'Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian'

Doane Gregory / 20th Century Fox

Ben Stiller returns as museum guard Larry Daly in the new film, "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian."

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By BETSY SHARKEY, Film Critic
May 22, 2009

Imagine history night at the Improv, only with marble floors and no hecklers: "Hank, you're a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy named Kahmunrah, it's 2009 and you just woke up, go . . . " and you have "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian." It's not so much a movie as a series of running antiquity gags, good for a comedy club, not so much for the multiplex.

Ben Stiller is back as Larry Daley, though he's ditched the night guard gig at the Museum of Natural History in New York City despite the very cool gold tablet that hangs in the Egyptian room and actually brings everything to life at night. Now he's become an infomercial king with a fortune made hawking gadgets like glow-in-the-dark flashlights with his good pal George Foreman. Since nothing even remotely interesting or funny happens outside of the museum, thankfully we don't stay there long.

As director Shawn Levy pretty much worked through all of the Natural History Museum's dioramas, bony T. rexes, stuffed mammoths and most of Teddy Roosevelt's ( Robin Williams) sage advice in the first film, he has taken the show on the road. Besides, museum traffic is down, hologram-creating 3-D technology is taking over, and so the gang is being packed up and shipped to the Smithsonian for storage, which means that Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan and most of the stars of the first film are back.

Who can save the day? Why, gosh, I bet Larry Daley can. Actually it's Amelia Earhart who does, Amy Adams in excellent form as superwoman Earhart, looking fabulous in jodhpurs and a cropped leather/shearling jacket. There's a derring-do to her '30s patter laced with words like "flyboy" and "skedaddle" and a style that evokes Katharine Hepburn.

Whether or not she wins Larry's heart, who cares, she had the rest of us at "Hello."

She's been brought to life for the night by the gold tablet, which the Natural History guys sneaked into their packing crates. But there's a downside to that, as history is filled with at least as many villains as heroes and this particular wing of the Smithsonian has more than its share.

The main bad man is Kahmunrah, a very funny Hank Azaria playing the fictional pharaoh very imperious and very fey. For Kahmunrah, it's a sibling rivalry issue; the gold tablet was at the NYC museum with his brother, but it fits in one of the relics from Kahmunrah's tomb and, besides, mom meant him to have it. Now if he can just unlock its mystery, he'll be able to open a door to the past, call up his evil legions and rule the world.

As luck would have it, some of the most notorious villains ever are housed under the same roof, including Ivan the Terrible ( Christopher Guest), Napoleon (Alain Chabat) and Al Capone (Jon Bernthal), and Kahmunrah recruits them all. Unfortunately they don't do all that much for him, and they do even less for the movie.

Though the context throughout the film is meant to be a clever take on what history teaches us, as the story unfolds and the battles rage, what we get instead is too much pointless slapstick epitomized when the capuchin monkey and Stiller face off, slapping each other silly. There's a new conceit that's been added, with the pictures hanging in the galleries coming to life too. It works quite well when a classic photo provides a clever escape for Larry and Amelia, who hide in the Times Square crowd on VJ Day, while the soldier kisses the nurse, and not as well when Amelia dances with the Degas ballerinas.

In case you were expecting one, there is no real moral to this story from screenwriters Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, the team who also wrote the first film based on Milan Trenc's children's book of the same name. Still, there is some fun to be had in watching big, clumsy things run noisily through a museum.

Maybe next time the gang could head to Punxsutawney, Pa. You know, little furry Phil, Bill Murray, "Groundhog Day" meets "Night of the Living Dead." In a museum. Think of the possibilities

Review of RED CLIFF II

Review of RED CLIFF

Posted by Stefan at 7:38am.

Red Cliff marks John Woo’s return to his Asian filmmaking roots following his stint in Hollywood, and with a budget of US$80 million, many have touted this as a blockbuster epic that Asians would be proud of, especially one coming from Woo. A dream project of his, Red Cliff undoubtedly garnered plenty of buzz since Day One, and its casting has been nothing short of a musical chairs game, with actors revolving in and out of the door, especially when Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai had announced their departure from the project, only for the latter to return to fill in Chow’s shoes, and Takeshi Kaneshiro to take over the void left by Leung.

Given the result of the movie, I’d dare say that whatever Chow’s reasons were to leave the project, he probably would be kicking his own rear now. Red Cliff is nothing short of spectacular and worthy to be ranked up there as far as epic war movies based on a historical context are concerned. Adapting not from the much beloved novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but from more grounded historical accounts, this marks a very ambitious adaptation as it is based on a tumultuous time in China’s feuding warlords history, set just about and after the downfall of the Han dynasty, where warlords vie for power and China being split into three large kingdoms led by Cao Cao (played by Zhang Fengyi), Sun Quan (Chang Chen) and Liu Bei (Yong You). Since it would be near impossible to condense the richness of the entire period into a series of films, Red Cliff focuses on one of the turning points and popular milestones, which provides ample opportunity for action sequences, and for wily battle strategies and plans to get formulated and executed.

John Woo’s admiration for General Zhao Yun’s qualities cannot be more obvious when it is he who opens the first battle proper, with a very familiar character episode involving the rescue of the infant son (and future lord) of his master Liu Bei, thereby sealing his reputation of valor, earning admiration even from enemy Cao Cao. Fans of Liu Bei’s camp will undoubtedly cheer at the appearances of his sworn brothers General Guan Yu (who is worshipped as a deity until this very day, and remains one of my favourite characters besides Zhao Yun) and General Zhang Fei, whose gruffness translates to instant war-ready prowess. While Liu’s army is clearly routed in a military loss, it explained the dilemma of Liu’s leadership. One which is based on sincerity, a quality which persuaded his chief military strategist and genius all round Zhuge Liang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) to join his cause, but one which lacked military strength in numbers, despite having some of the best generals of the time under his leadership.

Which of course Cao Cao admires and probably is envious about, given his superior strength in numbers came from surrendering armies, whose loyalty remains questionable, and of course with individual generals who can’t surpass the abilities of those from Liu. Playing the king like a puppet and having him issue a decree for permission to pursue Liu Bei who has fled southwards, he sets his sights also on warlord Sun Quan, for a more personal reason akin to the story of Helen of Troy. Zhuge Liang, knowing their current weakness, seeks an alliance between the armies of Liu and Sun Quan, and this forms most of the first half, where he had to play envoy to cajole and persuade, especially in convincing Sun Quan’s most trusted advisor Zhou Yu (Tony Leung) that war is inevitable and they should form a win-win partnership.

And here’s where great minds think alike, and watching both Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang do a friendly pit against each other is nothing short of amazing, where so little says so much. It helps of course that both Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro have been paired up as leading men on screen before such as in Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s Confession of Pain, lending some much established and credible chemistry here as men who share admiration in each other’s ability, especially when Zhou Yu seemed to have a fairer balance between fighting skill and intellect. With one side having highly disciplined soldiers with good morale, and the other having renowned generals to be leaders, it doesn’t take a genius to realize the advantages gained in fending off a common enemy together.

The fight sequences were pure spectacle, with old school wire work combined with technological wizardry to showcase some large scale battle sequences at a macro level, or to highlight the immense naval numbers that Cao Cao brings to battle. Formations and strategies take centerstage in a first major confrontation on land, where one gets to see John Woo’s interpretation of Zhuge Liang’s “ba-gua” (8 stratagems) strategy, made more entertaining through the continuation of what we have already seen in each general’s fighting ability, each given a unique style befitting the characters in folklore, such as Guan Yu and his Guan Dao (Green Dragon Crescent Blade) and Zhao Yun and his spear. There’s the usual bellowing cape and slow motion in Woo’s signature style, but these were kept to a minimum, as are the pigeons (though they do make an appearance, but serving some purpose at least).

Perhaps it is the success of the fight sequences that had left some lamenting for more, but bear in mind this is just but the first half of the movie, setting things up. The major war sequences of course are left in the second movie which we will get to see come early next year. Like The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, expect the next movie to go on an all out assault. I felt that already is a fair balance of drama and action here, especially when this installment has to cover a broad base given numerous characters, which should provide fans (of Three Kingdoms) something to cheer about. Chang Chen provides his Sun Quan with enough self-doubt, and in a small story arc has to seek his inner confidence ala Leonidas in 300, while model Lin Chiling’s much touted debut movie appearance, was limited to just a few scenes of lovey-dovey moments, which unfortunately for audiences in Singapore, her sex scene with Tony Leung got edited out in order for distributors to get a PG rating to put more bums on seats.

I had wondered how Tony Leung would have faired as Zhuge Liang instead of Kaneshiro, but felt that the musical chairs casting somehow became a blessing in disguise. Kaneshiro’s good looks might have made some doubt his ability to play the smartest man alive during the era, but he did an excellent job in bringing out the humility and self-deprecation of the man whose never flashy nor overconfident of his abilities, and one who swears his talents to his lord Liu Bei. Tony Leung on the other hand brought about a fine balance of brains and brawn to the Zhou Yu character, whom I suspect in Woo’s version, would be credited with much success for his part in Red Cliff, rather than the accolades all going to Zhuge Liang. After you see the reliable Tony Leung in this role, you’ll know for sure that Chow Yun-Fatt could probably never had brought the kind of gravitas Leung brought to the role.

Forget about the pretender of a Three Kingdoms movie in Ressurection of the Dragon starring Andy Lau. John Woo’s Red Cliff is the real deal, even though this is just the first installment of a two parter meant for an Asian release, while those in the Western World would have to settle for a shortened, combined movie, one which I suspect Vicky Zhao’s role as Princess Sun ShangXiang would probably be reduced, along with various instances where scenes were allowed to indulge for some CGI showcase done by The Orphanage, amongst others.

Red Cliff is hands down highly recommended, not only for those familiar with the story (and who’re likely to find fault with some minor tweaks to supporting characters in involvement and names), but makes a great entry point to the rich stories of brotherhood, valor, bravery which sits snugly in any John Woo movie, and I guess to reintroduce a whole new generation to the era of the warring states, especially to our friends in the West. John Woo had given plenty of respect to the source material, and his meticulous treatment had shone through some of the slower scenes, such as taking time to highlight the peacetime roles of the various generals of the Liu Bei camp. I can’t wait to continue where this movie left off!

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

By Tom Charity
Special to CNN

(CNN) -- Actors call it "backstory."

Hugh Jackman stars as the title character in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

It's all the stuff that happened in the past, before the movie begins. All the stuff that might explain how the character became what he or she is today.

It's obvious why that might be fascinating to the actor playing the role. But as for the rest of us, well, you have to figure the writer left it out for a reason.

But these days we're seeing a lot more "origin" stories as the studios milk each franchise for every last drop, and thus arrives "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," about the blade-wielding character Hugh Jackman plays. (Jackman, no dummy, has a producer credit on the film.)

You can be sure that someone at Twentieth Century Fox will be running the numbers Monday with a view to fast-tracking a sequel to this prequel, as well as further putative episodes devoted to Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, Mystique and the rest of the class of X.

Based on "Wolverine," it's hard to get excited about the prospect. The film exhibits all the overly familiar hallmarks of the 21st-century comic book movie: an inflated sense of its own importance, turgid plotting and action sequences designed to showcase lavish CGI effects.

In many ways, it was the first "X-Men," back in 2000, that set the tone. On the one hand, director Bryan Singer embedded an earnest allegory about prejudice and minority rights; on the other, it was an FX geek's wet dream. Each mutant came with her or his own gimmick: One could shapeshift; another could levitate; yet another had a bad case of wind.

The mutants all shared the same nasty temper, but Logan/Wolverine (Jackman) had the shortest fuse -- and the silliest haircut, a '50s ducktail with ferocious rockabilly sideburns. Predictably enough, "Origins" devotes more time to exploring the roots of his anger issues than his hair, but it doesn't worry about where his most distinctive genetic features might have come from: the retractable claws that spring from his knuckles when he's irked and his invulnerability to anything short of decapitation.

In "Wolverine," Logan has lost his taste for war in Vietnam after more than a century as a fighting man (or mutant) and finally walks away in disgust from the elite mutant unit put together by Col. Stryker (Danny Huston). But his brother Victor (Liev Schreiber) has other ideas and knows how to get Wolverine to embrace his true, animalistic, nature.

Borrowing wholesale from "The Incredible Hulk," with Schreiber fairly effective in the Abomination part, "Wolverine" struggles to establish an identity of its own. The two brothers charge at each other like medieval knights jousting, and Victor -- also known as Sabretooth -- affects a dog-like, four-legged bound. But no matter how often he tries it, director Gavin Hood ("Tsotsi") never works out how to make a fight between indestructible foes tense or exciting.

That's the trouble with CG-enhanced action: What you gain in spectacle, you lose in impact. Filmmakers today can engineer destruction on a scale that would have been unimaginable 20 or 30 years ago, but it's all so much collateral damage. It's rare, these days, for an American action movie to impart any genuine sense of pain or hurt or loss. Too much Wow, not enough Ow!

In fairness, there are fleeting moments in "Wolverine" where we do feel Logan's emotional anguish. But they're only as a prelude to his anger, which is the only quality an audience is likely to find interesting about him.

Serviceable but inescapably redundant, this "Wolverine" movie does just enough to keep the "X-Men" franchise on life support, but the filmmakers will have to come up with some evolutionary changes soon if it's going to escape X-tinction.

Film Review: Angels Vs Demons

ROME -- Science or religion? Wait, there's room for both.

If the world could be rendered as simple as "Angels & Demons," we'd all be living in a less confusing place. Taking to heart the critics' lament that the first Dan Brown novel-to-film "The Da Vinci Code" was talky, static and arcane, director Ron Howard and his crew have worked hard to make Professor Robert Langdon's return a thrilling, faster-paced walk in the park.

It will be difficult for this papal mystery, beautifully shot in Rome and Rome-like locations, to gross less than its phenomenal predecessor, which topped $750 million worldwide for Sony Pictures in 2006.

Plucking the same violent, occult strings as "Da Vinci" while avoiding its leadenness, "Angels" keeps the action coming for the best part of 139 minutes. Scripters David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman have taken a firmer hand with Brown's material. The opening scene, for example, omits the hypersonic Vatican jet that transports crack Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) from Cambridge to Geneva in an hour, opting for more conventional means to get him to Rome and into the thick of the action.

Although this attack of realism might disappoint the book's die-hard fans, it pays off in depicting the Vatican as a fairly "normal" nation-state, and not as some all-powerful SMERSH-like nemesis. And in the end, most of those who attacked the film before seeing it on grounds of its being anti-Catholic will have to eat their words, as the warm-hearted ending casts a rosy glow around the College of Cardinals, the papacy and the faithful throngs in St. Peter's Square.

But back to the plot. The pope is dead, and the Catholic Church is preparing to elect a new one. The handsome young Camerlengo Patrick (Ewan McGregor), who was raised by the late pope, is heartbroken.

Whisked to the Vatican at the behest of Inspector Olivetti (fine Italian thesp Pierfrancesco Favino), Langdon learns that the four cardinals who are the most likely papal candidates have been kidnapped. In Vatican security, he meets scientist Vittoria Vetra (sultry Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer), privy to insider knowledge about how a cylinder of anti-matter was brutally stolen from the Cern labs in Geneva. It's child's play to put two and two together and realize that the Vatican is about to be blown up by the ticking bomb of anti-matter.

Into this futuristic world of protons and neutrons erupts the long-forgotten religious cult of the Illuminati, a group of 17th century forward thinkers who championed scientific truth and were forced underground by the Church. Now they're back, in the mysterious person of a fanatic assassin (Nikolaj Lie Kaas.)

Aided by Olivetti and the earnest young camerlengo, while hindered by deadpan Swiss Guards commander Richter (Stellan Skarsgard), Langdon goes about his semiotic business of pulling clues out of thin air.

The story line is brilliantly simplified into Langdon's search for the four cardinals, with Vetra and Olivetti as his sidekicks. His job is to find angel sculptures inside churches, which point to other churches. Black police cars race dangerously through the crowded Roman streets, always arriving five minutes too late to prevent the grisly death of an aged cardinal who has been branded with the words Earth, Air, Fire or Water. Hanks does a likable job of glossing over every implausibility, allowing the action to climax in gut-churning shots borrowed from cheap horror films.

Hanks fits more comfortably into the role of Langdon here, taking a moment to deliver some friendly one-liners. If "Da Vinci" was criticized for the lack of sexual chemistry between its protagonists, "Angels" simply refuses to suggest any kind of romance between Langdon and Vetra. Their total lack of a relationship is so stunning successful that it passes unnoticed.

This allows Koepp and Goldsman to concentrate on what the audience really wants to see: burning cardinals, spectacular explosions and incomparable studio reconstructions of Baroque Rome.

Bride Wars (2009)

As best friends who become dueling bridezillas, Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway are the right stars for the era of megagirly princess feminism. In Bride Wars, it's funny, and telling, that when they land a meeting with New York's most fabled wedding planner (Candice Bergen), they're already so steeped in the minutiae of matrimony that it's clear they could do the job just as well themselves. Both women have spent their lives dreaming of a June wedding at the Plaza (you wonder how recently they've checked their daddies' stock portfolios), but due to a logistical screwup, they end up booking their nuptials there on the exact same day.

It's not clear why this is such a big problem, but it is. Neither one will budge, which leads to an escalating battle of the sorority-bitch gambits: One dyes the 
 other's hair blue, revenge is served up at a tanning 
 salon, and so on. Directed by the usually more supple Gary Winick (13 Going on 30), Bride Wars isn't really a romantic comedy, since the two grooms-to-be have about as much presence as waiters. The comedy is all about these bazooka-brained brides and their holy right to treat a wedding as more important than, you know, marriage. Hudson, her sunny good cheer baked to a dominatrix flatness, and Hathaway, her long-limbed smiling charm all a-gangle, go at their frilly 
 obsessions like joyless rival executives. Bride Wars pretends to be a satire of wedding mania, but since there's virtually nothing else to the movie, the satire comes depressingly close to endorsement.

Long Road To Heaven

Long Road To Heaven

Long Road to Heaven sets at October 2002 Bali Bombing tragedy. Hannah Catrelle (Mirrah Foulkes) trapped in the chaos after the explosion occurred. In the middle of the chaos she met with Hajj Ismail (Joshua Pandelaki), a Moslem living in Bali. Through Ismail, Hanna starts to learn the real Islam teaching and slowly her prejudice to Islam fades away.

Seven months later, an Australian reporter named Liz Thompson (Raelee Hill) arrived in Bali for a research at the story. She accompanied by Wayan Diya (Alex Komang); a Balinese who lost a relative in the tragedy. During her research she learns Balinese philosophy which is open her mind and enriched her view to better understand about life.

Director: Enison Sinaro
Writer(s): Wong Kai Leng, Andy Logam-Tan
Cast: Alex Komang, Raelee Hills, Mirrah Foulkes, Surya Saputra

Release Date: January 15, 2007

Review The Shinjuku Incident

The Shinjuku Incident

The Chinese migrant communities in Tokyo live shadowy lives. The Japanese neither acknowledge nor welcome them. They are shunned by the mainstream society, hounded by the yakuza, and go about their days under fear of being discovered and repatriated.

It is an alien world for Steelhead, an honest, hardworking tractor repairman from Heilongjian in northern China. Steelhead had decided to take the perilous journey to Tokyo after he lost contact with his girlfriend, who had arrived in the city earlier.

Trying to exist in the underbelly of Tokyo long enough to find Xiu Xiu, Steelhead has come to realize the migrants had to stand united if they wanted to go about their lives without fear of oppression by not only the Japanese underworld but also Chinese gangs.

In his search of a decent living, Steelhead unwittingly finds himself pit against the Japanese yakuza. Ironically he also discovers that Xiu Xiu has adopted a Japanese identity and married Eguchi, an ambitious up and coming yakuza chief.

Steelhead wins the respect of his friends by establishing a base for them and forms an uneasy alliance with Eguchi. When he helps Eguchi dispose of a rival, he is given the control of Shinjukus night establishments. But, uninterested in living a gangsters life, Steelhead finds a new love and takes the chance to start a tractor repair business outside Tokyo. However, his peace is shortlived when word gets to him that his former compatriots were now being used by Eguchi to front the yakuzas drug business.

Steelhead feels responsible for this turn of events and feels obligated to bring Eguchi down. He also has to bear in mind that if he goes after Eguchi, he would be destroying the newfound life of the woman he once loved. In any case, can one simple Chinese migrant take on the yakuza alone?

Director: Tung-Shing Yee
Writer(s): Not Available
Cast: Jackie Chan, Naoto Takenaka, Daniel Wu, Masaya Kato, Jinglei Xu, Bingbing Fan, Suet Lam, Kar Lok Chin, Teddy Lin, Paul Chun, Ken Lo, Yasuaki Kurata, Tôru Minegishi, Hiroyuki Nagato, Jack Kao, Kenya Sawada

Release Date: April 2, 2009
Country: Hong Kong