Billy Crudup

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"Watchmen" (7 out of 10)

Director: Zack Snyder

Screenplay: David Hayter, Alex Tse, based on the Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore graphic novel

Cast: Ensemble, including Jackie Earl Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Goode, Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup

Time: 2 hrs., 43 min.

Rating: R (strong violence, sexuality, nudity, vulgarity)

Grandly eloquent, gruesomely grisly and breathtakingly spectacular in what it wants to say, but clumsy and amateurish in its wrap-up.

The much anticipated "Watchmen" deserves a lot more artistic accolade than the knee-jerk criticisms are allowing it. It is, quite frankly, the most wildly ambitious comic book expression on the big screen ever, superior to "Dark Knight," "Sin City" and other attempts. Measured in terms of sheer creative input and explosive output, it absolutely had me hypnotized by its total audio-visual force all the way up to an ending that you can easily see is sputtering badly, headed for an unstoppable letdown in intelligence and imagination.

Up until then, the film rarely leaves you in peace. Set in continuous off-tones of deep sepia and and icy blues, its whiplash montage of vigorous images are nowhere arbitrary and everywhere pulsating. Every image is pumped up to max. This is pure comic book artistry supercharged into the demanding designs of the motion picture at uncompromising levels of film mastery. If there's a conventional confrontation, say a hand-to-hand fight or a lethal threat between individuals, it ratchets the energy up way beyond the orthodox, power-injecting every small aspect of the scene with hardball augmentation of blood, mutilation and bodily destruction.

And yes, as you might expect, this is the ultimate test of the admonition that in artistic expression, one must give the devil his due.

This is not the first time in film history that hideous violence has had to be painfully conceded as having its own energy to be judged in creative terms. The magnificence of the grotesque.

Yet you start to wonder, after almost an hour of this, if the film actually expects to roll continuously on its boosters and after-burners. Shouldn't we have some serious characters and emotional involvements?

Well, . . . it does seem to want to recognize that, but, let's see what's involved.

Based on the comic book, "Watchmen," often reputed among many critics and Hollywood insiders to be unfilmable, is certainly a grandly offbeat, bizarrely styled fantasy sci-fi adventure set in an alternate universe in a 1985 America. In this, Richard Nixon has been re-elected for a third term and nuclear war with the Soviet Union is imminent. By law, all superheroes have been outlawed. But a group of them calling themselves the Minutemen is inspired back into action when one of their number, "Comedian" (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), is brutally murdered and those remaining realize their own destruction may be imminent. More to the point, they will find that a far more grandiose and villainous plot is afoot, one involving nuclear destruction.

Their talents? Well, for those newcomer audiences to this ongoing saga, there's the masked Rorschach (Jackie Earl Haley), a sociopath with an ever-changing "Rorschach blot" mask who breaks thugs' fingers, dorky Dan Dreiberg (Patrick Wilson) who's a genius with gadgets, the smug Adrian Veidt (Matthew Goode) who has licensed his identity as Ozymandias, "the smartest man in the world," and seductive Laurie Jupiter (Malin Akerman) who unwillingly inherited her mom's superhero status. She loves Jon Osterman (Billy Crudup), a.k.a Dr. Manhattan. A government experiment had both destroyed him and granted him unimaginable superpowers that made him a weapon for the U.S. military.

It is Rorschach who sees a sinister connection between the murder of The Comedian and a coming apocalypse.

The film, with its often sharply observed cultural and political themes in more than a few cannily written dialogue segments, takes its cues from its bleak and barren comic book origins. It attempts to ground extensive violence into strong character and emotional values soundtrack by cleverly cued songs (Bobby Dylan's "The Times They are A-Changin'," Simon & Garfunkle's "The Sound of Silence," plus Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries"). But in that, it fails. Those attempts come off as terribly ordinary.

The cast is ensemble, that is, not centered on any one. Intellectually, the film thrusts almost satirically, and often effectively, at modern examinations of chaos and order in a context of loony fanaticism and will in the way of The Joker and Batman, even as it pokes generously at the denseness of men, in particular military and presidential authority, in their macho- and ego-driven parodies of power. It has conventional murder mystery elements and various judgments on the subject of heroism.

Indeed, "Watchmen" lays doubt on notions of heroes and villains even as the survival of humanity under the protection of the Watchmen is in itself called into question.

The film draws no world calamity into play that it cannot depict with stratospherically spectacular screen dynamics. Watch Manhattan being consumed by nuclear blasts at the street level, or the incineration alive of a couple standing together in a kiss as their skeletons remain Watch the grandose representations of the planet Mars.

How, you may ask, is the film going to resolve all this? The final interactions are embarrassingly trivial. You may find yourself blanching in chuckles as the empty final statements. But hey, I was glad I saw this movie and do regard it as a landmark production. There really is something missing in your life's artistic experience, however ugly it may project itself to you in this film.

http://www.martymoviereviews.com. 30-year former films critic for the Portland (Maine) Sunday Telegram. Offering right-to-the-point reviews that address directly the question of the film's entertainment value to you. Films have personalities. It doesn't matter who wrote it, who directs it, who stars in it, if it doesn't reach out to you with charisma. I examine its honesty and intelligence. Are you being respected, or are you being jerked around?

Watchmen On Dish Network Pay Per View

The year is 1985, and the costumed heroes are no longer in their heyday. Some of them have retired to normal lives, most of them still keeping their former identities a secret. That is, until one of them is murdered, and they are forced back out into the spotlight. Watchmen paints a picture of what the world would be like if the it really depended on masked heroes.

The opening credits depict a time in the 40's, 50's, and 60's when costumed heroes were like celebrities, adored and revered by the general public. We then see their gradual downfall as they slip out of the public graces and into downward spirals of their own. Some commit suicide or are admitted to institutions, while others fade out of the limelight and are nothing but shadows of their former selves.

A second group of costumed crusaders attempt to recreate the magic, but soon their time is up as well, and they are mostly forced to go on with their everyday lives. When one of their own, The Comedian, is murdered, it becomes clear that somebody is targeting masked vigilantes and they are all in danger. The remaining group bands together to discover who is commiting the crimes and what else they have planned. The cast includes Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl, Malin Ackerman as Silk Spectre II, Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach, and Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan.

I watched this movie over the weekend, and although I was not a fan of the comic, I was still anticipating the movie. First off, I have to say the movie's length may be a deterrent for some people. It is quite long, clocking in at almost 3 hours (and that wasn't even the Director's Cut which adds an extra 25 minutes!). I had to watch the movie in three stages, because I didn't have the attention span to watch it all in one sitting. I will admit, the whole idea of a world with masked heroes is an intriguing one and it definitely had me interested, however I didn't love the movie.

It was nowhere near a bad movie, and I can honestly say that I liked it, I just don't feel alot of the normal movie-viewing public is going to "get" what this film is trying to say. There are long, drawn-out scenes of exposition and dialogue, so those looking for a blockbuster in the vein of the "Spiderman" or "Fantastic Four" movies will be bored with this.  I also heard mixed reviews from fans of the comic - some loved it, others felt it lost sight of the author's original vision. As with any book-to-film translation, this is always a tough task to accomplish, and over all, you will never be able to please everyone.  

The cast is fairly good.  I'm always a big fan of Patrick Wilson in anything he does (he starred with Kate Winslet in one of my favorite movies Little Children.)  Malin Ackerman was passable as the second Silk Spectre, but her acting was still a little shaky and not as dynamic as the rest of the cast. She got alot of criticism when the movie was first released for being terrible, but I think that was overexagerated. She wasn't terrible by any means.

Now, I do not have the comic versions of these characters to compare the actors to, but from what I've seen and heard, they appear relatively faithful to the book. I give a slight recommendation to Watchmen, if only because I feel it has a limited appeal and won't transcend to broader audiences. I guess you could call it the thinking man's superhero movie.  You can catch it now on Dish Network Pay-Per-View. Just use your remote to order.

By: Frank Bilotta

About the Author

Frank helps people learn about Dish Network Satellite TV, and how they can save money every month with popular Dish Network Packages. Dish has advanced, award winning, Dish DVR and Dish HD receivers, there is a lot of good news to share. Frank and his team also help people determine if satellite internet is right for them and, if so, helps explain the offers from WildBlue and Hughesnet

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Had anyone watched the movie "Waking The Dead" by Jennifer Conolly and Billy Crudup?

Do you know where I can watch it or at least tell me something bout the plot?

You can watch it on Hulu. Here is the link:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/67625/waking-the-dead

Here is a short summary:
Fielding Pierce lives the life of an aspiring politician - in 1972 he's serving in the Coast Guard (trying to avoid Vietnam in the most honorable way), and by 1973 he has entered law school. Along the way he falls in love with Sarah, a fiercely idealistic woman who devotes her life to helping others - unfortunately she's killed in an explosion while assisting members of the Chilean resistance. Nine years later, in the middle of a congressional election, Fielding is suddenly flooded with thoughts and visions of his lost love

Pretty Bird Flies Away
Paul Giamatti goes indie... again.

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