More Than A Game

‘More Than A Game’ tells LeBron’s story

Published in the Star Beacon March 5, 2010

Granted, Cavaliers star LeBron James is a multi-millionaire.

He may be the greatest basketball player ever, but he’s definitely worked for the honors he’s received.

Nothing better illustrates this fact than “More Than A Game,” the documentary about LeBron and his high school buddies who set the sports world afire in the early 2000s.

Thanks to home video and archived local and ESPN TV footage, we see the long, difficult road James and his buddies took to success as the best high school basketball athletes in the country.

James, Dru Joyce, Romeo Travis, Sian Cotton and Willie McGee came from a poor area. But instead of resorting to crime and drugs, they became extremely close friends who found sanctuary in the basketball c\ourt.

The five spend all of their time together. They slept on the floors of each others’ homes. In fact, while James lived in an apartment and the others had houses, they spent more time at his home.

James eloquently describes growing up with a young, unmarried mother, not knowing his father. The two moved often. They had few possessions. But he obviously has great love for his mother, who saw greatness in her son.

Other team members had similar stories. But like James, they had parents who infused in them the idea they would do great things, they could better themselves.

They lived in an area where many didn’t graduate from high school, but some of James’ friends were told they would also go to college, no questions asked.

Joyce wasn’t even five-foot tall but worked extra hard to be a basketball star. His father, a professional man, decided there was more to life than making money. He coached the boys in basketball from a young age, became a teacher and ended up as their high school coach.

Joyce Sr. says in one interview his job wasn’t to teach the boys basketball. It was to teach them how to deal with life.

The boys could have gone to an inner-city school. But they ended up at the private St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. It was mostly white, mostly conservative, with high academic standards and a dress code.

But the five excelled on the basketball court, eclipsing the other players while only freshmen.

As the documentary tells us, other teams took yellow school buses to basketball games. These guys went to the Akron-Canton Airport and flew all over the country to play the top teams.

They often defeated the best in the country from high schools that actively recruited and often won by 20 points or more.

With all of the adulation and publicity, there were those who looked for a crack in the armor.

There was the question of James getting a $25,000 vehicle while in high school. High school students, like those in college, cannot benefit monetary-wise from playing.

It turns out James’ mother took out a loan for the car. But another scandal hit. James may have accepted two shirts. He became ineligible to play in his last handful of high school games.

The first game, his fellow teammates somehow eked out a win, but James, sitting on the sidelines, realizes he needed to find a way to get back in the game.

It takes court action but James finished his high school career.

The story of James and his buddies is a real success story about hard work and determination.

But frankly, the documentary plods at times. It is worthwhile to watch and there was no need to manufacture drama.

But maybe it could have been shortened a bit.

Even if you aren’t a big James or Cavaliers fan, you will find plenty to like about “More Than A Game.”

MORE THAN A GAME

• Directed by Kristopher Belman, written by Belman and Brad Hogan

• Rated PG for brief mild language and incidental smoking. It still has some good life lessons for young people

• Runtime: 105 minutes

• 2 1/2 stars out of 4

Temple Grandin and Adam

Films take varied look at autism

CLAIRE DANES plays "Temple Grandin."

ROSE BYRNE and Hugh Darcy in "Adam."

Two outstanding films out recently deal with autism

The films are worlds apart, but both show how people with this condition can bring their unique perspectives out and benefit mankind.

HBO recently released ’Temple Grandin,’ a wonderful biographical film about Temple Grandin, who grew up autistic but was able to battle her problems and revolutionize how cattle are handled up until the moment they are slaughtered.

Claire Danes is outstanding in a performance that could appear limiting to a lesser actress.

Temple grew up in a the 1960s, when doctors thought autism grew from a lack of nurturing during a critical time in a child’s life. Doctors wanted Temple institutionalized, but her mother was determined she live as normal of a life as possible.

She went to a normal high school where a teacher, played by David Strathaim, saw something special in her.

Temple could not stand to be touched, but needed the feeling of being touched. She built a contraption, a hugging device if you will, she would crawl into and give herself a hug as a way to settle down.

After a rocky time in college, she got interested in cattle and how they are treated. With her unique perspective, she could tell when the animals were mooing louder or softer, when they seemed calm and disturbed. She figured out when workers left jackets along the fence the cattle traveled around, they became nervous.

She designed and had built a more humane slaughter house, designed in a way to keep the cattle calmer, with circular walkways and steps down to the watery dip, rather than a cement slope.

This film is a true marvel. It goes into subjects I for one knew nothing about. It was educating, it was compelling.

’Adam’ is another story dealing with autism and involves yet another outstanding piece of acting, this time by Hugh Dancy. Dancy plays Adam Raki, who lived with his rich father in an apartment complex. Adam’s dad got him a job engineering the manufacturing of toys.

Adam has Asperger’s Syndrome, a functional form of autism.

A pretty young tenant moves next door, Beth, played by Rose Byrne. She is sort of taken by the quiet, clumsy Adam, not realizing at first about his disability. Adam is interested in the planet and stars to the point his discussions with others get definitely one-sided.

When Rose struggles to pull her cart of groceries over the steep steps, Adams is oblivious to her struggles.

Her parents, played by Peter Gallagher and Amy Irving, obviously oppose her getting into a relationship with this man. Adam, on the other hand, needs someone on his side because his father recently died.

It is a very human story that often takes different turns than you might expect. This isn’t your cookie-cutter romance film. It belongs in a league of its own.

Two diverse films about a diverse condition, autism. But both are well worth watching. They will expand your world.

TEMPLE GRANDIN

Directed by Mick Jackson

Teleplay by Christopher Monger and Merritt Johnson

Runtime: 108 minutes

Not rated but good for older children

3 1/2 stars out of 4

ADAM

Directed by Max Mayer

Written by Max Mayer

Runtime: 99 minutes

Rated PG-13 for thematic material, sexual content and language

I Love You, Man

‘I Love You, Man’ different love story

VIDEO VIPER IN WEEKENDER, Feb. 19, 2010

JASON SEGEL (left) and Paul Rudd in "I Love You, Man."

“I Love You, Man” is a love story of sorts involving a soon-to-be married man and another guy.

But there’s nothing gay or bisexual about the main character in this funny and well-done comedy.

Paul Rudd plays Peter Klaven, a romantic, sensitive guy. He’s everything a girl could want. He makes all of the right moves, on his knee, asking girlfriend Zooey (played by Rashida Jones) to marry him. She says yes.

Ah, but there must be a conflict or there’s no real storyline, right?

Zooey has a gaggle of girlfriends she spends time with and tells them the most intimate details of her time with Peter. There’s plenty of girls’ nights with lots of laughing and bonding.

Rudd’s character, however, has no guy friends, thus comes the conflict.

He’s not a bad guy but he just can’t relate to guys and sports. His father, hilariously played by J. K. Simons, who was Juno’s father as well, discusses at the dinner table who his best friends are and flat out says his son has no male friends.

Mom, played by an aging Jane Curtain, readily agrees.

Well, the bride can’t have a half-dozen or so bridesmaids, while there are no groomsmen.

This begins the somewhat painful process of finding a male friend. The film does use a familiar formula taken from many romantic comedies. He searches for the right person but nobody clicks. He gives up.

Ah, then he meets someone, played by Jason Segel. The two people meet, click, spend time together, have fun, get to know each other, relate, break up and by the end of the movie, make amends.

Segel really makes this movie. He’s happy-go-lucky and knows human nature.

Segel plays Sydney Fife who spends his leisure hours making the rounds of real estate open houses, checking out the food.

Rudd plays a real estate agent in a big office. His choice client happens to be Lou Ferrigno, TV’s “Incredible Hulk,” who is selling his luxury home.

It’s at the Hulk home that the pair meet, hit it off and go out for drinks later.

“I Love You, Man” is a love story of sorts involving a soon-to-be married man and another guy.

But there’s nothing gay or bisexual about the main character in this funny and well-done comedy.

Paul Rudd plays Peter Klaven, a romantic, sensitive guy. He’s everything a girl could want. He makes all of the right moves, on his knee, asking girlfriend Zooey (played by Rashida Jones) to marry him. She says yes.

Ah, but there must be a conflict or there’s no real storyline, right?

Zooey has a gaggle of girlfriends she spends time with and tells them the most intimate details of her time with Peter. There’s plenty of girls’ nights with lots of laughing and bonding.

Rudd’s character, however, has no guy friends, thus comes the conflict.

He’s not a bad guy but he just can’t relate to guys and sports. His father, hilariously played by J. K. Simons, who was Juno’s father as well, discusses at the dinner table who his best friends are and flat out says his son has no male friends.

Mom, played by an aging Jane Curtain, readily agrees.

Well, the bride can’t have a half-dozen or so bridesmaids, while there are no groomsmen.

This begins the somewhat painful process of finding a male friend. The film does use a familiar formula taken from many romantic comedies. He searches for the right person but nobody clicks. He gives up.

Ah, then he meets someone, played by Jason Segel. The two people meet, click, spend time together, have fun, get to know each other, relate, break up and by the end of the movie, make amends.

Segel really makes this movie. He’s happy-go-lucky and knows human nature.

Segel plays Sydney Fife who spends his leisure hours making the rounds of real estate open houses, checking out the food.

Rudd plays a real estate agent in a big office. His choice client happens to be Lou Ferrigno, TV’s “Incredible Hulk,” who is selling his luxury home.

It’s at the Hulk home that the pair meet, hit it off and go out for drinks later.

Fife shows Peter his “man cave,” and the two end up jamming to Rush. They jam to Rush a lot. Enough with “Tom Sawyer.”

Rudd spends time with Segel’s character to the point it infringes on Rudd and Jones’ characters Sunday night HBO time. At first, Rudd is taken back by the idea of foregoing Sunday HBO. After all, he laments, it’s not TV, it’s HBO.

Ferrigno is hilarious as he demands to know what is being done to sell his overpriced home.

The characters in the film are well drawn and while the plot familiar, there are enough variations to keep it interesting.

The cast of characters who end up becoming the groomsmen are a real eclectic bunch and the wedding is a highlight of the film.

The movie casts different lights on the traditional roles of males and females and does it very well.

There are some crude scenes and language, but it is a film that will draw both men and female.

You’ll love it, man

I LOVE YOU, MAN

• Directed by John Hamburg

• Written by Hamburg and Larry Levin (screenplay)

• Runtime: 105 minutes

• Rated R for language, crude sexual references

• 4 stars out of 5

Anthem

It’s not easy to focus on ‘Anthem’

KRISTEN HAHN (left) and Shainee Gabel in "Anthem."

Viper for Feb. 12, 2010

Shainee Gabel and Kristin Hahn have made names for themselves in movie production, but back in 1997, before they knew what they were doing, they quit their day jobs, said goodbye to their boyfriends and hit the cinematic road.

They bought a laptop and a couple of video cameras and took off across the country, ready to talk to people and get the pulse of the country.

Unfortunately, the two were technically inept and lacked basic journalistic skills.

They used what appears to be consumer-grade 1997 video equipment, probably VHS or 8 mm video. They didn’t know you shouldn’t place a person in front of the sun and shoot, because if you do, you end up with a silhouette.

Even though they used two cameras, it was choppy, difficult to see and murky.

In fact, after spending more than two hours with these 26-year-olds, I would be hard-pressed to pick their faces out of a lineup.

They are in the film a lot, ordering endless amount of cheap fast food or lounging in their motel rooms.

It’s just the perpetually unlit, gloomy video made it difficult to see much of anything.

They decide to determine the real America by talking to celebrities, who certainly know more about the world than anyone else, right?

Still, the celebrity interviews are pretty intriguing, although there is no particular structure. The girls seem so happy to get time with Robert Redford or Studs Terkel or Hunter S. Thompson, they just turn the camera on and let the celebs ramble.

But despite the ineptness, the girls do get results and their subjects do offer some insight.

First off, the girls find themselves in the Clinton White House over a weekend, when the first family wasn’t supposed to be there.

They sit down to talk to a bearded George Stephanopoulos, then the White House chief of staff. We see them rambling about the White House, crashing into furniture, expressing their “oh gees” because they made it there.

But as old George starts to tell about how presidents before Clinton withstood criticism, he gets a phone call. It is none other than the president, summoning him. Guess he didn’t go away, after all? End of interview. End of visit to the White House.

The pair is constantly on the phone, setting up interviews.

They record part of a Willie Nelson concert, showing us the faces of upscale middle-aged women as they listen to Willie croon.

Back in his ratty trailer, Nelson rambles on about the country and how much more honest politicians used to be. He noted the term “Honest Abe.”

Later, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson calls Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt demigods.

Robert Redford is interviewed at Sundance. It’s not always easy to understand what he is saying because apparently a wedding was going on at an adjoining property.

Redford talks about growing up before television, when entertainment was primarily movies and radio. He said he was a big reader, especially fantasy stuff. Today, people’s lives are filled with TV, video games and the Internet.

Interesting, but like other interviews, it has little to do with what other interviewees are saying.

Michael Stipe of REM had to postpone his interview because of hernia surgery. He gets almost pornographic as he pulls down his pants to show the scar.

Stipe talks about being picked on as a youngster and wonders why people ask him about worldly things (as he comments on worldly things) because after all, he’s only a rock star.

The girls spend a week riding around with Thompson, but he grimaces when they try to bring the camera out.

The girls also speak with retired Sen. George McGovern, director John Waters and author Studs Terkel. Terkel asks them after the interview if they will drop him off in downtown Chicago. Terkel has never driven, but admires people who can.

The film is too long. It is technically poor. But those girls proved persistent, even though they didn’t appear to know what to do once they got the celebrities.

The celebrities were so interesting, so human, it was worth watching if only to see them as real human beings.

(McGovern wants to talk politics but only after calling his wife.)

Maybe you have to be in the right mood, but I found “Anthem” intriguing and fun. It also gives you a glimpse of America a decade ago. We see gasoline stations with fuel prices at $118.9 per gallon.

Maybe this film will spark future filmmakers to buy today’s cheaper, better and smaller cameras and find out what celebrities think today.

How would Miley Cyrus educate us on life today?

ANTHEM

• Directed and written by Shainee Gabel and Kristin Han

• Runtime: 124 minutes

• Not rated. OK for kids, but they won’t want to see it

• 3 stars out of 5

Funny Games

Beware! Stay away from ‘Funny Games’

VIDEO VIPER for Feb. 5, 2010

Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet are sickos who terrorize families in "Funny Games."

This review may be a bit different than usual because the movie is a bit different.

That’s not in a good way.

“Funny Games” is indeed about a game, but there’s nothing funny in this film.

Well, it might be funny to someone who pulls wings off flies and tortures small animals. It might be funny to serial killer-wannabes too.

Spoiler alert: The film is so violent with no redeeming qualities, I’ll give away more of the plot than usual to illustrate the point and dissuade you from renting or (gasp) buying it.

You have to be a special kind of person to like this movie and if you do, I hope you don’t live in my neighborhood.

Cute Naomi Watts, who won everyone’s heart in “King Kong,” allows herself to be debased in this sad, sick film.

Watts and Tim Farber play a wealthy couple with a summer home on Long Island. They and son (Devon Gearhart) ready for summer vacation. They notice their vacation neighbors seem a bit uneasy and have two guests, Paul and Peter, played by Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet.

The pair end up at the Watts-Farber home to supposedly borrow eggs. But this, like everything the pair does, is part of a cruel and violent game.

The two are super polite as they hold the family captive, taunting them. They make Watts’ character strip to her underwear to solve a debate on whether she was getting chunky. (She wasn’t.) She spends much of the rest of the film in her underwear, crying and convulsing.

This is a nearly shot-by-shot remake of a European film director Michael Haneke made a decade earlier.

Haneke also wrote the story. Why anyone would want to relive such a nightmare of a movie using different actors is beyond me.

The two young psycopaths tell the family they doubt if they will live through the next day.

Husband Roth quickly has his legs broken with a golf club. The family dog is murdered and the Watts character must walk around the yard being told she’s “hot” or “cold” as far as finding the body. Eventually, she opens the car door and we see the lifeless dog’s body fall out.

Such entertainment.

The young son escapes and rushes to the neighbors’ house. Aw, but we’ve already figured out the couple there are dead. Yes, the two men kept that family captive before killing them, just as they are doing with Watts and crew.

Paul and Peter, of course, eventually catch up with the young boy, who red-faced and in hysterics, cries uncontrollably as he is brought back.

Out of the blue, the bad boys turn to the camera and speak to the movie goers. This happens maybe twice, like it was an idea the filmmaker wanted to do, but then forgot to execute it much.

So it is more like we are taken back and confused by the procedure.

The Watts character is able to escape for a time, but she is picked back up.

One of the sickest scenes involves the hysterical son, who is shot and killed by a rifle, his blood splattered on the walls and TV for us to see during much of the rest of the movie.

Husband is eventually killed as well, leaving the Watts character to try to save her life.

But here is where the film cheats. Maybe it is supposed to be a social commentary or some sort of satire on America’s love of voilent films. Whatever the point, it was lost on me and the original film didn’t take place in the U.S.

So Watts gets the gun and kills one of the psychos. But the laws of time and physics work for the killers. The death is “rewound,” the killer is suddenly alive again.

So you see, entering this bizarre fantasy state, Watts’ chances of survival are nil.

By this time nobody cares anyway.

The film ends with the boys going to the next house in the resort area to borrow eggs, with Watts’ body at the bottom of the lake.

This film took 111 minutes of my life away. I added the spoilers to convince you to stay away. Keep those 111 minutes, cherish them.

Write some poetry. Read some good literature. Volunteer somewhere during those 111 minutes. Give blood during those 111 minutes.

Just stay the hell away from this film.

FUNNY GAMES

• Directed and written by Michael Haneke

• Runtime: 111 minutes.

• Rated R for terror, violence and some language

• No stars out of 5

Incredible Shrinking Man

GRANT WILLIAMS has his hands full in "The Incredible Shrinking Man."‘

Incredible Shrinking Man’ no small film

VIDEO VIPER in WEEKENDER, Jan. 29, 2010

So we were going through some old, dusty VHS tapes when we came across a cheesy promo for a movie called “The Incredible Shrinking Man.”

It was one of those campy, 1950s science fiction movies. You know, during the nuclear tests, Hollywood fed on fears by giving us men and women who grew super tall or short because of our meddling with nature. Hollywood also had those tests unleashing all kinds of prehistoric creatures, not to mention disruptions from other planets.

"The Incredible Shrinking Man" was in that mode.

So I found the film on Netflix, added it to my queue and had it two days later.

It opens with Scott Carey, played by Grant Williams, enjoying a vacation in a borrowed boat with his wife, Louise, (Randy Stewart), drinking in the sunshine. He asks her to get him a cold beer. She mockingly declines, saying she too is on vacation.

But of course, being the good 50s wife, she relents and goes inside to fetch the beer. Good thing, too, because soon Scott sees a thick, unworldly mist coming at him. He can't escape. It leaves a film on himself and his clothes. His wife, getting the brew, is unscathed.

Months later, the incident long forgotten, he tells his wife the dry cleaners are messing with his clothes, because his pants are too long and his shirt hangs on him.

A typical 50s explanation: His wife says he's been working too hard and not eating properly.

Still dogged that something isn't right, he visits his doctor, played by William Schallert. Schallert went on to play the father on "The Patty Duke Show" as well as a similar medical role in the film "Matinee," which parodied films like "Shrinking Man." Schallert is still working in his late 80s, most recently appearing on “Desperate Housewives.”

The Schallert character gives our boy Scott a logical explanation and says he can't physically be shrinking. But as Scott shrinks more, a subsequent visit has Schallert sending him to a research clinic for further study.

There he is met by a more eminent doctor / researcher, played by Raymond Bailey, who went on to regain his hair and become Banker Drysdale on “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

This is a pretty interesting and fun film and the special effects aren't nearly as bad as you might think. The funny instances are when there has been a gap in time and suddenly when we see him, he is less than four feet tall.

By the way, there is preproduction going on for a sequel to the film, to be made this year.

Around him are obviously larger-than-life props of furniture, ashtrays and the like.

He feels a kinship with a sideshow little person until he realizes he has suddenly shrunk smaller than her. (Researchers had told him they found a way to at least stop the shrinking.)

Later, we find him living in a dollhouse.

Sometimes these B movies are so dumb they are boring. You find yourself planning the next day while watching.

But this one is pretty good. You may not want to allow young children to watch. They may never look at the family cat the same way after it goes after poor Scott.

The ending is also rather schmaltzy. Even though he is shrinking to the size of a gnat, he finds himself one with the universe. Cue dramatic music.

Ah, OK.

But overall, for its time and all, it is a well written, well produced piece of cinema history. Don't shrink from seeing it.

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN

• Directed by Jack Arnold

• From a novel and screenplay by Richard Matheson

• Runtime: 81 minutes

• Not rated but too intense from young children

• 3 stars out of 4

Appaloosa

Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris in “Appaloosa.”

Get on your high horse to see ‘Appaloosa’

Published Jan. 15, 2010

Get on your high horse to see ‘Appaloosa’
Well partners.
It isn’t often we mosey on over to hitch ourselves to the couch to watch a horse opera.
But that’s what I did the other day.
The film is “Appaloosa,” starring Ed Harris (who also directs) as Appaloosa’s shoot-first sheriff, Viggio Mortensen as his deputy and Renee Zellweger as the new girl in town, Allison French. She’s the one female in town who isn’t a prostitute. (She doesn’t charge.)
Harris and Mortensen are hired to clean up the town and when the bad guys resist, they are quickly gunned down.
The film opens with Jeremy Irons, another bad guy, gunning down the previous sheriff and his deputy.
New-sheriff Harris is serious and doesn’t mess around. Obey or die.
But his heart softens when the widow Zellweger arrives and needs a clean but respected and inexpensive place to stay. She only has $1.
She melts the sheriff’s heart and they are soon an item. The house being built on the edge of town will become their love nest.
The Zellweger character doesn’t even mind when Harris beats a man nearly to death for using bad language in front of her in the saloon.
But then, Zellweger makes a play for the deputy, too.
Meanwhile, a young man tells the sheriff he witnessed Irons killing the previous sheriff and deputy. At the trial, Irons denies the charge as does a packed courtroom of his followers, who happened to be there to witness the killing.
The elderly judge tells the young whistleblower to jump on his horse and ride, then sentences the Irons character to death.
Irons’ followers kidnap Zellweger so they can exchange her for the Irons’ character as the good guys head off via a train for his hanging.
Zellweger is a victim in name only, since she doesn’t mind cavorting with her captors in a nearby pond.
Mortensen is the most interesting character in the film. He is steadfastly loyal to the Harris character while confessing his own insecurities to a series of sympathetic prostitutes.
The scenery in the Blu-ray version is beautiful and Harris does a nice job of directing and taking the prime role.
The film balances between being entertaining and realistic and going a little too far, as in, say, HBO’s “Deadwood.”
If you miss your regular fix of westerns, once a staple of TV and movies, give “Appaloosa” a look.

APPALOOSA • Directed by Ed Harris • Written by Ed Harris and Robert Knott • Runtime: 115 minutes • Rated R for language and violence. • 2 1/2 stars out of 4