Reinvention. In 2006, if there was one word that summed up Tinseltown’s game plan to get folks into their local multiplex, it’s that.
Backed by a crackerjack script from some of the minds behind television’s “Alias” and “Lost,” and ace supporting turns from Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Tom Cruise managed to distract audiences from his wonky personal life with the third installment of his “Mission: Impossible”-series.
Daniel Craig pulled off an amazing feat, toplining the best Bond ever and bulldozing all the basement-dwelling online haters in his first go-around as 007.
A supporting character taken from a British TV show gave comedy king Will Ferrell a run for his money when “Borat” became a hit on both sides of the border.
Bryan Singer dropped the “X-Men” franchise to repurpose Warner’s long-dormant “Superman” films, tapping a virtual unknown (Brandon Routh) to be the caped hero’s new face.
Faced with the daunting prospect of having to pen a sequel (two actually) to 2003’s unlikely blockbuster – “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” – writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio ended up piecing together a brand new adventure that stands apart from its predecessor and, thanks to its massive haul at the box-office, promises to be one of the best-loved film-trilogies when part three – “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” – hits theatres next summer.
Getting in on the act in similar fashion, Michael Mann did the unthinkable, dreaming up a newly incarnated “Miami Vice,” stripping it of its ‘80s kitsch and rooting it firmly in the murky hallways of today’s underworld.
In atypical Hollywood fashion, one outsider – Spike Lee – figured that maybe the best way to reinvent himself was by being, well, conventional. And even though the story (written by Russell Gewirtz), padded by fine acting turns from Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster, borrows pages from virtually every heist film that’s ever been released, the outspoken director flips the genre on its head when it’s revealed that who Owen’s suave bank robber really wants to steal from is a greedy WWII profiteer. How ingenious is that?
Audiences showed a willingness to line-up for celluloid fare that tackled big issues like global warming (captured in frightening detail in Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”), patriotism (the Dixie Chicks’ “Shut Up and Sing” was a great travelogue that shows us what happens when a mainstream music act speaks its mind), our obsession with fast food (people gobbled up Richard Linklater’s fictionalized take on Eric Schlosser’s harrowingly true “Fast Food Nation”) and the passing of time (Michael Apted returned to his ongoing “Up”-series, which started way back in 1963).
Brad Pitt did his best to quell all things Brangelina, ensconcing himself amongst a cast of virtual unknowns (save Cate Blanchatt) for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s emotional rollercoaster – “Babel.”
Some of the ‘80s Brat Pack got a temporary release from movie hell when Emilio Estevez assembled an all-star cast for “Bobby” – an engaging survey of 22 people who were at the Ambassador Hotel on the day U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated.
And though it’s still months away, Martin Scorsese might have one-upped perennial Oscar favourite Clint Eastwood with “The Departed.” His note perfect return to crime drama has turned out to be a box-office hit, while Eastwood’s also-excellent “Flags Of Our Fathers” limped out of theatres two months after its release.
So, what’s to come in 2007? Well, if reinvention was the word this year, regurgitation might best sum up what’s on deck. "Spider-Man 3," "Shrek the Third," another "Pirates of the Caribbean,” "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” and the continuing adventures of the “Fantastic Four” are all due before you pack the kiddies off to school next September.
Happy viewing!
And now, here are my top ten films of 2006:
10. Inside Man
At this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Spike Lee bristled when I asked him how his decision to make a commercial film would impact on his ability to navigate politically volatile subjects (as he did so elegantly in his searing Hurricane Katrina doc – “When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts”). Shrugging off his best ever performance at the box-office with “Inside Man,” and “Levees’” resounding critical success, Lee said he’d keep doing the kinds of films he wants.
Let’s hope so.
9. Brick
Most of what passes for neo-noir these days ends up a hodgepodge of banal Tarantino-esque dialogue and, even worse, bad storytelling. Not this one. Part David Lynch, part something brand new, writer-director Rian Johnson tapped “3rd Rock From The Sun’s” Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lukas Haas for the year’s most twisty whodunit. Replete with its own film noir lingo (cops are called “bulls,” while the film’s arch villain is nicknamed “The Pin”), “Brick” plays like Christopher Nolan’s “Memento;” just when it ends, you want to hit rewind and help solve the crime all over again.
8. “Mission: Impossible 3”
Forget Tom Cruise’s couch jumping antics on Oprah: This mission rocks. From the film’s opening frames, when an ominous Phillip Seymour Hoffman promises to axe Cruise’s girl (played by the stunning Michelle Monaghan), ‘til its heart-thumping climax, “Alias” scribes Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and J.J. Abrams (who also directs the picture) ratchet up amusement park-sized fun as Ethan Hunt and his band of terrorist-fighting agents try to stop another madman from blowing up the world. Um, Santa, why wasn’t this under my tree?
7. “Bobby”
By now, any movie with Sharon Stone in a leading role should be capable of setting off bomb detectors across the nation. However, proving time travel might still be possible, the lovely lady, who assaulted moviegoers with a second “Basic Instinct” earlier this year, tops her career-high performance in “Casino” and ends up shining amidst a cast fully riddled with star-studded performances from Demi Moore, Christian Slater, Anthony Hopkins and others.
This absorbing film, which tracks the lives of 22 characters in the hours leading up to the assassination of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1963, could have easily gone off the rails, but as it stands, writer, director and star, Emilio Estevez, gives the story just enough pathos to make us wonder where all the inspiring politicians have gone.
6. “49 Up”
I haven’t seen any of the others in Michael Apted’s ongoing “Up” series of documentaries, but that doesn’t mean I was any less drawn in by the real life stories of upper and lower class Britons he started telling in 1963. The idea, novel both then and now, was to revisit each subject every seven years to see how her or his life had turned out.
But, even though it’s a curious precursor to today’s reality television craze, “49 Up” doesn’t grab you through cheap voyeurism. It snatches on to your lapels by forcing you to examine, just like the film’s myriad of characters, how you became what you are.
5. “Miami Vice”
Before you start lobbing oodles of hate mail my way, remember, I did say the word this year is reinvention. Clearly, there was no need for Michael Mann to play chicken with his slick ‘80s foray into primetime. But figuring that the time was right to reinterpret detectives Sonny Crockett (played by Colin Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (played by Jamie Foxx), Mann ends up clocking one of the year’s most ambitious action flicks. Sprawled across several cities, the film’s multi-faceted story updates the series’ sharp-suited evildoers with a host of gum-cracking baddies and a killer shoot ‘em up scene that rivals “Heat’s.”
4. “Flags Of Our Fathers”
I’m one of those people who think Clint can do no wrong. I have yet to see “Flags’” companion piece – “Letters From Iwo Jima” – which tells the Japanese side of this bloody 1945 battle, but on its own, Eastwood’s story (penned by London, Ont., native Paul Haggis and William Broyles Jr.) of the three surviving American soldiers who helped raise the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi, before being whisked home to help raise funds for the war effort, is a sobering account of men who fight and what happens when the wars are over.
3. “United 93”
Not nearly as popular as Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center,” Paul Greengrass’ document of doomed United 93, the fourth plane hijacked by terrorists on 9/11, still stands as the year’s most painful film to watch. Offering little in the way of back-story, the taut thriller unfurls with real-time certainty, providing a searing snapshot of a nation caught off guard, and the heroes who stood up against terror.
2. “Babel”
Brad Pitt’s name alone made this one of the most highly anticipated films to screen at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. But minutes in, director Alejandro González Iñárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga make you forget you’re watching one of Hollywood’s leading faces, soaking viewers’ auditory and visual senses in a globe-trotting tale that covers the borders that divide us – race, money, religion – and the things closer to home, namely family, that make us all the same.
1. “The Departed”
Mathematically, Scorsese, plus Di Caprio, plus Damon, plus Nicholson should equal sure-fire hit. But William Monahan’s taut script, which he adapts from the Hong Kong thriller “Infernal Affairs,” is a muted study of how corruption born in young adult lives scabs over and eventually becomes a wound that can’t easily be healed. Running at almost three hours, the acting, from Jack Nicholson’s sadistic Irish mobster to Martin Sheen’s troubled role in the Special Investigation Unit, is superb and Scorsese handles the story’s tale of an undercover cop infiltrating the Irish mob, and an undercover criminal infiltrating the Boston police department, with theatrical precision.
Add to that career-defining performances from Leonardo Di Caprio (as the undercover cop) and Matt Damon (as the undercover criminal), and you have all the ingredients not only for a sure-fire hit, but a return to what Scorsese does best – crime – and, maybe, what has eluded him thus far in his career – Oscar.
Other notables:
“Superman Returns” rescues the moribund franchise, which pretty much flat-lined after 1987’s “Quest for Peace;” Anthony Minghella’s “Breaking and Entering” is a deeply absorbing tale that follows what happens when the lives of a London architect (played by Jude Law) and a Bosnian immigrant (played by Juliette Binoche) intersect after a series of robberies; “Borat” is the year’s funniest satire showing Americans at their, er, you know; Daniel Craig’s rendition of Bond was a big crapshoot, but “Casino Royale” wins large, repurposing 007 for audiences tired of Pierce’s pithy one-liners; though it can’t be considered for an Oscar for best documentary, Spike Lee’s “When the Levees Broke” is a passionate account of lives torn asunder by Hurricane Katrina; even if you know which way the wind’s blowing, Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” will scare the bejeezers out of you; Edward Norton further cements his status as his generation’s Brando, blanketing himself as a starry-eyed drifter in the cowboy romance, “Down in the Valley;” and Mike Clattenburg’s “Trailer Park Boys: The Movie” lets Canucks turn the tables on our American counterparts, giving us jokes that only people north of Niagara Falls will find funny.
Budding Bob and Doug McKenzie’s have a hard act to follow.
The year’s worst:
1. “All the King’s Men” – Statistically it’s not impossible for you to win the lottery seeing as an amalgam of acting greats were able to botch this story so badly.
2. “The Holiday” – Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz and Jack Black went yard, making me practically vomit up my popcorn in the year’s most grating romantic comedy.
3. “The Da Vinci Code” – A book that I finished in just a couple of days puts me to sleep in under 45 minutes – go figure.
4. “Lady In the Water” – I’ve loved, and own, every movie M. Night has directed, but this so reeks of self-importance that you can smell this turkey a mile away.
5. “Running Scared” – You will be too if you do the unthinkable and slap this baby in your DVD player.
6. “The Black Dahlia” – A great director, an engaging story from “L.A. Confidential” scribe James Ellroy, two promising young actors and Scarlett Johansson all join forces to craft the year’s most boring thriller.
7. “The Sentinel” – I hope next season’s “24” explores who kidnapped Kiefer Sutherland and manipulated him into this half-baked espionage thriller.
8. “Poseidon” – Wolfgang Petersen needs to get around to making that long-rumoured “Batman Vs. Superman” or bow out.
9. “You, Me and Dupree” – Um, Matt Dillon head’s up: You’re no Vince Vaughn. And wait is that Mike Douglas copping another $13.50 off of unsuspecting moviegoers? Methinks yes.
10. “Basic Instinct 2” – Had it been released under its working title – “Risk Addiction” – I’m sure critics and fans would have seen it in a whole different light.
And the year’s biggest surprise:
“Rocky Balboa” – A surprisingly moving story from a past-his-prime actor-writer-director (Stallone) about a past-his-prime boxer that reigns in the jokes to hit viewers where it hurts: Right in the heart.
