So the question is, is he a guy from planet K-PAX, or just a deluded mental patient? The guy in question is Kevin Spacey, and he plays a character he calls Prot. He pops up out of nowhere one day in the middle of Grand Central Station and ends up under the care of a Doctor Mark Powell, played by Jeff Bridges.
Sometimes a movie sets a tone early on for me and sometimes it’s a bad one. This movie does just that as it just so happens the only person to notice Prot’s magical appearance is a black homeless veteran. Everyone else is oblivious. Maybe I’m overreacting here, but I’ve seen enough movies to know a scene like that one often sets up the rest of the movie. I wasn’t wrong this time.
Most of the first half of this movie is about everyone being in awe of Prot. He’s got the cool shades, he’s got the cool, calm voice, he’s got the whole guru thing working for him. He cuts the good doctor down to size by answering everyone of his questions with that, “okay, I’m bored, what else do you have?” act. So Doctor Mark, apparently a very successful psychiatrist, is so stumped, he begins to believe Prot may be from K-PAX. That leads to a Q&A with some of the world’s top scientists, who are also amazed by Prot’s knowledge. At this point I’m starting to get pretty bored myself.
I think you’re supposed to be entertained by the sideshow of mental patients who live with Prot in the institution where Dr. Mark works. Well, that didn’t help. I don’t know about you, but a few years after “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”, I grew tired of that “aren’t the crazy people funny?” approach to the portrayal of mental illness in the movies. At least this time they diversified the crowd, which includes a germaphobic black guy and several women. Isn’t their quirkiness a hoot? Well, no. There’s a scene where one particular basket case spots a blue jay outside his window, and all celebratory hell breaks loose. Of course, Prot has something to do with this. It’s supposed to bring you to tears. It brought me to nausea.
That’s right – in addition to being a genius in matters relating to several solar systems, Prot is also an expert in sizing up people’s mental problems. He also provides guidance to Dr. Mark over his failing home life. So it follows then that maybe he is an advanced life form, right? That brings us to the second half of the movie where Dr. Mark applies hypnosis therapy to try to find out who Prot really is. And while Prot’s eyes rolled around and his voice got child-like and weepy, my eyes just rolled. This was horrible, manipulative nonsense. I compare it to last year’s “Pay It Forward”, where the attempt to make people feel good overwhelms any good sense in story writing. The lessons of political correctness are obvious and annoying. You see, it really doesn’t matter if Prot is from K-PAX or from Kansas, he can change lives all the same. Isn’t that a wonderful fable? “K-PAX” is “K-RAP”. Save your money. I give it a “2.0”.
Friday, October 19th, 2001
FROM HELL
Ready for another movie take on “Jack The Ripper”? Here it is and it’s getting more attention than usual because it’s directed by some up and comers, twins called the Hughes Brothers. But you probably don’t care about that.
Johnny Depp plays the Inspector on the case. He’s also an opium addict, so there’s something new. Heather Graham plays Mary Kelley, the pretty hooker, who along with a group of her fellow prostitute sisters, is on Jack’s hit list. Why are they on Jack’s hit list? Well, that’s for you to figure out. Of course, you might want to spend your time enjoying the stylish production work of this movie, because the conspiracy behind Jack’s work is really not all that interesting.
You can pick from between five or six characters who might be the killer. Besides being an opium addict, Inspector Depp also has some kind of physic visions. And in these visions he obtains clues about the killings. If you’re looking for graphic scenes of these killings, you’re probably going to be disappointed. Yes, Jack does slit their throats and then cuts out their organs with the skills of a surgeon, but you don’t really get to see much of that. Or, maybe you don’t want to. It’s just that we’ve been down this road so many times before with so many Jack movies, it’s kind of a yawner. I mean, Jack may have been the first serial killer with the chilling methodology, but one hundred years later we’ve got Jeffrey Dahmer actually boiling and eating the organs.
That means that if the murders aren’t that interesting and the story behind Jack’s rampage isn’t that interesting, that pretty much only leaves the acting skills of the cast and the whole production elements of the movie. And you don’t really care about that, do you?
But in case you do, here goes. Depp is fine, but if you saw his movie from a couple of years back with the headless horseman, you’ve seen him play this character before. The quiet, thoughtful, caring detective who can separate himself from the politics of his police work and get the job done. And this despite being an addict. As for Heather, well she doesn’t really do much except represent what will become the last of the ten little Indian prostitute girls that Jack is after. For a hooker, she doesn’t seem to work much either. Funny, her group of friends are largely ugly and unsympathetic, but Heather is the shining sweetheart at the center of it all. There is actually a more interesting performance from Ian Holm, as the personal physician to the royal family. There’s at least some depth to that character.
“From Hell” is dark and gloomy and that’s okay, but after all, it’s set in rainy, ugly London. I’ve got to say, the editing and some of the sets and scene changes are eye catching, but that just doesn’t cut it. Why bother with another Ripper movie? It just didn’t move the needle for me, and at two hours long, it was too slow a needle. I give it a “5.0”
Friday, October 5th, 2001
Yes, it all takes place in one day. It’s training day for our new LAPD narcotics officer Jake, played by Ethan Hawke. His training officer is a detective by the name of Alonzo, and he’s the character played by Denzel Washington. He’s not a very good man. Or is he?
Talk about relevance. Remember the recent debate over whether we need to use the bad guys to go undercover for the CIA to catch the bad guys? You know, the terrorists. Well, one of the issues here is do we need to use the bad cops like our friend Alonzo to catch the really bad drug dealers? And that would seem like the main storyline of this movie, but actually it isn’t.
As we watch Jake go about his first day on the job with Alonzo, one of the first things I wondered is, is this for real? Or is Jake the victim of a big hoax? Alonzo is so deep undercover, he makes the Rampart cops involved in our real life LAPD scandal look pretty tame. The guy drives a souped-up Monte Carlo, wears all black clothes, talks nasty and acts nasty. He seems to have no supervisors and just does what he wants, which appears to be ragging on people and collecting money along the way. He pretty much convinces Jake that anything goes in order to catch the big drug dealers. That apparently includes the rape of a fourteen year-old girl. Everytime Jake objects, Alonzo hits him with big picture and tells him you have to get dirty to catch the dirty guys. Oh, and he also reminds him he can always go back to street patrol in the Valley, which consists of helping motorists fix flats and writing tickets to jaywalkers. That works for a while until this mess gets bigger and bigger. You see, Alonzo is a man with a plan on this day and to watch it unfold really holds your attention. Good for you if you if you figure it out early on, but it’s more fun just to watch this performance by Denzel.
I have often said this is one of our finest actors and if you don’t agree after watching this movie, I’d like to throw you out of the theatre. Denzels’ Alonzo is not a complicated guy, but he knows all the tricks. Listen carefully to everything he says from the beginning, when he spends a lot of his time busting on Jake and a few bad guys, all the way through the movie as his plight becomes obvious. I can’t recall any better writing and any better delivery than this in a movie this year. He is mesmerizing. Here’s a quick example – while threatening a junkie with jail, Alonzo reminds him he’s going to be the sexual property of the guy in his cell. The junkie tells him to perform an oral sex act on him and Alonzo responds, “that’s how it starts”. That’s the kind of sharp, street-wise stuff you can expect from this incredible character.
This movie is raw and pretty grim and mostly a downer, but I loved it. Oh,and as for the question of whether people will show up again for a movie like this after what happened last month, I think the answer is a resounding “yes”. The theatre was packed. “Training Day” and Denzel are almost as good as it gets. I give it a “9.0”.
