Sex and the City 2

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Shallow Sirens Venture to Abu Dhabi for Another Vapid Adventure

Perhaps not being female or not being privy to the original HBO series seriously limits one’s ability to appreciate the adaptations of Sex and the City. Regardless, this critic came away feeling the same about the sequel as I did about the original screen version. This installment is set a couple of years after the end of their first adventure, and again revolves around the camaraderie, carnality and conspicuous consumption of the shallowest quartet of spoiled, matronly New Yorkers you ever could hope to meet.
The story is narrated by Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) whose marriage to John James Preston (Chris Noth), aka Mr. Big, brought down the curtain on the previous episode. This time, the fun starts at the same-sex wedding of her relatively-elegant pal Stanford (Willie Garson) to a flamboyant queen (Mario Cantone) who crudely announces at the reception that he plans to cheat on his spouse.
Carrie’s three BFFs (Best Friends Forever) are also on hand, and we are soon treated to updates about the state of each of their lives. Despite being kept in the lap of luxury by her wealthy hubby, Carrie’s already jaded abut the state of their no longer exciting relationship. Meanwhile, high-powered attorney Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) is miserable at the law firm due to her chauvinist boss, and stay-at-home mom Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is being driven crazy by her two young daughters, despite having plenty of help from a live-in nanny (Alice Eve). And slutty Samantha has found the Fountain of Youth thanks to a daily regimen of vitamins and hormone therapies which enable the shameless cougar to continue to seduce a steady stream of younger men.
The scatterplot finally coalesces when Samantha’s PR work calls for her to fly to Abu Dhabi, an assignment she accepts only on the condition that her client (Art Malik) extends the “all expenses paid” invite to her girlfriends, too. By the time the filthy-rich oil sheik agrees, Miranda has quit her job, Charlotte has caught her husband flirting with the babysitter, and Carrie has temporarily moved back into her bachelorette pad, developments which conveniently serve to grease the skids for a girls-only overseas getaway.
Upon their arrival in the decadent, jet-set playground, the four find themselves limo’d to the penthouse in the exclusive Sahara Hotel where they are pampered by a bevy of deferential butlers. At this juncture, the movie morphs into a tasteless celebration of Western hedonism during which our heroines defiantly indulging themselves in activities almost deliberately intended to shock and offend the sensibilities of their Middle Eastern hosts. Let’s see, Samantha gets arrested for having sex on the beach, Carrie shares a kiss with an ex-boyfriend (John Corbett), and they all shop ‘til they drop in skimpy outfits while cattily belittling the modesty of the local females hidden under headscarves, veils and heat-seeking burkas.
A 2½ hour test of patience featuring four embarrassingly-entitled Ugly Americans agonizing over trivia and assorted soap opera drama that is, quite frankly, so patently superficial, you almost wish they’d be cursed with some real problems.

Fair (1 star)
Rated R for profanity, partial nudity and graphic sexuality.
Running time: 146 Minutes
Distributor: New Line Cinema

This Week’s DVD Releases

by Kam Williams

Headline: Top Ten DVD List for June 1st

Alice in Wonderland


The Wolfman


The Three Stooges Collection, Volumes 1-8


Bad Boys [Blu-ray]


The Red Baron


New Orleans Saints: Road to Super Bowl XLIV


Undisputed III: Redemption [Bluray]


Blue Streak/National Security Combo Pack [Blu-ray]


For My Father


The Gospel/The Gospel Live Combo Pack

Alice in Wonderland DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Depp Does the Mad Hatter in Disney Overhaul of Lewis Carroll Classic

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), aka Lewis Carroll, was the prolific author of numerous children’s fantasies written in a surreal style known as literary nonsense. But he only wrote two books about his most popular character, Alice, namely, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and its sequel, “Through the Looking Glass.”
Since 1903, there have been over a dozen fairly-faithful screen adaptations of these beloved classics, but leave it to a cinematic maverick like Tim Burton to overhaul the once sacrosanct franchise. This reinterpretation revolves around a post-pubescent, 19 year-old rebel as opposed to the original’s innocent, 7 year-old tyke with an insatiable curiosity and a vivid imagination.
The story is set in Victorian England where we find Alice (Mia Wasikowska) being raised like a refined lady by her recently-widowed mother. Alice Kingsleigh (Lindsay Duncan) is concerned about her strong-willed daughter’s feminist tendencies, especially since the blossoming beauty has a well-heeled suitor in Hamish Ascot (Leo Bill). However, when the pompous aristocrat pops the question in a gazebo at a lawn party in front of hundreds of people, a flustered Alice asks her ardent admirer for a little time to think about the marriage proposal.
Then, she darts of into the woods where she falls down a rabbit hole only to be unceremoniously deposited in Underland, a vaguely-familiar, parallel universe she doesn’t remember having visited a dozen years earlier. There, she is soon reintroduced to the colorful menagerie still inhabiting the magical kingdom, old friends including the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen), the Cheshire Cat (Steven Fry), Tweedledum and Tweedledee Matt Lucas) and, of course, the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), to name a few.
Seems that Alice has arrived in the midst of a crisis, and the motley crew enlists her assistance in ending the reign of terror of the evil Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) in favor of the relatively-benign sister she’s rudely deposed, Mirana (Anne Hathaway). All that’s involved is slaying the Jabberwocky (Christopher Lee), the dragon defending the Red Queen’s castle.
Not surprisingly, Johnny Depp easily upstages the rest of the cast, here, between his affected, gap-toothed British accent and that natural flair for the dramatic. Throw in his zany costume, hyperthyroid eyes and frizzy hair ostensibly turned bright orange by an excess of mercury in the brim of his chapeau, and the talented thespian has fashioned yet another unforgettable character for the ages.
21st Century Alice matures and enters The Matrix!

Excellent (4 stars)
Rated PG for fantasy, action, violence, scary images and smoking.
Running time: 108 Minutes
Studio: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
3-Disc Combo Pack Extras: “The Mad Hatter,” “Finding Alice,” “Effecting Wonderland,” “Wonderland Characters” and “Making Wonderland” featurettes.

For My Father (ISRAELI) DVD

(Sof Shavua B’Tel Aviv)
DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Arab Suicide Bomber Falls for Jew on Way to Detonation

Tarek (Shredi Jabarin) is a young Palestinian man who has reluctantly decided to serve as a suicide bomber after being pressured by his radical Muslim neighbors in Nazarene. So, after having enough plastic explosives strapped to his chest to blow himself and all the shoppers at an outdoor market to smithereens, he sets out for the city of Tel Aviv.
After arriving in town, Tarek finds a plaza packed with Jews, but ends up frustrated when he squeezes the trigger and nothing happens. Following several attempts, he ventures to a repair shop where he is befriended by its cantankerous, but soft-hearted proprietor, Katz (Shlomo Vishinsky). Katz, unaware of the planned use for the malfunctioning switch, offers to order the part, and tells Tarek to come back in a couple days.
To kill time before his date with destiny, the walking IED saunters over to the kiosk of Keren (Hili Yalon), a 17 year-old rebel who’s been disowned by her Hassidic family. She’s being shunned for refusing to dress modestly, wear a wig and generally abide by the dictates of their orthodox traditions.
Their chance meeting leaves Keren smitten with Tarek and eager to get better acquainted. As they start spending some quality time together, he hides the truth about why he’s in town. Sparks fly, and a lazy bike ride through the countryside leads to the proverbial long walk along the shore at sunset. However, just when romance is on the verge of blossoming, Tarek is reminded by increasingly urgent phone calls that he’s there to wreak havoc not to make whoopee.
Will these star-crossed lovers ditch their respective repressive religions and intolerant associates to prove to the world that Jews and Palestinians are capable of not merely coexisting but of copulating as well? This is the question which For My Father urgently attempts to address with the specter of an imminent blast always hanging over our shamelessly-flirtatious protagonists’ heads.
A melodramatic morality play which sends the sobering message that suicide bombing does not pay, especially when you could just as easily seduce as splatter the sexy object of your detonation.

Very Good (3 stars)
Unrated
In Hebrew and Arabic with subtitles.
Running time: 100 Minutes
Distributor: Film Movement

Kam's Kapsules: Weekly Previews That Make Choosing a Film Fun

OPENING THIS WEEK
Kam's Kapsules:
Weekly Previews That Make Choosing a Film Fun
by Kam Williams
For movies opening June 4, 2010

BIG BUDGET FILMS

Get Him to the Greek (R for graphic sexuality, and pervasive sexuality and drug use) Intercontinental road comedy about the hijinks which ensue when an ambitious intern (Jonah Hill) is assigned to escort an over-imbibing, womanizing rock star (Russell Brand) from London to L.A. for a comeback concert. Spinoff of Forgetting Sarah Marshall features Rose Byrne and Sean Diddy Combs, with cameos by Christina Aguilera, Pink, Pharrell, Meredith Viera and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman.

Killers (PG-13 for sexuality, profanity and violence) Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl co-star in this action comedy about an international spy who retires from the CIA to settle down in suburbia with the girl of his dreams only to discover they’re being trailed by vicious assassins intent on killing them. With Tom Selleck, Martin Mull, Catherine O’Hara and SNL’s Casey Wilson.

Marmaduke (PG for crude humor and mild epithets) Live action adaptation of the popular comic strip features Owen Wilson as the voice of the clumsy, if lovable, Great Dane. Road comedy revolves around the pet and his owners’ misadventures as the family relocates from Kansas to California. Cast includes William H. Macy, Judy Greer and Anjelah Johnson, with voiceover work by George Lopez, Marlon Wayans, Sam Elliot and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.

Splice (R for nudity, profanity, violence, disturbing images and graphic sexuality) Sci-fi horror flick about a couple of renegade scientists (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley) whose ethically-questionable experimentation splicing together human and animal DNA results in the creation of a beautiful but dangerous winged mutant (Delphine Chaneac).

INDEPENDENT & FOREIGN FILMS

Burzynski (Unrated) Medical documentary chronicling the 14-year court battle waged by controversial biochemist Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski in a lawsuit against the FDA on behalf of cancer patients eager to try Antineoplastons, his life-saving, alternative gene therapy, in lieu of chemotherapy, surgery and/or radiation.

Cropsey (Unrated) Urban legend documentary shot by a couple of first-time filmmakers from Staten Island determined to find out whether there’s any truth to the haunting rumor circulated during their childhood that an escapee from a nearby insane asylum had been responsible for the mysterious disappearance of five kids from their neighborhood.

Double Take (Unrated) Hitchcock mockumentary mixing found footage featuring musings by the master of suspense with archival Cold War news footage to paint a chilling picture of sheer paranoia.

Finding Bliss (R for nudity, profanity, sexuality and explicit dialogue) Romantic comedy about an aspiring, young filmmaker (Leelee Sobieski) who settles for a job as an editor for a porn director (Matthew Davis) only to have her morals compromised when she surprisingly falls in love with her sleazy boss. With Denise Richards, Kristen Johnston and Jamie Kennedy.

Ondine (PG-13 for violence, sensuality and brief profanity) Oscar-winner Neil Jordan (for The Crying Game) directs this modern fairy tale, set in County Cork, about an Irish fisherman (Colin Farrell) who becomes convinced that the woman (Alicja Bachleda) caught in his net is a mermaid. With Stephen Rea, Tony Curran and Alison Barry.

Raajneeti (Unrated) Political potboiler, set in Bhopal, India, about a fiercely fought election campaign where influence-peddling and corruption are the norms, and where treachery and manipulation are routinely used as weapons. Ensemble cast includes Naseeruddin Shah, Ajay Devgan, Nana Patekar, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpai, Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif. (In Hindi with subtitles)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead (Unrated) Horror comedy about a stage director (Jake Hoffman) who hires his ex (Devon Aoki) and best friend (Kris Lemche) to co-star in an offbeat adaptation of Hamlet only to find the production plagued by the arrival of some sexy, 2,000 year-old vampires.

Valhalla Rising (Unrated) Historical saga, set in 1000 AD, revolving around a mysterious mute warrior (Mads Mikkelsen) with superhuman strength who discovers his true self aboard a Viking ship headed for Jerusalem which ends up diverted to the gates of Hell instead. With Gary Lewis, Jamie Sives and Callum Mitchell.

Whiz Kids (Unrated) Brainiac documentary about a trio of 17 year-old eggheads competing to win the nation’s most prestigious science competition.

Losing My Cool (BOOK REVIEW)

 

 

Losing My Cool:

How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-Hop Culture

by Thomas Chatterton Williams

The Penguin Press

Hardcover, $24.95

240 pages

ISBN: 978-1-59420-263-6

               

Book Review by Kam Williams

 

“Since the dawn of the hip-hop era in the 1970s, black people have become increasingly freer and freer as individuals, with a wider range of possibilities spread out before us now than at any time in our past. Yet the circumstances of our collective life have degenerated in direct contrast to this fact, with a more impoverished vision of what it means to be black today than ever before. If these exciting new circumstances we now find ourselves in, of which our president is the apotheosis, are to mean anything of lasting value, the zeitgeist… is going to have to change, too—permanently…

Will we, at long last, allow ourselves to abandon the instinct to self-sabotage and the narcissistic glorification of our own failure? Will the fact of daily exposure to a black president in turn expose once and for all the lie that is and always has been keeping it real?”

-- Excerpted from the Epilogue (pgs. 213-214i)

 

                From its title, Losing My Cool sounds like it might be about by a guy with a short temper. But that’s not the case. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, since Thomas Chatterton Williams is a rather erudite and introspective academic with a degree in philosophy from Georgetown University. What Losing My Cool actually refers to is the maturation process he went through while in college which enabled him to shed the anti-intellectual veneer he had embraced growing up in Northern New Jersey as a card-carrying member of the Hip-Hop Generation.

                Williams, whose mother is white and father is black, credits his dad’s emphasis on education with ultimately enabling him to appreciate the value of a college degree as a ticket out of the hood, as opposed to music, sports or illegal activities. This would prove to be no mean feat, however, for as a teenager the author found the materialist trappings and anti-social attitudes of the thug lifestyle ever so seductive. Thus, he cared little about grades and attending classes, while considering the conspicuous consumption and general degeneracy celebrated in gangsta’ rap videos worthy of emulation.

                This very gifted writer recounts his perilous route from rebellion to redemption in Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-Hop Culture, a thought-provoking memoir which suggests we redefine exactly what it means to be black. What ought to make the iconoclastic ideas shared in this engaging autobiography of value to impressionable young minds is that the words are coming not out of the mouth of an older person who always hated rap music, but from a former diehard fan who has seen the error of his ways.

                After all, it takes an admirable maturity for one to admit that a self-defeating, ghetto fabulous culture had “exerted a seriously negative influence on my black peers and me, and it did so in a way that we tended to approach hip-hop seriously and earnestly, striving to ‘keep it real’ and viewing a lifestyle governed by hip-hop values as some kind of prerequisite to an authentically black existence.”

                A sobering deconstruction of the harmful hip-hop mindset by a brother who very easily could’ve ended up a casualty of that dead-end path instead of a role model.

Owl and the Sparrow DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: DVD Features Romance Drama Set on Streets of Saigon

Thuy (Pham Thi Han) is a 10 year-old orphan who lives on the outskirts of Saigon with her mean Uncle Minh (Nguyen Hau). Instead of letting his niece attend school, he makes her work alongside him inside a bamboo factory all day, and he takes every penny of her pay to boot.
Somehow, the precocious young girl senses that she couldn’t be any worse off if she ran away, in spite of her uncle’s stern warning that, “You wouldn’t last one day on your own.” And when she finally gets fed up, she packs her belongings in a pink backpack and travels by taxi boat to Saigon where she quickly learns how to survive by selling postcards and fresh roses.
There, she eventually crosses paths with Lan (Cat Ly), a pretty stewardess staying in town on layover for five days. Thuy can’t believe that the pretty woman doesn’t have a husband or a boyfriend to buy a flower for. Lan, in turn, finds it hard to fathom that such an adorable child could possibly be homeless, so she invites the poor orphan to share her hotel room.
Meanwhile, Thuy makes another pal in Hai (Le the Lu), an animal trainer who lives in a shack right on the grounds of the zoo. He gives the sophisticated street urchin the grand tour of the premises while confiding in her about his personal problems. Not only has he been dumped by his girlfriend but the beloved elephant he’s raised from infancy has just been sold to a zoo in India.
Lan happens to be just as unhappy, because she’s been stuck in an unsatisfying affair for four years with an airline pilot (Trong Hai) who refuses to leave his wife for her. A solution to all three’s woes might turn on whether Thuy can arrange a blind date between the two lonely hearts. For, if they fall head over heels for each other, who knows, maybe they’d marry and adopt the tiny matchmaker who introduced them. But this, of course, is easier said than done, since Hai still pines for his ex, and Lan’s layover lover is expecting to rendezvous with his mistress while in Saigon.
Directed by Stephane Gauger, Owl and the Sparrow is an enchanting fairytale which delights to no end en route to its syrupy sweet resolution. The serendipitous front story aside, it is also a pleasant change of pace to see a film set in Saigon which isn’t a high body-count splatter flick about the ravages of the war in Indochina.
Worthwhile, if only for the reminder that the Vietnamese are people, too!

Excellent (4 stars)
Rated PG for smoking and mature themes.
In Vietnamese with subtitles.
Running time: 98 minutes
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Extras: Director’s audio commentary, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurette, theatrical trailer and still galleries.