HOT FRESH REVIEWS

In The Valley of Elah (Rated 'R')

Stars Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon and Jason Patric. Written and directed by Paul Haggis, "inspired by true events."

My grade: A-

Haggis' directorial follow-up to his Oscar winning CRASH is a studied, deliberate but still emotionally wrenching examination of the havoc that can result from soldiers who return home from the Iraq war carrying the burden of post-traumatic stress syndrome. The movie uses the familiar setup of a murder mystery/police procedural to lead us into deeper, darker emotional territory. Tommy Lee Jones plays a father who gets word that his son has gone AWOL from an Army base in West Texas. Having already lost one son to war, he decides to use his prior experience as an Army MP to help authorities track his youngest son down--which puts him directly into the path of a beleaguered, novice small town detective (Charlize Theron) who discovers the grisly body of the son.

Jones and Theron are both magnificent as is Susan Sarandon, who has an all-too-small role as the grieving mother. As they find out more and more about the circumstances surrounding the son's death, they learn about the horrible toll that the current Iraqi occupation is exacting on the troops and their loved ones first hand. Although Haggis isn't shy about making his points, the movie generally avoids being preachy or over-the-top. Once the full truth is revealed, it is both chilling and devastating.

IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH won't be a huge hit (it is too demanding of most audiences and it deals with an uncomfortable subject matter), but it is definitely one of the strongest films I've seen so far in 2007. Hopefully, the "adult" moviegoing season will have many more films of this caliber.

"Chuck" Pretty Good; "Bionic Woman" Not So Much

NBC has boldly gone where few broadcast networks have gone before by premiering a few of its most highly touted new fall shows early via On-Demand (and also on NBC.com). I checked out two of these shows: "Chuck" from "The OC" creator Josh Schwartz (who's still younger than I am, the bastard!) and the newly retooled version of "Bionic Woman", a popular 70's action-fantasy show.

Most of the buzz has been for "Bionic Woman", which is executive produced by TV reclamation expert David Eick,(Battlestar Galactica). It stars British cutie Michelle Ryan in the title role, Galactica alumnus Katee Sackhoff as the "bad" bionic woman (think Bionic Woman 1.0 or the Female "Lore", if you're a Trekker) and Miguel Ferrer, who does grumpy and sarcastic about as well as anyone on TV ever has. (He has the closest thing there is to the Oscar Goldman role). Bionic Woman has some nifty, understated special effects and the fight scene between the rival bionic women is pretty good, but overall I came away unimpressed with the pilot. The setup felt rushed and was a bit hard to swallow and the whole episode was a little darker and heavier than it probably needs to be. Also, saddling the young Ryan with a teenage sister to look after felt like a transparent attempt to make the show more touchy-feely for adult women. It's probably also not a good sign when one of your key creative producers (the talented Glen Morgan) leaves after just a few episodes, but time will tell if the new Bionic Woman will hit its creative stride as a superhero actioner and stop being so dreary.

Chuck was a pleasant surprise--a more than serviceable spy/action spoof with a likeable cast and an interesting premise. The eponymous lead character gets an email from his murdered roommate (who unbenknonst to Chuck was a secret agent) which changes his life forever. Top secret technology implanted in the email downloads all of America's intelligence secrets into the viewer, making Chuck simultaneously both the world's most knowledgeable and most clueless instant secret agent. I would watch both shows again, but I would follow Chuck a little more closely because it's fast, funny and (at least in the pilot) has a better sense of just what kind of show it is.

For now y'all, peace...