The X-Files: I Want To Believe
Directed by Chris Carter
Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly
Rated PG-13
Release date: July 25, 2008

“I can’t lose faith, Lancelot. It’s all I have left.” –Perceval from Excalibur

“How many times have we been here before, Scully? Right here. So close to the truth and now with what we’ve seen and what we know to be right back at the beginning with nothing.” — Fox Mulder from The X-Files: Fight The Future

“Let’s just say that I want to believe.” — Fox Mulder from The X-Files: I Want To Believe

The X-Files: Restoring Faith

The hedonistic glare of the Nineties is a distant memory. I remember my fervent weekly devotion to the X-Files television show. It was one of my favorite shows on network television. For me, the show was the very essence of Nineties television. In a post-Cold War landscape, it was time to turn the lens on ourselves. The show captured paranoia and conspiracy on a grand scale. The high concept pitch would have been The Parallex View meets Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

I would say the series worked very well for the first seven seasons. Why did it work? The relationship between David Duchovny‘s Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson‘s Dana Scully was and will always be the core of the X-Files. Tamper with that dynamic and you do not have much to work with at all. As much as I adore every incarnation of The Avengers, it was always at its best with Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. Yes, Anderson and Duchovny have that kind of chemistry.

“I want you to remember, Clark”¦in all the years to come”¦in your most private moments”¦I want you to remember”¦my hand”¦at your throat”¦I want”¦ you to remember”¦the one man who beat you”¦”
— Batman from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns

“Y’see, my life is really… complex.”
— Bruce Wayne from Batman (1989)

“People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can’t do that as Bruce Wayne, as a man I’m flesh and blood I can be ignored I can be destroyed but as a symbol, as a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting.”
— Bruce Wayne from Batman Begins

My freshman year of college ended in a daze of mediocrity and apathy. As I look back at that first year, I am incredibly embarrassed by my ignorance and the betrayal of my own interests. It was the summer of 1989; the summer movie season was about to begin. I had gotten my taste of it by going to see a sneak preview of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier at the National Air And Space Museum. Needless to say, I was disappointed by it; it did not have the same momentum as the previous film, the far superior, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. I think it was about this time that it was decided the even numbered Trek films were better than the odd numbered ones. Weeks later I would go see Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade. I enjoyed that immensely. The opening sequence with River Phoenix as the young Indiana Jones made a vivid impression on me. With this film, I was reminded why it was so much to go to the movies. I really did enjoy going to the movies. I was ashamed of myself for not going to see more films in my freshman year. I do not know what I was thinking. It was in my blood; it always was in my blood. Sure, my older brother’s experiences in Hollywood had turned me off of the business ever since 1987, but deep down inside there was no denying I loved movies. The only time I was ever animated was when talking about movies. Okay, that and any type of heavy metal music at the time excited me.

Get Smart
Directed by Peter Segal
Starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin
Rated PG-13
Release date: June 20, 2008

“Compared to Clouseau, Attila the Hun was a Red Cross volunteer!” — Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfuss from The Return Of The Pink Panther

“They ought to put you in Missing Persons. You know everybody.” — Joe Friday from Dragnet (1987)

“A good agent doesn’t need gadgets. The only gadgets I’ve ever needed are a sharp eye, sensitive hearing and a whole bunch of bigger brains.” — Johnny English from Johnny English

Steve Carell Is In Control

Don Adams will always be Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, from the classic, subversive, and sarcastic 1960’s television series, Get Smart. I grew up watching the television series in reruns in the 1970s. It would be much later realized that the show was a clever satire written by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. I would expect nothing less from these two comic heavyweights. The show was a response to the intelligence craze in pop culture at the time when James Bond dominated the landscape. There were plenty of spoofs to go around such as the Matt Helm films starring Dean Martin, the Derek Flint films starring James Coburn, and of course, the ultimate James Bond spoof, the original 1967 Casino Royale. Think of these films as the Austin Powers of their day– Mike Myers was deeply influenced by Casino Royale. Henry and Brooks created a television series which was a response to the intelligence blunders of their times — specifically, the Vietnam War. The other great benefit of the show was the wonderful cast featuring Don Adams, Barbara Feldon, and Edward Platt. They worked very well together. The show holds up remarkably well.

Street Kings
Directed by David Ayer
Starring Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Chris Evans, Hugh Laurie
Rated R
Release date: April 11, 2008

“I’m sorry I exposed you to it, but it is. It’s ugly, but it’s necessary… Sometimes you gotta have a little dirt on you for anybody to trust you.” — Detective Alonzo Harris from Training Day

“You got to be heartless in my line of work!” — Sgt. Eldon Perry from Dark Blue

“We’re the police. We can do whatever the hell we want.” — Detective Tom Ludlow from Street Kings

Street Kings:
Los Angeles Pulp For Our Times

David Ayer has become the cinematic chronicler of the mean streets of 21st century Los Angeles. As a screenwriter and director, he has made a name for himself creating a vivid tapestry of the city’s dark underbelly. It is no accident that his second directorial feature is based on James Ellroy‘s (long in development hell) first screenplay, The Night Watchman which is based on a story written by Mr. Ellroy. James Ellroy shares screenwriting credit with Kurt Wimmer and Jamie Moss. James “Demon Dog Of American Crime Fiction” Ellroy and David Ayer are the perfect match of writer and director. I always thought that title would go to Brian De Palma and James Ellroy with The Black Dahlia, but that film never came together as well as I wanted it to, no matter how badly I wanted it. The Night Watchman is now known as Street Kings, but it is not the first time that Ayer has tackled Ellroy’s work.

Smart People
Directed by Noam Murro
Starring Dennis Quaid, Thomas Haden Church, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, Camille Mana
Rated R
Miramax Films
Released on April 11, 2008

Smart People: Whatever Gets You Through The Semester

“Try to be your normal, humorous self. The guy you were before the tailspin. Do you remember that guy? People love that guy.” — Jack from Sideways

“Things are good here. Teaching is going well. And I’m playing the best tennis of my life. Maybe that’s an illusion, but… it feels that way.” — Bernard Berkman from The Squid And The Whale

“These children haven’t been properly parented in many years. They’re practically feral. That’s why I was brought in.” — Chuck Wetherhold from Smart People

I think there needs to be some kind of award given to Dennis Quaid because he is a reliable actor ever since Breaking Away, The Long Riders, The Right Stuff, The Big Easy, Innerspace, and other films that he dominated in the late Seventies and the Eighties. He is consistently good. Each decade finds him taking chances in big and small films — Savior, Gang Related, Far From Heaven, In Good Company. The Rookie, Any Given Sunday, Traffic, Frequency and many others. He is the bright spot in mediocre and flawed films such as The Day After Tomorrow, American Dreamz, Wyatt Earp and Vantage Point. He is too damn likable to play President Staton in Paul Weitz’s ambitious, but flawed satire, American Dreamz. There is something about Quaid that we sometimes fail to grasp — his humanity.