Although Hollywood has been pumping out "summer movie season" blockbusters since before Memorial Day, the calendar finally and officially reads summer, even if the weather isn't fully cooperating. Considering the less-than-interesting big-budget comedy failures that highlight this week's offerings, I certainly hope everything promising wasn't released in May, although "The Dark Knight" (Batman redux) offers hope.
With budgets of $80 million for "Get Smart" and $62 million for "The Love Guru," the resulting lackluster tone of both features proves once again that money doesn't buy quality, or happiness. Each of the other three new movies -- "The Rape of Europa," "War, Inc." and "The Fall" -- are smaller-budgeted films.
Starting with the best first, "The Rape of Europa" is a superb documentary that tells the astonishing story of the theft, destruction and survival of thousands upon thousands of important works of art during the reign of the Third Reich. The rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis not only threatened the fabric of life in Europe, but also spelled danger -- and sometimes disaster -- for one-fifth of the known art works on that continent.
The movie, based on the book "The Rape of Europa" by Lynn H. Nicholas, is written, produced and directed by Richard Berge, Bonnie Cohen and Nicole Newnham. The scope of their cinematic detective work occasionally overwhelms them, but overall the film is both fascinating in terms of the history it details and emotionally moving in that the trio manages to make you care about looted art when you know full well that tens of millions of lives were lost in Europe during the dark days of World War II.
At the center of the story being told is a stolen painting, "Gold Portrait" by Gustav Klimt. Years after the war, the family that owned the invaluable treasure waged a legal battle to recover it. From there, using sometimes shocking archival footage, the movie explores Hitler's plans for a massive art museum in his honor in his Austrian hometown, the zealous desire for creating their own personal galleries by some of his key henchmen, and the invasion of Europe by the Allies, including an American-led "art squad" whose mission it was to protect treasures in cities like Florence, Italy, by advising on bombing locations. This "art squad" then had to catalogue paintings and statues found and attempt to get them back to their rightful private owners or the museums that housed them.
Interviews with WWII survivors, art historians, members of the "art squad" and Nicholas herself run throughout the documentary. Joan Allen's narration could have been a little tougher, but that's a quibble. As you become immersed in the sheer magnitude of Hitler's obsession with art and see for yourself the devastation wrought by the war, you end up amazed that any of the treasures survived at all.
"The Rape of Europa" is a must-see for anyone interested in art, World War II and the importance of creativity to a culture's very existence.
"Get Smart" is an occasionally funny feature-length version of the allegedly popular television series that ran from 1965 to 1970. Most of the movie's workable material is slapstick-oriented, as bumbling American Agent 86 -- Maxwell Smart, who works for CONTROL -- has to counter the evil merchants of menace from KAOS.
Steve Carell doesn't quite succeed as Smart -- he's a bit out of his deadpan league here. Anne Hathaway is miscast as Agent 99 -- not her fault really, there's little dialogue that works as comedy -- and Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) is dreadful as Agent 23, the super-duper spy Smart hopes to emulate.
"Get Smart" has intermittent laughs -- Alan Arkin is suitably droll and flustered as The Chief, but this really is an unnecessary adventure.
"War, Inc." is a flat-out attempt at action satire starring John Cusack as an American agent involved in skullduggery in the mythical Turaqistan, a country controlled by an American private corporation run by a former U.S. vice president (Dan Aykroyd).
The plot involves a plan to assassinate a Middle Eastern oil minister who's biting off more than he can chew regarding Turaqistan. Cusack's character goes undercover as a wedding planner and also has to fend off the nosiness of reporter Marisa Tomei. The film's premise is clever, and although its execution falters a bit, you've got to give everyone involved credit for attempting political satire.
"War, Inc." is not as winning as "Wag the Dog," but it manages to engage and amuse.
"The Fall" is a staggeringly beautiful movie from Tarsem Singh, the director of the vastly underrated "The Cell" (2000). Singh also is the go-to videographer for rock band R.E.M.
This is one of those movies that you want people to see unfettered by too much information. I'll tell you that it's about an injured movie stuntman (Lee Pace) in 1920s Los Angeles who, while in the hospital, tells a story to a little girl with a broken arm. The story involves mythical heroes and the film flows from there.
This is a picture for movie lovers who want to take a chance on something that is at times brilliant and at times frustrating. Think of it as a cross between the wild imagination of "El Topo" and the visual genius of "Juliet of the Spirits."
"The Love Guru" is a monumentally failed comedy, a truly awful ode to the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team that stars Toronto native Mike Myers as a romance counselor who isn't happy with his second-place status in the love game. He attempts to help one of the Leafs get his girlfriend back.
It's bad enough we have to see the Maple Leafs, a once-great hockey team, in embarrassing situations, but there's also a nasty anti-Quebec flavor to the feature because of Justin Timberlake's over-sexed French-Canadian hockey star. There's also one reference to Buffalo.
Myers helped write this mostly vulgar fiasco, which certainly ranks as one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The film's infinitely better Web site promised a lot more than we get up on the screen. Buy a ticket at great risk to your wallet, funny bone and self-esteem.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | June 24 2008 |