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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2008)
The Dark Knight Darkness and gloom are not the only elements that shroud the newest Batman film; the ghost of Heath Ledger is inescapable. He plays The Joker with the intense energy of an electrical storm, all chaos, and never clear where he’ll strike or how deadly he will be when he does. Along with Christian Bale’s Batman and Aaron Eckhart’s crusading District Attorney Harvey Dent, the trio play a roundelay of madness and obsession with occasional patches of sanity. The film is exquisite ly cast, and most of the stunts are performed live against stunning backdrops ranging from Hong Kong to Chicago rooftops. As successful as it is, however, The Dark Knight lacks the humor neces sary to give the audience pause (a trick Iron Man kept tightly within its grip). Instead, this is 2 1/2 hours of heavy climax, with zero foreplay. Yes, it’s good, but it’s also exhausting. A- —Andy Mangels Hellboy II: The Golden Army chored not only by Ron Perlman’s dead pan Hellboy but also by Doug Jones’ fishy Abe Sapien, given much more to do in this film. Instead, it was the almost oppressive feel of style over substance; in creating the otherworldly smorgasbord, del Toro failed to keep story at the forefront. For pure visual imagination, the film gets high marks, but its heart is as ethereal and un real as any summer popcorn flick. B —AM The ghost of Heath Ledger haunts The Dark Knight. Journey to the Center of the Earth Based on Jules Verne’s novel and a remake of the 1959 classic, this film directed by effects specialist Eric Brevig (Pearl Harbor) is the first full-length, live action feature shot in digital 3D. Fabulous Brendan Fraser is back in his ele ment playing a goofy earth scientist who, while backpacking across Iceland, finds a cave that will lead him and his companions into the center of the planet. There they discover a fantastic and dangerous lost world and bizarre landscape filled with terrifying creatures. An enjoyable action adventure epic. B —Yvonne P. Behrens I have been a lifelong comic book reader and considered Guillermo del Toro’s Pan's Labyrinth one of the best films of the past decade. So why was I so underwhelmed by Hellhoy III It certainly wasn’t for lack of gorgeously weird and creative Love and Honor creatures and imagery, including a 14-story ram In the opening scene of this 2006 Japanese paging plant elemental, a brass robotic army seemingly powered by lava and a Goblin Market film, devoted wife Kayo asks her impoverished samurai husband, Shinnojo, “Isn’t it an honor teeming with rxldities (and one hilarious baby). Nor was the problem in the cast of characters, an- j to sit before His Lordship and taste his food?” Well, no, not when the job title is “poison tast er.” Sure enough, Shinnojo’s fears come true when he ingests some nasty shellfish and goes blind. While he’s busy contemplating suicide, his money-grubbing family hooks Kayo up with a rich man. This sounds like the makings of a lu rid melodrama, but in fact 70-something director Yoji Yamada errs on the side of calm and grim. Painterly visuals and excellent acting keep things interesting when the action flags. Opens July 18 at Clinton Street Theater. B + —Gary Morris Mamma Mia! They say if you live long enough you’ll see everything, and I’ve now lived long enough to see Meryl Streep give a bad performance. Not just bad, but lousy. Streep plays an aging boomer who, as a single mother, has raised her daughter on a beautiful Greek island. Now the daughter is get ting married and, having read her mother’s diary, invited the three men who might possibly be her father to the wedding. This silliness is interspersed with a series of hit tunes from the 1970s Swedish pop sensation Abba. Lest you think I’m a snob, I adored Mamma Mia! on stage. But the screen version, also di rected by Phyllida Lloyd, is an assault of frantic energy. Lloyd must have thought breaking into song wouldn’t seem over the top if her cast were already overacting. So Streep sings “The Winner Takes It All” with a manic energy that makes her seem crazy rather than distraught. The fact that she sounds terrible doesn’t help. Of course, no one else in the musical can sing, either (Pierce Brosnan in particular). And the performances aren’t much better, with the excep tion of Julie Walters, who manages to maintain her dignity even while dressed in silver lamé. C- —Floyd Sklaver © Dan - positive since 1990 Email Me HIV STOPS WITH ME.ORG ^DHS TX'-.tTT funding The Oregon Department of Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention design: Better World Advertising Iwww.socialmarketing com)
