Traitor

by Pa Rock

Traitor is a spy thriller on the order of what Robert Ludlum used to write - an agent trapped abroad in deep cover who is at risk from the good guys and the bad guys. But it is a thriller with a very clear message: the needs of humanity supersede those of groups with agendas, whether they be terrorist cells or national governments. Don Cheadle was so moved by the script that he offered to put his own money into the production, not even knowing if someone with the box office recognition of a Denzel Washington might come in at the last minute and take the title role from him. Fortunately for us, Denzel let this one pass and Cheadle picked up another powerful role.

Cheadle portrays Samir, a devout Muslim and former U.S. Army sergeant, who had disappeared in the Middle East until he was arrested on terrorism charges. He is secretly in the control of one CIA agent (Jeff Daniels) who has told no one else of the highly secret intelligence operation. The FBI stumbles onto Samir prior to his escape from a Yemeni prison, and spends the rest of the movie in pursuit of the terrorist who got away.

Guy Pearce is the FBI agent who is fixated on finding Samir. (Pearce has changed markedly from his roles of Adam Whitely a.k.a. Felicia Jollygoodfellow in the Australian hit, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, to the prissy, self-absorbed Lt. Ed Exley in L.A. Confidential, to his role in this film where he plays a hard-bitten FBI agent with a decidedly southern accent and strong Baptist roots. He has the breadth and depth to take on any role.)

And while Cheadle and Pearce both inhabit their characters in believable fashion, it is Said Taghmaoui who gives the most powerful performance as the true terrorist, Omar. Omar leads us into the minds and logic of suicide bombers and those who would spread their message through highly individualized and effective bursts of shock and awe. It is through his eyes that we learn we are all terrorists - and we are all victims.

The only regrettable part of this movie was that the climactic terrorist act was the planned bombings of fifty Greyhound buses on Thanksgiving Day as they traversed America. It has been a very tough year for Greyhound (take the bus and leave your head with us), and the company did not need to have that thought planted in the minds of travelers.

Mama Mia, Here We Go Again!

by Pa Rock

Mama Mia is a good movie, a very joyous movie with a beautiful cast dancing along the cliffs and seashore of a Greek Island, all the while singing ABBA tunes. What's not to love?

The premise is that a young girl, adeptly played by Amanda Seyfried, is planning her wedding. The poor child was born out of wedlock to a very independent mother (Meryl Streep). When she finds her mother's old journal, she is able to narrow the prospects for her other parent down to three, all of whom she invites to her wedding without telling mama. Several complications and a lot of singing and dancing later, a happy ending is had by all - including the audience!

Now, for the genesis of the movie. The plot was basically lifted from a 1968 Gina Lollobrigida movie (non-musical) entitled Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell. In that movie, Lollobrigida plays a crafty Italian beauty who had a baby out of wedlock at the end of World War II. Not knowing for certain who the father was, she skillfully tapped each of her three GI lovers for twenty years of child support. The child support hit the fan, of course, when they all showed up at once to see their daughter.

The music and the glittering dance numbers of Mama Mia were sucked right out of the marrow of 1994's camp classic, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. In that movie three drag queens (Terence Stamp, Guy Pearce, and Hugo Weaving) go traipsing across the Australian outback in a pink tour bus lip- syncing ABBA tunes along the way.

Streep and two female co-horts from her youth (Julie Walters and Christine Baranski) break into song in outlandish costumes and platform heels, looking themselves like three drag queens. The costumes between the two sets of entertainers could have easily been interchanged without detracting from either movie. The most chilling parallel between Mama Mia and Priscilla, however, was that Meryl Streep is a dead ringer for Terence Stamp in drag!

For those with a taste for the happy tunes and lyrics of ABBA, Mama Mia and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, will both hit the mark! They are a lot of fun!

L.A. Confidential

by Pa Rock
Movie Reviewer

Although I finally saw the movie, L.A. Confidential, in its entirety for the first time this week, the fact that it is an exceptional film came as no surprise. First of all, I had seen enough bits and segments while channel surfing over the past few years to already be predisposed to unflinching enjoyment. Also, any film that boasts talent like Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Kim Bassinger, and Danny DeVito (and eighty-four lesser knowns!) is unlikely to be some slapdash of cinematic tedium. So when I finally was able to catch the movie at the beginning and plant myself down for a two-hour sit, I knew that I would be well entertained. What I was not prepared for, however, was just how really fine this movie is – in every sense of the word.

A movie can hit the mark of greatness without megastars and huge budgets, but a movie that is poorly written will never have a lasting impact on society, no matter how much money is lavished on its creation and promotion. Films that hold up over time are the products of great scripts, the issue of writers who know how to create images with words that compel people to willingly and eagerly suspend belief and enter an alternate realm. James Ellroy, the author of the novel, is a master of the noir genre, and the scriptwriters, Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson, were able to bring Ellroy’s Los Angeles and its hard-boiled residents to life in flawless fashion. The writing on this project is superb.

Good writing alone cannot guarantee success. The actors, those daring souls who bring the words to life, are also integral to a film’s success. Danny DeVito, the tabloid journalist who also serves as the movie’s narrator, masterfully reflects the sleazy underbelly of the celebrity and criminality of Hollywood in the 1950s. Kevin Spacey bridges the gap between the police and show business as a cop who serves as a consultant to a television police drama, and is at-the-ready to assist DeVito in pre-arranged celebrity take-downs. Kim Bassinger bridges both worlds, crime and celebrity, in a gripping portrayal of a prostitute who has been groomed to present to her clients as actress Veronica Lake. She becomes pivotal to the story when she is used as a pawn to inflame tensions between two policemen played by Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce.

It is Aussie actors Crowe and Pearce who supply the friction that moves this film. Crowe, as Officer Bud White, is the epitome of expedience. He does what it takes to catch a crook or coerce information - such as hanging the district attorney out of the window of his skyscraper office by his feet. Crow’s cop is your bud, and he is white – and he is very representative of things that need to change in the Los Angeles Police Department. Pearce, as Detective Lieutenant Ed Exley, represents where the police department is headed. He is a bespectacled, college educated, goodie-goodie who promotes ethical conduct and proper behavior by public servants, but he can be conveniently opportunistic in building his own career. Together they do a dance of ‘good cop-bad cop’ throughout the movie, alternating from one extreme to the other with disturbing ease. Eventually their symbiotic relationship becomes so clear that even they are forced to recognize it and work in tandem to clean up Los Angeles and its police department.

L.A. Confidential whispers in your ear as it slams you in the gut. It’s a powerful film that is destined to stand the test of time - it's that good!