I’d like to preface the review you are about to read is just an opinion and that alone. Any and all instances of real life happenings are added for amusement. “So There”

It is always pleasurable to poke a little fun back at the production you are about to review. But, I must add a little background. A good friend once told me a great anecdote about one’s memory, my memory in particular, and thought it would be appropriate since this movie deals with one’s memory quite often. She said, “Your mind is like an iceberg and all your memories are penguins on that iceberg. When you get a new memory, an old penguin jumps off and the new one hops on. You though, don’t have an iceberg, you have a glacier and there are vast amounts of penguins piled on there. I don’t think they jump off but just get buried and pop out every now and then to say hi.” This film does just that by piling on so much information and situations that it’s like one of those penguins popping out just to fill you in.

Mark Whitacre is about to get dealt a hand in life that is partially brought on with images of his own grandeur and fueled by people around him not giving him the necessary help he needed to be better just in his own life. Steven Soderbergh (Oceans 11-13, Traffic) directs a good believable cast of Matt Damon (Oceans 11-13, The Good Shepherd) as Mark Whitacre, a corporate officer turned whistleblower for the FBI who acts like a secret agent, Scott Bakula (Men of a Certain Age, Quantum Leap) as Brain Shepard, the FBI agent handling the case,  Joel McHale (Community) as Ben Herndon, Brain’s FBI partner, based on Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum) screenplay of Kurt Eichenwald’s book “The Informant!” based on a true story.

Mark Whitacre (Damon) is a PhD biochemist who became the highest level executive to ever turn whistleblower on a Fortune 500 company, ADM. ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) was in the agri-business where Whitacre was in charge of lysine production. It was here that Whitacre learned of how the top execs were working with foreign companies to price-fix the sale of lysine to reap in the millions of dollars of profit. At the same time though, Mark has a different agenda and is taking kickbacks from his own company as a “safety net”. What really intrigued me about this movie is how brilliant this man, Whitacre, really is. Granted it took 17 minutes just to let us know what the story was about, it makes more sense in the end and will also make the “penguins” story understandable. Throughout the film we hear Whitacre’s thoughts as monologues. It goes to show how he knew every little detail of what was happening around him, yet he couldn’t tell what consequences could happen either. This leads to the dilemma of the FBI as they were sending in a civilian with no formal training to be undercover for an undisclosed amount of time. Eventually everything comes out as Whitacre is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and the pressure of the investigation took its toll through the stories he kept spinning and not being able to back up or even keep straight.

Soderbergh’s choice to use the “head” talk of Whitacre to help drive the story was fun and inquisitive at times. To hear little anecdotes about fellow workers or products that his company is involved with to tying thoughts together and find connections between those thoughts and how they relate to a situation he is in. Damon delves deep to bring compassion to Whitacre, though you see the joy he takes to play a character in the 90’s and during the height of some of the films of the time like “The Firm”. Scott Bakula and Josh McHale playing the FBI agents that are Whitacre’s handlers do a good job of being the face of the government but yet still worried about what they are doing to this man. One role in particular that I feel was not touched on more yet seemed to have a big part of the story was played very well by Melanie Lynskey (Heavenly Creatures, Ever After) and is of Whitaker’s wife, Ginger.  Talk about a woman who has a story of her own.

Included on “The Informant!” Blu ray is feature commentary with Steven Soderbergh and Scott Z. Burns as well as 4 deleted scenes. Now we all know that some scenes are cut from the final film. Some of these would have been nice to have seen since they were part of the trailer initially. In the movie when we first see Whitacre going to work ‘wired’ he narrates everything he is doing. It is quite a funny scene. It would have been fun to see this deleted scene that was in the trailer of FBI Agents Brian and Ben tell him he does not have to narrate everything. My favorite deleted scene is something that actually happened during the investigation where Whitacre in order to have some leverage, would were the ‘wired’ suits to have conversations with his own FBI handlers. It’s a fun scene and again would have added to the film in a good way.

“The Informant!” is an eclectic ride thru the investigation of a lifetime. It goes out to show that even though we have our own agendas in life we can always do the good deed. Just remember each event in your life has a consequence that may be good or bad. Either way we learn and grow. Now I can have that penguin go hide again.

When you hear “everybody’s fine”, you start to think to yourself, what’s being held back from me. Robert De Niro (Stardust, Meet the Fockers) is about to find out, playing Frank Goode. Directed and written by Kirk Jones (Nanny McPhee) from the original screenplay and film by Giuseppe Tornatore, is a movie about truly seeing what makes one’s family.

De Niro plays Frank, who coated power and telephone lines to support his family. After the death of his wife he continues on even while dealing with his health issue of fibrosis of the lungs. After his kids have all called to cancel what would be their summer gathering, Frank decides to go surprise his kids and see each of them. This sets up how Frank sees not just his kids but how he has lived his life, that he does not know everything within his own family. His kids, Amy played by Kate Beckinsale (Whiteout, Van Helsing), Robert played by Sam Rockwell (Frost/Nixon, The Hitchhiker’s Guide), Rosie played by Drew Barrymore (50 First Dates, Charlie’s Angels) and the nowhere to be found David who is briefly played by Austin Lysy (Law & Order:SVU).

This movie takes it adaptation from Giuseppe Tornatore’s Italian film “Stanno Tutti Bene” where a widower goes out to surprise his kids and spend time with them only to find that their lives are not what he’s been told. In Kirk’s updated American version, we have Frank (De Niro) doing just that after all of his kids have canceled their summer gathering. What ensues is Frank wondering what’s true and what has been hidden from him all these years from his recently departed wife. Traveling via trains and busses Frank goes to each kid one by one trying to surprise them. What we find is through Franks travels, Amy (Beckinsale) is separated living alone with her son and seeing someone from her work, Robert (Rockwell) is not a conductor of an orchestra but just a percussionist, Rosie (Barrymore) has a child and is bi-sexual, and then David (Lysy) who is missing through most of the film and is the secret the kids have been hiding from their dad.

Kirk’s vision for the film by interlacing conversations Frank has on the road between the family visits shows us how we take pride in our family even though we may not know everything that is happening in their own lives. I also enjoy how Frank still sees his kids as “kids”. Something we all know our own parents do. The transitions of seeing the telephone lines Frank has helped create, along with hearing the conversations between people, more poignantly between his kids who are trying to find David, before dad finds out, help reiterate that even though we may live our lives we still communicate with each other because family is forever.  We all need to take the bad with the good; we should never hide ourselves especially from those who should know us best.

De Niro does some good work playing a down to earth well lived man who loves his family. Beckinsale and Barrymore playing sisters doing everything they can to find their brother and yet still make dad happy, comes off genuine. Rockwell shows his character’s disappointment in himself, kind of forced but still very well. The overall dynamic of the family at the end shows just how much these characters do care about each other, even through tough times. This is also brought out in the ending song written by Sir Paul McCartney, “(I Want to) Come Home”. The special features at the end include a making of the song and how Paul came up with tying together the music and the film of what family is. Family is important, no matter if it is the family you are born into or the family you choose. It is the one constant in your life that will always be there for you.

Chaos reigns in Los Angeles after a mysterious event causes everyone in the world to lose consciousness at exactly the same moment. Was it an act of nature? Something man-made gone wrong, or something even more sinister? Whatever it was, every person on Earth blacks out for two minutes and seventeen seconds and sees a series of events from their own future, taking place on April 29, 2010 at 10:00 p.m., Pacific Time. For some the future will be joyous and hopeful; for others, shockingly unexpected; and for a few, it simply doesn’t seem to exist.

Knowing their fate will alter each person’s life in one way or another and poses the questions: Can destiny be changed? And by changing just one destiny, what effect would that have on those of others?  Viewers will be able to catch up on the first ten episodes of ABC’s thrilling new drama “FlashForward” before it resumes airing in March 2010.

The series premiered on September 24th 2009, and after ten episodes, went on hiatus. With episode eleven scheduled for broadcast on March 18th, ABC released the first ten episodes in a two-disc set on February 23rd. This would appear to be a marketing ploy to allow people who have possibly missed some of the shows to get caught up, but more importantly to draw attention to a series that has been off the air since November. One can certainly wonder how effective this will be since the episodes are available online, and people who are interested in owning the series would wait for a full season release.

“FlashForward” stars Joseph Fiennes as Mark Benford, John Cho as Demetri Noh, Jack Davenport as Lloyd Simcoe, Zachary Knighton as Bryce Varley, Peyton List as Nicole Kirby, Dominic Monaghan as Simon, Brían F. O’Byrne as Aaron Stark, Courtney B. Vance as Stanford Wedeck, Sonya Walger as Olivia Benford and Christine Woods as Janis Hawk.

Flash Forward has the potential to follow in the successful footsteps of the phenomenon that is Lost. The writing needs to get back on track, allow the characters to be more consistent in their behavior, and some of the performances need to get better. There is certainly enough pure energy and mystery in the first few episodes of the series to make them worth owning, but waiting for the entire first season to be available would seem to be a better choice in these tough economic times.

Check-Out A Clip from the DVD!

 
The 2-disc box set includes all 10 episodes from the first half of the season, and the following bonus material:

CREATING A CATASTROPHE: THE EFFECTS OF A GLOBAL BLACKOUT
 Go behind-the-scenes of the pilot and discover what went in to creating FlashForward’s most iconic scene, the freeway disaster.  Through interviews with David S. Goyer and his production team we go on the set to see how destruction is developed and explosions are executed.
 
FLASHFORWARD: A LOOK AHEAD
Be the first to get a “FlashForward” with this exclusive look at the teaser to episode 111.
 
“COULD”
A look at the second half of FlashForward Season 1, narrated by Dominic Monaghan.

From Nicholas Pileggi’s true-life bestseller Wiseguy, GoodFellas explores the criminal life like no other movie. Directed and co-written by Martin Scorsese, it was judged 1990’s Best Picture by the New York, Los Angeles and National Society of Film Critics. Electrifying performances abound and from a standout cast that includes Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino, Joe Pesci walked off with the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award.

Goodfellas shows Scorsese to be a master of pacing, as it’s a film that briskly covers a vast amount of time, but does so while letting its scenes play out to their greatest effect. It’s the sense of years passing and people changing, all while the presence of the mob stays constant, that gives us an intimate look into the life of Henry and Karen Hill, the real-life characters the film is based on.

Goodfellas has a grand sweep to it that makes it seem in some ways the greatest achievement of Scorsese’s career. While it doesn’t quite achieve that level for me, there’s no denying what a remarkable film it is.

Warner Brothers releases the Blu-ray of Goodfellas with some extras thrown in to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the film. The film is presented in 1080p high definition with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. One could speculate on why the visual presentation here is fairly underwhelming, but it’s quite possible that the disc — produced in the early days of Blu-ray, before the format wars had ended — didn’t benefit from the technical knowledge that tends to produce sparkling high def catalog releases almost every time these days.

If you don’t already own Goodfellas on Blu-ray, this 20th Anniversary Edition is the one to go with since its packaging is more attractive than the 2007 release and it contains a high-quality documentary about the gangster genre.

DISC 1

• Cast and Crew Audio Commentary – Director Martin Scorsese, author/screenwriter Nicolas Pileggi, producers Irwin Winkler and Barbara De Fina, cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, editor Thelma Schoonmaker, and cast members Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino and Frank Vincent all participate in this recorded-separately-and-spliced-together-style commentary track. Very insightful, and due to the style in which it was pieced together, always moving and jumping around from voice to voice and story to story, this is absolutely worth listening to. Scorsese’s comments are especially interesting, as you would expect.
• Cop and Crook Audio Commentary – The second commentary features the real Henry Hill and FBI agent Edward McDonald. This is especially interesting for the real-life comparisons Hill relates. McDonald actually does a great job of asking questions and keeping the conversation going.
• Getting Made (29:36) – This is the standard making-of for the film. Interviews with cast and crew highlight the production, with lots of emphasis put on character building and editing.
• Made Men: The Goodfellas Legacy (13:33) – This shorter piece is more of a tribute, as a younger generation of filmmakers (e.g. Jon Favreau, Richard Linklater) discuss the impact of Goodfellas on their career and life.
• Paper is Cheaper Than Film (4:27) – This is a presentation of Scorsese’s drawn storyboards and written notations, alongside clips of the film. ” The Workaday Gangster (7:58) – The final featurette in this set is a discussion on the lifestyle of the mob. Constantly working, the real-life wiseguys were always on the ready…
• Theatrical Trailer (1:28)

DISC 2

• Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film (105:43) – This feature-length documentary from 2008 is incredibly detailed and exhaustive! While it starts and ends great, you may get a bit lost in the middle. This piece does a serious break-down of the gangster genre in Hollywood, starting with Burglar on the Roof from 1898 (that’s not a typo) and ending with The Departed . The heaviest concentration focuses, as the title indicates, on the golden era of the genre, which is considered to be the 1930’s. There are great interviews with film historians and critics, authors and filmmakers. There is also great use of vintage interviews from the filmmakers and stars of the golden era, plus clips of those films (even silent era stuff!). This is a great piece for anyone who has an interest in film history. Though it may get dry in the middle there, it’s still absolutely worth watching on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
• Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes (30:39) – There are four Friz Freleng cartoons here. “I Like Mountain Music” is from 1933 and in black and white; “She Was an Acrobat’s Daughter” is from 1937 and in color. These first two are hard to watch and have nothing to do with gangsters. There are obviously way better choices in the catalogue and I am not sure why they were chosen for inclusion here. But then “Racketeer Rabbit” (1946) and “Bugs and Thugs” (1954) come on and all is forgiven. Both of these are classics, staring the infamous rabbit and some bumbling gangsters.

An unusual hybrid of chick-flick by way of science fiction, The Time Traveler’s Wife had the potential to be a truly unique love story; one for the guys as well as the girls.  However, the end result veers way too far into the romantic depths in order to accomplish a successful genre combo.  Resembling something far closer to The Notebook than to The Twilight Zone, the film ends up alienating fans of each genre by not adhering to either one. 

Based on the best-selling book by Audrey Niffenegger, the story revolves around a couple, Henry and Clare (Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams), who find themselves destined to be together despite Henry’s inablity to control his gift/curse of time travel.  Despite the fact that the film’s title alludes to Clare, this is really Henry’s story.  There is no explanation given for his “chrono impairment”, nor are there any rules (he meets himself throughout the film without paradox).  Henry finds himself drawn “like gravity” to the same pivotal moments of his life, again and again.  Whether it’s the car crash that killed his mother, or the day he meets Clare for the first time, he cannot control where he goes or when he goes there.

While this randomness might have worked in book form, it doesn’t translate to film.  On the page, this sort of free-form storytelling can be effective.  But on film, a more linear structure is needed.  There doesn’t seem to be a cohesive narrative, but rather a series of events that don’t really amount to much of anything when pieced together.

I will give the film credit for not following the chick-flick wedding cliches.  The first part of the film details Henry and Clare’s courtship, going all the way back to adult Henry meeting Clare as a child.  These provide some of the film’s best scenes, and provide an interesting complication for Henry as he is later forced to live up to the expectations established by the “ghost” of his former self.  However, in an unusual move for this type of film, the second part of the film goes to a darker place, right after the inevitable wedding. 

This is the where the fantasy ends for Clare and she has to deal with the ramifications of having a time-travelling husband.  How can she live a normal life with a normal family if she never knows when her husband is going to randomly disappear?  And is it a genetic condition, one that would endanger a future child?

I liked these ideas and conflicts, but the way they were presented just felt false.  Overly sentimental and emotionally forced, the filmmakers pile on the sap and melodrama without restraint.  Bana and McAdams have a definite chemistry, and this helps the film in a lot of ways.  But the chemistry between them can’t overshadow the soap opera that is playing out on screen. 

Visually, the film is impressive.  The colors are vibrant, the directing is showy without ever being distracting, and there are a lot of creative edits in order to keep the story moving.  One of the bonus features describes all the early scenes as being from the point of view of a character’s distorted memory, rather than reality.  Therefore, the colors are brighter, the hair more perfect, etc.  Personally, I don’t think this approach makes sense as we are supposed to be seeing him literally traveling to these moments in time, but as an aesthetic approach it does create some beautiful imagery. 

For the new Blu-Ray release, two bonus features were included.  I wasn’t particularly excited as I began watching these, but I found myself more captivated by these features than I was by the film itself.  The first one is called “Behind the Story: An Unconventional Love Story.”  I found myself having a greater appreciation for the film after watching this.  I still don’t think it’s a particularly good movie, but I can respect what they were trying to accomplish. 

Featuring several interviews with cast and crew as well as visual depictions of what they are discussing, this feature brings to light several thematic aspects of the film I hadn’t even realized as I watched it.  For example, they discuss the concept of the film being “constructed around echoes,” and how they made specific attempts to replicate visual cues throughout the film.  They also discuss the different interpretations of the time-travel itself and whether it’s to be looked at literally or as various metaphors for relationships.

The other feature is called “The Time Traveller’s Wife: Love Beyond Words.”  This feature is all about adapting the book into a film.  It’s interesting hearing the screenwriter discuss his thought process as he tried to turn a very literary story into something suitable for the screen.  In my opinion, he wasn’t successful, but it was still interesting to get the different perspectives on the story.

This isn’t an awful movie.  It’s just not very good.  There is a lot of potential in the basic premise, but they chose to push the film in an over-the-top romantic direction that cancelled out what could have been a compelling story.  I’m sure the book is great, but it just did not translate.  Some of the film works, but overall, I found it a disappointing, jumbled mess.

It’s no shock that Drew Barrymore chose Whip It as her directorial debut.  A film about women’s roller derby featuring tough, trash-talking tattooed women seems right up her alley.  What is surprising is her ability to mine genuine humor and emotion out of such an unconventional premise. 

Ellen Page (Juno) gives another terrific performance as Bliss Cavendar.  As the film begins she is a front-runner in a beauty pageant, and obviously miserable.  There is something missing from her life, but her mother’s obsession with these pageants is preventing her from figuring out what she should be doing with her life.  Eventually, she finds her way to Austin, Texas, and becomes a roller-derby sensation going by the name of Babe Ruthless.

As her mother, Marcia Gay Harden portrays a character that genuinely wants what is best for her daughters.  She just doesn’t understand the impact roller-derby has on her daughter’s life.  As Bliss Cavendar, she is a ridiculed, nerdy waitress living an ordinary life.  But when she becomes Babe Ruthless, her life opens up.  She is forced to become more aggressive, physically and mentally.

Page plays Cavendar and Ruthless as if they were two different people.  The constant repression of Ruthless (what seems to be her real persona) is a tremendous pressure on her in “the real world,” and it is this struggle that drives the film.  As things progress, it becomes clearer to everybody that this is who she is meant to be.  This sense of discovery is a huge part of why the film works so well.  It’s a believable and entertaining transition.

The other reason the film works so well is the terrific supporting cast.  Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development) shines as her best friend, Posh.  They have a believable repartee between them, and this friendship is a cornerstone of the film.  Barrymore smartly spends a lot of time away from the roller derby just observing these two living their lives.  Their friendship is a crucial aspect of the characters, and it’s a smart move to spend so much time with them, away from the main story.

As for the roller derby itself, it’s a violent and fascinating sport that I honestly didn’t even know existed.  Barrymore sets up the rules pretty early in the film, and then does a great job actually filming the sport itself.  I’ve seen a lot of sports movies and while this does tend to follow the formula, it’s refreshing to follow a sport that I’ve never seen before.  There is an energy and excitement to the game sequences, and she never loses sight of the action.  It becomes very easy to follow, and I eventually found myself actually getting invested in the game itself.

The other roller-derby competitors are a really fun group to watch.  Kristin Wiig, Zoe Bell, Eve, and even Drew Barrymore all play various team members.  They all play tough girls, but never end up as stereotypes or cliches.  Each individual is a memorable character, fleshed out and believable.  The interactions between the team demonstrate a sense of family that is never forced.  Another standout is Juliette Lewis as Iron Maven, the common enemy of the team.  She seems to be having a blast with this performance, and her over-the-top attacks make it easier to root for the team.

Unfortunately, the extras on this set are terrible.  There are nine deleted scenes, and many of them are simple scene extensions.  There is a three-minute feature on the screenwriter and her process of writing the story.  And the last feature is an ad for the soundtrack.  I was amazed at the miniscule amount of material on the set.  I would have thought Barrymore would have had a lot of material chronicling her debut.  She doesn’t even provide a commentary track.

But my disappointment was balanced out with my enthusiasm for the film itself.  I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it nearly as much as I did, and was amazed at just how fun it actually ended up being.  While the story is a bit of a cliché, it’s smartly written and always entertaining.  I wasn’t expecting much from Barrymore, but she really did a great job and I look forward to seeing whatever her next attempt may be.

Over the years I’ve seen many musicals, both live and on film.  Yet somehow, I’ve managed to go my whole life without ever seeing a single moment of the Music Man.  It’s not that I’ve been against it in any way, I’ve simply just never gotten around to it.  I began watching the newly released Blu-Ray completely unfamiliar with the story, the characters, or any of the music (although I did end up recognizing a lot of it, having never realized where the music came from).  Going into a film blank is an exceptionally rare experience for me, and one I was eager to jump right into.  Unfortunately, it turned out that I hadn’t been missing anything that great.

This is one of those movies made up of moments.  There are fantastic set pieces, character beats and musical numbers throughout, but as a whole the story just doesn’t really come together.  Robert Preston is a standout, bringing an energy and excitement to his role of con artist Harold Hill.  Having perfected the role on Broadway, he supports the entire film with his performance.  Shirley Jones (The Partridge Family) also shines as Hill’s love interest, “Marian the Librarian.” 

Without these two performances, I don’t believe the film would be as renowned as it is today.  The story revolves around Hill’s attempts to con River City, a small town in Iowa, into purchasing band equipment and lessons that he cannot provide.  As we learn, he has scammed several towns prior to this one, collecting the money and running away.  However, due to various circumstances, he can’t leave until the town has received their band uniforms.  During this time, he falls in love with Marian, gets to know the citizens and manages to improve the town through music while they in turn make him a better man. 

It’s a very simplistic story, and is dragged out over two hours and thirty minutes.  In a film with so much boisterous energy and lively musical numbers, I was amazed at how slow the film actually felt.  We spend so much time getting to know practically the entire town that we don’t really get to know anybody.  Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, considering how annoyingly caricatured several of the residents are.  I understand that the movie is based on a play, but the performances still feel way too theatrical for the medium.  The filmmakers needed to tone down these performances, but rather encouraged the slapstick and over-the-top goofy accents and voices. 

Of course, The Music Man is a musical, and in this regard, the film is fantastic.  I ended up recognizing the majority of the songs without even realizing I had heard them before.  These are iconic songs, ones that have earned a place in the pantheon of great musical numbers.  The main song of the film is Seventy-Six Trombones, a fantastic march that Hill uses to sell the idea of a band to the residents of the town. 

However, some of the best musical moments are those that slowly evolve from regular dialogue, eventually transitioning into full-blown musical numbers.  In fact, the opening sequence is like this, featuring a group of traveling salesman conversing through overlapping musical dialogue in time with the rhythms of their train.  And sometimes, these different styles end up overlapping, with full-blown melodies integrated into the more conversational style of song. 

As for the Blu-Ray itself, the picture looks and sounds terrific.  The colors are vibrant and the image pops off the screen.  The sound is flawless, with a clarity that enables us to hear every word of overlapping dialogue and perfectly realize every note of music.  The extras however, are minimal.  There is the original theatrical trailer, which is a lot of fun, and a feature called “Right Here in River City.” 

Running just over 22 minutes, this is a terrific documentary featuring modern-day interviews intermixed with footage from filming.  By incorporating current interviews with Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett and Onna White, they provide a modern perspective on what it was like to film this so many years ago.  It’s apparent that everybody involved in this production had a great deal of admiration and respect for the finished product.  They also seemed to have a great time actually filming it.  Filled with anecdotes as well as insightful analysis, this is a bonus feature worth watching. 

I just wish I could say that I liked the film itself more.  While I loved the music and some of the performances, I couldn’t get past my frustration with the citizens of the town or the dragged out storyline.  The film is worth seeing and I’m glad that I did, but I still can’t help but find the film overrated.

Most movies these days seem to live and breathe by a gimmick.  It seems as if there always has to be some new conceit, whether it’s the effects, the characters, action sequences, or a twist within the story.  In 2003’s Mystic River, brilliantly directed by Clint Eastwood, he knew he had a great story and cast, and that was all he needed.

He opens the movie with an unsettling prelude, showing our central cast as a close group of childhood friends.  One of these friends, Dave, ends up abducted by someone posing as a cop.  Four days later, he escapes after enduring unspecified, but obviously horrific abuse, and it is this chapter of this life that will forever define who he is. 

Cut to the present, and these three still know each other, but they are no longer the tight-knit group they once were.  Dave, now played by Tim Robbins, is a father himself, but one who is obviously haunted by the demons of those four days.  His friends, Jimmy and Sean, now played by Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon, are living their own lives, Jimmy as the owner of a local store and Sean as a cop.  Through a series of unknown events, Jimmy’s 19-year old daughter ends up murdered the same night Dave comes home covered in blood, claiming to have killed a mugger.  Is it coincidence or is he the killer?

On paper, this is a relatively straightforward murder mystery, but there is a power to this story unusual for the genre.  Jimmy’s grief over the loss of his daughter is palpable.  Penn’s acting is so intense that you genuinely feel devastated over the loss of his beloved girl.  When he decides that the cops assigned to the case (including Sean) aren’t doing enough in their investigation, he begins his own detective work, and you completely believe in his tactics.  Of course, things end up spiraling out of control, but the desperation behind every act makes it all believable.

As the film progresses, the audience is able to start piecing the puzzle together.  There are no shocking twists, and the story itself is rather straightforward.  What makes this film unique are the nuances of the characters.  Dave’s abduction is the dark cloud hanging over the proceedings and the fact that they used to be friends adds an element of depth to everything that is happening.  Eastwood describes the film as being like a Greek tragedy, and that seems about right.  He views the film as the “unraveling of a mystery that goes back generations,” and yet at the same time, evolves to an unbelievably intense finale, one completely of the present.  The central mystery doesn’t end up taking much time out of their lives, and yet the story feels epic. 

Every character is crucial in a story like this, and every actor does a phenomenal job.  Even those with limited screen time make the most out of their performance.  There isn’t a false note within the film.  Laurence Fishburn, Marcia Gay Harden and Laura Linney all do stupendous work, shaping their performances to create memorable characters of consequence. 

Warner Bros. has released a terrific Blu-Ray of this film.  Extras include “Mystic River: Beneath the Surface” a 23-minute documentary featuring current interviews with the cast, Eastwood, Brian Helgeland (the screenwriter), and Dennis Lehane (the novelist who wrote the book on which the film is based).  This is one of those features that is kind of dry, but fascinating at the same time.  It simply consists of people talking to the camera, reminiscing and ruminating on the film.  There is no flash in this feature, but there is a lot of substance.

There is also a feature that runs just over 11 minutes called “From Page to Screen.”  This was originally a special for Bravo, and doesn’t feel all that different from the “Beneath the Surface” feature.  It’s just more interviews and clips.  However, my favorite extras were the Charlie Rose Show interviews.  Featuring interviews with Clint Eastwood, Tim Robbins, and Kevin Bacon, Rose does a great job just conversing with these fascinating people.  There are times where these types of interviews feel as much like a commercial as anything, but these particular interviews are simply conversation.  Sitting in front of a black set with no fancy graphics or eye-catching camera moves, they sit and discuss their life’s work, not just the film.  These segments provide fascinating insight into these brilliant actors and directors, and I loved watching them.  Rounding out the extras are the teaser trailer and the full preview.

Eastwood states that he shoots his movies by “treating every scene like it’s the most important scene in the picture.”  This dedication has almost always served him well, but it really comes across here.  Almost every moment is both crucial to the film as a whole, as well as serving as a fascinating stand-alone moment.  There is no wasted time in this film.  It’s a masterful script, turned into a brilliant movie.  Both Sean Penn and Tim Robbins deservedly won Oscars for their performances, and the film got nominations for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actress (for Marcia Gay Harden).  This is a remarkable film, and one that deserves every accolade it received.  Having directed several brilliant films, I would still consider Mystic River his masterpiece.

Amelia Earhart is probably still the best-know female aviator despite the fact that she disappeared without a trace over 50 years ago. Director Mira Nair has now created a long-overdue tribute to this incredibly audacious woman with “Amelia,” which has now arrived on blu-ray. Amelia (Hilary Swank) has always been fascinated by the prospect of flying. At an early age she witnessed the first flying machines and decided to become a pilot herself.

Star Hilary Swank has the boyish looks that are a near doppelganger for the first woman who flew across the Atlantic. She is a fine actress and has the chops necessary to bring Earhart to life. Swank stars against strong leading man Richard Gere in what should have been a stellar cast that included Ewan McGregor and Christopher Eccleston in supporting roles. The Englishman and Scot are both highly talented. Unfortunately, the first problem that arises is the near wooden performance of Swank that loses the ambition and charisma of Earhart. She was one of the largest figures in America in pre-World War II days and Swank does not conjure up a woman so universally loved. Gere, on the other hand, has been one of the favorite actors for women since 1982´s “An Officer and a Gentleman,” but he doesn´t share chemistry with Swank.

The movie begins almost immediately showing some of the final moments of Earhart´s (Swank) failed flight around the world where her husband and publicist George Putnam (Gere) is getting word that Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan (Eccleston) are flying against stronger headwinds and may not have enough fuel to reach the tiny island of Howland Island. The film then moves back to Earhart´s earlier days when she fell in love with flying and, like everything else in the film, it spends precious little time proving depth to her history. This is a movie where almost everything is glossed over except for a few long looks between Earhart and purported lover Gene Vidal (McGregor). It isn´t long before Putnam hires Earhart to fly as a passenger to cross the Atlantic. This first flight is one of the film´s better scenes and whether or not Earhart almost fell out of the plane happened, it contains the most dramatic moment of the film.

The unfortunate ending to Earhart´s highly publicized flight around the world is not hypothesized by the filmmakers and screenwriters Ronald Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan deserve some credit for not taking an Oliver Stone-like route to telling the story. Director Mira Nair though needed to add just a little more drama to the final moments and I feel she spent entirely too much time on the radio communications between Earhart and the Naval forces that were waiting for her at Howland Island. The point was gotten very quickly and any emotion that Earhart was unable to communicate and find the island was lost. A few shots at distraught Noonan showed that the navigator understood death was upon him, but Swank gave little emotion during this drawn-out sequence. The filmmakers could have done without the hypothesized moments in the cabin of the Electra and focused on how everybody else handled the events.

“Amelia” is a very gentle film with many nuances surrounding the Amelia Earhart mythology. It is never sensational and instead opts for a closer look at the woman that Amelia was rather than the adventurous feats she continuously undertook. Her historic solo crossing of the Atlantic is playing for now more than a few minutes while her globe-circling attempt to fly around the world bookends the film as a whole. Instead of focusing on the near-misses, the strenuous and undoubtedly frightening moments of some of her flights, instead we learn what kind of a woman Amelia Earhart really was. How her relationship with George Putnam – who adored and loved her like a goddess – grew, how she withstood the temptations presented to her by the aviation industry and other powerful companies, how she disliked the celebrity status she had and the sell-out she felt she had become, and how she ultimately dedicated her entire life to flying.

“Amelia” is a touching and heartfelt movie, very different from what I expected. Focusing on her character, life and her person as a whole, it is much less action-laden as you might expect but more than makes up for it by wonderfully keen observations and warmth. I loved the film and will clearly watch it again and again.

Blu-ray Disc Special Features:
Disc One
    •    Theatrical version
    •    Deleted scenes
    •    Making Amelia
    •    The Power of Amelia Earhart
    •    The Plane Behind the Legend
    •    Re-constructing the Planes of Amelia
    •    Movietone News

Disc Two
    •    Digital Copy

DVD Special Features:
    •    Theatrical version
    •    Deleted scenes
    •    Making Amelia
    •    The Power of Amelia Earhart
    •    Movietone News