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originally printed 01.13.05 in the Eureka, California newspaper The Times-Standard.
Harold and Kumar go sideways through the Garden State like the aviator on white noise goes dancing through the hand tissue.
Sideways
Durant: I have to stop basing my desire to see movies on the two sentence synopsis, like the one above. When I first read something about this film I didn't want to see it. It sounded dry, with just a hint of oak and possibly some passion fruit. But when I let it breathe it made me laugh with both intellectual and juvenile humor. Paul Giamatti was great as neurotic Miles Raymond, a failed writer who knows too much about wine. And remember Lowell from the sitcom "Wings"? Well, Thomas Haden Church might be able to resurrect his career with the momentum from this one. I got the feeling he didn't have to go too far to get into his character. Some of the creative editing reminded me a lot of "Midnight Cowboy," and it was used well. The wallet scene is classic and the movie ends perfectly, letting the viewer tie up some loose ends, but not too many. I still think there's too much hype behind the movie, but it is good.
Rating: L/T
Faulk: The first 15 minutes of this movie were painful to watch. I had no reason to care about two aging and mostly failed artists as they toured wine country and sampled fermented grape juice. After that slow start, however, the movie gained fast momentum with Paul Giamatti doing a bang up job as washed-up, never-has-been writer Miles Raymond, who still struggles mightily in dealing with his first failed marriage. His cohort in the movie, Jack - ably played by Thomas Haden Church - is the perfect foil to Raymond's bipolar bumbling. Alexander Payne now has a couple of great movies under his belt - see "About Schmidt" - and I look forward to "Nebraska," another movie of his scheduled for release this year.
Rating: L
White Noise
Durant: There was so much potential for a real scary movie here, but it was lost in the script. I believe that there is this Electronic Voice Phenomena, or at least there's a group of people who believe the dead can talk to them through static, but some questions were never answered, like who are those three spirits that are doing all the bad things? The very end was cheap and sappy and made me upset. I fell asleep a couple of times during the movie too, maybe it was the lull of the static. It could have been so much better. Michael Keaton tried, he was all right, but Mr. Mom and Batman couldn't save this one.
Rating: S
Faulk: Gotta love it. I mean, what more do you need in a movie besides bad acting, a silly premise, lots of flashy television snow and a confused widower turned obsessive compulsive? My experience is, if you hear voices with the volume loud on a radio receiver, its probably the cranky neighbor next door telling you to shut the hell up. What was Michael Keaton's last good movie, anyway? I think maybe it was "Night Shift" or "Johnny Dangerously" - the farging bastage.
Rating: S
The Aviator
Durant: I wish Martin Scorsese would stick to New York, Tibet and gangster flicks. I love nearly everything he's done, except this movie. I felt like I was watching a very long History Channel piece. The acting was great, and Leonardo DiCaprio did an exceptional job looking and acting like Howard Hughes. What Cate Blanchett lacked in looking like Katherine Hepburn, she made up for in nailing Hepburn's speech and mannerisms. There were also great performances from Alan Alda, Alec Baldwin and John C. Reilly. It was pretty to look at and had some great shots but I could never get into the story. It dragged on and was so long I half expected to see Frodo, Sam and Gollum in the next scene. Sorry, Mr. Scorsese.
Rating: M
Faulk: What movie did Durant see, anyway? I thought The Aviator was exceedingly well done. It didn't match the level of many of Scorsese's earlier pictures, but each movie has to be judged on its own merits. Leonardo DiCaprio for once shows glimpses of genuine talent as Howard Hughes. The art deco style of the movie was pleasing to the eye and several sequences - particularly during the shooting of the movie "Hell's Angels" - were beautifully done. The weakest point was when Hughes was speaking before the board headed by Alan Alda's character, Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster. I didn't think the transformation of Hughes' character - from crazy recluse to suddenly brazen and eloquent man of the hour was explained well enough within the context of the movie
Rating: XL
DVDs
Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle
Durant: Good stoner movies are few and far between. Of course there's the Cheech and Chong movies, then "Dazed and Confused," "Half Baked" and now "Harold and Kumar." I liked how these aren't the stereotypical stoners who talk like hippies and have no jobs or anything - one's an investment banker and the other is about to start med school. The comedy is pretty out there and can be raunchy at times. A man of my dietary stature can also identify with that desire to get the exact burger you crave, and I've been on similar missions to satisfy that craving. It was better than the previews made it out to be, but the constant goofiness gets old sometimes. There's a plethora of extra features and the additional scenes are just more of the same type of comedy.
Rating: L
Faulk: A few good jokes, but the movie as a whole flopped because the acting skills of "Harold and Kumar" couldn't carry it. You don't need a Marlon Brando to facilitate a slew of silly jokes, but at least get someone who doesn't look surprised by the words coming out of his mouth. Neil Patrick Harris does perhaps his best role since Doogie Howser - as himself. Best joke: Kumar's stoned fantasy of marriage to a big bag of weed.
Rating: M
Garden State
Durant: Why the hell is Zach Braff wasting his time on some dumb-ass sitcom when he could be making movies like this? I'm not saying it's God's gift to cinema, but it's a really good and an arguably deep film. Natalie Portman does it again, and is quickly becoming the next Meryl Streep - she can be in anything. I'm not on the "voice of a generation" bandwagon, but maybe it's an East Coast thing. Some of the scenes were neat to look at, like the stop-action party scene. It wasn't overly sappy and it wasn't overly sexy - well, except that scene in the hotel where Method Man plays the bellhop. The special features include a Klingon language track.
Rating: XL
Faulk: At the risk of piling on the bandwagon, I have to say I loved this movie. I saw it twice - in the theater then again when it came out on DVD. Zach Braff, a up-and-comer if ever there was one, wrote and executed an elegant script that was simple but to the point. The main metaphor - the abyss in the quarry near the end of the movie as mortality, reinvention through death - serves to help connect Braff's character with his deceased mother. Still, it could have used more set up. Braff's big showdown with daddy - played by Bilbo Baggins - was slightly lacking. Braff does better, I think, behind the camera than in front of it.
Rating: L
7:00 PM
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