EXTRATERRESTRIAL TERROR SPIELBERG, CRUISE DELIVER A THRILLING 'WAR' BUT REMAKE EVENTUALLY RUNS OUT OF AMMO.Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic FANTASTIC and banal, terrifying ter·ri·fy tr.v. ter·ri·fied, ter·ri·fy·ing, ter·ri·fies 1. To fill with terror; make deeply afraid. See Synonyms at frighten. 2. To menace or threaten; intimidate. and occasionally dull, pure Spielberg and yet at times anonymous, ``War of the Worlds'' delivers multiple viewing experiences during its two-hour running time. Steven Spielberg Noun 1. Steven Spielberg - United States filmmaker (born in 1947) Spielberg has returned to his roots, crafting a survival story pitting a family against a menace as purely evil as that monster 18-wheeler in ``Duel.'' It's certainly scary - at least through the first hour or so - but ``War'' lacks the kind of satisfying details and breadth of ideas that elevated later Spielberg efforts like ``Minority Report'' to the ranks of instant classics. Spielberg, working with screenwriters This is a list of screenwriters: A–F
pl.n. The moral and social values traditionally maintained and affirmed within a family. . As an alien race makes a smash-and-grab attempt to eliminate humans and take over Earth, we view the action solely through the eyes of one family, a divorced dad (Tom Cruise) shucking off a lifetime of selfishness to protect and cherish his two children. The movie effectively establishes the family dynamic in its first 10 minutes. Blue-collar dockworker Ray (Cruise) has custody of his 15-year- old son, Robbie (Justin Chatwin), and young daughter, Rachel (Dakota Fanning), for a couple of days while his ex-wife (Miranda Otto) goes to visit her parents with her new husband. Robbie resents Ray for years of neglect; the girl tolerates (barely) her Peter Pan father. These relationships will be tested when Ray wakes up one morning and finds his Queens neighborhood torn asunder a·sun·der adv. 1. Into separate parts or pieces: broken asunder. 2. Apart from each other either in position or in direction: The curtains had been drawn asunder. by a menace that, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Morgan Freeman's opening voice-over, has been long watching the planet with ``envious en·vi·ous adj. 1. Feeling, expressing, or characterized by envy: "At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way.... eyes.'' For the next hour or so, Spielberg has us in his grasp and keeps tightening the vice, serving up the devastation from a street-level point of view (once again, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski's work - particularly the long lens shots - is nothing short of amazing a·maze v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr. ) that highlights the brutal and ghastly horror of the events. As ``War'' unfolds and Ray becomes single-minded in an effort to keep his family alive, Spielberg boldly shows the price of survival. There's a scene near the Hudson Ferry that's positively shocking in depicting the savagery Savagery Apache Indians once fierce fighting tribe of American West. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 123] bandersnatch imaginary wild animal of great ferocity. [Br. Lit. visited upon humans - by other humans. There are times when people are willing to help others, but when push comes to shove, self- interest rules the day. Later, Spielberg attempts to explore this idea further, introducing a character who thirsts for revenge. Here and elsewhere, the movie draws on very specific 9-11 imagery (the victims being turned into dust, the survivors being covered in dust, the wall with pictures of the missing) to gut-punching effect. But since the movie is so tightly focused on its single family, there's never any attempt to broaden or do anything with this very obvious metaphor. It's effective, but facile (language) Facile - A concurrent extension of ML from ECRC. http://ecrc.de/facile/facile_home.html. ["Facile: A Symmetric Integration of Concurrent and Functional Programming", A. Giacalone et al, Intl J Parallel Prog 18(2):121-160, Apr 1989]. . The movie falters late in the game, not just with its anti-climactic ending but with a lengthy, repetitive scene that takes in a basement and fails to engage on multiple levels. Of late, Spielberg's films have started great but struggled to nail their landings. The letdown letdown 1. the sudden flush of milk flow that occurs when the calf begins to suck or when milking commences in a properly prepared cow. Depends for its occurrence on the release of oxytocin from the pituitary gland in response to massage of the teats and udder. here goes beyond the nature of the resolution (which is fine in theory, but not as executed) but in Spielberg's need to affirm family unity at the expense of logic and in the face of the pitiless tone of all that has come before. Glenn Whipp, (818) 713-3672 glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com WAR OF THE WORLDS - Three stars (PG-13: frightening sequences of sci-fi violence, disturbing images) Starring: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin. Director: Steven Spielberg. Running time: 1 hr. 55 min. Playing: In wide release. In a nutshell: Another helping of Steven Spielberg's fractured family values that can't sustain the gut-punching horror of its first hour. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Justin Chatwin, left, Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning struggle to survive an alien attack in ``War of the Worlds.'' |
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