Rita Recommends…You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (2008)

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (200 starring Adam Sandler, Rob Schnedier, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Nick Swardson, John Turturro, Mariah Carey, John McEnroe and Lanie Kazan.

Adam Sandler plays a uber-studly Israeli commando who just wants to go to Ameri-ca and make hair “silky smooth” like his idol, Paul Mitchell. This over-the-top, campy satire on Israeli-Palenstinian conflict does thread on thin ice at times, with its ultra-crude, tasteless, and adolescent boy humor - but what did you expect from Sandler, Judd Apatow and Robert Smigel?

Sandler’s buff appearance seems digitally enhanced in the film while someone in wardrobe must have stuffed his crotch with extra large tube socks!

Zohan, in the opening scenes, is shown dancing with Isareli beauties on the beaches of Tel Aviv as well as displaying mighty feats of strength. But alas, poor Zohan becomes weary of his day job as a top-gun commando so he fakes his own death against his arch-nemesis, The Phantom (John Turturro) and stows away with two dogs on a plane to New York. He takes their names, Coco and Scrappy, and begins a new life for himself in what looks like Atlantic Avenue in downtown Brooklyn. After a humiliating interview at the Paul Mitchell hair salon on Fifth Avenue, Zohan finds his first job in Brooklyn as a floor sweeper for the sexy Dalia, a Palestinian owner of Rafaela’s beauty salon. (Emmanuelle Chriqui)

Many crude jokes abound about Zohan’s sexual prowress—he starts by servicing the mother of the cyclist he defended on the street, and then he shags the little old Jewish ladies who start popping up at Rafaela’s beauty salon for his 80s inspired cuts and the biss-boom-bah in the back office. Soon, there is a line down the block for Zohan’s unique (ahem) skills, until a Palestinian cab driver (Rob Schneider) recognizes him, then the jig is up. Zohan must face his past when a trio of Palestinians led by the irate cabbie try to bomb the salon with Neosporin. Uh, huh.

This hilarious, over-the-top comedy will surely offend some movie-goers of more delicate sensibilities but this reviewer, found it so silly and daring to take on such an unfunny subject as the on-going Middle Eastern conflict. I had to admit, it made me laugh out loud in more than one occasion although some of the more ethnic-poking jokes did go over my head. LOVED the parade of celebrity cameos, especially that of Mariah Carey and John McEnroe.
Don’t Mess with the Zohan is a silly, escapist fare for the summer.
Click on http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/youdontmesswiththezohan/site/index.html for more zaniness from the filmmakers.

More on Memphis

Rita and partner, started at Sun Studios, the legendary recording studio that launched Elvis, Johnny Cash, Slim Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis. But did you also know that Rufus Thomas (who sang the Funky Chicken) recorded a song called “Bear Cat” that sounds suspiciously similar in melody to a much more famous Sun hit called “Hound Dog?” Well, these are just some of the fascinating trivia one will learn on the Sun Studio Tour - the best bang for your buck. Our tour guide was a tall and lanky fellow named Slim Wallace. (He was indeed slim.) He led us through a multi-media tour of Sun Studios replete with display cases of a young Elvis meeting Sun Record producer and guru, Sam Phillips. However, we also learned of many lesser known, influential musicians such as a young Ike Turner and his band called “Kings of Rhythm” who actually had the first rock-and-roll record called “Rocket 88″ and also a great guitarist called Howling Wolf. One thing becomes abundantly clear when moving through Memphis’s rich musical history is how profoundly African American artists influenced and made great American music and also how much interchange there was between the Blues from Beale Street and country music heard on the radio that gave birth to good old Rock-and-Roll.

“My Happyness” and “That’s Alright Mama” were the first recordings done by Elvis when he was 18. Even though I am not a big Elvis fan, it was hard not to be impressed by learning how all this wonderful music came to be. During the tour, one enters the very same studio as all these legendary artists used and there’s even time alloted to handle the famous microphone that all the famous crooners from Elvis to Johnny Cash to Slim Perkins used to make legendary hits. Sun Studios is an absolute must-see on the music from Memphis tour.

Rita recommends….Memphis, TN

Gentle readers, Rita is departing from her usual film review format to bring you some highly recommended sightseeing tours in the heart of the South in Memphis, Tennessee. It has been a long-time dream of Rita’s to see the deep South (Miami and the Florida Keys just never seemed to really count) and Rita has finally realized that dream in a big way by delving into the crossroads of the Blues/Rock and Roll/Soul/Gospel/Rhythm and Blues and the civil rights movement. Exploring Memphis’ museums is to look at the fascinating history of American music and how it developed in the deep South. If you are even remotely interested in great music, (which I’m sure you are) you owe it to yourself to find out something more about American music and its rich legacy. Believe me, you’ll find something to get excited about it. Besides, the people here are friendly and laid-back and more than willing to help a tourist find his or her way.

Rita recommends Elizabeth but not, Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Elizabeth (199 and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) are both directed by Shekhar Kapur. I had seen Elizabeth almost 10 years ago and remembered liking it and Cate Blanchett, who is absolutely luminous as Queen Elizabeth, the so-called Virgin Queen. To refresh my memory, I watched it again and also saw its sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age. I prefer Elizabeth to the one made last year. Both films are a feast for the eyes, the set design—stunning, the costumes—stellar, and the acting by Blanchett—riveting. That said, something was sorely lacking in Golden Age. Visually, it is as captivating as the first Elizabeth, but something is missing. Perhaps the intrigue
wasn’t as compelling as the first. Some of the lines in Golden Age are just plain silly. Whereas, in the first Elizabeth, the queen-to-be is unsure of herself and has to navigate a battlefield of political assassins in her path to ascend the throne. In part 2, Spain, as her primary enemy, just does not seem so much a threat as a nuisance. The plot meanders and after awhile, her love interest, Sir Walter Raleigh, played by Clive Owens, was annoying and burdensome. The scenes between Queen Elizabeth and her main lady-in-waiting (Samantha Morton) were much more playful and sensual but I may be a bit biased in that department! Go see for yourself.

Rita Recommends… three by George Clooney

If you are one of the many fans who swoon at the sight of George Clooney, there are plenty of flicks to get your just delights such as Michael Clayton (2007) and Oh Brother, Where Are Thou? (2000) You can also see his smart side in his directorial debut, Goodnight and Good Luck. (2005) Let’s start with Michael Clayton, George is looking a little grizzled and haggard here. That’s because he’s burnt out from being the “fixer” for his law firm while coming to the assistance of his colleague, Arthur who has a nervous breakdown. Plus, he needs to keep the loan sharks are bay to pay off his brother’s debt. The film also stars academy award winner, Tilda Swinton, as the corrupt corporate counsel, Karen Crower. This is a solid, entertaining escapade that will keep you guessing until the ending credits.

Oh Brother, Where Are Thou? is a zany, steeped in sepia film by the Coen Brothers, one of the few movies of theirs that I can look out without averting my eyes. As usual, their film has spectacular visuals and catchy, folkloric southern songs that punctuate the film. Ever so loosely based on the Odyssey, (I should know, I had to read it in college.) our beloved George plays Everett Ulysses McGil. He is part of a chain-gang in 1930s Mississippi. He and his fellow inmates, Delmar and Pete (John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson) escape incarceration and among other things, face a series of eccentric characters and a KKK lynch mob. (one of the more spectacular scenes in the film) This is a wonderfully quirky movie, especially notable for its music, its historical setting, and George is funny and handsome, looking very much like a classical Hollywood actor from the golden years of film.

Last but not least, there is the stark black and white film Good Night, and Good Luck in which George directed. In it, he pays tribute to Edward R. Murrow, considered to be one of the best TV journalists. Murrow (David Strathairn) faces down Senator McCarthy, a powerful and bullying man who engaged in a witch hunt of American citizens accused of being Communists. Murrow and his CBS team expose the lies of McCarthy and bring about an end to his fear tactics.

Rita Recommends…In Treatment

Just heard about this highly original HBO series from an interview with the star, Gabriel Byrne, on the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC this week. Well, Rita just had to see what all the fuss was about, watching therapy sessions with psychoanalyst Paul, who runs his practice out of a home office in the suburbs. Adapted from a popular Israeli series called “Be Tipul,” the show follows Paul Weston throughout his week as he sees different clients, Laura, Alex, Sophie, married couple Jake and Amy and finally Paul himself in session with his old mentor, Gina. (played by Dianne Wiest) The drama is absolutely riveting. I watched one free episode off the HBO website on Wednesday and by Thursday, I had viewed about 9 half-hour episodes in one sitting! The intensity of the acting and the writing is extremely compelling. Check it out.

http://www.hbo.com/intreatment/about/
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2008/03

Rita Recommends…Judy, Judy, Judy!

Believe it or not, Rita used to wonder what was the big deal about…Judy Garland. Can you imagine?
With only a childish perspective from multiple viewings of The Wizard of Oz, “Somewhere over the Rainbow” and perhaps, “Zing! Went the Strings of my Heart” were the only songs I had any passing familiarity (and like Louis B. Mayer in the movie review that follows, I was not so impressed).

By chance, I happen to catch the made-for-tv bio pic, Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001) based on daughter Lorna Luft’s biography of her legendary show-biz mama. The very great Judy Davis (an Australian actress known for a few Woody Allen pics from the 90s) channels the haunted chantreuse quite unlike any living actor I have seen so far. Tammy Blanchett also does an admirable job portraying young Frances Gumm (Judy’s birth name before MGM changed it) auditioning for the imperious movie mogul, Louis B. Mayer. Judy becomes a big star but she pays a high price for her fame, a lifetime addiction to amphetamines that the studio prescribes to her to keep her weight down and her perky energy up. When she collapses on the set because of the bullying of her director, she’s only given 3 weeks to recover even though the doctor insists she needs 6. Her mother (Marsha Mason as the quintessential stage mother) and the studio push and push poor Judy until she is just a bundle of nerves but that voice…that voices flattens all in its path.

My favorite part is when Judy Davis as Judy is seen backstage revving herself up for her famous Concert at Carnegie Hall which is considered to be a once in a lifetime, star performance. A very famous critic is said to have wept openly at Judy’s performance. Picture perfect, the issue of that concert has never gone out of print. If one listens to that CD and sees the actual concert footage from Judy Garland: The Concert Years there is no doubt, you too shall also be converted to a die-hard Judy fan. Not just for gay men anymore (or Rufus Wainwright who had the audacity to try and recreate her concert.) Judy Garland was performer who gave of and above her humanity and she had the voice to do so. The documentary contains clips from the variety show she hosted on CBS during the 60s. Among the highlights on DVD are her duets with Barbara Streisand, her daughter Liza Minnelli, Lena Horne and Tony Bennett. Lorna Luft hosts the documentary and covers a happier time in the singer’s life, when she returned to her career as a singer and stopped doing movies, with the notable exception of her one-woman tour de force in A Star is Born. These are all must-see rentals.

Rita Recommends…Casey Affleck’s performances

Two Casey Affleck dramas came out last year: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) & Gone Baby Gone (2007). The latter directed by Casey’s big brother, Ben Affleck. With all due respect to Affleck the elder, (he did an adirmable job directing his first movie) his little brother has emerged as having honed his acting chops. While Casey Affleck has been acting in various roles for over a decade, he is now hitting his stride. Casey had the lead role in Baby… and in the supporting role as the coward, Robert Ford, he was nominated for an Oscar.
In Gone, Baby Gone, he plays a baby-faced private detective who is hired along with his partner and girlfriend (Michelle Monaghan) to find the missing five-year old daughter of a drug-addicted mother. (played with raging intensity by Amy Ryan)

Based on a novel by Dennis Lehane who also wrote Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone nails the Bostonian working class neighborhood of Dorchester. Even the extras in the film lend a documentary-like feel to the sense of place. There’s a fierce sense of loyalty and insularity that is explored through the Affleck’s character Patrick. He can take a tough stance when challenged by the local barflies and a drug dealer when he starts asking too many questions. Or is that the denizens smell on Patrick that he got out of the hood, graduated to something better and he posters a swagger of superiority?

Then there is the question of the abducted girl—will she be found alive? Morgan Freeman plays the police captain assigned to the case and Ed Harris portrays a possibly corrupt cop. They add complexity to the storyline but the film belongs to Casey Affleck who is not necessarily the most likable character, but he is the most consistent and the plot twists will keep your interest. Rent this one!

In The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, (isn’t that a mouthful of a title?) Casey Affleck plays the coward, Robert Ford, in this compelling Western directed by Andrew Dominik. The moody and dreamy film explores a close relationship between the outlaw, Jesse James at the height of his notoriety and the quintessential sycophant, Robert Ford, whom becomes responsible for his downfall. The cinematography is brilliantly lit and the Blue Cut train robbery scene is an stunning example of how well-executed the recreation of this thuggish history is. Rather than detail all the plot action here, suffice to say, The Assassination of Jesse James… pulls you into a slow, rolling jar of molasses and doesn’t let you out of it so easily. It is a captivating yarn. The film is adapted from a novel of the same name by Ron Hansen.

Rita recommends…Casanova

Rita and friends decided to add a few Heath Ledger flicks to the Netflix queue. Fortunately, we started off with a good one, Casonova, starring the late Heath Ledger, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons, Oliver Platt, and Lena Olin. This romantic comedy is a charming and fun costume period piece taking place in 18th century Venice. It is very reminiscent of those Shakespearian comedies-of-mistaken identity such as As You Like It.

All the action takes place in sumptuous Venice and makes the city look extremely attractive place as any for cooing love birds, sex with nun novices, and the mistaken identity of a philosophical author.

The film opens with Giacomo Casanova running from a nunnery on the rooftops of Venice with the officials of the Inquisition in hot pursuit. They are desperate to get their hands on Casanova and make an example of him because of his free-loving ways. His faithful servant advises him to get a wife and fast so he can be made a reputable husband. He quickly becomes engaged to Victoria (Natalie Dormer) who is ready to bed him right there in the garden right after her father approves of the engagement. However, Casanova meets Francesca (Sienna Miller) at a duel he is about to have with Victoria’s spurned secret admirer, Giovanni Bruni (Charlie Cox). Casanova is instantly smitten. Francesca is an avowed feminist and despises everything the character Casanova stands for so he pretends to be someone else in order to whoo her. Things get tricky when it turns out Francesca is also hiding her identify under a nom de plume, Bernardo Grudi.

Rita does not recommend…Interview

Interview (2007) Sienna Miller, Steve Buscemi, Michael Buscemi.
Buscemi portrays a washed-out political journalist who is assigned by his editor to interview a celebrity actress (Miller) who is more well-known for her horror flicks, her steamy love-life, and her soap opera character than her acting.

This movie is a remake of the original in 2003 by Theo Van Gogh. Theo Van Gogh wanted to remake three of his films in America but due to his untimely murder, he didn’t. There are a few nods to him in the movie: a moving van named “Van Gogh Movers” and Miller’s character, Katya, mentions that her father is from Holland.

Steve Buscemi is fine as a director but the story itself is less than compelling. Both characters are extremely unsympathetic and the plot takes liberties. The “interview” between self-absorbed Katya and bitter Pierre starts in a Soho restaurant. After Pierre insults the actress by calling her “Cuntya”, are we suppose to believe that Katya will then take pity on the poor, misunderstood journo by inviting him up to her lofty loft after he sustains a huge bump on his head from his cab suddenly stopping because the cab driver is mesmerized by Katya’s beauty and celebrity???

Oh, come…on. The cat-and-mouse talky interview between them continues in Katya’s loft but in a short time, it grows wearisome and boring. Not only that, the things they “confess” to each other just makes the audience feel manipulated and trashed. It was an interesting concept but….no dice. Skip it.