The Karate Kid

 

 

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith Co-Star in Remake of Martial Arts Classic

 

                Hollywood is in the midst of a full-blown revival of Eighties classics, and the latest beneficiary of that sense of nostalgia is The Karate Kid. The 1984 martial arts hit was a modestly-budgeted revenge flick about a 98-pound weakling who gets bullied by classmates after he and his mom relocate to California. But the newcomer is soon befriended by his apartment building’s Japanese janitor, who teaches the boy karate by putting him on an unorthodox training regimen that’s doesn’t involve any fighting.

                Other than the setting shifting to China where the events unfold on a much grander scale, the 2010 edition of the film is a fairly-faithful rendition of the original production. The picture was directed by Holland’s Harald Zwart (The Pink Panther 2) and co-stars Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith whose combination of charming badinage and acrobatic stunt work add up to a cinematic experience every bit as satisfying as the first.

The story opens in Detroit where 12 year-old Dre Parker (Smith) is saying his good-byes to pals before boarding a plane with his widowed mom (Taraji P. Henson) who has just taken a job in a Beijing automobile factory. Popular Dre dreads moving to a country where he doesn’t know anybody and can’t even speak the language.

Upon their arrival, he makes acquaintances with an American neighbor (Luke Carberry) who suggests they go down to the park to play some basketball. There, Dre falls in love at first sight with a cute local girl (Wenwen Han) practicing her violin on the bench. So, he saunters over to flirt with Meiying, who is very receptive to his advances and asks if she can touch his cornrows.

Their cross-cultural chemistry is not lost on an overprotective friend of her family, Cheng (Zhenwei Wang), who uses Kung Fu to give Dre a black eye while issuing the warning, “Just stay away from us, all of us!” Cheng and his posse attend the same school where Dre is about to enroll, and they proceed to turn Dre’s life into a living Hell.

Enter Mr. Miyagi, I mean Mr. Han (Chan), the Parkers’ compassionate custodian. He miraculously heals Dre’s wounds with an ancient remedy and offers to teach the lad to defend himself, Asian-style. Han then negotiates a truce with Dre’s tormentors, buying time by promising to enter his protégé in the upcoming Kung Fu competition. Okay, cue the taskmaster’s offbeat teaching methods that whip the kid into a black belt.

Does any of this sound familiar? It should. A note for note remake which magically manages to make you cry at all the same emotional push points as the original.

 

Excellent (4 stars)

Rated PG for bullying, violence and mild epithets.

Running time: 140 Minutes

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Reel Injun

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Expose’ Explores the Depiction of Native Americans in Hollywood

If you think blacks and Asians have been given a raw deal over the years by Hollywood in the way they’ve been portrayed in pictures, then you should reflect upon the hateful, harmful depictions of Native Americans on film. For, this beleaguered ethnic group has generally been stereotyped in very limited fashion, namely, as a people deserving of extermination or being driven to reservations.

In most movies, Indians are bloodthirsty savages who get wiped near the end, typically right after you hear the bugle signaling the arrival of the cavalry. My impression of this country’s indigenous peoples was so perverted by exposure to Westerns that one of my favorite childhood pastimes was to play “Cowboys and Indians,” an activity in which I took pleasure in fantasizing about killing folks with red skin.

An important aspect of learning is to unlearn propaganda, and this is particularly important for minorities in the United States. That is one of the salient points driven home in Reel Injun, a telling documentary co-directed by Dustin Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge and Jeremiah Hayes. For in this eye-opening expose’, they interview fellow natives who shamefully admit that they had grown up cheering for the white man while watching Westerns.

Such is the power of cinema, that even the descendants of the original inhabitants of this country could easily be manipulated to embrace as heroes the Europeans who had slaughtered their ancestors. That’s because, “The only good Injun is a dead Injun” was an unchallenged, recurring theme so pervasive that no one seems to discuss the legitimacy of the ethnic cleansing which decimated the ranks of every native tribe across the nation.

By contrast, the Native American activists interviewed here, make the most of the opportunity to correct the flawed accounts of “How the West was won. Typical, are the remarks of the sage elder who observes that the only thing more pathetic than the Indians playing stereotypes in Westerns are the Indians willing to watch Indians playing stereotypes in Westerns.”

A powerful, mythbusting documentary which manages to humanize America’s unfairly-marginalized indigenous peoples, albeit belatedly.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 88 Minutes
Distributor: Lorber Films

The A-Team

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Relentlessly-Stimulating Remake Features Pointless Parade of Pyrotechnics

Directed by Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces), this adaptation of the hit TV series from the Eighties remains faithful to the original by revolving around the daring exploits of an elite squad of commandos comprised of hard-nosed Colonel “Hannibal” Smith (Liam Neeson), handsome “Face” Peck (Bradley Cooper), crazy “Howling Mad” Murdock (Sharlto Copley) and Bad Attitude “B.A.” Baracus (Quinton Jackson). However, these one-dimensional archetypes quickly wear out their welcome on the big screen where the setting has been shifted to present-day Baghdad. There, the clandestine unit of veteran Army Rangers is assigned by duplicitous CIA Agent Lynch (Patrick Wilson) with the task of retrieving the currency plates and billions in counterfeit U.S. dollars in the hands of Iraqi insurgents.
Unfortunately, this bombastic blockbuster’s ensuing pointless parade of pyrotechnics and detonations involving cars, boats, buildings, aircraft and shipping containers is so relentlessly-distracting that it virtually renders the plot irrelevant. The movie is essentially a series of visually-captivating stunts invariably followed by reaction shots of the sophomoric heroes high-fiving each other.
Their attention-deficit antics are apt to appeal narrowly to the ‘tweener demographic while simultaneously annoying nostalgic fans of the television show expecting a coherent storyline to follow. A bizarre departure arrives midway in the adventure when macho B.A. (based on the character introduced on TV by Mr. T.) announces he’s taken a vow of non-violence and refuses to fight anymore. Not to worry, that flirtation with pacifism proves temporary when one of his buddies is imperiled and Hannibal comes up with a quote from Gandhi sanctioning slaughter.
Anyhow, the A-Team completes the top secret mission successfully and turns over the loot to Lynch who is closely associated with a shady private security firm called Black Forest. They double-cross Hannibal and company who end up dishonorably discharged and convicted of treason. Not to be contained, the gang busts out of federal prison and goes rogue, returning to the wanton warpath to restore their good names while exacting a measure of bloody revenge. And Zen some.
Escapist summer fare doesn’t come any more mindless than this!

Fair (1 star)
Rated PG-13 for profanity, smoking, and pervasive action violence.
Running time: 117 Minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Bio-Pic Paints Empathetic Portrait of Legendary Comedienne

Nowadays, Joan Rivers has basically become the butt of cruel jokes about face-lift disasters as opposed to being the one dishing the dirt on other divas. “It comes back at you, doesn’t it?” she wistfully reminisces in this riveting bio-pic. Still, at 77, the legendary, standup comedienne continuers to ply her trade, never turning down a booking, however humbling the venue.
As Joan explains in this alternately hilarious and dead serious documentary, she persists out of a combination of financial need and competitive drive. For when her husband/inept personal manager Edgar Rosenberg committed suicide in 1987, he not only left her broke but with a mountain of debt. Luckily, Joan is a Type-A personality with an incomparable work ethic and has managed to survive, even thrive, in the wake of the family tragedy. Plus, since she has a taste for limos and other trappings of wealth, she remains driven to perform in part to be able to afford to keep living in the lap of luxury.
Co-directed by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work offers an unusually-intimate peek at a celebrity most of us have come to dismiss as a plastic surgery freak. However, this empathetic portrait thoroughly humanizes its subject as thoroughly-likable by revealing the sensitive side hidden under that permanently frozen countenance no longer capable of showing any emotion.
Nonetheless, Joan repeatedly exposes her feelings repeatedly through her words, whether calling her daughter Melissa “a stupid, effing [c-word],” informing her staff that, “I’m lonely, who’s going to [f-word] me tonight?” or hinting at the source of her unfortunate addiction to elective surgery with “No one wants an old woman” and “No one ever told me I was beautiful.”
Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether or not she’s joking here, given how she freely admits that, “The only timer I’m truly, truly happy is when I’m on stage.” Thus, the tendency to cover the vulnerability and pain in evidence during downtime with punch line after punch line.
A sobering deconstruction of an enduring showbiz career by an introspective icon whose been at it non-stop since ’66.

Excellent (4 stars)
Rated R for profanity and sexual humor.
Running time: 85 Minutes
Distributor: IFC Films

The Lottery

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Documentary Highlights How Harlem Charter School Offers Hope for Salvation

For most young folks from the ghetto, getting a good education has a lot to do with whether or not they ever make it in life. That’s why a kid’s name has to be picked out of a hat in order to gain entry to Harlem Success Academy, a charter school whose students are beating the odds. So many parents in the community have become painfully aware that their offspring’s prospects are likely to improve dramatically upon admission to this college-oriented institution that 5,000 of them pack a local armory annually to see who wins the lottery allocating the coveted spots opening up for the coming year.
The elementary school was founded by Dr. Eva Moskowitz on the guiding principle that “children are capable of achieving an incredible amount.” And those high expectations have paid off with 90% of her pupils performing at or above their grade level, as compared to the 35% average in the district, consequently the universal desire to matriculate there.
Directed by Madeleine Sackler, this tearjerker of a documentary chronicles the diverging fates of four families whose desperate hope for the next generation, sadly, seems to rest with the possibility of attending Harlem Success Academy. While we get acquainted with each of the kids, the film allocates equal time to allow luminaries like Dr. Geoffrey Canada, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and former Essence Editor-in-Chief Susan Taylor to weigh-in on the charter versus regular schools debate, which is easily won by the former, here, in this critic’s humble opinion.
An extraordinary expose’ illustrating what a crying shame it is that the public schools in the inner cities have degenerated to the point that you have to rely on the luck of the draw for a decent education.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 99 Minutes
Distributor: Zipline Entertainment

Youth in Revolt DVD

 

 

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: DVD Casts Michael Cera Again as Terminally-Nerdy Teen

               

Baby-faced Michael Cera apparently has no problem being typecast as a terminally-nerdy teenager. Since appearing as an awkward geek in Superbad in 2007, we’ve seen him play slight variations of the same archetype in Juno, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Paper Heart, Year One and, now, Youth in Revolt.

Here, he’s Nick Twisp, a 16 year-old with raging hormones who’s obsessed with losing his virginity. How original! And the object of his injection is his proverbial girl next-door, Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday), the prettiest girl living in their seedy trailer park.

Worse than that stale premise, is the script’s stilted dialogue, which frequently sounds unnatural such as when Sheeni asks Nick to put some suntan lotion on her back: with “Would you mind applying this to my exposed areas?” Equally-annoying, are the colorful supporting characters displaying an array of increasingly bizarre behaviors, ranging from Sheeni’s uptight, Bible-thumping parents (M. Emmet Walsh and Mary Kay Place) to her rebellious big brother (Justin Long) whose idea of a practical joke is to lace Thanksgiving dinner with hallucinogenic mushrooms which cause their father to smear mashed potatoes on his own face.

Then there’s Nick’s sexaholic mother Estelle (Jean Smart) who gets over the death of her live-in, loser boyfriend (Zach Galifianakis) by seducing the police officer (Ray Liotta) sent to inform her that he’s just dropped dead of a heart attack in the supermarket. Additional madcap antics arrive courtesy of a menagerie rounded out by Nick’s cradle-robbing father (Steve Buscemi), his 20 year-old girlfriend (Ari Graynor) and a goofy neighbor (Fred Willard) thrown in for good measure.

An ill-conceived sketch flick which falls flat at every turn.

               

Poor (½ star)

Rated R for sexuality, profanity and drug use.

Running time: 89 Minutes

Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

DVD Extras: Deleted scenes, audition tapes, deleted and extended animation sequences, audio commentary by the director and Michael Cera, and Sony trailers.

The Book of Eli DVD

 

 

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Denzel’s Post-Apocalyptic Adventure Arrives on DVD

 

                It is 2043, in the wake of a war which has left America a vast, violent wasteland devoid of infrastructure. Civilization has been replaced by a desperate, lawless society where life is cheap, and a man might lose his life over a glass of water or a piece of food.

In the case of Eli (Denzel Washington), the only item for which he is willing to die is the thick, leather-bound book he keeps carefully-wrapped in cloth and tucked away inside his weather-beaten satchel. Except for the telltale cross on the cover, and his occasionally spouting scriptural-sounding aphorisms like “Do for others more than you do for yourself,” he does an excellent job of hiding its contents.

As it turns out, this is the only Bible left in existence, and Eli is walking westward to deliver the precious package to a publisher in San Francisco with a still-functioning printing press. And because this peaceful warrior knows the sacred text represent the last hope for Christianity, he is willing to fight anyone who might dare try to prevent him from reaching his destination. So, he negotiates his way some 3,000 miles on foot through a gauntlet of marauding gangs and bloodthirsty miscreants, frequently putting aside his inclination to turn the other cheek in order to kick butt.

Thus, the Book of Eli is a relentlessly-gruesome, post-apocalyptic saga imbued with heavy religious overtones designed to appeal to the Born Again demographic, at least those who could care less about the 6^th Commandment, “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” Eli proves to be one righteous dude, especially after the plot thickens when Satan incarnate (Gary Oldman) catches wind of what’s in the hero’s knapsack.

Will the Devil be able to wrest the Bible away before Eli reaches what’s left of the Bay Area? That’s the critical question at the heart of this faith-based morality play. But despite Denzel Washington’s turning in a trademark, charismatic performance underscored by appropriately monochromatic cinematography, the film is still surprisingly unengaging. Even the inclusion of a mother-daughter team of fetching damsels-in-distress played by Jennifer Beals and Mila Kunis didn’t help. Maybe it’s the fact that the resolution, which I won’t dare spoil, is such a multidenominational cop-out.

                Jesus as the answer, along with a bunch of other prophets.

 

Fair (1 star)

Rated R for profanity and graphic violence.

Running time: 118 Minutes

Distributor: Warner Home Video

Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Combo Pack Extras: Deleted scenes, an animated short, a behind the scenes documentary, plus three featurettes entitled, “Starting Over,” “Eli’s Journey” and “The Book of Eli Soundtrack.”