The Uninvited

EMILY BROWNING (left) and Arielle Kebbel in "The Uninvited."


‘Uninvited’ great thriller, great ending
VIDEO VIPER IN WEEKENDER for Nov. 13, 2009

Halloween is over but that doesn’t mean you have to put off seeing the thriller “The Univited” for another year.

The movie opens with young Anna, played by up-and-coming actress Emily Browning, who has been in a mental institution and is prone to having graphic and disturbing dreams.

She is released to the custody of her dad, played by David Strathaim. Mother died in an explosion in the cottage by the lake, that had been converted into a sickroom..

Anna doesn’t appear to be cured of her mental problems, but her analyst, played Dean Paul Gibson, says she has conquered her demons and can go home.

On the way home, she learns her mother’s all-too accommodating nurse, played by the alluring Elizabeth Banks, has become Dad’s new companion.

The Banks character just wants to be friends and have a warm, loving family. Ah, but Anna is immediately suspicious and when she decides to go for a swim, meets up with her older sister, played by Arielle Kebbel.

They catch up on what’s going on, they swim, they laugh. When Sister asks Anna why she didn’t respond to her letters, Anna says she didn’t get any.

Did Dad stop the letters. Did Nurse?

Dad is oblivious to the dark side of the Banks character and won’t hear criticism. Banks invites Anna to go shopping, have lunch.

But Anna knows better. The sisters go snooping and come up with some startling information.

Much of this well-crafted, suspenseful film keeps your adrenalin going. You enjoy the horror and supernatural aspect so much, you just wonder how it is all going to end.

One reason Anna knows there is something wrong with the nurse is she gets a vision from her dead mother.

Before the plot has a chance of slowing, Anna has another dream or vision that has you rivited to your TV screen.

Who is the Banks character really? What are her designs? What dark secrets does she have and what happens when she is confronted?

And then, what happened at the boathouse? What caused the explosion?

We see snippets through Anna’s nightmares, but we really aren’t certain the details.

Often movie directors and screenplay writers work to set the mood, make sure there are exciting scenes from the previews but run out of steam for the ending.

Whoa! I doubt if you will see this ending coming. At least I didn’t. And I wasn’t disappointed.

Kudos also goes to Strathairn, who plays the concerned father who stays in control and tries to mediate the situation and not be critical. You might remember him being very real as Edward R. Murrow in “Good Night and Good Luck.”

And Browning, the 20-year-old Australian actress, well, I would see a movie just because she’s in it. She doesn’t play the part as a screaming, annoying kid.

Her work is subtle and believable.

It is a horror film and some of it is disturbing, but it’s a great movie to watch, whether it is Halloween or not.

THE UNINVITED

• Directed by Charles and Thomas Guard

• Screenplay by Craig Rosenberg and Doug Miro

• Rated PG-13 for violent and disburting images, thematic material, sexual content, language and teen drinking

• Runtime: 87 minutes

• 3 1/2 stars out of 4

Civic Duty

Peter Krause, Kari Matchett in "Civic Duty."

Krause nicely unbalanced in ‘Civic Duty’

Peter Krause, best known as Nate Fisher on HBO’s “Six Feet Under,” plays a chillingly unbalanced laid-off accountant in “Civic Duty.”
Krause plays Terry Allen, who faces his own problems after his company downsizes. He’s a boring, dorky kind of guy. When an annoying, overenthusiastic bank clerk reminds him he could use the “ATM machine” in the lobby, he gives her a lecture about how ATM stands for automatic teller machine, so she is telling him he can use the automatic teller machine machine.
Kari Matchett plays his wife, Marla, who goes off to work while he stays home and broods. He becomes mesmerized by a 24-hour news channel and its post 9-11 reports of terrorists and paranoia.
At the same time, Terry gets a new neighbor. He is Gabe Hassan, played by Khaled Abol Naga, a Middle Eastern student obtaining his masters degree, sponsored by an Islamic organization at an American university.
The new neighbor has little furniture. He keeps getting odd-sized packages. He looks suspcious at the trash Dumpster early in the morning.
Terry’s suspicions grow and grow. Wife becomes concerned about her husband’s mental health.
Terry sees President Bush on TV churn the waters, describing how there are thousands of terrorists and many are wealthy and educated.
The Krause character becomes more and more paranoid. He contacts the FBI with his suspicions.
The agent, played by Richard Schiff of “West Wing” fame, is underwhelmed by Krause’s suspicisons.
Terry breaks into the student’s home, looking for evidence. He thinks the man has broken into his home as well. He finds odd-sized bottles and test tubes. Records show the Middle Easterner is getting an awful lot of money to go to school.
And nobody, not his wife, not the FBI, agrees with his suspicions.
He becomes so crazed, he starts taking things into his own hands.
Jeff Renfroe is a novice director but does a nice job building the suspense as the Krause character continues to lose it.
The story premise is different and timely, mixing the aftermath on the attacks on the United States with the downsizing of the U.S. job market.
Matchett is effective as the wife who tries to bring her husband back to reality, knowing she is doomed to failure.
Krause keeps his character in check and methodical until he falls over the edge. It’s effective but I can’t help thinking how a younger Jack Nicholson could have played the role.
It’s a different kind of story line and for the most part it works. I especially enjoyed the climax and epilogue to the story.
The film will remind you some of “Disturbia,” about the boy with the broken foot who spies on his neighbors, and, of course, the Hitchcock classic, “Rear Window.”
So pull you head in from the window, stop spying on your neighbors and give “Civic Duty” a look.

Published in the Star Beacon Nov. 6, 2009.

Battle in Seattle

PEOPLE PROTEST the World Trade Organization in "Battle in Seattle."


‘Battle in Seattle’ avoids movie cliches

“Battle in Seattle,” which uses the backdrop of the World Trade Organization summit of 1999, could have been a cliché-ridden effort painting demonstrators as the victims and the cops as villains.

But the nice thing about this documentary-like drama is it doesn't categorize anyone. You can see the various points of view. You wonder how you would handle the situation, as an official in Seattle, knowing the world was watching, or as a demonstrator, wondering just how far you should go.

The film opens with a hardly complimentary look at the WTO, damage it has done to Third World countries and why demonstrators are trying to shut down the conference.

Ray Liotta (does anyone else automatically think “Goodfellas” when they see this guy?) is open-minded Mayor Tobin. He agrees demonstrating is an American right and plays the liberal role, telling WTO opponents they are welcome to make their point. He's not going to alienate anyone and wants to look cool for the world to see, right?

Except these demonstrators aren't just expressing lip service. They literally lock arms around the building where the WTO is to meet, not letting anyone in.

Martin Henderson plays Jay, the thoughtful leader of the demonstrators, who knows what he wants to do and has a gameplan set. But he must contend with more radical elements who are for busting windows and throwing paint. He also wrestles (figuratively) with a fellow demonstrator, played by Michelle Rodgriquez, the token love interest.

Then there's Woody Harrelson, the cop, and his pregnant, happy wife, played by Charlize Theron. In a pretty unbelievable role is Connie Nielsen, who plays a TV newswoman who gets caught up with the protesters.

The Theron character, after having a doctor's visit, returns to her job at a downtown department store. When things get ugly, hubby phones her and tells her to go home. That's when a demonstrator smashes a window at the store. But with Seattle looking more like Beirut, she can't leave.

Cops, who've been told to take it easy and make no arrests, are frustrated. Reluctantly, the mayor OKs using some force and the dam falls. In a sickening scene, the Theron character, standing on a street corner, trying to figure out what to do, is clubbed in the stomach by a cop as he zips buy.

The story is a fictitious backdrop to a real event and it works for the most part. Harrelson's character especially is interesting and unpredictable.

Unfortunately a few elements don't ring true, like the discussions amongst demonstrators and the obligatory romance.

But there's enough here to recommend “Battle in Seattle.”

BATTLE IN SEATTLE

• Directed and written by Stuart Townshend

• Rated R for language and violence

• Runtime: 98 minutes in the U.S.

• 2 1⁄2 stars out of 4

Towelhead

SUMMER BISHIL and Eugene Jones in "Towelhead."

‘Towelhead’ coming of age film about young girl

“Towelhead,” also known as “Nothing is Private,” is the story of a young girl whose mother is Caucasian and father is Lebanese-born and how she copes with the males in her life and her sexual awakening.
The film is powerful and thought-provoking, but not always easy to watch.
Summer Bishil plays Jasira, a beautiful 13-year-old who isn't mature enough to know when to say “no.”
In a way, in a movie world with so many teens acting like they are 30, this is refreshing.
But sometimes you want to reach through the screen of this troubled girl and say, “Watch it.”
The film begins in Syracuse, with her mother's boyfriend helping her shave her bikini line.
Her self-absorbed mother, played Maria Bello, sends her to Texas to live with her strict father, played effectively by grim-faced Peter Macdisi. The stage is set when he yells at her because her plane is late. When she apologizes, he questions her on why she apologizes for something she has no control over.
The next morning, when she comes to breakfast in shorts and a top, he screams at her to make herself decent for the breakfast table. Realizing her overreacted, the best he can say is, “I forgive you.”
Bishil certainly attracts the men, from mom's boyfriend early on to the military reservist next door, played by Aaron Eckhart, best known as Harvey Dent from the “Batman” franchise.
Eckhart's character, his loopy wife (Carrie Preston) and son (Chase Ellison) meet the new family and soon Jashira is babysitting their son, three years her junior. There she discovers her neighbor takes nude photographs of women for a living and becomes mesmerized by the photos in a men's magazine. She has a sexual awakening that Eckhart's character takes advantage of in a moment of passion, but is immediately apologetic, for awhile.
Meanwhile, dad gets a French girlfriend and Jasira, while taunted by many at school, gets herself a boyfriend, played by Eugene Jones.
She agrees to what boyfriend and adult neighbor have planned and doesn't seem to mind when Eckhart's character says he is being deployed to the Gulf War (the 1991 version) and anything can happen, but then doesn't go.
Father becomes enraged when he discovers one of the magazines in his house (although he doesn't seem to mind if daughter sees he and new girlfriend prancing around the breakfast table) and hits her. Jashira takes refuge at the home of a kind, more stable couple, played by Toni Collette and Matt Letscher. Collette is pregnant but quickly befriends the girl, worried about the sex-hungry neighbor and the way her father treats her.
You feel for the girl and Bishil does an excellent job playing the part as a confused young teen. In reality, she was about 20 when she played had the role.
Some of the scenes aren't easy to watch. The characters are full and interesting. From the beginning, you watch and wonder if the horny neighbor will control himself. He isn't a monster, he only acts like one.
And Father wants to be a real American. He flies his flag properly. He becomes a Christian. But he can't shake his core beliefs about women and his racist attitudes.
All of this converges on a not-so-satisfying ending.
Yet “Towelhead” is worth the ride, if you don't mind getting a little squeamish during some of the rough spots.

TOWELHEAD
• Written by directed by Alan Ball
• From a novel by Alicia Erian
• Rated R for strong disturbing sexual content and abuse involving a young teen, and for language
• Runtime: 124 minutes
• 4 stars out of 5

The Forgotten

Columbia Pictures

JULIANNE MOORE and Dominic West in "The Forgotten."

‘The Forgotten’ compelling until the end

It's a cold, rainy night, actually 2 a.m., and on the Viper’s DVD player is the thriller: “The Forgotten.”

Conversely, I had “forgotten” to watch this paranoid thriller from five years ago starring Julianne Moore as the mother who can't forget the death of her son in a plane crash.

She tells her therapist, played by Gary Sinise, how much time each day she looks at his pictures, reviews clippings of the news stories, gazes at the picture of herself, the boy (Christopher Kovaleski) and her husband, played by Anthony Edwards.

And of course there are the home videos of the boy romping in the playground.

Moore is Telly Paretta in the film and she just can't let go and stop grieving.

Then, in a chapter out of “The Lady Vanishes,” all traces the boy ever live disappear. The videotape is blank. No pictures exist of the child. The family photo has only her and her husband. Hubby and shrink inform her the boy never existed. Years before, she had a stillborn child and manufactured the boy in her mind, complete with memories, they tell her.

Everything seems to point to that fact. She goes to the library but finds no information on a plane crash. Her neighbor and friend doesn't remember she had a son. She meets an alcoholic former hockey player, played by Dominic West, who supposedly had a daughter on the plane, too. But he suddenly has no memory of a daughter.

So the Moore character must be crazy, right? Julianne crazy? Are you nuts?

Soon we are submerged in a deep, "Ex-Files" type of mystery, sans David Duchovny.

The West character, after repeating his daughter's name, suddenly remembers her. Moore and West's characters take off searching for answers, while being chased by mysterious national security personnel.

The tension builds as the pair follow clues, including checking out the bankrupt airlines that supposedly took the children to their deaths.

Who is the “they” who follow the pair through endless chases, especially if they are only crazy people who think they had children they never really had?

Alfre Woodard, always a plus in the movies, plays a police detective who slowly believes the pair may not be as whacko as everyone says.

There's some heart-thumping moments, startling special effects and a not totally satisfying ending. The DVD includes an alternate ending that isn’t so alternate.

THE FORGOTTEN

• Directed by Joseph Rubin, screenplay by Gerald DiPego

• Rated PG-13 for intense thematic material, some violence and brief language

• Runtime: 1 hour, 39 minutes

• 3 stars out of 4

Sex Drive

As a raunchy film, ‘Sex Drive’ works

VIDEO VIPER with Robert Lebzelter for Oct. 9, 2009
CLARK DUKE, Josh Zuckerman and Amanda Crew in "Sex Drive."

A few weeks ago I panned a recent raunchy sex comedy, “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.”
The story was predictable, the jokes fell flat, the same sad punchlines were recycled continually and enough with the gay jokes already. Aren’t they out of style yet?
So why in the world would I order the film “Sex Drive” from Netflix, which visits much of the same territory? Maybe because both films were placed on my “infinite playlist” months ago.
It’s a familiar plot: A young, wimpy virgin plans to travel several states away for the promise of sex with a beautiful blonde. We have seen this plot many times, especially in the superior “The Sure Thing.”
Josh Zuckerman plays Ian, who bulks himself up via Photoshop to impress a girl he has met and traded flirtations with online.
His primary antagonist is his brother, played by James Marsden, who reminds me of Seann William Scott’s character Stiffler in “American Pie.”
Katrina Bowden is the sexy love interest, Ms. Tasty. (In “The Sure Thing,” the girl was Nicollette Sheridan, later of “Desperate Housewives” fame.)
You won’t mistake “Sex Drive” for “Citizen Kane,” even if it was in black and white. The characters aren’t that well developed. The plot doesn’t take any new and different roads. There are still duplicative gay jokes.
I’ve decided the main difference is situations in this film are set up well and there are actual payoffs. Funny stuff happens. There are reasons to laugh.
Ian is pretty much a loser. How big of a loser? The girl he wouldn’t mind getting to know better at his job at the mall doughnut shop is taken by his 14-year-old brother!
Clark Duke plays his best friend and while chubby and not particularly good looking and is shallow, he still captures all of the babes Ian can’t.
Also going with them is the fetching Amanda Crew, who is just a friend.
Do you see where this is going? She’s just a friend, right? But do you think it could possibly blossom into more than just friendship? It would never cross the character’s minds. But we the move watchers know, don’t we?
So they steal homophobic big brother’s vintage 1969 Pontiac GTO and head cross country. In the meantime, they have some pretty funny adventures.
The Duke character romances a clerk at a service station who just split up with a boyfriend. They all end up in a rundown trailer where Ian and Crew’s Felicia cool their heels while Duke and the clerk have particularly discusting sex. Ian and Felicia make small talk with the clueless elderly parents of the clerk. The parents watch TV while drinking cheap grape soda. Dad wears shorts that are, well, too short if you get my meaning.
When the boyfriend returns for reconciliation and discovers what his girlfriend is doing, the results would make a great R-rated Three Stooges sequence.
When their car breaks down, they attempt to use urine in place of water in the radiator. It doesn’t sound like it would work that well but the writers actually come up with a funny payoff to the sequence.
Seth Green is almost unrecognizable as the Amish guy who volunteers to fix their car for free, well, sort of. His dialogue is actually somewhat subtle and very funny. He is a highpoint of the film.
The gang ends up at a festival, gets thrown in jail and in other ways have their share of bad luck.
Some of it works, some of it doesn’t. But the different between this and “Nick and Norah” is in “Sex Drive,” more of it works than doesn’t. In “Nick and Norah,” none of it works.
The Blu-Ray disc includes an unrated version which isn’t particularly good but the premise is pretty funny. It is the same film except people seemingly walk into the picture naked, smile and walk away. The scene with the clueless father in the trailer? The camera stays on the old guy’s too-short shorts the whole time. You will probably want to avert your eyes.
I couldn’t sit through the whole film a second time just for these “extras.” But I watched enough to get the idea.
If you are easily offended, this movie isn’t for you. If you like raunchy, in-bad-taste comedies that work, you might want to give this one a look.

SEX DRIVE
• Directed by Sean Anders • Written by Anders and John Morris • Runtime: 109 minutes • Rated R for strong crude and sexual content, nudity, language, some drug and alcohol use - all involving teens • 7.5 stars out of 10

Burke's Law

‘Burke’s Law’ stylized mystery series
GENE BARRY (left) is Amos Burke with Gary Conway at Detective Tim Tilson in "Burke's Law."

VIDEO VIPER for Oct. 2, 2009

Awhile back, I put the first season of the old mystery series "Burke's Law" on my Netflix account.
Surprising, there was a long wait. Either Netflix miscalculated how many people were interested in the campy series, or it had a cult following.
I remembered it from early childhood days and decided to relive some memories. As I suspected, it proved to be a hoot.
Gene Barry played handsome, millionaire Capt. Amos Burke, chief of homicide. Two years earlier, the dashing Barry ended a three-year run as “Bat Masterson.”
The basic story was the same each week and followed a premise set earlier by”Perry Mason” and copied later by “Ellery Queen,” “Murder She Wrote” and others. Someone would be murdered and the show's star would discover the murderer before the hour (including commercials) was up.
"Burke's Law" was a highly stylized version. The show would open with a random scene in America. One time, we see workers crunching debris at a dumpsite. On another, a friendly worker, complete with bowtie, pulls a switch so lots of screaming kids can enjoy a merry-go-round ride.
But inevitably, somebody yells and screams, because a body has been found.
Switch to Burke, who is a millionaire thanks to his daddy. So he enjoys the fruits and females of those efforts while working in homicide.
An early Aaron Spelling effort, other regulars included the boyish Gary Conway as Detective Tim Wilson, the scruffy Regis Toomey as Detective Les Hart and Leon Lontoc as Asian chauffeur Henry.
The series under this structure lasted from 1963 to 1965. Then cold-war secret agent programs because the craze, thanks to “The Man from UNCLE,” so Burke became a secret agent, the rest of the cast was dispatched and the series died a quick death.
Each episode for the first two years was called “Who Killed (fill in name)”?
Once the body was discovered, the point of view switched to the Burke character, usually in a tuxedo, hosting a party and adoring women, or enjoying a champagne-steeped interlude with one shapely female, but still clothed in a tuxedo.
He would get a phone call and signal to Henry to chauffeur him to the latest crime scene. There he would examine the crime scene, get updated on what happen and meet a series of lovely suspects, all willing to get to know Burke better.
One of the biggest draws of the series is the who's who of stars at the time who appeared, from William (”Life of Riley”) Bendix to Paul Lynde to both Gabor sisters in separate episodes (Zsa Zsa and Eva) to Elizabeth Montgomery, Juliet Prowst, Jay C. Flippen, Jim Backus and former silent screen star Gloria Swanson.
Some of the plots were pretty ingenius but there was always an air of comedy and fun.
The “law” part comes from witty sayings tossed about by Burke during the show.
He would say, “Beauties make the best suspects.” Then he’d smile and add, “Burke's Law.” Or “Murder is the only game you can never win.”
The first discs include vintage commercials. Lots of cigarette commercials. Also a comparison between the old and digitally remastered versions.
“Burke's Law” was revived for 13 episodes in 1994 with Barry still playing Amos Burke and Peter Barton as his son. I can't comment because I never saw it, but understand some episodes were recycled.
The original “Burke's Law” is a fun bit of nostalgia and camp. But then, all of you renting this series and kept me from getting the discs from Netflix until now, already know that.