Office Space

GREEN'S I PUT THE WRONG COVER ON MY TPS REPORT REVIEW:

I'm not even going to bother writing a plot summary of this film because if you're one of the few who has never seen this movie, I wouldn't want to ruin it for you.

Let's just say that the cube farm corporate atmosphere that the film lampoons hits home in a very real way. If you've ever worked or still work in a such an environment, you'll know what I mean. Ron Livngston, as mediocre-king Peter Gibbons, deadpans his performance perfectly. Every cubicle farm I've ever been associated with has had it's own Milton-like character, which Stephen Root portrays brilliantly. The other characters are composites of what you'll find in any corporate environment these days. As much as I like Jennifer Aniston, her presence in this film is entirely inconsequential. Plug in any similarly attractive woman in the hot girlfriend/waitress role and you'll not miss a beat. Diedrich Bader is absolutely hilarious as Lawrence, Peter's next door neighbor.

Mike Judge has come up with an excellent script and the film is a good length. Too long and the jokes become tedious and repetitive, too short and suddenly there aren't enough one-liners.

**** out of *****


SCRIBE'S DIDN'T YOU GET THE MEMO REVIEW:

For some reason this was a film that slipped under my radar during its theatrical run. I knew of its existence, but too much was going on in my life at the time for me to remember to go see it. I regret that now because it's become one of my favorite movies. It's also quite the generation gap symbol.

Like Green, I won't spoil the plot but it is OK to give a basic outline: The film concerns the inner and then very outer conflict of one Peter Gibbons, a corporate cog whose disgust with the environment is the catalyst for some truly anarchistic developments. Most of us under 50 can relate to Gibbons, a man who sees the corporate facade for what it truly is. An interesting side-note to this film concerns a certain group of older conservatives I know who found the whole thing disgusting and reacted with anger. What kind of man pisses and moans about going to work and being a productive member of society?

The kind of man who realizes corporations are slowly stripping away our freedoms and individuality. Ironically, Gibbons becomes even more of a corporate cog as the story develops until he can take no more.

Office Space is Mike Judge at his incisive best. Without becoming preachy, it does more to advance the cause of individuality than any soapbox presidential sermon. What really makes this film work is the fact that it doesn't rely too heavily on sight gags or pratfalls. All the main characters in this film are great and yes, Green is correct, Aniston's character could have been played by anybody with a modicum of comic timing. But in her favor, this is the first and only time she didn't annoy the hell outta me~

***** out of *****

Falling Down

SCRIBE'S MOMMY WHY DOES THE VIGILANTE LOOK LIKE A MORMON REVIEW:

I saw Falling Down when it was first released into theaters, contrary to what regular reader and slanderer Bluez might think. I went with a female friend and we enjoyed ourselves.

In the pre-Tarrantino daze, films like this were a rarity. It looked gritty, it felt gritty, and you truly felt unclean after it was over. Michael Douglas' turn as the fed up Bill Foster was at turns sympathetic and creepy. Robert Duvall, at the height of his greatness, portrays retiring cop Martin Prendergast with a tenderness that most actors would fear revealing. The action scenes are brief but believable and memorable and the acting is top notch. Schumacher's directing is good as well.

So why isn't this a great movie? Where does it fail the audience?

It starts off perfectly. Angry yuppie stuck in a traffic jam finally can't take the rat race anymore and gets out of his car in the middle of traffic. From there he embarks on an odyssey involving gangsters, vicious shop owners and arrogant rich men with too much free time. As Foster becomes more and more righteously violent, the audience feels a swelling of empathy with this guy. He is the silent and suffering everyman, finally taking vengeance against a deadening system. Meanwhile, we have the nice guy cop that really wants to solve Foster's crimes while enduring horrific treatment from his co-workers because he doesn't say "fuck."

The first 3/4 of Falling Down is riveting urban drama as its best. Then the third act rears its ugly head. Suddenly we find out Foster isn't just a guy that's been pushed to the edge. He's a lunatic. He couldn't just be an agent of righteous indignation. That might actually make people wake up and see the world for what it is. So instead Act III turns him into a drooling delusional schizophrenic who just might have abused his family. Thus when the predictable ending arrives, the so-called showdown scene becomes a neo-conservative excuse to admonish anyone who questions his environment.

Because of this, Falling Down goes from near classic to good but intensely flawed movie.

*** out of *****

GREEN'S I'M HAVING A BAD DAY REVIEW:

Bill Foster (Michael Douglas) is having a bad day, and everyone who crosses his path is going to have a bad day too, whether they want to or not. Detective Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall) is a cop trying to get through his last day on the force and retire to Arizona and his neurotic wife. When Foster snaps and goes on a rampage, it's up to Prendergast and his partner Detective Sandra Torres (Rachel Ticotin) to determine where he will strike next and stop him.

Some critics have called this a crude vigilante picture which glorifies random extreme violence. I disagree. This, to me, was a very interesting film, a character study on the human psyche and at what circumstances does one snap and go too far with words and actions. Most of us, I think, can sympathize with Foster at times when it seems like no matter what we do, the worst case scenario unfolds, time after time after time.

Michael Douglas is a fine actor whose performance is intense and extremely convincing. This film may not be as good with another actor in the lead role. I think Robert Duvall is a good actor overall but he really didn't impress me here. Barbara Hershey, Rachel Ticotin and the rest of the supporting cast were fine.

I thought the premise of the movie had promise. The script was decent but could have been better with a little back story on some of the main characters. For example: why was there a restraining order legally preventing Foster from seeing his ex-wife and son? What happened that turned good-guy Prendergast into a cop with a desk job?

Joel Schumacher does an adequate job directing.

*** out of *****

COMING UP NEXT: THE STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION MOVIES!!!

HA! Take that, Bluez!!!



Ok, maybe not yet but it's coming!!!


In the meantime, we shall be reviewing "Falling Down," the Michael Douglas pussy-boy turned vigilante film next.

Star Trek V and VI

The final two original cast films in the Star Trek series are Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, released in 1989, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, released in 1991.

GREEN'S CRAZY VULCAN COUSIN REVIEW:

Why, oh why, is it so hard to write a review about a crappy movie? Let's just say, this film is as bad as I remembered it to be when I saw it in the theater. I only saw it in the theater because I worked there at that time and I got in for free. Actually, I was looking forward to this installment after thoroughly enjoying II, III and IV. What a letdown. [Ahem, anybody wanna buy my Star Trek V pin for the bargain price of only $5.00?]

Enjoying vacation, Kirk and McCoy are summoned back to Starfleet Headquarters when news arrives that hostages have been taken by some renegades on the peaceful planet of Nimbus III. Kirk and company, of course, are called in to investigate and discover that the leader of the renegades is Spock's, previously unheard of half-brother, Sybock. Sybok manages to take the Enterprise hostage and coerces the crew to fly to the center of the galaxy, to a planet called Shaka-Ri, which is where God is supposed to live. Add to the fun an ambitious Klingon Warrior who seeks glory by confronting and possibly killing Klingon nemesis, Captain James T. Kirk.

Everybody loves to pick on this film and rightfully so. As the worst entry in a remarkably good series of films, Shatner proves here that he is better on the screen than behind the camera, as he co-wrote and directed this mess. If Shatner (and his ego) were half as good at directing as he thinks he is, perhaps he would have been afforded more directorial opportunities in his career. The actors (including Shatner's) performances are once again strong, and they prevent this film from being a total disaster. The story typifies human vanity and arrogance, with the idea that man can approach "God" on his own terms rather than on God's and then tell "God" off when he doesn't act like we think he should. Sorry boys, it just doesn't work that way.

Oops, I guess Shatner's "god" is just some big ol' alien dude who wants to steal a starship.

* out of *****

SCRIBE'S I BEG TO DIFFER REBUTTAL/REVIEW:

Everybody loves to pick on this film, much the same way they love to Pick on The Phantom Menace. Many missed the point, others didn't seem to care what the point was. I'm willing to bet many have even forgotten that this movie incurred the wrath of fringe-dwellers on the Religious Right because it dared to portray God as living on a planet.

Ironically, Star Trek had by this time endured decades of criticism for not dramatizing a future in which God had a place. You just can't please religious fanatics, as I found out the year I tried to incorporate images of Mohammad into episodes of the Teletubbies to appease extremist Muslims and their counter-parts, small children. (Cue Family Guy flashback sequence)

And we're back! The Final Frontier is not the failure people love to label it as being. In fact, it stays true to Roddenberry's vision by taking humanity's quest for answers to the next logical step. And logic is exactly the point of this film. Can we logically presume the existence and location of the Almighty? Sybok thought so, and he placed the lives of hundreds in danger to test his wacky beliefs. Sound familiar? It shouldn't. On Earth we don't stop at a mere few hundred when it comes to insane religious odysseys. We jeopardize entire nations.

Shatner's commentary puts it best. This film was misunderstood and considered preposterous when it came out. Nowadays the concept of a madman in the desert talking people into doing crazy things as a way of finding god doesn't sound so far-fetched, does it? Of course, like my friend above, God-lovers missed the point of this film entirely and got this weird idea that Shatner was saying god could be found in space, despite his line near the end that God is found in the human heart.

Shatner's direction was fine, despite the popular opinion. In fact, if you dissect his camera angles, he was quite bold and experimental. Perhaps there wasn't enough time devoted to the ancillary characters, but the holy trek-inity of Kirk, Spock and Bones was never rendered more perfectly. Underrated.

*** out of *****

GREEN'S PROVE YOUR INNOCENCE OR ELSE REVIEW:

The battle-tested Enterprise crew are asked to do the unthinkable. To escort the Klingon emissary and his entourage into federation territory to negotiate a historic peace treaty between the Federation and the dying Klingon Empire.

After a tense dinner aboard the Enterprise, the Klingon party returns to their ship. Shortly after their return, the Klingon ship is hit by two torpedoes at close range. Gravity is disabled and the Klingon Ambassador is brutally murdered. Now the mystery begins. Did the Enterprise fire the torpedoes? Is it a conspiracy? Who is involved?

Sentenced to a life of hard labor in the snowy underground hard-labour prison camp of Rura-Penthe, Kirk and Bones must escape to prove their innocence. One big problem, though. No one has ever escaped from Rura-Penthe and lived to tell about it.

This murder/sabotage mystery is a classic way to send the original Enterprise crew to a happy retirement. It's a Star Trek version of the US-Soviet cold war ending. Like in life, some welcome the new peace while others are afraid of growth and change.

Returning to direct is Nicholas Meyer, who does a masterful job, after a three film absence. The story is compelling and the script is well written with plenty of snappy dialogue.

Casting notes I found interesting: Michael Dorn, who would play Worf in TNG, plays Colonel Worf, court appointed defense attorney for Kirk and McCoy. Christian Slater has a brief Cameo as an officer on the USS Excelsior, and Rene Auberjonois, who would play Odo on DS9, has an uncredited cameo as Colonel West, a diplomat meeting with the Federation President to discuss the fates of Kirk and McCoy.

**** out of *****

SCRIBE'S WHY THE HELL DID THEY END WITH THE BEST ONE REVIEW:

I knew from the first preview that this was going to be an erection-inducing film of orgasmic proportions. Without boring you with a second plot recap (Green excels at those) the "topical" allegory of the Chernobyl incident plays out beautifully in this film.

By the time this one was released, the Next Dengeneration had been on the air for four years so it only made sense to link up the two by finally explaining what caused the Federation and the Klingons to get all chummy.

Director Nick Meyer is an expert at subduing Shatner's tendency for scenery chewing. His secret? He made Shatner do take after take until he got bored and just acted without trying to be a leading man. The results are incredible. Everyone is still in character, but they have grown older gracefully...except for the prejudice in their hearts.

Star Trek VI is one part mystery, one part political thriller, and all parts thrilling. (Dammit, if it came out now they would use that line in the reviews!!!) I weep openly every time it goes off because for me it symbolizes the end of a great era.

***** out of *****