12 Monkeys (1995)

This is what happens when you let an eclectic filmmaker fully realize his vision for a project that inspires him. Daring, jarring, and unsettling as it is, there is a strange beauty in 12 Monkeys that is hard to pin down. It features excellent performances by Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt and makes up for a lack of flashy sci-fi effects by being chock full of nerdy, intellectual talking points.

In the year 2038, inmate James Cole (Bruce Willis) is offered a chance at parole. In exchange for his freedom, he must help subject himself to crude time travel technology and help government scientists research the outbreak of a virus that decimated the world’s population and sent all survivors underground to avoid contamination. While in the past, Cole teams up with a psychiatrist (Madeline Stowe) and attempts to shed light on Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) and his Army of the Twelve Monkeys, the group believed responsible for the virus’s release in 1996.

For me, it all starts with the story. If a film doesn’t have anything original to say or a unique spin on a concept or idea we’ve seen before, then it is already running behind. Hard core sci-fi nerds know that this film takes the same premise as French short film called Le Jetée but adds additional details and conflicts to bring it to full feature length. Audiences must digest issues like causality, mental instability, and radical environmentalism.

One thing viewers don’t get much time to think about is time travel itself. Tackling this subject is no easy task but the filmmakers treat it with care and respect. I appreciate the lack of a technological explanation. Being told that time travel exists and being forced to just go with it help to suspend disbelief. Sure, we inevitably ask ‘how?’ but I would much rather wonder about how it’s done than to mentally dissect and judge the acceptability of the filmmakers’ explanation of how it’s done. It’s more sleight of hand than movie magic but it’s effective all the same.

And really, 12 Monkeys is not a film about time travel. Time travel, though vital to the story, is just a tool used to tell the tale of a troubled man trying to earn his freedom by saving the world. Bruce Willis nails his role as a tormented lab rat. The world Cole returns to is both foreign and familiar. Cole has been in prison and surrounded by enough post-outbreak technology for enough time to find the world of his childhood memories confusing and alarming at times. Though my own acting experience is quite limited, I know that confusion is a very difficult emotion to convincingly portray; it is easy to overdo and under-do and audiences can typically spot when you’re doing it wrong.

The other standout performance in this film is Brad Pitt’s unstable and unhinged Jeffrey Goines. I don’t know where he pulled from to bring this character to life but it is nothing short of amazing. The physicality of Goines mannerisms, from his spastic outbursts down to his wild and contorted stare, is enough to make you feel tired just watching it. Madeline Stowe is stuck with the weakest of the three main characters but she carries her weight well enough. She conveys a different but equally effective form of confusion as she tries to figure out who Cole is and what he’s dragging her into.

Even more interesting is that director Terry Gilliam manages to share Cole’s sense of confusion with the audience. Through a number of tricks with lighting, camera angle, and his choice of camera and lens to take the shot, Gilliam finds clever and subtle ways to make the familiar feel bizarre. It disorients us slightly and helps increase our empathy for Cole. Gilliam also uses restraint in keeping the future looking just futuristic enough yet composed of technology left over from the pre-virus era. Some of the future set decorations don’t quite fit or even seem too strange but the overall effect works well.

I will always have a soft spot for intelligent cinema, especially intelligent sci-fi. This film is abundant with talking points but it isn’t too smart for its own good. Some filmmakers go overboard in an attempt to make themselves look intellectually superior (Matrix Reloaded anybody?) but you can watch 12 Monkeys at face value and still enjoy the ride. That comes from a careful mix of indulgence and restraint that is a real gift to cinema when balanced just right.

12 Monkeys is depressing yet hopeful, convoluted yet captivating. The fantasy of time travel mixes with the realities of dissidence and terrorism in ways that entertain but also hit close to home. This is a film that is watchable in its own right and worth repeat viewings simply for the thrill of seeing how it unfolds. It is also the kind of film that could launch you into a night-long conversation about all kinds of heady topics. The choice is yours. Either way, it is entirely worth it.

RATING: 4 out of 5

An American Tail (1986)

This animated classic is a piece of nostalgia that I am dearly fond of. Before even watching it for the first time in a few years I knew exactly how this film would rate. That doesn’t mean I didn’t give this film a fair assessment though. The animation, the music, the emotions- just about everything in this film is marvelous.

An American Tail is the story of immigration and hope. The Mousekewitz family lives in Russia under a time of great duress. They decide to flee to America, where everything is supposed to be better and they will be free from the tyranny of cats, who have tormented mice relentlessly in their homeland. Along the way, the only son gets lost at sea but makes it to America, only to start a frantic search to find his family. He is helped along the way by a number of colorful characters. Some are good and some are bad, and all of them have some kind of symbolic quality.

All of the mice represent the immigrants from Europe to America during the turn of the century, a period of significant immigration. Cats are the antagonists, representing the worst in Americans. They seek to eliminate the mice, doing anything they can to drive them from their homes. Some of them pretend to want to help the mice by offering them employment as indentured servants in mills and industry. A very few number of cats are actually kind and caring, thought they fit very awkwardly in with the rest of their kind.

It’s not really the cheeriest depiction of how the US handled immigration and I’m not sure it’s an entirely fair one. Producers David Kirschner and Steven Spielberg are both Jewish and Spielberg has a knack for highlighting the plight of the Jews when possible. It’s not that I don’t believe Jews and immigrants were mistreated, it’s just that the extent to which they are mistreated in this film seems suspect to me. For every case of abuse and exploitation, I’m sure there is an example of an immigrant who found a happy niche and succeeded in the New World.

But that’s really the only complaint I have about this film. It will easily go over a child’s head but it is an interesting side note for adults to ruminate on while watching this delightful film. The animation is very rich and I even would go as far as to say that it is better in quality than what Disney was producing at the time. Instead of glossing over everything, An American Tail isn’t afraid to be very detailed about the grit and grime associated with the slums of the New World.

The music is also fantastic. The film is full of memorable songs that get stuck in your head and stay stuck for years. It’s one thing to have catchy songs in your animated film, but to make them so enjoyable and endearing is something special. If you’ve seen this movie, you know what I’m talking about. I you haven’t seen An American Tail, you don’t know what you’re missing!

Plain and simple, An American Tail is a darling of a film that is perfectly suited to be watched by children and adults and will surely become a favorite for all ages. Even if you think you’re too “grown up” for a film like this, you’ll be surprised. An American Tail will melt your heart again and again.

RATING: 3.75 out of 5

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Evidently created to act as a prologue/segue into the world of Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Undiscovered Country brings resolution to the age old conflict between the Klingons and the people of Earth. The Klingons are still a bit peeved about Captain Kirk being responsible for the deaths of several Klingons, but after their planetary moon explodes, destroying their chief energy production facility, their leader decides it is time to set peace accords in place.

The Enterprise is called to act as the Klingon ambassador’s bodyguard ship as it heads to the peace summit. After an awkward dinner party between the Klingons and Enterprise folks, the Klingon ambassador is assassinated and his ship attacked by the Enterprise. Or so it seems. Kirk and McCoy board the Klingon vessel in an attempt to help the wounded and they are taken as political prisoners. They face a show trial on the Klingon home world and are sentenced to life imprisonment on a frozen labor camp planet.

Spock and the rest of the Enterprise crew work to figure out how it appeared the Enterprise attacked the Klingons when all their weapons are accounted for, and who is the mole among them responsible for assassinating the ambassador.

In the end, everything works out in an all-too-clean manner. From the get-go, I was able to figure out who the mole is. The reasoning behind the attack and its orchestration is interesting, but it’s also a little too convenient to be appreciated. Star Trek VI suffers from a bit too much excess. Excess in over-dramatizing much of film’s contents, and excess in overacting by good guys and bad guys alike hurt this film, which had limited potential to begin with. On the whole it feels like an overdrawn, overblown excuse for one last hurrah before finally (and begrudgingly) passing the Star Trek torch off to the cast of The Next Generation.

It’s like a parent that just doesn’t know when to let go and definitely puts to rest the notion that even numbered Trek films are superior. If you must watch, you’ll see oddball appearances by both Kim Cattrall and Christian Slater. But in reality, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is best left undiscovered.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5

Syriana (2005)

This is a unique ensemble film that shows just how dangerous and interconnected the world of terrorism, politics and oil can be. Several well known actors appear throughout that film and there are a good number of impressive performances by people I had not seen before.

On the whole, it’s a challenging watch. You have to take mental notes in order to follow the story from start to finish. If you aren’t alert enough, you’ll become confused when the individual stories begin to overlap and converge.

Gripping and tense, Syriana may come off as too political for some, but that’s not the point of the film. It’s just using a fictional story to highlight the complex relationships that come along with dependence on oil.

It does begin to feel a little long-winded by the final reel, but if you stick with it, you’ll be left with plenty to ponder about.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5

Inside Man (2006)

Convoluted and fast-paced, Spike Lee has crafted his most commercial and mainstream film to date. Things are not what they seem to be during all parts of the film. A bank robbery that is not really a bank robbery, but turns out to be a bank robbery after all and more; a robber who’s true motive goes untold but we’re left to believe he committed the crime for the greater good; Christopher Plummer as the bank owner with a secret; and Jodie Foster, well, basically being Jodie Foster.

The story unravels like an onion- one tiny, precious layer at a time. It’s not until afterwards that you pick up on some of the loose ends and gaffes made during the course of the film. How did this guy know what was in the bank? Why did he care to expose the person that he did? How could he possibly have planned all this stuff out ahead of time to work so perfectly?

Some of these questions don’t matter as much in retrospect because the film serves its purpose- it sucks you in, thrills, chills and entertains. Great work by Clive Owen and Denzel Washington; not so much by Jodie Foster. For some reason she just seems to act almost the exact same way in most of her movies. And it’s always been difficult for me to get past the way she talks- it’s like she always has her teeth clenched or something. Either way, Inside Man provides some taught drama and will make you think.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5

National Treasure (2004)

Brainless popcorn fodder is what this mess of bad science and inference amounts to. Essentially, it’s an attempt to create an American version of The Da Vinci Code. It even succumbs to America’s greatest vice- greed. Instead of a controversial, well-sought after relic like the grail in Da Vinci, the heroes and villains of National Treasure are after, well, treasure. It’s a meaningless search for something that has no radical impact on anything profound (okay, so some bad guys would get rich- whoop-dee-doo).

It pretends to be smarter than Tomb Raider, and at least manages to be a quest involving real historical stuff. But it is strung together like a Michael Moore ‘documentary’- there’s so much inference and dotted line dangling between each phase of the plot that you have to either believe that (as the filmmakers hope) these characters truly are geniuses for figuring all this out in only a few days time (in the movie), OR (as your brain should tell you) this is one ginormous festering mess of a film.

Case in point: The opening scene leads us to believe that a century-plus old wooden ship can survive (hull perfectly intact no less) the constant melting and refreezing of the arctic ice cap, would only be a few feet under the ice surface, and that gunpowder (at least 100 years old to boot) explodes in a giant fireball. No. Just…no. And besides, didn’t anyone in the casting department remember from GoldenEye that Sean Bean isn’t believable as a mastermind villain?

RATING: 1.25 out of 5