t_woolery

The movie was fun, had some good humor in it. I think Duvall and Caine had a ball being non-serious; Michael Caine certainly had fun being Texan. Haley Joel Osment is 15-now and fortunately has skipped around that Macauley Culkin/Corey Haim/Corey Feldman/Todd Bridges/Jonathan Brandis minefield that is being a child actor. The movie doesn't give him much to work with, he spends the first 20 or 30 minutes of the movie with this look of perpetual hurt surprise as one indignity after another is visited upon him.

The main theme of the movie centers around Walter (Osment)'s two bachelor great-uncles. Of dubious financial wealth, Walter is pushed off on them one summer by his dingy and emotionally vacant mother. Although they aren't happy to see her, and by extention, him they are slow to warm up. Eventually they do, providing Walter with some caring and positive male role models. Between the heart-wrenching/sepia-toned crymoments are episodes highlighting both uncles' eccentricities. They spend their days on the porch sipping iced tea and taking potshots at random door-to-door salesmen. Duvall is prone to sleep-walking and beating on people 50 years his junior. Caine is the more kind of the two and tells stories that fade into cartoony flashbacks of derring-do to explain Duvall's personality.

The lion of the main title is something sold to the uncles as part of their bizarre flights of fancy. Wanting to go back to the hunting of their days wandering in Africa, they purchase an old female lion with the object of hunting and eventually stuffing it. Of course, a caring boy will not allow his family to do something so heartless so it's only a matter of time before he throws his body between the lion and his uncles' guns. Of course the scene isn't carried off exactly like that and that is one of the selling points of "Secondhand Lions".

The movie doesn't rely on stock boy-coming-of-age scenes. Although it's strung together in a slightly disjointed manner, it doesn't prevent you from enjoying the moments when the three are together. Osment has always been able to act and he brings off the ho-hum dialog with practiced ease. If there is any complaint with the movie, it's with the editing and the choice of where actors speak/how they do it that can be anyone's decision (actors, producer, director, director of photography). The movie is also something you won't be afraid to take kids to, or watch with.

The ending of "Secondhand Lions" takes about 15 minutes to wind up, you keep thinking that it was added on to tie up the loose ends. Since the ending of the movie was re-shot (at considerable expense) to appease the preview audience that reviewed it; you can forgive some choices in editing, acting and the general end of the story. It's interesting to note that, right about the same time the movie was released, Berke Breathed (who provided the cartoons you see in the movies) commented on how he enjoyed drawing comics because they weren't subject to the vagaries of the test audience, or producer or MPAA.

Should you see it? Absolutely. Should you buy it? Rent it first.

I just spent two hours waiting for the moment in the movie where everything comes together and all makes sense. Tragically, this didn't happen and I finished Donnie Darko wishing that I could also travel in time and get my two hours back. The smaller elements of the movie, suburban private schools and their obscure teaching models as well as the dangers of local celebrity were interesting. The primary focus of this movie really boiled down to two possibilities: Donnie Darko is either crazy or he isn't. When the movie finally got around to showing what it thought was true, my patience had ended. It was neat that both Gyllenhaal kids together; nothing I've seen so far recommends Maggie to me as an actress to watch.

Like Catcher in the Rye, the story of Donnie Darko will appeal to the darker sensibilties of the American teenager. However, it didn't ring true to me and just reminded me of why it's such a bad idea to over-medicate your kids. As a side point, if I ever spoke to my mother like Donnie did to his mother, she would have slapped the teeth out of my head.

Sneakers is still fun to watch after 12 years and it was a great look at the time in which it was made. 12 years ago, the Cold War just ended and nobody was really sure how things were going to shape up geopolitically. Sneakers captured that mood perfectly and kept things tense with the soundtrack, locations and set work.

It's got the best balance of technical accuracy verses ease of viewing that I've ever seen on film. Not too many cartoon-like computer interfaces but no staring for minutes at a time at command line interfaces. Sneakers also gets points for being in the Bay Area and traveling among places that I visit every day (Hills Brother Coffee Building for the 'box drop' and the Dumbarton Bridge - for starters). Actors have fun with their roles although it's obvious that Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, Ben Kingsley and James Earl Jones are not delivering their A-Game. It doesn't matter, it doesn't make it any less fun to watch. I like Phil Alden Robinson's camera movements; don't forget to look for the long, low slide across the Scrabble pieces right in a pivotal moment of the plot.

The movie still retains some relevance today. Ben Kingsley offers that gem " world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!" gains some credibility especially in the face of the post-9/11 news reporting on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. Trash-diving is still a viable option to gain information on your opponent and social engineering will always work to help you gain some information.

Sneakers is still one of the best mainstream treatments on the subject of hacking. Watch, learn, enjoy.