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Reviews
In Good Company (2004)
In good company
Dennis Quaid ranks high in our family video night; both the Parent Trap and the Rookie are among our young children's favorites. For my wife and I, I rented In Good Company due to Quaid, and because the film intrigued me: its trailer and synopsis do not rely on quick action or screwball comedy
. it was different from most of what I see.
In Good Company relies on its characters. I don't know the corporate world, but as corporations seem to be today's "Resident Evil" (pun intended), I liked a story where a heart is found in the Oz less world of layoffs and cubicles. What I liked most was the interaction between Dan Forman, played by Quaid, and Carter Duryea, played by Topher Grace. Carter is fatherless; basically he's Prentiss, and the film shows a close Foreman family but has little, and little positive, reference to Carter's upbringing. Carter's world is psyche, synergy, cell phones and Sports America, where he now runs sales. As the film progresses we are treated not just to an old school/new school, hip/over the hill tension, but see a young man learn character, in work and family, from someone who has done it right. There are limitations, as when Foreman tells Duryea that the secret to a good marriage is to find the right woman and keep your organ in your pants when you are away from home. This is not too helpful for Carter, whose seven-month marriage to the wrong woman shows a need for more than luck. But overall he learns that life is more than suits, cars, and success
he longs for he does not have. Throughout we see the pain of a young man all alone in the world, someone who has had no one to guide him.
In one scene, Morty, played by David Paymer, states that the right timing is important. The film could easily have dived into a happy ending where everyone has a job and where Carter gets the girl, but it makes a good move by remaining true to that line. When Carter hugs Foreman goodbye he squeezes him and breaks down. When we next see Carter he is jogging outside rather than on a treadmill. He may not know where his path will lead, but now, thanks for Dan Foreman, he is no longer running in circles.
The Jungle Book 2 (2003)
made for video....
We just took our two daughters (ages five and four) to their first cinema experience...The Jungle Book 2. Though it had a few scary parts (Shere Khan close ups), overall it was pleasant and didn't contain the violence that has characterized a number of other childrens videos that we've rented.
The above experience not withstanding, as I watched the film I kept thinking that this movie should not have gone to the theaters, but should have been sent straight to video. When you look at the voice talent (John Goodman, Phil Collins, Haley Joel Osment), you initially expect big gun entertainment. It is later that it dawns on you that you've paid cinema prices for a film that lasts only around 75 minutes and has a plot that is more concerned with having the original cast make almost forced appearance (look! Here is the snake! We've come across the monkeys! Are those elephant noises I hear?), rather than bringing them all back as part of a well devised plot. The film develops well in the village with Mowgli recounting his jungle life. Once the village is left, however, you feel pushed along. The most forced of the whole group are the buzzards, who go from being significant in the first film to basically showing up here and watching Lucky, the new vulture addition, ham it up. I guess Col. Hathi's wife knew better. She doesn't even appear in this one!
The weak plot aside, there was something unusual for me in returning to these characters so many years later and seeing that they have not aged a bit....only in animation! Seeing this film from the 60s brought back with updated music, was enjoyable. Perhaps that is why the buzzards weren't really needed. Audiences of the first film would have been thinking "Ringo" during the buzzard scenes, here the Smash Mouths sing on the soundtrack. Some things just don't cross time well.
So... as a sequel the film is weak. But it is enjoyable to watch...on video. Some sequels are a waste even in the 99 cent bin (Beethoven 3, anyone?), while others are worth the sitting (Homeward Bound 2). Disney has given us a sequel designed for a family with little kids, but its theatrical run shows a greed that does not fit well with the reputation for quality that Walt Disney was given.
ps. We watched the film here in Argentina, so it was in Spanish. Lucky is presented as a doof whose Spanish has the thickest North American accent I've ever heard. Hmmmm.
Herencia (2001)
A super Porteño film
We've lived in Buenos Aires, the location for Herencia, for almost two years, and enjoyed watching this film. Besides the short scenes where Peter and Luz visit the sites of the city, the film keeps itself to some of the lesser known, even seedier sections of the city, giving the viewer a different picture of this world class city.
One of the opening scenes is humorous, where Peter, following the address on the letter, arrives to find his lost love, only to find out that she lives an hour away....not unusual in a city of 12 or so million where many streets and areas have the same name. This happened recently to me: I followed some directions specifically, only to find out that another area, with the same names, was the area I needed.
Peter is also humorous trying to speak Spanish. He mixes the formal "you" or "usted", with the informal "you" or "tú", and then adds the informal Argentine "you" or "vos". He does this in the same sentence, to the same person! Ah, the joys of language learning.
BA is an international city, so unlike the traditional Latino world pictured by many of dark skinned, dark haired, Andean mountain type people. The story of two foreigners arriving to find new lives, new loves, and new pain, is common. One touching scene has Olinda finding an Italian newspaper and savoring an hour reading her native language.It eventually leads her back "home" to Italy, though much of her remains "porteño" (a resident of Buenos Aires).
I recommend this film. It is well scripted, directed and shows human compassion between two people making a new world their own.I walk the streets of BA every day, always feeling that I belong, and always feeling a bit foreign. At their core, so do Peter and Olinda.