Review #1,425: 'Edtv' (1999)

It's too bad for Ron Howard's Edtv that its arrival came shortly after Peter Weir's masterful The Truman Show, a film received with adoration by both critics and general audiences alike. Both are satires that comment on the state of trash TV and how audiences will watch literally anything providing they follow a comfortable (and manipulated) narrative, but both took their own unique approach. Jim Carrey's Truman was of course completely unaware that millions tuned in every day to see him live out his life in a supposedly Utopian confines of a television studio, but Matthew McConaughey's video store clerk slacker happily signs up to have bulky cameras and a boom mic follow his every move. Edtv certainly lacks the bite and incredibly dark undertones of Weir's masterpiece, and is content with structuring events around a familiar rom-com narrative, but Howard's film gets its message across with sufficient charm and wit, and almost twenty years later feels spookily prophetic.

True TV producer Cynthia (Ellen DeGeneres) pitches an idea to her stuffy boss Mr. Whitaker (Rob Reiner) that will involve following one individual, 24/7, as they go about their everyday lives. Whitaker reluctantly agrees, so the camera crew heads out into the city to find what they hope will be a new superstar. Ray Perkurny (Woody Harrelson) is eager to grab the limelight, hauling his girlfriend Shari (Jenna Elfman) and younger brother Ed in front of the camera to endure his obnoxious jokes. Cynthia, charmed by Ed's good looks and humble outlook, opts for the younger brother, and so EdTV is born. Ratings are terrible at first, with Ed waking up with a hand down his pants to a horrified audience, but start to improve as it becomes clear that Ed harbours feelings for Shari. Soon a narrative forms, much to Cynthia's liking, as Ray accidentally reveals to the world that he's a cheating scumbag, and Ed's absent father Hank (Dennis Hopper) turns up in an attempt to reignite their relationship.

As the audience grows, so does their influence on the show's events, with polls and talk shows about EdTV seem to litter every channel. With Shari reluctant to play out a romantic relationship in front of a camera crew, a beautiful and willing supermodel (played by Elizabeth Hurley) is thrown into the mix to spice things up. With the power to voice your opinion on a global scale now at everybody's fingertips, along with the ability to hit record at any given moment, Edtv is stunningly accurate at depicting the toxicity this level of access can influence. The film seemed to know exactly where our pop culture was heading, and it reminded me of the unnerving time I observed a family member watching Big Brother housemates live as they slept motionless in their beds. Yet as events are forced to play in a more traditional, consumable manner, Edtv pulls most of its punches, and the story becomes more about Ed's will-they-won't-they relationship with Shari than the abyss of toxic waste we were steering ourselves toward.  Despite the best efforts of an incredibly talented cast - Martin Landau delivers a particularly fine performance as Ed's stepfather - the film is never vicious enough to hold the attention for a running time of over 2 hours.


Directed by: Ron Howard
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrelson, Ellen DeGeneres, Martin Landau, Sally Kirkland, Elizabeth Hurley, Rob Reiner, Dennis Hopper
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,355: 'The Iron Giant' (1999)

The roaring success of Disney's The Lion King (no pun intended) in 1994 inspired something of an animation boom, during which various production studios attempted to cash in on the trend to varying degrees of success. Warner Bros. Feature Animation had a moderate hit with Space Jam, but underperformed with the likes of Cats Don't Dance and Quest for Camelot. They had one bona fide hit with The Iron Giant, a truly wonderful little feature adapted from Ted Hughes' 1968 novel The Iron Man. It didn't leave much of a dent at the box-office, but found a loyal audience on home video. In the 19 years since its release, The Iron Giant is fondly remembered as one of best animated features of the 1990s, and saw director Brad Bird poached by a little up-and-coming studio called Pixar.

In the fictional town of Rockwell, Maine in 1957, the residents are busy gazing up at the sky in fear of the Soviet Union's satellite Sputnik spying on them, and school children are shown Duck and Cover style educational films to prepare for a nuclear attack. In the surrounding forest, a huge object crashes down to Earth, alarming local fisherman Earl (M. Emmet Walsh). 9 year-old Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal) spends his nights watching cheesy sci-fi movies and dreaming of owning his own pet. His mother Annie (Jennifer Aniston) thinks they cause too much mess, a point that seems to be proven when young Hogarth accidentally releases a squirrel into the local diner. With his mother working late one night, Hogarth wanders into the woods and comes across the object Earl insists he saw: a giant alien robot (voiced by Vin Diesel) that enjoys munching everything from train tracks to the local power station.

This kind of allegorical coming-of-age tale has been done before (think E.T. but with an adorable weapon of mass destruction), but rarely with such charm and genuine emotion. It's influence can be felt in everything from the recent Pete's Dragon remake and A Monster Calls, and it's no surprise that the film continues to attract new fans. The Iron Giant questions what would happen if a gun could feel. The titular giant occasionally turns aggressive in the face of possible danger, as the alien's true purpose becomes increasingly and unnervingly clear. But with no memory of his mission, it's down to Hogarth to teach metal hulk kindness, and the youngster does so in a way that only an innocent could. A moment in the woods sees the unlikely friends come across the corpse of a deer. At first, the giant cannot comprehend death as he can regenerate, but Hogarth manages to teach him about the finality of death. It's incredibly powerful, and it's message is even more relevant today than it was almost 20 years ago. We all have choices in life, and sometimes simple human kindness and empathy can be infinitely more powerful than brute force.


Directed by: Brad Bird
Voices: Eli Marienthal, Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Christopher McDonald, Vin Diesel, M. Emmet Walsh, John Mahoney
Country: USA

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,192: 'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace' (1999)

There is no day more suitable to re-visit George Lucas' beloved Star Wars franchise than Star Wars Day itself: May 4th. One of the most difficult (and entirely trivial) questions asked by the fans about to settle down for a marathon is where to start? Do you marvel at the glory of the original trilogy -despite the Ewok-inspired hiccup of Episode VI - before moving onto the prequels, or is it best to get the much-criticised second trilogy out of the way first? I chose the second option, and not only because Episodes 1-3 are certainly bad, but because I had yet to bring myself to watch any of them for a second time since sitting uncomfortably in the cinema back in 1999, 2002 and 2005. I remember leaving the theatre after seeing The Phantom Menace massively disappointed but convincing myself it had enough merit to qualify as a 'good' movie. Over the years I have grown to hate it as a soulless special effects extravaganza, so is it quite the spirit-crushing experience I remember it to be? Not quite.

It's quite hard to ascertain just who George Lucas was aiming The Phantom Menace at. It's certainly a childish film stuffed to the gills with physical comedy and silly voices, and dialogue so expository and simplistic that it would fail to convince anyone with a mental age north of 12. But then the action plays out over a confusing and plain boring plot revolving around a trade dispute. The opening crawl attempts to explain matters before introducing a wide-range of planets, characters and species, and throwing its two heroes, Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), into the thick of the action. I was quickly lost and left scratching my head, but everything was certainly pretty to look at. It was at this point I realised that Lucas had designed a film to be admired solely from a visual standpoint, and dialogue, characterisation and storytelling had been thrown out of the window. The planet and character designs are beautiful, and I had forgotten just how splendid they are to gaze upon when backed by John Williams' iconic score.

Away from the lightsaber duels and vast landscapes, The Phantom Menace is excruciatingly dull, failing to make conversations about blockades and the Senate remotely interesting, while shoe-horning in references to the originals with little regard for coherency. Neeson and McGregor are both perfectly charming in their roles, even when faced with some truly cringe-inducing dialogue and being forced to converse with a special effect that the actor's eyes fail to meet. The same cannot be said, however, for Natalie Portman and Jake Lloyd. As Queen Amidala, the ruler of Naboo the Jedis are sent to rescue, Portman delivers her lines with a dead-eyed indifference akin to Hayden Christensen's performance in the next two films, something she was criticised for in the Thor movies. Lloyd is incredibly wooden as the young Anakin Skywalker, an annoying pug-faced all-American boy with a fondness for yelling "Yipee!" (what were you thinking George?).

And of course, worst of all, there is the character now cemented as the most loathed in cinema history, Jar Jar Binks (played by Ahmed Best). He has far more screen-time than I remembered, and is always on hand to suck any credibility out of a potentially cool moment. The only scene he doesn't completely ruin is the pod race, during which Anakin races to win a bet that will see him freed from slavery and placed into the safe hands of the Jedis. Even Jar Jar's fart joke doesn't get in the way of what is an exciting and visually spectacular set-piece, which still holds up 18 years later. Lucas also delivers during the one lightsaber duel of the prequel trilogy that doesn't descend into CGI overkill, which pits the two heroes against Darth Maul (Ray Park), arguably one of Lucas' coolest creations. It's beautifully choreographed and backed by an operatic score, and serves as a frustrating reminder of how good this could have been had Lucas not been so pre-occupied with daft humour and a convoluted plot.


Directed by: George Lucas
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid, Ahmed Best, Hugh Quarshie, Terence Stamp
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #926: 'One Day in September' (1999)

Kevin Macdonald's Oscar-winning documentary One Day in September tells the story of the 1972 Munich Olympics, an event that turned quickly from an attempt by Germany to show the world that it had moved on from the events of World War II, welcoming athletes and fans of all races from all countries, to one of the most notorious incidents of terrorism in recent history. It's an enormously thrilling and informative documentary, and Macdonald covers the event in meticulous detail, but it also plays out like a music video, with hit songs playing over footage of bloodied dead bodies and little attention given to the background of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The film opens with an Olympic promotional video which the Germans no doubt hoped would help banish the world's memories of concentration camps and mass genocide, in favour of a more welcoming, laid-back Germany. Though documentaries on the whole are supposed to be objective, it's clear that Macdonald holds disdain for the German authorities, who bungled the entire operation from start to finish. Rather than a tight security force, the Olympic committee opted instead for a dressed-down and unarmed group of workers who strolled the Olympic village with no idea of the horrors to come. With heavy news coverage of the incident from journalists around the world, the terrorists were able to watch as volunteers armed themselves for a rescue operation on the TV in their room, and thankfully warned the authorities of this before the inevitable blood-bath occurred.

While the idea of efficiency is something that would normally go hand-in-hand with Germany, the only thing efficient about the whole saga was the quickly-handled release of three captured terrorists, who escaped custody when some Palestinians hijacked a plane and demanded their release. In a film chocked full of startling revelations, the most damning is the reveal that the Germany authorities arranged the entire thing. Questions were raised after it was discovered that the plane contained only a small number of passengers, of which none were women and children. Of all the incidents they should hang their in shame for, simply wanting to wash their hands of the whole ordeal at the expense of justice is unforgivable. Macdonald doesn't just rely on conspiracy theories either, with first-hand accounts from police, ranking members of the army, journalists, family members of the victims, and most startlingly, Jamal Al-Gashey, the only surviving member of the Black September group to take part in the events at Munich.

It was a tragedy from start to finish, and along with the bumbling behaviour of the Germans, was doomed to disaster from the very start. Macdonald builds up this sense of inevitability, and the horror climaxes with ABC anchor Jim McKay's live report after it emerged that their worst fears have finally been realised, and that the Israeli athletes held for less than 24 hours were "all gone,". Had Macdonald offered some background into the origins of Black September and the tensions between the Israelis and Palestinians, this may have been a masterpiece, Also, the massacre at the closing stages would have been the all more heartbreaking were it not for Macdonald's rock and roll style and gratuitous imagery. Still, this is powerful, well-researched stuff, and should be watched by anyone interested in this avoidable act of horror as the definitive account of that one day in September.


Directed by: Kevin Macdonald
Narrator: Michael Douglas
Country: Switzerland/Germany/UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #908: 'Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me' (1999)

It's surprising to think that the first Austin Powers movie underwhelmed at the box office back in 1997, only picking up a cult following after its VHS release, and soon enough you couldn't escape the sound of someone yelling "yeah, baby!" every 5 minutes. By the time it's sequel hit the cinema screens, the character, along with the super-spy's arch-nemesis Dr. Evil, had garnered a huge mainstream following, and the movie was a big hit. Yet the film, subtitled The Spy Who Shagged Me, suffers from the same problems as most comedy sequels, which is basically to re-tread the same successful jokes from the first movie, and forgetting what made the original so fresh and charming.

Powers (Mike Myers) is a randy, free-love type-of-guy from the 60's. When he was re-awoken from his cryogenic state in the 90's, his out-of-date attitudes put him at odds with a society that had grown more stiff-upper-lipped. Crowds of screaming girls would no longer chase him down the street a la A Hard Day's Night (1964) and sexy girls wouldn't be willing to bed him at the drop of a hat. When Dr. Evil (also Myers) arrives back to Earth with a plan to steal Powers' mojo, the characters find themselves time-travelling again back to the 60's, where gorgeous super-agent Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham) is ready and willing, but Powers lack the mojo to do anything about it. Most of what made the first movie so successful was that Powers was a man out of time, so by placing him back into his natural surroundings, the opportunity to create funny set-piece's are few and far between.

The dentally-challenged Brit is instead lumped with a dull romance with Shagwell, which is a carbon-copy of the relationship between Powers and Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley), only with the roles reversed. In fact, Powers seems to play second-fiddle to Dr. Evil, whose ridiculously outlandish plots and newly-created sidekick Mini-Me (Verne Troyer) annoy his estranged son Scott Evil (Seth Green) and provide the majority of the film's laughs. An early scene where Evil appears on Jerry Springer with his son is hilarious, and the film is at its most inspired when the focus is on the bad guys. The Spy Who Shagged Me is also more gross-out than it's predecessor, continuing a trend set by There's Something About Mary (1998) and re-establishment of the teen sex comedy set by American Pie (1999), so Myers introduces a vile character called Fat Bastard who speaks with a Scottish accent and is permanently covered with chicken bits, whose scenes tend to induce more cringes than laughs. It's funny enough to justify its third instalment, but it lacks the satire, sweetness and freshness of the original.


Directed by: Jay Roach
Starring: Mike Myers, Heather Graham, Michael York, Robert Wagner, Rob Lowe, Seth Green
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #646: 'Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.' (1999)

Never a director to focus on anything but the utterly fascinating, Errol Morris' documentaries over the past few years lay a foundation for a consistently excellent body of work. His love of the eccentric and the condemned prove fascinating viewing, but what makes his films so utterly gripping is his objectivity. Don't get me wrong, it's more often than not very clear as to where Morris' opinions lie, but he allows his subject a fair crack, a chance to give their side of the story, no matter how outrageous it happens to be. Here, with Mr. Death, about the highs and lows of Fred Leuchter, expert manufacturer of execution devices and Holocaust denier, Morris lets his subject seal his own fate with his own words.

With his father a prison warden, Fred Leuchter spent a lot of his youth around criminals, many of whom were facing imminent execution. Having heard about the flaws in the execution facilities - many of which were built by non-professionals with only a photograph to work from - Leuchter took it upon himself to design an electric chair that was not only more reliable, but more 'humane', both for the prisoner and the wardens. Soon enough, without any engineering qualifications, Leuchter was being employed by other states to design gallows and machines to administer lethal injection. Meanwhile in Canada, renowned neo-Nazi Ernst Zundel published a paper that denied the existence of the Holocaust. Leuchter was brought in as an 'expert' to investigate the gas chambers of Auschwitz, only to discover no trace of cyanide. This led to Leuchter's paper The Leuchter Report, and the downfall of the man's life and reputation.

Similar to Morris' The Fog of War (2003), which allowed former Secretary of Defence Robert S. McNamara to be viewed as a human being and not the monster it was so easy to label him as, Leuchter does not come across as an anti-Semite, or even someone that believes half the things he says. This mouse of a man - short, ugly, addicted to coffee and cigarettes - is entirely non-threatening. But as we witness him getting swept up in the neo-Nazi rallies he's invited to speak at, he comes across as a man that simply has a need to feel a purpose and place in the world. What he did is unspeakable - illegally gathering samples by chipping off stone from the walls of a place many hold sacred, to use his self-labelled expertise to deny the most shocking genocide in history - but it is nevertheless hard not to feel some sort of pity for him.

Being a former detective, Morris doesn't need to try very hard to disprove Leuchter's findings, and rubbishes with them with a few swift strokes. But those of us with working brains in our heads don't need to be told the Holocaust was real, so Morris doesn't spend too much time on it. This is very much about the man behind the uproar, using archive footage of his time at Auschwitz to portray a man that doesn't seem to grasp the true gravity of the situation. Why did he do it? Can he comprehend the possible repercussions of the words that come out of his mouth? Whatever the answers, this is a fantastic documentary - gripping, shocking, informative and objective, everything you would expect from Errol Morris.


Directed by: Errol Morris
Starring: Fred A. Leuchter Jr.
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie