Flicks to Hold You Over Archived Columns: 2002 Reviews 2003 Reviews 2004 Reviews

"Secondhand Lions"

A Review by Eric 'Renderking' Fisk, Rindge NH

Preconceived Nonsense

There are some movies that I avoid like the plague. Touchy-Feely movies that are marketed towards the condescending art house crowd. These are the “films” that are manipulate your feelings and emotions for no other reason then they can. These are all formula flicks, the script is written and is filmed by the numbers to make sure they touch every demographic and to shamelessly pull on every heart-string. The perfect example of a formula flick is another movie, Pay It Forward, starring the young phenomenon of our age: Haley Joel Osment.

I was mistaken to think that Secondhand Lions was one of those pictures. Sad to say, I rejected it outright because of my preconceived notions.  But as I illustrated in the review for the almost shameless chick-flick Under The Tuscan Sun, you can find unexpected treasures in the most unlikely places, and it’s best to avoid preconceived notions such as judging a book by it’s cover or a movie by it’s poster. Another perfect example of not prejudging a flick is the movie that was released back in 1981 which I thought was about a reckless cowboy fighting with Nazi’s and raiding the boat Noah used during the flood in the Book of Genesis… wondering what’s wrong with Lucas making a film like that when he had to make the movie following up The Empire Strikes Back!

Fortunately… I had been clobbered by a number of readers of The Indy Experience who insisted that I see then review Secondhand Lions. Never before had so many other Jones fans requested the same movie to be reviewed. On a whim at the local mega-shoppers warehouse I was reading the back cover, and my wife told me to just get it if I wanted it that badly.

When I finally got to see the movie after a series of comedic errors, it was NOTHING like the movie that was reviewed by the hack writers on CNN or the other sissy-boy organizations. This wasn’t a sappy movie about a young man coming of age and giving culture to two reckless retired adventurers. It was something far more… something so desperately needed in this age. Secondhand Lions is about two men of an older generation giving an adolescent boy the lessons he needs to someday being a man.

If Adventure had two more names…

As we are introduced to Walter (Haley Joel Osment of “The Sixth Sense” and previous Flick To You Over AI: Artificial Intelligence) he’s a kid set adrift by his “loose” mother Mae played by the elegant Kyra Sedgwick .  The reason for her abandoning her son is two-fold, she’s off to party with some high roller she might have met the night before, and to have her son look for the millions her Uncle’s might have hidden on their farm after being in Europe and Africa for the past 40 years.

We meet her eccentric uncles, Garth (Michael Caine) ... Hub (Robert Duvall) in their pond “Fishing” with shot guns. Right away this sets the tone and these two characters and the rest of the film… a little dangerous, unorthodox and there own men who live and play by their own set of fair rules.  After Walter’s mother sets off with out him, Walter does his best to get to know his great uncle’s who were reluctant to take him in the first place. As he grows on them, Walter uncovers a few clues about these two men as his Uncle Garth tells him elaborate stories about their past. It’s these stories and flashbacks that are the real hook for Raiders fans...

In these flashbacks, there is much homage to the Jones films; one is a direct send-up to the Streets of Cairo fight scenes. Also, they have the same flavor and style of the swashbuckling movies of the 1960’s when the majority of Secondhand Lions takes place, according to the director’s commentary we’re seeing these adventures through Walter’s imagination that’s been influenced by motion pictures of that era.  When seeing these adventures for the first time as depicted in Walter’s imagination, I was reminded of when I first saw Raiders of The Lost Ark for the first time back in 1982 in the theater, the fight scenes where half serious - half “tongue and cheek”, crisply edited and well executed stunts. Secondhand Lions also has one of the best and funniest fight scenes I’ve seen in a long time, when Robert Duvall takes on some pesky neighborhood gang-members right in the middle of his Bar-B-Q lunch… but that touches on another aspect of the films charm and important to Raiders Fans.

Sick Zoo Cast-offs

Besides being a Motion Picture about a young boy growing up to be a fine young man, it’s also a movie about growing old and society’s attempt to make older people feel useless. Even in this age of political correctness, we still find away to make some older people feel ashamed for being old for committing the crime of not dying yet.

In this era, we tend to worship youth through cosmetics and surgery. Actors and actresses collectively have spent billions of dollars to maintain their youth and looking ridiculous in the process.  Modern Pop-Culture is obsessed with youth. Somehow in Motion Pictures you’re no good unless you’re young. A rare exception is Dame Judy Dench as “M” in the most recent James Bond films since GoldenEye… among other actors such as Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Plummer… just to name a few. There’s even a click with-in Jones fans who wonder who should replace Harrison Ford since he’s “obviously” too old now. The man isn’t even dead yet and they’re thinking of replacing someone who personified the coolest roles in cinema over the past 30 years because of some selfish desire to keep the Ball Rolling (if you’ll pardon the pun).

Fighting ageism is one of the major themes of Secondhand Lions… old men who had lives that most of us could only DREAM of come back from being away for 40 years only to feel they’ve out-lived their usefulness. Through the course of the movie, we learn that this is far from the truth as they teach Walter "Everything a boy needs to know about being a man"

As I alluded to in the earlier section, their's is the best and funniest fight scenes I’ve seen in a long time in Secondhand Lions right after nature tries to prove that Hub’s time on Earth is short. Not spoiling anything… Hub takes on 4 rude teenagers in a scene that will have you cheering AND laughing at the same time. Duvall performs this scene with equal parts of valiantly and humor which makes me wonder why he didn’t receive more awards for this performance. He also proves that at least on Screen you don’t have to be a “Spring Chicken” to fight like a real African lion. Robert Duvall proves through his character that age isn’t everything.

The Raiders Connection

In the movies that I’ve reviewed for The Indy Experience, most of them have a common thread; in the search for “facts”, artifacts or a something to be attained while in the end they find a greater truth. Secondhand Lions isn’t any different.  When Walter goes to live with his Uncles, his mother asks him to find where they hid their “millions”; I’m not giving anything away when I say that he does indeed find there secret hiding place. It’s what he does when he finds out that makes the movie unique. While his other relatives were trying ways to get money from their uncles by cheating or stealing, Walter got it all by asking nothing from them besides just letting him be their nephew and raising him.

There’s a huge message behind this; the real treasure isn’t the money or any fortune but the people in your life that are priceless and irreplaceable.  In the end… the movie is important for Raiders Fans for the adventure and story telling with action sequences that are reminiscent to all three Indiana Jones films. The homage’s to our three favorite films and the intense character development earns this DVD a place right next to the boxset on everyone’s shelf.

Visit Amazon.com to purchase 'Secondhand Lions' on DVD or VHS.

 

The Passion of the Christ

As I was driving home from the theater after seeing Mel Gibson’s movie, I was asking myself how I was going to write this review. What can I do to encourage Jones Fans who haven’t already seen The Passion of Christ to go to the theater, or when it’s finally out on video to take the plunge to bring it home. How can I write a review for The Passion of Christ for The Indy Experience and not trivialize it? All I can simply say that it needs to be seen by everyone... don’t wait because my words could never do this motion picture justice.

After all the hype and the media pontification, I had to see this movie and judge it for myself. Much of what I said in my earlier rant, “Villains of The Political Arena” applies to this movie: It has to be seen for itself and you can not rely on the media to make your mind up for you.

Threshold and Conviction

Mel Gibson’s career has been forever changed as the lives of those who have been affected by this Icon Film. I highly doubt that there is any way that he could go back to making the “Lethal Weapon” movies that he made in the past. A door has been opened, he’s walked through and it’s locked forever behind him. He isn’t alone. Many of the people who made this movie with him have been transformed, and those of us who have seen it and have been moved have also been changed as well.

During an hour long interview with Sean Hannity, Mel Gibson responded to the reports that many of the people who were working on the motion picture made a new commitment to follow Christ.  Ironically, because of the phenomenal success of this movie, the studios that turned down Mel Gibson in the past are now rethinking “Biblical” movies and there are rumors that new movies about biblical events are now in the works.

Mr. Gibson is already going ahead with other projects of his own. Again- because of his success of The Passion so far, he could make any other movie he wants to from the Bible, some Bible stories have already been chosen. Mr. Gibson has proven there is a market for these types of films that accurately portray biblical events.  What I find that’s phenomenal since the movie opened is the amount of criticism the movie’s director, Mel Gibson, has been given. Mr. Gibson is accused as being anti-Semitic by portraying “The Jews” as the ones who killed Christ. Granted, there are members of the Jewish leadership that pleaded with Pontius Pilate to do away with Jesus by crucifying him… But by saying “All Jews killed Christ” is as absurd as saying that all Germans killed Jews during the Holocaust. Blaming only the Jews for the death of Christ would be like forgetting that Germans who aided Jewish refuges by hiding them or helping them to escape their fate. The movie clearly illustrates there were more people involved in the death of Christ then just those of the Jewish fate- such as many Roman Solders who were vicious in their treatment of Christ and in turn there were those Romans who had pity on the Jewish Carpenter they were crucifying.

Also, Mr. Gibson has been criticized by many in the media for making this motion picture too violent, while the same critics have given high praise to directors such as Quentin Tarantino for making films such as Pulp Fiction.  Someday, the story about how this movie was made would make an excellent movie about Mel Gibson’s conviction.

Craftsmanship

Obviously I wasn’t there during the time of Jesus Christ nor was I there to see the crucifixion. I will say though that out of all the movies I’ve seen depicting the events in the Bible, this the most faithful adaptation: showing this as they happened accurately according to verse. As I have read and heard in many interviews, Mr. Gibson spent 12 years researching the background for this movie in every aspect.

Because of the accuracy and the years of research this motion picture looks as if someone went back into time with invisible camera’s and filmed what happened. The Passion of Christ  feels authentic to the point that I felt as if I was there… further adding a dramatic punch to an already emotional depiction of these events.

Emotion

Words cannot begin to describe what it is that I saw, much less how I felt through out the whole movie. The motion picture starts immediately with no opening titles but goes for pure emotion with in the first few frames that set the mood of wonder. I felt total awe when the movie started showing us Jerusalem at night and the appearance of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane praying to God then the sudden appearance of Satan telling Christ he didn’t have to do it and that he was alone… the burden is too much for one man to bear.

Emotion builds as Christ is betrayed by one of his followers, Judas, then stands in judgment of the Pharisees- the rulers of the Jewish sect that emphasized strict interpretation and observance of the Mosaic law. There’s the frustration felt when Pontius Pilate finds nothing wrong with what Christ did before his arrest that’s worthy of punishment, but has him beaten to appease the Pharisee in fear of another uprising. There’s the abject horror when Jesus is beaten in savage and brutal ways to an extent nobody mortal could live though, then finally the audience is in an absolute emotional melt down Christ meets his fate as he’s nailed to the cross. During all this, in his final hours he uses every opportunity to praise God, showing forgiveness in his accusers and preaching kindness and love for those who believe in Him and follow His teachings. There is the feeling of triumph as we see Satan’s defeat and then we see Jesus whole again in His tomb after his Resurrection.

The motion picture is a freight train of unbridled emotion. Even though the characters aren’t formally introduced since you’re thrown into the story immediately, there’s no doubt of which the characters are with in a few minutes. The movie is so well made that even for people who are not familiar with the Bible will know who’s who.

The amazing thing about this movie is how it demonstrates how Jesus took on the sins of the world willingly and forgave those who were beating, torturing and eventually nailing him on the cross. There wasn’t any masochism on Christ’s behalf when he was slowly being killed while there was obvious sadism by most of those who were directly committing these acts. In the end, you want to know more about who this man was and what He said before he was killed on the cross… the movie was done in such a fashion that you might feel personally responsible for the death of Christ- maybe aware for the first time that we were responsible and the reason for him being the Lamb of God. I had all these emotions while at the same time trying to feel what He went through.

The Raiders Connection

In one of the first segments of The Last Crusade, Jones says that archeology is about the search for facts, not truth. But in the end of all his adventures, it’s always about the search for truth in the most philosophical ways. The search begins for the artifacts, but ends with the discovery of divine and a reflection on our own true nature.

The Passion of Christ is just something more than a motion picture. It’s scripture and Bible verses come to life. Obviously, because of the nature of the quest in Last Crusade, this movie holds a special relevance to Jones Fans. It’s hardly about the Cup of Christ, but it’s the story behind the cup and the man who made this artifact unique. And that’s not to trivialize either Last Crusade or The Passion of Christ.

This film also does something most films can’t… if you let your heart be moved, this movie will change you and inspire you to be a better person. I can honestly say that this movie stands apart from everything else I’ve ever seen or will ever seen. It’s beyond being just a movie. Just as Raiders Of The Lost Ark inspired me to be a man when I was growing up in absence of a consistent roll model, The Passion of Christ has inspired me to be a better man. No longer do I just want to accept my faults, but to change them and move beyond them.

Just like in the end Last Crusade we learn that the relics aren’t as important than the meaning and the historical value behind them, the stories of love and sacrifice that make the artifacts what they are. And it’s the people in our lives and how we treat them that’s most important of all. The Passion of Christ is the ultimate movie about all the issues and emotions and about the Man who did more to change the world for good then anyone else has ever done before and will do so again in the years to come.  Jones’s adventures are in the end about The Truth, just as in the beginning, Christ was and Is The Truth.

Visit Amazon.com to purchase 'The Passion of the Christ' on DVD or VHS

Taking a bullet for the Marriage.

Once in a while, a guy’s gotta do what he’s has to do. Perfect example is when your wife isn’t feeling well or she’s having a rough day. Flowers, whine (I mean wine), draw her a nice long bath and make her dinner. Might even want to go the extra distance and get a Chick Flick.  My definition of a Chick-Flick is pretty simple: It’s a motion picture made and marketed for women of all ages which rely more on emotion and relationships with-in the plot and focus’s less on action. Guy movies are different: they rely on action and the resolution of conflict. Guy movie – Motion, Chick Flick – Emotion. Also, with in a Chick flick, someone almost always ends up crying with in the first 30 minutes while in Guy movies someone ends up getting shot with in the same amount of time.

The perfect movies that’s an example of a perfect blend of both the ideal Chick Flick and Guy Movie are obviously Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Casablanca. In both movies, someone’s shot with in the first 15 minutes while the movies are about resolution of conflict and there is plenty of emotional relationships and their back stories. In Raiders Of The Lost Ark, there’s almost a love Triangle between Jones, Marion Ravenwood and Rene Belloq as in turn there’s the Love triangle between Rick Blane (Humphrey Bogart) Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) and Victor Laslo (Paul Henrid). Under The Tuscan Sun is a different kind of Love Story with a different kind of Love Triangle. It’s a story about loving life and the curves it throws you and not picking one aspect of it over the other but excepting every aspect of your live together as a greater tapestry.

Sadly, there are aspects to this movie that’s painfully missing such as to well blocked fedora’s, crashing planes, tanks, trucks racing through the landscape, fist fights… and not one fire-arm or a discharge of a single round. Alas, the sacrifices a man has to endure to give his bride a night of entertainment. There’s hope for this one movie and few like it: it’s an insightful movie about the hearts of women while not being unintentionally funny like Terms of Endearment.

Basics

Diane Lane plays Frances, a book reviewer who happens to be working on her own book at the same time. Frances is the literary version of a woman residing in a glass house with a pocket full of stones. Her world changes in an instant with a cruel revelation from an author of a book she had given a bad review earlier off-screen. In an instant, that authors act of revenge reveals her happy world to be just an illusion and her “happy” marriage is nothing more then a façade.

This doesn’t bode well for male viewers, thinking that this is going to be almost 2 hours of gleeful male bashing. Fears are compounded when the lesbian couple is introduced. The Lesbian couple's gift their trip to Italy when one of the women Patti (Sandra Oh) becomes pregnant.  Fortunately, the movie shifts gears when Frances takes up her friend’s offer and takes the trip to Italy. The trip is via a bus trip with other homosexual couples on the “Gay and Away” tour. The movie flirts with some serious “Anti-Guy” territory, causing men to either remove the disk to be ejected and using it as a beer coaster, or exchange the fedora for a beret and start making scented potpourri for the bath room.

Yet, it’s the locations that kept me watching while waiting for the movie to really take off. The scenery is brilliantly filmed and perhaps the director, Audrey Wells and her Second Unit owes something to Steven, George and their SU? There are moments were a guy could forget he’s watching a Chick-Flick and maybe watching some location scouting clips.  The motion picture kicks into high gear and skips into serious Jones-fan territory when Frances buys a house in Tuscany on a whim, it’s stone fences in ruins and the gates and windows over run with vines. As she works to recover the house and hires laborers who become part of her new extended family, she discovers hidden treasures all over the house and aspects of her true self are revealed.

Definitions of Family

Similar to Nicolas Nickleby (to be reviewed at a later date), Under The Tuscan Sun explores the other meaning of family after someone loses everything or someone very special. In Frances’s case, after losing her husband to another woman and when Patti arrives almost due when her girlfriend runs out on her before the baby arrives. In what was a house too big for Frances, we see how the rooms are filled with those she loves and how she opens her home to the new members of her “family”.

Many folks have bemoaned this movie for its “Gay Agenda” theme. Granted, there are homosexual couples in this flick, but they aren’t the thrust of the movie. If anything, this movie illustrates that either Gay or straight we all get burned sooner or later.  This isn’t so much of a “Feminist Agenda” film, either. With out a doubt it’s a movie about a woman that finds herself. Not once is there a Helen Ready Coda “I am Woman! Hear me Roar!” It’s a movie about a woman who excepts the changes of life and embraces the pleasant surprises. In the end she’s more adventurous and more willing to take chances while excepting what comes her way. While remaining venerable and perhaps even more of a real woman, she becomes someone with bravery and courage while finding people who really care about her and are an integral part of her life.

The Raiders Connection

By far, the best moments in this film take place in the villa Diane Lane’s character buys and renovates it. There’s one savage storm in a scene that’s almost breath taking as the brutal wind and ravaging lightning rips through many of the new items she purchased for her new home… any moment I suspected part of the floor to open up and to hear her companion (an Owl that came in from the storm) say: “Asps… very dangerous. You go first.”

Other “Raideresque” scenes take place as she’s discovering her new hometown in the Italian village. The best of all can be found in the deleted scenes where she finds a Fresco painting on her wall under a layer of white-wash… the way it’s uncovered might be reminiscent of a scene where Jones is in the map room, discovering a hidden passageway in Willie’s room or reading part of the stone tablet in Donovan’s apartment, all bet a quieter version.

The first “best thing” to come out of this movie is the encouragement for women to take a chance and go on adventures when the time comes, excepting what comes and makes the most of it. There were moments in this film that I was actually envious of this character, finding herself in the part of the world unfamiliar to her in a home that is in desperate need of repair.  The second best thing to come out of this movie is the perfect illustration on how vastly life can improve by getting your hands dirty while getting something done. Nothing is ever accomplished by crying over things in the past… the best thing to do when something bad happens that alters your life is to remove yourself from the situation. Running away isn’t a solution unless there’s no other reason to stay.

Is this the best "Flick To Hold You Over Till Jones4"?  Maybe not, but the best aspect for this film for Jones fans is that it demonstrates how treasures can be found when you least expect them.

Purchase 'Under the Tuscan Sun' at Amazon.com: DVD or VHS

There’s a lot of talk on a few sites about how Jones 4 is to be filmed in the continental United States and how it might be a resurrection of the “Saucer Men” script. Yet, according to a news story that we reprinted on the opening page of this web-site last year, Frank Darabont is quoted as saying:

"I'm sure you understand that the project right now is top secret. I promised Steven Spielberg and George Lucas that I was not going to reveal any specific detail regarding the story. All I can tell is the same things that have been published already: The story takes place in the 50's, Harrison Ford will play Indy again, and Sean 

Connery will reappear as Indy's father. Steven will be the director. and George Lucas will be the producer. Shooting will begin in July 2004 and the film will open some time in the summer of 2005. Out of that, any rumor you may find on internet has no sense (usually the net has no sense!).

Pretty much, what this means is that most of what fans are scribbling in the forums is just idle (or Idol) talk. I seriously doubt that the next (and perhaps last) Jones adventure will feature him hunting down extraterrestrials and their relics. “Saucer Men” is the equivalent of reading news that Twentieth Century FOX has signed David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson to do another X-Files movie- the two of them go after an ancient Mayan artifact. While there's no mention of conspiracy theories or aliens, "the script remains true to the characters, it'll be fine".

Many fans have also written that while our favorite archeologist chases after these relics, extraterrestrials should be only eluded. “They should be implied more than anything else, and left to the audience's imagination.” Also, some fans say that the artifacts Jones finds should be “Earth-shattering and asks profound questions about the origins of man.”  There’s already been one existential movie made about the visitation of an advanced being coming to the aid of man’s quest for evolution. It was made more then 32 years ago and is responsible for many young students who became the film-makers of today and for them following their particular careers.

That film, obviously, is 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The Quintessential Flick, the Ultimate Trip

"I tried to create a visual experience, one that bypasses verbalized pigeonholing and directly penetrates the subconscious with an emotional and philosophical content...I intended the film to be an intensely subjective experience that reaches the viewer at an inner level of consciousness, just as music does...You're free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film." Stanley Kubrick

The essence of A Space Odyssey for Raiders fans is pretty simple and so profound and should cause the copies of the DVD to fly off the shelves at the local video mart… An artifact (The Monolith) is found that dates back to man’s first steps of evolution and the evidence surrounds the find points to the fact that it was purposely buried by an advanced intelligence. It’s buried in such a way to encourage its discovery.

A Space Odyssey is of course a story about a journey, but not of one man’s trip such as Odysseus’s.  2001 is about the progression of the human race and three progressive stages of evolution… each portrayal demonstrates the various beginnings of each phase. The excursion is the race to get from “Point A” to “Point B”, and much like the Jones movies… the surprise side trip to “Point C” isn’t just mandatory but essential to the story. In Temple of Doom, Jones never intends to go to Pankot, yet it’s the side trip that becomes the ultimate adventure of the motion picture. In the third segment of 2001 our heroes of Discovery find themselves with the original intention of only going  Jupiter and it’s the trip beyond that’s the hallmark of this motion picture.

Beyond the Infinite

While it’s been quoted that “the monoliths were doors of transcendent perception;” meaning that these objects are supposed to be thresholds to the next step in man’s evolution and how we see ourselves in the universe, It’s never explained where the monoliths come from and who put them where they are found (in Africa, the moon and orbiting Jupiter). Anyone can make a case for the Monolith’s origins being ether “Aliens” or God. One of the main characters who spends the rest of his “life” in a futuristic-victorian home could be interpreted as a zoo or heaven. All of his needs are taken care of while the final years of his life “over-lap” before his final transfiguration.

The Raiders Connection
 
The down side is that there’s little film-noir or Art Deco in the classic sense, it’s the ultimate of utilitarian set design and costumes. With the exception of the opening scene, most of the scenes are filmed in the sterile environments.  What’s a hallmark of all the Jones movies is the spirit of adventure and exploration while keeping the sense of wonder intact even after the artifact was discovered.

The Monolith is as mysterious as the Ark, Shankra Stones and the Holy Grail.  But it’s also a metaphor for how modern man wants to put “God” in a neat and tidy box and how modern secularism wants to  know the bounds of His power and existence.  There is nothing about The Monolith that is ornate, there is no grandeur or grace. The Monolith also represents the dark and cold relationship our society has with the faith. The trip between Earth and Jupiter (and beyond) could also represent how much distance we’ve put between us and The Almighty.

Even though there is a coldness to 2001: A Space Odyssey and lacking the up beat humor of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom or Last Crusade, it’s still a great Motion Picture about a unique journey that tries to answer the mean of life and what lies beyond the threshold of the Super Natural.

Special thanks to Brendan Middleton for Guest Editing and suggestions.