Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with my thoughts on three Holiday/Awards Season flicks. The films are THE PRODUCERS, Woody Allen's MATCH POINT and Steven Spielberg's second flick of 2005, MUNICH.

MUNICH

As of halfway through this very year Spielberg was still putting the final touches on WAR OF THE WORLDS yet if you had told me that he had spent 2 full years scripting, planning, shooting and editing MUNICH I wouldn't have doubted you a bit. The film is complex, confident and so well put together that I would have had no trouble buying that at all.

This is a hard movie to talk about. It's been 3 days since I've seen it and I still am chewing it over in my mind. The film centers on Eric Bana's character, Avner, who is called upon by the Israeli government after the Israeli Munich Olympic team was murdered by Palestinians. The government makes him "unofficial," but gives him near unlimited funds and a team of experts to track down the 11 main people responsible for the Munich massacre.

The actual Munich hostage situation takes only about 10 minutes of screen time in the film and even that is broken up all throughout. The real focus of the film is on this group as they find, then assassinate their targets. Each hit is shown with great detail and there isn't one that feels rushed or repetitive. Every single target raises the ante a bit more and has each character in the group (none so much as Bana's character) questioning the morality of their cause.

The film doesn't portray the Palestinians as the evil baddies. We see them as normal people who are doing what they feel is right after years of oppression. Even the Black September hostage takers in the Munich bits are shown as human beings who question their violent actions. If Spielberg were to paint with broad strokes he would have certainly been able to get away with villainizing these people, but he goes out of his way to show us their humanity in little moments, like when they're praying before the assault and in simple silent exchanges between them and their hostages, particularly at the airport.

What impressed me the most about this terrific film was just how much it felt like old Spielberg. The subject matter and tone aren't anywhere near close to the films I was reminded of while watching MUNICH, but I could swear the framing and cinematography really made me think of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Just simple shit, like people sitting and talking. A lot of that is due to the talents of cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. The grain, the lighting, the pacing, the wardrobe... this is perhaps one of the most '70s looking films I've ever seen that wasn't shot in that decade.

As great as Kaminski's cinematography is and as note perfect as Spielberg's direction is, the film wouldn't have worked if the main team in the film was miscast. Their chemistry is natural and believable in the very first conversation. Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds and Mathieu Kassovitz are the movie's heart and soul.

I don't know if there's much more I can say without starting to give away shit you don't want to know... I love that Spielberg cast the film with people that aren't huge personalities yet. I love that there's not a Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks or Tom Green... sorry, ran out of Toms... in the film. Eric Bana is well known, but he still really hasn't broken out and Daniel Craig is just fuckin' killer. With this and LAYER CAKE, he's got a fan in me. Can't wait to see what he does to BOND.

Geoffrey Rush is the biggest name in the film and that guy's just a chameleon. Here he plays Bana's main connection back to the Israeli government.

I also like that the movie is just as much a tension builder as a dramatic historical drama. There some intense shit in the movie and some even more intense gore... body parts after an explosion, gun-shot wounds that actually make you fear guns on a movie screen again...

All in all, big recommendation from me on this one. I thought the film never really took a big political stance, but it seems others have disagreed. I think they're wrong, but oh well. I know I was watching one of our best storytellers telling one of the best stories of his career.

THE PRODUCERS

In an effort not to end this trilogy of reviews on a sour note, I'm going to talk about THE PRODUCERS here a bit before I move on to Woody Allen's MATCH POINT.

I grew up on Mel Brooks. BLAZING SADDLES, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, HIGH ANXIETY and SPACEBALLS all got lots and lots of play around my house in my formative years. I once even convinced my Freshman High School English teacher to play BLAZING SADDLES in the classroom after our quick finals. Her only comment was "I hate that word..." after the 234th utterance of "Nigger" in the film.

I even find ROBIN HOOD MEN IN TIGHTS to be really damn funny... however I cannot defend DRACULA, DEAD AND LOVING IT.

So, now I have to admit it. I had never seen THE PRODUCERS before watching the new one. After years of meaning to catch up on the film I finally bought it on DVD about 4 months ago, but just never got around to watching it before I saw the musical version. So, the reaction to this new film comes from a Brooks fan who had never seen the original or the play, but went home right after the press screening of the musical and watched the original.

I hate to say it, but I really didn't care for the movie. What's really sad to me about this opinion is that I didn't care for the movie because of, primarily, one person, an actor who I have loads of nostalgia for and am always pulling for. I grew up on FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, but Matthew Broderick is just a loud, annoying cartoon in this movie, an unfunny caricature of Gene Wilder.

All the complaints about the movie being uncinematic with the two leads playing it without any subtlety, being overly theatrical like they were still playing to the cheap seats on Broadway are completely true. And it does hurt the film.

This isn't to say the whole movie's a resounding flop. The first 20 minutes had me thinking of leaving the theater, but as soon as we're introduced to the great supporting cast, the movie starts to work. I hope Will Ferrell got paid a whole lot of money because he's one of the only reasons this movie was pulled out of the shit-water it was in at the beginning. He plays Franz Liebkind, the Nazi author of the worst play ever conceived, SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER.

A big change is that the pigeons he cares for in the original play a much bigger part... he even has one called Adolf that salutes. Okay, that's kinda funny.

Kenneth Mars was great in the original in this role, but Ferrell brings his own form of manic craziness to the role that is its own creation, not like Broderick's caricature of Wilder. The departures involving this character from the original are all smart and funny.

Gary Beach is likewise hysterical as the gay "worst director ever" character of Roger De Bris. He has more to do in this film than Christopher Hewett did in the original, especially towards the end of the film. A part of me wishes they had cast Uwe Boll in this role. Boll playing the worst director ever directing a play that's all about finally revealing Hitler as the sensitive, misunderstood man that he was? Comedy gold. Oh well... maybe in the next run on Broadway.

Uma is sexy as shit as the Swedish hottie. Her character is probably the most altered from the original as she becomes a romantic interest for both Broderick and Nathan Lane, not to mention an actress who appears in Springtime For Hitler. I was talking to my buddy Rav after watching the original and we both agreed that we preferred the original version of the character, even though we both love Uma. There's just something great about how she doesn't speak any English and is literally just there as a sight gag.

The big opening night for SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER is really well done, at least in that it shows us a more thorough look at what's happening on the stage as the play unravels. It's the only scene of the film that felt like it had any life to it whatsoever in my opinion.

So there is a lot to like in this movie, but when you can't like your two leads, the title characters no less, you can't rightly say you like the movie, especially if it's a buddy flick. Strangely enough, the best stuff in the entire 134 minutes (is that all it was? It felt like 3 hours to me) of the film happen at the end of the credits and just immediately after the credits. Will Ferrell has a song he sings which wasn't all that impressive until he got the end, right around the time the little legal-speak paragraphs start, and started whispering to the audience to go out and buy Mein Kampf... available at Borders... and Barnes & Noble... and Amazon.com... in paperback... Then there's the surprise after the credits, which I won't spoil. It's nothing huge, but something that put a smile on my face and made me wish I unabashedly loved the movie I had just watched.

MATCH POINT

This is the real surprise of all the flicks I've seen in the last week. I heard Woody Allen's latest was brilliant, a career best and a film that is unlike any of his other movies. I really like Woody Allen's stuff, even his more lambasted newer work, like ANYTHING ELSE and HOLLYWOOD ENDING. Of course they aren't on the level of MANHATTAN or PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (my personal favorites), but I did enjoy watching them.

So, going into the film I was sure that the film wouldn't live up to the tremendous word I'd heard. I knew I'd like it... as you can see above, I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to Woody's flicks, but there was just a little voice inside my head that was telling me that this would be one of those movies that everybody dotes over that I just didn't appreciate.

Somehow, with all of that, the movie still knocked me on my ass. Big time. Not only has this film skyrocketed to the top of my favorites of the year, but I'm starting to think about its place in my favorite Woody Allen pictures of all time.

This is Woody Allen as fresh as I've ever seen him. The film is alive and full of energy. A lot of credit for that goes to the fantastic chemistry between the young actors, including the almost blindingly beautiful Scarlet Johansson. If you think you've seen Johansson being cute before, you'll end up on a whole new level here.

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers plays the lead character, an ex-pro tennis player that quite purposefully gets a position as an instructor at an elite country club in London. He comes off as quite charming and amiable, but without telling you for sure Woody hints that he may be a bit more conniving than he seems.

He makes a quick friend out of Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), a very wealthy son of a successful businessman (Brian Cox). Tom Hewett is good natured, very laid back and easy to like. His sister, played by the, at times, unbearably cute Emily Mortimer becomes more than a friend to Rhys-Meyers and you think everything is going to work out.

Then you meet Tom's fiance, Nola Rice, played by Scarlet Johansson. The chemistry between Johansson and Rhys-Meyers is thick, electric, almost suffocating at times. You understand why he'd risk his standing in this rich family, risk his loving girl and maybe even risk a piece of his own soul for this woman.

You seriously want to hate him when he falls into his own lust and gives in to temptation, but somehow Allen keeps him a sympathetic character. Maybe the audience sees a little bit of themselves in this guy, whether we'd admit it or not. Maybe it's the way Allen set up the characters, humanizing them to a large degree before throwing in this giant monkey wrench to jam up the gears. I'm not really sure.

I am sure that this movie goes places I never expected it to go, especially coming from Woody Allen. I will say no more, but it's insane... the movie will grab your midsection at a certain point and squeeze very slowly until the final credits roll.

There are tons of cameos and small roles for British actors in the film... One of the easiest to see (due to the fact that she has one of the biggest roles) is Penelope Wilton (Barbara, Shaun's mum in SHAUN OF THE DEAD). She plays Brian Cox's wife and mother of cute Emily Mortimer and Matthew Goode. She's very good as the kind of loud-mouthed mom with no filter between what her brain is thinking and what her mouth is saying.

There's also a ton of guys from the League of Gentlemen, in varying roles... The veterinarian from League of Gentlemen doesn't even have what I'd call more than a walk-on role, but we do get a rather nice bit from Steve Pemberton (Tubbs, of course). Also in the film is Ewen Bremner (DOG SOLDIERS, TRAINSPOTTING, etc) and many other surprises in small roles. As much as you'd think this would cause a Where's Waldo? type effect, I never once felt pulled out of the movie. I guess my brain just tells me that the movie is set and filmed in London... of course the characters would run into the League of Gentlemen...

If I said any more I'd impair your experience with the movie. I truly believe MATCH POINT is one of the best movies of the year and one that'll win Woody Allen a lot of respect.

That's it. I'm off to bed so I can get some last minute gifts before Christmas Eve comes crashing down on my head. Thanks for reading and I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday!

-Quint