There are basic human needs. Food. Shelter. Love. And the need to see someone careen down a highway while hanging out the window trying to aim a rocket launcher at a bad guy.
It happens to all of us, but mostly men, this need to see things blown up. Multiple times if necessary.
Luckily, there's "From Paris with Love," a fast-paced, high-explosive, but definitely R-rated film that meets this need head on with a few laughs along the way.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors) plays James Reece. He works for the American embassy in Paris, but what he really wants to do is cloak and dagger work. As the movie opens, he's more handkerchief and safety pin. The real spies have him changing license plates and planting bugs for the truly tough guys. He chafes at this. Yet, it takes him three tries and a borrowed stapler to adhere a bug to the underside of a desk, and he knocks his head in the process.
Maybe he needs more time to mature.
At least he has a hot French girlfriend, Caroline (Kasia Smutniak). She's the kind of girl who sews her own chic dresses out of his curtains and makes everything look good.
Reece's days warming the bench come to an abrupt end when Charlie Wax (John Travolta) rolls into town. He's a mega-spy with a huge swagger and fists to back it up. The hombre they bring in when they need a job done right. The type who can kill six knife-wielding thugs with his bare hands and consider it an appetizer.
A few raging gunfights later, Reece, the mild mannered wanna be spy, finds himself zooming around Paris toting a ridiculous Chinese vase full of cocaine through unbelievable mayhem.
I guess it's true you never know what the day is going to bring.
Truth be told, Charlie Wax has issues. You wouldn't want to take him home to mother. He does a little cocaine, kills lots of people (who deserve it), and even has an interlude with a prostitute. Plus, he just likes to mess with people. Although, now that I think of it, he wouldn't use the word "mess," but something much more Saxon. This film earns its R rating several times over.
In other words, Wax is no Jack Bauer. He's a careening force of nature that can only be found on the silver screen where there are no consequences for behavior. This movie isn't about the moral implications of his actions. It's about driving fast, shooting things, preferably with a rocket launcher, and blowing things up, for the sheer fun of it.
French director Pierre Morel finds ways to make the most ubiquitous of Hollywood staples - the shootout - look fresh. What's French for "awesome?"
The bodies pile up, starting with some alarmingly overarmed Chinese restaurant waiters. No worries, Wax and Reece, ever helpful, keep track of the body count for you.
It's all done with a wink and a nod from Travolta's character.
You get the sense Charlie Wax enjoys the ride as much as the audience does. In his jovial, foul-mouthed way, he's impressed with himself and reveling in seeing Reece squirm. Travolta - let's face it - has played some stinkers in his days (Old Dogs, anyone?), but he pulls off Charlie Wax without a hitch.
Toward the end, there is one false note that doesn't jam with the rakish tone of rest of the movie. Don't worry. By the time it comes along you've had so much fun you don't even care. Much.
There's something to be said for just having a good time with buddies at the movies and not overthinking the implications of a film that is never intended to be a moral statement. Some don't like moral laxity and can't enjoy a film that doesn't have a strong moral code. Some of us love the cathartic release of a wild ride and shrug off the edgier elements. Hey, I'm not your mom. You know which group you fit in. Choose wisely and let me know what you think.
How many of you remember King Miraz's coat in the movie Prince Caspian? Yeah, I didn't either. But let me tell you, it rocks. It's all hand-dyed velvet with hand-embossing, capped with special trim. I got to see it, and talk to the costume director of Prince Caspian about her work, during an event highlighting the release of the Prince Caspian DVD December 2.
Costume designer Isis Messenden traveled all over the world to find the right fabrics and trims to create the human costumes in the Narnian world. She rummaged through fabric stores in Madrid, poked through stands in Italy, and rifled through shops in London. She bought bolts of velvet, rolls of trim, baskets of buttons. While in Spain, she visited El Greco paintings and used their colors as inspiration for her color palette for the Telemarine people. She traveled to the island of Sardinia to gather ideas for their style.
First of all, I want her job. Or maybe just tag along while she does hers.
Mussenden's vision formed everything from the leather armor of the soldiers to the Narnian dresses Lucy and Susan wear. I got to touch those dresses and they were beautiful, silk with hand embroidery, lovely to look at and soft to the touch.
The layers of the artistry of the endeavor was amazing to me. Building on El Greco, finding the very best materials, hand embossing patterns onto the fabric. All to add richness to a film, but not to be noticed in itself.
Prince Caspian, with its $200 million price tag, is perceived by some as a box office failure, in part because the costs cut into the profits. Mussenden estimated her budget at $4 million. All that artistry costs money.
Yet there's something to be said for beauty and excellence. The next time you watch the DVD, stop to notice Miraz's coat. What do you think? Was it worth it?
If you heard a high-pitched shrieking sound last weekend, it was not Halloween starting early or 
someone finally snapping over the election. What you heard was fans, often tween girls, who are overcome with excitement at the latest installment of Disney’s High School Musical franchise. High School Musical 3: Senior Year, which opened October 24th, moves the wildly successful TV movies to the big screen. And not a moment too soon. Frenzied devotees sold out movie theaters before it even opened.
For the uninitiated, HSM hearkens back to the musical galas of stars like Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers. Driven more by emotion than plot, the characters sing about their dreams while dancing in elaborately choreographed and staged numbers. It’s atypically innocent. Sweethearts Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) and Troy (Zac Efron) sing to each other and waltz through a flower-filled rooftop garden, but nothing more. They share their first on-screen kiss in three years toward the end of the movie. It’s all done without a hint of irony or cynicism. At a recent advance screening, one could hear occasional snickers from jaded adults, but they were drowned out by the sound of their daughters swooning.
“Kids have to grow up so fast,” said HSM screenwriter Peter Barsocchini, “In school, in 2nd grade, I sat in my daughter’s class the day they gave the lecture about drugs. Who in the schoolyard to look at, if you see x you got drugs, STDs, all these issues, you know.….There’s a huge desire to not have to absorb all that and to be forced into being cool. The dirty little secret of contemporary entertainment is that a lot of that is being foisted on kids. They feel pressure when they see other things where kids are being pushed ahead of where they are. [HSM] is anti-pressure.”
Producer Barry Rosenbush agreed, “I think that’s why the movie has had success. They vote with their feet. We didn’t make them come to the movie. They came because they watched it and it connected to them in a very interesting kind of way.”
Fans do indeed vote with their feet, and their remotes. The CW’s edgy teen dramas 90210 and Gossip Girl languish in the ratings, drawing in fewer than 4 million viewers an episode. This is despite buzz from the tabloids, and story lines driven by sex, drugs, and alcohol. Gossip Girl even resorted to a controversial ad campaign to draw eyeballs: a risqué picture with the caption “OMFG.” (Texting-speak for “Oh my [expletive] God.”) In contrast, Disney’s Camp Rock special, featuring outspoken Christian abstinence advocates, the Jonas Brothers, brought in 8.9 million viewers in June of this year, and High School Musical 2 still holds the record for the highest watched cable program of all time, with 17.2 million viewers in August of 2007. These ratings are even more astronomical when you consider that cable has a much smaller pool of viewers to draw from than broadcast channels like the CW.
The trend continues to movies. Beverly Hills Chihuahua, so squeaky clean it avoided so much as a dog-pee joke, topped the box office for weeks and has made over $70 million world wide. The Hannah Montana 3D movie last summer has also made $70 million; a handy profit considering it cost just $7 million to make. High School Musical 3 is projected to dominate the box office. High School Musical 3 grossed 42 million domestically last weekend and is still going strong.There is a basic profit booster built in to kids flicks: The theater sells tickets to all those chaperones as well as their children. Yet, that alone can’t account for the numbers. It’s driven by the youngsters. Despite what cynical critics and jaded producers might want from Hollywood, the kids want fun, inspirational, and unsullied.
The cast of HSM couldn’t be happier with that. “We’re grateful that the project we’re recognized for is one that is so wholesome and positive and awesome and inspirational,” said Monica Coleman, who plays brainiac Taylor, at the press roundtable for the movie.
“Anyone from two years old to 70 can watch this movie and feel good about it,” agreed Vanessa Hudgens, whose chaste image was tested by an offscreen scandal involving illegally obtained nude pictures a year ago, “It’s just a get away in a sense, because there’s none of those bad things and it’s a musical. You watch it and you’re taken to this world where it’s happy and you have fun and you don’t need anything bad.”
“If you set out to make something sweet and innocent, it’s a fool’s errand,” warned Barsocchini, “If you start reading the tea leaves and think we know why High School Musical worked, you’re a dead man, creatively.”
There’s much more to it than just removing drugs, sex, and STDs, argued Rosenbush. “We always looked at it as a movie about aspirations. And I think we’ve always fulfilled that obligation.” He pointed out that while the students sing about prom and their romances, they’re also working hard on the basketball court, the school stage, and in the classroom. All of the senior characters are headed for college and have goals beyond making through the year. “I’m getting email. People calling. Parents contacting me from various sources,” said Barsocchini, “Saying they’re so happy about HSM 3 because all the characters go to college. It isn’t a discussion in high school, about ‘Uh, where am I gonna get my [drugs].’ It’s about ‘What college are you going to go to?’”
“I think that’s a very sincere way of making people feel they can do it,” said Rosenbush, “They can sing about their dreams in a way that’s kind of sweet and innocent.”
Photo: Disney Enterprises, Inc/Fred Hayes