Super producer Jerry Bruckheimer teams with Walt Disney pictures for a true story about integration of African Americans into the white school system during the early seventies. Leading the way is a very proud high school football coach, Boone, (Denzel Washington) who just wants to set aside the recent problems and play some football.
Standing in the way of his goal are the school’s devoted and honest coach, Yoast, (Will Patton), the coach’s enthusiastic daughter (Hayden Panettiere), and a group of young men trying not to let the world around them judge their integrated team.
“Remember the Titans” is a cheerful crowd-pleaser with a lot of heart. It is another staple in the Bruckheimer library that shows this producer is expanding his palette. I loved the chemistry and charge felt when this film really works. It’s amazing how much this film can get to you and make you cheer. I loved Hayden Panettiere as Cheryl Yoast, daughter of coach Yoast.
This little girl had so many key and great moments throughout that you just couldn’t help but cheer for her wonderful performance. I also liked seeing Will Patton carry on his sympathetic tough guy persona in this film much like he did in “Armageddon”. Patton is becoming a great actor and I hope Hollywood is acknowledging his talent.
In regards to Denzel Washington, I found him often to be cardboard when trying to be headstrong coach. Denzel is an amazing actor and he delivers a lot of great speeches in this film but often I find that because the film never deals completely with its racism angle we never really see Boone’s emotional struggle. This leads me to my analysis of the film’s evident flaw.
The biggest problem with “Remember the Titans” was that it was just too pleasing and never really explores the raw side of things. We know that a lot of pain, frustration, and intrigue happened to these characters. The film always takes the cheerful side for the majority of the film and this takes away from the raw emotion connected with a true story. I highly doubt that these situations and the integration as a whole was this way. This point made really pulled away from the heart of Coach Boone and his struggle. I think that was the story of the film not if they could win the next big game. What are we supposed to remember the Titans for? Boone’s struggle or that they won?
I would have loved to see the film explore the racism side a little more and flesh out what actually happened to these people. Thus delving deeper into the emotions and realism of the Titans and the team’s members. Racism is a subject we should all address not ignore. In a lot of scenes the film ignores that a character maybe a racist and just shows it as very subtle friction. What does this teach our children?
(3 out of 5)
So Says the Soothsayer.
Ben Stiller is a genius when it comes to explosive and reactionary comedy.
The couple thinks that a nice old lady will be quiet and very little bother so they move in.
DeVito’s brilliance came with “Momma” continued with “War of the Roses” and pinnacled with his heart-breaking drama “Hoffa”. DeVito shows signs of surviving last year’s “Death to Smoochy” with “Duplex” but he still has a long way to go.
Back in the 1980s, a certain movie writer and mogul revolutionized comedies for a whole new generation with movies like “Sixteen Candles”, “Weird Science”, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “National Lampoon’s Vacation”. His name was John Hughes and he became one of the most successful feature film comedy writers of all time. His films are loved today and it truly is amazing how much of the Hughes flavor is within the new comedy, “The Perfect Score”.
The film has a simple plot but it’s the characters and their interactions that made me think of so many of those classic Hughes films. Like “The Breakfast Club” that really had a basic plot of 5 diverse teenagers are forced to spend a day of detention together, “Score” looks past the simple plot and more on what makes each teen tick. It is that simplicity and belief in the characters that made those films classic. The same is true here. I truly believe that this film fits that undeniable mold. And trust me, that isn’t a bad thing.
Housed within each of these characters we see a side of the teenage mind and their rebellious struggle we have been watching for decades on screen. We all cheered for “Ferris Bueller” or “Clark Griswold” as they bent the rules to accomplish their goals. And the same is here as we find that we want these kids to succeed.
The film really needed that to make the heist more insane and delightful. I almost thought that was going to happen when I saw that Francesca’s dad was Fulvio Cecere of TV’s new series “Tarzan”. Cecere could have been a perfect villain. This whole angle could have also fleshed Francesca even more. It is too bad that wasn’t explored further.
This latest incarnation of Rambo is more blood-thirsty, dirty, nasty and crazy then the other films. Blood and carnage is like poetry to Stallone, who also directed. Exploding body parts, guns mowing down people, the sickness of humanity and the carnage really shows the impact of war but when is enough is enough. The gore in this film compared to the rest of the series is like saying the difference between John Carpenter’s Halloween and Rob Zombie’s. There is a very disturbing escalation especially since Rambo never killed anyone in the first film.
But the images of war and the savagery of humanity is what this film is about. But if you peel back the layers of blood there isn’t much to really get into with this film. The more human scenes that bookend the film are what there is to treasure here. One of the deleted scenes even shows a different side to Rambo’s internal struggle. I think as he had gotten older and had been in seclusion for so long he would have become more human. But really he hadn’t. It almost should have been a “history of violence” kind of story. Twenty years is a long time, he could have found peace until once more his world is shattered by war and thus he has to become the monster once again.
There is a key scene in “Rambo 3″ where Trautman compares Rambo’s training to that of a mighty sculptor. He asks Rambo when is he going to come full circle. This one scene would echo what Stallone is conceiving with Rambo 5. He wanted to bring Rambo back to the States. But after Richard Crenna’s passing in 2003, how can Rambo come home when the only person to welcome him would be his old friend. The latest Rambo ends with what seems like a flash forward in time with Rambo coming down a long road and stopping at a mailbox that says Rambo. In the film, Rambo told Julie Benz’s character that his father may or may not be alive but really I think this was conceived as a replacement for Crenna.
If “Rambo: First Blood Part 2″ was the equivalent to what “Rocky 3″ was to that series. Then “Rambo 3″ is this series “Rocky 4″.
This is Peter MacDonald’s directorial debut. He was the cinematographer on the underrated Vietnam film, “Hamburger Hill” the year before he made Rambo 3. He was also the director of the helicopter unit on “Rambo: First Blood Part 2″. So this guy knows Rambo and action and Peter does all he can to make this a thrilling action film.
Wait, what? I know right? But yes it did exist.
How this came to be was that Hasbro, the makers of GI JOE, were pursuing licensing for both Rocky and Rambo to be added to the GI JOE lineup. Rocky was so close to being a GIJOE trainer that he appeared in Marvel Comic’s GIJOE: Order of Battle comic series. But when negotiations broke down and Stallone sold the rights to Ruby-Spears both additions were nixed. It is funny that other than his likeness, Stallone’s name is not attached to this version of Rambo at all.
The action figures, playsets and merchandising that spawned from the series was a carbon copy of GI JOE as well but the toys themselves were laughable.
It was such a ripoff of GI JOE that the series had White and Black Dragon who are martial artist brothers on opposing sides. Can anyone say Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow?
“Rambo: First Blood Part 2″ was written by James Cameron during downtime while he was trying to finish “The Terminator”. Cameron’s script was explosive and began with Rambo in a mental institution. But the story, Rambo’s redemption and becoming less insane and more heroic all came from Cameron. He refurbished the character causing him to evolve. The differences between Rambo in the first and second films have angered fans for a very long time. But to make Rambo the action hero Hollywood wanted there had to be a change. If not for this radical shift in the character, Stallone’s career could have been on auto-pilot and many action films after it would have been drastically changed.
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The movie was also the first of it’s kind in the 80s and launched a whole new genre of action films. It also launched many, many Vietnam infused action films such as Chuck Norris’s “Missing in Action” series. But what is probably the most memorable about the film is that it also launched the “one man war” action film and that changed the face of action films. Schwarzenegger, Die Hard, Under Siege and countless others all should be thankful for “First Blood”.rambo_I_6.JPG "rambo2")
The original cut of the film had way more Rambo and way more flashbacks. In fact, Stallone hated the first cut of the film so much he tried to buy it for himself. He was only paid $2 million for the film and almost lost his life at least three times during some of the crazy stunt work he insisted on doing himself. Because he had shed so much blood and sweat in the movie he wanted to turn the movie into something stronger. Eventually he relented but asked that the movie let Rambo be more mysterious and let the people tell the story. David Caruso’s character said it best: “We’re not hunting him. He’s hunting us!” And that is the tone that Stallone wanted.
This wasn’t the only interesting story coming out of “First Blood”, the movie also was originally going to star Kirk Douglas as Trautman. His son Michael was even considered for Rambo. Douglas dropped out of the movie at the last minute after the producers refused to use the same ending as the book, where Rambo dies. (Spoiler: One of the deleted scenes does include Trautman killing Rambo). Richard Crenna was cast just before the film began principal photography. Can you imagine this film if it would have starred Kirk and Michael Douglas?rambo_I_1.JPG "ramb1")
Did we really know the whole legend of the late great Ray Charles? If director Taylor Hackford and screenwriter James L. White have anything to say, we really didn’t.
So what does constitute a great biography? Well first there has to be an interesting subject. Then you have to decide what kind of layers does the film want to show. Is the film a compliment or does it want to uncover all the demons?
The third and final piece to the biography puzzle is how do you want to tell the story? Does the film show the subject’s whole life or just an important portion?
But one great performance doesn’t make a completely great film. This can be said about other biographies including “My Left Foot” and “Michael Collins”.
I have always loved the music of Ray Charles and that element helped a lot of my enjoyment of a lot of the many concert set pieces.
