Review #1,432: 'The Grinch' (2000)

Although his popularity is unrivalled in the US, children's author and illustrator Dr. Seuss is considerably less popular in the UK, where instead Roald Dahl occupies this role as creator of wonderful stories to inspire and influence the imaginations of children across the country. However, this hasn't prevented Ron Howard's The Grinch, or How the Grinch Stole Christmas, from becoming a beloved Christmas movie and establishing itself as a regular feature across the channels over the holidays. Having read the joyful story by Dr. Seuss, which manages to pack in a welcome message about the true importance of Christmas alongside The Grinch's journey from the feared monster at the top of the mountain to humbled hero with a heart two sizes bigger, I fail to understand how anybody can find any magic in this overwrought, ugly and sickly vehicle for Jim Carrey's camera-mugging shtick.

The population of Whoville are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Christmas, frantically hoarding presents and preparing for the yearly 'Holiday Cheermeister' overlooked by the town's narcissistic mayor Augustus Maywho (Jeffrey Tambor). At the top of the mountain casting a shadow over Whoville is the Grinch (Carrey), a joyless and selfish green creature who loathes the Whos and their constant celebrations. Pushed to breaking point by the eternal singing blowing up the mountainside, the Grinch heads into town dressed as Santa to pray a prank on the townsfolk. Precocious 6 year-old Cindy Lou Who (Taylor Momsen) takes pity on the creature and tries talking to him, only to be shoved into a postal machine for her efforts. He ends up reluctantly saving her life however, so Cindy Lou starts to explore his past, learning that he was once an ugly child who ran away after being bullied. She wants to teach him about the true meaning of Christmas and show her fellow Whos that they have nothing to fear by nominating him as the Cheermeister, but the Grinch, armed with a sleigh, his trusted dog Max and a giant vacuum, heads into town with other ideas.

The immediate problem faced by screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman when adapting such a short tale is how to fill in the blanks with enough story and character development to stretch into a 90-minute feature, without losing the core message in the process. Apparently their plan was to hope Howard could create a colourful enough world to hold the kiddies' attention to cover up the glaring holes, and to throw in a number of meaningless sub-plots to add unwanted layers to characters who are charming for their simplicity. We get a backstory for the Grinch, along with a love triangle that will surely warm nobody's hearts, and enough time is saved so Jim Carrey can exhaustively flick his fingers and wrinkle his nose when he's not rolling around on the floor or eating glass. The film misses Seuss' point completely by making the Whos a bunch of intolerable consumers with pig-noses, who have long forgotten the more important things to savour during this time of year. It leaves just Cindy-Lou and her father as the only non-soulless, plastic robots with petty problems, so why would we care about them? Of course, it all heads towards the Grinch understanding that there is more to Christmas than material gain and gorging on food, but that doesn't stop the climax from being centred around saving everybody's presents. It's about spending time with your family and loved-ones you see, as long as there's plenty of crap to open come Christmas morning.


Directed by: Ron Howard
Starring: Jim Carrey, Taylor Momsen, Jeffrey Tambor, Christine Baranski, Bill Irwin, Molly Shannon
Country: USA/Germany

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,372: 'Mission: Impossible II' (2000)

John Woo was already a highly acclaimed director by the time he transferred his trade to Hollywood. With the likes of A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and Hard Boiled, produced in his native Hong Kong, he had earned his reputation as an action maestro, one capable of delivering a gun-fight with balletic grace, almost like watching poetry in motion. His Hollywood career started off okay with Hard Target and Broken Arrow, two forgettable if sufficiently entertaining vehicles for Jean-Claude Van Damme and John Travolta. He went up a couple of gears in 1997 with Face/Off, an outrageous thriller with two off-the-leash central performances, and it felt like Woo had finally worked out the formula of translating his chaotic brand of action and humour for American audiences. That was all before Tom Cruise suggested him for the follow-up to Brian De Palma's nifty thriller Mission: Impossible. M:I-2, as the posters branded it, not only manages to be completely hollow, but incredibly boring.

While De Palma made some controversial changes to the formula of the original TV series, the first Mission: Impossible still embraced much of what was loved about it. It was grounded in a world of espionage and secret government departments, with Tom Cruise's relatively inexperienced Ethan Hunt at the centre of the unravelling plot. Woo throws the majority of this out of the window in favour of something more flashy and violent, changing Hunt from an opportunistic rookie to a leather-jacket wearing superhero capable of gravity-defying kicks and physics-defying driving. When we first meet him, he's free-climbing in Utah, in what is the movie's only heart-pounding moment. It establishes this new Hunt as a fearless adrenaline-junkie, and when he finally makes it to the top, he is handed his next mission, should he choose to accept it, via a pair of soon-to-be self-destructed sunglasses. The mission is to track down and retrieve a deadly virus stolen by rogue IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott). To assist him, Hunt must also recruit professional thief Nyah Hall (Thandie Newton), who also happens to be a former flame of Ambrose.

After the baffling plot of the first Mission: Impossible, it's something of a relief that Woo chose to keep things as simple as they are here. With films like this, the story only really serves as a way to get us to the next set-piece. The major issue is that Woo and writer Robert Towne (of The Last Detail and Chinatown fame) fail to inject any life into their characters, or at least give us anyone to root for. I like Tom Cruise and have nothing but respect for his desire to do all of his own stunts, but this smirking, floppy-haired version of Ethan Hunt comes across as a bargain-bin James Bond. Dougray Scott, who is one of the blandest actors around anyway, isn't helped by his one-note villain. Ambrose is simply an evil version of Hunt, only without the hero's plot armour. By the time Ving Rhames and John Polson are brought in for the final showdown, it's all too little, too late. By this time, Mission: Impossible II has already established Hunt as a one-man army, who naturally finds the time to romance his prettiest recruit when she's not busy trying to run him off a cliff. All of this could be forgiven if the action was on point. Guns are pointed dramatically and the camera swirls in slow-motion, but not even the obligatory flying doves can save M:I-2 from yawn-inducing mediocrity. It was a smash-hit at the box-office, but it's reputation meant that it would take six years for J.J. Abrams to save the franchise from an early demise.


Directed by: John Woo
Starring: Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott, Thandie Newton, Ving Rhames, Richard Roxburgh, John Polson, Brendan Gleeson
Country: USA/Germany

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,282: 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye' (2000)

The life of Tammy Faye Bakker Messner is one that could have only emerged from America: A life of fame, adoration and excess, and later, somewhat inevitably, of disgrace and notoriety. Armed with a face of make-up apparently applied by shotgun-blast and an unshakeable, endearing optimism, Tammy Faye was once of the most recognisable faces in America as the co-presenter of The PTL (Praise the Lord) Club, part of the Christian Broadcasting Network which she and husband Jim Bakker used to draw audiences in the millions. In 1987, when Jim was accused of raping Playboy model Jessica Hahn and sent to prison for defrauding his audience of millions of dollars, Tammy Faye stood by his side before they divorced a few years later.

She later found love in the man who helped build her ex-husband's Christian theme-park Heritage USA, before he was also banged up for tax fraud. Tammy Faye was diagnosed with colon cancer, before making a full, miraculous recovery, and developed a dangerous addiction to prescription medication. The point of Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's documentary is that Tammy Faye is a survivor. It's a label often applied to strong women who have endured hardships. Jim J. Bullock, her co-host on The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show, puts it best when he explains that after the holocaust, all that will remain are cockroaches, Tammy Faye, and Cher. She is a force of nature, her spirit never wavering even when bullying televangelist Jerry Falwell swiped PTL from underneath them, despite having spent most of her waking life in front of the camera with Jim and their two children.

With narration from RuPaul and the film's chapters introduced by hand-puppets in a style akin to Babe, The Eyes of Tammy Faye is clearly embracing the camp appeal of its subject. Her famous eyelashes and impressive set of lungs have made her a gay icon, but there are also old clips of Tammy Faye embracing the gay community and a man with AIDS, topics that were, back then, shunned by mainstream media, never mind the Christian media. It will surely disarm most viewers who go into the film with their noses turned up at Tammy Faye's passion for spreading the word of God, showing her to be a warm and charismatic figure who took an interest in and offered a voice to people from all walks of life. The documentary clearly believes that she is innocent of any wrongdoing in the crimes her ex-husband was convicted for, but it can be criticised for failing to investigate more. Still, this is a fitting tribute to an indomitable woman living a fascinating life. Tammy Faye Messner died in 2007.


Directed by: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Starring: Tammy Faye Bakker, RuPaul
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,248: 'Animal Factory' (2000)

Steve Buscemi's first feature as director was Trees Lounge, an engaging drama about the bored, alcohol-drenched inhabitants of a small town, and their day-to-day interactions. For his second, Buscemi explores many of the same themes of aimlessness and having too much time on your hands, but changes the setting and tone entirely. Adapting Eddie Bunker's novel of the same name (the real-life ex-con also shares script writing duties with John Steppling), Animal Factory is about as unglamorous as prison drama gets. With a heightened sense of realism, violence and rape lurk at every turn, often happening so quickly that you barely have the chance to comprehend it. Buscemi and Bunker also find time to explore an engaging father-and-son relationship, albeit one taut with tension and distrust.

After receiving an incredibly harsh sentence for drug possession, young Ron Decker (Edward Furlong) is packed off to prison where his youthful looks quickly attracts unwanted attention. Proving himself to be completely ill-equipped to handle the danger he faces, he is taken in by the shaven-headed Earl Copen (Willem Dafoe), who teaches him the ropes and how to spot a threat. A man of little physical prowess, Earl has risen to a position of authority by using his background in law to improve the living and working standards of his fellow inmates. Surrounded by his gang of trusted bruisers (including Danny Trejo, Mark Boone Junior, and The Wire's Chris Bauer), Earl promises to protect the vulnerable Ron. Pondering Earl's true intentions, Ron at first keeps the smiling convict at arm's length, until a bond is formed that just may help the young offender to make it out alive.

By shaping the drama in the most unsensational way imaginable, Buscemi adds the necessary grit to Bunker's knowing words, with many of Bunker's novels taking inspiration from his own time in the slammer. Performances impress across the board, as you would expect from an ensemble taking direction from such a seasoned pro (who also appears). In particular, there are memorable roles for Mickey Rourke, playing Furlong's motor-mouthed, transvestite cell-mate, and, of all people, Tom Arnold, who is unnervingly convincing as a predatory rapist with his eye on Ron. But the film belongs to its two leads. Dafoe brings extra layers to his somewhat sensitive gang leader, and Furlong, one of many promising young actors who emerged in the 90s to disappear into the ether, is particularly effective as the protagonist. Changing his behaviour to suit his surroundings, we see the prison sculpt him into the type of career criminal the system's suppose to prevent. While the matter-of-fact approach prevents it from generating any real momentum - despite an attempted prison-break climax - Animal Factory is quietly powerful in small moments.


Directed by: Steve Buscemi
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Edward Furlong, Danny Trejo, Mark Boone Junior, Seymour Cassel, Mickey Rourke, Tom Arnold, John Heard, Chris Bauer
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,199: 'In the Mood for Love' (2000)

The second of an unofficial trilogy by Chinese director Wong-Kar Wai which started with Days of Being Wild (1990) and concluded with 2046 (2004), it would be difficult to describe and appreciate In the Mood for Love without using the words beautiful, sumptuous and erotic. For a film trying to capture the pure eroticism and sweeping romance of the meeting between lost souls, there is precious little dialogue or conventional narrative, with Wong instead choosing to tell this story through gorgeous visuals and, to steal a word from the film's English-language title, an overbearing sense of mood. Continuing with the semi-improvised, free-flowing approach that brought him international success with the likes of Chungking Express (1994) and Happy Together (1997), In the Mood for Love is an achingly romantic experience, and may just be his finest work.

Set mostly around a cramped apartment block in 1962 Hong Kong, the central 'love' story is between Mr. Chow (Tony Chiu-Wai Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung), who, along with their spouses, rent a room in neighbouring flats. They regularly eat alone at night as their other halves call to say they are working overtime, and they both suspect infidelity. eventually coming to the conclusion that Mrs. Chow and Mr. Chan are indeed having an affair. Despite the ever-presence of the pleasant Mrs. Suen (Rebecca Pan) and her mahjong-playing friends, the couple feel isolated and alone, often venturing out to the nearby noodle stand to purchase a meal for one. The two start to bond through imagining and even re-enacting how their spouses met and courted each other, while insisting their own blossoming relationship remains platonic. But feelings are developed and suppressed, with things intensifying when they begin work on a martial arts serial, renting a hotel room to escape the gossiping of neighbours.

The era in which the film is set not only gives the opportunity for some exquisite costume design (Mrs. Chan's colourful dresses radiate sensuality), but also offers the chance to reflect on a more conservative, socially-conforming time. While the couple refuse to allow their friendship to boil over into romance, there are still whispers and raised eyebrows. With this kind of secrecy and restraint forced upon them, they are made to pass each other on the street with barely an acknowledgement, and this is where Wong's style becomes the substance. Sexual tension is captured by the brush of a hand, a sideways glance, and even the dipping of meat in hot sauce. In the film's most effective scene, they pass each other on a stairwell, barely daring to offer the other a glance, just as the rain starts to lash down to bring them together under shelter. Where most films will have their characters lay their romantic cards on the table, Wong says so much more with repressing as much as possible, climaxing in a haunting final scene set amongst the ruined temples Angkor Wat in Cambodia.


Directed by: Kar-Wai Wong
Starring: Maggie Cheung, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Ping Lam Siu, Rebecca Pan
Country: Hong Kong/China

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,066: 'Hellraiser: Inferno' (2000)

The previous instalment of Clive Barker's Hellraiser franchise (although by this point I doubt he wants his name anywhere near the credits), Bloodline, whisked the Cenobites, the puzzle box and all of its desperate-for-a-pay-cheque actors into space. Since this is a sure-fire sign that a horror franchise is doomed and out of any fresh ideas, it was no surprise that number 5, Inferno, found itself heading straight to VHS. With Dimension Films hoping to keep the rights to a series they hope could someday be 're-booted' and back in the cinemas, they began picking up unrelated horror scripts and shoe-horning Pinhead and his minions into the story, slapping the 'Hellraiser' title on the cover to at least attract the hardcore fanbase.

Joseph Thorne (Craig Sheffer) is a good detective with a bad attitude. Although he is highly intelligent with a gift for solving puzzles and, er, amateur magic tricks, he snorts cocaine, beats on innocents who won't answer his questions, and sleeps with prostitutes who apparently kiss on the lips. Along with his partner Tony (Nicholas Turturro), he discovers the Lament Configuration box at the murder scene of an old school friend who has been torn apart by hooked chains. The murder puts him on the path to 'The Engineer', a mysterious man who leaves the severed finger of a child at each of the murder scenes. Yet once Thorne solves the puzzle, he starts to hallucinate, having visions of strange, deformed creatures who torment him.

As a direct-to-video effort and an entry into the atrocious, never-ending set of Hellraiser sequels, Inferno isn't all that bad. As an actual film, it's a cliche-ridden bore that neglects to give a substantial role to the franchise's (no pun intended) pin-up boy, Pinhead (Doug Bradley). Nobody picks up a DVD box with a picture of a demon with nails hammered into its head wanting to see a slow-paced detective story that plays out like Bad Lieutenant (1992) directed by Uwe Boll. The make-up budget can't be blamed either, as we are given a few scenes with lesser, ineffective Cenobites including, I think, two that know kung-fu and wear cowboy hats in the film's most random scene. Directed by an up-and-coming Scott Derrickson, let's hope he's now experienced enough to deliver a coherent Doctor Strange due later this year.


Directed by: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Craig Sheffer, Nicholas Turturro, James Remar, Doug Bradley
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,062: 'Paragraph 175' (2000)

Despite the wealth of documentaries and factual dramas covering the atrocities committed by the Nazis under the command of Adolf Hitler, there is always another story, as equally horrifying as it is unbelievable, to come out of the woodwork. This harrowing documentary by Rob Epstein (The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)) and Jeffrey Friedman (Howl (2010)) focuses on the social persecution and mass murder of approximately 75,000 German homosexual men under Nazi rule. Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code forbade homosexual activity, placing it on the same level as bestiality and paedophilia, and the law was broadened by Hitler during his rise to power as he sought to 'purify' the German race. The law remained in place until 1994.

Early scenes show a 1920's Berlin in full swing, where the young danced, drank and experimented sexually without fear of persecution. Paragraph 175 existed but was rarely enforced, and the young partied freely in a country relieved to come out of the carnage of World War I in one piece. As the Jews were starting to be rounded up and placed in ghettos ready for the concentration camps, homosexual men were under the impression that simply being German would be enough to save them. Similar to what they did with the Jews, the Nazis did nothing at first, allowing the men to congregate in their night clubs and hot spots, only to be rounded up later once they finally felt safe. The emphasis here is on homosexual men as Hitler thought lesbianism to be curable, and why waste a perfectly functional carrier of future Aryans?

The interviewees taking part in Paragraph 175 have been largely quiet for decades, with the German government largely resistant to acknowledging the mass-murder of gay men and many countries oblivious to what took place. They often talk in hushed voices, with one man describing the 'singing forest', a place that sounds like some kind of haven he escaped to amidst the madness. Instead, it was named for the screams that echoed throughout, as victims were hung from hooks and left to die. Others describe of seeing their friends being torn apart by dogs, while another, more animated than the others, tells of how he was he was raped with planks of wood by Nazi officers while under questioning. It's a shocking, important tale largely ignored even by World War II enthusiasts, eloquently told by the two filmmakers.


Directed by: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Narrator: Rupert Everett
Country: UK/Germany/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,024: 'Versus' (2000)

Ryuhei Kitamura's hyperactive video-game-brought-to-life Versus has a huge cult following and is absolutely adored by its dedicated fans, so I'll say state straight off the bat that I loathed almost every second of its exhausting 120-minute running-time. The film is chocked full of the kind of hyper-kinetic camerawork doing 360 degree spins around its leather jacket-wearing characters, who frequently pout and brood in an attempt to look cool, that cinema was swamped with in the wake of the huge success of The Matrix (1999), which itself was heavily inspired by Japanese cinema. But Versus has little grip on its muddled mythology, and the result is a gory, tiresome mess.

The story informs us that their are 666 portals on Earth that connect this world to the 'other side', with the 444th portal located in the Forest of Resurrection in Japan. Centuries ago, a lone samurai battles a few shuffling zombies before taking on a powerful priest who, with minimal effort, kills him. In the present day, two escaped convicts arrive at the Forest to wait for a gang of Yakuza who will take them to safety. One of the prisoners, #KSC2-303 (Tak Sakaguchi), becomes immediately suspicious of the Yakuza's intentions when they arrive holding a kidnapped girl (Chieko Misaka). The prisoner kills one of the Yakuza, who immediately comes back to life as a zombie, and flees in the forest, taking the girl with him.

There is no doubting that Versus is occasionally a treat for the eyes, with the editing in particular impressing during the numerous fight scenes. But the fights come one after the other, quickly becoming tedious especially since every battle is introduced by the characters posing while the camera swirls around them for what seems like an eternity. It doesn't help that all of the Yakuza are the type of preening morons seen in a thousand other films, strutting around in sunglasses and awful flashy suits and failing to pose any kind of real threat. The protagonist is also difficult to like - a generic bad-ass played unconvincingly by Sakaguchi, who seems to enjoy frequently knocking out the girl he has rescued as he fights the bad guys. It's meant to be darkly humorous, but instead feels simply misogynistic. At 2 hours, it's a headache-inducing struggle to get through, and is recommended only for hardcore fans of cult Japanese cinema.


Directed by: Ryûhei Kitamura
Starring: Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, Chieko Misaka, Kenji Matsuda
Country: Japan

Rating: *

Tom Gillespie

Review #743: 'X-Men' (2000)

It's hard to believe that back in 2000, Marvel's first crack at creating a superhero universe on the big screen, X-Men, was a near perfect summer movie. 14 years on, and the cracks are as clear as day in Bryan Singer's hesitant and rather tame blockbuster. Don't get me wrong, X-Men still has plenty to enjoy, but the meatier, more confident recent efforts such as Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and Marvel's own Iron Man (2008) and Thor (2011), as well as the vastly superior sequel two years later, form a rather large shadow over Professor X and his pupils' first outing.

In the near future, evolution has taken a huge leap forward, creating 'mutants' - humans with special powers and abilities that defy anything science has seen before. Tensions between humans and mutants is at an all-time high, with the idea of mutant cataloguing being passed around by Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison), despite the efforts of telepaths Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). Mutant Magneto (Ian McKellen), a Holocaust survivor with the ability to control anything magnetic, has different ideas, and plans to induce mutation on world leaders gathering on Ellis Island.

As the machine, powered by magnetics, could easily kill him, Magneto seeks Rogue (Anna Paquin), a young girl with the ability to temporarily steal a mutant's power. Having just met Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), a beast of a man with a skeleton covered in an indestructible metal, which he can shoot out like claws, and an uncanny healing ability, Rogue's abduction fails and is foiled by Storm (Halle Berry) and Cyclops (James Marsden). They end up in Professor Xavier's school for gifted children, where Wolverine learns about mutant struggle and falls in love with the powerful Jean Grey.

With a film this packed with personalities and powers, it's only natural that it loses it's grip on a lot of its characters. Sensibly, the main focus is on Wolverine, who has always been the most interesting X-Man, and is perfectly played by Jackman, a performance that made him a huge star. The rest of the characters, with the exception of Professor X and Magneto, do little but fall flat. They either suffer because their powers aren't particularly interesting, or spend the duration of the film using what little dialogue they have to explain who they are and what they can do. The movie also has one of the worst lines in cinema history, uttered by Storm. You'll know it when you hear it.

For all its lack of ambition and absence of any real set-pieces, X-Men is still the first of its kind. Refusing to give in to the idea of comic books being light, colourful and mainly for kids (which was still the general idea back in 2000), the opening scene depicting a young Magneto in a concentration camp ensures this is something that should be taken seriously, yet still enjoyed. Singer grew in confidence and made X2 two years later, which is still considered by myself and many others to be one of the best superhero movies ever made. X2 showed that the vast ensemble can be given room to breathe, and had the set-pieces to match, and in hindsight, makes X-Men a much tamer, yet still very entertaining, animal.


Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Bruce Davison, Rebecca Romijn
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #657: 'Paradise Lost 2: Revelations' (2000)

After the storm kicked up by the first film, film-makers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky returned to West Memphis four years later. Whereas the first film seemed to simply document the case in as much detail as possible and allowed you to make your own mind up, with Revelations, they seem to have their own agenda. New 'evidence' has been discovered, and perhaps the real killer still walks the streets, and it's clear who Berlinger and Sinofsky believes it to be. That crazy bastard John Mark Byers, who took so much pleasure in giving Biblical rants to camera, hardly covers himself in glory, and he's back here to build fake graves for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley at the crime scene, only to set them on fire amidst his demented monologues.

It's sad that Berlinger and Sinofsky decided to take such a manipulative approach to the sequel, as although Byers is clearly an unhinged and simple-minded hick, there is no evidence against him killing the three boys (Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and his stepson Christopher Byers) aside from the fact that he comes across as scary and strange. The first film was an intense study of mob mentality and the dangers of pre-judgement by appearance, and how the West Memphis Three managed to get themselves convicted simply for being black-wearing outcasts. So Revelations comes across is hypocritical.

When new evidence is presented, suggesting teeth marks on the head of one of the victims, tests prove that none of the WM3's teeth match. When Byers is confronted, he reveals that he had his teeth removed but keeps changing his story as to when this took place. He is repeatedly confronted by a support group that help fund and promote the case against the WM3, but they come across as equally strange as Byers, following Echols like groupies as if he was some kind of prophet, and they berate Byers into handing in his dental records voluntarily to prove himself innocent. Byers refuses, stating that there is no case against him, and this is shown in the film as if an admittance of guilt. The film-makers never take any time to explain the reasoning behind Byers' behaviour, clearly convinced of his guilt.

In the end, it's a case of there being too little here to warrant a two hour-plus movie. The new evidence is flimsy to say the least, and as revealed in West of Memphis (2012), is probably completely wrong. Yet when the film gets back down to cold facts, it becomes as riveting as the first film, unveiling a justice system that seems unwilling to open the doors to the possibility that they simply got it wrong. It's just a shame that too much time is spent on a personal witch-hunt, and even when Byers passes a voluntary lie-detector test, the film suggests that Byers was on so much prescription medication that the results of this cannot really stand up, yet fails to ask to conductor of the test of his views regarding this. It's certainly a confused film, and one that works best when it stays on topic and documents the facts rather than revelling in propagandistic speculation.


Directed by: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
Starring: Damien Wayne Echols, Jason Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley, John Mark Byers
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #609: 'Cecil B. Demented' (2000)

Cult director John Waters has always been a favourite amongst those familiar with the 'Midnight Movie' circuit. The Midnight Movies were a bunch of films that included David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977), Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo (1970), and Waters' own Pink Flamingos (1972), that were screened in New York in the 1970's to an audience looking for an artistic vision that tended to push the boundaries of taste and subject matter, and led to re-discoveries of films now considered classics such as Freaks (1932) and Night of the Living Dead (1968). Waters, as well as championing the great auteurs such as Pasolini and Fassbinder, was always an outspoken fan of zero-budget schlock like Criminally Insane (1975) and the work of Herschell Gordon Lewis. And this is the focus of Cecil B. Demented, a movie essentially for cinephiles, and one that has the movie business as a whole fixed in its sights.

Hollywood starlet Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith) is on the verge of another smash hit when she attends the premiere in Baltimore. In front of a shocked audience and many cameras, she is kidnapped by psychopathic film director Cecil B. Demented (Stephen Dorff). Demented takes Honey back to his studio, where his loyal crew, calling themselves the Sprocket Holes, have a vision to take cinema back for the auteurs, and crush the studio system (who are in production of Forrest Gump 2). Honey is to be the star in the first of a new movement - Outlaw Cinema - a process that strips back all production values in favour of achieving ultimate reality. They have also taken a vow of chaste, and will not have sex until the movie is done. Seeing opinion of her drastically slide on television, Honey starts to sympathise with Demented's movement, and eventually she wilfully comes over to the cause.

It can be said that true satire cuts both ways, and that is certainly what Waters achieves with this. As an obsessive movie fan myself, there's many a time when I've been eager to tear down the poster of a new Zac Efron movie or punch someone in the face when they've describe how much they love Marley & Me (2008). I sometimes want to scream about how much they're missing through ignorance and that it's their fault so much shit gets made. But there's times when I've looked back at my own pretentiousness and felt embarrassed at criticising someone who ultimately wants something entirely different out of cinema than I do. Demented's bunch of misfits are nothing more than dysfunctional psychopaths; cartoon cut-outs that are too extreme to not laugh at. Waters seems to be amused more by these scarf-wearing chin-strokers than by those who inadvertently fund the studio system.

Although a lot doesn't really work in Cecil B. Demented, I still got a lot out of it. This is mainly due to the fact that I share a lot of Waters' opinions, and can get as much enjoyment out of a tacky old Larry Cohen or Herschell Gordon Lewis horror as I could with something from Godard or Bunuel. Occasionally the bad taste humour doesn't go down so well, such as the sloppy penetration sounds when the gang can finally get down to it, or the rather silly 'Demented Forever' sing-a-long, but Stephen Dorff's wide-eyed, energetic performance managed to be a nice distraction. Demented could be seen as an answer to many of Waters' fans objections to his occasional dabbling with the mainstream, with his colourful efforts Hairspray (1988) and (the very enjoyable) Serial Mom (1994) playing in direct contrast to Pink Flamingos, which infamously contains a scene of dog-shit eating. But this is a criticism and a homage to the movies, something that all cinephiles can understand.


Directed by: John Waters
Starring: Melanie Griffith, Stephen Dorff, Alicia Witt, Adrian Grenier, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon
Country: France/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #477: 'Hollow Man' (2000)

The story of the Invisible Man has taken many forms on TV, film and in literature since the publication of H.G. Wells' classic novel. The best known, possibly, is James Whale's fantastic Universal adaptation, starring Claude Rains as the scientist gone mad, and actors from the likes of David McCallum and Chevy Chase have played the title character since then to various degrees of sympathy. It was always a story of the psychological effects a new found power can have on a human being, posing the inevitable question of what would you do if no-one could see you? I wouldn't like to dwell on the things I would find myself getting up to, but director Paul Verhoeven is clear as to what he thinks men would get up to - voyeurism and rape, and this is a key theme throughout Hollow Man, amidst all the extreme gore of course.

Arrogant, obnoxious scientist Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) makes a breakthrough in reversing invisibility on a gorilla, but when reporting his success to the Pentagon, he opts to hold back information to gain more time to experiment on himself. Co-workers Linda (Elisabeth Shue), an ex-lover and still the subject of Caine's affections, and Matthew (Josh Brolin), who is secretly dating Linda, voice their objections, but Caine's insistence eventually wins them round, and successfully turns himself invisible. The reverse serum does not work, so Caine is stuck wearing a rubber mask and shades while they work on the solution. But Caine finds that with great power comes endless possibilities, and his behaviour becomes increasingly more erratic and sinister, and begins to sabotage his colleagues efforts to bring him back.

Subtlety has never been Paul Verhoeven's strong suit, but where his films are always hugely tacky and pornographically violent, they come with a satirical bite, more often than not at the U.S.'s expense. But where Starship Troopers (1997), for example, was a massive amount of fun as well as being pretty bloody clever (American soldiers dressed like Nazis!), Hollow Man doesn't have the capacity to be anything but a familiar story with a large helping of cheddar and stock characters, and the satire is left outside. It's still enjoyable seeing the various faceless characters receive a grisly butchering, and some impressive CGI (even by today's standards) reveals many inventive ways you can see an invisible man.

But it's often embarrassingly over-the-top and the script is woeful even by it's own schlock standards ("don't you die on me!"). Caine's infatuation with the hot woman across the road (played by Rhona Mitra) leads to a nasty rape, and Caine frequently takes liberties with Linda and veterinarian Sarah (Kim Dickens). It's an interesting theme, and no doubt something that a lot of men would take up given the power of invisibility, but Verhoeven's camera seems to almost enjoy the voyeurism, making certain scenes quite uncomfortable. Yet an enjoyably hammy performance from Bacon overshadows the blandness of Shue and Brolin's one-dimensional characters, and helps lifts the film from bad, to average.


Directed by: Paul Verhoeven
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Elisabeth Shue, Josh Brolin, Kim Dickens
Country: USA/Germany

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #445: 'The Emperor's New Groove' (2000)

Kuzco (David Spade), is a spoilt and heartless 18-year old ruler of the Inca Empire, who is planning to build himself a giant holiday home. He summons Pacha (John Goodman) to tell him that he, his family, and the rest of the village must make way for his lavish plans and find somewhere else to live. Kuzco also fires Yzma (Eartha Kitt), his advisor, and in her fury she plans to poison him and ruling in his absence. Yzma's dim-witted but loveable henchman Kronk (Patrick Warburton) gives Kuzco the wrong poison, and instead turns him into a llama. She trusts Kronk to finish the job, but he doesn't have the heart to let Kuzco die and eventually loses him amongst the villagers. Stranded in the jungle with his new llama body, he entrusts Pacha to protect him and return him to his palace, without having any intentions of changing his holiday home plans.

After a hugely troubled production (the title was originally Kingdom in the Sun and the plot involved a peasant look-a-like and a llama herder love-interest), The Emperor's New Groove arrived in 2000 to enjoy slim box-office success, something that Disney would have to get used to. The decision to swap the old-fashioned love story and moral preachings for a more silly and modern buddy-movie was a wise one, and film benefits especially from the work of Patrick Warburton, the man with possibly the best voice in comedy (he also does the voice of paraplegic Joe in Family Guy). Yet the tale is still an overly-familiar one, with the enlightenment of an ignorant rich kid amongst mixing with the lower-classes failing to find anything original to say.

The character of Kuzco is especially loathsome, but where usually the actor/voice artist would be talented enough to make the character endearing, in the hands of David Space, an actor of such a startling lack of talent, is annoying, and remains annoying throughout. There were times where I felt like shouting at Pacha to just kick him off a cliff. I found the whole experience quite charmless, and in an age of high-definition CGI animation, it is nice to see Disney take a traditional approach. Yet where their early films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Bambi (1942) were drawn with expert beauty and love, Groove just looks lazy and heartless. It's not a total failure, the film is sporadically funny with the aforementioned Kronk getting most of the laughs, and Earth Kitt does some fine work as the twisted Yzma. But it's no wonder Disney would buy Pixar, as judging from this they were lacking from anything resembling inspiration or innovation.


Directed by: Mark Dindal
Voices: David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt, Patrick Warburton
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #434: 'The City of Lost Souls' (2000)

Japanese director Takashi Miike has directed a phenomenal 80 films in his 21-year career, with genres ranging from comedy to yakuza, and from horror to period samurai. Although he is a highly-rated auteur, known for crazy camera-work, bizarre plot devices, and extreme violence, his films do tend to differ vastly in quality. His understated masterpiece Audition (1999) was a slowly-paced, thoughtful romantic drama that switched to cringe-inducing horror in the blink of an eye. Audition is one of the finest films to come out of the relatively unmemorable 1990's, and showed Miike's skill in luring an unsuspecting audience into a safe place, to then paralyse you and chicken-wiring your foot off. But his filmography is peppered with some rather dull offerings, and although they tend to show moments of offbeat genius, they lack in heart. The City of Lost Souls, also known as The City of Strangers, is an example of this.

Brazilian madman Mario (Teah), rescues his beautiful Japanese girlfriend Kei (Michelle Reis) from being deported in a daring bus hijack. Wanting to escape the dangers of Japan and flee to Australia, the two find themselves caught in the middle of some Chinese gangsters led by Ko (Mitsuhiro Oikawa) who are in the middle of a drug deal with Japanese hothead Fushimi (Koji Kikkawa). Mario gatecrashes the deal and steals the dope for himself, selling it to admiring Brazilian TV anchor Sanchez (Marcio Rosario). When Sanchez tries to sell the dope back to Ko, the gangsters try to lure the elusive Mario out of his hiding place by kidnapping his ex-girlfriend's blind daughter.

With slight nods to the earlier works of John Woo, Miike's yakuza comedy thriller employs the usual genre traits with slow-motion, Mexican stand-off's, and Asians-in-shades dominating throughout. But this isn't action captured in the same operatic way as Woo's films, this is laced with hyper-kinetic editing, black humour, and CGI cock-fighting, and all cut between seemingly random scenes and simply odd moments. Although this type of thing would usual make a film all the more interesting, here it seems like Miike is doing what he can to try and hide the rather thin plot. Fair play to him though, there doesn't seem to be a camera-angle he's scared to exploit, but it's all thrown at the audience as if Miike believes his audience has the attention-span of a child on blue Smarties. And a badly computer generated cock doing a Matrix-esque gravity-defying kick is not funny.


Directed by: Takashi Miike
Starring: Teah, Michelle Reis, Mitsuhiro Oikawa, Kôji Kikkawa
Country: Japan

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie