Movie Madness!

THE FUNERAL

Abel Ferrara is one of America's most individualistic filmmakers. He's attracted to stories of gritty, urban lost souls. He paints pictures of angst and suffering, while avoiding cheap melodrama. He has excellent control of the medium of film. And he knows the value of a good shock. It's these qualities that keep me fascinated, even though some of his films are difficult to sit through. As Isabella Rosellini put it recently on CBS' Late Show, "This is not a film you watch to be entertained." Oddly enough, The Funeral never gets to the actual funeral.

Most of the characters in this family gangster drama set in the '30s are so distressed and troubled that the film is over before we make it through the wake. Christopher Walken, Chris Penn, and Vincent Gallo lead a fine cast as the racketeering Tempio brothers, desperately trying to carry on their family's mantle of petty tyranny against the threat of modern tactics of organized crime. Not among Ferrara's best work, but worth seeing. ½

RANSOM

As a director, Ron Howard is known for either family fun (Parenthood) or heroic spectacle (Backdraft, Apollo 13). Here he shows that he can handle thrillers just as well. Mel Gibson stars as a successful businessman who gets backed into a corner when his son is kidnapped. Fearing that his son is doomed no matter what he does, he risks all in a desperate gamble by attempting to turn the tables on the kidnappers.

By offering the ransom money as a bounty, he hopes the bad guys will return his son to save their own lives. The cast is excellent, especially Gibson and Gary Sinese in a career-shaking role as a seedy cop. But the main credit should go to Howard for maintaining a high level of tension throughout the entire film.

SPACE JAM

Of all the studios producing cartoon shorts throughout the 1930s and '40s, the greatest rivalry was between Disney and Warner Bros. While Disney excelled at their own brand of artistry, the Warners lead the field in the area of anarchic comedy. By the time theatrical shorts faded from the scene, Disney had evolved a formula for animated feature films, while letting their stable of cartoon stars continue only as corporate icons (save for the work of Carl Barks and a few others who produced Disney's comic-books).

Warners, on the other hand, found a home for their shorts on television, but the relatively small number of cheaply done cartoons made for TV were pale imitations of the superior product of the past. These cartoons were especially depressing to watch since they were so often shown on the same bill with the Looney Tunes classics. The last gasp of this bloodline came with the theatrical release of a painfully unfunny Daffy Duck short directed by Chuck Jones. However, recent years have seen new blood poured into the Warners, resulting in some cartoon offshoots of the Looney Tunes.

Happily, brilliant works such as Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs outnumber mediochre fare like Tazmania, and Space Jam represents the next step in this arena, combining Warners brand of insanity with a host of technical innovations. It doesn't hurt that Bugs Bunny shares his feature debut with Michael Jordan, arguably the finest professional athlete in any sport. Jordan's thespian tactic is to underplay and let his body do the acting.

The story, which concerns the Tunes' efforts to win freedom from oppression at the hands of extraterrestrial amusement park operators by defeating them in a basketball game, is only meaty enough to stretch their shenanigans to feature length (just as the cartoon shorts had only enough plot to last 7 minutes). Helping out is Bill Murray and a host of NBA stars. This film likely holds the record for roles credited as "Himself". Overall, its plenty of fun and quite an achievement for a film based on 30-second commercial. ½

STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT

No, it's not about Captain Kirk finding a solution for his failing eyesight. The eighth Star Trek feature finds the next generation crew battling those hive-minded cyborg zombies known as the Borg at the time of mankind's initial meeting with an alien race. Seeking to shake off series doldrums, they've packed this entry with plenty of action, humor, and marvelous effects. In fact, the whole show is so energetic that moments of drama feel as if they were shoehorned in. Captain Picard reveals his full hatred of the Borg and lust for vengeance to a character he's only known for 20 minutes or so.

Debuting feature director Jonathan Frakes no doubt tried to keep the pace moving as quickly as possible, and characters are occassionally lost in the tumult. And newcomers in attendance should have no fear - the filmmakers have made every effort to insure that you'll feel totally lost. But these minor quibbles aside, this surely has to be the very best Star Trek feature since the second (The Wrath of Khan), and no other film in current release delivers more bang for the buck than this one. ½

subUrbia

Director Richard Linklater, in such films as Slacker and Dazed and Confused, has become a specialist in capturing the aimless wanderings of American youth with his graceful camerawork and dedication to detail. The results have always been amusing and thought provoking. Until now. subUrbia is based on Eric Bogosian's play about young adults who spend their nights hanging around next to a suburban convenience store. Some try to escape this existence, some try to justify it, and others seek refuge in it.

After an hour of angst, they all wear out their welcome. After the second hour of this film, you'll want them all dead. Tellingly, this annoying piece of drama seems to have been on the shelf for a while, as several of the actors look younger here than they did in previous releases - projects in which they produced superior work. No doubt the distributor has been waiting for a chance to sneak it into theaters quietly. You may think that Bogosian should shoulder most of the blame, since it seems he was merely trying to write a play easily sold to college theater groups. But it is Linklater who chose to take on this assignment, one which takes the most clichéd and obvious elements of his previous work and trots them out without the slightest hint of ingenuity or originality. for a decent ensemble of actors.

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