The Wolverine
Film Review by Kam Williams
Jackman Journeys to Japan for Latest Adventure as Metal-Clawed Mutant
Logan, aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), is a mutant with retractable claws and a self-healing, metal skeleton. As a member of Marvel Comics’ X-Men, he has appeared in all five of the franchise’s prior screen adaptations, most notably, the eponymous installment exploring his origin.
At this episode’s point of departure, we find him in Alaska and awaking from the clever cinematic contrivance of a nightmare within a nightmare. In the haunting dream, he’d been confronted by Jean Grey, aka Phoenix (Famke Janssen), the lover/colleague gone bad he’d been forced to stab to death in X-Men: The Last Stand.
Here, she makes him feel so guilty about gutting her belly and aborting their baby that he promises never to hurt anyone ever again. Trouble is, Logan has anger management issues which cause him to morph into feral Wolverine whenever he loses his temper, and he proceeds to break the vow the very next day in a bar fight with a bunch of inconsiderate local yokels.
However, the film’s setting changes from the Yukon to the Orient soon after the arrival in town of bottle red-head Yukio (Rila Fukushima), a capable bodyguard sent by Ichiro Yashida (Haruchiko Yamanouchi), the terminally-ill CEO of Japan’s biggest corporation. Since Logan saved Ichiro’s life when the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, you’d think he was being summoned for a grateful, fond farewell. Think again.
The old man suddenly wants to live forever and has hatched a plan to steal Wolverine’s secret to immortality. And he’s assisted in this diabolical endeavor by and army of ninjas as well as by Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova), an evil temptress with an immunity to toxins.
Meanwhile, Logan is lucky that Yukio has decided to shift loyalties from her boss to him. At this juncture, the picture launches into a ballet-like display of non-stop martial arts fare, the highlight being a breathtaking Kabuki dance to the death atop a careening locomotive.
When the dust settles, Logan of course not only emerges victorious but will have to choose whether to ride off into the Land of the Rising Sun’s proverbial sunset with two-fisted, tomboy Yukio or with gorgeous Mariko (Tao Okamoto), Ichiro’s granddaughter. Provided you’re not suffering from blockbuster fatigue in this summer of sequels, this engaging and enchanting Asian adventure definitely deserves to be added to your “Must See” list.
Crouching Viper, Hidden Wolverine!
Excellent (4 stars)
Rated PG-13 for sexuality, profanity and intense violence
In English and Japanese with subtitles
Running time: 126 minutes
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia
Film Review by Kam Williams
Some of the most brilliant people I’ve ever interviewed have been dyslexic, including film directors like Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects), Joe Wright (Anna Karenina) and Guy Ritchie (Snatch), as well as matinee idol Channing Tatum, who opened up to me about the pain he felt about his grades in school until he found fulfillment in a number of artistic pursuits such as dance, sculpting, painting, photography, and of course, acting.
Each of the aforementioned is a nonconformist with a knack for thinking out of the box, a trait also shared by most of the subjects of The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia. Among the icons who appear in this enlightening documentary directed by James Redford are self-made, billionaire Richard Branson, investment house CEO Charles Schwab, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, and A-list attorney David Boies.
After hearing them weigh-in about their supposed affliction, one can’t help but wonder whether dyslexia might actually be considered by some to be a blessing. Boies points out his learning disability’s positive correlation with creativity, which helps explain why so many born with it have blossomed in unique fashion in their respective fields. Branson says dyslexics are trustworthy because “We say what we mean,” while Newsom believes their brains enjoy the advantage of being able to see “The Big Picture.”
Besides the rich and famous, the film focuses on youngsters (in grammar school, junior high, high school and college) and their parents as they share what life is like after a diagnosis of dyslexia. What’s abundantly clear is that each has managed to overcome the combination of low expectations and frustrations with spelling and reading to prove themselves capable of competing with classmates on the highest level, so long as some slight accommodations are made which take their condition into consideration.
An admirably informative and empathetic effort clearing up common misconceptions, essentially explaining that dyslexia is not a character flaw but merely a neurological issue affecting as many as one out of five individuals.
Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 60 minutes
Distributor: Shadow Creek Films / HBO Films
To see a trailer for The Big Picture, visit
R.I.P.D.
Film Review by Kam Williams
Veteran detective Nick Walker (Ryan Reynolds) is very content between his 15-year career with the Boston Police Department and being happily-married to the love of his life, Julia (Stefanie Szostak). However, his American Dream is irreversibly ruined the fateful day he is assigned to bring down a drug cartel conducting business out of an abandoned factory along the waterfront.
For, greed gets the best of his partner, Bobby Hayes (Kevin Bacon), after the ensuing shootout, when they discover a stash of gold artifacts. And instead of taking the antique ingots back to headquarters, he decides to shoot Nick dead and blame the murder on the bad guys. To add insult to injury, Bobby consoles Julia and even has the temerity to put the moves on the grieving widow.
Meanwhile, Nick finds himself neither in Heaven nor Hell, but in a police purgatory where a proctor (Mary-Louise Parker) offers him a chance to return to Earth as a member of a squad of zombie cops called the Rest in Peace Department (R.I.P.D.). He leaps at the opportunity, and is immediately paired with a late, Old West lawman, a salty cowboy named Roycephus Pulsipher (Jeff Bridges).
The grizzled gunslinger grudgingly agrees to work with a partner for the first time, and in the blink of an eye the two are teleported back to Beantown to round up renegade dead souls who have somehow evaded the afterlife. There, Nick conveniently also has an opportunity to check in on Julia and plot his revenge on Bobby.
Like a poor man’s version of Men in Black, R.I.P.D. is a disappointing action comedy both in terms of action and comedy. Think “ghost” instead of “alien” adversaries and you have the basic idea of what director Robert Schwentke is going for.
Unfortunately, the obsolete special f/x leave a lot to be desired, and the corny jokes fall flat. Another major structural flaw is the lack of chemistry between the protagonists, a no-no in any unlikely-buddies adventure. Ryan Reynolds looks lost opposite the drawling, generally unintelligible Jeff Bridges who behaves like he’s still on the set of True Grit.
R.I.P.D. is D.O.A.!
Fair (1 star)
Rated PG-13 for violence, profanity, sensuality and sexual references
Running Time: 96 minutes
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Israel: A Home Movie
Film Review by Kam Williams
Most people’s general impressions of Israel come as a result of watching news stories prepared by professional journalists. If you’re interested in getting a more intimate feeling of the country untainted by politics, you might want to check out this documentary by Eliav Lilti.
The movie is basically a collage of home movies shot by amateur shutterbugs on Super 8 film between the Thirties and the Seventies. Besides reminding us of mundane fare like birthdays and bar mitzvahs, it covers subject-matter ranging from euphoric Romanian refugees dancing on the deck of a boat as they arrive in Israel, to a nurse comforting a wounded private who has just lost three limbs in battle, to settlers building in the occupied territories.
Together, these assorted images prove fascinating, since they paint the melancholy, collective psyche of a haunted homeland hopelessly caught in cycles of conflict where the next crisis might lurk just around the corner. For, here, we see a Jewish family grieving a young man murdered in a terrorist attack. And there, we hear a shell-shocked soldier declare, “God bless morphine!”
The tableau that perhaps says it all unfolds at a Yom Kippur beach party whose festivities are suddenly disrupted when a jet fighter is shot down over the sea. Israel captured through the eyes of ordinary citizens as a vulnerable refuge where tragedy has become the norm, and where peace invariably leads back to war.
Very Good (3 stars)
Unrated
In Hebrew with subtitles
Running time: 94 minutes
Distributor: Film Forum
Big Words
Film Review by Kam Williams
It’s November 4, 2008, and Brooklyn is bristling with anticipation about the impending election returns to see whether or not Barack Obama will be the nation’s first African-American president. But the magic of the moment is pretty much lost on John aka MC Wordsmith (Dorian Missick), James aka Jay-V (Gbenga Akinnagbe) and Terry aka DJ Malik (Darien Sills-Evans), despite the fact that they’re black and hail from the ‘hood.
Back in the early Nineties, the three shared a brief promising career as the Down Low Poets, a fledgling hip-hop group which produced a video, two singles and an unreleased album before disappearing from the record-biz radar. The band disbanded, went their separate ways and lost touch entirely.
Today, with Obama poised to make history, we find each consumed by a personal crisis. John has just been laid off from his job as an IT technician. James is now a book publicist in a stagnant relationship and considering seducing his handsome, young intern (Zachary Booth). Only Terry is still an aspiring rap star, and stubbornly refuses to see the handwriting on the wall after a couple of decades squandered desperately trying to make it in the music business.
By a twist of fate, their paths cross at an election night party where Obama’s achievement only serves as a distracting backdrop. Proving far more compelling are the personal questions being raised. What are John’s chances with the stripper (Yaya Alafia) he just picked up at a go-go bar?
Will out-of-the-closet James’ once-hidden homosexuality remain a block to repairing relationships with his former pals, especially his cousin, John? Will Terry drop the hip-hop moniker, pull up his pants, and get a real job?
Written and directed by Neil Drumming, Big Words is a perfectly plausible, character-driven drama with only one glaring flaw. Why bother to set an African-American tale on Election Night 2008, if you plan to give Obama’s triumph such short shrift?
A poignant portrait of a very eventful day in the lives of a trio too self-absorbed to care about who was about to win the White House.
Very Good (3 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 94 minutes
Distributor: AFFRM / Twice Told Films