Mao’s Last Dancer
(Starring Chi Cao, Bruce Greenwood, Kyle MacLaughlan)
It was once said that Chinese ballet dancer Li Cunxin could fly. This underdog biopic almost does the same.
When he was 11, Cunxin (Cao) was taken from his provincial mother, father, and 6 brothers. He was sent to Beijing to study ballet for Chairman Mao’s entertainment and Communist China’s glory. In 1981, during a three-month internship at the Houston Ballet, Cunxin captured our country’s attention and admiration. In that short time, he also got married and defected to America.
The dancing is amazing, and the acting—especially by über-talented Cao and underrated Greenwood (portraying the Houston Ballet’s Artistic Director)—is spot-on.
Director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) farms a specific approach. He makes a nod to Disco era cinema, using faded flashbacks, zoom shots, and low-tech camera effects. It does set the period, but it can also be extraordinarily distracting.
In the grand scheme, there’s not much surprising in the movie’s plot, which purposely punches a lot of emotional buttons. The ugliness of Communism and the egocentrism of America are never shown with any complexity. Politics are more about humans with grudges than nations with schemes. The eternal love of a mother who gave up her son is overwhelmingly touching.
The simplicity might leave you with a few nagging questions. Overall, though, this feel-good film has its heart is in the right place, the acting is sound, and the dancing is just beautiful.
Dinner with Schmucks
(Starring Paul Rudd, Steve Carrell, Bruce Greenwood, Zach Galifianakis)
Dinner with Schmucks is funny, but this uneven flick refuses to acknowledge the heartless bastard it truly is. The original French farce Le Dinner du Cons was cuttingly cruel—like In the Company of Men performed as farce. This congenial American remake has a much duller edge.
Poor, cute Paul Rudd is a boring yuppie struggling for a promotion. Then he scores an invite to a dinner thrown by company owner Greenwood (of Mao’s Last Dancer). At this party, each person is to bring a weird, loser guest that the men can make fun of. Steve Carell fits the bill. He’s a sweet, insane IRS worker who taxidermies dead mice into elaborate, bucolic dioramas.
Carell’s performance is fairly two-dimensional, but at least it’s hilarious. He’s one of those loony but well-meaning people who don’t know they’re different.
Others don’t fare as well. To even consider the dinner, Rudd is a major ass, but he’s presented as more a bland hero. The dinner guests are caricatures, the hosts are frustratingly normal. The movie’s acting styles are all over the place. Minor characters and plots are thrown in just for intermittent humor.
The whole meal had me rooting for the supposed schmucks, which is as it should be.
The Expendables
(Starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Steve Austin, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts)
The only “manly” thing missing is men comparing penis sizes. The gimmick is to shoehorn all of Hollywood’s action heroes into one testosterone festival. But this violent, pandering mess has more clichés than bullets, more plot holes than explosions. There is no wit, no creativity…and no nudity in this otherwise gratuitous film.
Stallone and his A-Team rejects are typical mercenaries. They’re hired to remove an evil regime of drug dealers from a Hispanic island. There are lots of fights, lots of bullets, and lots of things that go boom. The end.
In the midst of all this machismo, five people are worth watching. Willis and Schwarzenegger are brilliant in their brief comic scene; it’s the flick’s only genuinely funny moment. Also, Rourke, Li and sexy Statham don’t fare so badly. Unfortunately, all of the other actors flounder through their bumper-sticker dialogue.
Stallone and his creepy plastic surgery come off the worst. His acting is ham-fisted. His direction—especially of fight sequences—is muddy and confusing. There’s nothing Sly could do to save this god-awful script.
If you want to see a cheesy, brutal throwback to 1980s action films, here it is. In fact, it’s so abysmal, The Expendables might someday have some camp value. Too bad the actors don’t drop trou—especially Statham—because then there’d actually be something worth watching.
