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film: American Gangster
director: Ridley Scott
cast: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe
Universal Pictures / 2007
score: 87
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by Kaare Kvenild
American Gangster tells the story of the rise and fall of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), a Harlem gangster who became the most powerful crime lord in New York. Lucas rises to prominence in the mob community by becoming the premier importer of heroin to the United States. American Gangster also tells the story of Detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), the cop who organized the investigation that brought Lucas down. Roberts is assigned to the case because he is one of the few honest cops in New York. To top it off, this true story is one of the best movies of the year.
2007 seems to be the year of great dueling performances. There was Crowe's standoff with Christian Bale in 3:10 to Yuma, Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and American Gangster joins the list with Washington and Crowe. Both actors give award worthy performances. The supporting cast also gives great performances led by 2007's breakthrough actor, Josh Brolin, as a crooked cop. Also by 83-year old Ruby Dee as Washington's mother. Of all the performers in the film, it is Dee's performance that will garner the most attention. She has the least amount of screen time, but steals all her scenes and gives the most passionate speech of the film. Dee's performance has to be seen.
American Gangster is an incredibly well made film from every aspect. Director Ridley Scott continues to make some of the most memorable pictures around. This is his best movie since Black Hawk Down in 2001. Scott's direction is crisp and focused the entire time. The script by award winning writer Steven Zallian is sure to receive award nominations. Zallian's last big gangster movie was 2005's Gangs of New York, and he outdoes himself with this script. American Gangster is not to be missed by not only fans of mob movies and true crime stories, but also for fans of fine filmmaking.
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film: Sweeney Todd
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
director: Tim Burton
cast: Johnny Depp, Helena Boham Carter
Dreamworks/Warner Brothers / 2007
score: 94
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by Kaare Kvenild
Sweeney Todd is a near perfect film and one of the top five movies of the year (in this writer's opinion). A superb cast, excellent director, wonderful music and ominous sets make this one of the most enjoyable films of 2007. But be warned, this is not your grandparents musical like Sound of Music, this is a dark, gothic-horror musical. This is a Tim Burton musical!
Based on the stage musical by Stephen Sondheim, Sweeney Todd tells the story of an English barber (Johnny Depp), Sweeney Todd, who returns to London after a fifteen-year exile to seek revenge on those that sent him to the Australian Prison Colony. Todd was sent to Australia on a bogus charge by the fiendish Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) who wanted Todd's wife for himself. Todd returns to London with a vendetta and finds a compatriot in Mrs. Lovett (Bonham Carter) who runs the worst pie shop in London. The funny thing is, that as soon as Todd begins to exact revenge on his victims, Mrs. Lovett's pie shop becomes the best in town (hint-hint). Sorry folks, I can't give it all away!
Burton's screen adaptation of Sweeney Todd is pure brilliance; it is probably his best work since Ed Wood. He casts actors that as far as we know have little to no experience in musicals, but all pull it off flawlessly. Ten years ago I would have had second thoughts about seeing a musical with Johnny Depp in the lead, but Depp has guided his career very well the last few years and this is no exception. Depp deserves any recognition he gets for Sweeney Todd. It will be well deserved. But one of the characters that is not listed in the credits is London itself. Production designer Dante Ferretti creates a dark, dirty and sinister London that comes alive with every scene. If everything else about the movie were bad, the set design would at least be admired. With as good of film as Sweeney Todd, we don't have to worry about "what ifs."
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film: Beowulf
director: Robert Zemeckis
cast: Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie
Paramount Pictures / 2007
score: 67
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by Kaare Kvenild
Robert Zemeckis returns to motion-capture filmmaking, which he made famous with his last film, The Polar Express (2004). This time he tackles what is regarded as the oldest English Language poem every discovered in Beowulf. Joining Zemeckis on this ride is Ray Winstone as Beowulf, Anthony Hopkins as Hrothgar and Angelina Jolie as Grendel's Mother. The epic story of Beowulf centers on a small Danish kingdom in the year 507 A.D. The kingdom is being terrorized by the beast, Grendel (Crispin Glover) who has a lasting hatred of the kingdom. Hrothgar sends out the call to anybody who can kill the beast. When Beowulf and his warrior band come to the kingdom, Beowulf declares, "I've come to kill your monster," and kill him Beowulf does. Once Beowulf finishes his ordeals with Grendel, he must deal with Grendel's demon mother (Jolie).
This begins a great adventure, but it also begins a great tragedy. Beowulf is a mixed bag of emotions and feelings. It is a rousing epic, and a heart-breaking tragedy all at the same time. It will also leave the viewer with mixed feelings. One has to admire Beowulf; there has never been a film that looked like this. Visually it is one of the most amazing films of 2007, rivaled only by 300. The actors in the film cannot simply be called voice actors; they are so much more. In most every scene, when you see a character move, you are watching the actual actor's movement. That is the inventiveness of motion-capture filmmaking, a process that animates around the actual actors every movement. The actors really gave great all-around performances that had to be immensely challenging to give.
On the down side, the film lacks in the creative department. The story is especially disappointing as Zemeckis and the writing team (Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery) too often drifted away from the original work. For example, they almost completely took out the religious aspects of "Beowulf." In the epic poem, the Danes have recently embraced Christianity, and they look not only to their known pagan gods, but also to the Christian God for help with Grendel. In the film, their dependence lies only with the pagan Norse gods. The only exception is that of character Unferth (John Malkovich), who fully embraces the Christian God. There are many examples of this throughout the film, and anyone familiar with the poem will notice these things and resent the movie for leaving them out. All in all, I would say see this movie under two conditions: either wait for DVD or see it Imax 3-D. Seeing it in Imax 3-D is a lot of fun, otherwise, wait for the DVD.
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