BillLindau

Star Wars, Cinderella Man movie reviews

Hollywood’s latest: 2 short reviews
‘Cinderella Man’ packs a punch;
‘Star Wars’ is drama at its finest
By Bill Lindau
We’ve just read a report that movie ticket sales are down all over, due to higher costs, number of quality flicks and more people waiting for them to come out on DVD. Shame on the movie going public for losing faith: I’ve just seen two flicks that nobody should pass up.
Naturally, the latest “Star Wars” movie is going to be a popular thing, but while Ron Howard’s biopic of a depression-era boxing champ won’t exactly deliver a knockout punch against George Lucas’s space opera, “Cinderella Man” has run a close second and deserves a place in the “must-see” category.
I’ve seen them both within two weeks, saving money by going to the early bird or matinee specials and eating at home, so I won’t get hungry for any overprice popcorn or sodas. I’m not a real die-hard Star Wars fan and I blow hot and cold when it comes to sports movies, but I assure you, you are sooooo going to get your money’s worth with these two.
‘Cinderella Man’
This movie has a lot of boxing matches, but it’s a lot more than any formula jock opera. It’s about struggling through hard times, keeping your family together and making a success of yourself. This is the story of an American hero in a showdown between good and evil.
“Gladiator” and “A Beautiful Mind” star Russell Crowe teams up with “Opie” again to play another dude who takes people out for a living: Irish-American prizefighter Jimmy Braddock (1905-1974). The beautiful but pouty-faced Renee Zellweger plays Braddock’s devoted wife Mae.
One of Braddock’s grandchildren, Rosemarie DeWitt, has a supporting role as their neighbor Sara Wilson. Paul Giamatti could very well win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Braddock’s nerdy but loyal manager, Joe Gould. Zellweger and Crowe do good jobs (though Zellweger whines just a little too much), but the bug-eyed Giamatti steals the show from both of them.
I never got so emotionally involved in a boxing match -- real or celluloid -- in my life as much as I did the showdown between Braddock and heavyweight champion Max Baer (Craig Bierko). I’m not going to spoil the ending by telling who wins (at least, not for those who haven’t read up on these men’s boxing careers), but it’s a real showdown between good and evil. People in the audience actually cheered when Braddock lands a punch against the sadistic, trash-talking Baer (I was one of those people). You also want to jump into the screen and hold Renee Zellweger’s hand as she and their three kids listen to Jim’s fight on the radio and poor Renee’s ready to jump out of her skin.
The movie focuses just as much on life during the Depression. Braddock had to quit boxing in the late 1920s, and the Depression put him in the rest of the country behind the eight-ball. The film has Braddock working on the docks and living on public assistance before Gould talks him into putting on the gloves again. One scene shows what a good guy Braddock is when he gives his relief money back to the public-assistance office after his career takes off. The film gives him further role-model qualities it pans to a scantily clad cocktail waitress who’s giving Braddock the eye when he‘s dining out with his wife. Braddock doesn’t even glance at her.
I pulled for one of the Jewish guys Braddock fights (Art Lasky), but I put aside the fact that Baer was also Jewish when Braddock takes him on. I have one problem as far as that goes: The character of Baer in this film is too evil to be credible, baiting Braddock in a restaurant and making lewd comments about his wife. Baer in real life was acquitted of manslaughter in the death of an opponent during one of his fights; the movie claims Baer killed two men in the ring. Incidentally, people who watched “The Beverly Hillbillies” remember Baer as the real Jethro’s father (Max Jr. played the lovable dimwit). I can’t help wondering what the retired actor thinks of this film; I doubt he’s very pleased.
If you’ll read up on the real James Braddock, you’ll find the movie doesn’t stray too far from the truth by putting such a white hat on him. He later served in World War II, became a successful businessman and helped build one of New York City’s latest bridges. He and Mae stayed together until the day he died, late in 1974.
All things considered, this film is even better than all the “Rocky” movies put together. “Cinderella Man” could put most other boxing flicks out in the first round.
‘Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith’
I felt sorry for Darth Vader when I thought he was breathing so hard because he had asthma. But respiratory ailments weren’t the only thing that turned him into the evilest man in the galaxy. This sixth and supposedly film in the “Star Wars” series tries to sum up how it all happened.
I loved the very first three “Star Wars” films, but I skipped the last two after hearing such horrible reviews about them, and I’d pretty much written them all off. I figured “SW6: Revenge of the Sith” was just more kid stuff.
But a trip to Southern Pines with the $4 Early Bird price in my hand convinced me otherwise.
This film has plenty of special effects, light-saber duels and weird-looking androids, but it clearly has the elements of a Shakespearean tragedy. That’s how the film works for me, showing how a handsome young Jedi Knight with a beautiful wife turns into such a tyrant and a murderer, and infest an entire empire with his evil. “The Godfather” series had similar elements of classic tragedy, with Michael Corleone seduced by his own dark side, a la 20th-Century organized crime.
Often, when we talk about an acquaintance who has become a total jerk, somebody says, “Oh, I remember him when he was a really decent guy.“ This is what you can say about Anakin Skywalker before he turned into Darth Vader. This latest movie shows how Anakin turned into such a fallen angel: The bad advice, and the deals with the devil he made with a friend who turned out to be an enemy of the empire in disguise; the frustration he felt when the members of the Jedi knights’ council would not make him a Master because he was too young; the possibility of his pregnant wife (Padme, played by Natalie Portman) dying in childbirth.
You can’t say much for the dialogue, but the battle scenes are impeccable. Ewan McGregor does a good job as a younger Obi-Wan Kenobi (Anakin’s friend and mentor). With his neat beard and well-barbered haircut, Obi-Wan comes across as a butt-kicking UNC professor. Get a load of the computer-generated dinosaur he puts a saddle on and rides; that lizard-horse thing is a howler.
A few scenes look like something the screenwriters might have stolen from “Lord of the Rings”. You’d think all the human beings were made out of steel and plastic, the way they get knocked across rooms and over cliffs and you don’t even see a bruise on the ones who survive.
The end of the movie answers a lot of questions, but it creates a big one: What happened to Jimmy Smits’s character between the two “Star Wars” trilogies. He has a good supporting role as a sympathetic Empire senator, and he ends up as a key element involving the entire series. That’s all I’m going to say about him, before I not spoil the ending.
Those are about the only few gripes I have about this one. Overall, I give it a real thumbs up. Seeing “old friends” like Yoda and the android comedy team of R2D2 and C-3PO makes it like old home week.
Later I thought about what would have happened if Darth Vader had lived long enough to see Princess Leia get married.
What a father-in-law for Han Solo! I’d especially have felt sorry for Calista Flockhart.

posted by Bill Lindau @ 8:52 PM