"Ford v. Ferrari"

This is a very fine film ... perhaps the best when it comes to racing, and, oh yes, the sounds - I'm a racing buff, and if there's anything that thrills me to the core of my being, it's the sound of fine engine at high RPM ... or just sitting somewhere on the tarmac, rumbling away, waiting, waiting, for someone to get behind the wheel and make it perform.

And, a story - it's a terrific story - superb acting, full of suspense and tension. Bale and Damon are terrific together, and display all the wonder and craziness of two guys who love one another, but see the world often in very different ways, and often caught up in the craziness of the industry - Bale the driver, Shelby the manager, but also a real car-man.

Ford Motor Company is portrayed as I know it from 16 years in Detroit - all the companies were bogged down with layers of administration and engineering, with everyone looking out for their own well-being, never daring to step out of line with an idea. Mediocrity became the safest route to follow, and that's exactly what they did, and that really comes through in the story.

There are so many wonderful, powerful, moments in this film, I'd be guilty of giving away too much if I were to note any of them. I laughed and I cried.

As a long-time racing buff, it was pure pleasure for me hear the names of Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Lance Reventlow, Walt Hangsen ... as a kid, I saw them all race at famed Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

If you love racing, as I do, you'll love this one ... and if you love a good story, as I do, you'll love it for that reason, as well.

Cinematography, music, sound, all terrific.

This gets a 20 from me, the top of the heap - vroom vroom and zoom.

Public Enemies

Something is wrong with this film.

It doesn't work very well for me.

Technically, everything is here, and it's all good ... but put it all together, and it's a ho hum film.

I think too much was attempted - it's tough to do a bio-pic - how do you reveal a huge characters like Dillinger and Purvis?

Johnny Depp, of course, as Dillinger ... but the portrait is flawed - too nice a guy - the reality: Dillinger was a killer. I think Depp is a terrific actor, but something didn't click here. The cold-blooded character of a killer didn't emerge. Sure, Dillinger might have been a nice guy now and then, but the raging fires of a troubled childhood and a life of prison and crime never emerges. This is not a role to be played with the elan of "Pirates of the Carribean." Perhaps a bit too cavalier.

Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, the man who "gets his man" does a far better job then he did in "Terminator." Cool, calm, collected, relentless, and maybe that's the issue for the whole film - just too cool! Bale reminded me of Robert Stack - cool and calculating. A good role for Bale, but again, the characterization lacked fire - Stack had it, so did Kevin Kostner playing Elliot Ness in "The Untouchables." Is this lack of fire a question for the director?

The love between Dillinger and Billie Frechette  (Marion Cotillard) is muted ... somehow or other, the desperation of two lovers in a losing game of life never makes it to the surface - there's no fire, no passion, not even any good old fashioned lust. In every relationship, something is at stake - something vital, powerful, even crazy. But what's at stake here? Was Bille trying to escape a life of being a coat-check girl? Was Dillinger looking for true love? None of that emerges. It's like, okay, so what? Who cares?

As I watched the story unfold, I wasn't rooting for anyone ... too little was at stake.

I think of Ron Howard's "Apollo13" - we all knew how it was going to end, but as the story unfolded, Howard had us all on the edge of our seats. We all suspected that maybe there'd be another ending.

We all know how it's going to end for Dillinger, but no seat-suspense here. No suspicion of another story. No hope that maybe Dillinger and Billie will find true love after all.

As for movie-going enjoyment, can't beat old cars careening through a city, bad guys and good guys standing on the running boards, trench coats streaming, firing away with a Thompson machine gun.

The music is terrific ... I think ... and maybe that's a good sign - I felt the music, as good film music should be.

The sound is awesome - the harsh crash of big caliber weapons ... the sound of prison doors closing ... assorted thuds and bumps ...

The period is beautifully captured  ... but even here, everything seems too stylistic, too clean, more Disneyland than real. I wanted more grit, smoke and dirt; this needed to be a dark film, searchings of the soul - anger, power, hatred - everything here just too cool.   

Clearly, some Oscars here for Michael Mann in terms of technique - maybe sound, maybe music, maybe costuming, but not Best Picture, and I doubt if any of the actors will even be nominated ... but, then, who knows.

The line-up of actors is impressive - how much did Mann pay for this stable?

But the story didn't cut it.

Is this one to see in the theater?

If you're looking for a movie to fill in the gaps, sure.

But otherwise, get it on Netflix.

Terminator Salvation

Uh-uh. No salvation here!

So much to hope for, so little to experience.

At least for me ...

The first three quarters of the film were just there, on the screen in front of me ... I was an unmoved observer of some fascinating special effects and a lot of lack-luster acting (more about that later) and a story in search of a point.

Toward the end, I found myself getting pulled in, and, then, just like that, what with the silly heart-transplant, it lost me again - clearly, it tried to capture the mystery, if you will, of a robot giving its life for the human - we've seen it before in the series, but in this episode, it was only schlock ...

Visually, the film was filled with bits and pieces from Hollywood's best - the motorcycle jump from Steve MeQueen's "The Great Escape" - some "Road Warrior"- "Mad Max" images - Sauron's Orc factories from "Lord of the Rings" - but it felt like a bad pastiche ... nothing fit, nothing flowed, going nowhere fast.

I came to this movie with high expectations - I like Bale; he's been one of my favorites since "Empire of the Sun" - his performance in "The Dark Knight" was stunning, but here, I never once got a sense that he had his heart in it - is this an issue with the story, the director, the process? I don't know; all I know is that it didn't work.

Moon Bloodgood, the scientist, seemed more like a fifth wheel than anything else. I think she's a good actor, but here, again, nothing seemed to fit - a good idea that didn't bake long enough, like a chocolate cake taken out of the oven too soon - as it cools, it falls, and that's exactly what "Terminator Salvation" did.

With one exception - Sam Worthington as the cyborg ... his was a thoughtful performance - you could see the inner pondering: "Who am I? What am I?"

I'll give it an A for special effects - a great cyborg motorcycle and some monstrously huge fighting machines ... but without a story, without a reason, it was like watching a museum piece - interesting, but when are we going to eat?

Worth seeing?

Only on Netflix.

The Dark Knight

Wow!

First, the story ... a great story filled with drama. A little murky toward the end with the introduction of Two Face.

The Joker is a madman and perhaps so is Bruce Wayne - obsessed with purpose: the one bitterly insane, the other, compelled by justice and defending the city he loves. In the tug of war between the two, Bruce Wayne begins to fear what's happening to him - hence, the title, "The Dark Knight." Or as Harvey Dent says, "You die a hero, or you live long enough to become the villain."

The music is powerful ... some of the best I've ever heard.

From beginning to end, the film has a "dark" feel to it, but not in the same vane as, let's say, Blade Runner." This is a dark film with just the right amount of whimsy - the Dark Knight and the Joker.

The acting is superb ... Christian Bale as Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth (our devoted butler), Gary Oldman as Lt. James Gordon, Aaron Eckhart as the bold and handsome city attorney, soon to become Two Face (this role was hard to read. Eckhart is great at playing smarmy characters - never know whether to trust him or not. At the end, I suppose, he becomes what he really is. Can we say the earlier part of his life was a facade for something darker?) and then Maggie Gyllenhaal - I wasn't entirely satisfied with her role - is she too sweet to play in such a gritty film? She knows who Batman is, but somehow or other, she didn't convey the emotional struggle of knowing the truth and hiding it, all the while falling in love with Harvey Dent, hiding that, as well, from Bruce Wayne, who is waiting for the day when the city no longer needs Batman, and he'll be free to love her. And who can ever forget Morgan Freeman as the wise inventor who creates the Batman suit and guides Wayne Enterprises? What a presence. What a voice.

And now, the star: Heath Ledger. Yes, I know that Christian Bale is the star, and I quite agree. Bale brings to the role a passionate thoughtfulness verging on the dark side. His interpretation of the role is without peer.

But the story is energized by the Joker flawlessly portrayed by Ledger.

He sets the bar so high for the Joker, I can't imagine another portrayal. Different actors will all bring their own unique take on things, should this story be filmed again, but Ledger's performance will stand for a long time.

Yes, Jack Nicolson was terrific, but Ledger brings a dimension of insanity, pure and parasitical - not wanting to kill Batman, for as long as Batman lives, so does the Joker. Clever and masterful - manipulating and maneuvering - to tweak the nose of Batman, almost as if he's trying to win his admiration, because the Joker surely admires Batman, seeing the two of them in the same light, or same darkness. That's the frightening and troubling reality facing Batman. Their interaction is unbelievably powerful.

In my favorite moment, when meeting Rachel Dawes (Gyllenhaal), the Joker walks toward her smoothing his hair while holding a favorite knife in hand - a smooth move by a madman convinced of his power.

One of the most curious and entrancing moves - the smacking and licking of his lips - perfect, weird and slightly winsome.

His voice, and inflections - innocent and profoundly threatening - perfect.

And a superb makeup job - much of it done by Ledger himself. Interestingly, the Joker gives at least two versions of how his scarring occurred. In the end, we don't know - like evil itself, we have no idea how it came to be.

There is, finally, a sense of childlike need in the Joker - to love and be loved are the essential needs and drives of the human soul, and if denied, or subverted, the love grows obsessive and/or aggressive. When the camera pulls back, we see the Joker, not as some hulking monster, but a slight and needy figure, nattily dressed in his own bizarre way - a great pathos in the way the clothing fits, revealing a rather small man blustering his brilliant way through a world perceived as hostile, and likely, what with his disfigurement, a world that was probably hostile.

Had Ledger lived, this achievement would have propelled him to the top of his game. Surely now an Oscar nomination.

I couldn't help but feel great sorrow several times, and at the end of the film, a dedication to "our friends" - Heath Ledger and Conway Wickliffe, a special-effects technician who was killed last September in a stunt-car accident on the set of the Batman sequel - broke my heart.

"The Dark Knight" joins "Batman Begins" as the best cinematic interpretation of the DC Comics' story to date. Hats off to Christopher and Jonathan Nolan for bringing this story to the silver screen.

This film exceeds my highest ratings.