d_fienberg
Joined Sep 2000
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My first question is rhetorical: Are there any cinematic police departments that teach officers to shoot to wound, rather than shooting to kill? I suspect that most real ones probably do, actually. But in Along Came A Spider, there are at least two occasions when Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman at his most "Morgan Freeman-esque") has the opportunity to end a standoff by just popping a suspect in the leg rather than shooting them in the chest. Winging a suspect might allow for, say, a trial and sentences. All that good legal stuff. Instead, though, Cross feels perfectly comfortable killing suspects after either realizing they don't have any new information, or that they were actually guilty. This raises the question of when you last saw a thriller in which the cop or investigator captures the criminal at the end, puts them on trial, and gets their cathartic release watching them get sentenced to life in prison. Nah. Instead movies just look for cool ways for the hero to waste the bad guy in the final reel. And when that wasting occurs in a dull manner, as is the case with Along Came a Spider (I don't feel I've given too much away here)... Well, what's the point?
Along Came A Spider begins with a tragic accident in which Alex Cross leads a botched sting operation that leaves his partner dead (in a horrid special effects sequence). Cross is so shattered he hasn't recovered 8 months later. That's what we're told, at least. Mostly Morgan Freeman just looks a little tired. Once he gets launched on a new case, though, the 8 months of depression cease to be a factor. The new case involves the kidnapping of the daughter of a US Senator. The kidnapper (gravel voiced Michael Wincott) seems to want fame, I guess, though it's never fully important. Cross picks up a new partner in the Secret Service agent who feels responsible for the girl's kidnapping (Monica Potter). For around ten seconds Cross has an adversarial relationship with a federal agent (Dylan Baker) who is leading the investigation until he drops jurisdiction and basically lets Cross take over. Things twist and turn and there are "surprises" and double-crosses galore.
The fact that the surprises really aren't surprising is a moderate problem. The number of little details that make no sense are more problematic. There's a series of clues involving a Charles Lindbergh web page and web cam that are pretty foolish. In fact, any time the film references computers it seems out of its element. Every detail is off. But since the computer stuff is basically the only detective work in the movie, you've gotta wonder about things. At the end, Cross hacks into a suspect's computer, for example. He figures out the password in an arbitrary manner (and then enters the password into the only security field in computer history that actually shows the letters in a password onscreen as you type them) and he pretty much clicks on a series of files that might as well be labeled "Motive," "Kidnapping Evidence," and "Where I'm Hiding Away." But I guess we don't see these movies for their realism. But absent any thrills, I guess I'm at a loss. Beyond the obviousness of the plot, nothing about Along Came A Spider is really bad. But I have equally little to recommend it.
Like Kiss the Girls, Along Came A Spider is based on a novel by James Patterson. And like Kiss the Girls, Along Came A Spider is directed by a man who started in independent films and has graduated to making indistinct run-of-the-mill Hollywood thrillers. Lee Tamahori first made his mark with the searing Once Were Warriors, but since then he's gone from bland (The Edge) to dull (Mulholland Falls) to blankly innocuous (here). His style, which once seemed so fresh, has been so subverted that his next assignment is helming a James Bond film, the ultimate reward for a director who gets the job done without letting such "irrelevances" as personal style and vision cloud his judgement. In Along Came A Spider, Tamahori does nothing to call attention to himself, but also offers nothing of originality to goose the narrative along. Basically the suspense involves lots of thunderstorms, dark dank hiding places, and children in peril. That plus a climactic chase that makes you yearn for the skill of Dirty Harry. But basically all of the technical aspects of the film are acceptable (damning praise).
Morgan Freeman, of course, is never anything less than an intelligent, composed, strong on-screen presence and you frankly wish more depth could be added to the Alex Cross screen persona so that Freeman could have a little more acting fun. As his foil, Monica Potter is, as always, a blonder, blander version of Julia Roberts. Potter's only true acting success, in my book, was in the Robert Towne Prefontaine story Without Limits. Otherwise, she's pretty much coasted on charm and a resemblance to the biggest star in Hollywood. In the smaller supporting parts Wilcott is fine, Baker is wasted, and you wonder how Penelope Ann Miller's career has disintegrated to the point where she has a half dozen lines here as the kidnapped girl's mother.
So it's hard to know what to say about Along Came A Spider. You could pick at its plot holes for hours. But trying to pick it apart cinematically is a pointless endeavor. There's not much wrong, but there's not much here. This is a totally mediocre 5/10 film.
Along Came A Spider begins with a tragic accident in which Alex Cross leads a botched sting operation that leaves his partner dead (in a horrid special effects sequence). Cross is so shattered he hasn't recovered 8 months later. That's what we're told, at least. Mostly Morgan Freeman just looks a little tired. Once he gets launched on a new case, though, the 8 months of depression cease to be a factor. The new case involves the kidnapping of the daughter of a US Senator. The kidnapper (gravel voiced Michael Wincott) seems to want fame, I guess, though it's never fully important. Cross picks up a new partner in the Secret Service agent who feels responsible for the girl's kidnapping (Monica Potter). For around ten seconds Cross has an adversarial relationship with a federal agent (Dylan Baker) who is leading the investigation until he drops jurisdiction and basically lets Cross take over. Things twist and turn and there are "surprises" and double-crosses galore.
The fact that the surprises really aren't surprising is a moderate problem. The number of little details that make no sense are more problematic. There's a series of clues involving a Charles Lindbergh web page and web cam that are pretty foolish. In fact, any time the film references computers it seems out of its element. Every detail is off. But since the computer stuff is basically the only detective work in the movie, you've gotta wonder about things. At the end, Cross hacks into a suspect's computer, for example. He figures out the password in an arbitrary manner (and then enters the password into the only security field in computer history that actually shows the letters in a password onscreen as you type them) and he pretty much clicks on a series of files that might as well be labeled "Motive," "Kidnapping Evidence," and "Where I'm Hiding Away." But I guess we don't see these movies for their realism. But absent any thrills, I guess I'm at a loss. Beyond the obviousness of the plot, nothing about Along Came A Spider is really bad. But I have equally little to recommend it.
Like Kiss the Girls, Along Came A Spider is based on a novel by James Patterson. And like Kiss the Girls, Along Came A Spider is directed by a man who started in independent films and has graduated to making indistinct run-of-the-mill Hollywood thrillers. Lee Tamahori first made his mark with the searing Once Were Warriors, but since then he's gone from bland (The Edge) to dull (Mulholland Falls) to blankly innocuous (here). His style, which once seemed so fresh, has been so subverted that his next assignment is helming a James Bond film, the ultimate reward for a director who gets the job done without letting such "irrelevances" as personal style and vision cloud his judgement. In Along Came A Spider, Tamahori does nothing to call attention to himself, but also offers nothing of originality to goose the narrative along. Basically the suspense involves lots of thunderstorms, dark dank hiding places, and children in peril. That plus a climactic chase that makes you yearn for the skill of Dirty Harry. But basically all of the technical aspects of the film are acceptable (damning praise).
Morgan Freeman, of course, is never anything less than an intelligent, composed, strong on-screen presence and you frankly wish more depth could be added to the Alex Cross screen persona so that Freeman could have a little more acting fun. As his foil, Monica Potter is, as always, a blonder, blander version of Julia Roberts. Potter's only true acting success, in my book, was in the Robert Towne Prefontaine story Without Limits. Otherwise, she's pretty much coasted on charm and a resemblance to the biggest star in Hollywood. In the smaller supporting parts Wilcott is fine, Baker is wasted, and you wonder how Penelope Ann Miller's career has disintegrated to the point where she has a half dozen lines here as the kidnapped girl's mother.
So it's hard to know what to say about Along Came A Spider. You could pick at its plot holes for hours. But trying to pick it apart cinematically is a pointless endeavor. There's not much wrong, but there's not much here. This is a totally mediocre 5/10 film.
Cube, a Canadian film directed by Vincenzo Natali is generally a very well crafted science-fiction tale that's one part Asimov and one part Beckett.
The science fiction angle, focusing on a handful of people trapped in a mysterious perfect cube, is marvelously constructed. Even though it's obvious that the entire movie was shot in a single set, Natali, cinematographer Derek Rogers, editor John Sanders, and production designer Jasna Stefanovic do an excellent job to simulate a massive, geometrically precise prison.
The philosophical angle, though, in which the "prisoners" represent a tiny cross-section of society and each has secrets and special knowledge is a total crock. Natali and his co-writers have lead ears for dialogue and a totally false sense of existential social commentary. They aren't helped by a cast that feels only a step up from student films (which, to some extent, this is, I guess). The characters are collectively annoying and the individual performances do nothing to make the characters any more complex.
There's a abusive cop, a paranoid doctor, an office worker, a math student, and a caricature of an autistic man (and anybody who's ever seen a cinematic representation of autism will be able to guess what his special skill is). They're in a 14-by-14 cube with 6 doors. One door leads to a safe room, the others to torture and death. They have no food and no water and they don't know each other, so wouldn't you know that tensions would run high.
At its best, Natali produces a masterful amount of suspense. The booby-trapped rooms are wonderfully devised to produce disgusting results. And since the characters don't know if sound, body heat, or their mere presence will be enough to set off the traps, there's much fun to be had with the concept. The film's best sequence involves a sound sensitive room where the slightest noise produces a wall of spikes. The production team uses colored lights, askew camera angles, and tricky editing to create the contrast between rooms.
But the film really has nowhere to go. The ending is a letdown largely because Natali left himself nowhere to go. Since you don't care about the characters, their fates are irrelevant and since the purpose, location, and meaning of the Cube are intentionally ambiguous, any resolution would really feel like a cheat.
Cube has been compared fairly frequently to Pi, as mathematical thrillers. Like Cube's philosophy, though, the mathematics aren't as smart as the filmmakers seem to think. There's no intellectual process because only two characters have any mathematical knowledge, so their discoveries aren't organic, they're of the "Oh. Why didn't I think of that two reels ago" variety. Unlike Pi, there's no real conceptual mystery to unravel and the various solutions are just a little too convenient.
Because of Cube's limited resources and the levels on which it does succeed, I'm going to give it a 6/10. I admired the mechanical artistry, but wished the movie had more depth.
The science fiction angle, focusing on a handful of people trapped in a mysterious perfect cube, is marvelously constructed. Even though it's obvious that the entire movie was shot in a single set, Natali, cinematographer Derek Rogers, editor John Sanders, and production designer Jasna Stefanovic do an excellent job to simulate a massive, geometrically precise prison.
The philosophical angle, though, in which the "prisoners" represent a tiny cross-section of society and each has secrets and special knowledge is a total crock. Natali and his co-writers have lead ears for dialogue and a totally false sense of existential social commentary. They aren't helped by a cast that feels only a step up from student films (which, to some extent, this is, I guess). The characters are collectively annoying and the individual performances do nothing to make the characters any more complex.
There's a abusive cop, a paranoid doctor, an office worker, a math student, and a caricature of an autistic man (and anybody who's ever seen a cinematic representation of autism will be able to guess what his special skill is). They're in a 14-by-14 cube with 6 doors. One door leads to a safe room, the others to torture and death. They have no food and no water and they don't know each other, so wouldn't you know that tensions would run high.
At its best, Natali produces a masterful amount of suspense. The booby-trapped rooms are wonderfully devised to produce disgusting results. And since the characters don't know if sound, body heat, or their mere presence will be enough to set off the traps, there's much fun to be had with the concept. The film's best sequence involves a sound sensitive room where the slightest noise produces a wall of spikes. The production team uses colored lights, askew camera angles, and tricky editing to create the contrast between rooms.
But the film really has nowhere to go. The ending is a letdown largely because Natali left himself nowhere to go. Since you don't care about the characters, their fates are irrelevant and since the purpose, location, and meaning of the Cube are intentionally ambiguous, any resolution would really feel like a cheat.
Cube has been compared fairly frequently to Pi, as mathematical thrillers. Like Cube's philosophy, though, the mathematics aren't as smart as the filmmakers seem to think. There's no intellectual process because only two characters have any mathematical knowledge, so their discoveries aren't organic, they're of the "Oh. Why didn't I think of that two reels ago" variety. Unlike Pi, there's no real conceptual mystery to unravel and the various solutions are just a little too convenient.
Because of Cube's limited resources and the levels on which it does succeed, I'm going to give it a 6/10. I admired the mechanical artistry, but wished the movie had more depth.
As it currently plays, Crazy/Beautiful is like Mad Love (or The Sterile Cuckoo, or any of your favorite "she's nuts, but he loves her eccentricity" romances) meets Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. It's a teen romance. It's a problem drama. It almost always feels like one of several other movies. And yet the cast is strong, the direction is frequently fresh, and for a long time that's enough to keep Crazy/Beautiful interesting.
Nicole (Kirsten Dunst) and Carlos (Jay Hernandez) meet on the beach. He's hanging with his homies and she's performing community service picking up trash. They hit it off, but they're both more complicated than they seem. She's a depressive alcoholic sun of a Congressman (Bruce Davidson), while he's a football player who dreams of going to the Naval Academy and rising up from the barrio of East LA. Naturally they fall in love, but naturally there are obstacles. He's going places and she's going crazy, for example. But will love overcome said obstacles? It seems possible.
Crazy/Beautiful's script, by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, frequently seems too structure-bound.In this roughly 100 minute film, you can easily chart the beats as Nicole and Carlos develop their relationship against the odds and fall in love only to have the odds escalated partway through Act 2. There's an awkward "Happy Montage" around the 45 minute mark that's painfully scripted. They also touch on many themes constant to the Outsider Romance genre.
Director John Stockwell (apparently Dean's son) seems to be making a slightly different film. This is as gritty as a mainstream studio teen romance can be. Stockwell and his DP Shane Hurbut revel in oversaturated day scenes and grainy night footage. The editing is pleasantly jangly, perhaps the only film in the recent teen cycle to effectively use a jump cut (unless I'm missing such freshness in She's All That or Can't Hardly Wait). Stockwell nicely shoots his attractive leads and gets fine performances from each.
You wish, however, that Hernandez's character was darker. His life feels oversanitized, but around the edges you see hints that things could have been more interesting -- the Hispanic girl his mother obviously prefers to Dunst, his less intelligent brother, etc. Dunst's character feels similarly sketched out. I wished her depression arc had been better established. There's no question that the character is messed up, but mostly she just seems to have a drinking problem. Since the film's dialogue makes it clear that the problems are far more serious, it would have been interesting to see that.
I get the feeling that Stockwell made a darker and more complex drama and that he had to tone down language, depression, and sexuality in order to land a PG-13 movie. And that's disappointing because I would guess that many of my complaints could have been handled with ten or fifteen minutes more footage. As it is, I liked this movie enough to give it a 6/10, but I wished that it had more to set it apart.
Nicole (Kirsten Dunst) and Carlos (Jay Hernandez) meet on the beach. He's hanging with his homies and she's performing community service picking up trash. They hit it off, but they're both more complicated than they seem. She's a depressive alcoholic sun of a Congressman (Bruce Davidson), while he's a football player who dreams of going to the Naval Academy and rising up from the barrio of East LA. Naturally they fall in love, but naturally there are obstacles. He's going places and she's going crazy, for example. But will love overcome said obstacles? It seems possible.
Crazy/Beautiful's script, by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, frequently seems too structure-bound.In this roughly 100 minute film, you can easily chart the beats as Nicole and Carlos develop their relationship against the odds and fall in love only to have the odds escalated partway through Act 2. There's an awkward "Happy Montage" around the 45 minute mark that's painfully scripted. They also touch on many themes constant to the Outsider Romance genre.
Director John Stockwell (apparently Dean's son) seems to be making a slightly different film. This is as gritty as a mainstream studio teen romance can be. Stockwell and his DP Shane Hurbut revel in oversaturated day scenes and grainy night footage. The editing is pleasantly jangly, perhaps the only film in the recent teen cycle to effectively use a jump cut (unless I'm missing such freshness in She's All That or Can't Hardly Wait). Stockwell nicely shoots his attractive leads and gets fine performances from each.
You wish, however, that Hernandez's character was darker. His life feels oversanitized, but around the edges you see hints that things could have been more interesting -- the Hispanic girl his mother obviously prefers to Dunst, his less intelligent brother, etc. Dunst's character feels similarly sketched out. I wished her depression arc had been better established. There's no question that the character is messed up, but mostly she just seems to have a drinking problem. Since the film's dialogue makes it clear that the problems are far more serious, it would have been interesting to see that.
I get the feeling that Stockwell made a darker and more complex drama and that he had to tone down language, depression, and sexuality in order to land a PG-13 movie. And that's disappointing because I would guess that many of my complaints could have been handled with ten or fifteen minutes more footage. As it is, I liked this movie enough to give it a 6/10, but I wished that it had more to set it apart.