Kat’s Film and Book Reviews

Image courtesy of LibertyU.com

Hitch

2005

Directed by Andy Tennant

All my sources said that Hitch was a perfect date movie. Will Smith plays Alex Hitchins, or Hitch, a date consultant, whose job is to help men get over themselves and approach the women of their dreams. He guides these men through their approach and the first three dates, by which time the guys are on their own, but on solid ground. He tends toward the pithy saying, “Ninety percent of what you’re saying isn’t coming out of your mouth,” but also says things that ring of truth and maturity. “She wants to see the real you, just not all at once,” and “My clients actually like women.”

He takes on a client named Albert Brennaman, an overweight, dorky accountant, played by Kevin James. Albert is in love with one of his clients, a rich, jet-setting glamour girl with whom he has absolutely no chance. This glamour girl, Allegra Cole, played with sweetness and depth by model Amber Valetta, is the current project of tabloid gossip columnist Sara Meles, with whom Hitch finds himself falling in love.

It’s complicated. A bit too complicated. But my sources were right, this is a lovely date movie. The eye-candy factor was high and very inclusive. There were good-looking people of every race and couples of every racial combination. I could look at Will Smith all day, and Eva Mendes, Amber Valetta, and even the cute Southern best friend, played by Julie Ann Emery, gave my sweetie something to watch in every scene. It was just sexy enough to merit the PG-13 rating, but it didn’t depend on nudity or cheap innuendo to carry it.

But it was a good movie from a film-student’s point of view, too. There was a lot to appreciate, and enough to criticize to make for good driving home conversation.

This movie rested on the shoulders of its actors. Led by Smith, the cast offered humor, angst, charm, warmth, and more character development than they should have been able to, considering the script they were given to work with. There is real chemistry between all the couples.

The direction by Andy Tennant was fine, but unremarkable. It relied too heavily on the ethos of New York City and too little on the fleshing out of a compelling story. But if Tennant was too light-handed, at least he had the sense to get out of the way and let the actors do their jobs. They saved his movie for him.

The script was probably the weakest part of this film. The plot hinged on a very slight misunderstanding, so slight it could not carry the weight of the events that supposedly came from it. Inner conflicts that were supposed to create the tension between Smith and Mendes were introduced late in the story. The writer, Kevin Bisch, set up better conflicts early in the film than he used when it was time for the “boy-loses-girl” piece of the story. Is it a coincidence, for example, that the illustrious date doctor only guides his clients through three dates, and that he has himself never been on a fourth date? What happens when he meets the woman who makes him want to ask for a fourth date, and then some? But that intriguing piece was dropped in favor of a lame convention that made parts of the film seem longer than they were.

Excellent performances aren’t enough to make an excellent film. But the very strong acting of the films’ stars was enough to make this film worth seeing. Perhaps next time Tennant and Bisch could take some advice from their own characters and hire a script doctor.

Independence Day

1996

Rated PG-13

Directed by Roland Emmerich

In the world of film snobs…er, I mean, scholars…Independence Day has become a sort of by-word, the standard for shallow movies that cater to the unwashed masses (read: people who aren’t film scholars).  It represents films that substitute sentimentality for substance and special effects for true plot and character development.

Whatever. 

I think the true problem for these critics is that in this film, the USA shows world leadership—moral, technological and political—and the President of the United States is portrayed as a brave, self-sacrificing, and wise leader…and it’s not even done ironically.  It’s played straight…as though this were some kind of Frank Capra film or something.

But that’s what’s so great about it.  What’s wrong with a film in which good guys defeat bad guys, armed not only with technology but with ingenuity and purity of heart?  Sure, it has its flaws, as any film does, but it’s fun and inspiring and really gets viewers involved… what more could we ask of a film?

The film begins on July 2 in the mysterious present.  A huge alien ship, 500 kilometers across, appears in space just above Earth, overcomes Earth’s satellites, and releases several other smaller ships—and by smaller, I mean 15 miles in diameter.  Each of these ships hovers over a major Earth city—in the US it’s New York, Washington and Los Angeles, at first.  They begin to blast and destroy everything.  The ships have shields that keep them from being harmed, even by nuclear missiles. 

The movie roughly follows four men, though those storylines sometimes split into six or more when we start following the women connected with the men.  Will Smith is a fighter pilot, Jeff Goldblum is a brilliant scientist turned cable repairman (his lack of ambition is a character issue), Randy Quaid is a washed up alcoholic Vietnam vet who claims to have been abducted by aliens a decade ago, and Bill Pullman plays the President.  Through a series of slightly-too-coincidental circumstances, the three are brought together at the officially-non-existent Area 51 (and the president is irritated that the Secretary of Defense didn’t think he needed to know this particular secret).

The president tries to establish some kind of diplomatic relations with the aliens, but they refuse flat out.  He learns that they are there only to destroy and pillage, stripping the Earth of its resources before moving on.  They are true bad guys.  The ironic thing (in a movie with no ironic commentary) is that the concentrated attacks on the world’s major cities and landmarks is a larger-scale version of later large-scale coordinated attacks in 2001 in the United States and 2008 in Mumbai, India.  They couldn’t have known it in 1996, when this movie was made, but post-9/11 these aliens look a lot like a higher-tech al-Qaida.

There are some flaws in the film, as I mentioned.  The multiple storylines can get confusing, but at least they all come together in the end, unlike other multi-narrative films (Crash and Love Actually come to mind).  And sure, it’s a heck of a coincidence that the four guys who can save the world all happen to end up in the same place at the same time (and that place isn’t even supposed to exist—a running joke in the film).  Then, when Jeff Goldblum’s character gets totally smashed on what must be a gallon of whiskey, he has an inspiration that completely and instantly sobers him up, rendering him articulate and competent in the blink of an eye.  The president’s young daughter is more of a plot device to show us how human the president is and how much he has at stake, but she’s not a real kid.  She never gets hungry, thirsty or bored, and she never whines. 

Nevertheless, the leads play their parts straight and seriously, which is the only way to make this work.  Bill Pullman delivers his speech about Independence Day for the whole world (the final battle goes down on July 4) with perfect sincerity and commitment.  Randy Quaid’s character is a bit cartoonish, but that’s how he’s supposed to be; he’s an embarrassment to his children until the end, when he turns it around, and we catch a glimpse of the depths that had been hidden all along.  Will Smith plays a cocky but competent fighter pilot, and while we know better now the heights Smith can reach as an actor, back in ‘96 we just wanted him to be cocky and gorgeous and to live the adventure for us (one of the best lines in the film is when Smith pilots a superior alien aircraft and shouts out, “I have got to get me one of these!”).  And Jeff Goldblum is his usual understated self (possibly the exact same character he played in Jurassic Park, now that I think of it).  But that’s the character the movie needed, so it worked out just fine (though I can never watch Goldblum in anything without hearing my father’s voice calling him “that idiot Jeff Goldblum.”).

The movie benefits from a strong supporting cast, as well, including Vivica Fox, Mary McDonnell, Judd Hirsch as Goldblum’s father (why didn’t anyone ever think of doing that before?), always dependable character actors Robert Loggia and James Rebhorn, Harry Connnick, Jr, as Smith’s destined-to-die best friend, and Harvey Fierstein as a typical but amusing neurotic character. 

There’s lots of death, fire, and a few creepy aliens slinking around, but the good guys get to blow stuff up, too, and they get to keep the moral high ground while they do it.  So, to heck with the stuffed shirts who can’t loosen up enough to enjoy a movie just for the sheer entertainment value.  It’s their loss.