Movie Review: Bridge of Spies (2015)

by Tony Dayoub


Director Steven Spielberg reunites with Tom Hanks for the cold war thriller Bridge of Spies. Based on fact, the film details the capture and arrest of Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), an otherwise unremarkable man who was passing on information to our enemies in the most nondescript way, as he painted landscapes in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. James Donovan (Tom Hanks) is a formerly prominent attorney asked to take Abel on as his client in order to give the impression that Abel is getting the best defense there is. When Donovan begins to take his assignment more seriously than anticipated, saving his client from a death sentence, the CIA enlists him to negotiate the release of a downed U2 pilot standing trial in the Soviet Union. The kind of double-play Donovan then chases is a gambit that surprises everyone.

Movie Review: Beasts of No Nation (2015)

by Tony Dayoub


There is a sense that Netflix is venturing into new territory with this week's release of Cary Joji Fukunaga's Beasts of No Nation. Fukunaga, whose greatest claim to fame so far is the much lauded first season of HBO's True Detective, trains his focus on the plight of African child soldiers, measuredly delivering his message by placing us in the shoes of Agu (Abraham Attah) as he comes of age in the war-torn jungle of some anonymous country. There he falls under the spell of the charismatic Commandant (Idris Elba), a nameless fighter who resembles pretty much every megalomaniac ever. And therein lies the problem with the film.

Movie Review: Closed Circuit (2013)

by Tony Dayoub

True to its title, Closed Circuit begins with a view of a London marketplace through a closed circuit camera. Gradually, the view changes from that of just one camera to two, then four, then eight, multiplying exponentially with each new conversation the cameras pick up from shoppers strolling through the street market. In this age of global terrorism, this is what life is like in one of the most wired-for-surveillance cities in the world. And director John Crowley's split-screen effect underscores how difficult it is to keep track of multiple information flows simultaneously. Just when you think you've gotten your bearings a truck pulls into the market, stopping illegally in front of one complaining vendor and occupying an increasing amount of visual space in each camera angle and therefore the entire screen. You don't have long to surmise something's wrong before the truck explodes, killing all of the innocent bystanders discussing their mundane life events minutes earlier.

Movie Review: Fair Game (2010)

by Tony Dayoub

Any depressed Democrats still weepy over yesterday's election results by week's end can get a lift watching Doug Liman's liberal feel-good movie, Fair Game, which opens this Friday. While nowhere near a propaganda piece as a film I reviewed back in March, Green Zone (coincidentally directed by Liman's successor in the Bourne series, Paul Greengrass), it still has tinges of simplistic "Leftie good, Rightie bad" sentiments which do a disservice to what, based on the facts alone, should be a rather simple open-and-shut indictment of the Bush Administration and the cloud of malfeasance which hung over their entry into the Iraq War.

Movie Review: Edge of Darkness (2010)

by Tony Dayoub

Opening today, Edge of Darkness marks the first time Mel Gibson stars in a movie in seven years. A remake of a seminal British TV miniseries from the 1980s, its original director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) returns to do the translating. It is apparent (even to this writer, who never saw the original) that there was some compression involved in adapting the story to the screen. Convoluted story points rush towards the viewer at breakneck speed. Minor characters seem to have a larger than normal prominence. But in the case of what is at the core a conventional conspiracy thriller, these attributes serve to enhance the fresh feel of the film rather than detract from it.

It's easy to see what attracted Gibson to the dark material in the first place. Like most of the characters he plays, Boston police detective Thomas Craven is a masochist. No, he doesn't endure violent physical torture here like he does as Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon (1987), William Wallace in Braveheart (1995), or like the titular protagonist does in The Passion of the Christ (2004). Craven obsessively investigates the murder of his daughter, Emma (Bojana Novakovic), killed right before his eyes by an assailant who only at first glance was targeting him. He soon learns she led a compartmentalized life working for a classified nuclear energy project which may be at the root of her murder. Craven's determination to find those responsible lead him to immerse himself deeper and more painfully in the details and facts surrounding his daughter's death—and life—than most parents would ever care to. Director Campbell puts the viewer in Craven's headspace to get the point across, training the camera on the sink as he washes his daughter's blood off his face, making one conscious it is her life he sees circling down the drain. Then Gibson folds the bloodied hand towel ever so neatly and stows it in a glass, unable to part with her remains no matter how devastating a reminder they are. Here, the torture is purely emotional.

If the film's faults lie in the elliding and compression of its plot, its strengths are in Campbell's choice to favor personal moments over action oriented ones. He can still direct a brutal fight scene like the early one between Craven and a suspect who turns out to be Emma's boyfriend, or a violent collision such as the one which leads to a car falling into a lake. But more often than not, Campbell makes time to allow Craven and the viewer to ruminate on the relationship the cop had with his daughter. Photographs of Emma spark flashbacks to his relationship with her as a child, a particularly close one given the implication that he is a widower. One scene at the beach is particularly resonant, and even darkly humorous, because of the small mishap which occurs when he tries to spread her ashes.

Bolstering the resonance of the film's emotional undercurrent are the frequent and acute reminders that everyone is somebody's child. Even the tiniest characters in Edge of Darkness reveal quirks which make them stand out, like the reporter who apologizes to Craven for having to stalk him for a response, or the informant who keeps reminding him she owns a luggage store. More specifically, screenwriters William Monahan and Andrew Bovell work mightily to attune the viewer's state of mind to Craven's, one in which he is extremely aware of every individual's connection to parents, children, and their community—indeed their connection to life itself—a quality which some might think would hinder the detective in his quest for justice, but actually drives him forward. It also invests the thriller with a personal aspect which is so often lacking in such exercises.

This is not to say there aren't any underlying political dimensions to the film. Edge of Darkness is poised to be a resounding success—at least in the U.S.— despite some criticism about Gibson's character always seeming to be one step ahead of the movie's villains. It's a valid point. But it is also what helps the viewer identify so keenly with Craven. Given the current political climate, a determined vigilante seeking justice after his daughter is eliminated by government contractors for doing what is morally right is a ready-made hero for this era of anti-government populism.

NYFF09 Movie Review: White Material

by Tony Dayoub



White Material must be the type of film that passes for an action flick in France. And you know what? That's not such a bad thing. Claire Denis' political thriller takes place in an unnamed African country and stars Isabelle Huppert as Maria Vial, a Frenchwoman who manages her ex-father-in-law's coffee plantation. A parallel story follows a wounded revolutionary, known as the Boxer (Isaach De Bankolé), who hides on her plantation while the local militia searches for him.

DVD Review: Homicide (1991)

The great cinematographer Roger Deakins (No Country for Old Men), best known for his collaborations with the Coen Brothers, contributes some of the most essential cinematography in David Mamet's oeuvre with his work on Homicide. I say essential because in Mamet's work it is his clipped iambic pentameter that is usually front and center, even when the film falls into the "con game" subgenre he often explores. Unlike one of the more prominent examples of that genre, The Spanish Prisoner (1997), Homicide is an unusually personal film for Mamet in that he confronts some deep-seated issues with his Judaism through one of his favorite alter egos, actor Joe Mantegna. The cast is also heavy with many of his repertory players like Bill Macy, Ricky Jay, and Rebecca Pidgeon. However, I was mystified by the end. Maybe I wasn't watching closely enough, but I'm usually attuned to Mamet's con games. So why did the ending go over my head? Did I blink and miss something? Did Mamet fumble it? If any of my readers will take the time to explain it to me, it would be very much appreciated. In the meantime, those familiar with the movie will find much to reward them in the Deakins camerawork with Criterion's fantastic new DVD, as the screen grabs below prove. Pay particularly close attention to the way the shots have recurring images that build chronologically to form layers of symbolism and thematic concerns worth explaining.

Movie Review: Valkyrie - Cruise and Singer Deliver a Solid Conspiracy Thriller

There is a tendency to pile on someone when they are down, and in the case of Tom Cruise it seems he may have abetted some of that with his freakishly self-righteous behavior in front of the public eye. His capital with his audience has been severely diminished, then, due to his public persona taking such precedence over his screen one. Add to that the incredibly risky and failing enterprise of his purchase of a stake in United Artists after his unceremonious release from his longtime production partner, Paramount. His first film for UA, Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs (2007) was a flop. His newest one, the troubled Valkyrie, directed by Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men), has had its release delayed a few times, now. So what a pleasant surprise it is to report that Singer and Cruise deliver one solid thriller that could help launch Cruise back into critical favor if not necessarily commercial success. The timing for this dark World War II-era drama's Christmas release is commercially ill conceived. Certainly, they have a film that I'm sure they believed had potential for some Oscars in the technical and story realm, which may explain trying to squeeze it out before the end of the year. Frequent Singer collaborator Christopher McQuarrie and cowriter Nathan Alexander have come up with an exciting script based on the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, on July 20th, 1944, hatched by some of his closest officers. The problem is that, as we all know, they failed. It is hard to see how such a downer will succeed during the joyous holiday season. It's a shame really, because Tom Cruise is great in the role of the plot's ringleader, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. Frequently dismissed as a celebrity personality more than a true actor, Cruise is excellent in the part. Just like other larger than life movie stars like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, Cruise is remarkably adept at using his public persona to inform and enhance his performances. In this case, the embattled Stauffenberg, carrying the full and sole responsibility for the execution of the plot, and then contending with the ramifications of its failure is not unlike the present Cruise, the embattled actor carrying the full and sole responsibility for the success of this film and United Artists. Stauffenberg's self-righteous arrogance contributes to the implementation of his plan before his confirmation of Hitler's death, a significant blunder as it turns out. Unlike a Sean Penn or Robert De Niro, Cruise is no chameleon in this one, although he can be (see Tropic Thunder). For instance, there is no trace of a German accent in his performance. But Singer effectively dismisses the need for one in the opening of the film using an artistic effect reminiscent of a similar one that occurred near the beginning of The Hunt for Red October (1990). Perhaps Singer is the best director to effectively interpret this story. Singer is an expert at servicing the entire cast in an ensemble drama, as is evident in The Usual Suspects (1995), and his two X-Men films, so that no one seems underutilized. Here he accomplishes that nicely, giving all the actors, such as Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Izzard, Bill Nighy, Terrence Stamp, and Tom Wilkinson, their moments in the film. And the director brings some nice surreal touches to the film, often using the one-eyed Stauffenberg's glass prosthesis to induce a small touch of paranoia at inopportune moments. Recalling some of the best conspiracy thrillers of the seventies, Valkyrie is a suspenseful film that should satisfy even Cruise's detractors. Hopefully, it will succeed commercially as well, saving the perpetually endangered United Artists and Cruise's career. Valkyrie opens nationwide on Christmas Day. This entry first appeared on Blogcritics on 12/6/2008.

Seventies Cinema Revival: The Boys From Brazil

by Tony Dayoub



Ira Levin, author of such high concept novels as Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives gave us an interesting bit of science fiction with his novel The Boys From Brazil. The 1978 film adaptation attracted no small amount of talent. Starring film greats Sir Laurence Olivier (Wuthering Heights) and Gregory Peck (To Kill a Mockingbird), and directed by the once great Franklin J. Schaffner (Patton), the film is a guilty pleasure that has stood up surprisingly well thirty years later.



A frail looking Olivier, who had only two years prior played a sadistic Nazi torturer in The Marathon Man, now plays a Simon Wiesenthal-like Nazi hunter named Ezra Lieberman. Tipped off by young Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg in a very early role) that the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele (Peck) is alive and well in South America, Lieberman chooses to dismiss the man as a crank. For Lieberman, this is not new information. But when Kohler disappears after uncovering a meeting between Mengele and some of Hitler's top officers (one played by James Mason), he decides to investigate. Starting from Kohler's preposterous premise, that Mengele and his associates plan to assassinate 94 civil servants throughout Europe and North America, Lieberman goes on to discover a much more frightening conspiracy.


Mengele has implemented a plan, years in its formulation, to create another Hitler. Through cloning, and attempts at duplicating the Nazi leader's family environment (hence the assassination plans, since Hitler's civil servant father died when he was only 13), Mengele hopes at least one of the offspring will become the Führer of a Fourth Reich.


Lieberman starts grasping what is occurring at a gut level. This after he visits two unrelated women (played by Rosemary Harris - of Spider-Man fame - and Anne Meara - Ben Stiller's mom), in different parts of the world, whose husbands met an untimely death, and finding that their sons (Jeremy Black in multiple roles) look identical, while bearing a strong resemblance to Hitler himself.

Levin based his novel on extrapolations he made of some facts regarding Mengele, for example, his fondness for hideous experiments with children, particularly twins, during his tenure as Chief Medical Officer in Auschwitz, where he was known as the "Angel of Death". Another example was the plot point based on rumor that Mengele was hiding in South America, a rumor later proven to be true when Mengele died in Brazil in 1979.

Schaffner brings the same epic yet gritty flavor to the movie that he was known for in films like The War Lord (1965), Patton (1970), and Papillon (1973). Like in Papillon, which starred two film giants, Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, he benefits here from the tension created between Olivier and Peck. One feels the world turning topsy-turvy in Brazil just as it did in Schaffner's earlier sci-fi classic, Planet of the Apes (1968). Add to that, a wonderful score from Jerry Goldsmith, who collaborated with him so successfully in Apes, and you've got a thriller that flirts with, but never falls into parody. Listen to the score:



Peck is especially impressive as a black-hearted villain that so perfectly embodies the basest evil found in humanity. Well-known for his ability to portray decent human beings such as Mockingbird's Atticus Finch, Peck brings a particular exuberance at the chance to play such a role reversal from the parts he's been known for in the past. His ferocity is on display in the final confrontation between Lieberman and Mengele. Anyone who thinks you can't have a suspenseful fight scene between two elderly men has not seen this film. Olivier and Peck grapple on the floor while barking dobermans surround them, ready to attack the fight's victor. But Peck's vicious streak is most evident in the scene where he attacks a crony at a Nazi banquet, for failing to assassinate one of the men he's been assigned to. When the henchman's wife starts wailing in fear, Mengele growls, "Shut up, you ugly bitch!"


With other notable actors such as the legendary Uta Hagen (she taught both Pacino AND De Niro), Denholm Elliott (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Prunella Scales (Fawlty Towers), and Michael Gough (Batman), the film should be of interest to young performers.

At the Oscars, Olivier was nominated for Best Actor, Goldsmith for Original Music Score, and Robert Swink for Film Editing (the 123 minute film moves at a brisk pace).

A remake by New Line Cinema, to be directed by Brett Ratner (Rush Hour), was in the works for 2009, but with New Line folded into Warner Bros., the production is now in question.

Movie Review: Traitor - Political Actioner Reminiscent of the Best Seventies Thrillers

by Tony Dayoub



Traitor is a timely thriller that still manges to evoke the spirit of the best of the seventies' thrillers. Like The French Connection, Dog Day Afternoon, and other films of that period, it gives us its story from a variety of perspectives. By casting such a wide net, it allows writer-director Jeffrey Nachmanoff to build the tension effectively in the climax, simply by pulling that net tighter until the central focus is the central character, Samir Horn (Don Cheadle).


Horn is a disaffected Muslim-American, and an ex-U.S. army explosives expert. When the film opens, he is in Yemen eking out an existence by selling his explosives and expertise to the highest bidder. This brings him into contact with Omar (Saïd Taghmaoui), a fiercely loyal jihadi soldier serving the Nathir terrorist cell. Their transaction is interrupted by an anti-terrorist task force, coordinated by FBI agent Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce). Clayton is one of the new generation of egghead agents, holder of a PhD. in Arabic Studies, and loathe to use violence over brains and persistence when trying to get an answer in his investigations. Horn is hard to pin down, though. He doesn't fit the traditional profile of a terrorist or mercenary. And what's his relationship to Carter (Jeff Daniels), an independent contractor for a U.S. intelligence agency?

The movie takes pains to give a balanced look at the divisive issues behind terrorism. Horn's decisions are clearer to us once put in the context of the death of his Sudanese father in a car explosion when he was a child. The fact that he must keep even his most basic religious duty - prayer - in check, or risk being the target of prejudice at work, seems like an understandable inciting incident that propels him to seek solace in the company of jihadi soldiers. Omar's support of terrorism as a weapon is but one facet of the jihadi's commitment to the cause. He also demonstrates a surprisingly pragmatic outlook when ordered by his superior to drink a glass of wine while dining in public. Even the Western-raised Horn has trouble breaking that Islamic prohibition. Agent Clayton is flexible in his efforts to track down the Nathir terrorist cell, open-minded enough to create an extensive profile of Horn in greater detail than his job requires. Raised in a conservative religion himself, he feels a certain kinship with Horn, and is reluctant to write him off as just another disillusioned Muslim joining the cause.

Like Hackman's Popeye Doyle in The French Connection, or Pacino's Sonny Wortzik in Dog Day Afternoon, Cheadle creates a complex lead that serves as an entry point into a mysterious subculture. Hackman's Doyle was a relentless cop, obsessed with closing his case more than achieving any real justice. Pacino's Wortzik was a clueless amateur thief whose love for a transsexual pushed him to commit a bank robbery, and into a media circus. Cheadle's Horn is in over his head just as much as Wortzik was in Dog Day. And though he is able to reconcile his spirituality with his betrayal of his Muslim brothers, he is just as dogged as Doyle in French Connection. But what all three characters have in common is that they are but small cogs in a machine that is much larger. Just as Doyle's efforts will have little impact on the French drug trade, and Wortzik's media stardom will fade away once the fickle press has no more story to tell, Horn's involvement in the jihad is only as long-lived as his usefulness to the cell is.

Director Nachmanoff effectively sets up each aspect of the story like dominoes. As one subplot is resolved, the domino falls, propelling the next one to its natural conclusion, and so on. Each domino falls until the only one left is Samir Horn and his motivations. The only saving grace for Samir is, unlike the protagonists of the earlier seventies thrillers, his ability to accept his place in the scheme of things.

Working within the limitations imposed by his situation may be the only thing that can save Samir Horn's life.

Still provided courtesy of Overture Films.

DVD Review: The Invaders: The First Season - Paranoid Sci-Fi Show Plays Even Better Today

by Tony Dayoub

Making its long awaited debut on DVD recently, is the 1967 cult favorite, The Invaders. Starring Roy Thinnes as brooding architect David Vincent, The Invaders lasted only two seasons. But what a dramatically rewarding and influential two seasons they were. The 5-disc set contains all seventeen episodes of the first season, including an extended edition of its pilot, "Beachhead". In addition to new introductions for each episode recorded by the dapper Thinnes, a half hour interview with the actor is also included. And a refreshingly honest audio commentary for this season's best episode, "The Innocents", by cult director and series creator, Larry Cohen (It's Alive), describes his limited involvement with the show once it aired, while putting the show into political context within its era.

The premise is simple. David Vincent, while driving home late one night, believes he sees a UFO landing in a desolate area. After convincing authorities of what he witnessed, they go back to that area, but with all evidence of their landing having been erased, he ends up looking like a crackpot. After further investigation on his own, he discovers several things: the aliens look like us (except most have a mutated pinkie finger); they must regenerate often or risk death; when they die, they - as well as anything they are touching - disintegrate; and they are already deeply entrenched in key positions of authority throughout the world, laying the foundation for an invasion. Most importantly, Vincent must now watch his back, as they are aware of his knowledge, and fear any setback to their plans.

With the rebirth of American society after World War II into a cultural and military superpower, the U.S. leading the anti-communist charge in Korea and the cold war, and the assassination of JFK (and his Camelot ideals), the cultural turbulence and general malaise of the late sixties was emerging. No longer able to discern evil in simple terms, the average American couldn't have been blamed for the paranoia they felt in a society that had become a little less black-and-white and more shades-of-grey. Gone was the fascistic bogeyman of Hitler, replaced by the multi-headed hydra of the Red Scare. Conspiracy theories prevailed regarding who was culpable for both a president's assassination, and the death of his alleged assassin. The time was ripe for Larry Cohen to create a show that would comment on the times, even if disguised behind the allegory of an alien invasion.

However, as he describes in his commentary, another veteran producer was assigned to run the show. Quinn Martin, producer of The Fugitive, took those duties, bringing his show's format to The Invaders. Every week, the show's grander alien mythology would serve as a backdrop to the more grounded earthly problems of other guest characters Vincent would run into. This attracted a lot of existing and future stars to the show, as their characters usually had their own dilemmas for the actors to chew on. Among the celebrities who make an appearance in the first season, are Ed Asner, Ralph Bellamy, Peter Graves, Roddy McDowall, and Burgess Meredith.

Some themes would be visited frequently in these morality plays, like adultery, or the questionable motives of the U.S. involvement in both Korea and Vietnam. Producer Martin's subtle house-style was effective in pushing these then taboo themes past the censors in a way that I doubt the in-your-face Cohen could have done. Our ambivalence over whether to trust radicals or the establishment was being reflected in the paranoia inherent in Vincent's alien conspiracy theories. "Vikor" is an episode that perfectly encapsulates this. Guest star Jack Lord plays a war hero, whose wife has turned to alcohol, since his return from Korea. Having lost a leg in the war, the self-made industrialist felt betrayed when he was turned down for a government loan to start his business. So instead he throws in with the aliens, hoping to give his wife a happy life under the new alien world order.

Martin's appreciation for stoic actors, who could still be physically dynamic (like The Fugitive's David Janssen), proved to be essential to The Invaders' alchemy. Roy Thinnes was a strong lead, generous when sharing a scene with a prominent guest star, but commanding when fighting the conspiratorial enemies of mankind. This would prove to be an essential part of the formula in subsequent series strongly influenced by the format, like The Incredible Hulk, and the casting of its star, Bill Bixby. Thinnes is still highly regarded, appearing as a recurring guest star on another show that shares its legacy, The X-Files. And as recently as August 2004, Thinnes' portrayal helped David Vincent rank number six on TV Guide's list of the Top 25 Sci-Fi Legends.

Given the current political climate's similarity to the Red Scare era that The Invaders comments on, the ultimate compliment I can pay the show is that it transcends the period's anachronisms and plays extremely well today. Definitely worth a look.

DVD Review: The Andromeda Strain (2008) - Too Many Subplots Muddle an Intriguing Story

by Tony Dayoub



The Andromeda Strain (2008), released on DVD this week, is the second version of Michael Crichton's 1969 novel put on film. Having just premiered on A&E on Memorial Day, I was looking forward to seeing an updated adaptation.


The first time it was adapted to screen by directing great Robert Wise, it was very popular and suspenseful. Tracking the analysis, identification, and attempt to contain a virus from space that wipes out a whole town in seconds, Wise's movie is a minor sci-fi classic. But since much of the story depends on cutting edge science, the passage of time has not been kind to it. Much of what looked innovative or futuristic in the 1971 version looks rather quaint and dated now. So if the remake could keep the same just-the-facts-ma'am procedural tone that Wise established, and update the science, then it would be quite successful. Unfortunately, the filmmakers chose to go further than that simple improvement, and bit off way more than they could chew.

One of the most appealing things in the original version was the dry tone established by casting second-tier actors in the almost anonymous roles of the science team. Little is known of the four clinicians' backstory except what is essential to resolve the plot. That leaves us time to appreciate the painstaking application of the scientific method necessary to solve the rather imminent problem of the virus's potential to decimate mankind. Spookier still is the lack of knowledge on the origins of the virus. The effect is that of being a fly on the wall as the doctors work to contain Andromeda, the name given to the virus.

The new movie just tries too hard. The mystery is robbed of the story by giving us too much information, spending way too much time on the rather hokey origins of Andromeda. It also illustrates the destruction of the town of Piedmont, Utah. In the original, the creepiness of the desolate town was inherent in the absence of awareness one had regarding details of it's decimation.

The core characters are populated by some appealing actors, including Benjamin Bratt, Christa Miller, Daniel Dae Kim, and Viola Davis. We are privy to each of their background angst, but the fact that it usually involves some cliche doesn't invite one to dwell on it for long. Also the cast has nearly doubled in size, adding an investigative reporter (Eric McCormack), an army General (Andre Braugher), and a military doctor (Ricky Schroder). This seems to be designed to give us additional expendable folks we might identify with before they are cut down in service of the plot. So now, in addition to having to follow the scientists take on Andromeda, we also have the media's and the military's. Rather than enhancing the story it gives short shrift to each of the three parallel plots.

Maybe this was an attempt at a backdoor pilot, meant to lead into a series if successful. But between all the cutting back and forth from the military trying to cover-up the incident, to the reporter trying to survive long enough to file his story on the virus, to Bratt's lead scientist confessing his attraction to Miller, his former research associate, the show evokes one of 24'scrazy pre-teaser catch-up montages, more than it does a fully-formed, layered premise. Surprising given that the producers are Ridley and Tony Scott, and the director is Mikael Salomon, who's given us some fine TV work before. By the time you've got Kim slicing off Schroder's thumb and throwing it to Bratt while the three try to shut down a nuclear reactor, you'll be wondering if you didn't switch to one of Jack Bauer's bad days by mistake.

The DVD does have some respectable features. It has an informative commentary from the director and producer David W. Zucker. There's also the usual making-of featurette, and a pretty nice gallery of production photos and design drawings, over 100, in fact. None of these address the obvious failings of the film, which usually makes for far better commentaries than the average so-this-is-how-we-got-this-shot stories.

Saddled with too much to chew on, The Andromeda Strain's central plot of humans fighting an unknown threat on a scientific playing field is lost. Catch Robert Wise's original version instead, and you'll enjoy its suspenseful execution despite the retro science.

This entry first appeared on Blogcritics on 6/7/2008.

TV Review: Recount - Satire Takes Aim at Florida's 2000 Voter Recount Fiasco

by Tony Dayoub

The new HBO movie, Recount, is a sadly funny primer on all the behind-the-scenes shenanigans that occurred during the infamous 2000 Florida voter recount. Seen primarily through the eyes of Ron Klain (Kevin Spacey), General Counsel to Al Gore's recount committee, it is more affectionate to the Democrats. But in retrospect, it is hard not to be, eight years later, as George W. Bush has the dubious distinction of having the lowest domestic approval ratings of any sitting American President in history. And that's including Nixon.

Jay Roach, of Austin Powers and Meet the Parents fame, directs the ensemble cast to what are some highly accurate caricatures of some of the major players in the unfolding comedy of errors taking place. I say caricatures because tongue is firmly planted in cheek as he surveys some of the notable incidents throughout the aftermath of the election. John Hurt (The Elephant Man) portrays former Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, as a dignified individual whose sense of decorum unfortunately delays Gore's recount team from fighting dirty earlier in the game. Ed Begley, Jr. (St. Elsewhere) plays David Boies, counsel to Gore in the Supreme Court case, Bush v. Gore, as a cavalry general coming to the rescue. If he is unable to stop Bush's recount committee from getting their way, it is simply because their leadership was simply more motivated to win. Their leader, James Baker, former Secretary of State and part of the Bush Family inner circle, is given ferocious life by virtual lookalike Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton). Wilkinson's Baker shows up to his first meeting with Gore's recount committee ready for a street fight, to the chagrin of Hurt's more gentlemanly Christopher. This sets the tone for the long battle that follows.

Of particular note is the performance of Laura Dern (Jurassic Park) as Katherine Harris, then-Secretary of State of Florida. Her delineation of Harris fits in with the image we remember, a preening and opportunistic evangelical Christian eager for her chance in the spotlight. With no concern over charges of conflict-of-interest, she was only to happy to take center stage in certifying Bush's victory, despite her post as Bush's Florida campaign co-chair. Dern's excessive makeup, gaudy attire, and padded form (Dern's slender body is far different than the shapely Harris') remind us of how ubiquitous Harris' face was on TV, at the time.

With loads of incidents to poke fun at (or cry over depending which side of the political aisle you're on), from Gore's retraction of his concession to Bush (which may have been the impetus for the Bush committee's tenacious fight), to the U.S. Supreme Court's unprecedented admonition that their decision on Bush v. Gore was unique to this specific case, Recount makes for entertaining, but biased, viewing.