Outbreak

Released way back in 2011, Steven Soderbergh's Contagion was one of the best movies I saw in 2012. A seemingly unstoppable virus is tearing its way across the world. Can it be stopped? Smart, well-written, well-acted and stylish, it was a great movie. Released 16 years earlier, 1995's Outbreak deals with a very similar story and formula. Where does it stand in comparison?

A longtime disease specialist/virologist working for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USARMIID), Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman) and his team have been sent to Zaire to deal with a new disease that wiped out an entire village. What they find is terrifying, a virus that replicates quickly, claiming victims within a 24-hour period. Daniels' crew manages to contain the disease within the village, taking samples and clearing out before the disease can spread. Just days later though, a patient in a hospital in Boston has the symptoms similar to the disease. Then there's another in California, and then a whole town. How did the disease spread so quickly? Can it be stopped before it wipes out thousands and maybe millions? Daniels and his team go to work, but there may be more at work within the government than they know trying to stop them.

From director Wolfgang Petersen, 'Outbreak' is a good example of a modern disaster film that doesn't have to resort to gimmicks to be good. When disaster films were at their most popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s, they became cliched quickly, trying to one-up each other one after another. That's not really an issue here, a pretty smart script laying out a situation that could really happen. Viruses and diseases are constantly evolving. Can the medical field and the government stay ahead of those evolutions? 'Outbreak' blends that intelligent premise with an all-star cast and lets things take off. For the most part, I liked it....for awhile. That's for a little later though. For now, here's some positives.

In much the same way I enjoyed Contagion, 'Outbreak' is at its best in dealing with the social implications involved here. We see how the USARMIID and the CDC respond, trying to react as quickly as possible. We see the government planning ahead for all possible contingency plans, however dark they may be. Petersen's got an eye for it, covering a ton of ideas and scenarios in relatively quick fashion. While there's a lot of characters and situations, it doesn't feel rushed. The disease spreads quickly, the virus jumping and developing quickly. It's all cut together at a lightning-pace, bouncing among all the different affected parties. Things take a turn for the dark when a California town is a breakout point, patients piling up at an alarming rate. The USARMIID, CDC, military and government descend on the town, other advances being made to track down the source. How did this disease spread? Those are the coolest moments, a frightening premise to think about in our current world.

Now for that all-star cast!!! It's interesting watching Dustin Hoffman do just about anything on-screen, and he's a great lead here. Unfortunately some of his character background is dealing with his recently divorced wife, Robby (Rene Russo), who's taken a job at the CDC. Oh, divorce drama! Still, Hoffman and Russo have a good chemistry. Rounding out Daniels' team are Kevin Spacey as Casey, the smart-ass, highly intelligent assistant who's worked for years with Daniels, and Cuba Gooding Jr. as Salt, a new recruit with an army and medical background but no field experience. Representing the government/military higher-ups, Morgan Freeman and Donald Sutherland play highly-ranked officers who know more than they're letting on (courtesy of a 1967 flashback to open the film we see). Also look for Patrick Dempsey as an unknowing spreader of the disease, a cool, quick and essential subplot to the story.

And there it is. A good, creepy, entertaining story that could have been based in some sort of reality. And then there's the last 45 minutes. Hoffman's Daniels becomes a superhero, Gooding Jr. his intrepid sidekick, the duo traveling all over California, Sutherland's evil general in hot pursuit, and all against the clock. There's helicopter chases, a trap for a cute, disease-ridden monkey, an evil general obsessed with something, taking over a TV news broadcast, a helicopter with an endless supply of fuel, and a big old shift in tone that goes from serious and dramatic to goofy and campy. The movie is still good, but the last third is pretty rough. We're not sure who makes it, and it all is resolved rather quickly in a flash. Could have been great in the end, but it's okay instead.

Outbreak (1995): ** 1/2 /****

Lee Daniels' The Butler

The names of the U.S. Presidents are instantly recognizable, names synonymous with the history of the United States, especially that building where the president leaves, whatever it's called. The White House I think? What about all the people who work at the White House, who keep the place running? And no, it's not just the nameless/faceless individuals who get killed during terrorist attacks in movies like White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen. I kid of course as we jump into 2013's Lee Daniels' The Butler, the true story of one of the White House's longtime butlers.

Growing up as a young boy with his sharecropping family in 1926 Georgia, Cecil Gaines has his outlook on life forever impacted when his father is shot down by a white man, the land owner where the family work, after raping his mother. Cecil is taught to be a house worker, a butler, and grows up finding jobs here and there working as a butler for the rich and well-to-do, eventually ending up at a Washington D.C. hotel. It isn't long before a grown-up Cecil (Forest Whitaker) has created quite a reputation for himself, earning an interview and eventually a full-time job at the White House, working with the sizable staff to make sure the President's home is a crisp, clean operation on a day-to-day basis. It's the late 1950s though, America heading into a turbulent time in its young history. Cecil has an inside look at America's involvement at home and internationally, all the while trying to raise a family with his wife, Gloria (Oprah Winfrey).  

This wasn't a movie I was dying to see, but I was nonetheless curious, even intrigued to see it. Loosely based on the true story of Eugene Allen, 'Butler' is director Lee Daniels' second film since his 2009 movie, Precious, that really put him on the map. It received pretty solid reviews and was a surprise success in theaters, earning over $167 million. I'm not really sure what to take away from it overall. I can appreciate what the message is going for, what it's trying to stand for and say about American history, yet that said, I didn't especially like it. What it's trying to do is admirable. What it accomplishes? Still mulling that over. Some of that can be chalked up to the script which tries to accomplish a ton in a 132-minute movie.

What I didn't question was Forest Whitaker in the lead role. Playing Cecil Gaines, Whitaker is our window as an audience into a whole lot of American history. We see his mindset, his frustrations, his motivations, his friendships, his rivalries, all of it. It isn't a flashy part, far from it, just a very straightforward, effective part. Whitaker's Cecil is a family man who wants to provide for that family, especially his wife, Gloria, struggling with alcoholism as she misses Cecil, his oldest son, Lewis (David Oyelowo, a good performance with some odd moments as a 37-year old playing a 15-year old), who dives headfirst into the civil rights movement, and his youngest son, Charlie (Elijah Kelley). His narration as a lead characters gets to be a little heavy-handed at times, but that's the script and not on Whitaker's shoulders. A very solid performance for Whitaker, a man trying to get by and live in some extremely turbulent times.

Beyond the family though, the supporting cast is mostly a long list of historical characters and bit parts that aren't around long enough to resonate. We meet a handful of Presidents including Dwight Eisenhower (Robin Williams), John F. Kennedy (James Marsden), Lyndon B. Johnson (Liev Schreiber), Richard Nixon (John Cusack) and Ronald Reagan (Alan Rickman), even meeting Nancy Reagan (Jane Fonda). These little episodes are pretty cool, but they're also gone as quick as they started. Because of that pacing issue, these scenes, appearances and story developments aren't as effective as they could and should have been. In storytelling technique, 'Butler' reminded me of the classic Forrest Gump, bouncing around to a lot of stories, a lot of key moments in American history, the story giving us a window into those moments. Where Forrest Gump blended the humor and drama though, 'Butler' stays on the dramatic path, and it wore on me. This can be a heavy, dark movie to get through at times.

Give the movie credit. It tries to do a lot. Ultimately though, I felt like it tries to do too much. A story focusing on Cecil's 30-plus year career at the White House would have been fascinating in itself. The same for a man trying to care for his family through the turbulence of the Civil Rights movement, into Vietnam and beyond. Doing both ends up making things too bouncy to the point neither story gets the attention it deserves. Much time is spent with Oyelowo's efforts in the Civil Rights movement, Cecil and Gloria worried and angry back home. Moments that feel like they should resonate well and carry the movie feel rushed, not letting those moments breathe. Much like the recent The Monuments Men, this feels like a story that would have been better suited to a miniseries. The effort is admirable, the execution tolerable. Moments like Cecil interacting with his fellow butlers (Cuba Gooding Jr. and Lenny Kravitz) ended up resonating more with me than most of the far-more dramatic scenes. Also look for Terrence Howard , Mariah Carey, Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Redgrave in odd, out of place parts.

That's the biggest issue. It doesn't pick a route and stick with it. Moments that work among portions of story that drift too much, kinda a necessity with a story that covers six decades in a man's life. I also resented something from the final scene, a written, on-screen message thanking all the men and women that have helped gain "our freedom." As a white individual, this message hit me the wrong way, and I admit I may be over-analyzing. Is this a movie meant solely for an African-American audience? Should I not be watching this movie? It's a mixed bag in the end, a generally interesting movie that ultimately doesn't live up to its potential.

Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013): ** 1/2 /****

As Good as It Gets

What do you think of when you hear the name James L. Brooks? I, for one, had to look the name up. I recognized it, but no one film instantly jumped out at me. Without the huge notoriety or name recognition, Brooks has a handful of classics and near-classics to his name whether it be directing or writing. How about one where he did both? That's 1997's As Good as It Gets. 

Living in a spacious NYC apartment, Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) is a famous author who churns out one classic love story and novel after another. His personality doesn't match the writing style though. Melvin is obsessive-compulsive, racist, a homophobe and basically hates everyone. He has no real friends, tolerating a semi-friendly waitress, Carol (Helen Hunt), at a restaurant he eats at everyday, and basically tries to avoid contact with everyone. His cozy little world riddled with OCD is thrown for a loop when his neighbor, Simon (Greg Kinnear), a gay artist, is horrifically beaten, and Melvin is forced to care for his tiny little dog, Verdell. Melvin has had quite the past with both Simon and Verdell but can't get out of the arrangement and agrees to watch the dog until Simon recovers. It's one little thing that changes Melvin's ways as an odd three-way friendship is forged among the author, the waitress and the gay artist. It's three very different people, but they seem to have found a unifying bond among them.

A favorite among critics and audiences in 1997, 'Good' earned over $140 million in theaters and was an even bigger success at the Oscars with Nicholson winning Best Actor and Hunt winning Best Actress. Oh, and there were five other nominations including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Kinnear. My recent viewing was my first for this film, and I enjoyed it a lot. How come? I can't really describe it. None of the characters are all that likable, and in a meandering sort of way, I never really knew where it was going or what it was trying to say. What then is the answer? I think it resonated with audiences because it is about people, their lives, their struggles inside themselves and interacting with others. Can't everybody see the appeal in that in some way? It feels real. No explosions or shootouts, just some solid dramatic moments, one on top of the other.

An acting legend, Nicholson has won three separate Oscars and earned 12 nominations overall. I'm partial to his performance in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as his best, but against a talented field in 1997 -- Matt Damon, Peter Fonda, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Duvall -- Nicholson delivers a gem. The fact that we like this character even a smidge is a testament to Nicholson's ability. His Melvin Udall -- the perfect name for this character -- is a racist, prejudiced, obsessive-compulsive individual while also becoming a famous author. He has absolutely no filter in whatever he says and basically only thinks of himself at all times, how things affect him. Just about everyone who meets him is disgusted by him, and he welcomes it. That he finds some sort of odd companionship with a squirrelly little dog named Verdell is beyond perfect. I liked the movie throughout, but there's no doubt Nicholson is the best part of the movie.

While Nicholson's performance was the most noteworthy for me, all three lead performances are really worth mentioning. Mostly known from TV sitcom Mad About You and as the girl from Twister, Hunt shows what a talented actress she really is. A single mom with a son who has horrific asthma attacks almost at will, her Carol works as a waitress and has the unpleasant title of being Melvin's favorite waitress. She's trying to do what's best for her son and is put in an interesting predicament by Melvin even if his reasons for doing a very generous thing seem almost entirely intentional. In the smallest of the three parts, Kinnear is very good without being stereotypical as a struggling artist in NYC, a gay man who resents Melvin more and more for his brutally inappropriate comments about his sexuality.

Also look for Cuba Gooding Jr. in a solid part as Simon's agent who's trying to help him become a successful artist. Shirley Knight is very good as Beverly, Carol's very helpful mother and also watch for Yeardley Smith, Skeet Ulrich, Harold Ramis, and even future SNL star (and more) Maya Rudolph in supporting parts. Look quick for Rudolph or you'll miss her.

If I have one complaint with 'Good' it is that at 139 minutes it is a tad on the long side. There are some big, dramatic moments (but not overdone thankfully), but for the most part the story leans more toward the episodic. We meet the characters, see them interact in a variety of places and fashions. Late in the movie, Melvin, Carol and Simon go on a road trip with an odd purpose, an extended sequence that works well but I questioned where it was going. It does eventually get there, it just takes a little while with an effective ending. Funny, very dark, emotional, and based in some sort of personal reality, this is a good one.

As Good as It Gets (1997): ***/**** 

Red Tails

What the 54th Massachusetts was to the Civil War, the Tuskegee Airmen -- the 332nd Fighter Group -- was to World War II. It was a unit of soldiers in the Army Air Corps made up entirely of African American soldiers with segregation still alive in the armed forces. The first African American aviators in the army, the unit was forced to deal with prejudice and racism on the small scale and the large scale; rivalries from other units, doubting commanders above who questioned if they could actually handle aerial combat. It struggled in theaters, but 2012's Red Tails does a solid if unspectacular job at telling their story.

It is 1944 in Italy, and the 332nd Fighter Group, commanded by Colonel A.J. Bullard (Terrence Howard) and his executive officer, Major Stance (Cuba Gooding Jr.), is wasting away. Headquarters refuses to give the African American fighters a chance to prove themselves, sending them on patrols over already-taken land, giving escort to planes well behind enemy lines. Finally after months of arguments over the issue, the 332nd, including squadron commander Marty 'Easy' Julian (Nate Parker) and close friend and the group's best pilot, Joe 'Lightning' Little (David Oyelowo), are given a chance. They're given little room for error though so when assigned as bomber escorts for a key mission, the 332nd knows the unit's success hinges on the mission being accomplished.

Much like 2006's Flyboys, 'Red' is a unit picture that has the tone and message more of the 1940s-1960s than a 2012-released war movie. Maybe its my cynicism at modern audiences, but stories like these just don't seem to appeal to audiences in a huge way anymore. Current war movies have to be ultra violent, realistic and offer something new. Stories that look at our armed forces in a heroic way? That premise might not fly as much. From director Anthony Hemingway, 'Red' does its best to honor the Tuskegee Airmen as best as it can. Without doing anything groundbreaking, it manages to be entertaining and exciting, going back to the well one or two times too often on war movie cliches, conventions and characters. Still, it's a solid movie.

The movie comes from George Lucas' studio -- Lucasfilms -- so that should tell you a lot about the movie. Especially the three more recent Star Wars movies, Lucas' movies seem more interested in impressing than just telling a developing story with interesting characters. In other words? A world-class script isn't essential. The background here is simple; tell the story of the Airmen as heroically as possible. The script doesn't do any favors though. The acting can be atrocious at times -- script or actors? Both? -- and the line deliveries are laughable. At one point, a white American bomber pilot actually says about the black Airmen "They're sacrificing glory to save our asses!" Subtle this is not. There's also the epically evil German pilot, played by Lars van Riesen, who ends up being the face of the German war effort. He sneers, growls, and at one point says in amazement 'Those pilots are colored!' For goodness sake, the man even has a facial scar. Could this movie be any more obvious?

Filling out the cast is a relatively unknown cast with two major stars (well, sort of) having what amounts to cameo parts. Thanks to the script, the cast never really develops 3-D, red-blooded characters. Instead, 'Tails' stays in that comfortable comfort zone of stock characters. Parker and Oyelowo are worth mentioning, rising above their familiar characters. As squadron commander, Parker's Easy struggles with command, turning to booze, while Oyelow's Lightning is a hot-shot pilot who gets a love interest, Sofia (NCIS: LA's Daniela Ruah), an Italian woman who can't speak English. Oh, awkward budding romance! The rest of the pilots are pretty bad, including Junior (Tristan Wilds), the youngster trying to prove himself, Joker (Elijah Kelley), seemingly trying to channel Chris Rock's voice and pitch, and Smokey (hip-hop artist Ne-Yo), doing his best drawling Bill Cosby impression. Howard has to deliver a few key monologues, Gooding Jr. has to smile a couple times and smoke a pipe. Andre Royo and Method Man are solid too as the 332nd's mechanical support staff.

So by this point, it sure sounds like I'm ripping the movie, but I did enjoy it enough to recommend it. Most of that positive karma comes from the aerial sequences as the 332nd tangles with German fighters over Italy and Germany. For the most part, I'm guessing much -- if not all -- of these sequences were done with computer-generated images, but you know what's good about that? I can't tell for sure. The CGI is seamless, making the aerial combat exhilarating to watch as these 1940s fighters and bombers swoop through the air with clouds of flak, shrapnel and bullets flying through the air. Clocking in at 125 minutes, 'Red' has plenty of time for these sequences, and we're the better for it. The slower, duller and cliched portions down on the ground seem a long way off when the dogfighting begins.

Mostly though, I think 'Red' tries to do too much even with a two-hour running time. Lots of characters, lots of history, and it still manages to get an unnecessary love story jammed in there, a subplot in a German prisoner of war camp, and scenes back in Washington showing the bureaucracy of running a war. With all that said, it's still an enjoyable enough movie. Probably not for everyone, but I liked it just enough to recommend it. Also worth mentioning? Check out Gooding Jr. in a made-for TV HBO movie from the late 90s about the Tuskegee Airmen.

Red Tails <---trailer (2012): ** 1/2 ****

American Gangster

Any star/director combo that turned out a movie as good as 2000's Gladiator basically gets a free pass from me. I'll pretty much watch anything that comes as a result of that duo, star Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott, working together again. It took a little while, but they did team up together in 2007's American Gangster, based on a true story as well. And as if those two weren't good enough, throw in Oscar-winner Denzel Washington into the mix.

With a Scott-produced and directed movie, it's obvious what you're going to get from the finished product. There's going to be an air of professionalism with the movie that some directors just can't produce. Great performances from the leads is almost a given, and probably most importantly of all, it'll be an entertaining movie, so much so you might not realize how real or authentic the story feels. American Gangster has all this (almost), but never reaches it's potential for whatever reason thanks to some rather leisurely storytelling. To be fair, I watched the extended DVD version which clocks in at 173 minutes opposed to the theatrical version's 154 minutes so keep that in mind as I complain.

It's 1969 in Harlem and Frank Lucas (Washington) is at a crossroads. His longtime boss/friend/father figure Bumpy Johnson -- basically the king of New York gangsters -- has died, and everyone else in NY thinks Frank's going to go with him. But Frank goes into business for himself, traveling to war-torn Vietnam to arrange a deal for a consistent supply of heroin into the U.S. which he names 'Blue Magic' for street sale. That's all Lucas needs as he takes off and the money starts rolling in, carrying him higher than even the Italian crime families. Then, there's Richie Roberts (Crowe), an honest detective infamous in the force for turning in $1 million dollars when he could have kept it for himself. Directed by supervisors, Roberts sets up a force to take down the heavy hitters in the drug industry, and sure enough, the evidence leads to a mystery man no one knows anything about, one Frank Lucas.

The story covers about seven years from Lucas' rise to his eventual conviction and jail time. It never feels rushed, and the proceedings are always pretty clear but Scott takes too much time setting things up. The first hour is downright boring and almost lost me. I realize he has to establish a background for the next two hours, but he takes a little too long. The second hour is a little better as things start moving along, but it's still not up to par with a typical Ridley Scott movie. The third hour saves the movie from being a complete bust as there's a sense of urgency, an excitement that was missing from the previous 120 or so minutes.

What surprised me most here was that Washington is not at his best. For me, Denzel is about as bankable a star as Hollywood has right now, and I'll watch him in just about anything -- maybe even read a phone book. But his Lucas is too subdued most of the time with a few quick outbursts of extreme violence, including maybe the movie's best scene because it shows the paradox Lucas has created. Like the 1972 classic The Godfather, Lucas wants to provide for his family and protect them as best he can, breaking the law be damned. He will do anything to keep them safe, including his wife Eva (Lymari Nadal) and loving mother (Ruby Dee in an Oscar-nominated supporting role).

In the same way I look at Washington, I look at Crowe. They're both actors, not movie stars. Crowe is the highpoint of Gangster as Richie Roberts, a cop trying to juggle his chaotic home life and divorced wife (an underused Carla Gugino) and the task force he's been assigned to take down the drug producers and suppliers. A New Zealand native, Crowe pulls off a pretty decent Jersey accent too in helping make Roberts the sympathetic cop. The story demands it, but a major problem is that Crowe and Washington don't have a scene together until the last 30 minutes. Their meeting (<----SPOILERS) is another great scene, and the following conversation is reminiscent of De Niro and Pacino in the coffee shop in Heat. It is scenes like this that show the potential of how good the movie should have been, but never is.

With an almost three-hour long movie, Scott fills out the ranks with a phenomenal supporting cast. Some are better than others and more than a few are left by the wayside as the story moves along, but that's almost a given with a cast list this big. Rapper RZA and John Hawkes play two members of Richie's task force, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Common, and T.I. as some of Frank's family, Ted Levine as Frank's police supervisor, and even Cuba Gooding Jr and Armand Assante as two of Frank's underworld 'contacts.' And since the movie doesn't paint Lucas as the bad guy, that part goes to Josh Brolin as the Special Investigations detective Trupo who's not too proud to take a bribe, lots of bribes.

It's disappointing writing an average review of this movie because I wanted to like it, and I was expecting a lot more. Something just doesn't click though. I won't go as far as saying it's a boring movie, but there's no heart to it, no real energy to keep things moving over an almost three hour movie. Sure, there's positives from the casting to the great 70s feel to the story, but I was expecting more. Still worth a watch though because an average movie with Crowe, Washington and Scott is still better than a ton of other new releases. Check out one of the all-time best trailers for a recent movie below.

American Gangster <----trailer (2007): **/****