Man of Steel
Film Review by Kam Williams

To my generation, Superman was just “a strange visitor from another planet” who was “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound“ in “a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way.” But in this age of information, audiences want to know a lot more about a superhero’s backstory.

Furthermore, what passed for special f/x on the original TV show were cheesy flying sequences in which support wires were plainly visible to the naked eye. And the underwhelming fight scenes generally ended when the bumbling villain with little imagination ran out of bullets and threw his pistol at the Man of Steel’s chest in sheer frustration.

Over the intervening years, Superman has been revived twice on television (Lois & Clark and Smallville) and five times on the big screen. This sixth film version stars Henry Cavill in the title role opposite Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Russell Crowe as Jor-El, Laurence Fishburne as a black Perry White, and Rebecca Buller as a gender-bent Jenny, not Jimmy, Olsen.

Director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead) has ostensibly envisioned Man of Steel as a reboot of the storied franchise, given that plans are already in the works for the character to reappear in an adaptation of DC Comics’ Justice League slated for 2015. Thus, like a lot of other origins tales, this episode devotes considerable attention to an explanation of Superman’s roots.

The picture’s point of departure is Krypton where we find the parents (Crowe and Ayelet Zurer) of the planet’s first naturally-conceived child in centuries secretly sending their newborn on an otherwise unmanned spaceship headed to Earth. This development doesn’t sit well with genetic engineer General Zod (Michael Shannon), a megalomaniac in charge of deciding which of Krypton’s bloodlines are allowed to continue, and this renegade’s definitely isn’t one of them.

The rocket crash lands in the cornfields of Jonathan (Kevin Costner) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane), a kindly couple who proceed to raise the baby as their own. Of course, Clark isn’t like other boys, and he does his best to harness and hide his superpowers, although they occasionally come in handy like when he rescues a school bus full of students that’s sinking in a river.

The plot thickens when aliens arrive from Krypton with annihilation in mind. Not surprisingly, they’re led by none other than the diabolical Zod, who commandeers the mass media, spouting typical invasion malarkey warning the “People of Earth” that resistance is futile. Not if Superman has something to say about it.

At this juncture, the action the kids have been waiting for finally kicks into high gear, with a spectacular battle royal replete with dizzying technical wizardry and acrobatic dexterity mercifully replacing the pretentious dialogue laced with lots of pseudo-scientific babble. Ultimately, good triumphs over evil, ala the American way, and Superman survives to defend truth and justice in upcoming sequels and spinoffs.

A righteous, riveting relaunch leaving no doubt that, even after 80 years, you still don’t tug on Superman’s cape!

Very Good (3 stars)

Rated PG-13 for profanity, sci-fi violence and intense action sequences

Running time: 143 minutes

Distributor: Warner Brothers

The Purge
Film Review by Kam Williams

The setting is America in 2022, a disturbing dystopia where the prisons are even more overcrowded than we find them today. Consequently, the overwhelmed authorities have come up with a unique way of dealing with crime, namely, designating one night a year on which the rule of law is suspended, and anything is legal, even murder.

The idea is that, with the cops turning their heads the other way, armed vigilantes can indulge their bloodlust and dispense justice simultaneously, thereby doing society a favor by ridding the streets of vermin. However, this means that it isn’t safe to be outside during that very dangerous 12-hour period known as The Purge.

For that reason, James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) has carefully barricaded his family inside its heavily-fortified mansion. Besides outfitting the house with a state of the art security system, the wealthy homeowner has purchased a couple of guns just in case an intruder still manages to break in post-lockdown.

But that seems highly unlikely once James punches in the computerized code, thereby dropping bulletproof steel shields over all the windows and doors. As the 7 PM siren signals the start of the gruesome festivities, he settles down with wife Mary (Lena Headey), son Charlie (Max Burkholder) and daughter Zoey (Adelaide Kane) in front of a bank of video surveillance monitors to watch whether anyone attempts to enter the premises.

What they didn’t bargain for was Zoey’s boyfriend Henry (Tony Oller) hiding in her bedroom, or the sight of a wounded, homeless black man (Edwin Hodge) on the perimeter of the premises begging for sanctuary from a bloodthirsty mob. Soon, the boundary is irreversibly breached when kindhearted Charlie lets the stranger inside at a moment of weakness, leading to a terrifying ordeal that lasts till dawn.

So unfolds The Purge, a futuristic horror flick written and directed bv James DeMonaco (Little New York). His riveting thriller plays much bigger than a picture shot on a relatively-modest budget of just $3 million.

Be ready to scream at the top of your lungs in response to the spine-tingling fare cleverly edited to make you jump out of your seat when you least expect to. Meanwhile, the picture proves to be equally thought-provoking, given the philosophical questions it raises via a most unusual method of social engineering.

A cerebral screamfest certain to give you goosebumps!

Excellent (3.5 stars)

Rated R for profanity and disturbing violence

Running time: 85 minutes

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Hannah Arendt
Film Review by Kam Williams

I’m not sure whether there’s a term for the Jewish equivalent of an Uncle Tom but, if there is, it would probably be applicable to Hannah Arendt (Barbara Sukowa). Born in Germany in 1906, Hannah studied philosophy at the University of Marburg, where she became both the protégé and the mistress of Professor Martin Heiddegger (Klaus Pohl), “the greatest love of her life,” a Nazi who went to his grave without ever apologizing for his support of Hitler.

In response to the rise of anti-Semitism across Deutschland, Arendt fled first to France in search of sanctuary, and later escaped to the United States with her mother and husband, Heinrich (Axel Milberg), on illegal visas secured from an American diplomat. She became a citizen in 1950 and subsequently made history as the first female lecturer at Princeton University.

However, as Shakespeare suggested in Julius Caesar, “The evil that men do lives after them: The good is oft interred in their bones.” Such is apparently the case with women, too, as Hannah appears fated to be forever remembered for a series of articles she wrote for the New Yorker magazine while covering the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.

Like one of those weirdoes who falls for an inmate, she inexplicably sided with Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust, buying hook, line and sinker his “I only followed orders” defense. Her coverage created a huge uproar as soon as it started hitting the news stands.

This is understandable because instead of calling Eichmann a monster, she merely referred to him as “a clown, a foolish little servant of Hitler who didn’t have a mind of his own.” The blowback from this “banality of evil” theory was deservedly severe since Hannah simultaneously had the temerity to indict Jewish leaders for supposedly cooperating with the Nazis.

A fascinating character study of an arrogant, cold-hearted, self-hating Jew who had the nerve to blame 6,000,000 of her own people for their extermination in concentration camps.

Excellent (4 stars)

Unrated

In English, French, Hebrew, Latin and German with subtitles

Running time: 113 minutes

Distributor: Zeitgeist Films

Man Up!
Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence
by Ross Mathews
Foreword by Gwyneth Paltrow
Afterword by Chelsea Handler
Grand Central Publishing
Hardcover, $25.00
238 pages
ISBN: 978-1-455-50180-9

Book Review by Kam Williams

“This is how I define ‘man up’: you are what you are and the sooner

you stop hating what makes you unique, and start celebrating it and

using it to make you stand out from the crowd, the better your life will

be. For some reason, I was lucky enough to figure that out at an early

age…

This book, like my life, will be a bit of a roller coaster—you’ll

experience ups and downs, fits of laughter—and who knows, you

might even throw up! So keep your arms and legs inside the ride

at all times and, for goodness sake, stay seated until we come to

a complete stop.”

-- Excerpted from Prologue and Epilogue (pages xvi and 204)

In 2001, Ross Mathews was working as an unpaid intern for The Tonight Show when he was plucked from obscurity by Jay Leno and brought onstage as a last-minute fill-in for a no-show guest. The flamboyant ham made the most of the opportunity, instantly ingratiating himself with folks all across the country as bubbly, over-the-top “Ross the Intern.”

A natural in front of the camera, he’s been entertaining audiences ever since, whether on special assignment for The Tonight Show, guest-hosting for Chelsea Handler on Chelsea Lately, or interviewing celebrities on the red carpet for the E! Entertainment Network. And Ross recently landed his own talk show, Hello Ross, which is set to debut in the fall.

Now, he’s has published Man Up! Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence, a laugh riot about his meteoric rise to fame. Inter alia, he recounts how he got the shock of his life when Gwyneth Paltrow said “Yes” when he asked her to be his best friend. They’ve remained close ever since.

Besides gushing about the celebrities he’s met, star struck Ross is fond of delivering heartfelt pep talks to youngsters who might be social outcasts. For he recalls having been the butt of teasing and homophobic slurs growing up in a tiny, rural town as a chubby, effeminate kid with a voice that squeaked.

But he relocated to the more tolerant environs of L.A. where he not only found the strength to come out of the closet but combined his Rubenesque figure and nasal whine into the recognizable trademark that’s endeared him to millions. The pages of this delightful tome are filled with plenty of personal anecdotes fleshing out Ross that will really leave fans feeling like they know him.

The revealing autobiography covers its subject’s love life in fairly intimate fashion, from his first girlfriend, Becky, a fifth grade classmate who “didn’t seem to mind my physical deformities,” to his longtime companion, Salvador, with whom he’s been in a committed relationship for the last five years.

An inspirational opus about a “boy least likely” who has achieved the American Dream without a makeover or having to compromise his integrity one iota.

To order a copy of Man Up!, visit

Evocateur: The Morton Downey, Jr. Movie

Film Review by Kam Williams

Warts and All Biopic Revisits Rise and Flameout of Controversial Flash in the Pan

            Morton Downey, Sr. was a wealthy, well-connected film and recording star who settled down with his family on Cape Cod in a lavish mansion located right next-door to the Kennedys. Although son Morton, Jr. was raised a liberal in the lap of luxury and tried for years to make it as a rock musician, in 1987 he made himself over as an arch-conservative populist presuming to be the voice of angry white males.

            Over the next two years, he would enjoy a meteoric rise as the host of an eponymous, nationally-syndicated, TV talk show. However, because the chain-smoking conservative-come-lately was an obnoxious loudmouth who cared more about ratings than an honest discussion of political issues, his hate-spewing, in your face interviewing style would grow tiresome just as fast as it brought him to the top of the Hollywood food chain.

            The stunt that proved to be Mort’s downfall transpired in a San Francisco airport bathroom where he cut his hair and his shirt with scissors and drew a swastika on his face in a bathroom before claiming to have been attacked by a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads. What’s ironic about the incident is the fact that a frequent guest on his show was Reverend Al Sharpton, a staunch defender of Tawana Brawley, who was similarly disgraced after being exposed as a fraud for falsely fingering a white district attorney for rape.

            Directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger, Evocateur is a mix of archival footage and reflections by family, friends, fans and folks who made appearances on the program like Pat Buchanan and Gloria Allred. The old videos of Mort, who succumbed to lung cancer in 2001, remain every bit as compelling today as they were in his heyday.

            A riveting biopic about a rich kid-turned-rabid bully and pathological liar desperate enough for the limelight to sell his soul to the devil.

Excellent (4 stars)

Rated R for profanity and nudity

Running time: 90 minutes

Distributor: Magnolia Pictures  

To see a trailer for Evocateur, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0cbBQrnDk