The Mist

Stephen King has created another masterpiece. He is a truly gifted storyteller, able to capture the essence of fear in all its forms, and there are many. There is obvious fear, perhaps signified by the presence of a monster, creature, alien, maybe even an axe-wielding psychopath. Then there are the more sinister types of fear…fear of the unknown, fear in the presence of unseen evil. There is terror, which may be all the different types of fear rolled into one. In any event, King (along with screenwriter Frank Darabont) has mastered the art of creeping you the fuck out, and I don’t think I scare too easily. You may think The Mist is a horror movie, and to a large extent that would be an accurate assumption. But it’s much, much more than that. It is just as much of a study in psychology and human behavior as it is a horror movie.

The film is set in a sleepy Maine(?) town that is enveloped by a mysterious mist that wafts in following a strong storm. A number of residents become trapped in a small grocery store when the mist first appears, and it is here where most of the action transpires. What’s the big deal about mist, you ask? There’s something in it that snatches you up, never to be seen or heard from again, except for your dying screams. Believe it or not, that’s not even the scary part. The most frightening aspect of the film is its examination of human behavior and group mentality when societal constraints crumble and the true nature of man is revealed. If the shit is hitting the fan and you’re possibly facing armageddon, there are worse places to be trapped than the supermarket, right? You would think that adults could survive for quite a while, considering that food and shelter are plentiful. Not so. In the face of disaster and fear, chaos erupts, with chilling results. I was reminded of one of my favorite books from high school, Lord of the Flies. What is the true nature of man? Good or evil? This question is posed directly and becomes a driving force in the film. Thomas Jane (The Punisher) is the main character who grapples with the more difficult choices, and Marcia Gay Harden (The Invisible) portrays his foil, a vocal religious zealot who personifies the danger of “groupthink,” the phenomenon by which people lose sense of themselves and behave in ways they normally would not when they are allowed to cloak themselves in the anonymity of a group setting.

The Mist is a frightening, riveting movie that leaves you feeling something deep inside and will leave you reeling, kinda like The Sixth Sense may have done years ago. In some ways it's the most powerful, penetrating movie I've seen all year. Don't see it alone like I did, see it with someone so the two of you can appreciate it together.

No Country For Old Men

Wow. No Country For Old Men has left me tongue-tied. I don’t even know where to begin. This was truly a superbly intense, well-acted and extremely well-written film. The dialogue was excellent, and that’s why I love the movies: you get to hear people say the coolest shit that no one says in real life. The movie is written and directed by Ethan and Joel Coen (O Brother Where Art Thou), a critically acclaimed pair whose work I’m not terribly familiar with. The only movies I’ve seen that one or both have been associated with are Intolerable Cruelty and a garish old movie called Blood Simple. I’d like to meet their parents, just to see the people who birthed these twisted geniuses.

No Country For Old Men’s plot is simple enough. A drug deal has gone wrong, leaving a band of Mexican drug dealers murdered in the middle of the Texas desert. When a passerby named Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin, American Gangster) stumbles upon the human carnage and helps himself to a couple of million dollars, he thinks he’s gotten away with a pretty sweet find. However, I’d like to borrow and slightly alter a quote from Jackie Brown (one of my faves) and point out that 2 million dollars will always be missed. On the trail of the money (and thereby Llewelyn) is Anton Chigurh (pronounced shoo-GAR’), a hired gun, hitman, and assassin – whatever you wanna call him. Homie put the psycho in psychopath; you have never seen anything like this dude. He might be the scariest MF on screen since Hannibal Lecter. Only difference is Chigurh doesn’t eat people. I think he have might have old Lecter beat though…this guy is positively frightening to look at. It doesn’t happen often, but have you ever seen somebody out in public, and they just look scary as hell? Maybe that’s only happened to me, but one time I pulled up to a stop light and looked in the car next to me at its driver and caught a chill. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but the guy just looked scary, and I quickly looked away and didn’t look back. He looked like the type of guy who had something in his trunk, and I don’t mean a spare tire. Chigurh is like that - the type of cat that if you saw in real life, you’d go the other way, trust me. Look at him: http://www.lashorasperdidas.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/javier-bardem-en-no-country-for-old-men.jpg He kills at will, savagely resourceful and unstoppable. The movie takes place in 1980, and also stars Tommy Lee Jones (U.S. Marshals) as a lawman in pursuit of Chigurh, trying to reach Llewelyn first. The movie personifies the TX stereotype of “salt of the earth” folks. Lewelyn is a “man’s man” and so is Tommy Lee Jones’ character. They are old school men, the antithesis of the pretty-boy metrosexual. As a matter of fact, Llewelyn almost matches Chigurh in guts and fearlessness, and Josh Brolin deserves an award for his portrayal. Nearly all of the men in this movie are larger-than-life cowboy types who (pardon my French) seem to have brass balls. I don’t think they really make men like that anymore, LOL.

On a more cinematic note, The TX landscape was filmed beautifully, serving as the perfect backdrop to a movie that at times felt like a Western. The movie was filmed in washed-out tones, which illustrated the starkness of it all, from the geography of the desert to the pallor of Chigurh’s skin. Sometimes I see a movie that throws me for a loop and stuns me into speechlessness. It doesn’t happen often, but all I can say about No Country For Old Men is that it was one of those movies that will leave you in awe. It’s ranked #31 in the top 250 movies of all time on IMDB, so take that for what it’s worth. Go see it if you remotely enjoyed any of the following: A History of Violence, Blood Simple, or American Psycho.

Hitman

Based on a video game of the same name, Hitman is a straightforward, stylish tale of a trained assassin called “Agent 47.” 47 dispatches his victims with passionless efficiency, a virtual murdering machine. He is played by Timothy Olyphant (Die Hard 4, Gone in Sixty Seconds), who looks the part of sleek killer in a suit and tie slightly reminiscent of the The Matrix’ Agent Smith. However, once Olyphant opens his mouth the character falters slightly. His voice just sounds so…American. The movie takes place in various European locales, every character has a foreign accent, and yet Agent 47 is the only person speaking like the average American Joe. It just didn’t fit, and it didn’t match his sophisticated appearance. The plot involves a botched assignment and a double-cross resulting in 47 turning rogue as he tries to figure things out. Sound familiar? Now that I’ve recited the plot, it sounds like a poor man’s Bourne Supremacy. In addition to its familiarity, the plot is bogged down by the pointless interaction between 47 and his “love interest,” the prostitute girlfriend of one of his victims. Her character was pretty much there to sulk and look exotic and helpless. One minute she fears 47, the next minute she’s trying to seduce him. By the way, he's not interested. Apparently this killing machine doesn't feel anything from the waist down. I also could have done without the gratuitous nudity; spare me the pointless boob shots honey. Oh wait, I think I just inadvertently sold some people on the movie.

There are definitely some stunningly violent scenes, featuring both gunplay and hand-to-hand action. Again, Agent 47 is fun to behold, when he’s not speaking. Other than that, Hitman is fairly forgettable. Perhaps gamers will enjoy seeing the embodiment of 47 on screen, but the rest of us could probably take a pass. Not bad, but not that great either.

This Christmas

This was the sweetest little movie, a warm holiday flick that touted the virtues of family without coming across corny or hokey. This Cristmas is the second recent ensemble movie featuring a primarily Black cast, the first being Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? There aren’t any more similarities between the two movies, and what made This Christmas so enjoyable was that it was not contrived or forced; it was just a depiction of family life to which most people can relate, regardless of ethnicity. No family is perfect, but it’s those imperfections that make us human, and what would any holiday be without a little family drama anyway?

The movie centers on the Whitfield family, a middle-class clan whose members reunite every year for Christmas. Matriarch “Ma’Dere” (Loretta Devine, Crash) plays peacemaker to her six children, three boys and three girls. Her children are eldest son Quentin (Idris Elba, American Gangster), middle son Claude (Columbus Short, Stomp the Yard), youngest son “Baby” (Chris Brown, Stomp the Yard), and daughters Kelli (Sharon Leal, Why Did I Get Married?), Lisa (Regina King, Miss Congeniality 2), and Mel (Lauren London, ATL). Her long-time live-in boyfriend and surrogate father to the kids is Joe, played by Delroy Lindo (Clockers). Tension arises and mounts when the children discover that Baby has been keeping a secret from Ma’Dere, something that would barely raise an eyebrow in a typical family, but is a major cause of concern for Ma’Dere due to the fact that her husband abandoned their family many years ago to pursue his musical aspirations. As she puts it, “certain men just don’t need to be married.” Word, I hear you, LOL. Baby’s not the only one keeping a secret, however – and when the collective cats are out of the bag, this Christmas won’t soon be forgotten. Some plot fixtures are predictable, like the fact that one of the girls’ mates is a scumbag, and one of them can’t cook. We’ve seen and heard it before, but that’s okay because the cast and movie is so endearing. Just because you know what you’re getting doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it, right? That’s how I looked at it. Of course all’s well that end’s well, but the fun is in getting there, and I think you’ll be entertained throughout. This movie doesn’t present the Whitfields as picture perfect, so when the positive aspects of various characters are displayed, it doesn’t seem unrealistic.

Though not quite as good, This Christmas is the best family drama/comedy since Soul Food, and definitely worth seeing during the holiday season.

Lions for Lambs

Robert Redford (A River Runs Through It) offers his latest directorial effort in Lions for Lambs, a thought-provoking and slightly biased persepctive on the war in Iraq and U.S. foreign policy. The film presents three viewpoints, each substory illustrating a different message.

Redford is featured as a college professor who attempts to encourage a promising but disillusioned student to take a more proactive role in his life and in the lives of others. The second dynamic presented in the movie is an exchange between characters portrayed by Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada) and Tom Cruise (Mission Impossible: III). Streep is reporter Janine Roth, and she's landed an exclusive interview with a rising star in the Republican party and staunch supporter of the war, Senator Jasper Irving. His name is Jasper. *snicker* Anyway, Irving pretty much spoon-feeds Roth his pro-war rhetoric, spinning the story every step of the way. He wants to unveil a new strategy in the war on terror, which brings us to the third and final perspective in the movie, that of two soldiers on the ground in Iraq. Derek Luke (Catch a Fire) and Michael Pena (Crash, Shooter) are Arian and Earnest, two bright, brave young soldiers who are part of a military unit charged with executing the first step in the new strategy being pushed by Senator Irving. So there's the connection to the Streep-Cruise part of the movie. Earnest and Arian are also former students of Redford's professor. Thus the three stories are loosely interconnected, and each perspective exalts a different moral lesson. The ideas most notably put forth by Redford are the notions that ill-conceived military operations and wars exploit and waste the lives of our best and brightest, and that this continues because most of us are sheep, and the few of us that aren't don't care enough to get involved. (this explains the title, do you get it? the soldiers are the lions and our faceless government and its scores of minions are the lambs). Simple enough, and not exactly groundbreaking. I oversimplified it a bit, but that's it in a nutshell.

What makes Lions a thought-provoking movie is that it inevitably challenges the viewer to ask him/herself where exactly they fall on the spectrum. It also examines the nobility of soldiers fighting a less-than-honorable war and presents the notion that doing something is better than doing nothing and talking about it. On that note, Redford is to be commended for creating a film that unabashedly disapproves of the war in Iraq but lauds the reasons why extraordinary individuals are compelled to contribute. Some may find the film to be rather heavy-handed in its execution, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Lions for Lambs is a thoughtful, quietly entertaining film. A political movie with a message, it's not for those with short attention spans, but the more mature moviegoer should find it enjoyable.

Jay-Z: American Gangster

I don't usually review music, because to be honest I usually don't feel like it. Every now and then I'll come across a new joint that makes me want to talk about it. So, with no further ado, American Gangster.

Marketed as a "concept" album inspired by the film of the same name, American Gangster is Jay-Z's musical interpretation of the film...each song corresponds to a scene/aspect of the movie that spoke to his life experiences growing up in Marcy projects, or perhaps even now, though Jay has been on the straight and narrow for quite a while. It's not a stretch to imagine that Jay, a former hustler, could relate to particular personality traits displayed by Frank Lucas. Both can be said to "run New York" in their own way. Jay's latest musical effort allows him to revert back to his old self, to give us shades of Reasonable Doubt. Call it a guilty pleasure, or an indulgence, but American Gangster (the movie) provided the perfect opportunity for Jay to rhyme about something he knows all too well: the hustle. Jay has evolved into an entrepreneur, an urban renaissance man, jack-of-all trades, and trendsetting mogul. If he rapped about selling drugs at this point, his words would ring hollow. We know he's a long way from Marcy. The man had an HP commercial for crying out loud. By masking this album under the guise of a concept album, Jay allows himself to slip back into a pre-Blueprint world he hasn't revisited in years, save for a few remixes and guest appearances here and there.

What I like most about the album is its umistakeable soulfulness. It harkens back to a musical era unknown to a lot of younger listeners. I'm not that old myself (28), but the reason why I could recognize some of the samples on the album is because I enjoy soul music and I'm familiar with it because I sought it out. Hell, Marvin Gaye was dead by the time I was 5 years old, but I know his voice because I am a lover of music. Maybe in some weird way American Gangster will foster that same love of soul music in some teenage consumers. If not, then I guess Jay really is for the grown and sexy, and all the kids can go back to crankin' that Soulja Boy.

On this album Jay still shows his maturity and introspection on tracks like "American Dreamin'"and "Say Hello," but keeps it gutter on songs like "Ignorant Shit" and "Hello Brooklyn 2.0," a collaboration with Lil' Wayne that will lay any rumors of a beef between the two to rest. The one shortcoming I've always attributed to Jay over the years is that he didn't have a knack for storytelling, for painting a picture with his words, like Nas for example. I think the cinematic nature of this project allowed him to overcome that hurdle, because the music is the canvas and his words are the paint...together those words and rhythms combine for a masterpiece, and an album that is nearly the best rap album of the year. I'll need a little longer to decide if it surpasses Graduation.

Interestingly enough, Diddy actually contributed to several of the more soulful tracks, which I find surprising. Honestly I didn't know he had it in him. I'll leave you with this one to chew on: Nas must be the greatest rapper alive. Hear me out. To be the best you have to beat the best, right? Well, he won the battle back when he and Jay were feuding. He HAS to be the greatest, because Jay is on a whole other level right now. Hmmm, actually although Nas is my fave rapper, that sounds stupid. Jay is only competing with himself at this point. When Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson he wasn't the best. That negro got lucky and caught the champ on an off night. Nevermind. All hail the king of New York, the Michael Schumacher of the Roc roster... President Carter.

American Gangster

Director Ridley Scott (Alien, Black Hawk Down), Denzel Washington (Déjà vu), and Russell Crowe (Cinderella Man) set the bar astronomically high in this film about the rise and ultimate demise of NY drug lord Frank Lucas. Fun fact: Washington and Crowe previously teamed up in 1995’s Virtuosity, back when Crowe’s career was in its infancy, at least in the States. It goes without saying that both actors’ performances easily surpassed their previous joint effort.

American Gangster starts with a jolt, the brutal image of Frank Lucas executing some poor soul for an unknown offense. He sets the man ablaze and then finishes off the job with a series of quick gunshots. And so it begins, a tale that is at varying times touching, tense, awkward, and violent. The opening scene prepares us for the notion that you never know what Lucas is capable of, and that with Frank Lucas, like most gangsters, a violent undercurrent steadily bubbles under a seemingly cool exterior. Yet Lucas is never unjustifiably short-tempered, he is never a loose cannon. When he “snaps,” the recipient of his rage is always well-deserving, and so Lucas is not fearsome or ruthless in his violence, but rather measured and calculated. He is a man who can blow someone’s brains out in broad daylight on a crowded street, then re-enter his favorite diner and resume his meal as if he merely stepped out to feed a parking meter. Some actors are can’t miss, and Denzel Washington is as close to a sure thing as you can get. He brings his standard charm and cocky swagger to the role, conveying Lucas’ duality with relish and authenticity. Frank Lucas is a man that can set another human being on fire, but is almost child-like in his adoration of his mother. His anger is equally matched by the love and affection he has for his family, and the tenderness he shows with his wife-a demure young beauty queen who melts under Lucas' warm and steady gaze when they first meet. This is a performance that Washington seemed to enjoy delivering, a brief return to the villainous capability he displayed in Training Day, but to compare the two roles would be a disservice to Washington as an actor.

I would be remiss if I don’t leave the impression that American Gangster is as much about Frank Lucas as it is about the lawman who hunts him: Officer Richie Roberts, a professionally scrupulous but personally questionable man who initially underestimates Lucas’ power and influence. I’m not a huge Russell Crowe fan, but the man is an outstanding actor and turns in a compelling performance. You’re forced to be a part of his experience, because the movie constantly shifts between Roberts and Lucas, which brings me to one of the things that bothered me about the film. The frequent scene changes and introduction of subplots and side stories were a mild distraction and made the movie feel as if it was moving in a thousand directions. As a viewer, I was bombarded with images and characters that served as brief breaks from what I felt was the principal story: Frank Lucas and the cop who pursues him. Perhaps the writers wanted to flesh out back stories so that the viewer had a complete perception of the character. For example, there is a great deal of time spent showing the interaction between Roberts and his partner, and Roberts and his estranged wife. In some respects the movie seemed like a collection of scenes rather than a cohesive film.

Director Ridley Scott effectively captured the hopelessness of the heroin epidemic of the 1970s, although some of his scenes of junkies shooting up wore thin and became disgustingly gratuitous after a while. Another observation is that other characters were relegated to the periphery, whether they were members of Lucas’ family (roles played by Common and TI) or other tangential characters whose purpose and function remained vague and ambiguous. I’ll leave you with this parting thought. American Gangster is not the instant classic you think it is. It’s not the best drug movie, it’s not the best cop vs. kingpin movie, it’s not a movie I will see twice in theaters (surprising for me), nor is it the best Denzel Washington movie. It is a slightly underdeveloped, highly ambitious, gritty spectacle, which is saved by Washington’s larger-than-life performance. Oh yeah, Ridley Scott is no Martin Scorcese. Scorcese is still the master of the gangster epic, and I found myself wondering how much better the movie would've been in his hands. I do give Scott credit for capturing the atmosphere and time period. There's an amusing scene where Officer Roberts sees a microwave for the first time, and little details like that give the movie a subtle boost. Anyway, enough rambling. American Gangster is one of those movies you need to see for yourself. It was noticealby imperfect, but I enjoyed it. You be the judge.