DIRECTOR: John Huston
CAST: Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn
THE PLOT: In Africa during WWII, a gin-swilling riverboat captain is persuaded by a straight-laced missionary to attack an enemy warship.
BEN'S VIEWS: Many critics refer to The African Queen as one of the all-time greats. It's really puzzling for me to understand why. Maybe the pairing of Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, two of our countries most-loved actors, make people think it has to be good. Well it certainly hasn't stood the test of time. It has these two great actors but they have little to no screen chemistry. And their characters are too different to make this story work. One minute they hate each other, the next they dodge a few bullets and they're suddenly soulmates. I didn't buy it. And don't get me started on the absurdity of the final half hour. Maybe this film has nostalgic value for an older audience but for me it was a little silly.
DIRECTOR: Zhang Yimou
CAST: Gong Li, Cuifen Cao, Caifei He
THE PLOT: After her father's death, nineteen year old Songlian is forced to marry in China in the 1920's.
BEN'S VIEWS: There is really a lot of good Asian cinema out there if you are open to discovering foreign films. If so then Raise the Red Lantern is certainly worht a look. It is a searing statement against old Chinese traditions, including the practice of polygamy. In the house hold depicted in the film their are four wives, the youngest being newcomer Songlian (Gong Li). It is always interesting to see cultural traditions that are not our own and this is part of the films intrigue. Director Zhang Yimou depicts the drama that you would expect to arise from the situation, plenty of fits of jealousy and hatred. It is engrossing as things go from bad to worse. The film has a good ending (although it didn't hit as hard as I hoped) that is a fitting close to a good and important film.
DIRECTOR: Sam Mendes
CAST: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx, Peter Sarsgaard, Lucas Black
THE PLOT: Based on Marine Anthony Swofford's book about his training experience's and fighting in Kuwait in Desert Storm.
BEN'S VIEWS: Every war gets its own "war movie" and here is Jarhead representing for the Gulf War. And it is a very fine representation indeed. The Gulf War was one of the strangest in our history, lasting for four days and consisting of only air raids with nary a bullet fired. The experience for the soldiers was one of boredom and frustration as they waited in the desert and director Sam Mendes perfectly captures these two feelings in the film. Don't expect much in the area of politics in the film. It is a background issue here, this is the soldiers experience. The acting and cinematography are other standouts of the film. Jake Gyllenhaal proves himself a true talent here in his best performance yet. There is standup supporting work from Jamie Foxx and Peter Sarsgaard. The cinematography is outstanding. The scenes containing the burning oil-wells has some of the most memorable photography of 2005. Although the Gulf War has been done better in David O. Russell's Three Kings this is still an engrossing and very well made look at the conflict.
