Reviews

Okay, I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for James Bond--the films and the minutiae which it took to create them. Granted, I am not particularly unique; that's why in a few short years we'll be celebrating the 50th anniversary of "Dr. No"'s release. Anyway, I've watched "Best Ever Bond" a couple of times now, and I'm recommending it even though the premise feels a bit forced--a bit like the plot of "Never Say Never Again". Why the necessity to do a top 10 list? I enjoyed the comments of the actors who've played Bond, along with the people whom you never hear from--like Sarah Donohue, who piloted the boat that Bond chases around London at the opening of "The World is Not Enough". If the producers of "Best Ever Bond" would have given us a bit more of the people who made the films and less of the "What's next in our countdown?" superficiality, then they could have created a must-have addition to any Bond fan's collection. As it is, it's still an enjoyable, above-average piece of work.

What happened to Luc Besson The Writer/Director during the decade from 1988 to 1999? We used to get moody, wandering films that kept you (well, me, anyway) looking at the screen, transfixed even if you didn't know where Besson was going. In fact, that's part of the attraction of "Le Grand bleu" (as well as "La Femme Nikita" and "The Professional"): I can become so involved while viewing it that I feel as though I should be doing breath-holding exercises. (One observation: 15 years ago, if you had to guess who would become better known in the U.S., Jean-Marc Barr or Jean Reno, who would you have gone for?) I refuse to blame Milla Jovovich for the subsequent - occasionally engaging - goofiness of "Fifth Element"; and she was a trooper (sorry) for large chunks (pretty much everything between the opening and closing credits) of "I Can't Believe I've Been Together For This Long With Milla, But Now..."--oops, I mean "Joan of Arc". Let's face it: Jovovich can't carry a movie. But a director should know that. It will be interesting - with Besson returning to the director's chair - to see what becomes of "Arthur". To paraphrase Rosanna Arquette's "Big Blue" character, "Luc, we're here, we're real, and we want to see if you've still got it..."!

I like Hugh Jackman ("Van Helsing's" Recalcitrant Hero); I like Kate Beckinsale (The Stunning Heroine); I like Richard Roxburgh (The Sexy Anti-Hero) and David Wenham (The Hero's Quirky Sidekick). And the first quarter-hour of "Van Helsing" ("V.H.") starts off promisingly, in Paris, with our hero battling Mr. Hyde (Dr. Jekyll's alter ego) in Notre Dame cathedral. Granted, some liberties have been taken with the Parisian geography and Notre Dame's architecture, but who cares? I wanted to see a big, over-the-top movie, and "V.H." is certainly that. But, like Count Dracula, it has no heartbeat, no real soul. (How's that for an analogy, eh?) It's one gravity-defying set piece after another. I found myself thinking about the last generation of movies and movie-goers: If you were in the ticket queue and you overheard someone coming out of the theater saying "Weren't the locations in the film beautiful?", you knew that the person was looking for something nice to say because film itself was a stinker. Instead we now say "Weren't the effects fantastic?" And indeed, the combination of motion capture and keyframe animation - especially when the brides of Dracula swoop in to terrify the poor Transylvanian villagers who must live with not only vampires but also werewolves and - for a time - Dr. Frankenstein (who leaves his misunderstood "monster" behind) as well. (Why don't these people move?) I felt particularly sorry for Jackman: It's one thing to play the strong, silent type, but it's quite another to not have enough material to really (pardon the pun) sink your teeth into. And I don't believe I'm spoiling the film by saying that in the climactic fight scene finale, he's hardly seen: His digital double does all the heavy lifting. But in a way this was the logical conclusion, since throughout the film almost all the other main characters appeared to enjoy themselves more than V.H.--even if they were often guilty of chewing the scenery (again, sorry about the pun). So my advice would be as follows: Want to see Hugh Jackman? Watch "X-Men 2". Kate Beckinsale? Go for a little film called "Shooting Fish". In the meantime, I've heard that there will probably be a "V.H. 2", and why not? When your enemy is the undead you can go on and on and on....

When I first saw the adverts for "Kiss of the Dragon" I thought that Luc Besson had truly run out of ideas. What was this supposed to be, the third film in the "La Femme Nikita"/"Point of No Return" box set, with Jet Li thrown in to take advantage of the public's fascination with "Matrix" and "Crouching Tiger..." style gravity-defying martial arts? And although as far as I'm concerned the jury is still out with regard to Besson as a cutting edge writer/director (I sincerely hope that his best work is not behind him--it seems all he's been doing these last half-dozen years is producing), "Kiss..." is still worth owning just for the scene at the police academy: No strings attached--just a couple of (night) sticks. Gotta love it.