...and the Disney/Pixar animated feature Hoppers...
...online at Phoenix Magazine.
Showing posts with label PENELOPE CRUZ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PENELOPE CRUZ. Show all posts
Friday, March 6, 2026
Monday, November 13, 2017
THE RAILS OF JUSTICE
Now in theaters:
Murder on the Orient Express—Sidney Lumet’s tautly made 1974 version of Agatha Christie’s 1934 novel, with Albert Finney as Belgian master detective Hercule Poirot, is a favorite of mine, and I admit I saw no pressing need to remake it. But remade it has been, in a manner sufficiently different from the original that it can be enjoyed on its own terms.
The new version is directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also assumes the role of Poirot. As before, a shady character gets bumped off in a sleeping car of the famed luxury line, which used to run all the way from Istanbul to Paris. The train is derailed by an avalanche somewhere in Croatia, and Poirot, who had been hoping for a quiet holiday, is pressed into service to identify the guilty party from among the shifty types aboard before the trip is back on track.
The cast ranges from Johnny Depp to Judi Dench, Josh Gad to Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe to Derek Jacobi, Daisy Ridley to Leslie Odom, Jr. to Michelle Pfeiffer, among others, and they let it rip. Offsetting this is Branagh’s impressively reserved, melancholy OCD turn as Poirot.
As director, Branagh works in his characteristically flamboyant style, sweeping from one melodramatic flourish to the next, even adding in some fights and gunplay. This won’t be to the taste of every Christie aficionado, but I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed screenwriter Michael Green’s distaste for the casual racism that Christie, to judge from her books, would have regarded as quite proper.
But the real stars, perhaps, of this Orient Express are, first, Branagh’s mesmerizing mustache, and second, the lushness of the production—cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos, costumes by Alexandra Byrne, music by Patrick Doyle. The movie may leave you in the mood for a leisurely holiday by train. Allowing for the odd murder or avalanche, it looks like a great time.
Murder on the Orient Express—Sidney Lumet’s tautly made 1974 version of Agatha Christie’s 1934 novel, with Albert Finney as Belgian master detective Hercule Poirot, is a favorite of mine, and I admit I saw no pressing need to remake it. But remade it has been, in a manner sufficiently different from the original that it can be enjoyed on its own terms.
The new version is directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also assumes the role of Poirot. As before, a shady character gets bumped off in a sleeping car of the famed luxury line, which used to run all the way from Istanbul to Paris. The train is derailed by an avalanche somewhere in Croatia, and Poirot, who had been hoping for a quiet holiday, is pressed into service to identify the guilty party from among the shifty types aboard before the trip is back on track.
The cast ranges from Johnny Depp to Judi Dench, Josh Gad to Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe to Derek Jacobi, Daisy Ridley to Leslie Odom, Jr. to Michelle Pfeiffer, among others, and they let it rip. Offsetting this is Branagh’s impressively reserved, melancholy OCD turn as Poirot.
As director, Branagh works in his characteristically flamboyant style, sweeping from one melodramatic flourish to the next, even adding in some fights and gunplay. This won’t be to the taste of every Christie aficionado, but I enjoyed it. I also enjoyed screenwriter Michael Green’s distaste for the casual racism that Christie, to judge from her books, would have regarded as quite proper.
But the real stars, perhaps, of this Orient Express are, first, Branagh’s mesmerizing mustache, and second, the lushness of the production—cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos, costumes by Alexandra Byrne, music by Patrick Doyle. The movie may leave you in the mood for a leisurely holiday by train. Allowing for the odd murder or avalanche, it looks like a great time.
Friday, February 12, 2016
THE RUNWAY OF ALL FLESH
Opening this weekend:
Zoolander 2—As
targets of urgently needed satire go, male models don’t seem all that high on
the list just now. Nonetheless, Ben Stiller has made a sequel to his 2001 Zoolander, and it’s funnier than the
original.
At least, I think it is. I can’t really remember. It’s been
a freakin’ decade and a half, after all, since the original came out, and I’ve
never felt any pressing need to see it again. But I dimly remember getting a
chuckle or two out of it, and I got maybe four or five solid chuckles out of
this very silly, very belated follow-up. So I’d say it’s funnier than the
original, at least a little bit. You know, just in case Paramount might want to quote me and mention
this blog in some high-profile print ads.
Craggy-faced, blank-eyed, dull-witted runway model Derek
Zoolander (Stiller) has been in isolation for years as a “hermit crab” in a
cabin in “Extreme Northern New Jersey,” after having suffered a tragedy and
having his son taken away from him. One day he is mysteriously offered a
modeling gig at a show in Rome, and soon is asked to assist in an Interpol
investigation into the murders of beautiful celebrities—the film opens with such
a killing (it’s also in the TV ads) which elicited hearty applause from the
screening audience with whom I saw it.
Derek and his old rival/pal Hansel (Owen Wilson at his most
relaxed and enjoyable) follow the Interpol investigator (ridiculously stunning Penelope
Cruz) into an intrigue combining elements of James Bond and Silence of the
Lambs with a sort of Da Vinci Code backstory. Eventually the villainous Mugatu
(Will Ferrell) enters the story as well.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m not suggesting that Zoolander 2 is the laugh-riot of 2016.
It’s imbecilic. But it’s so doggedly, insistently imbecilic that from time to
time it breaks down your defenses and you start to giggle. Or I did, at least.
It has some good revue-sketch performances, too, notably by Kyle Mooney as
noxiously hyper-ironic designer “Don Atari.”
The movie also has a staggering number of celebrity cameos,
ranging from Ariane Grande to Neil deGrasse Tyson, some barely glimpsed, others
in surprisingly juicy roles. In the sheer volume of this sort of glitz, Zoolander 2 is reminiscent of a Muppet
movie. But Derek’s face isn’t nearly as expressive as Kermit’s.
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