The Italian Job

Roger Ebert started his review by saying, “I saw "The Italian Job" in a Chicago screening room, in the midst of a rush of new summer releases. I recollect it now from the Cannes Film Festival, which has assembled one unendurable film after another for its worst year in memory. That doesn't make "The Italian Job" a better film, but it provides a reminder that we do, after all, sometimes go to the movies just to have a good time and not to be mired in a slough of existential despond. Don't get me wrong. I like a good mire in despond now and again; it's just that the despond at Cannes has been so unadmirable.”

F. Gary Gray’s “The Italian Job,” released in 2003, on the other hand, is nothing more, or less, than a cool theft movie with engaging chase scenes and a really smart way to steal $35 million in gold bars from a safe in a Venetian palazzo. The safe is stolen by a gang led by Donald Sutherland, who must be calmed to find that Venice has no dwarfs in red raincoats this season. His team include Charlie (Mark Wahlberg), a planned organizer, second-in-command Steve (Edward Norton), the computer tech Lyle (Seth Green), the getaway driver, Handsome Rob (Jason Statham), and Left-Ear (Mos Def), who can plant bombs really good.

Ebert said, “After a chase through the canals of Venice, which in real life would have led to the loss of six tourist gondolas and the drowning of an accordion player, the confederates go to an extraordinary amount of trouble to meet, with the gold, in a high Alpine pass apparently undisturbed since Hannibal. I have no idea how hard it is to move $35 million in gold from Venice to the Alps with Interpol looking for you, or for that matter how hard it would be to move it back down again, but golly, it's a pretty location.”

After betrayal and murder, the movie takes us to Los Angeles. Imagine how they got through security to get there. Wahlberg and team, who have lost the gold, really want to get it back again, and call on Sutherland’s daughter, Stella, played by Charlize Theron, who is a safecracker. A legal one, until they bring her on.

Stella drives a bright red Mini Cooper, which is critically important to the plot. Eventually, there is a swift of three. Ebert said, “That the crooks in the original "The Italian Job" (1969) also drove Mini Coopers is one of the few points of similarity between the two movies.” Looks like the Mini Cooper was reintroduced for this movie as a product placement.

Actually, that’s not right. They need Mini Coopers because the car can let them drive through narrow spaces, although they have no idea how nice the little cars will become when they drive down the stairs and onto the railroad of the Los Angeles subway system. They’re also nice in traffic jams, and there are nice scenes where traffic lights are manipulated by Lyle, who hilariously insists he is the real inventor of Napster, which was stolen by his roommate while he was taking a nap, which explains his name.

There are a few nice dialogues, Edward Norton is not the first actor to say, “I liked him right up until the moment I shot him,” but he was the latest at the time. The ending is rightfully ironic. This is just the movie for two hours of mindless distraction on a nicely skilled professional level. Ebert ended his review by saying, “If I had seen it instead of the Cannes entry "The Brown Bunny," I would have wept with gratitude.”

I remember seeing this at a college’s theater probably during the summer after my eighth-grade year, not knowing at the time that it would be the same college I would attend, but that’s besides the point. I remember liking it and I think it still holds up today. Check it out if you’d like and see what you think. Honestly, I think people will like this when they see it because there is enjoyability in this movie.

Thank you for joining in on “Mark Wahlberg Month.” Look out next month to see what I will review next.

Luca

Last night I checked out the latest Pixar film, “Luca” and I will let all of you know what I thought about it.

At the highest point of the pandemic in December, Pixar came out with the incredible, thoughtful, observed “Soul.” Now, with summer and things looking up, the studio releases the opposite: “Luca,” a funny, lighthearted vacation film.

Released yesterday on Disney+, thankfully without a premier access fee, and in theaters, “Luca” looks to entertain rather than understanding. It feels just right.

This is the directing debut of Enrico Casarosa, story artist on “Ratatouille,” “Up” and “Coco,” and director of the short “La Luna.”

Like many Pixar films, especially last year’s “Onward,” it’s about deep, life-changing childhood emotions.

A young character is curious about the land but lacks the courage – and the support of his protective parents – to venture out on land. (Jeffrey Anderson asked in his review, “Are all animators shy and withdrawn?”)

Anderson continued, “As happens so often in life, a bold rapscallion befriends the reluctant one and gives him a helpful push.”

Luca, voiced by Jacob Tremblay, is actually a sea creature, whose job is to watch a hilarious flock of sheep-like fish, which stare blankly in the far waters while making “baa” sounds.

While out with his flock, he finds some human objects, and, like Ariel in “The Little Mermaid,” gets really interested in them.

However, his mother (Maya Rudolph) and father (Jim Gaffigan) don’t allow him to go very far, or he could be seen by humans.

Here comes Alberto, voiced by Jack Dylan Grazer, whose father left him to do anything he wants. Alberto persuades Luca to the surface, where their scales become skin, and Luca learns to breathe and walk.

Alberto tells Luca about his dream to own a Vespa scooter and explore the world. While he still is afraid of getting in trouble with his parents, Luca goes with everything.

Anderson notes, “The new friends make their way to the nearby seaside town of Portorosso in the Italian Riviera, as beautiful, as relaxing, and as summery as a small town can get. (It’s said to be based on director Casarosa’s childhood memories.)”

They find out that in order to get money for the scooter, they must enlist in a race – teaming up with courageous human girl Giulia (Emma Berman) – against an obnoxious, arrogant villain, Ercole Visconti (Saverio Raimondo).

“Luca” has an animated sense of humor. Sacha Baron Cohen is in here in a hilarious weird part as a spooky uncle of Luca’s.

Anderson noted, “It also gets fine mileage from a recurring “Looney Tunes”-style joke: the monster friends must avoid getting wet, which causes their scales to inconveniently re-appear.”

Other jokes include riding in reckless, handmade scooters, jumping off the edges of cliffs or speeding down twisty, narrow streets. Alberto teaches Luca a saying – “Silenzio, Bruno!” – to quiet the rebellious, practical voice in his head.

Hands down, director Casarosa looks like he is enjoying himself representing irresistible forces and immovable objects hitting in unruly ways.

Anderson mentioned, “In interviews, he said he hoped to enlist the services of legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone (who died in July) for the score; one can only imagine the glorious noise that would have accompanied these high-spirited images.”

Despite Pixar’s best movies really deal with death or the fear of growing up and distant, “Luca” pieces its focus on sub-themes, sadly soothing the potential impact of both.

There are five parental characters we see: Luca’s overprotective parents, his clever grandmother (Sandy Martin), Alberto’s absent father, and Giulia’s strong fisherman father (Marco Barricelli), who becomes a kind of surrogate father.

Anderson noted, “Then there’s an uneven triangle of friendship. Luca is slowly drawn more into Giulia’s orbit, with her love of outer space and the universe, than into that of Alberto, who believes stars are sardines.”

The plot also ends with the race’s result, the mission for the Vespa, and the eventual truth of the boys as sea creatures.

All of these elements balance interestingly in a light, cheerful way. Anderson said, “Nothing is cluttered or forced, as was the case in the moving “La Luna,” one of Pixar’s best shorts. About a boy goes to work with his father and grandfather sweeping up fallen stars on the moon, it purely and simply touches upon the passage of time and differing generations.”

Anderson continued, “Perhaps in his next feature, Casarosa can recapture that magic, with a focus on exploration and discovery rather merely experience.” Until then, there’s nothing wrong with a little enjoyment, a little “bellissimo,” and “Luca” has it.

At first, I thought this was going to be the same story that we had seen so many times and I would have to say that Pixar’s good movie streak had finally ended. However, it wasn’t completely repetitive, as there were so many aspects of the film that I found myself enjoying. I wouldn’t say this is one of my favorite Pixar movies, but it’s another good one that I know for a fact that everyone can watch and enjoy. See it on Disney+ with the whole family and have a great time watching it.

Little sidenote: I thought that the voice actor for Luca was the same as the voice actor for Miguel in “Coco,” but when I looked up the voice actor, I found out that I was wrong.

Thank you for joining in on my review tonight. Look out next week for the finale of “Mark Wahlberg Month.”

Three Kings

Roger Ebert started his review by saying, “"Three Kings" is some kind of weird masterpiece, a screw-loose war picture that sends action and humor crashing head-on into each other and spinning off into political anger. It has the freedom and recklessness of Oliver Stone or Robert Altman in their mad-dog days, and a visual style that hungers for impact. A lot of movies show bodies being hit by bullets. This one sends the camera inside to show a bullet cavity filling up with bile.”

David O. Russell, who wrote and directed, announces his debut as one of the main people. Like the best films of Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Robert Altman, and Quentin Tarantino, this one sings with the excitement of pure filmmaking and represents ides in its action and characters. Ebert noted, “Most movies doze in a haze of calculation and formula; "Three Kings" is awake and hyper.”

The movie takes place at the end of the Gulf War of 1991 (“Operation Desert Storm,” the Pentagon publicists called it). The first words give the idea: “Are we shooting?” The treaty is so new that soldiers are not sure, and a guy waving a white flag gets his head shot off in a misunderstanding, which is sad. Three U.S. soldiers find an Iraqi with a piece of paper stuck in his rear end. An officer gives a rubber glove and tells a private to pull it out. The guy wants two gloves, but he’ll manage with one, he’s told: “That’s how the chain of command works.” The map shows the location of gold bullion stolen from Kuwait by Saddam Hussein’s soldiers and buried in secret shelters. (“Bullion? Is that a little cube you put in hot water?”) The three soldiers are Sgt. Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg), Chief Elgin (Ice Cube) and Pvt. Conrad Vig (Spike Jonze). They get the attention of Sgt. Maj. Archie Gates, played by George Clooney, a Special Forces veteran who decides immediately to lead them on an unauthorized mission to steal the treasure. This involves escorting the cable news reporter he’s been assigned to escort. Ebert noted, “She's Adriana Cruz, played by Nora Dunn as a Christiane Amanpour clone so driven by journalistic zeal that she is heedless of her own safety or anything else but a story.” Obviously, the gold would be a story.

Ebert said, “The movie unreels with breakneck energy; it's one of those experiences like "Natural Born Killers," where death and violence are a drumbeat in the background of every plot point.” Russell’s screenplay shows the difference between a great action movie and the others: The action goes out of the story, instead of the story being the action. Ebert admitted, “The Clooney character commandeers a Humvee and leads his men on a loony ride through the desert, where their target practice with footballs somehow reminded me of the water-skiing sequence in "Apocalypse Now." A political undercurrent bubbles all through the film.” A treaty has been declared, and Hussein’s men have stopped shooting at Americans and fallen back to the secondary assignment of calming unhappy Iraqis who were expecting him to be defeated. (“Bush told the people to rise up against Saddam. They thought they’d have our support. They didn’t. now they’re being slaughtered.”) Strange, the irony in Iraqis killing Iraqis while Americans stealing old benefit from the confusion.

Most Hollywood movies stereotype their Arab characters. “Three Kings,” released in 1999, is shocking in the way it shows how the world is shrinking and cultures are combining and sharing thoughts. Clooney and his men see a woman shot dead by Hussein’s men, and later meet her husband and children. Ebert asks, “Is this man a tearful, anonymous desert simpleton, grateful to his brave saviors? Not at all.” “I’m a B-school graduate from Bowling Green,” he tells them. “Your planes blew up all my cafes.” It’s a small world, made smaller by war. The TV journalist stands patiently int eh middle of the fight, accepted by both sides because they think it’s natural they should be on television. When Sgt. Barlow is captured and locked in a room, he finds it filled with the thievery of war, including a lot of cell phones. When he tries to call his wife in America to give her the coordinates of his position, he hast to deal with stupid telephone operators.

Ebert said, “"Three Kings" has plot structure as traditional as anything in "Gunga Din" or an Indiana Jones picture, and links it to a fierce political viewpoint, intelligent characters and sudden bursts of comedy. It renews cliches. We've seen the wounded buddy who has to be dragged along through the action. But we haven't seen one with a lung wound, and a valve hammered into his chest to relieve the built-up air pressure. We've seen desert warfare before, but usually it looks scenic. Russell's cameraman, Newton Thomas Sigel, uses a grainy, bleached style that makes the movie look like it was left out in a sandstorm.”

Like many natural action stars, Clooney can do what needs to be done with complete belief. We believe him as a leader. Wahlberg and Ice Cube look like they’re stuck in the action. Wahlberg as a natural target, Ice Cube as a former baggage handler who believes he stands in the good grace of Jesus. Ebert noted, “Spike Jonze, himself a director ("Being John Malkovich"), is the obligatory hillbilly, needed for the ethnic mix we always get in war movies. It's interesting how Nora Dunn's cable journalist isn't turned into a cheap parody of Amanpour, but focuses on the obsessiveness that possesses any good war correspondent.”

Ebert continued, “This is David O. Russell's third picture, after "Spanking the Monkey" (1994; liked by many, unseen by me) and the inventive, unhinged comedy "Flirting With Disaster" (1996).” Like that one, “Three Kings” switches lots of different characters against one another and isn’t afraid to interrupt the laughs with moments of true observation and emotion. This is his first movie with a studio budget, and it shows not only enthusiasm, but also the control to target that enthusiasm where he wants it to go. Ebert ended his review by saying, “"Three Kings" is one of the best movies of the year, even if I kept wondering why it wasn't named "Four Kings."”

This is another war movie that I think everyone will like when they check it out. Everyone should see it because it’s that good of a war movie. Especially during at time when this war was going on, so this was a nice representation of what was going on at that time, for those who remember it. Check it out and see for yourself.

Look out next week to see the first movie I saw Wahlberg in for the finale of “Mark Wahlberg Month.”

Renaissance Man

An unemployed executive desperately accepts a job teaching English to a class of underachieving Army recruits to help them complete basic training. He sparks their interest by introducing Shakespeare, and fights with an unimpressed Drill Sergeant.

A standard fish-out-of-water comedy, “Renaissance Man,” released in 1994, is the type of offended, type-A failure with a bunch of likable rejects against the setting of this man’s army. Bill Rago, played by Danny DeVito, is a smart but arrogant advertising man whose overblown ego eventually gets him fired and puts him in the unemployment line.

To his dismay, he finds a job there: he’s told he has to take a short-term teaching position at a nearby army base, or his benefits will be terminated. TV Guide said in their review, “He's not a military type--pre-dawn reveille nearly gives him a heart attack--and he has nothing but contempt for his class, a cross-section of the worst the volunteer army has to offer. If he can't teach them basic language proficiency, they're all going to be drummed out of the military; they've already been labeled the dumbest of the dumb, and they're sullen and resentful. Rago's attitude changes the day they cajole him into reading Shakespeare to them, and the power of great literature wakes up their underused minds.”

Rago begins to get to know them: Donnie, played by Lillo Brancato, Jr., is a street-smart kid from Brooklyn who’s never read anything more difficult than a comic book, but comes through when he’s challenged. Miranda, played by Stacey Dash, is lonely and feels really rejected by her family and society. She sees the army as her last chance. Jamaal, played by Kadeem Hardison (who you might remember from the hit show “A Different World”), is quick with the smart remarks, but inside he feels like he’s looked down upon. Jackson, played by Richard T. Jones, went through school on a football scholarship, and never had to learn anything. Roosevelt, played by Khalil Kain, is hiding from the law. Brian, played by Peter Simmons, is slow and saddened by the memory of his father, who fought in Vietnam. Tommy Lee (Mark Wahlberg) is determined to use the military to improve himself, and Mel (Greg Sporleder) is a sociable follower with an attention deficit disorder.

With Rago’s encouragement, they all make exceptional progress, despite the aggression of their training officer Seargeant Cass, played by Gregory Hines, who thinks they’re rejects and that Rago is wasting their – and his – time. One by one, the recruits face their fears and live up to their responsibilities, and Rago becomes a nicer and gentler person. He even fixes his relationship with his estranged daughter, played by Alanna Ubach.

He prepares an exam for his students, and when he’s told by Colonel James (Cliff Robertson) and Captain Tom Murdoch (James Remar) that he shouldn’t give them a test because if they fail it, they’ll be expelled from the Army, he gives the class a choice. Would they rather all be allowed to leave the class without a grade, or do they want to challenge themselves? They choose the challenge, and they all pass. Rago, now an army man, looks forward to teaching a new class.

TV Guide credited in their review, “RENAISSANCE MAN is an exceptionally unoriginal comedy with a heart-tugging streak as big as Fort Bragg, but it succeeds perfectly well on its own unambitious terms. The cast is slick and well-directed, and pint-sized comedian Danny DeVito's trademark brand of frustrated bluster is perfectly suited to the role of Rago, the vicious flack whose vitriolic tongue defends a heart of pure Jell-O. His transformation into a warm, loving teacher of society's outcasts may not be precisely convincing, but it's smoothly done.”

“Renaissance Man” has all the right things to say: we all have to stop and look at the real world, that our family and friends are more important than high-paying jobs, that everyone has talents and the key is to find them, that the human spirit can embellish under the least promising of circumstances, and that you can’t win if you’re not willing to take the failure. Obviously, the last lesson is one the film itself doesn’t tell. “Renaissance Man” plays it safe all the time.

There are no bad kids in Rago’s class, and definitely no stupid ones. They’re all just misunderstood and abandoned, and their tough, sad lives have amazingly failed to hurt them so badly that they can’t be reached in a matter of months by the first man who believes in them.

The worst thing that happens to any of Rago’s students is that Roosevelt goes to jail after Rago insists to open his file, but his classmates and new friends write to him, and he learns to accept responsibility for his actions. We know he’ll come out of prison a better man.

In the end, “Renaissance Man” is a film with so many laughs and lessons so easy that they’re easily forgettable. TV Guide ended their review by saying, “Despite a major promotional effort, the picture performed disappointingly--a career setback for director Penny Marshall, who had become Hollywood's most bankable woman director on the strength of the smash hits BIG and A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN, as well as the critical success AWAKENINGS.”

What’s really surprising is that this movie is not as recognized as much as it should. There’s nothing in this movie that is horrible. So what if it’s about a person who takes a job teaching Shakespeare to army recruits? That’s what makes it so good. They would eventually have to learn it if they chose to go back to school after graduating. Give this movie a chance and watch it because I think this is a really good movie that people don’t give enough credit or remember enough.

Look out next week to see another military movie that Wahlberg starred in when we continue “Mark Wahlberg Month.”

Boogie Nights

For this whole month, I will look at some of the popular films starring Mark Wahlberg. Let’s get things started by reviewing the 1997 film, “Boogie Nights.”

This movie might start some controversy, but then it might not. Jeffrey M. Anderson said in his review, “For a movie about the porn industry it seemed pretty tame to me.” The excellent cast includes Mark Wahlberg as “Dirk Diggler,” a dishwasher-turned adult actor, Burt Reynolds as Jack Horner, the father figure director who makes him a star, and Julianne Moore as the experienced adult actress who teaches Dirk everything. This is one of the best Burt Reynolds movies. Anderson noted, “He shows a father's iron will and uninhibited love for his "family," and those feelings seep through to the audience.”

A whole cast of eccentrics (Don Cheadle, William H. Macy, Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Robert Downey Sr. (Robert Downey Jr.’s father), Phillip Seymore Hoffman, Alfred Molina, and Heather Graham as “Rollergirl” – all excellent) are over this trip. Actually, if it weren’t for the adult stuff, drugs, violence, this would be a good movie to let kids see. It’s all about belonging, and sticking with your family.

“Boogie Nights” is packed with pop songs from that time. Anderson said, “Ordinarily, this is a cop-out; a movie like Forrest Gump merely parades the top songs from the years it passes through, but Anderson exhibits a little more care in his choices. These songs are particularly bad and obscure nuggets, some of which are thematically connected with their scenes. (Rollergirl "auditions" Dirk to the tune of Melanie's "Brand New Key"!) Anderson keeps the music moving almost non-stop throughout the movie, leaving little time for an overpowering score, often the undoing of many Hollywood films.”

Paul Thomas Anderson, the movie’s 26-year-old writer and director, has made a smart script with a great cast of characters and believable dialogue. As a director, he borrows somewhat from Scorsese, De Palma, Altman, and Tarantino, but he shows a confidence and energy of his own. During a great part involving a drug-dealer, he throws us off by having one character throw lit firecrackers around the room, while a 1980s mix tape plays full blast.

Anderson ended his review by saying, “If Anderson's enthusiasm sustains as he matures, we can look forward to some great films in the future.”

Word of advice: if you want to watch this movie, make sure that it’s not with any parents walking around the house. If you’re living on your own, great, but if you’re living with parents, find a room for yourself to watch it because they may not like any of the stuff that are shown in the movie. Other than that, it’s a nice movie to see because it really shows the adult industry in a way that we have not seen it portrayed, if it has been portrayed in film.

Look out next week when I continue “Mark Wahlberg Month” with a film that I don’t think gets looked at enough.