Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.

In many popular narratives of the period, it was the Baby Boomers (born 1943-1960) who “ruined” the movies. Here’s the pretentious film snob summary of the death of Hollywood’s alleged second Golden Age, as popularized by Peter Biskind. The seventies were filled with bold, dark art and transgressive intellectualism. Then the greedy Baby Boomers – like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas – made “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and “E.T.” All of a sudden Hollywood did not want to make serious, grown-up pictures. Now it was the age of blockbusters so simple that 3-year-olds can summarize them.

It was the 1980s when Boomer Blockbuster filmmaking would arrive in the event pictures of Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson. We see this tendency further in the films of arch-Boomers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. For a definition of Boomer cinema just look at the output of their company Imagine Entertainment. These aren’t the New Wave-influenced pictures of Roger L. Simon’s generation.

It was the Boomers who also gave us our most strident and simpleminded cinematic leftists: Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, and Michael Moore. Think about these three careers. Over the past 30 years have any of them shifted an inch in their political thinking? Of course not and neither have most Boomers who are still arguing over sex, race, and the Vietnam War as though it were still 1975. (more…)

From Fox News:

“It is always about the work and if you do good work, people will honor you and work with you again. It is never about your politics.”

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Four years ago, Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp’s alter ego) sailed out of our lives in “At World’s End,” in a chaotic, action-packed ending to a three-part series. But the only way to really get rid of Jack, or any pirate for that matter, is to hang them. Thus, it was inevitable that he would reappear on the high seas, off on another adventure.

And so he has. Sparrow is back in “On Stranger Tides,” a dark race across high seas in search of the mythical Fountain of Youth.

“On Stranger Tides” begins with Jack Sparrow up to the antics that made him famous, impersonating a British judge in order to rescue Gibbs (Kevin McNally), his old shipmate. (Depp and McNally, like the actors playing all the reprised characters and most of the new ones, hit their marks with ease.) But their attempted escape is foiled by King George’s men, and Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), now a privateer in service of the British Crown, demands that Jack join him on a quest in search of the Fountain of Youth.

The ever-adept Jack escapes Barbossa’s grasp, only to be captured by former lover Angelica (Penélope Cruz) and forced into the crew of her father, the mythically villainous Captain Blackbeard (Ian McShane), who is also searching for the famed fountain. (more…)

Both NBC and Jerry Bruckheimer Productions have hit some hard times in recent years. Bruckheimer’s signature programs—notably the CSI franchise—are past their prime, and recent series such as The Forgotten and The Whole Truth have failed to generate the hoped-for audiences. NBC has been mired in fourth-place among the broadcast TV networks and is struggling to recover from a series of blunders exemplified by last season’s Tonight Show disaster.

Bruckheimer’s latest new series (one of two this year), the police drama Chase (NBC, Tonight, 10 p.m. EDT), is up against a big challenge: Monday Night Football on CBS, the established hit cop show Castle on ABC, and the new hit cop show Hawaii Five-0 on CBS. Add to that a relatively weak lead-in from The Event (which is getting killed in the ratings by ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and CBS’s Two and a Half Men), plus a lackluster reaction from those who have seen the show (a C+ rating in the USA Today audience poll—14th out of the 21 new shows), and things do not look good for Chase.

That’s a pity because the show has some good things to offer. The central character is Annie Frost, a U.S. Marshall based in Houston, Texas, who is tasked with tracking down escaped fugitives. Nothing new there, of course, and Frost is struggling with personal demons of her own, which is one of the biggest cliches of contemporary crime fiction. She has endured traumas—her mother died when Frost was eight years old, and Frost’s father was apparently a raffish character involved in as-yet-unidentified misdeeds. She describes him as “a dad who confuses right and wrong.” This background seems to be what leads her to take excessive risks on the job—and her recklessness is presented as a moral failing. (more…)

If you’re interested in watching The Whole Truth, the new ABC legal drama (Wednesdays, 10 p.m. EDT), you might want to tune in tonight. It may not last long.

The show is on life-support after debuting to an anemic total of 4.8 million viewers. It might last a little while, since it’s from Jerry Bruckheimer Productions, the makers of the successful CSI franchise and numerous other hit shows but also several unsuccessful series in recent years (such as Miami Medical and The Forgotten), but the lack of audience excitement (a C+ in USA Today’s audience poll) suggests it’s going to be a tough slog.

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The show is certainly not bad, just not particularly compelling. Its biggest flaw appears to be the lack of any particularly likable characters among the leads. The latter seems an odd choice, especially given that there’s nothing in the concept to suggest the central characters couldn’t have had some charm, and the performers chosen to play them have a history of decent audience appeal.

The concept is not only workable but in fact rather smart. It’s a legal show depicting both sides of a trial, as the prosecuor and defense both preapare their cases and then present them—to the jury and the TV audience. I can’t think of any specific instances offhand, but I imagine that this has been done before in a TV series, yet so has everything else. Thus it’s what the producers do with the concept that counts.

Their choice is to take a generally somber tone. Rob Morrow and Maura Tierney star as a defense lawyer and prosecutor, respectively, who were lovers during their law school days. The two remain friends but are somewhat antagonist in their personal relationship as well as in their opposing courtroom work. Tierney’s character seems to carry some special resentment toward Morrow’s, though her exact complaint was not made evident in the pilot. (more…)

Nicolas Cage gets a lot of guff from elite critics because he’s considered something of an apostate. A truly talented actor, the Academy Award -winner has always moved to a silent rhythm of his own, oblivious to the criticism as he marches through a hit-and-miss career making the films he wants to make. Whereas critics would prefer Cage impress them with edgy performances in nihilistic indie films no one wants to see but nonetheless confirms their warped worldview, Cage mostly prefers high-concept blockbusters where that interesting inner-tremble of his is just as welcome as something else that’s becoming endangered on today’s big screen: masculinity.

There’s another welcome and rare quality Cage delivers like few others at his level. Whether he’s drinking himself to death in Vegas or expressing admiration for America’s traditions and Founding Fathers during a quest for National Treasure, Cage never plays it anything less than sincere. Regardless of the role, this is one actor who refuses to wink at the elites so they know he knows he’s throwing a bone to the hoi polloi; he never acts as though he’s above the material. When you’re a star, goodwill matters and Nic Cage has had mine since his marvelous turn as a good man whose decency never fails to get him nearly killed in 1993’s under-rated  and under-appreciated “Red Rock West.”

For “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” which opens everywhere tomorrow, Cage re-teams with “National Treasure” producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director John Turteltaub. Unfortunately, that pedigree combined with all the goodwill in the world isn’t enough to lift this flat, noisy, special effects extravaganza into anything worth recommending. (more…)

Deadline Hollywood Daily’s Editor-In-Chief Nikki Finke has declared a Red State Alert over the news that documentary filmmaker and Oscar-winner Michael Moore has just been elected to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors. She writes, Hollywood-hating conservatives are going to have a field day with this[.] (And predictably the L.A. Times’ Patrick Goldstein knee-jerks with this: You could hear the outcry in conservative quarters from a million miles away[.])

If for no other reason than she saves me from having to spend money on a “Variety” subscription, I love Nikki, but this conservative has no problem whatsoever with Michael Moore being elected to the Academy’s prestigious Board of Governors, because this conservative believes Michael Moore has earned it.

Yes, Michael Moore is a liar, a shameless propagandist and an anti-American leftist of the highest order. But he’s also one helluva talented filmmaker and it would be wildly hypocritical for me to believe or argue that anyone should be blacklisted from AMPAS due to their political beliefs. And that’s the only reason I could possibly use to argue against this appointment. (more…)

I only played the “Prince of Persia” game a couple times. Playing a game where you have the ability to reverse time and free-run is addicting, but not enough to make me go buy an entire game system. I might, however, pick up its cinematic counterpart. Jake Gyllenhaal stars in mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s latest epic “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” a swords and sorcery flick set in the desert of an ancient, fantastical Persian Empire.

Gyllenhaal as adopted-Prince Dastan wields wits and a time-altering dagger as he flees for his life after being falsely accused of assassinating his father, Persia’s King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup). Aided by a mysterious princess on a mission of her own (Gemma Arterton), Dastan searches for the truth of his father’s murder, a plot that would devastate the empire. To save the kingdom, he must expose the plot before time runs out. 

Given that the film’s underlying premise is a video game, it’s no surprise that the story is a little weak. Actors take too long to say what they mean, and corny jokes abound. The script’s dialogue just isn’t quite as polished as most Bruckheimer films.  (more…)

Those Gyllenhaal kids seem awfully determined to change my mind about them this year. First there was Maggie, whose wonderfully mature and earthy turn in “Crazy Heart” finally won me over after being completely immune to her charms since day one. And now Jake does what few of us ever thought possible: delivers convincingly as a charming, masculine action hero in the entertaining though nothing-special “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” which opens everywhere Friday and is deserving of many extra points for not being in 3D.

The mystical adventure, based on a popular 1989 video game, is set in ancient Persia and surrounds the quest for a magic dagger capable of doing all sorts of things that include, naturally, bringing about the end of the world. Keeping its awesome powers to do both good and evil out of the hands of evildoers is left to Dastan (Gyllenhaal), the wrongfully accused Prince of Persia currently on the run from his own brothers, and Tamina (Gemma Arterton), the drop dead gorgeous Princess of Alamuta – a sacred city that holds the magic sand needed to make the dagger work.

In that sexually charged kind of way, things are a little tense between Prince and Princess. But that has to do with the fact that the adventurous Dastan was the one who led his country’s invasion and occupation of her’s. He’s roguish and in need of wisdom, she’s tough but a little spoiled. You’ve seen it all before but that’s because the dynamic works so well. And so in-between the many action set-pieces, banter and sparks must fly. (more…)

The recent Daily Variety article “Hollywood calls ‘Truce’ on war films” described how the film industry is now sidelining any future war and espionage films because of recent box office disappointment like Green Zone. The $100 million to $130 million budgeted Matt Damon star vehicle brought in a paltry $14.5 million its first week, a major embarrassment to Universal. Virtually every recent Middle-Eastern war film with the exception of The Hurt Locker (which has a few problems of its own) and The Kingdom have trashed United States troops, security and intelligence personnel. The Hurt Locker cost less then $20 million to produce and swept the Academy Awards, so it should eventually make a tidy sum in DVD sales and some foreign sales, though it has yet to break the $15 million mark in domestic box office.

Hasn’t it occurred to the overpaid and over-educated studio execs that the rest of America, minus the liberal bastions of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco, would probably pay to see Americans be the good guys again? Jerry Bruckheimer has a great Afghanistan War project called Horse Soldiers based on Doug Stanton’s incredible non-fiction book about the first teams of US Special Forces who led the Northern Alliance to victory over the Taliban – on horseback. With Bruckheimer behind the project it will have high potential for box office success, if Disney lets it see the light of day.

Producer Chris Godsick has been trying to get the World War II version of Horse Soldiers about the last combat charge of horseback US Cavalry made for a number of years. Colonel Ed Ramsey who led that heroic charge of the 26th Cavalry against the Japanese is a good friend of Godsick’s and an acquaintance of mine. I’ve actually filmed several hours of in-depth interviews with Colonel Ramsey for a possible documentary, yet we can’t get The History Channel to bite, “We aren’t doing those kind of shows any more.” No kidding, Ice truckers, pawnbrokers and UFOs are The History Channel’s stock-in-trade now. Ramsey is 94, a still sharp and vital 94, but Chris and I both would like for him to see he and his men’s real life courage celebrated on film before he goes off to Fiddlers Green, the cavalrymen’s Valhalla in the sky. (more…)

After several years of mostly miserably failed attempts to ride the wave of crime dramas most of the other TV networks were successfully navigating, ABC has turned to the TV and cinematic crime drama maestro Jerry Bruckheimer for help. The resulting series, The Forgotten (Tuesdays, 10 p.m. EDT), is a solid crime drama and stands for some very appealing values.

The visual style of the show is familiar from Bruckheimer’s many other policiers, such as the CSI series. It has the same tendency toward dingy, low-level lighting, moving camera shots, eccentric framing, and the like, though in The Forgotten it’s not as frenetic and flashy as in most of Bruckheimer’s shows. That’s a good thing.

The stories and performances reflect the earnestness of Bruckheimer’s TV productions, while avoiding the sensationalism the other shows tend to indulge in. Christian Slater is Alex, an ex-cop who leads the Forgotten Network, a team of private citizens in Chicago who investigate cases in which the police have run out of leads and can’t afford to devote additional resources.

Avoiding both cynicism and romanticism, the program makes a point of showing how many people around the nation are willing to volunteer their help. It also shows people who refuse to help, thus making each such instance a test of a person’s character. (more…)