Reviews

This film was conceived by two friends/former students of mine: Jeremy Hoffman (who plays William Clark) and Kev Abrams (who plays Merriwether Lewis). It began as a 3-part web series created, written, shot, edited and scored (more or less in their own backyard of my home state of Oregon) by the two of them in 2011. It was certainly rough around the edges but it had a lot of intelligence, creativity and passion. I loved it... and not just because they asked me to provide the voice of one of the characters: a wise, old Eagle (played on screen by a puppet). I thought it showed a lot of promise and that it would make an excellent feature film.

Years later, as both Jeremy and Kevin pursued their individual careers in L.A. and New York respectively, Jer hooked up with an independent production company called New Renaissance Pictures and in particular with a young writer/director named Anthony Parisi. Parisi wanted to make MANIFEST DESTINY his next film and so the process of raising funding began. Through Kickstarter they were able to bring in over $10,000: an amount that wouldn't even cover the catering of a major Hollywood movie, but, because they were shrewd in stretching their dollar, allowed them to fashion a feature that, with a few notable exceptions, looked/sounded epic and had that professional polish that the original lacked. Fortunately, the cleverness, enthusiasm and ambition of the web series carried over. Since I personally have a lot invested in this film (both as a donor to the Kickstarter campaign that funded it and as a participant since I contributed some storybook-style ink drawings for the prologue and epilogue), I am not even going to pretend to be objective about it. I will just say that I unequivocally love this film (even more than I loved the web series). Jer, Kev, Anthony and a whole crew of generous volunteers have produced a wonderful, bright, colorful, joyous, hilarious, smart and unique finished product.

It tells the story of the famous expedition Lewis and Clark undertook to explore America's West in the early 1800's (an event that will, incidentally, also be the subject of an upcoming mini-series produced by Tom Hanks/Brad Pitt and starring Casey Affleck). That is about the beginning and the end of the connection to reality this film has. Though they play actual historical figures, there is about as much history in MANIFEST DESTINY as there is in ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER. Besides being a big, Disney-style musical with some incredibly catchy songs written by Jer and Kev (the most signature of which is probably "Fording the River" from which the attached photo was taken), the film is primarily a comedy. The characters of Lewis and Clark bear no similarity whatsoever to their real- life counterparts. Jeremy's Clark is a bitter, rugged little spitfire whose sole interest in undertaking the enterprise is to create a legacy for himself. By contrast, Kevin's lanky Lewis is a kind, gentle, nature-loving soul who believes in the nobility of their task. They are an unlikely pair with competing visions of their mission and, although their friendship does grow and deepen over the course of the story, they often bicker and argue along the way, behaving more like 12-year-old boys than grown-up explorers. They are also, as is evidenced by their occasional bad decision-making and general ignorance of how the world works, not the brightest men to ever ride a horse. On their journey they are helped by the young, lovely and very pregnant Native American Sacagawea (whose name they keep mispronouncing) played by Kristen Terry. At one point, in a sequence reminiscent of POCAHONTAS' "Colors of the Wind", she sings a song called "A Different Story" in which she tries to get Lewis and Clark to see the rare, untouched beauty of the land around them and in another hysterical scene, they assist her as she gives birth to her child during a massive snowstorm in what must be the most dramatic birthing song ever recorded ("This Baby Must Be Born").

Further illustrating the disparity between this work of fiction and the actual events upon which they are based, Jesse GrothOlson plays President Thomas Jefferson -- who commissioned the expedition in the first place -- as a petty, vindictive, insecure, power-hungry, narcissistic madman intent upon taking the credit for Lewis and Clark's hard work (Gee, America could never elect a president like that, could it?). In his hilarious self-titled song, he dances around his home and yells at portraits of Washington and Adams, calling them names and declaring himself the "one true great President." He is, in other words, the villain! Making Jefferson a bad guy, Lewis and Clark a couple of barely competent losers and even calling the film "Manifest Destiny" (let alone showing an opening number with a whole crowd of 17th century townspeople -- all white -- singing in praise of it) could potentially be considered a bold, provocative and politically incorrect move in a more serious film, but here the tone of the piece is so absurd, so silly, so far removed from anything resembling historical reality (there are, after all, talking animals/puppets in it), that I don't think it could be more inoffensive. In fact, even though the whole thing is incredibly nice and lighthearted, there is a subversive and satirical bent to MANIFEST DESTINY (not perhaps quite as pointed or edgy as something done by the two SOUTH PARK guys Trey Parker and Matt Stone, but similar and interesting nonetheless) that makes it relevant as well as fun. It's one of the many reasons I love the movie.

Because of the overwhelming barrage of unfavorable reviews, I went into "Fantastic Four" with very low expectations.

I was still utterly disappointed with what I saw.

It is probably the worst movie based on a comic book that I've ever seen (having not yet had the pleasure of sitting through "Elektra" or "Catwoman"). Prior to "Fantastic Four" I would've awarded this "honor" to "Daredevil," but alas (Yes, I'm sorry to say) "Fantastic Four" is even worse.

First off, it moves far too quickly. I don't mean that the movie is just a collection of action sequences strung together (although there is little or no plot to connect one scene to the next). In fact, there is very little action in the movie. What I mean is that the pace of the film is too rushed. The line readings, for example, are delivered much too fast. The director should've varied the pace a bit more, particularly in the so-called "dramatic" scenes.

I don't think the movie was very well cast either. The performances are embarrassingly bad. They go from flat and dull one second to over-the-top and obnoxious the next (the worst offender being the amazingly stiff and lifeless Jessica Alba). The only actor who seems to bring any degree (no matter how small) of subtlety or depth to his character is Michael Chiklis. Perhaps the actors simply did the best they could with what they had to work with, because the characters are uninteresting, unsympathetic and, at times, flat-out annoying (especially Chris Evans' hotshot thrill-seeking "Human Torch").

The only thing worse than the pace, the characterizations and the performances was the writing. The dialogue is incredibly shallow and obvious. Practically every line is a cliché. Here's a small sample:

"You're such a dork, Reed." "Which of you is the leader?" "Johnny, say you're sorry." "You two need a time-out." "He started it." "You need to control yourself. Think before you act." "Nothing personal." "Being different isn't always bad." "We're all in this together." "I can't hold it!" "Ya done good, kid."

The special effects aren't really that special. At times they work just fine. At other times they look very cartoonish and unbelievable. The score, by the usually reliable John Ottman, is uninspired and, quite frankly, very corny. The choice of songs for the movie were also pretty bad. The direction is sadly lacking in any artistic vision or style. Having previously done comedies like "Taxi" and "Barbershop," Tim Story just doesn't seem to demonstrate the natural grasp for the material that Sam Raimi or Bryan Singer does.

Speaking in very broad, generalizing terms, those are just some of the problems I had with the movie. To get more specific, however, I would have to give away a few spoilers. If you haven't yet seen the film, and still plan to, you may want to skip over this next section.

*SPOILERS*

Despite the fact that throughout the film they continue to search for an explanation, it is never revealed how or why the space storm arrives early.

After his transformation, Ben calls his girlfriend from a payphone outside his home. He asks her to come outside, which she does... in her negligee (despite the fact that it's nighttime).

When Ben inadvertently causes a pile-up on a bridge, his three friends just happen to arrive on that same bridge at the very moment the accidents begin to occur.

On the bridge, Reed Richards tells Sue Storm he and Chris can't get past the police to help Ben, but (because of her invisibility) she can. She immediately turns invisible, removes her undergarments and gets by the police, but then so do Reed and her brother. What was the point then of her turning invisible and stripping (besides the obvious reason of providing the audience with a brief glimpse at Jessica Alba's body)?

Ben's girlfriend also goes to the trouble of coming to the bridge and pushing her way through the crowd simply to return a ring to Ben. She takes it off, places it on the street and walks away without saying a word. In the scene that immediately follows, Chris sardonically asks Ben, "Where are your ears?" Considering the man just lost his love, he couldn't show just a bit more understanding?

The films establishes that Ben weighs close to 700 pounds (he can stall an elevator and leave footprints in the pavement). Yet, in the climatic fight scene, he slides off the hood of a car without even leaving a scratch, let alone a dent.

*END OF SPOILERS*

Overall, I'd say the movie was very sloppily and carelessly put together. Things are set up but never paid off. Significant questions are posed but never answered. The movie had potential but never even came close to realizing it. My advice to improve "Fantastic Four" would've been a complete overhaul of the script (probably by some different writers), a different director and, aside from Michael Chiklis, a different cast.

As a wanna-be filmmaker myself I am always keeping tabs on low-budget (or "NO budget" as the case may be) independent films. When a new director comes onto the scene, I think it is always worth checking out their first film to see if they have potential to be a great filmmaker (the Coen brothers' "Blood Simple" and Robert Rodriguez's "El Mariachi" denotes just that). Thus, when the movie "Westender" played at a local art-house theatre, I was interested to see it (my interest piqued even more by the fact that it was shot almost entirely in the beautiful state of Oregon, where I live, and the writer/director Brock Morse is from my resident town of Corvallis). Of course, having seen so many poor independent films in my time, I wasn't expecting very much. I was pleasantly surprised when the film turned out to be really quite good.

The movie takes place in a fantasy medieval time and chronicles the journey of a down-on-his-luck knight named Asbrey who goes in search of a precious ring he gambled away while in a drunken stupor. Along the way he meets a variety of characters including an eccentric old man who lives alone and imparts wisdom to the weary knight and a comical sidekick named Glim who starts out as a foe but becomes a friend. Since the dialogue is minimal, the story is told primarily through the images (which are stunning) and the splendid music score (composed by Rob Simonsen who also plays Glim). The performances (particulary by lead actor Blake Stadel) are quite good as well.

Of course, the film is not perfect. Though it is only 103 minutes, it feels longer. I think another 10-12 minutes could have been trimmed off its running length without affecting the narrative. Also, on occasion the sound (which is typically the most lacking element of any independent film) is less than stellar. These shortcomings, however, are forgivable and can, I think, be attributed simply to relative inexperience on the part of the filmmakers. I'm sure these aspects will be improved upon in their next feature.

Overall, "Westender" is an enjoyable cinematic experience and a very promising debut which should leave the viewer looking forward to future projects by its makers.