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© St. Petersburg Times, published April 18, 2002
The Man Who Wasn't There (R)
A mild-mannered barber (Billy Bob Thornton) plots to extort $10,000 from his wife's lover to finance a dry cleaning shop. The plan turns deadly, leading to a series of odd film noir encounters as only Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo; O Brother, Where Art Thou?) can conceive them. Frances McDormand and James Gandolfini co-star, with a sly turn by Tony Shalhoub (Big Night) as an angling defense attorney. One of the 10 best movies of 2001.
First impressions: ". . . a quietly sinister film that doesn't merely imitate films noirs of the 1940s but seems to channel their essence. It's more than the moody monochrome cinematography and period costumes. It's the way the characters sort their morality in an era when evil wasn't common or celebrated.
"Thornton's performance is something to see, magnetic even though he isn't doing much at all. Ed's face rarely changes expression, and his voice, when it's used, is eerily sedate. Tom Hanks earned praise for acting alone in Cast Away, but Thornton acts alone even in a crowd of people. Calling him understated is an understatement."
Second thoughts: Splitting voters between this role, Monster's Ball and Bandits probably kept Thornton from an Academy Award nomination.
Rental audience: Coen buffs, Thornton fans and film noir enthusiasts.
Rent it if you enjoy: Double Indemnity, Body Heat, The Postman Always Rings Twice.
John Travolta plays a divorced father whose ex-wife (Teri Polo) is planning to marry a rich man (Vince Vaughn). The new hubby isn't as kind and generous as he appears in public, leading Travolta's character to check out his successor's criminal past and protect his son's future. Steve Buscemi (Ghost World) co-stars in one of his patented gutter-rat roles.
First impressions: ". . . an uncommonly economical piece of work, sticking to the plot points that matter most. It's simple and direct, unlike so many films, especially thrillers, compelled to depict more than viewers need to know.
"Nothing surprises and everything counts. Characters are briskly identified, Rick's shady side is exposed just enough, and revenge is short and sweet. Domestic Disturbance won't be remembered as a great movie, but it doesn't have the pretense of greatness that ruins thrillers such as Don't Say a Word. Such modesty is rare, making the suspense more effective."
Second thoughts: Tailor-made for television viewing.
Rental audience: People who think, yeah, Travolta would be a good father.
Rent it if you enjoy: USA network thrillers.
A mother worries that her gay son has murdered his lover, making her the target of a blackmailing scheme. Tilda Swinton earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for best female actor in this quiet thriller. Goran Visnjic (TV's E.R.) co-stars as the extortionist who can't understand why this woman won't simply surrender and pay.
First impressions: "Tilda Swinton, the remarkable Scottish actor honored for her tour de force performance in 1992's Orlando, offers another mesmerizing turn in The Deep End as a staunchly determined ubermom. It's just one element in a striking work of surprising smarts and resonance, a newfangled film noir that leaves one unsettled long after the final credits roll." (Philip Booth, Times staff writer)
Second thoughts: Lost support during the awards season to the similar household themes of In the Bedroom, but this is the better movie.
Rental audience: Art-film enthusiasts.
Rent it if you enjoy: In the Bedroom, Before and After.
Movie brawls fill 'Ultimate Fights'
Ultimate Fights
Home video distributor FlixMix struck gold last year with its first release, Boogeymen, a spiffy collection of clips, zippy animation and background information about such scary movie characters as Freddie Kreuger and Jason Voorhees. Now FlixMix uses the same approach on butt-kicking movie heroes in Ultimate Fights, a must-see for action freaks.
The core of the disc comprises 16 brawls from popular movies, ranging from the martial arts mayhem of Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx to the sword-and-sandal violence of Gladiator. Just seeing these smartly selected fights would be fun, and that's about all you'll get on the VHS version of Ultimate Fights. On DVD, however, those scenes are just preliminary bouts.
Some clips are familiar to the masses: the wall-climbing combatants of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a tiger-enhanced duel in Gladiator and Scarface's bloody climax. Other deserve wider exposure, such as a gunfight in John Woo's The Killer and Brad Pitt's bare-knuckles boxing in Snatch. Others are cultish selections such as Rowdy Roddy Piper and Keith David duking it out in They Live and the Hong Kong imports Fist of Legend and Legend of Drunken Master.
However, two obvious choices aren't part of the package. The Matrix is listed among the greatest fight movies ever, but no footage is included. Likewise, the brutal bashings of David Fincher's Fight Club should be a lock, but it's left out.
Each clip has an alternate video commentary from Hong Kong filmmaker Tsui Hark (Peking Opera Blues, Black Mask), who clarifies the differences between, say, Jason Scott Lee's jeet kune do moves in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and the Muay Thai techniques used by his adversary. Hark professes admiration for Brian DePalma's ballistic approach in Scarface but offers only polite mentions of the strippers' catfight in Ice Cube's The Players Club. Another feature provides commentary from stuntman James Lew, a.k.a. FightMaster.
The most entertaining extras are Fight Cards for each scene, listing the combatants, their choices of weapons, statistics and whatever grudge has them squaring off. For example, we learn that Al Pacino's Tony Montana in Scarface used an M-16 with grenade launcher to defend himself against a rival's army, firing 90 rounds and connecting with 16 shots. The invaders to his Miami mansion use AK-47s, M-16s and one shotgun delivering a fatal blow to Montana.
One telling statistic of star ego: Sylvester Stallone's fight with a jail guard in First Blood allows his opponent one swing with a nightstick that misses, but Stallone's John Rambo lands all 18 of his punches, the only perfect score among the Fight Cards.
Viewers can use the FlixFacts option to make subtitled trivia appear in sync with the scenes. The Ultimate Rumble Techno Mix is a music-only option for those times when hearing grunts and crashes gets old. A featurette titled Behind the Punches reveals Lew's strategies for filming movie fights, and Name That Frame is a multiple-choice time waster. Preview trailers of most of the showcased films are included.
Ultimate Fights is priced to own at $19.95 but may have to be ordered from video stores and online sellers such as Amazon.com.
Woods at his devious best
Happy 55th birthday to actor James Woods, one of the most valuable players in Hollywood. Woods is also one of the smartest, as an IQ of 180, near-perfect SAT scores and enrollment at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the late 1960s suggest. And, one of the funniest, as many interviews prove, despite his early screen image as a sociopath in films such as The Onion Field and Against All Odds.
Woods has softened that killer image on occasion, taking on nicer roles, even romantic ones with looks that aren't conventional leading-man material. Certainly, he's more interesting with a snarl on his face than a smile, but always watchable. Here's a mixed assortment of Woods' bad-guy goodies:
The Onion Field -- Some critics and viewers actually believed Woods was a criminal cast in the fact-based account of two cop killers (Woods, Franklyn Seales). Based on Joseph Wambaugh's harrowing bestseller.
Videodrome -- A television executive (Woods) discovers a new style of programming, a snuff-movie entertainment called Videodrome. The purpose of David Cronenberg's movie is vague, but his images -- including Woods plugging a video tape into his intestines -- are always arresting.
Once Upon a Time in America -- Woods is no stranger to the Tampa Bay area since his mother moved to Largo. He came here for business in 1983, filming scenes for Sergio Leone's mobster epic with Robert De Niro at the Don CeSar beach resort.
Salvador -- A great movie, overlooked by many because of writer-director Oliver Stone's political leanings. Woods plays a photojournalist covering unrest in El Salvador, picking up his first Oscar nomination for a terrific portrayal of a jerk developing a conscience.
Citizen Cohn -- Woods won Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for this biography of Hollywood legend Roy Cohn, whose hatred of Communism masked his own self-loathed homosexuality. One of the best Hollywood insider stories in years.
Nixon -- The actor was perfectly cast as Richard Nixon's political pitbull H.R. Haldeman, in another collaboration with Stone that surprised viewers with its sympathetic version of Watergate-related events.
Ghosts of Mississippi -- Another Academy Award nomination, this time for putting a heavily latexed face on bigotry. Woods was superb as aged Byron De La Beckwith, the (eventually) convicted murderer of civil rights activist Medgar Evers.
Hercules -- Celebrities adding voices to animated films have become standard operating procedure. One of the funniest voice-overs ever came from Woods, hilarious as Hades, lord of the underworld.
The Virgin Suicides -- Meeker than usual, Woods played the ineffective father of five sisters who, as the title hints, aren't long for this world. An impressive filmmaking debut by writer-director Sofia Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola's daughter.