thriller this close to the bone, director William Friedkin has removed too much meat. Because these two guys intrigue an audience, especially given the relative nature of good and evil in their mano a mano conflict, one feels cheated by the movie's relentless drive to oversimplify the narrative. The urge is strong to cry out: Where's the rest of the movie?
The film's bloody action includes enough knife fights and suspenseful tracking sequences to hold its mostly male target audience. Del Toro should create female interest in the movie as well, so Paramount can expect above-average results. But they missed out on a classic thriller when Friedkin and writers David and Peter Griffiths and Art Monterastelli decided to cut to the chase and leave the potential for thematic complexity to the audience's imagination.
In a sense, this is a bold movie. Friedkin wants us to read volumes into the film's silences, into the men's physical movements and eye contact with each other. But in an action movie, this is asking too much even of actors this talented. We sense their connection but have no idea how they feel about each other.
In long-ago training sessions, Jones' L.T. Bonham turned Del Toro's Aaron Hallam into a killing machine. Yet L.T. has never harmed a fly. Hallam has killed so many at the behest of the U.S. government that he has lost all sense of moral control. Each gets an opening "credentials" sequence: In 1999, Hallam slips into the nighttime chaos of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and without being seen or heard swiftly kills a murderous Serb officer. In the British Columbia wilderness, L.T. tracks down and gently heals a wolf wounded by a hunter's snare.
Four years later, Hallam is stalking and butchering hunters in the Oregon forest. The FBI calls in his teacher to track him down. Does L.T. feel any guilt? Does Hallam? Might not L.T. empathize with Hallam to the point he really doesn't want to kill him? Why is he so willing to kill a pupil for a government that has exploited them both?
Their brief, tenuous scenes together fail to answer any of these and so many more questions. A young woman (Leslie Stefanson) and her child are part of Hallam's world, but how they are involved is anybody's guess. A glimmer of a relationship develops between L.T. and an FBI agent (Connie Nielsen), but the movie has no time for that. What it does have time for are absurdities.
Hallam escapes from gray-suited government operatives in Portland. The city, L.T. remarks earlier, is a wilderness, and the movie means to prove his point. As if he were back in British Columbia, L.T. tracks Hallam through the city's tunnels, artificial waterfalls and riverway -- much of this implausible, to say the least. An elaborate sequence on the Interstate Bridge, where Hallam is exposed to SWAT sharpshooters for minutes but emerges unharmed, stretches things even further. But the final absurdity comes when the two men stop their hunt to give us a primer in turning urban debris into flint and steel weapons. OK, Hallam must do so since he has no weapon. But can't L.T. just grab a good hunting knife?
Their one-on-one fight is well-choreographed and contains visceral tension. This is a far cry from the martial arts follies in most action movies. But the stakes aren't high enough. Instead of two guys struggling to kill each other, we should sense their ambivalence. Truffaut once said Hitchcock filmed his murder scenes like love scenes. That should be the case here.
Fine location work by a superb crew -- cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, production designer William Cruse and costume designer Gloria Gresham -- adds compelling elements to the chase. Augie Hess' razor-sharp editing lets the movie flow gracefully.
THE HUNTED
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures in association with Lakeshore Entertainment a Ricardo Mestres/Alphaville production
Credits:
Director: William Friedkin
Screenwriters: David Griffiths, Peter Griffiths, Art Monterastelli
Producers: Ricardo Mestres, James Jacks
Executive producers: David Griffiths, Peter Griffiths, Marcus Viscadi, Sean Daniel
Director of photography: Caleb Deschanel
Production designer: William Cruse
Music: Brian Tyler
Co-producer: Art Montersatelli
Costume designer: Gloria Gresham
Editor: Augie Hess
Cast:
L.T. Bonham: Tommy Lee Jones
Aaron Hallam: Benicio Del Toro
Abby: Connie Nielsen, Irene: Leslie Stefanson
Ted: John Finn
Moret: Jose Zuniga
Van Zandt: Ron Canada
Dale Hewitt: Mark Pellegrino
Running time -- 94 minutes
MPAA rating R...
- 3/14/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In February 1994, justice was finally served for Myrlie Evers -- a mere three decades after the fatal shooting of her husband, civil-rights activist Medgar Evers, and the two mistrials that left his killer, Byron De La Beckwith, a free man.
Faithfully documenting the events leading up to the white supremacist's ultimate conviction, Rob Reiner's "Ghosts of Mississippi" is a well-intentioned but dramatically unsatisfying motion picture experience.
There is certainly an intriguing story to be told here, but unfortunately it isn't the one Reiner and screenwriter Lewis Colick ("Unlawful Entry") have chosen to tell. By focusing almost entirely on the trials and tribulations of Bobby DeLaughter -- the white assistant district attorney who took on the Evers case -- and the toll it took on DeLaughter's family, while relegating the Myrlie Evers angle to the sidelines, the film resonates a been-there, done-that familiarity, particularly in light of the summer's "A Time to Kill".
The result is a finely acted, technically proficient piece that falls frustratingly short of the Oscar caliber to which it obviously aspires -- James Woods' scenery-nibbling portrayal of De La Beckwith being the sure-fire exception. In boxoffice terms, the "Ghosts" verdict will likely be delivered in favor of a respectful but not overwhelming audience response.
After a prologue set in 1964 during the minutes leading up to Evers' murder as his wife (Whoopi Goldberg) and children watched a televised civil rights speech by President Kennedy, the story fast-forwards to the late 1980s, when DeLaughter (Alec Baldwin) is assigned to the Evers case. After initially little to go on, DeLaughter is able to reconstruct the events of the past.
At the same time, his progressive immersion in the case costs him his marriage to Dixie (Virginia Madsen), whose father was the presiding judge in an earlier De La Beckwith trial, while leaving his family open to terrorist threats. Shaken but remaining undeterred, DeLaughter sees the case through to its courtroom finale, closing an unpleasant chapter of the South's checkered history.
Handed his most heroic lead since originating the Jack Ryan character in "The Hunt for Red October", Baldwin seizes the opportunity, playing DeLaughter with an earnest, sympathetic conviction. Still, his closing courtroom arguments never reach the emotional crescendo required, but the blame could also be shouldered by Colick's script, which opts for accuracy over dramatic license.
Likewise Goldberg, as Myrlie Evers, is solemnly passionate in what amounts to a series of extended cameos instead of what should have been a more evenly represented story. By keeping the spotlight on DeLaughter, we're robbed of getting a glimpse of the motivation that kept Evers' fight alive for more than 30 years.
Only Woods is able to completely transcend the staid material and layers of latex (masterfully applied by make-up artists Matthew Mungle and Deborah La Mia Denaver) as 73-year-old De La Beckwith.
Bill Cobbs also does some standout work as Evers' DJ brother, Charlie; the Evers' sons, Darrell and Van, play themselves in the film, while Yolanda King, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., plays their sister, Reena.
As has come to be expected in Rob Reiner pictures, production values are pristine, with director of photography John Seale, production designer Lilly Kilvert, costume designer Gloria Gresham and composer Marc Shaiman lending their superb talents.
GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI
Sony Pictures Releasing
Columbia Pictures
Castle Rock Entertainment
A Frederick Zollo Production
A Rob Reiner Film
Producer-director Rob Reiner
Screenplay Lewis Colick
Producers Frederick Zollo,
Nicholas Paleologos, Andrew Scheinman
Executive producers Jeffrey Stott,
Charles Newirth
Director of photography John Seale
Production designer Lilly Kilvert
Editor Robert Leighton
Costume designer Gloria Gresham
Music Marc Shaiman
Casting Jane Jenkins, Janet Hirshenson
Color/stereo
Cast:
Bobby DeLaughter Alec Baldwin
Myrlie Evers Whoopi Goldberg
Byron De La Beckwith James Woods
Ed Peters Craig T. Nelson
Charlie Crisco William H. Macy
Peggy Lloyd DeLaughter Susanna Thompson
Merrida Coxwell Michael O'Keefe
Jim Kitchens Bill Smitrovich
Morris Dees Wayne Rogers
Caroline Moore Diane Ladd
Dixie Moore DeLaughter Virginia Madsen
Running time -- 123 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Faithfully documenting the events leading up to the white supremacist's ultimate conviction, Rob Reiner's "Ghosts of Mississippi" is a well-intentioned but dramatically unsatisfying motion picture experience.
There is certainly an intriguing story to be told here, but unfortunately it isn't the one Reiner and screenwriter Lewis Colick ("Unlawful Entry") have chosen to tell. By focusing almost entirely on the trials and tribulations of Bobby DeLaughter -- the white assistant district attorney who took on the Evers case -- and the toll it took on DeLaughter's family, while relegating the Myrlie Evers angle to the sidelines, the film resonates a been-there, done-that familiarity, particularly in light of the summer's "A Time to Kill".
The result is a finely acted, technically proficient piece that falls frustratingly short of the Oscar caliber to which it obviously aspires -- James Woods' scenery-nibbling portrayal of De La Beckwith being the sure-fire exception. In boxoffice terms, the "Ghosts" verdict will likely be delivered in favor of a respectful but not overwhelming audience response.
After a prologue set in 1964 during the minutes leading up to Evers' murder as his wife (Whoopi Goldberg) and children watched a televised civil rights speech by President Kennedy, the story fast-forwards to the late 1980s, when DeLaughter (Alec Baldwin) is assigned to the Evers case. After initially little to go on, DeLaughter is able to reconstruct the events of the past.
At the same time, his progressive immersion in the case costs him his marriage to Dixie (Virginia Madsen), whose father was the presiding judge in an earlier De La Beckwith trial, while leaving his family open to terrorist threats. Shaken but remaining undeterred, DeLaughter sees the case through to its courtroom finale, closing an unpleasant chapter of the South's checkered history.
Handed his most heroic lead since originating the Jack Ryan character in "The Hunt for Red October", Baldwin seizes the opportunity, playing DeLaughter with an earnest, sympathetic conviction. Still, his closing courtroom arguments never reach the emotional crescendo required, but the blame could also be shouldered by Colick's script, which opts for accuracy over dramatic license.
Likewise Goldberg, as Myrlie Evers, is solemnly passionate in what amounts to a series of extended cameos instead of what should have been a more evenly represented story. By keeping the spotlight on DeLaughter, we're robbed of getting a glimpse of the motivation that kept Evers' fight alive for more than 30 years.
Only Woods is able to completely transcend the staid material and layers of latex (masterfully applied by make-up artists Matthew Mungle and Deborah La Mia Denaver) as 73-year-old De La Beckwith.
Bill Cobbs also does some standout work as Evers' DJ brother, Charlie; the Evers' sons, Darrell and Van, play themselves in the film, while Yolanda King, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., plays their sister, Reena.
As has come to be expected in Rob Reiner pictures, production values are pristine, with director of photography John Seale, production designer Lilly Kilvert, costume designer Gloria Gresham and composer Marc Shaiman lending their superb talents.
GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI
Sony Pictures Releasing
Columbia Pictures
Castle Rock Entertainment
A Frederick Zollo Production
A Rob Reiner Film
Producer-director Rob Reiner
Screenplay Lewis Colick
Producers Frederick Zollo,
Nicholas Paleologos, Andrew Scheinman
Executive producers Jeffrey Stott,
Charles Newirth
Director of photography John Seale
Production designer Lilly Kilvert
Editor Robert Leighton
Costume designer Gloria Gresham
Music Marc Shaiman
Casting Jane Jenkins, Janet Hirshenson
Color/stereo
Cast:
Bobby DeLaughter Alec Baldwin
Myrlie Evers Whoopi Goldberg
Byron De La Beckwith James Woods
Ed Peters Craig T. Nelson
Charlie Crisco William H. Macy
Peggy Lloyd DeLaughter Susanna Thompson
Merrida Coxwell Michael O'Keefe
Jim Kitchens Bill Smitrovich
Morris Dees Wayne Rogers
Caroline Moore Diane Ladd
Dixie Moore DeLaughter Virginia Madsen
Running time -- 123 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 12/15/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
True or not -- a good movie or not -- "Sleepers" is an event poised to reap enough boxoffice loot to make everyone involved look like world champions. A truly stellar cast and irresistible story line of "street justice" triumphing over the modern-era legal and penal systems result in a potent combination that puts this Barry Levinson film on the must-see list, although there are numerous obstacles to its achieving universal success with audiences and critics.
Based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 must-read book of the same name, "Sleepers" is a stylistic hodgepodge with three thundering acts and a huge cast. It's long and perhaps too shocking in many scenes for mainstream audiences, but it's not half as effective as Carcaterra's novel-like memoir -- the truth of which has been questioned.
How true can it be when writer-director Levinson changes the age of the central character and sets the final act two years after the date so unmistakably printed in the book? Brad Pitt fans may not give a hoot, but an indication of Levinson's tailoring the material for mass consumption occurs when the youngest of four kids incarcerated in a barbaric delinquent boy's home is now 13 when he lands in a heap of trouble, not 12 as he was in Carcaterra's original.
Readers of the book will also find that much has been softened or only alluded to in over-the-top sequences of abuse and cruelty in the film's central section. Often the toughest-to-stomach scenes are shown in black and white, which in an Oliver Stone film serves as a disclaimer for artistic license with the truth.
Whatever the case, Levinson breezes through the film's set-up with marginal success. If it weren't for Robert De Niro and Vittorio Gassman as the main influences on Hell's Kitchen kids Shakes (Joe Perrino), Michael (Brad Renfro), John Geoffrey Wigdor) and Tommy (Jonathan Tucker), the sections before and after reform school would be as disappointing as the year in hell the boys endure when they almost kill an innocent bystander in the summer of 1967.
Having played some of modern cinema's most celebrated creeps and killers, De Niro is memorably restrained and yet forceful in the role of Father Bobby, a Catholic priest who rose from the cauldron of New York's working class on the West Side to save those who aren't lost to crime and domestic violence. Likewise anchoring the story's complex thematic interplay between harsh reality and higher morals in crowd-pleasing human characterizations, Gassman is a revelation as all-powerful crime lord King Benny, who figures prominently in the incarcerated quartet's eventual payback.
The narration, courtesy of grown-up Shakes (Jason Patric) -- aka Carcaterra -- is ever-present from the outset, but one learns little about young Michael, John and Tommy. When the baseball-and-book-loving lads are sent to the grim Wilkinson Home for Boys, a foursome of vicious and sexually abusive guards -- led by demonic Nokes (Kevin Bacon) -- make their lives a nightmare. A bloody football game gives the inmates a momentary taste of revenge, but the price is high.
With John Williams' somber score shaking the rafters, the story shifts to fall 1981 (1979 in the book), when gone-bad Tommy (Billy Crudup in a sizzling debut) and John (Ron Eldard) cross paths with unrepentant Nokes in a bar. By far the best scene in the film, these monsters confront their creator and kill him in front of several witnesses. They are soon arrested and put on trial for murder.
Enter assistant district attorney Michael (Pitt), who inspired by the boys' hero Edmond Dantes (literature's most beloved revenger in Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo") plays a dangerous game. He takes on the prosecution's case with the intention of losing and exposing the long-buried crimes that occurred at Wilkinson. Shakes fends off the expected backlash from King Benny and the neighborhood loyalists while winning over Michael's old (and John's current) flame Carol (Minnie Driver).
In the film's most arch development, Father Bobby is recruited as a key witness, but De Niro's mighty presence makes it palatable. Also turning in a terrifically diverting game-saving play is Dustin Hoffman as a bedraggled defense attorney in on the scam. As the film drags on uncomfortably past the two-hour mark, the trial scenes expose the horrid truth when former guard Ferguson (a miscast Terry Kinney) breaks down on the witness stand.
There are so many things wrong with this film -- from questionable casting to its length to Levinson's often numbing assemblage of the imagery at the expense of characterization and coherency -- that one expects there was much left on the cutting room floor, while many moviegoers would have been satisfied with much less than what is left. Still, there are Event Movie moments unlike anything now in theaters, and "Sleepers" may win ardent fans for its challenging -- but badly botched -- agenda.
SLEEPERS
Warner Bros.
In association with
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
a Propaganda Films/
Baltimore Pictures production
a Barry Levinson film
Writer-director Barry Levinson
Based on the book by Lorenzo Carcaterra
Producers Barry Levinson, Steve Golin
Executive producer Peter Giuliano
Music John Williams
Director of photography Michael Ballhaus
Production designer Kristi Zea
Editor Stu Linder
Costume designer Gloria Gresham
Casting Louis DiGiaimo
Color/stereo
Cast:
Shakes Jason Patric
Nokes Kevin Bacon
Father Bobby Robert De Niro
Michael Brad Pitt
Young Shakes Joe Perrino
King Benny Vittorio Gassman
Carol Minnie Driver
Danny Snyder Dustin Hoffman
Tommy Billy Crudup
John Ron Eldard
Young Michael Brad Renfro
Young Tommy Jonathan Tucker
Young John Geoff Wigdor
Ferguson Terry Kinney
Running time -- 147 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 must-read book of the same name, "Sleepers" is a stylistic hodgepodge with three thundering acts and a huge cast. It's long and perhaps too shocking in many scenes for mainstream audiences, but it's not half as effective as Carcaterra's novel-like memoir -- the truth of which has been questioned.
How true can it be when writer-director Levinson changes the age of the central character and sets the final act two years after the date so unmistakably printed in the book? Brad Pitt fans may not give a hoot, but an indication of Levinson's tailoring the material for mass consumption occurs when the youngest of four kids incarcerated in a barbaric delinquent boy's home is now 13 when he lands in a heap of trouble, not 12 as he was in Carcaterra's original.
Readers of the book will also find that much has been softened or only alluded to in over-the-top sequences of abuse and cruelty in the film's central section. Often the toughest-to-stomach scenes are shown in black and white, which in an Oliver Stone film serves as a disclaimer for artistic license with the truth.
Whatever the case, Levinson breezes through the film's set-up with marginal success. If it weren't for Robert De Niro and Vittorio Gassman as the main influences on Hell's Kitchen kids Shakes (Joe Perrino), Michael (Brad Renfro), John Geoffrey Wigdor) and Tommy (Jonathan Tucker), the sections before and after reform school would be as disappointing as the year in hell the boys endure when they almost kill an innocent bystander in the summer of 1967.
Having played some of modern cinema's most celebrated creeps and killers, De Niro is memorably restrained and yet forceful in the role of Father Bobby, a Catholic priest who rose from the cauldron of New York's working class on the West Side to save those who aren't lost to crime and domestic violence. Likewise anchoring the story's complex thematic interplay between harsh reality and higher morals in crowd-pleasing human characterizations, Gassman is a revelation as all-powerful crime lord King Benny, who figures prominently in the incarcerated quartet's eventual payback.
The narration, courtesy of grown-up Shakes (Jason Patric) -- aka Carcaterra -- is ever-present from the outset, but one learns little about young Michael, John and Tommy. When the baseball-and-book-loving lads are sent to the grim Wilkinson Home for Boys, a foursome of vicious and sexually abusive guards -- led by demonic Nokes (Kevin Bacon) -- make their lives a nightmare. A bloody football game gives the inmates a momentary taste of revenge, but the price is high.
With John Williams' somber score shaking the rafters, the story shifts to fall 1981 (1979 in the book), when gone-bad Tommy (Billy Crudup in a sizzling debut) and John (Ron Eldard) cross paths with unrepentant Nokes in a bar. By far the best scene in the film, these monsters confront their creator and kill him in front of several witnesses. They are soon arrested and put on trial for murder.
Enter assistant district attorney Michael (Pitt), who inspired by the boys' hero Edmond Dantes (literature's most beloved revenger in Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo") plays a dangerous game. He takes on the prosecution's case with the intention of losing and exposing the long-buried crimes that occurred at Wilkinson. Shakes fends off the expected backlash from King Benny and the neighborhood loyalists while winning over Michael's old (and John's current) flame Carol (Minnie Driver).
In the film's most arch development, Father Bobby is recruited as a key witness, but De Niro's mighty presence makes it palatable. Also turning in a terrifically diverting game-saving play is Dustin Hoffman as a bedraggled defense attorney in on the scam. As the film drags on uncomfortably past the two-hour mark, the trial scenes expose the horrid truth when former guard Ferguson (a miscast Terry Kinney) breaks down on the witness stand.
There are so many things wrong with this film -- from questionable casting to its length to Levinson's often numbing assemblage of the imagery at the expense of characterization and coherency -- that one expects there was much left on the cutting room floor, while many moviegoers would have been satisfied with much less than what is left. Still, there are Event Movie moments unlike anything now in theaters, and "Sleepers" may win ardent fans for its challenging -- but badly botched -- agenda.
SLEEPERS
Warner Bros.
In association with
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
a Propaganda Films/
Baltimore Pictures production
a Barry Levinson film
Writer-director Barry Levinson
Based on the book by Lorenzo Carcaterra
Producers Barry Levinson, Steve Golin
Executive producer Peter Giuliano
Music John Williams
Director of photography Michael Ballhaus
Production designer Kristi Zea
Editor Stu Linder
Costume designer Gloria Gresham
Casting Louis DiGiaimo
Color/stereo
Cast:
Shakes Jason Patric
Nokes Kevin Bacon
Father Bobby Robert De Niro
Michael Brad Pitt
Young Shakes Joe Perrino
King Benny Vittorio Gassman
Carol Minnie Driver
Danny Snyder Dustin Hoffman
Tommy Billy Crudup
John Ron Eldard
Young Michael Brad Renfro
Young Tommy Jonathan Tucker
Young John Geoff Wigdor
Ferguson Terry Kinney
Running time -- 147 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 10/17/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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