WCBE 90.5 FM: "World Trade Center," "Miami Vice," "Lady Vengeance"

WCBE 90.5 FM #278-Final: World Trade Center, Miami Vice, Lady Vengeance
It's Movie Time co-hosts, writers, producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: 3:01 pm & 8:01 pm, August 4, 2006
Streaming Live on the web and on-demand at: http://www.wcbe.org

The Script

Clay

World Trade Center does not carry the signature stamp of Oliver Stone . . .

John

"Miami Vice" is NICE for a summer. . .

Clay

"Lady Vengeance" is a black comedy about the desire for revenge . . .

HIT MUSIC: "STAR WARS," THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

"It's Movie Time" in central Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe.''

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando

Clay

And I'm Clay Lowe

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John ("World Trade Center" 122 words)

Slow and pointless, that's the new Oliver Stone film, World Trade Center. Taking the story of two Port Authority Police who survived, starring Nicholas Cage, Stone manages to make the singular event of the last decade a boring made-for-TV story of two cops buried and waiting rescue, by the Marines no less.

The set design is memorable, however.

Cutting as often as he can to the dull families in New Jersey waiting for word about their lost loved ones, Stone fails to make even this horrific event worth watching. It's as if he promised Hollywood after the disastrous Alexander that he'd be a good boy and not editorialize about 9/11.

Clay

And he doesn't.

John

Heck, point of view IS Stone: Remember the conspiracy theory of JFK?

Clay ("World Trade Center" 130 words)

I didn't do it.

But, John, there are no conspiracy theories about anything in World Trade Center, which was bound to disappoint true blue liberals such as we.

John

You’re wrong—There are theories and I’m independent.

Clay

That's an understatement. (Pause)

So, it's hard know what we expected, but an Oliver Stone film minus bites and growls is comparable to a Michael Moore film absent of his rants and raves about power and greed.

But that's not what's at the heart of the failure of this film. Simply put: It is not a well told story. It is full of empty dialogue, and it never attempts to put 9/11 into a larger or more meaningful context.

Yes, families suffered. Yes, hundreds needlessly died. And yes there were heroes who risked all to save those they could - but this movie isn't about them. It's about two security guards who got trapped in a ton of rubble before they got around to doing what they had set out to do.

That's pretty much it.

John ("Miami Vice" 130 words)

And that makes Vice look PRETTY cool.

The new "Sunny" Crockett and "Rico" Tubbs are not prettier, but Colin Farrell and Jamie Fox are at least as competent as the infamous "Miami Vice" cops of early 80's television days.

Miami Vice is a guilty sin of a rapid refill from the original prescription. Fast cars, boats, women, and camera. The look is grainy, hand held jitters with the multi-informational HD digital advantage in dark scenes, a precise metaphor for the dark, ruthlessly edgy world of narcotics and its companions, guns.

Crockett still is searching in the urban jungle for love and justice. When a high angle shot of him and a babe in a sleek boat shows them taking off for Havana, his search is again on for fun and naughtiness in the embrace of justice.

Clay ("Lady Vengeance" 128 words)

Naughtiness and justice, John, stayed tuned.

For a start, it's hard to tell in Lady Vengeance just what Korean director Park Chan Wook intended to say.

It is clear, however, what the movie is about. It is about a murderous child abuser. It is about one of his victims who unwittingly goes to jail for his crimes. And it then follows this victim, played by the attractive TV actress Lee Young-Ae, who waits 13 years to seek her revenge.

A bizzare stylistic blend of Alice in Wonderland, the Brothers Grimm, and the most recent films of Lars Von Trier, Lady Vengeance raises a host of disturbing issues: Why do the innocent suffer? Should their sufferings be avenged? And, most important of all, why are human beings driven by the blood lust for revenge?

Park Chan Wook comes up with no better answers than did Oliver Stone.

But enough of visions of Jesus and pictures of crying and dying children, John, because it's grading time.

John

Holy Hezbollah, Hooray.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

"World Trade Center" earns a C because it’s Stone COLD . . .

Clay

"World Trade Center" gets a "B" because the event is important but its retelling is a BORE . . .

John

"Miami Vice" earns a B because BABES BRING the BATTLE BACK to the BANAL . . .

Clay

"Lady Vengeance" gets a C because it, like Hard Candy, it's more about seeking revenge than it is in trying to understand it . . .


DRUMS OUT

John

Clay: I'm Googling Loose Change to see more about the alleged Neocon/ 9/11 conspiracy. Surely sharpshooter Cheney couldn't have been complicit in that tragedy!

I'm getting way outta here to Interlaken, Switzerland.

Clay

John, professors who profess conspiracy theories tend to get fired, and you'll find no place to hide, not even on top of the Jungfrau.

I'm outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME, THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle

The award winning "It's Movie Time" is co-hosted, written, and now produced by John DeSando and Clay for WCBE 90.5. FM

MUSIC DOWN AND OUT

Copyright 2006 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe