CultureCritiq

by Paige MacGregor

Former camera operator Craig DiBona’s directorial debut is a poor-at-best attempt to breathe life into novelist Virginia C. Andrews’ (author of the popular 1987 novel Flowers in the Attic) somewhat obscure, somewhat popular novel Rain, suggesting that perhaps camera operators should stick to operating cameras.

In an opening scene that leads viewers to believe initially that what they are about to watch is actually worthwhile, DiBona expertly combines the melodic singing of the film’s protagonist, a nineteen-year-old African American girl named Rain, with the sounds of her parents fighting, both against a backdrop that pictures Rain cross-legged on her bed as she plays her guitar. Her parents’ only presence within the frame occurs in the form of a beer bottle that is hurled across a room off screen, entering the frame from the left and smashing against a wall on the far right hand side of the screen, abruptly bringing Rain’s informal performance to an end. Unfortunately, this brilliant combination of sound and image lasts only a moment before RAIN becomes choked with poor and painfully exaggerated acting and an unbelievable (and unbelievably slow) plot.

Although RAIN is a well intentioned film that strives for sincerity and authenticity in its efforts to address issues of race, class, and age using the all-too-familiar gang violence, diamond-in-the rough, and generational-gap scenarios, it ultimately fails as a “message film,” perhaps because the message that RAIN attempts to impart on the viewer has in recent years become somewhat of a tired cliché. A quote on the DVD cover states, “Knowing the truth could be harder than living a lie;” combined with the film synopsis on the back cover, which details virtually every event that takes place during the film, actually watching RAIN becomes an almost superfluous task for viewers.

Equally unimpressive are the performances of the film’s main characters: Brooklyn Sudano (My Wife and Kids, 2003-2005; CSI: NY, 2007) as Rain Arnold, Faye Dunaway (Chinatown, 1974) as Isabel Hudson, longtime television actor Robert Loggia as Mrs. Hudson’s driver, Jake, and Khandi Alexander (CSI: Miami) as Rain’s “mother,” Latisha Arnold. Brooklyn Sudano gives an extremely contradictory performance, alternating between a shy, introverted personality and instances of extreme defiance, self-confidence and hardheadedness that border on conceit.

Particularly surprising is the lackluster performance given by Faye Dunaway, whose schizophrenic, forced diegetic emotion stands as an indication that this once great actress may in fact have forgotten how to act. Dunaway’s terrible performance is particularly disappointing given the fact that her involvement in the film is used as one of the DVD’s main selling points, a teaser for die hard fans of the neo-noir film Chinatown and Dunaway’s infamous character, Evelyn Mulwray.

While Loggia’s portrayal of Jake, a retired police officer charged with driving Rain back and forth between her biological grandmother’s mansion and a prestigious performing arts high school, is much more natural than the forced performances of Dunaway and Khandi Alexander, Loggia fails to bring to the character a depth that would convince viewers that he is doing anything more than simply playing himself in the film. Alexander, on the other hand, does give her character a unique persona, but the exaggeration with which she portrays her character’s emotional breakdowns and spastic coughing fits sours what small asset she could have been to the film.

Had RAIN employed greater plot development, faster pacing and deeper, more realistic characters, the film would have been much more successful in addressing completely and beneficially the main situations around which the story’s action centers. RAIN fails to capitalize on an opportunity to teach its viewers valuable lessons about judging another person based on his or her appearance, age, or socioeconomic status. While the stark contrast created between Rain, a young African American girl brought up in the poverty and violence that the film seems to assert as characteristic of any predominantly or entirely black neighborhood, and her grandmother, Isabel, a wealthy, privileged, selfish white Southern woman embarrassed to have a biracial granddaughter and who is critical of everyone when the two women are thrown into a situation that forces them to share a home has great deal of potential, the leaps and bounds with which Isabel transitions from removed indifference to loving devotion are far from believable and rob the story of any true value.

Audio/Video. The image is presented in widescreen format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. For viewers with an old tube television, the picture will look fine, but for those viewers watching RAIN on a large, widescreen LDC or plasma television the image will be low quality and extremely small, with large black bars bordering each of the four sides of the screen.

Extras. Unfortunately for DiBona, the DVD release of RAIN doesn’t provide any possibility for redeeming the film with special features or interviews with the actors or production team. This single-disc release of RAIN actually includes no special features whatsoever.

Bottom line. This film has virtually no redeeming qualities, unless you’re partial to one of the film’s actors or are teaching a class on race, racism, or gang violence in the U.S. in which the situations are more important than the quality of the performance.

Not recommended.

by Paige MacGregor

“I don’t know… I have a hard time imagining Audrey Hepburn getting buttered up to ‘Funky Cold Medina.’”

Directing duo Anthony and Joe Russo’s romantic comedy You, Me and Dupree starring Owen Wilson (Wedding Crashers, 2005), Kate Hudson (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, 2003), Matt Dillon (Crash, 2004) and Michael Douglas (The Sentinel, 2006), does indeed have its comic moments, but ultimately this film fails to fulfill its genre roll. The genre of “romantic comedy” describes a very specific type of film, one in which comedy is the main focus, backed by a smattering of romantic plot that provides scenarios wrought with comedic potential. You, Me and Dupree, however, falls horribly short of this goal, functioning instead as a somewhat funny romance rather than a slightly romantic comedy.

What really pushes this film out of the dual realm of comedy and romance and into areas generally claimed exclusively by Michael Cunningham screenplays (The Hours, 2002; Evening, 2007) and the Lifetime channel is a well-intentioned and ultimately overly successful attempt to both illustrate and to address the problems that can arise within romantic relationships when one partner forms a friendship with another member of the opposite sex. While You, Me and Dupree portrays the complications and jealousy that develops in a man when his (in this case) wife becomes friends with one of his closest guy friends in an extremely accurate manner, the resulting comic scenes (Matt Dillon’s character lunging across the dining room table to strangle Owen Wilson during dinner one evening, for example) are not funny enough to justify the amount of time spent developing the relationship between Molly (Hudson) and Dupree (Wilson).

In a surprising twist, it is Michael Douglas who delivers what is perhaps the film’s funniest performance as Molly’s father, who slowly pushes Carl (Dillon) over the edge of sanity incrementally during the course of the movie. The composure with which Douglas asks Carl to hyphenate his last name and to get a vasectomy, and the psychological breakdown that his new son-in-law has as a result, provides the audience with some of the most humorous scenes in the film, both surprising and sad for a film starring the once great comedic actor Owen Wilson.

In the past, simply adding the name ‘Owen Wilson’ to an already star-studded cast like that of You, Me and Dupree (which also features up-and-coming comedic actor Seth Rogan of The 40 Year Old Virgin and more recently Knocked Up) garnered major points in the comedy department for any director. Unfortunately for the Russo brothers, Wilson’s recent performances—including this one—have been dry and repetitive, leaving the actor with nothing more than a few trademark mannerisms (including that creepy, raspy whisper that first appeared in Zoolander and has since stuck with the actor like some kind of symbiotic worm) and a nose that is in desperate need of cosmetic surgery.

The film closes with a scene of romantic reconciliation between Molly and Carl that, somehow, tugs on the heartstrings and may even bring tears to the eyes… not exactly the goal of even the most romantic of comedies. Hopefully the Russo brothers will have better luck with their next motion picture project, Triggerfish (scheduled for release later this year) since You, Me and Dupree, although somewhat entertaining, fell drastically short with regard to its obligations as a romantic comedy with a star-studded cast.

by Paige MacGregor

Five years after the release of director Danny Boyle’s science fiction thriller 28 Days Later (2002), the epidemic continues.

28 Weeks Later opened in U.S. theaters on May 11, seemingly just one more addition to this summer’s lengthy list of blockbuster sequels that includes Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Shrek the Third, and Live Free or Die Hard. Its performance was somewhat weak compared to those of its summer sequel rivals, grossing only $5,454,168 at the box office during its first weekend (whereas the third installment of Pirates earned $139,802,190 during its opening weekend).

Despite the mixed reviews circulating about the success of 28 Weeks Later’s attempt not only to mirror, but ultimately to surpass the thrilling suspense and eye-opening (or closing, depending on your feelings regarding blood-and-guts violence) bloodiness of its predecessor, this sequel delivers more than is promised by its “It All Begins Again” advertising campaign.

28 Weeks Later is a pseudo-post-apocalyptic thriller that presents audiences with a scenario of fast-paced devastation which, while slightly reminiscent of the 1995 science fiction thriller Outbreak (starring Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo), is startlingly and unsettlingly plausible in today’s world of scientific advances and international biological warfare threats.

The film is a brutal and exhaustively terrifying adrenaline rush replete not only with an excess of schizophrenic visual stimuli that ranges from the intense physical encounters of the “new arrivals” with “the infected”—filmed with cameras that shudder and move uncontrollably at an amazing speed—to close-up shots of the frighteningly red blood that oozes from the eyes, nose and mouths of the infected. The visual effects are further intensified by the film’s non-stop soundtrack, which constantly bombards audiences with massive explosions and military gunfire so loud that it seems to become embedded in the membrane of the viewer’s middle ear.

While 28 Days Later presented audiences with an unexpected level of bloody violence mixed with just the right amount of harrowing helplessness, it also appeased its viewers with a “happy ending” of sorts, one that promised an end to the infection and a degree of hope for the future. Alternatively, 28 Weeks Later kicks those feelings of anxiety and hopelessness felt by audiences watching 28 Days Later up a notch by presenting viewers not only with the return of the rage virus, but with a combination of desperate and impossibly bleak scenarios including the failure of U.S. military techniques for containment and sterilization and the inability of the film to establish a traditional hero figure able to survive within the diegetic world for more than thirty minutes (thus making narcissistic and voyeuristic identification virtually impossible).

Amidst its mouth-watering menu of pleasingly excessive and intense sensory stimuli, 28 Weeks Later does have one major downside involving the often blatantly thoughtless actions of the film’s two main characters, Tammy (Imogen Poots), and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton). These two children, the first allowed back into the entirely adult populated England apparently think that disobeying the direct orders of the United States military and purposefully leaving the clean, safe, disinfected “Area 1” to traverse the infected-corpse-ridden streets of London is a good idea. Fortunately, several of the film’s other important characters deliver believable performances, including in particular Jeremy Renner (S.W.A.T., 2003), who plays a U.S. military officer named Doyle.

For audiences who have seen other films that are overtly preoccupied with methods of containment and surveillance, such as Brazil (1985), or even The Truman Show (1998), the attempt in the film by the U.S. military to step in to sterilize and re-colonize England in “the best way possible”—as only Americans can—following the complete societal breakdown caused by the rage virus will certainly resonate as a familiar (and familiarly doomed) scenario. Of particular interest given the current political climate is the film’s emphasis on containment and militarism and the way in which these themes speak to the strong-armed foreign policy exhibited by the United States in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq over the past few years from a unique perspective: one that isn’t American.

The sequel to 28 Days Later, like many cinematic follow-up films, was not written or directed by any of the members of the original’s production team. In place of British director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 1996; A Life Less Ordinary, 1997; Alien Love Triangle, 2002), 28 Weeks Later came under the direction of writer-director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Linked, 1996; Intact, 2001). Despite this change, Fresnadillo was able to create a strong, entertaining sequel to 28 Days Later, a film that has developed somewhat of a cult following over the past five years. Whether the franchise will continue is unclear, but what is clear is the fact that this particular combination of writing and directing teams have managed to create two successful science fiction thrillers that will inevitably remain popular for years to come.

by Paige MacGregor

If there were ever a film that was ruined by its trailer, director Mikael Håfström’s latest film, 1408, the cinematic adaptation of a short horror story written by Stephen King, is certainly it. Although trailers are a necessary evil in attracting audiences to the movie theater, the promotion team for 1408 went completely overboard, revealing a number of scenes that could be much more effective in the film with regard to shock value had they not been included in the trailer. 1408, a horror/thriller film that delivers a riveting storyline (as any good adaptation of Stephen King’s work should) in which novelist Mike Enslin, played by an obviously aging John Cusack, travels the country searching out, debunking and then documenting in writing claims of the supernatural.

Unfortunately for audience members who have seen the film’s promotional trailer, the first twenty minutes of 1408 serve merely as a long, drawn out and ultimately unnecessary introduction that establishes some of Enslin’s back story as a novelist declining in both popularity and respect and details one the writer’s less than frightening stays in yet another “haunted” hotel. Since the trailer has already divulged images of John Cusack being tortured in numerous different ways in what we are forced to assume is room 1408 at the Dolphin, and since the scene in which Enslin’s daughter, Katie (Jasmine Jessica Anthony), tells her father that “Everyone dies” while seated in a hospital bed is also included in the trailer, audiences already know that the protagonist has a dead daughter and travels the country searching for “real” paranormal events, rendering the entire first segment of the film completely superfluous.

Once the film moves past these unnecessary scenes, including one in which Cusack’s character takes a blow to the head during a surfing accident, and Enslin is taunted into taking an interest in room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel in New York City by a mysterious postcard and telephone conversations with vague and disgruntled hotel staff, 1408 truly begins. At this point Samuel L. Jackson finally enters the diegesis as Mr. Gerald Olin, manager at the Dolphin Hotel, who not only succeeds in delivering the best line of the entire film (“It’s an evil fucking room.”), but a superior performance as well, overpowering Cusack’s finely constructed big-screen version of Stephen King’s character in the scenes in which the two actors appear together and interact. One pleasant surprise for Samuel L. Jackson fans: the film’s trailer, despite revealing far too much that should’ve been kept under wraps, failed to do justice for Jackson’s role in the film, which, although short, is longer than one might initially suspect.

1408 employs excellent cinematography, creating a diegetic world that the viewer is unable to leave even for a moment, despite the knowledge that everything he or she is viewing is an illusion of light and sound. Arguably many of the films released this summer will be just as entertaining on a 27” television as on the big screen—Knocked Up, Ocean’s 13, or Shrek The Third, for example—1408 is a film that should be viewed at least once on a theater-sized screen. The overwhelming size of images presented on such a screen allows viewers to be completely enveloped in both the visual and auditory stimuli of the film, forcing audiences to identify so vividly with Enslin’s experiences in room 1408 that you may just find yourself wishing halfway through that the movie would end.

Altogether, 1408’s excellent cinematography—thanks to French cinematographer Benoit Delhomme, whose work includes the 2006 Anthony Minghella film Breaking and Entering—and gripping storyline, combine to create what could be hailed as one of the better of the myriad Stephen King adaptations that have appeared over the years. The film’s cast delivers strong and believable performances, the majority of the plot is far from predictable, and sound and image are expertly combined for the maximum thrill.

Conclusion: Highly recommended.

by Paige MacGregor

That’s right: crazy hot chicks. And we’re not using “crazy” as an adverb to emphasize the unbelievable degree of hotness that these chicks possess. No, these smokin’ hot babes are crazy like Lindsay Lohan with a knife after an all-night cocaine bender. You know the type; you’d do her, but only if she didn’t know your address.

1. Lola, Transporter 2 (2005)

This well toned, gun-toting, lingerie-wearing psychopath takes the cake in this category. Despite the fact that Kate Natua looks a bit like a throwback to 1980s heroine chic, she’s got enough muscle tone and cleavage to please the majority of functioning men out there. In addition, what Natua’s character lacks in body mass (just imagine how easy it’d be to throw her around in the bedroom, though…) she certainly makes up for in overt sexual availability and uninhibited firepower. Some of Lola’s most inspiring displays include her escape from the doctor’s office during which she tears after Frank Martin (Jason Statham), riddling police cars and men alike with round after round from the massive pistols she’s packing. And while she makes her great kidnapping/escape, Lola manages not only to maintain perfect balance, but to keep up a break-neck pace in a pair of three-inch, electric red high heels that she must’ve stolen from Pamela Anderson’s closet.

With cliché yet suggestive lines like “My problem isn’t physical… it’s psychological” (a.k.a. “I’m f*@ked in the head, but that’ll just make the sex better…”), and “You’re quite a guy. Another time, another place. You and me…. the pleasure we could have” (a.k.a. “The pleasure we will have if I ever get you alone in a car again…”), Lola establishes herself as not only uninhibited, but as the kind of weird hot chick that would let you do all kinds of crazy shit to her in the bedroom… or on the coffee table… or in an elevator… um, you get the picture.

2. Gloria, Wedding Crashers (2005)

Redheads are hot. And if you’ve ever dated one, you also know that they’re crazy (and that they tend to be closet nymphomaniacs… yeah, go get yourself a redhead, boys). Gloria Cleary, the daughter of Secretary of State Cleary (Christopher Walken) in the popular comedy Wedding Crashers, is played by the usually sweet-and-innocent-looking yet nevertheless completely bangable Isla Fisher.

Besides the first clue, red hair, the movie also gives us numerous additional indicators that Gloria is highly unstable, including the fact that she portrays herself as a deflowered virgin to Jeremy (Vince Vaughn)after they do the deed—and why in all hell would any woman want to admit to being a virgin, especially if she isn’t one? Unless you want to send the man in your bed screaming in the opposite direction… Gloria then proceeds to tell Vaughn’s character, “Jeremy, we are going to be so happy together! I love you!” Wait, what? Love? Uhh… yeah I just remembered that there’s this thing that I was supposed to do with this person I know at this place and uhh… see you later!

If the clingy, psychotic nature of “Don’t ever leave me… cause I’d find you” Gloria isn’t enough to prove her mental instability, then the temper tantrum she has over bringing Jeremy home for the weekend after the wedding ought to seal the deal. Or how about the fact that we find out at the end of the movie that she’s actually making it all up, that’s she wasn’t a virgin, that she isn’t limited to the maturity capacity of a six-year-old child, and that her only problem is being a crazy, red-headed nymphomaniac?

3. Xenia Zirgauna Onatopp, 007: Goldeneye (1995)

You know what else is hot? Foreign chicks. Unfortunately for you guys out there, they’re usually crazy, too. In the case of Xenia, she’s crazy in both the good way and the bad way. For instance: sweaty, rough, ear-biting, scream-inducing sex? Hot. And while having the life squeezed out of you by Xenia’s deliciously muscled thighs would afford you a first-class view of her well toned abs and voluptuous rack, ending up a stiff—and we don’t mean in the good way—stark naked corpse in a tiny closet on some boat (like that chubby Admiral Xenia kills; famous last words: “Xenia, I can’t breathe!”) isn’t exactly the most desirable way to exit this world.

Luckily for… well, everyone… Famke Janssen appeared in 007: Goldeneye as the gun-wielding, card-playing, helicopter-flying, cigarette smoking Xenia Onatopp in 1995, nearly a full decade before her unbelievable body, perfect facial bone structure and overwhelming sex appeal were virtually destroyed by her role as “that chick who used to be a guy” on the 2004-2005 season of Nip/Tuck.

At any rate, Xenia would be a hot accessory for any guy; she’s great on the arm of a tuxedo, in a sports car, or even on a boat (as long as you watch where she wraps her legs, that is…). If her crazy foreign hotness gets out of control, don’t worry; she’ll probably end up killing herself in some kind of violent freak accident like getting stuck between a large tree and a tight rope, and then your problems will be solved. That’s just what happens to crazy hot foreign chicks who like rough sex.

4. Adrienne, The Crush (1993)

The premise of this movie, that fourteen year old Adrienne becomes obsessed (to put it lightly) with a twenty-something reporter named Nick Eliot (Cary Elwes), makes Silverstone’s character crazy enough (Cary Elwes, hot? What has the world come to?), but when her obsession elevates from hanging around Nick’s apartment to building a shrine under his floorboards and attempting to murder his pseudo girlfriend, Adrienne teeters on the edge of the seldom applicable and extremely horrifying category “Too Crazy to Even F@*K.”

Unfortunately for Nick, no one ever taught him how to deal with a crazy chick, and he ends up violating the two most important rules: 1. Never refuse these women’s (or girls’) sexual advances… and 2. Don’t let these crazy chicks find out where you live… and definitely don’t move into their parents’ guest house not fifty feet from their bedroom window. If Adrienne’s insane antics and violent tendencies aren’t enough (or the fact that she has a giant marry-go-round of death in her attic… a little insane, anyone?), the fact that she winds up in a mental institution should be proof positive that she is indeed one crazy chick.

Although some of you horn dogs out there might feel a little guilty about drooling over Alicia Silverstone in this movie, you can heave a sigh of relief over the fact that Silverstone was actually seventeen when The Crush was released, making all of that bow-chicka-wow-wow going on in your head legal… in most states, anyway.

5. Cherry Darling, Grindhouse (2007)

Cherry Darling, a go-go dancer played by the red-hot Rose McGowan in Grindhouse, is bangable even when she’s crying (“It’s go-go… not cry, cry”). The film opens with a pole dancing segment in which McGowan shakes her perfectly shaped ass to the sounds of “Grindhouse,” a bump-and-grind percussion track created by director Robert Rodriguez specifically as an opportunity to highlight McGowan’s killer bod and “dancing skills” with a skimpy go-go outfit, a stripper pole, floor-to-ceiling mirrors and red-tinted lighting.

Although Cherry is relatively balanced upstairs compared to some of the other chicks on this list, once she replaces that soft, milky white leg with a machine gun, she isn’t exactly the kind of girl you’d want to take home to Mom. As Wray (Freddy Rodriguez) almost shows us in Planet Terror (curse you “missing reel”!), an amputated leg isn’t nearly enough to detract from the overall Cherry experience.

The icing on the cake is McGowan’s dirty, dirty mouth, which spews out some of the foulest language featured in this segment of Grindhouse. As she tells Wray right before they have sex, “Look, you were being an unbelievable dick. I was walking out on you. I was cold; I took your fucking jacket. So, if you’re going to go on one of your psycho, obsessive, controlling rants about a fucking jacket, then fucking take it ‘cuz I’d rather fucking freeze than fucking hear about it one more fucking time.”

Come on, that’s H-O-T hot.

by Paige MacGregor

She always gets a part.

Since its premier at the VC Film Festival in Canada in October of 1999, the art house cult horror film Audition (Ôdishon) has earned its creator, longtime Japanese film and television writer and director Takashi Miike, an ever-growing international fan following.

Although its scenes of horrific violence and twisted torture are more emotionally gripping and physically disturbing than those featured in some of the most ridiculously violent horror films to emerge over the past five years, including the French horror thriller Haute Tension (2003; released in the U.S. in 2005 as High Tension) and even Korean director Chan-wook Park’s 2003 torture-revenge masterpiece Oldboy, Audition’s shocking visuals (at the film’s Swiss premiere one audience member was so disturbed by Audition’s graphic violence that they passed out and had to be taken to the emergency room) ultimately fail to compensate fully for the film’s excruciatingly sluggish plot and character development. For viewers accustomed to the high-powered, high-speed, multi-sensory stimuli of video games—the same viewers who can follow every split-second motion of fight scenes in movies like Spider-Man 3 (2007) and Transformers (2007)—the slow, measured and deliberate speech and action of Japanese horror films like Audition will border on torture in its own right.

Miike’s cinematic adaptation of the Ryû Murakami novel, Ôdishon, weaves together strains of romance, sexual obsession, physical abuse, psychological torture, familial dysfunction and a strong, lasting sense of isolation, deep affectation and pure shock into what may be the most harrowing 115-minutes a viewer will ever spend in a seated position.

With visual elements reminiscent of director Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-on (remade in 2004 for U.S. release as The Grudge), also released in 2003—apparently a benchmark year for the international horror film genre—Miike’s tenth major film release is a peculiar combination of suspense and stomach-twisting torture that also exploits the cinematic trope of the fatal, affected and usually physically and/or mentally tortured attractive young woman popular throughout film history. Some horror films to utilize this trope, which appears in various forms from genre to genre (such as the “femme fatale” figure that traditionally appears in films noirs of the 1940s-1950s and later noir revival films), include The Exorcist (1973), The Ring (2002), The Grudge, and Dark Water (2005), as well as the films on which the latter three were based, respectively Ringu (1998), Ju-on (2003), and Honogurai mizu no soko kara (2002).

Audition is most interesting in its blatant attempt to address the longstanding fear harbored by men of virtually every culture of the enigma presented by women, especially preadolescent girls. With human nature dictating that we fear what we do not understand, young girls serve as perhaps the most perplexing and therefore the most fear-inducing entities possible for men. The continued prevalence of specters, ghosts, and apparitions that take the form of little girls and seductive women in the horror/thriller genre, a type of film that arguably caters to a predominantly male audience (which is why torture porn like Hostel, 2005, and Captivity, 2007, hits the box office in increasing numbers, and with increasingly large budgets, each year), speaks to the deep-seated nature of this particular male terror.

While obsessed with and transfixed by the young girl/woman, in the case of Audition a mysterious and hauntingly beautiful 24-year-old girl named Asami Yamazaki (played by Eihi Shiina, Eureka, 2000; Harmful Insect, 2001) who attracts the attention of the film’s protagonist, Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) from among the numerous other attractive and talented female applicants (the movie’s plot revolves around the protagonist’s search for a new wife, which he conducts under the guise of auditioning women for a leading role in a new movie), the male mind simultaneously recognizes in this aesthetically pleasing vision of sexual fulfillment an element of fear, one expertly illustrated by Miike in Audition. Asami Yamazaki stands apart from the other female applicants not only visually—her plain clothing and unassuming, timid nature set her apart from many of the other brightly dressed, outgoing and eager-to-please applicants—but also cinematically. Prior to Asami’s audition, the waves of female applicants appear at an ever increasing rate, finally melding into a montage sequence that is abruptly cut short by Asami’s entrance into the interview room.

Such scenes clearly establish Asami as an object of beauty, reverence and eventually obsession for Aoyama, who spends a significant amount of time staring at her headshot while he sits alone in his home nights. But Miike soon begins to cross cut these scenes with others that quickly bring Asami’s past, intentions and mental state into question. One in particular, a sequence in which Aoyama dreams that Asami is a emotionally cold and mentally deranged murderer bent on torturing him, speaks to the association of women with the unknown, the dangerous and the fatal in the male subconscious, especially since Miike chose to include this sequence immediately following the first time Asami and Aoyama have sex.

Overall, Audition is a film best watched only by the most avid horror/thriller film fans; it is not for those with a weak stomach or those without a taste for gratuitous torture and violence. Audition stands as a testament to Takashi Miike’s skill as both a writer and director, and as a perfect explanation for his growing cult fan following.

Grade: B+

by Paige MacGregor

Very little credit can be given to director Michael Bay for the box office success of what is arguably this summer’s biggest movie blockbuster: Transformers. As a whole, the film is nothing more than a mish-mash of elements predetermined for success with male audiences of virtually any age: sweet cars, big guns, massive explosions, widespread physical devastation, smokin’ hot chicks (a.k.a. Megan Fox, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, 2004, and Rachael Taylor, See No Evil, 2006), and an animated television show that 90% of our country’s male population grew up watching.

The Transformers production team, including director Michael Bay, cinematographer Mitchell Amundsen, film editors Tom Muldoon, Paul Rubell and Glen Scantlebury, and production designer Jeff Mann, drew directly upon a number of scenes from other memorable movie blockbusters, including Peter Jackson’s 2005 version of the cinema classic King Kong and Paul W.S. Anderson’s 2004 monster-movie showdown AVP: Alien vs. Predator, in assembling some of Transformers’ most visually impressive and emotionally touching scenes, including the scenes in which the government captures one of the Autobots (short for “Autonomous Robotic Life Form”) and another in which the U.S. government unveils one of its best kept secrets, a frozen transformer hidden in the Hoover Dam.

When Bumblebee—a voiceless Autobot that transforms first into an old and crappy 1974 Chevy Camaro and later into a sleek and sexy 2008 concept Camaro—is captured by “government officials” from the shady Sector Seven intelligence organization (“You see this? This is a ‘do whatever I want and get away with it’ badge.”), the method used to restrain the endearing yellow robot vividly evokes images from Cooper and Schoedsack’s groundbreaking 1933 film, King Kong, as well as from Jackson’s 2005 version of the same. Once Bumblebee is initially restrained and is carted off by these black-suited bimbos, led by a particularly annoying Agent Simmons played by the oft spastic John Turturro (Secret Window, 2004; O Brother, Where Art Thou?, 2000) whose presence manages only to detract from the overall quality of the film (with the exception of one or two extremely brief moments in which he provides some much needed comic relief during particularly tedious and unnecessary information-disseminating scenes), he is subjected to what can only be described as a futuristic version of the electroshock treatments given to Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975).

Well into Transformers’ 144-minute running time appears Bay’s most blatant cinematic appropriation: the U.S. government has secretly held Megatron, leader of the evil, trigger-happy Decepticons, hostage, cryogenically frozen in one of the many underground chambers built within the Hoover Dam in an effort to camouflage the location of the high-energy “Allspark” cube sought by both the Autobots and Decepticons. Audience members familiar with the 2004 summer blockbuster AVP: Alien vs. Predator may experience some mild déjà vu when the frozen Megatron is first unveiled, since the scene directly evokes images of the alien queen in AVP, frozen and chained in an amphitheater deep in the bowels of an ancient temple, waiting to be revived in order to wreak havoc upon the human race (again much like Megatron, who is hell-bent on the eradication of human life from Earth).

Transformers is a film not entirely without merit, however. Aside from an annoyingly unnecessary segment in the middle of the film in which Sector Seven makes its first major appears as agents of this secret government organization storm Sam’s house, take the Witwickys and Mikaela into custody, drive them around a bit, bring them to the Hoover Dam, and then spend an inordinate and incomprehensible amount of time talking strategy and demonstrating the awesome power of the Allspark, and despite its faults and cinematic appropriations, Transformers has produced at the box office as we all knew it would, earning $152.5 million domestically during its first six days alone (including July 2 advance screenings), making it the highest first-week grossing non-sequel film in the history of the motion picture industry.

Record-breaking box office numbers are good news for actor Shia LaBeouf, whose impressive performance, coupled with the massive popularity of the film, will inevitably boost him from the lower echelons of up-and-coming twentysomething actors (LaBeouf turned 21 on June 11th of this year) to the realm of his more prestigious (or at least notorious) peers, including Lindsay Lohan, (finally) 21, whose latest film, I Know Who Killed Me, is set for national release on July 27; Elisha Cuthbert, 25, whose next film, Captivity, is scheduled to open August 17; and Justin Long, 29, of this summer’s Bruce Willis blockbuster hit Live Free or Die Hard.

Shia LaBeouf delivers a surprisingly outstanding performance as Transformers’ protagonist, Sam Witwicky, managing to transition successfully from the stereotypically sad but cute high school dork longing for acceptance into a believable diamond-in-the-rough hero not with ease—ease wouldn’t be believable—but with an obvious degree of difficulty that is most apparent when he hesitates, Allspark in hand, momentarily overwhelmed by the task laid out before him. “You’re a soldier now!” yells Captain Lennox, played by Josh Duhamel (Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, 2004; Turistas, 2006), snapping Sam back to reality and pushing him to deliver the alien cube to the U.S. government as fast as possible, despite imminent risk of death.

One aspect of the Transformers plot… if you can call it a plot… that is particularly interesting is the fact that this is now the second major motion picture released this summer to present a less than positive view of U.S. military forces. Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s May 11 release 28 Weeks Later, sequel to the popular post-apocalyptic thrill ride turned cult classic known as 28 Days Later (2002), also touts the inability of U.S. military forces to overcome an adversary, this time a race of Autonomous Robotic Life Forms rather than a deadly virus that turns even the most mild mannered individual into a bloodthirsty killer. This aspect of the Transformers plot remains largely uncommented upon, indicating that perhaps U.S. citizens have finally come to the realization that our military forces are not invincible.

Overall, Transformers is what a summer movie blockbuster should be, by Hollywood’s standards: a profitable, entertaining film with excellent special effects that will ultimately remain popular enough with audiences to draw them back for more robots, guns, and girls when the inevitable Transformers sequel is released.