BAFTA-nominated production designer Wolf Kroeger has worked in film for the last four decades, but now is eligible for the Emmys after signing on with the Starz network for new series “Black Sails.” In his chat with Gold Derby, Kroeger explained that he relished the opportunity to work on a pirate drama and credits the increasing quality of television shows with his change of medium. -Break- "Since it was a TV show and I wasn't used to it, I thought the best way to do this was to approach it like a movie," Kroger explained. "Most of the differences are, maybe, you have more time on a movie, you have more money, but then you never have enough time or money anyway." The big project for the first season was a massive pirate ship — the largest one of Kroeger’s career — that was actually two ships behind the scenes and which were built from scratch.
- 6/19/2014
- Gold Derby
This review was written for the theatrical release of "Love in the Time of Cholera".SAN FRANCISCO -- "Love in the Time of Cholera", Mike Newell's handsomely appointed but disappointing adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's complicated, sprawling novel retains the essential flavor of the book. Audiences are likely to split into two camps: Fans will mourn what's left out; and those unfamiliar with the book might find the film mannered and slowgoing.
The filmmakers, Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood ("The Pianist") and Newell aim for a lush romantic fantasy about enduring love spanning 50 years in late-19th century Colombia. Instead, they create an overheated melodrama with abundant complications and hammy acting.
Taken on its own terms, the film would have been well served if the veteran team behind it had been ruthless in jettisoning material. The film's prestigious literary pedigree, international cast and Oprah's Book Club imprimatur will help make it a solid draw for the Art House crowd.
When teenager Florentino (Unax Ugalde), a clerk with ghostly pallor and a knack for writing ardent love letters, spies Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), it's love at first sight. That passion will remain unrequited until the two are in the final chapter of their lives. Fermina's Father John Leguizamo in a broad performance) disapproves and whisks her away to the countryside. He plans to marry his daughter up. He succeeds when she catches the eye of Juvenal (Benjamin Bratt), a worldly doctor whom Fermina marries after rejecting Florentino's overtures.
Playing a pretentious lout, Leguizamo, chomping on a cigar, utters the film's worst, anachronistic dialogue. Bratt, whose accent is more Pepe Le Pew than cultivated aristocrat, has the second-worst batch of lines in a scene where he promises his sexually inexperienced wife "a lesson in love."
Meanwhile, Florentino (played as an adult by Javier Bardem) rises to the top of his uncle's shipping company. He carries the torch for Fermina over the next half-century and consoles himself with hundreds of sexual conquests, dutifully recorded a la Casanova. Years later, Juvenal dies, and Florentino declares his love to the grieving Fermina on the day of the funeral. The film starts with Juvenal's death, flashes back and then forward again -- shifts adeptly handled by Harwood and editor Mick Audsley.
In a touching section toward the end, Fermina relents, and the pair finally consummate their love. "Cholera" is at its most sage and romantic in its portrayal of mature marriage, older love and sexuality.
Shot on location in vibrant Cartagena, the film's strong suit is aesthetic. Cinematographer Alfonso Beato, designer Wolf Kroeger and costume designer Marit Allen evoke aged exotic locales, rugged rural settings and dimly lit period interiors. A closing, aerial image has a breathtaking, spiritual beauty.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
New Line
Stone Village Pictures
Credits:
Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Scott Steindorff
Executive producers: Danny Greenspun, Robin Greenspun, Andrew Molaski, Chris Law, Michael Nozik, Dylan Russell, Scott LaStaiti
Director of photography: Alfonso Beato
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: Antonio Pinto, Shakira
Co-producer: Brantley M. Dunaway
Costume designer: Marit Allen
Editor: Mick Audsley
Cast:
Florentino: Javier Bardem
Teenage Florentino: Unax Ugalde
Fermina: Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Juvenal: Benjamin Bratt
Hildebranda: Catalina Sandino Moreno
Uncle Leo: Hector Elizondo
Lotario: Liev Schreiber: Transito: Fernanda Montenegro
Sara: Laura Harring
Lorenzo: John Leguizamo
Running time -- 139 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
The filmmakers, Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood ("The Pianist") and Newell aim for a lush romantic fantasy about enduring love spanning 50 years in late-19th century Colombia. Instead, they create an overheated melodrama with abundant complications and hammy acting.
Taken on its own terms, the film would have been well served if the veteran team behind it had been ruthless in jettisoning material. The film's prestigious literary pedigree, international cast and Oprah's Book Club imprimatur will help make it a solid draw for the Art House crowd.
When teenager Florentino (Unax Ugalde), a clerk with ghostly pallor and a knack for writing ardent love letters, spies Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), it's love at first sight. That passion will remain unrequited until the two are in the final chapter of their lives. Fermina's Father John Leguizamo in a broad performance) disapproves and whisks her away to the countryside. He plans to marry his daughter up. He succeeds when she catches the eye of Juvenal (Benjamin Bratt), a worldly doctor whom Fermina marries after rejecting Florentino's overtures.
Playing a pretentious lout, Leguizamo, chomping on a cigar, utters the film's worst, anachronistic dialogue. Bratt, whose accent is more Pepe Le Pew than cultivated aristocrat, has the second-worst batch of lines in a scene where he promises his sexually inexperienced wife "a lesson in love."
Meanwhile, Florentino (played as an adult by Javier Bardem) rises to the top of his uncle's shipping company. He carries the torch for Fermina over the next half-century and consoles himself with hundreds of sexual conquests, dutifully recorded a la Casanova. Years later, Juvenal dies, and Florentino declares his love to the grieving Fermina on the day of the funeral. The film starts with Juvenal's death, flashes back and then forward again -- shifts adeptly handled by Harwood and editor Mick Audsley.
In a touching section toward the end, Fermina relents, and the pair finally consummate their love. "Cholera" is at its most sage and romantic in its portrayal of mature marriage, older love and sexuality.
Shot on location in vibrant Cartagena, the film's strong suit is aesthetic. Cinematographer Alfonso Beato, designer Wolf Kroeger and costume designer Marit Allen evoke aged exotic locales, rugged rural settings and dimly lit period interiors. A closing, aerial image has a breathtaking, spiritual beauty.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
New Line
Stone Village Pictures
Credits:
Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Scott Steindorff
Executive producers: Danny Greenspun, Robin Greenspun, Andrew Molaski, Chris Law, Michael Nozik, Dylan Russell, Scott LaStaiti
Director of photography: Alfonso Beato
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: Antonio Pinto, Shakira
Co-producer: Brantley M. Dunaway
Costume designer: Marit Allen
Editor: Mick Audsley
Cast:
Florentino: Javier Bardem
Teenage Florentino: Unax Ugalde
Fermina: Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Juvenal: Benjamin Bratt
Hildebranda: Catalina Sandino Moreno
Uncle Leo: Hector Elizondo
Lotario: Liev Schreiber: Transito: Fernanda Montenegro
Sara: Laura Harring
Lorenzo: John Leguizamo
Running time -- 139 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 11/12/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
SAN FRANCISCO -- Love in the Time of Cholera, Mike Newell's handsomely appointed but disappointing adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's complicated, sprawling novel retains the essential flavor of the book. Audiences are likely to split into two camps: Fans will mourn what's left out; and those unfamiliar with the book might find the film mannered and slowgoing.
The filmmakers, Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist) and Newell aim for a lush romantic fantasy about enduring love spanning 50 years in late-19th century Colombia. Instead, they create an overheated melodrama with abundant complications and hammy acting.
Taken on its own terms, the film would have been well served if the veteran team behind it had been ruthless in jettisoning material. The film's prestigious literary pedigree, international cast and Oprah's Book Club imprimatur will help make it a solid draw for the Art House crowd.
When teenager Florentino (Unax Ugalde), a clerk with ghostly pallor and a knack for writing ardent love letters, spies Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), it's love at first sight. That passion will remain unrequited until the two are in the final chapter of their lives. Fermina's Father John Leguizamo in a broad performance) disapproves and whisks her away to the countryside. He plans to marry his daughter up. He succeeds when she catches the eye of Juvenal (Benjamin Bratt), a worldly doctor whom Fermina marries after rejecting Florentino's overtures.
Playing a pretentious lout, Leguizamo, chomping on a cigar, utters the film's worst, anachronistic dialogue. Bratt, whose accent is more Pepe Le Pew than cultivated aristocrat, has the second-worst batch of lines in a scene where he promises his sexually inexperienced wife "a lesson in love."
Meanwhile, Florentino (played as an adult by Javier Bardem) rises to the top of his uncle's shipping company. He carries the torch for Fermina over the next half-century and consoles himself with hundreds of sexual conquests, dutifully recorded a la Casanova. Years later, Juvenal dies, and Florentino declares his love to the grieving Fermina on the day of the funeral. The film starts with Juvenal's death, flashes back and then forward again -- shifts adeptly handled by Harwood and editor Mick Audsley.
In a touching section toward the end, Fermina relents, and the pair finally consummate their love. Cholera is at its most sage and romantic in its portrayal of mature marriage, older love and sexuality.
Shot on location in vibrant Cartagena, the film's strong suit is aesthetic. Cinematographer Alfonso Beato, designer Wolf Kroeger and costume designer Marit Allen evoke aged exotic locales, rugged rural settings and dimly lit period interiors. A closing, aerial image has a breathtaking, spiritual beauty.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
New Line
Stone Village Pictures
Credits:
Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Scott Steindorff
Executive producers: Danny Greenspun, Robin Greenspun, Andrew Molaski, Chris Law, Michael Nozik, Dylan Russell, Scott LaStaiti
Director of photography: Alfonso Beato
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: Antonio Pinto, Shakira
Co-producer: Brantley M. Dunaway
Costume designer: Marit Allen
Editor: Mick Audsley
Cast:
Florentino: Javier Bardem
Teenage Florentino: Unax Ugalde
Fermina: Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Juvenal: Benjamin Bratt
Hildebranda: Catalina Sandino Moreno
Uncle Leo: Hector Elizondo
Lotario: Liev Schreiber: Transito: Fernanda Montenegro
Sara: Laura Harring
Lorenzo: John Leguizamo
Running time -- 139 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
The filmmakers, Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist) and Newell aim for a lush romantic fantasy about enduring love spanning 50 years in late-19th century Colombia. Instead, they create an overheated melodrama with abundant complications and hammy acting.
Taken on its own terms, the film would have been well served if the veteran team behind it had been ruthless in jettisoning material. The film's prestigious literary pedigree, international cast and Oprah's Book Club imprimatur will help make it a solid draw for the Art House crowd.
When teenager Florentino (Unax Ugalde), a clerk with ghostly pallor and a knack for writing ardent love letters, spies Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), it's love at first sight. That passion will remain unrequited until the two are in the final chapter of their lives. Fermina's Father John Leguizamo in a broad performance) disapproves and whisks her away to the countryside. He plans to marry his daughter up. He succeeds when she catches the eye of Juvenal (Benjamin Bratt), a worldly doctor whom Fermina marries after rejecting Florentino's overtures.
Playing a pretentious lout, Leguizamo, chomping on a cigar, utters the film's worst, anachronistic dialogue. Bratt, whose accent is more Pepe Le Pew than cultivated aristocrat, has the second-worst batch of lines in a scene where he promises his sexually inexperienced wife "a lesson in love."
Meanwhile, Florentino (played as an adult by Javier Bardem) rises to the top of his uncle's shipping company. He carries the torch for Fermina over the next half-century and consoles himself with hundreds of sexual conquests, dutifully recorded a la Casanova. Years later, Juvenal dies, and Florentino declares his love to the grieving Fermina on the day of the funeral. The film starts with Juvenal's death, flashes back and then forward again -- shifts adeptly handled by Harwood and editor Mick Audsley.
In a touching section toward the end, Fermina relents, and the pair finally consummate their love. Cholera is at its most sage and romantic in its portrayal of mature marriage, older love and sexuality.
Shot on location in vibrant Cartagena, the film's strong suit is aesthetic. Cinematographer Alfonso Beato, designer Wolf Kroeger and costume designer Marit Allen evoke aged exotic locales, rugged rural settings and dimly lit period interiors. A closing, aerial image has a breathtaking, spiritual beauty.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
New Line
Stone Village Pictures
Credits:
Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Scott Steindorff
Executive producers: Danny Greenspun, Robin Greenspun, Andrew Molaski, Chris Law, Michael Nozik, Dylan Russell, Scott LaStaiti
Director of photography: Alfonso Beato
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: Antonio Pinto, Shakira
Co-producer: Brantley M. Dunaway
Costume designer: Marit Allen
Editor: Mick Audsley
Cast:
Florentino: Javier Bardem
Teenage Florentino: Unax Ugalde
Fermina: Giovanna Mezzogiorno
Juvenal: Benjamin Bratt
Hildebranda: Catalina Sandino Moreno
Uncle Leo: Hector Elizondo
Lotario: Liev Schreiber: Transito: Fernanda Montenegro
Sara: Laura Harring
Lorenzo: John Leguizamo
Running time -- 139 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 11/12/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The amazing and hilarious achievement of director Chris Noonan and his team of animal trainers and CGI whizzes in the 1995 hit film Babe becomes more apparent every time someone else attempts a sequel or knockoff. Racing Stripes, directed by Frederik Du Chau, copies the formula of a farm animal unaware of its own identity. But the results don't come close to duplicating Noonan's charming and gentle barnyard fable. At best, Racing Stripes should play nicely to youngsters with the cutoff for enjoyment extending no further than midteens.
Instead of a pig who believes he is a sheepdog, Racing Stripes concerns a zebra who thinks he is a race horse. Like Babe, the zebra named Stripes converses with other animals on the family's Kentucky farm. This is achieved again with a mix of real animals, computer technology and animatronic doubles.
Stripes is named by the young daughter (Hayden Panettiere) of a former horse trainer (Bruce Greenwood) who rescues the lost foal. Once the humans retire from the barn, all the animals begin to chatter up a storm. Three years later, the daughter gets the idea she would like to ride the zebra, every bit as much as Stripes would like to be ridden because he thinks he can run in races against horses. But, in a bit of unconvincing melodrama, Dad won't allow this because his late wife lost her life after being thrown from a horse.
David Schmidt's screenplay switches back and forth between the two story lines of the animal kingdom and the horse race movie, but the narratives never really merge as the story lines never play off each other. Famous voice actors do inject a bit of whimsy into the barnyard banter, especially Dustin Hoffman as a cantankerous Shetland pony, Whoopi Goldberg as a sagacious goat and Joe Pantoliano as a Mafioso pelican on the lam from the big city. Meanwhile, Frankie Muniz and Mandy Moore give Stripes and his filly girlfriend, Sandy, a coltish innocence.
The human actors including M. Emmet Walsh as a racetrack junkie do respectable work with the stock characters in the National Velvet story line, though Wendie Malick is over the top as the coldblooded doyenne of the Kentucky racing circuit. Two well-animated horseflies with a penchant for breaking into song and dance, played with unapologetic zeal by Steve Harvey and David Spade, take the film south into poo humor so beloved by youngsters. They are not, however, the only offenders.
Du Chau is better at integrating the racing footage -- which must have been tricky given that zebras really aren't racers -- with the animation and animatronics. The CG work allowing the animals to mouth dialogue blends well into the live action. David Eggby's cinematography and Wolf Kroeger's sets make the South African locations look convincingly American.
RACING STRIPES
Warner Bros.
Alcon Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Frederik Du Chau
Screenwriter: David Schmidt
Story by: David Schmidt, Steven P. Wegner, Kirk DeMicco, Frederik Du Chau
Producers: Andrew A. Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Ed McDonnell, Lloyd Phillips
Executive producer: Steven P. Wegner
Director of photography: David Eggby
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: Mark Isham
Costumes: Jo Katsaras
Editor: Tom Finan
Cast:
Nolan Walsh: Bruce Greenwood
Channing Walsh: Hayden Panettiere
Woodzie: M. Emmet Walsh
Clara: Wendie Malick
Stripes: Frankie Muniz
Sandy: Mandy Moore
Tucker: Dustin Hoffman
Franny: Whoopi Goldberg
Goose: Joe Pantoliano
Buzz: Steve Harven
Scuzz: David Spade
Reggie: Jeff Foxworthy...
Instead of a pig who believes he is a sheepdog, Racing Stripes concerns a zebra who thinks he is a race horse. Like Babe, the zebra named Stripes converses with other animals on the family's Kentucky farm. This is achieved again with a mix of real animals, computer technology and animatronic doubles.
Stripes is named by the young daughter (Hayden Panettiere) of a former horse trainer (Bruce Greenwood) who rescues the lost foal. Once the humans retire from the barn, all the animals begin to chatter up a storm. Three years later, the daughter gets the idea she would like to ride the zebra, every bit as much as Stripes would like to be ridden because he thinks he can run in races against horses. But, in a bit of unconvincing melodrama, Dad won't allow this because his late wife lost her life after being thrown from a horse.
David Schmidt's screenplay switches back and forth between the two story lines of the animal kingdom and the horse race movie, but the narratives never really merge as the story lines never play off each other. Famous voice actors do inject a bit of whimsy into the barnyard banter, especially Dustin Hoffman as a cantankerous Shetland pony, Whoopi Goldberg as a sagacious goat and Joe Pantoliano as a Mafioso pelican on the lam from the big city. Meanwhile, Frankie Muniz and Mandy Moore give Stripes and his filly girlfriend, Sandy, a coltish innocence.
The human actors including M. Emmet Walsh as a racetrack junkie do respectable work with the stock characters in the National Velvet story line, though Wendie Malick is over the top as the coldblooded doyenne of the Kentucky racing circuit. Two well-animated horseflies with a penchant for breaking into song and dance, played with unapologetic zeal by Steve Harvey and David Spade, take the film south into poo humor so beloved by youngsters. They are not, however, the only offenders.
Du Chau is better at integrating the racing footage -- which must have been tricky given that zebras really aren't racers -- with the animation and animatronics. The CG work allowing the animals to mouth dialogue blends well into the live action. David Eggby's cinematography and Wolf Kroeger's sets make the South African locations look convincingly American.
RACING STRIPES
Warner Bros.
Alcon Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Frederik Du Chau
Screenwriter: David Schmidt
Story by: David Schmidt, Steven P. Wegner, Kirk DeMicco, Frederik Du Chau
Producers: Andrew A. Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Ed McDonnell, Lloyd Phillips
Executive producer: Steven P. Wegner
Director of photography: David Eggby
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: Mark Isham
Costumes: Jo Katsaras
Editor: Tom Finan
Cast:
Nolan Walsh: Bruce Greenwood
Channing Walsh: Hayden Panettiere
Woodzie: M. Emmet Walsh
Clara: Wendie Malick
Stripes: Frankie Muniz
Sandy: Mandy Moore
Tucker: Dustin Hoffman
Franny: Whoopi Goldberg
Goose: Joe Pantoliano
Buzz: Steve Harven
Scuzz: David Spade
Reggie: Jeff Foxworthy...
- 2/10/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Opens
October 24
Even assuming the best possible motives by its makers, "Beyond Borders" runs the risk of making human suffering exotic while glamorizing white disaster relief workers in the Third World. By setting a "thrilling romantic adventure," to quote the film's press kit, against the backdrop of humanitarian efforts in war-torn lands, this production unwittingly crosses the line between entertainment and exploitation once too often. The image of an immaculate Angelina Jolie in fresh white linens marching through a filthy Ethiopian refugee camp, clutching a dying black baby, is not going to sit well with many audience members or critics.
Clearly, the filmmakers mean this image to convey a sheltered rich woman's naivete. Yet neither the character nor the film ever seems to lose that naivete: These environments of human greed and horror serve merely to unite our soul-mate heroes -- Jolie's philanthropic socialite and Clive Owen's rugged international disaster relief doctor -- and to dramatize their passion for one another in contrast to the woman's bloodless marriage to a wan London businessman.
Paramount should anticipate no better than average grosses in domestic release.
The film opens at a London benefit ball where a band plays the rock song "Should I Stay or Should I Go", which sums up Sarah Jordan's (Jolie) dilemma. Writer Caspian Tredwell-Owen breaks the story down into three distinct acts covering the years 1984 to 1995. In each segment, Sarah is lured to refugee camps from her pampered life in London by handsome Dr. Nick Callahan (Owen), first to Ethiopia, then Cambodia and finally Chechnya. (The film was shot in Montreal and Quebec Provence, Namibia and Thailand.) She always arrives at a moment of extreme crisis, invariably finds a baby to hold, and after initial suspicion and animosity between the overwhelmed doctor and the inappropriately dressed do-gooder, the two acknowledge their mutual love.
Director Martin Campbell certainly knows how to stage scenes of tense action so each segment features solid moments of high drama. Especially good is one in the killing fields of Cambodia, where Khmer Rouge soldiers draw guns on relief workers while letting a frightened baby play with a live hand grenade.
These sequences are rife with gun smuggling, spies, clandestine love affairs and dramatic escapes. But portraying international relief work as an extension of James Bond-like intrigue with noble heroes and outlandish, easy-to-hate villains oversimplifies the geo-political situations in which groups such as Doctors Without Borders struggle. Had the film focused on one humanitarian disaster rather than opt for a travelogue of world hot spots, "Beyond Borders" perhaps might have shed greater light on the causes and cures for such tragedies.
The movie's mixed intentions throw off both stars. Jolie never fully sheds her Lara Croft persona as a woman of action with nary a hair out of place no matter how violent the action. Owen also poses for the camera too much. Meanwhile, chemistry between these two is nearly zilch. Low-key Noah Emmerich as Owen's partner comes closer to the spirit of true relief work while Yorick van Wageningen makes a convincingly unsavory CIA operative. Stuck unhappily in roles that serve as plot conveniences are Teri Polo as Jolie's journalist-sister and Linus Roache as her clueless husband.
Production values are exceedingly good as cinematographer Phil Meheux and designer Wolf Kroeger transport us to wildly different landscapes of horror, although the Namibian and Thai segments are perhaps too scenic to fully convey that horror. However, Montreal makes a poor substitute for London as its streets never read British.
BEYOND BORDERS
Paramount Pictures
Paramount and Mandalay Pictures present a Camelot Pictures
Credits: Director: Martin Campbell
Writer: Caspian Tredwell-Owen
Producers: Dan Halsted, Lloyd Phillips
Director of photography: Phil Meheux
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: James Horner
Costume designer: Norma Moriceau
Editor: Nicholas Beauman.
Cast:
Sarah Jordan: Angelina Jolie
Nick Callahan: Clive Owen
Charlotte Jordan: Teri Polo
Henry Bauford: Linus Roache
Elliott Hauser: Noah Emmerich
Steiger: Yorick Van Wageningen
Lawrence Bauford: Timothy West
Mrs. Bauford: Kate Trotter
Running time -- 127 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
October 24
Even assuming the best possible motives by its makers, "Beyond Borders" runs the risk of making human suffering exotic while glamorizing white disaster relief workers in the Third World. By setting a "thrilling romantic adventure," to quote the film's press kit, against the backdrop of humanitarian efforts in war-torn lands, this production unwittingly crosses the line between entertainment and exploitation once too often. The image of an immaculate Angelina Jolie in fresh white linens marching through a filthy Ethiopian refugee camp, clutching a dying black baby, is not going to sit well with many audience members or critics.
Clearly, the filmmakers mean this image to convey a sheltered rich woman's naivete. Yet neither the character nor the film ever seems to lose that naivete: These environments of human greed and horror serve merely to unite our soul-mate heroes -- Jolie's philanthropic socialite and Clive Owen's rugged international disaster relief doctor -- and to dramatize their passion for one another in contrast to the woman's bloodless marriage to a wan London businessman.
Paramount should anticipate no better than average grosses in domestic release.
The film opens at a London benefit ball where a band plays the rock song "Should I Stay or Should I Go", which sums up Sarah Jordan's (Jolie) dilemma. Writer Caspian Tredwell-Owen breaks the story down into three distinct acts covering the years 1984 to 1995. In each segment, Sarah is lured to refugee camps from her pampered life in London by handsome Dr. Nick Callahan (Owen), first to Ethiopia, then Cambodia and finally Chechnya. (The film was shot in Montreal and Quebec Provence, Namibia and Thailand.) She always arrives at a moment of extreme crisis, invariably finds a baby to hold, and after initial suspicion and animosity between the overwhelmed doctor and the inappropriately dressed do-gooder, the two acknowledge their mutual love.
Director Martin Campbell certainly knows how to stage scenes of tense action so each segment features solid moments of high drama. Especially good is one in the killing fields of Cambodia, where Khmer Rouge soldiers draw guns on relief workers while letting a frightened baby play with a live hand grenade.
These sequences are rife with gun smuggling, spies, clandestine love affairs and dramatic escapes. But portraying international relief work as an extension of James Bond-like intrigue with noble heroes and outlandish, easy-to-hate villains oversimplifies the geo-political situations in which groups such as Doctors Without Borders struggle. Had the film focused on one humanitarian disaster rather than opt for a travelogue of world hot spots, "Beyond Borders" perhaps might have shed greater light on the causes and cures for such tragedies.
The movie's mixed intentions throw off both stars. Jolie never fully sheds her Lara Croft persona as a woman of action with nary a hair out of place no matter how violent the action. Owen also poses for the camera too much. Meanwhile, chemistry between these two is nearly zilch. Low-key Noah Emmerich as Owen's partner comes closer to the spirit of true relief work while Yorick van Wageningen makes a convincingly unsavory CIA operative. Stuck unhappily in roles that serve as plot conveniences are Teri Polo as Jolie's journalist-sister and Linus Roache as her clueless husband.
Production values are exceedingly good as cinematographer Phil Meheux and designer Wolf Kroeger transport us to wildly different landscapes of horror, although the Namibian and Thai segments are perhaps too scenic to fully convey that horror. However, Montreal makes a poor substitute for London as its streets never read British.
BEYOND BORDERS
Paramount Pictures
Paramount and Mandalay Pictures present a Camelot Pictures
Credits: Director: Martin Campbell
Writer: Caspian Tredwell-Owen
Producers: Dan Halsted, Lloyd Phillips
Director of photography: Phil Meheux
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: James Horner
Costume designer: Norma Moriceau
Editor: Nicholas Beauman.
Cast:
Sarah Jordan: Angelina Jolie
Nick Callahan: Clive Owen
Charlotte Jordan: Teri Polo
Henry Bauford: Linus Roache
Elliott Hauser: Noah Emmerich
Steiger: Yorick Van Wageningen
Lawrence Bauford: Timothy West
Mrs. Bauford: Kate Trotter
Running time -- 127 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 10/27/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
While the prospect of nasty flame-spewing dragons turning contemporary London into toast holds considerable, CGI-enhanced promise, "Reign of Fire" ultimately fails to come through in the fire-breathing clutch.
Despite an intriguing setup, during which director Rob Bowman ("The X-Files") creates an effective brooding menace, and muscular performances by Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey, the crucial action sequences are disappointingly choreographed, failing to generate the necessary crowd-stirring heat.
Lacking that edge-of-the-seat dramatic tension, it's unlikely this Touchstone Pictures release will be burning up the summer boxoffice, though it could have a sizzling opening weekend.
With 1996's "Dragonheart" and 1981's "Dragonslayer" among the better efforts, the genre was certainly ripe for revisiting, and "Reign of Fire" certainly looked to have the goods, starting with the post-apocalyptic setting.
The story starts off at a present-day London construction site, where 12-year-old Quinn (Ben Thornton), who's visiting his engineer mom (Alice Krige), inadvertently awakes a sleeping, fire-breathing giant from a centuries-old slumber.
Fast-forward a couple of decades and thousands of reptilian offspring later, when most of the world has been reduced to a pile of ash and the adult Quinn (Bale) serves as fire chief and guardian to a small community of survivors holed up in a medieval castle.
Keeping a constant eye on the sky for signs of the next dragon attack, Quinn appears to be fighting a losing battle, and his people are losing faith in his leadership.
Enter manic Van Zan (McConaughey), a gung-ho American fighting machine accompanied by his ragtag team of dragon-blasting "archangels" who has a more proactive approach to problem at hand -- one that involves tracking down and eliminating the evasive, lone male dragon that keeps managing to fertilize all those eggs.
Although Bowman, who also directed the film version of "The X-Files", is good with layering on all the atmosphere, the picture lacks that visceral, heart-pounding threat of an "Alien" or even "Jurassic Park".
And while McConaughey, something of a cross between Jesse Ventura and Robert Duvall's napalm-loving "Apocalypse Now" character, and the righteous Bale act their hearts out in a bid to keep things grounded in some sort of reality, the scripting (credited to Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka and Matt Greenberg) is neither clever nor campy enough to get away with some truly smirk-enducing dialogue.
Thanks to some state-of-the-art, three-dimensional work overseen by visual effects supervisor Richard R. Hoover, the creatures sure look impressive, but their CGI-generated fireballs appear flatly phony by comparison.
Production designer Wolf Kroeger's vision of a charred London, on the other hand, is pretty nifty. Not so cool are composer Edward Shearmur's loud, crashing orchestral explosions that tend to drag on (sorry) endlessly.
REIGN OF FIRE
Buena Vista
A Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment presentation
Credits:
Director: Rob Bowman
Screenwriters: Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka, Matt Greenberg
Story: Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka
Producers: Richard D. Zanuck, Lili Fini Zanuck, Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum
Executive producer: Jonathan Glickman
Director of photography: Adrian Biddle
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Editor: Thom Noble
Visual effects supervisor: Richard R. Hoover
Costume designer: Joan Bergin
Music: Edward Shearmur
Cast:
Van Zan: Matthew McConaughey
Quinn: Christian Bale
Alex Jensen: Izabella Scorupco
Dave Creedy: Gerard Butler
Jared Wilke: Scott James Moutter
Young Quinn: Ben Thornton
Karen Abercromby: Alice Krige
Running time -- 100 minutes
MPAA rating -- PG-13...
Despite an intriguing setup, during which director Rob Bowman ("The X-Files") creates an effective brooding menace, and muscular performances by Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey, the crucial action sequences are disappointingly choreographed, failing to generate the necessary crowd-stirring heat.
Lacking that edge-of-the-seat dramatic tension, it's unlikely this Touchstone Pictures release will be burning up the summer boxoffice, though it could have a sizzling opening weekend.
With 1996's "Dragonheart" and 1981's "Dragonslayer" among the better efforts, the genre was certainly ripe for revisiting, and "Reign of Fire" certainly looked to have the goods, starting with the post-apocalyptic setting.
The story starts off at a present-day London construction site, where 12-year-old Quinn (Ben Thornton), who's visiting his engineer mom (Alice Krige), inadvertently awakes a sleeping, fire-breathing giant from a centuries-old slumber.
Fast-forward a couple of decades and thousands of reptilian offspring later, when most of the world has been reduced to a pile of ash and the adult Quinn (Bale) serves as fire chief and guardian to a small community of survivors holed up in a medieval castle.
Keeping a constant eye on the sky for signs of the next dragon attack, Quinn appears to be fighting a losing battle, and his people are losing faith in his leadership.
Enter manic Van Zan (McConaughey), a gung-ho American fighting machine accompanied by his ragtag team of dragon-blasting "archangels" who has a more proactive approach to problem at hand -- one that involves tracking down and eliminating the evasive, lone male dragon that keeps managing to fertilize all those eggs.
Although Bowman, who also directed the film version of "The X-Files", is good with layering on all the atmosphere, the picture lacks that visceral, heart-pounding threat of an "Alien" or even "Jurassic Park".
And while McConaughey, something of a cross between Jesse Ventura and Robert Duvall's napalm-loving "Apocalypse Now" character, and the righteous Bale act their hearts out in a bid to keep things grounded in some sort of reality, the scripting (credited to Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka and Matt Greenberg) is neither clever nor campy enough to get away with some truly smirk-enducing dialogue.
Thanks to some state-of-the-art, three-dimensional work overseen by visual effects supervisor Richard R. Hoover, the creatures sure look impressive, but their CGI-generated fireballs appear flatly phony by comparison.
Production designer Wolf Kroeger's vision of a charred London, on the other hand, is pretty nifty. Not so cool are composer Edward Shearmur's loud, crashing orchestral explosions that tend to drag on (sorry) endlessly.
REIGN OF FIRE
Buena Vista
A Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment presentation
Credits:
Director: Rob Bowman
Screenwriters: Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka, Matt Greenberg
Story: Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka
Producers: Richard D. Zanuck, Lili Fini Zanuck, Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum
Executive producer: Jonathan Glickman
Director of photography: Adrian Biddle
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Editor: Thom Noble
Visual effects supervisor: Richard R. Hoover
Costume designer: Joan Bergin
Music: Edward Shearmur
Cast:
Van Zan: Matthew McConaughey
Quinn: Christian Bale
Alex Jensen: Izabella Scorupco
Dave Creedy: Gerard Butler
Jared Wilke: Scott James Moutter
Young Quinn: Ben Thornton
Karen Abercromby: Alice Krige
Running time -- 100 minutes
MPAA rating -- PG-13...
- 7/12/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Who would you cast to fight a kodiak bear in the North Woods, and who would you imagine would be most likely to pen a yarn set in the open wilds?
Anthony Hopkins for the bear-fighter and David Mamet for the writer, right?
We're not joking and, no, this isn't a production from the Zucker brothers but, rather, a psychological/survivalist saga in which Hopkins gets physical and Mamet takes on new terrain, namely penning something that doesn't take place indoors in a city. However, as the opening credits roll -- Hopkins, Alec Baldwin, Bart the Bear, Elle Macpherson, in that order -- we know we're in for something "unique."
Undeniably, it's a tricky assignment for the marketers: how to lure the upscale fans of Hopkins and Mamet to a wilderness/bear-attack movie or, even more challenging, how to entice the connoisseurs of deep-woods actionry who don't generally cancel their hunting trips to take in the highbrow stuff Hopkins and Mamet usually turn out.
Unfortunately, fans of Hopkins and Mamet will find nettlesome certain logical gaps and character-development inadequacies that are usually only associated with big-budget summer films.
Not that he's completely forsaken his fuss-budget, buttling ways or metamorphosed from a cerebral and cunning chap to some sort of Grizzly Hopkins, but the British actor brings his steely mettle to an environment where his character is, uncharacteristically, out of his depth.
Hopkins plays Charles, a taciturn billionaire who tends to bury himself in books (the film was originally titled "The Bookworm"). Charles seemingly knows everything about everything -- just ask his supermodel wife (Macpherson). But the self-analytical Charles admits most of his knowledge is "theoretical," and it's not hard to notice that one big question mark is his marriage: It's pretty obvious his beautiful young wife is an acquisition, like one of his holding companies, and one gets the suspicion that he's such a distanced chap that a vacuous supermodel is the best he can do in relating to a real woman.
Not surprisingly, Charles is a trifle insecure about whether his gorgeous wife is really in love with him or his bank account. That he's observed flirtation between her and her photographer (Alec Baldwin) does not settle his unease. It's this insecurity that prompts his accompanying the duo on a weekend fashion shoot, deep in the wilds of Alaska.
Plugging in the full iconography of the don't-go-into-the-woods genre, Mamet and director Lee Tamahori have forged a generally solid generic entertainment, one that is smartly shaded and shrewdly based upon the smoldering perspectives of a love triangle.
Unfortunately, even a movie tenderfoot will find the narrative trail littered with way too many signposts, both in the screenwriting and in the directorial aesthetics. Indeed, camera movement is over-obvious in tipping events, as are the actions of the cadre of stereotypical characters that populate this formulaic outing.
As the bollixed billionaire, Hopkins flashes his role repertoire of skills, but his performance unfortunately seems more a showy dissertation of his acting mannerisms -- fastidiousness, aloofness, steeliness -- that we've seen him flex with far greater economy and substance before. Admittedly, Mamet's shallow characterizations contribute to the surface quality of this dramaturgy, which is so woefully pedestrian that it renders Macpherson unconvincing as a supermodel. Baldwin, however, is wonderful as a callow, self-absorbed and cowardly photographer.
Technically, "The Edge" is first-rate, including the marvelously shrouded cinematography of Donald McAlpine and composer Jerry Goldsmith's chilly and majestic score. Other technical contributions are a mixed bag, including Julie Weiss' costumery. At one point, after skinning the bear, Hopkins and Baldwin concoct bearskin garb that is so pristinely trendy that one suspects they ordered it direct from the Sundance catalog. In the same vein, the animatronic fatso that hungers for Hopkins and Baldwin is to bears what Chris Farley is to marathon runners.
THE EDGE
20th Century Fox
Producer Art Linson
Director Lee Tamahori
Screenwriter David Mamet
Executive producer Lloyd Phillips
Diretor of photography Donald McAlpine
Production designer Wolf Kroeger
Editor: Neil Travis
Costume designer Julie Weiss
Music Jerry Goldsmith
Color/stereo
Cast:
Charles Morse Anthony Hopkins
Robert Green Alec Baldwin
Mickey Elle Macpherson
Stephen Harold Perrineau
Styles L.Q. Jones
Running time -- 121 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Anthony Hopkins for the bear-fighter and David Mamet for the writer, right?
We're not joking and, no, this isn't a production from the Zucker brothers but, rather, a psychological/survivalist saga in which Hopkins gets physical and Mamet takes on new terrain, namely penning something that doesn't take place indoors in a city. However, as the opening credits roll -- Hopkins, Alec Baldwin, Bart the Bear, Elle Macpherson, in that order -- we know we're in for something "unique."
Undeniably, it's a tricky assignment for the marketers: how to lure the upscale fans of Hopkins and Mamet to a wilderness/bear-attack movie or, even more challenging, how to entice the connoisseurs of deep-woods actionry who don't generally cancel their hunting trips to take in the highbrow stuff Hopkins and Mamet usually turn out.
Unfortunately, fans of Hopkins and Mamet will find nettlesome certain logical gaps and character-development inadequacies that are usually only associated with big-budget summer films.
Not that he's completely forsaken his fuss-budget, buttling ways or metamorphosed from a cerebral and cunning chap to some sort of Grizzly Hopkins, but the British actor brings his steely mettle to an environment where his character is, uncharacteristically, out of his depth.
Hopkins plays Charles, a taciturn billionaire who tends to bury himself in books (the film was originally titled "The Bookworm"). Charles seemingly knows everything about everything -- just ask his supermodel wife (Macpherson). But the self-analytical Charles admits most of his knowledge is "theoretical," and it's not hard to notice that one big question mark is his marriage: It's pretty obvious his beautiful young wife is an acquisition, like one of his holding companies, and one gets the suspicion that he's such a distanced chap that a vacuous supermodel is the best he can do in relating to a real woman.
Not surprisingly, Charles is a trifle insecure about whether his gorgeous wife is really in love with him or his bank account. That he's observed flirtation between her and her photographer (Alec Baldwin) does not settle his unease. It's this insecurity that prompts his accompanying the duo on a weekend fashion shoot, deep in the wilds of Alaska.
Plugging in the full iconography of the don't-go-into-the-woods genre, Mamet and director Lee Tamahori have forged a generally solid generic entertainment, one that is smartly shaded and shrewdly based upon the smoldering perspectives of a love triangle.
Unfortunately, even a movie tenderfoot will find the narrative trail littered with way too many signposts, both in the screenwriting and in the directorial aesthetics. Indeed, camera movement is over-obvious in tipping events, as are the actions of the cadre of stereotypical characters that populate this formulaic outing.
As the bollixed billionaire, Hopkins flashes his role repertoire of skills, but his performance unfortunately seems more a showy dissertation of his acting mannerisms -- fastidiousness, aloofness, steeliness -- that we've seen him flex with far greater economy and substance before. Admittedly, Mamet's shallow characterizations contribute to the surface quality of this dramaturgy, which is so woefully pedestrian that it renders Macpherson unconvincing as a supermodel. Baldwin, however, is wonderful as a callow, self-absorbed and cowardly photographer.
Technically, "The Edge" is first-rate, including the marvelously shrouded cinematography of Donald McAlpine and composer Jerry Goldsmith's chilly and majestic score. Other technical contributions are a mixed bag, including Julie Weiss' costumery. At one point, after skinning the bear, Hopkins and Baldwin concoct bearskin garb that is so pristinely trendy that one suspects they ordered it direct from the Sundance catalog. In the same vein, the animatronic fatso that hungers for Hopkins and Baldwin is to bears what Chris Farley is to marathon runners.
THE EDGE
20th Century Fox
Producer Art Linson
Director Lee Tamahori
Screenwriter David Mamet
Executive producer Lloyd Phillips
Diretor of photography Donald McAlpine
Production designer Wolf Kroeger
Editor: Neil Travis
Costume designer Julie Weiss
Music Jerry Goldsmith
Color/stereo
Cast:
Charles Morse Anthony Hopkins
Robert Green Alec Baldwin
Mickey Elle Macpherson
Stephen Harold Perrineau
Styles L.Q. Jones
Running time -- 121 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
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