Shakespeare may or may not have been a fraud....but this movie's marketing sure is

Anonymous (2011)
Starring: Rhys Ifans, Sebastian Armesto, Edward Hogg, Vanessa Redgrave, David Thewlis, Jamie Campbell Bower, Joely Richardson, Xavier Samuel, Sam Reid, Paolo De Vita, Trystan Gravelle, Rafe Spall, and Derek Jacobi
Director: Roland Emmerich
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Edward, the Earl of Oxford (Ifans), is a brilliant and obsessive writer and poet, who is forced to keep his art secret due to circumstances of birth and the machinations of power-broker William Cecil (Thewlis). But his love of theater becomes overwhelming, and he seeks out a talented but struggling playwright, Ben Johnson (Armesto) to serve as his "beard." The play goes awry when Johnson hesitates and hack actor and all-around low-life Will Shakespeare (Spall) steps in and steals the credit. As Oxford turns from play-writing to politics in order to support his friends and proteges, the Earls of Essex and Southhampton (Reid and Samuel), playwrights and nobles alike are swept up in deadly and hidden machinations over who will take the throne of England after the death of Queen Elizabeth I (Redgrave).

The film's tagline and ad campaign drew me in. "Was Shakespeare a Fraud?" is an intriguing question for one such as myself who has enjoyed many different stagings of his plays over the years, and who loves the running gag in "Houseboat on the River Styx" about Shakespeare not being the author of his plays. However, this is ultimately a very small part of the film, which is primarily concerned with a chain of events that leads to the events known as the Essex Rebellion and behind-the-scenes machinations of the Cecils, a wealthy family of commoners. And, of course, the brilliance of Oxford as a writer.

The film, in fact, makes such a big deal out of how brilliant Oxford is that is ends up undermining its own conspiracy theory about Shakespeare taking credit for his work. According to the story, a number of plays attributed to Shakespeare were written by Oxford when he was just a boy and performed at Queen Elizabeth's court. In fact, the plays were seen by so many people that it strains credibility that when they start showing up in theaters and later performed at Elizabeth's court again that no-one remembers them from years before. In other words, within the universe of the film, Oxford's secret identity as a playwright is one of the worst kept secrets in all of England.

The credibility of the film is further undermined by glaring historical inaccuracies, ones that even non-history buffs or non-Shakespeare scholars will pick up on, with the most glaring of these being "Macbeth" presented as written and performed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth when it was wasn't written until King James was on the throne.

Now, the screenwriter has stated in interviews that he made those errors intentionally as a homage to Shakespeare... and they can further be excused by the fact that the film is presented within a Shakespeare-like framework with a presenter taking to the stage before and after the main events of the film, thus clearly framing it as a work of fiction where shadows may or may not offend. Nonetheless, if you're going to write a movie presenting the thesis that the greatest creative force to ever work in the English language wasn't who history records him to be--no matter how tangential that ultimately ends up being to the thrust of your story--it behooves you to actually present a little historical accuracy as far as his works go. Especially when in the case of Macbeth, there's no reason for the discordant note to be struck.

Aside from the glaring historical inaccuracies, this is an accomplished film. It is well-acted, beautifully shot, and expertly paced. The story structure is unnecessarily convoluted--as it's got a framing sequence within the framing sequence of the narrator on stage in a theater, and then adds frequent flashbacks within the main story just to add a possibility of confusing the audience--but the film is long enough that viewers get acclimated to the jumps back and forth after the first couple of times, so it turns out to be less or a drawback than it seems at first. The way character traits were conveyed through props and costuming was also impressive, with the fact that Earl of Oxfords fingers were always stained with ink while Shakespeare's were always perfectly clean was a particularly nice touch.

This is not a film for everyone; some will find it way too talky, and I suspect it might be painful to sit through if you've put any real time and effort into Shakespeare scholarship (given the inaccuracies a yahoo like me could spot without even trying), but if you're a regular viewer of "Masterpiece Theater," I suspect it might be right up your ally.

I'm still going to stick with the Shakespeare authorship theories put forth by John Kendrick Bangs, however.

'I Sold My Soul to Satan'

Actually, no I didn't... but given how my career has been going in the past few years, it may be an option I should look into. The headline is the title of a documentary which was provided to me for review by start-up distributor Chemical Burn Entertainment.


I Sold My Soul to Satan (2010)
Starring: Kai Blackwood, Jymie Darling, and Maja d'Aoust
Directors: David Gaz and Alex Vazart
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Follow would-be rock star Kai Blackwood as he embarks on one last attempt at achieving fame... by selling his soul to the devil.

The focus of this documentary, Kai Blackwood, has a lot in common with me. We're about the same age and we're both faced with careers that are on the skids, but Blackwood is willing to go that extra mile for success. Or at least for a shot at fame through "reality television."

Directors Gaz and Vazart's cameras follow Blackwood around the Los Angeles area as he collects the ingredients needed to perform the ritual to sell his soul to Satan, and has he consults with various experts in the occult, first and foremost Jymie Darling who says brilliant things like "I've learned everything there is about the Unknown". Darling is actually a more interesting character than Blackwood, and she vascilates from mildly creepy to mildly goofy (but always very sincere) as she tries to explain the reasons for why the rituals to sell your soul to demons are what they are, and tries to stress to Blackwood that he needs to be serious about what he is about to do.

I never get the feeling that Blackwood is serious, however. The interviews with him interspersed with scenes of him shopping for or collecting the items he's going to need for the ritual show a guy who isn't following Darling's advice, but who seems like the typical, flaky "reality television"-type wanna-be. Although this does lead to some great viewing, such as when he's making the ink needed to sign his demonic pact.

Both fun and informative, this is a documentary that should appeal equally to you whether you have an interest in occult matters and whether you love or despise "reality shows." The only complaint I have is that the film only follows the path of Blackwood toward his pact with Satan. According to comments from David Gaz during the film, there were two out of the thousands of applicants for the film whom he thought were suitable subjects. We get a few snippets from the screen-test of that other person. a fashion designer named Sarah, and I would have liked to see how the same routines went for her.

"I Sold My Soul to Satan" receives its wide release on DVD on November 8, 2011.

'Cowboys and Aliens' is smart and lots of fun!

Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell, and Adam Beach
Director: Jon Favreau
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

When an aliens start terrorizing an isolated area of the American Southwest in the 1870s, outlaws, cattle-ranchers, settlers, and Apache Indians join together with a mysterious woman (Wilde) and an amnesiac who has somehow gotten his hands on one of the alien devices (Craig) to defeat them before they conquer Earth.

"Cowboys & Aliens" is an action-packed genre-bending mix of Western and Sci-Fi as a landscape populated with Western archetypes becomes the setting for an epic adventure tale told through one of the smartest scripts I've witnessed in years.

Although this is a movie that's primarily about aliens blowing the hell out of cowboys and visa-versa, a lot of thought and care went into just about every character that appears on screen that's not just part of the background. Even minor supporting characters get little touches that give them more depth and life than some main characters in recent allegedly character-driven movies--including one of the alien invaders. And the actors all rise to the level of this superior material, with not a single bad performance among them.

The most remarkable character and performance in the picture is given by Harrison Ford. His Colonel Dolarhyde starts out as the stereotypical, psychotically evil ex-Army officer cattle-rancher strong man, but by the time the film is over, he is completely transformed into a sympathetic character who is the most fully developed of all of them.

Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde are basically, well, Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde. Both characters that they play are of such a nature that their physical appearances are very important, and both of them are perfectly cast in their roles... Craig for his craggy, weather-worn looks and Wilde for her ability to seem mysterious by just standing around. The fact that neither one of them was the first choice to play those parts is a sign that the Movie Gods were watching out for this film. They're both so perfect I can't imagine this film being as good if they hadn't been in it.

"Cowboys & Indians" deserves to be counted among this years best movies, whether measured by quality or box office receipts. I highly recommend going to see it, even if you're a stingy bastard like me who goes to matinee screenings. This is the kind of movie that Hollywood needs to make more of..

Is your favorite scary moment in the 'Chiller 13'?

Chiller 13: The Decade's Scariest Movie Moments (2010)
Director: Shane O'Brien
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

'Tis the season for Top X countdown lists, and cable channel Chiller appropriately enough brings a selection of horror movie hits to the table.

Premiering on Friday, December 17 at 8pm, "Chiller 13: The Decade's Scariest Movie Moments" looks back at the scariest films of the past 10 years. This hour-long countdown intersperses clips from the selected movies with opinions on the specific films the scenes were selected from, and horror movies in general, from a diverse group of actors, filmmakers, comedians, and horror movie experts. It is the first original documentary produced for Chiller.

Featured participants includes the star of "Orphan" Isabelle Fuhrman; actress Betsy Russell of the "Saw" anthology; actor Tony Todd of the "Candyman" and "Final Destination" films, as well as dozens of other horror flicks; renowned special makeup effects supervisor Greg Nicotero of "The Walking Dead" television series and countless other projects; comic book and screenwriter Steve Niles, best known for "30 Days of Night"; comedians Dan Gurewitch & David Young of collegehumor.com); and horror film directors Lucky McKee ("May") and Ti West ("Cabin Fever 2"), among others.

Focusing on big screen, big studio releases that every horror movie fan has at least heard of, the hour-long program leads off with #13 on the list, Sam Raimi's "Drag Me to Hell". My heart sank a bit when a scene from this movie was chosen as the least scary as that's a film that would be near the top of my list of the scariest movies of the past decade if I were to compile one. However, as the show progressed, I found myself agreeing with just about every choice made and commented upon by the hosts. After all, the program isn't about the best horror movie or even the scariest, but about the scariest moments from the past ten years of horror films. And as much as I found "Final Destination" to be absolutely stupid--and I remain amazed that it spawned all the successful sequels that it did--the moment from it that made the list is indeed a very scary one. The same is true of "Orphan" and a number of other films spotlighted and discussed.

I won't spoil the program by mentioning any more of the movies selected, as part of the fun of a show like this is watching the list be revealed. Horror fans, from the casual to the hardcore, will also find the commentary from the featured hosts amusing and enlightening, more often than not at the same time. The musings and comments from horror veteran Tony Todd are particularly interesting, and the comedy duo of Dan Gurewitch & David Young are funny in ways that only horror geeks through-and-through can be.

"Chiller 13: The Decade's Scariest Movie Moments" is a fast-paced, highly entertaining show that horror fans will consider time well spent. The one drawback to watching it will be that you'll be wanting to either rewatch or seek out to experience for the first time every movie featured.

For more about the program and air-times, click here to visit chiller.com and consult your local television schedule to see what cable channel Chiller can be found on. If you want to have your appetite whetted, check out the broadcast ad, and a clip from interview with Tony Todd discussing "Candyman".

'Predators' completes its mission nicely

Predators (2010)
Starring: Adrian Brody, Alice Braga, Oleg Taktarov, Topher Grace, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Danny Trejo, Walton Goggins, and Lawrence Fishburne
Director: Nimrod Antal
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

A disparate group of soldiers, mercenaries, and murderers--human predators all--are parachuted into a jungle where they must battle against alien big-game hunters for survival.


"Predators" is a movie that set out to return this venerable sci-fi action franchise to basics--after a decade of comic book and movie cross-overs with Fox's other killer alien property, the xenomorphic, acid-dripping Aliens. And it does a fantastic job of doing just that.

From the opening scene of Adrian Brody's character returning to consciousness while free-falling through sky, to the moment when the closing credits start to roll, this is a movie that never slows down. It's armed human killing machines versus aliens every bit as skilled in the art of killing as they are, but who have the advantage of superior tech and knowledge of the terrain. Unlike the original film and most of the three movie sequels and I-have-no-idea how many Dark Horse comic books (where the Predator aliens even fought Batman at one point), the hunt here takes place on the home-ground of the aliens, so the humans need every bit of skill they can muster.

As would be expected, there isn't much in the way of character development in the film. Our heroes start as military/action movie stereotypes and most of them die that way. The two main characters--played by Brody and Braga, a coldhearted mercenary and a IDF sniper/CIA operative respectively--are given a little more development than most others, but even they remain archetypal figures more than characters. A valid argument could be made that Braga's "character development" is nothing more than sexism, as it is her feminine sensitivity that puts her in grave danger at one point. (An equally good case could be made that she doesn't want to repeat what she considered a horrible moral error a second time. But whichever motivation you want to assign, both fail to move her much beyond the state of the most basic of character.

It doesn't matter in this movie, though. It's a movie about monsters attacking, guns blazing, and aliens getting their asses kicked (as well as aliens dishing out gory deaths when they get the better of their prey). And the film excels at this.

The screenwriters successfully brought the Predators back to their roots while giving the now-familiar set-up a fresh and unique twist. They also treat the audience to some very well-done action movie dialogue and battle scenes--which are brought to life with the aid of great camera work and editing, as well as excellent computer-generated monsters. The few bits of comic relief--mostly revolving around Topher Grace's character, who seems to be the only abductee who isn't a "human predator" but who's secret isn't as big a surprise as I suspect the filmmakers thought it would be--are well-timed and expertly delivered by the actors. They even managed to provide texture to the alien civilization, ensuring that hardcore fans of the series--who have been following all the spin-offs--will have a little something to enjoy, and newcomers might feel interested in checking out some of the comics and other movies.

Of course, the one thing lacking here is the horror element that was present in the first film, but the filmmakers wisely chose not to attempt to play on that angle. Back in 1987, the insertion of an alien big-game hunter into what looked like a straight-up action film was startling and viewers had no way of knowing how things would turn out. That one-time unknown creature is now firmly ingrained in pop culture, and the only mystery left for this picture is, basically, how are any survivors going to get back to Earth? (And this is another aspect the film deals with nicely.)

I think I can safely say that this film will go down as one of the best sci-fi and action films of 2010, with its non-stop action, great cast, and great effects. If you've enjoyed any of the previous films featuring the Predator aliens, or even any of the comics, you want to see this movie. It's also a worthy release for Fox to mark their 75th anniversary as a film studio with. It may not quite live up to the original film, but it's a fine piece of sci-fi entertainment.

(Click here to read my review of the original "Predator" at Terror Titans.)