The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

Aside from the generic film genres of drama and comedy, I would have to say that the musical genre is my favorite. Musicals were at the top of the game in the '50s, with Gene Kelly musicals such as Oscar-winner "An American in Paris" and the classic "Singin' in the Rain." Pretty much by the time the '70s rolled along, the movie musical was dead. In the '90s, the relevance of musicals as theatrical productions increased, leading to a resurrection of the movie musical in the early 2000s. The new-found appreciation for musicals in the American cinema started with 2001's "Moulin Rouge," which picked up a couple Oscars, and gained power with 2002's "Chicago," which won the Oscar for Best Picture, the first musical to do so since 1968's "Oliver."

Joel Schumacher's adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" shares the stage with the recent triumphs of "Moulin Rouge" and "Chicago." In this romantic horror musical, relative newcomers Emmy Rossum, Gerard Butler and Patrick Wilson portray, respectively, the newly-minted opera star Christine who is idolized by the Phantom, the mysterious Phantom and Christine's fiance, Raoul. Miranda Richardson and Minnie Driver co-star as Madame Giry, the stage mother, and Carlotta, the infamous opera diva.

The story takes place at the Paris Opera House in 1870 and 1919. In 1870, the Opera has come under new ownership to two men, Firmin (Ciaran Hinds) and Andre (Simon Callow), and the two do not take the "opera ghost," or Phantom, seriously, and soon see that he is not someone to be taken lightly. The Phantom nearly drops a background directly on Carlotta during a rehearsal, causing her to leave and Christine to step in. Christine becomes a success and after her first big performance is reunited with "childhood sweetheart" Raoul. After Raoul steps out, Christine is drawn in by the mystery of the Phantom and he takes her to his lair. They sing "Music of the Night," perhaps the best song in the musical, and Christine is captivated by his voice. The next night, the Phantom glimpses Raoul and his Christine together and is driven mad by jealousy. He kills one of the stagehands and follows the couple to the romantic rooftop, where Raoul and Christine confess their love for each other. This angers the Phantom and leads him to take Christine to her father's grave without her knowledge, but they are swiftly followed by Raoul. Raoul and the Phantom get into a swordfight, and Raoul wins but leaves the Phantom his life. The Opera thinks that they are done with the Phantom, but at a ball, he makes his presence known and demands that they put on his original opera. They meet his demands, but secretly plan to set him up.

Butler does not have a great voice, but a great voice isn't necessarily what's needed for the Phantom, he just needs the pained emotion that is heard so deeply in Butler's voice. The Phantom is Butler's first major role, he has had minor parts in "Reign of Fire," "Timeline," "Tomb Raider 2" and "Mrs. Brown." He is fantastic as the scarred Phantom, his performance is moving without being over the top. Rossum, on the other hand, has an absolutely fantastic voice, which was most definitely needed to portray Christine. Rossum, a theater star since she was a young child, has appeared in "Songcatcher," "Mystic River" and "The Day After Tomorrow." She showed great compassion and emotion as opera darling Christine. Wilson, who was one of the major characters in the TV miniseries "Angels in America" and appeared in "The Alamo," was good and he has a decent voice, but his performance is somewhat lacking compared to those of Rossum and Butler. He may have been miscast, I think that someone who could more easily show strength, both physical and emotional, should have had the part. Richardson, who played Christina Ricci's stepmother in "Sleepy Hollow," was surprisingly well-cast and had a strong performance as Madame Giry, who raised Christine in addition to her own daughter, Meg (Jennifer Ellison), and seems to be the confidant of the mysterious Phantom. Driver's performance as stereotypical opera diva Carlotta was okay, but not anything special.

The special effects were dazzling, especially the opening shot of the chandelier being raised as the story goes back in time from 1919 to 1870, to show the splendor of the Paris Opera House.

"The Phantom of the Opera" is not for children, it shows a fair amount of violence and is probably too emotionally deep for children and those wishing for simple, mindless entertainment this holiday season. Movies that make you think are the reason why cinema can be so great. Sure, movies like "Meet the Fockers" are funny and entertaining, but they have no chance of touching you as much as challenging and compelling movies such as "The Phantom of the Opera."

How to Attend a Movie Theater Like a Pro

You arrive at the local mall or Cineplex on a Friday night a half hour before your show starts and fight to get that parking spot right next to the exits. Once you settle for a spot galaxies away from any entrance or exit, you enter the theater and wait in line to buy your ticket for the latest absurdly macho Michael Bay snooze-fest or awe-inspiring Russell Crowe-Ron Howard project. Once you've bartered your left hand to pay the price of admission, you head inside, debating whether or not to indulge in ridiculously over-priced concessions. There goes the right hand.

After buying a delectable mix of popcorn, M&M's and your drink of choice, you head for theater nine, the biggest theater in the place, carefully positioning your ticket in your hand so you can show the over-eager manager that you actually paid to see the movie. Since you arrived at an obsessively early time, you enter the theater to only see two or three people, and find the perfect seat: the row up a couple of stairs, in the middle of the row, where you can rest your feet on the little bars without disturbing the people in front of you. Then you dig into your "nutritious" movie theater cuisine. You eat a handful of popcorn and a couple of M&M's at the same time, making the perfect sweet and salty snack. By the time the theater is packed and the lights start to go down for the trailers, you have finished your popcorn and M&M's - no distractions during the movie. You save a little of your drink for when you get cottonmouth, caused by the jaw-dropped look you get at the absolute stupidity of the movie you're watching, especially if you went for the Michael Bay one. In rare cases, you may get the dropped-jaw look from how good the movie actually is.

As the lights fade for the trailers, you settle in, making sure you're prepared for the cinematic coma you're about to go into. When the trailers finish, and the theater fades to complete darkness, you forget about nagging relatives and upcoming deadlines at work and school, you put all your concentration on the movie. You even do your best to ignore the balding, smelly old man sitting two seats away from you.

Breakout Hits vs. Respected Staples: A Response to the 2004-2005 Awards Season

Let me start by saying that I do feel that Jamie Foxx did an excellent job in his portrayal of musical genius Ray Charles in the film "Ray."

Lately, especially in this year's awards season, I've been noticing how the various groups seem to recognize the breakout hits instead of bonafide stars whose performances, while they may not be surprising, are still terrific, especially in the Best Actor category. For example, who knew that Foxx, the star of a somewhat mediocre TV sitcom ("The Jamie Foxx Show") who was once only known as Ugly Wanda on "In Living Color," was such a good dramatic actor? His surprisingly good performances in "Ray" and Michael Mann's crime thriller "Collateral," which co-stars Tom Cruise, have won him several nominations, honors and awards this season.

While Foxx is deserving of this attention, actors we've come to associate as stars are being somewhat overlooked. For example, Johnny Depp gives what might be the best performance of his career in "Finding Neverland." Most awards groups only started recognizing Depp for his work in 2003's "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," but most people, like myself, thought that Depp was great before "Pirates" and think that the under-appreciated actor is deserving of a lot more than simple nominations. Another great performance is found in the dramatic success (finally!!) of Jim Carrey in last spring's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," opposite Kate Winslet, Depp's "Neverland" co-star.

So far, all we've heard about the Best Actor awards is "'Ray,' 'Ray', 'Ray'" and "Jamie Foxx, Jamie Foxx, Jamie Foxx." I doubt this will change. For anyone who hasn't seen "Ray," it is a must-see, but "Neverland" and "Eternal Sunshine" are also must-sees, and I hope that no one forgets that.

Disney and Pixar's animated hit "The Incredibles" is another unexpected hit that is taking every nomination, honor and award and running with them. DreamWorks also released "Shrek 2," the highest-grossing movie of 2004, a movie that was expected to be good (it was) and has nearly disappeared because everyone is looking at the new big thing, "The Incredibles," which was good, but not incredible.

"Sideways" is an unexpected film that has also been receiving a lot of awards and nominations this season. While it is an excellent movie, I really do not see why it should be getting all these accolades. "The Aviator," on the other hand, was expected to be great, and is also receiving many awards and nominations, but I definitely don't think it really deserves it. The bottom line is that I think that movies like "Eternal Sunshine," "Neverland," "Kill Bill Vol. 2," "Garden State," "A Very Long Engagement" and "The Motorcycle Diaries," which are all fantastic movies, should be receiving a lot more attention than they currently are getting.

Sin City

"Sin City," based on the graphic novels by co-director Frank Miller, is an awesome thrill ride. Not only is it an awesome thrill ride, it is just a purely entertaining and interesting movie-going experience, as are most of co-director Robert Rodriguez's films (the "El Mariachi" trilogy & the "Spy Kids" trilogy). Rodriguez involved his "brother," fellow "Four Rooms" co-director Quentin Tarantino, along for the trip to Basin City, as the "Kill Bill" mastermind directed a segment of "Sin City" with Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen and Benicio Del Toro.

The movie, like Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction," can be broken down into three related stories with a couple short, but still related to the story, segments mixed in, like the intro with Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton. The first part involves Detective John Hartigan (Bruce Willis), who gets set up by politicians as a rapist of a little girl, Nancy Callahan, because the son (Nick Stahl) of a prominent politician, a.k.a. Junior, is the actual rapist and murderer.

We are left knowing this much, as a new story begins involving an unrecognizable Mickey Rourke as the bulky Marv and the beautiful Jaime King as Goldie, who is silently murdered while sleeping next to Marv. He is framed for the murder, which was actually committed by a very creepy cannibal, Kevin, played very eerily by Elijah Wood. Marv stops at nothing to find those responsible for Goldie's death.

The third story begins with a confrontation at Shellie's (Murphy) apartment between her ex, Jack Rafferty (Del Toro), and her current lover, Dwight (Owen). Dwight follows Rafferty to Old Town, which is run by the prostitutes. Their leader and Dwight's former flame, Gail, is played very well by "25th Hour" co-star Rosario Dawson. Rafferty and his pals follow Becky (TV's "Gilmore Girls" star Alexis Bledel) down an alley, oblivious to the fact that they're being watched by all the ladies and Dwight. When things turn ugly, Miho (Devon Aoki), armed with a samurai sword or two, attacks the guys, killing them all except for Rafferty, who Dwight winds up killing. While scrounging through Rafferty's pockets for money, Dwight finds Rafferty's police badge.

Once the third story wraps up, we are brought back to the first story, as Hartigan is released from jail and goes searching for Nancy, who has been writing him letters for eight years under the name Cordelia. He finds Nancy (Jessica Alba) all grown-up, only to realize that he's been followed by a disgusting-looking and smelling man referred to as Yellow Bastard.

The second story is the most entertaining and interesting, as Rourke does a fantastic job as the rough-but-tender Marv.

The whole story idea of "Sin City" is a little more outlandish than your typical movie, but that's why people go to the movies, to see something that isn't about everyday lives. The way Rodriguez shot the movie and did the effects for it make it really seem like you're watching a comic book, not watching a movie or reading a comic book. It's the perfect happy medium.

Censoring Hollywood, One Filter at a Time?

On April 27, 2005, President Bush signed the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, legislation aimed at helping parents keep their children from seeing sex scenes, violence and curse words in DVDs. The bill gives legal protection to the fledgling filtering technology that helps parents automatically skip or mute sections of commercial movie DVDs. The act also contains crackdowns on copyright infringement by providing no legal protection for those companies that actually sell copies of the edited movies.

On April 26, the AMC television network aired a special in collaboration with ABC News on this issue called "Bleep! Censoring Hollywood." The special showed the people on both sides of the story, the highly-religious people who sell copies of edited/filtered movies and the members of the Directors' Guild of America (DGA) who are in protest of what the other side's doing. The members of the DGA interviewed for the special included "Ray" director Taylor Hackford and "Traffic" director Steven Soderbergh. One random woman interviewed for the special said she took her 10-year-old daughter to a PG-13 movie and felt uncomfortable having her daughter there. PG-13 means that a 10-year-old probably shouldn't be watching the movie! That's the parent's fault, not Hollywood's, thank you very much. Kids are not meant to see PG-13 and R-rated movies, that's why they have those ratings!

Stopping the sale of edited DVDs is a good thing, and the filters would have also been good to stop too. Editing out anything considered vulgar in PG-13 and R movies could just ruin them. Imagine "Bridget Jones's Diary" without the f*** drawn out in a subtitle on the screen. Or "The Godfather" without the infamous horse head scene. No "yippie kay-yay mother f***er" from Bruce Willis in "Die Hard." Anything from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's non-family movies would be ridiculous if edited. I couldn't imagine watching or even enjoying edited versions of "Kill Bill," "Pulp Fiction" or "Sin City." That's just plain crazy, and these examples are just a start. If you're worried about what is said or what happens in a PG-13 or R rated movie, don't watch it. You won't get the full effect of the movie with all the violence, sex and foul language edited out.

Movies are an artistic form of expression, and limiting any form of art is downright wrong. It is not the government's job to stop parents from allowing their kids to see PG-13 and R-rated movies or help the parents edit out vulgarities. That responsibility is solely in the hands of parents and guardians. PG-13 and R movies are rated that way for a reason: KIDS ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO WATCH THEM!

Batman Begins

If I could have my way, "Batman Begins" would be the first and possibly the only Batman movie. In the latest retelling of one of the world's favorite comic book characters, Christian Bale ("American Psycho," "Little Women") dons the batsuit, which I'm proud to say does not have nipples like the one George Clooney wore in 1997's "Batman & Robin." Seeing Batman, perched on a tall building, looking over his city, Gotham, for the first time, is so powerful. That is the stereotypical image that everyone has of Batman, and it goes so much deeper with this movie.
"Batman Begins," directed by "Memento" filmmaker Christopher Nolan, starts off with a junior Bruce Wayne (Gus Lewis) falling into a well filled with bats while playing with childhood friend Rachel Dawes (Emma Lockhart), the housekeeper's daughter. This leads to his immense fear of bats, ironically enough. Once his parents are tragically killed by a mugger, Bruce's life spirals downhill, being kicked out of Princeton and almost killing the mugger, who received probation only to be killed by one of mob boss Carmine Falcone's (Tom Wilkinson) henchmen. Bruce takes off for a while, and eventually winds up in jail in an unnamed desolate Eastern country. There he meets Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), who tells Bruce about being trained to avenge the death of those he loved and to seek justice. This peaks Bruce's interest, and he goes to train with Ducard and the mysterious Ras Al Gul (Ken Watanabe). He overcomes his fear of bats and embraces them. Once his training is completed, Bruce discovers that the desires of the men who taught him do not match up with his own. Al Gul and his men want to end all evils at any cost; they have no consideration for the innocents who get left in the dust. Bruce would never agree to that, as he is filled with compassion, which Ducard cited as Bruce's biggest flaw. They start fighting, and Bruce torches Al Gul's estate, only saving Ducard, unconscious, and leaving him with a neighbor.

Bruce Wayne then returns to Gotham, set in modern-day Chicago, where he gets everything together to become Batman. The loyal butler Alfred (Michael Caine) is there to help, with additional support by Wayne Enterprises employee Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman). Bruce, as Batman, also makes it a point to forge relationships with Rachel (Katie Holmes), now an Assistant District Attorney, and Lieutenant Gordon (Gary Oldman), the officer who consoled young Bruce when he lost his parents. Both of these people share Batman/Bruce Wayne’s plight to vanquish Gotham of evil without doing anymore harm to its citizens. The audience quickly learns that Falcone is not the biggest of the bad guys, as he has meetings with Gotham's top psychiatrist? Dr. Crane (Cillian Murphy), and they discuss the mysterious big boss. Dr. Crane is also known as the very creepy Scarecrow, who blows a powder onto his victims to make them go insane.

Bale shines as Batman, it seems like it is the role he was meant to play. Michael Keaton was decent, Clooney was fun, and Val Kilmer was so-so, but Bale just knocks it out of the park. Neeson, Caine, Freeman, Oldman and Wilkinson all give terrific performances as well. Oldman, who usually plays the villain, is well utilized as the good-hearted Gordon. On the other side of the street, Wilkinson, known for his roles in smaller films, usually as a good guy, was great as the stereotypical mob boss. Holmes gives a dutiful performance as Rachel. It's quite a trip to see Joey Potter up there sharing the screen with Batman. However, I must say, as a Batman movie, the romance between Bruce/Batman and Rachel pales in comparison to those of the previous four movies, and I think that might actually be a good thing. There was just enough interaction between the two characters to know that something was there, but it wasn't dwelled on as one of the top focuses of the movie.

This remodeling, for lack of a better word, of the iconic Batman saga is incredible. This is the only "Batman" I've seen that has truly great plot twists in addition to the gadgets, wit and the other archetypes of the Batman series. At a runtime of about two and a half hours, "Batman Begins" may seem long, but I believe it isn't long enough.

War of the Worlds (2005)

"War of the Worlds" is the story of Ray, Rachel and Robbie. Ray, played by Tom Cruise, is a divorced father of two whose kids are staying with him for the weekend. He has a daughter, Rachel (Dakota Fanning), who's about 10, and a son, Robbie (Justin Chatwin), who's about 15 or 16. After Ray and Robbie get into an intense argument in the backyard, Ray goes upstairs to get some sleep before heading off to work at the docks. When he wakes up, Rachel tells him that Robbie took off in Ray's old, beefed-up Mustang. When Ray goes outside, he finds his neighbors looking at a storm brewing in the near distance. Everyone goes to their backyards to watch the storm come in. Then there's lightning, 26 times in a row in the same exact place. After the storm passes, Ray goes back outside to try to find Robbie, who runs up to him when he reaches the corner. Ray sends Robbie back to the house to take care of Rachel while he goes to ground zero, where the 26 strikes of lightning found their ground. A crowd has gathered, and the hole generated by the lightning starts to crack the pavement across the entire town. Eventually, a giant machine rises from underground, based on a huge tripod. The “tripod� starts zapping people, instantly cremating them in a way. Ray eventually makes his way back home, escaping the tripod, and the three of them pack up some food and take off in an old minivan that they stole from the local mechanic. They drive to Rachel and Robbie's mom's house, but no one is there, as she had gone to Boston with her husband. They spend the night in the basement to be safe, and in the morning, Ray goes up to investigate. The basement is the only part of the house left standing; a plane had crashed in the neighborhood. He runs across a TV news crew while checking out the plane, and the reporter shoes him footage of about six or seven of the tripods destructing one city. They also have footage of the lightning, and in slow motion, a creature is visible going down the beam. The tripod machines apparently had been there for millions of years, and the creatures were sent down to operate them.

Fanning disappoints as Rachel, basically providing some hollow screams as opposed to any real, deep emotion that she demonstrated in "I Am Sam." Tim Robbins has the role of the stereotypical crazy man with all the theories, and he doesn't bring anything new to the role, unfortunately. Cruise was not Ray Ferrier; he was Tom Cruise. As in most of Cruise's action movies and in some of the others, Cruise could not escape the well-known persona of Tom Cruise. Cruise is a great actor, and it is possible for him to escape his celebrity, but he didn't do it in "War of the Worlds."

While the acting may leave something to be desired, the special effects were pretty good. They combined the mastery of director Steven Spielberg's previous sci-fi ventures, including "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Minority Report." However, special effects are not enough to make "War of the Worlds" jump into the same league as the sci-fi greats.

"War of the Worlds" is the second director-actor teaming for Spielberg and Cruise; the first was 2001's futuristic sci-fi crime drama "Minority Report." The Spielberg-Cruise teaming just does not seem to make great movies. "Minority Report" was okay, but "War of the Worlds" grounded itself in cheesy acting and a plot that is far-fetched, too slow to get to the point and too fast once it gets there, leaving watchers bewildered. The movie basically just ended without much explanation, and was very disappointing. The trailer made a point of the saying, Lightning doesn't strike in the same place twice? and I think that the same can be said for the Spielberg-Cruise teaming. It barely struck once.

In Her Shoes

When someone thinks of Curtis Hanson, they think "L.A. Confidential" and "8 Mile" - not chick flick. And while it may be hard to think of Hanson directing a movie like In Her Shoes, once you see the movie, you see just how easy it can be.

Australian actress Toni Collette ("The Sixth Sense," "Velvet Goldmine") and America's sweetheart Cameron Diaz ("Charlie's Angels," "Vanilla Sky") star as Rose and Maggie Feller, sisters, who, despite their differences, really love each other. Rose is a career-driven lawyer, and Maggie is a fun-loving woman who is beginning to confront the concept of aging. The story starts, to the tune of Garbage's "Stupid Girl," with both characters doing voice-overs as they go into sexual encounters. Rose's starts with her boss (Richard Burgi) and winds up at her apartment; Maggie's takes place in the bathroom at her 10-year high school reunion. Maggie winds up tossing her cookies, and the guy she's with calls her sister to pick her up. After a confrontation with their stepmother (Candice Azzara), Maggie is thrown out of the house and Rose is forced to take Maggie home with her. Rose pushes Maggie to get a job, but instead she goes to New York for an MTV audition. The audition goes awry when we discover that Maggie doesn't read very well.

Eventually, Maggie finds a job at a dog salon. After work one day, she discovers that her sister's car has been towed. Two guys come up to her and ask her if she wants a ride to the tow lot. She agrees, and after a few drinks, they arrive at the lot, where one of the guys tries to take advantage of her.

When Rose gets home from a business trip the next day, she is infuriated to find a boot on her car and Maggie lying in her bed with a dog stolen from the salon. Rose insists that Maggie be gone by the time she gets back from work. While Rose is at work, her boss shows up at the apartment and asks Maggie if Rose is there. Of course, she isn't, but Maggie winds up seducing the boss, and Rose arrives back home just in time to see it. The two of them get into a horrible fight, and the boss drops Maggie off at the train station, where she decides to go to Florida to live with her long-lost grandmother (Shirley MacLaine). After Maggie leaves, Rose quits her job and starts her own dog-walking business while falling in love with another lawyer from her old job (Mark Feuerstein).

Collette is fantastic as the emotional yet practical Rose and gives the best performance of her career. The same can be said for Diaz, whose turns in lighter fare like "Charlie's Angels" along with the occasional darker role ("Vanilla Sky") have not shown her capacity. MacLaine was great as always, making you forget her somewhat-kooky off-screen persona. These three performances and all of the supporting characters add-up to make a wonderfully realistic take on the weepy chick flick genre.

"In Her Shoes" has a darker, smarter tone than the standard chick flick, courtesy of director Hanson. More chick flicks should add up like this, taking less of the formulaic plot line recycled over-and-over in Hollywood today.