Best Performances: Radha Mitchell

The best Alien knockoff I have seen, and elevated above the normal 'monsters on the loose' scenario with compelling characters and a menacing, cunning antihero in Vin Diesel. Scary and smart, with a striking color scheme by director Twohy. And I bet nobody can guess which people get out alive!

I assume the premise of the movie came to Woody Allen because that's exactly the duality of how he sees the world: is human existence a comedy or a tragedy? He offers that there are both sides to every story in 'Melinda and Melinda.'

Uncharacteristically, I am more taken with Woody's drama tale this time, with Radha Mitchell in excellent form as a deeply troubled former Park Avenue society wife now trying to get her anxiety-riddled life back on track. On the lighter half, Will Farrell comes off as a rather feeble Woody Allen substitute, filled with the same neuroses and stammerings that defined the director's onscreen image. But then Woody could not fill that role at the age of 70 in this context, so he was wise to seek another actor but the casting just didn't work. There are other problems with casting in one of Woody's lightest-weighted ensembles.

There are still some good laughs from a few sharp lines and some heart-tugging developments. Am very glad I watched it and worth a look particularly for Radha Mitchell's efforts in a double role, but there are many Woody films that you need to watch more urgently.

A film like 'When Strangers Appear' serves as a worthy reminder of how difficult a well-constructed screenplay is to write by demonstrating how poorly it can be done! Truly an amateurish effort: a vehicle changes location without a driver, 3 men cannot chase down a 5'4" woman neither in their car nor on foot, enemies routinely appear from nowhere, and the hackneyed King of McGuffins, an unexplained computer disc. How original! These inadequacies disrupt what began as an intriguing mystery/thriller with a wounded drifter appearing at an offroad diner tended by a jaded waitress with a secret of her own. Unfortunately the writer seemed to have concocted his scenes first but then had no idea how to string them together. Josh Lucas and his cronies are fairly pedestrian, the only reason this gets two stars is the typically involving, realistic work from Radha Mitchell who draws us into her plight. And the final pre-credit scene is an ironic chuckler.

But set in Oregon?? Ha ha, I don't think so!

And us, The Waiting Audience. A lot of nothing happens storywise from the time an Australian couple arrives in India to claim the child they adopted. As delays occur, the couple begins to doubt their commitment to a family and to each other.

The one good reason to watch this is to get a very good sense of modern life in India, filmed entirely on location in & around Calcutta. Dizzying street activity and peculiar (to Western eyes) ceremonies are fascinating to watch, including a wedding and a funeral in which the dead body is sent downriver on a raft - the same river people bathe and wash clothes in. Ick. With one of the most populous countries in the world, I'm afraid there is too much proximity for this traveler.

I guess another reason to watch is why I did, because it stars Radha Mitchell. She won Best Actress at the Antipodes Film Festival in St. Tropez for this role; she's good as a work-obsessed lawyer, but really nothing out of the ordinary from her usual strong work. Her name Radha-Rani derives from Indian culture as her model mother was enamored with the country during the 1960s, so I imagine Radha had great interest in experiencing the country for herself. That's a great opportunity for her but not a reason for you to watch.

Solid horror/thriller, the only real knock is a feeling of sameness. The plot is as functional as a clothes dryer: the water supply for a small Iowa town gets contaminated, which leads to erratic, violent behavior among the populace followed by a government coverup operation. We don't learn much more than that as we follow a married couple, sheriff Tim Olyphant and town doctor Radha Mitchell, accompanied by his deputy and her nurse as they attempt to escape. They aren't concerned with uncovering a government conspiracy, they are too busy trying to get out alive! That removes any intrigue and instead concentrates on visceral thrills.

Olyphant does a great job as the earnest, optimistic officer, as does veteran horror professional Mitchell (Pitch Black, Visitors, Rogue). I love when she takes these roles as her presence and acting chops greatly contribute to the movie's believability. The real surprise standout is British actor Joe Anderson sporting a genuine midwestern accent as loyal deputy Russell.

There are many chases and games of hide & seek, punctuated by moments of bonding and suspicion - who might be infected? I wish they had built that element of suspense more, as the whole town goes apeshit soon after the first couple crazies are encountered. That's when the evil authorities arrive with their own sinister plan for containment, and our quartet must evade them as well across the wide-open Iowa landscape.

As a thrill-ride, The Crazies delivers pretty well, unfortunately there isn't a standout sequence - I guess the encounter with the coroner will have to do. Influences include High Tension for the gritty realism and occasional arty camerawork, and clearly Dawn of the Dead (2004) for the action and gore, and even using Johnny Cash for the opening song! Worth another star if you haven't seen a hundred of this kind already.

Well acted, if that's the right word, by this collection of women in a series of monologues to camera. That it, that's the movie, so it's best to know what you're in for. Starts getting rather long-winded around the seventh story.

Atmospheric but relentlessly grim and grimy. Story is all told in expository speeches by either drab policeman or ranting crazies, the rest of the time spent running from or fighting with bad CGI effects. Sean Bean is really slumming here, and Radha Mitchell, who has proven her worth in scary movies like 'Pitch Black' and 'Visitors,' has no script and is merely cast as Woman In Peril.

Great to see Bruce Willis in another what-if futuristic scenario, reminding me of his work in Twelve Monkeys. This premise isn't nearly as intriguing - people using robots to live their lives for them. And too many question marks arise; how could surrogate coupling possibly be a substitute for real sex, for example? Why do the human-controlled robots never bump into each other? They have invented fully functioning robots, yet nearly no other new technologies are evident in the future? There is a mention about genetic hard coding to prevent other users from stealing a robot for their own use, but it happens a few times anyway.

Radha Mitchell & Ving Rhames are largely wasted, this is definitely the Willis show in terms of which star powers this universe. I did like the effects of making Bruce look like David Addison with a bad hair weave again when in robot form, I don't know how they pulled that off. Some impressive car chases/crashes and the final scene of falling bodies also very memorable. The emphasis on Willis trying to reconnect with his wife was the only real human aspect of the movie though and was overplayed, would help if we got to know more about the other characters.

Lowbrow with telegraphed punchlines, Atkinson's non-Bean stab at the American market had lots of opportunity but little delivery. Best, genuinely funny bit has him attending a cocktail party with a paralyzed arm. Watch 3 episodes of 'Blackadder' or 'The Thin Blue Line' instead to better spend your time and get 50 times more laughs.