Teen Critic Has Mixed Reaction to Body of Lies

Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio in Ridley Scott's Body of Lies (Warner Brothers)

By Janeane White

Body of Lies (opened on October 10 throughout San Diego) is a spy movie involving terrorists. These terrorists want to bomb America and Europe to get back at them for all the blood they had shed in the past. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the undercover agent living throughout the Middle East trying to catch an international bad guy. DiCaprio has come a long way in his career since his role as a mentally challenged boy in the film What's Eating Gilbert Grape? I think he did an excellent job in this movie.

I personally was not thrilled with this movie. I thought it could have been better. The scenes jump around too much as do the locations. I kept getting confused because too much was happening at once. I think that people who enjoy movies where you have to think and really pay attention to every detail will be able to understand and maybe like this movie. It's the type of movie to sit at home and watch where you can pause and rewind on parts you don't understand.

Body of Lies (rated R for strong violence including some torture, and for language throughout) had explosions and fighting, chase scenes and good acting. There are even a few torture scenes to enjoy if you're into that kind of thing. Over all I am indecisive about whether or not I liked the movie. It had its good points as well as bad ones. I was excited to watch parts but then I would get confused and lose interest. It depends on the individual person and their interest whether or not they should see this movie.

--Janeane White is a senior at Mount Miguel High School. She enjoys movies and spends all her time at the theater. She is also interested in special effects makeup done in the movies.She is an honors student and is currently working towards early graduation. Some of her favorite movies include Queen of the Damed, Hellboy, The Descent, the Underworld series, and the Saw series.

War, Inc.

John Cusack, the star, co-writer and producer of War, Inc. (First Look)

If you ever wondered what might have happened to John Cusack's hit man from 1997's Grosse Pointe Blank, then check out War, Inc. (opening June 27 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas). The character Cusack plays presents a possible fate for Martin Q. Blank, or at least a logical trajectory his killer could have taken. War, Inc., as with Grosse Pointe Blank, is also co-written by Cusack, co-stars his sister Joan as his assistant Marsha (she was Marcella in Grosse Pointe Blank), and boasts an appearance by Dan Aykroyd. But unlike Grosse Point Blank, which knew exactly what kind of dark comedy it wanted to be, War, Inc. is all over the map.

You Don’t Mess with the Kung Fu Panda Zohan

Master Shifu teaches Po a lesson in Kung Fu Panda (Dreamworks)

This week I am pleased to introduce two new KPBS Teen Critics, Raymond Mai and Vikram Bhoyrul. They both had reviews up this week (of Kung Fu Panda and You Don't Mess with the Zohan,respectively) and I hope you check them out. Raymond is someone I've known since he was in elementary school with my son and he's always had very strong opinions about movies, so I'm thrilled to have him aboard. Vikram, on the other hand, I just met. I was introduced to his father at an Indian film screening and his dad explained how Vikram had started his own paper at Bishop's. Now that's initiative. Anyway, I hope you check out their reviews. But I wanted to throw my two cents in about Kung Fu Panda and You Don't Mess with the Zohan (both opened June 6 throughout San Diego). Also, being a martial arts fan I thought it was worth mentioning that three films that opened on Friday - Kung Fu Panda, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and Foot Fist Way - contained martial arts to varying degrees.

First let me start with Kung Fu Panda, an American animated martial arts film about a panda with big dreams. The film seems in part to tap into the fact that all eyes are on China as it prepares to host the summer Olympics. The film starts with a strikingly animated prologue that turns out to be a dream. Po (voiced by Jack Black) is an eager, out of shape panda that wants nothing more than to be like the heroes that he worships (and has a full set of action figures of). This open got my interest up because the animation style recalled the Emmy-winning Cartoon Network show Samurai Jack. Unfortunately, when the dream ends, so does the innovative visual style and we're back to the standard 3-D computer animation that everyone is using. I know it's state of the art and I should appreciate how the hair looks so real... but all right already. Kudos to the technicians and animators. But this style of animation seems to place more emphasis on the technology than the artistry, and I've begun to grow weary of it.

You Don’t Mess with the Adam Sandler Formula

Adam Sandler in You Don't Mess with the Zohan (Columbia Pictures)

By Vikram Bhoyrul

As soon as I saw the title Happy Madison Productions, I thought, "Here we go again. Another typical Adam Sandler movie." After watching You Don't Mess with The Zohan (opening June 6 throughout San Diego), I realized that to a large extent my initial predictions were right. There was a happy ending and once again the good guy character played by Adam Sandler defeated all odds as he lived the lifestyle of his dreams. What made this movie worthwhile was that Sandler took humor to a different level than we have seen him do in the past. He was far more sexual, and touched on current events such as the crisis in the Middle East. Although he was by no means accurate (he was supposed to be Israeli but his accent sounded kind of French) and employed Arab stereotypes, he was still funny. The movie was not a family movie but it grabbed the attention of the audience very well. The continuous use of hummus, disco dances, intimate scenes with elderly women, and sex jokes made for a good laugh.

Overall You Don't Mess with the Zohan (rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, language and nudity) was better than I expected but I don't think it's something I could watch more than once or twice.

Vikram Bhoyrul is a senior at The Bishop's School in La Jolla. For years film has been a passion of his. Besides Star Wars, his favorite movies are Children of Men, Cinderella Man. Life of Brian, and without question The Lion King. He would also like to become a journalist when he grows up. His goal is to become an influential network anchor. In his free time he likes running, singing, watching Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and cooking. At high school, he is the editor of his own school newspaper, and in college he wishes to major in journalism.

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies

The name's Bond... um, I mean Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath. (Music Box Films)

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (opening May 16 at Landmark's Ken Cinema) is one mouthful of a title. But it does exactly what a good title should do - it conveys something about the film. In this case, it signals that you are in for a spoof on spy movies. Most Americans will assume that it's simply poking fun at James Bond but that's only part of the joke. OSS 117 also refers to a famous French spy who appeared in nearly a 100 novels beginning in 1949, and a handful of movies in the 50s and 60s. So that may explain why the film's been such a hit in France where it plays on their own pop culture. It's been such a homegrown hit that there's already talk of sequels.

Cairo, 1955. Everyone suspects everyone of something; everyone is plotting against or double crossing everyone else; nobody trusts anybody; and the British, the French, the Soviets, the family of the deposed King Farouk, and the insurgent religious sect Eagles of Kheops are all engaged in some sort of covert activity in Egypt. Into this nest of spies, the President of the French Republic, Monsieur René Coty, sends his best weapon: Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, agent OSS 117 (Jean Dujardin). Or as one of the femme fatales he meets says, "numbered like a cow for slaughter." Any way, OSS 117 must discover who killed a fellow spy and restore order to Cairo and the world. Along the way he encounters a bevy of beauties, some with lethal intentions. (You can also listen to my Film Chat about OSS 117 and Son of Rambow.)

The Band’s Visit

The Band's Visit arrives in San Diego. (Sony Pictures Classics)

The Band's Visit (opening February 29 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) stirred controversy last year when the Academy declared it ineligible in the Foreign Language category because too much of the film was in English. The Israeli-French-U.S. co-production offers a wry tale about communication in which an Egyptian band ends up lost in the wrong Israeli town, and find that the only language people have in common is English. So maybe the Academy's decision proves a fitting irony for this multi-national, multi-lingual production.

The Kingdom

Ashraf Barhom and Jamie Foxx in The Kingdom (Universal)

Maybe I've just got Shakespeare on the brain but lines he penned 400 years ago remain surprisingly relevant today. Turning once again to Macbeth, I find the fitting Shakespeare quote: "We but teach bloody instructions which being taught return to plague the inventor." That cycle of violence is on display in Peter Berg's The Kingdom (opening Sept. 28 throughout San Diego), a tale of an FBI forensic team investigating the bombing of a U.S. facility in Saudi Arabia. But because of the region and the way religion plays a role in the proceedings maybe I should quote the Old Testament rather than the Bard to sum up the way blood begets blood.

Actor-turned-director Peter Berg helmed one of my all-time favorite films, the deliciously nasty Very Bad Things. Now he brings some of that savage, nihilistic attitude to a more formulaic and mainstream product -- the action thriller The Kingdom. Berg mixes crime procedural with tense action to deliver one of the better Hollywood flicks on the Middle East. It's up there with Three Kings for its sly mix of pop entertainment and social message.