Editor’s Note: Spielberg trilogy? What Spielberg trilogy? In his latest column, Freeline Media critic Mike Fried discloses the nuts and bolts of Stephen Spielberg’s unofficial “Running Man” trilogy. Read on!
By MIKE FRIED
As my faithful editor said, “Spielberg trilogy? What Spielberg trilogy?”
Well, Stevie has some of the great film franchises and some tremendously great film franchises — but what the heck am I talking about when I say “trilogy”? The “Running Man” trilogy is the UNOFFICIAL name given to three of Steven’s movies by people far smarter than I am.
But why? Because in each of the movies, the character is a male on the run. In AI, it’s a little robotic boy of indeterminate age on the run from the Flesh Farms that want to use his robotic body as torture porn. In Minority Report, it is a decorated police officer who has been accused of a crime that has yet to be committed and must go into the seedy underbelly of DC (I know there’s a joke there, someplace) to get the goods to clear his name. And in the most fanciful of tales, Catch Me If You Can, it’s the somewhat true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr. who was tracked by the FBI for years for his creative check fraud. And all three are tied together by Steven Spielberg’s sensibilities, resulting in three of his best films, all in his top ten.
Enjoy.As my faithful editor said “Spielberg trilogy? What Spielberg trilogy?”
A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
3.5/5
A Dr. Hobby of Cybertronics has the revolutionary idea to create a robot child that is capable of Love. He creates such a test robot named David and enlists an employee of the company and his wife, who have undergone a terrible tragedy losing their son to a rare disease, leading him to be kept in suspended animation. There are rules, as in Gremlins. In this case, if they are to go through the imprinting process then it is totally irreversible. But, as luck – and movies – would have it, Monica’s son awakens and is cured of his condition. Unfortunately there is tension between David and the son, Martin, who is a real jerkoff. After an accident – that Martin instigated – Monica is convinced to return David to Cybertronics for destruction but she cannot do it and leaves him by the side of the road. And, hence, the Pinocchio part of our story begins.
I like this movie but I don’t – like many others – love it. It is a technical and visual masterpiece with an extraordinary performance by Haley Joel Osment – a real world class performance, one for the ages.
But it is overlong, and it is overly sentimental and treacly for my tastes. And yes I know this is a Spielberg film and that sentimentality is a foregone conclusion – and I don’t generally mind it in a Spielberg film. But this just goes so far afield.
It says a lot that my favorite scene in the movie is the “Flesh Fair” scene which is something that is what I envisioned Kubrick including in his version. Brendan Gleeson gives the most realistic performance in the movie as a big game hunter searching for Mecha – he is so representative of America today – and the “Moon on the Rise” sequence is a visual feast. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t favor Chris Rock’s vocal cameo.
The conceptualized usage of Robin Williams as Dr. Know, an AI information kiosk through which David seeks information on where to find the real “blue fairy” that can make him a real boy was a masterstroke.
And Jude Law was just okay but he was a means to an end, the dues ex machina that helped little David get to where he needed to be. But the film suffers from multiple false endings and it has severe pacing issues. And it seems like there could have been scenes that were cut (the whole Rouge City sequence, for instance) but Spielberg was too emotionally attached to them to do so – something that Stanley couldn’t be accused of.
Nevertheless, for all its faults, the last 15 minutes of this movie are sweet perfection.
Having said all that, it’s a marvelous achievement and as I own all of Spielberg’s movies l will always rewatch it.
Just not as much as his other films.
WATCH IT!
MINORITY REPORT
4/5
In 2054 Washington DC technology has allowed the police to have a “precrime” unit where humans with precognitive abilities also known as “precogs” can see the future allowing the police, specifically Precops, to prevent crimes before they happen. John Anderton is the Chief and he joined the unit after his son was abducted and never found. His wife left him and he became addicted to an illegal drug. Meanwhile he has a DOJ pain in the ass, Danny Witwer, who is auditing the project. One of the precogs actually speaks to Anderton about another victim whose murder was prevented but who went missing shortly afterwards. Soon, one of the precogs predicts that Anderton is going to kill a man named Leo Crow and the chase is on.
This a sci-fi noir that is so much better than Blade Runner. In fact, the movie rights for the short story upon which it was based were sold at the same time as the rights for Philip K. Dick’s We Can Remember It for You Wholesale which became Total Recall in the hopes that Arnold Schwarzenegger would reprise his Quaid role. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
In fact, this film reminds me of two noirs that are among my favorites: DOA and The Big Clock. In both cases, the protagonist is in danger because of other bad actors who either do him harm intentionally or unintentionally. In any case, both are man on the run movies which is highly appropriate since this is film 2 in El Spielbergo’s “Running Man” trilogy (Schwarzenegger again!)
Tom Cruise is aces as John Anderton and it’s the same character he always plays, the righteously wronged victim. But he does it so well. He interacts with the tech visual effects so well that it makes the precrime techniques come alive.
Spielberg’s choice of Janusz Kamiński as cinematographer is perfection as the film is coated in blue tint throughout which gives it an otherworldly look and feel. Except in the bucolic island setting which is shot beautifully natural. In addition, the look of the future DC is not as science fiction-y as other films have made thirty years in the future look. It is cleaner in some parts and dirtier in some others. In some respects the design has more in common with Demolition Man than with Blade Runner.
Colin Farrell, in only his second film, is terrific as the DOJ auditor Danny who introduces himself as “the twink from the Department of Justice” which is admittedly funny. He is a man on a mission and like Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive he will do whatever is necessary to capture Anderton as does Neal McDonough as his first in command, Anderton’s former partner. The great Max Von Sydow is always terrific in a welcome appearance and takes a nice swipe at my beloved NY Mets.
But it’s Samantha Morton as the precog Agatha that is the heart and soul of the film. She floats in a solution and she predicts crimes but she is “tired of the future”. Anderton steals her from precrime headquarters because he thinks she is in possession of a “minority report” a dissenting view of the precrime charge. She does a great job in the physicality of the role, showing Agatha’s total pain and discomfort.
Spielberg’s direction is spot-on. There’s a scene in which Anderton and Agatha have to evade police in a mall and the steps which Agatha tells Anderton to take to avoid detection- using her future seeing skills – makes for a neat series of events.
It’s a fun movie and the collaboration between Spielberg and Cruise works so well, culminating in an even better collaboration three years later with War of the Worlds.
WATCH IT!
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
4.5/5
Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn’t quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out. Gentlemen, as of this moment, I am that second mouse.
So says Frank Abagnale, Sr. the father of our protagonist, Frank, Jr., who became one of the biggest conmen in the early history of conmen. I know that many journalists have investigated the life of Frank Jr. and found that many of the claims made in his book don’t really reflect reality but that misses the point. Whether or not the claims made in Abagnale’s books are true or not really doesn’t matter. Because he’s a conman. He wasn’t a pilot. He wasn’t a Doctor. He wasn’t a lawyer. But it didn’t matter.
This is one of Steven Spielberg’s most fully defined movies and still remains a top Leonardo DiCaprio performance. And it contains a Christopher Walken performance that was nominated but should have won an Oscar. Chris Cooper? Who’s that?!?
The thing about this movie is that it gives off an air of being just an absolutely groovy 1960s movie. It recreates how positively cool it was for guys to be an airline pilot. They were celebrities. Kids asked for autographs. And Frank Jr. used that to his advantage. There is a scene in which Frank uses an elaborate ruse to get by the police at an airport and it requires recruiting college students as stewardesses and Spielberg uses the razzle dazzle of the Pilot love coupled with Sinatra’s “Come Fly With Me” along with Cinematographer Janusz Kamínski wetting the sidewalk so the lens flares and everything comes together to create one of the best scenes of his career.
The acting is tremendous. I briefly mentioned DiCaprio before but his Frank Jr. is my favorite performance of his. He is way smarter than everyone else around him, taking chances when everyone else, in the 60s, played it straight. But it’s his cockiness that is his biggest foe. “People only know what you tell them.”
As well as FBI agent Carl Hanratty, especially as embodied by Tom Hanks. Spielberg almost passed over him for the role because he didn’t think Hanks would want a supporting role and Hanks was all about well-written character is always worth taking and he delivers an absolutely terrific performance. He even tells one of the best Knock-Knock jokes ever.
And Christopher Walken shines as Frank, Sr. a man who is a business leader in the community and who is married to his wartime love, Frank’s mother. He is all about aphorisms but he is a man who has been beaten down by life and circumstances. He won’t take a car that junior bought for him, his pride being his coin in trade. In a terrific scene with Tom Hanks instead of revealing where his son is he lies and tells him that he enlisted in the Marines and is over in Vietnam. He tersely tells Hanratty that he would never give up his son. It’s a masterful performance.
The film is full of great supporting performances including Martin Sheen, Amy Adams, James Brolin and Chris Ellis, Brian Howe and Frank John Hughes and Elizabeth Banks and Jennifer Garner in blink and you’ll miss them roles.
John Williams academy award nominated score is also one of his most playful ones and underscores the light tone of the movie.
If I had one criticism of the film that prevented me from giving this a full 5/5 is that I felt that the Amy Adams segment of the film went on a bit too long and hurt the pacing of the film. But only a tiny bit.
This film is another Spielberg entry that deals with broken homes. Frank’s parents get divorced and Carl Hanratty is also divorced. But it turns out that each of them do find the family that they are looking for.
WATCH IT!
Michael Fried has no formal training in movies, except having watched over 26,000+ movies — if not more — in his 60-plus years on this planet, starting with Goldfinger as his first cinema experience. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like, and it’s quite often different from the conventional wisdom. He knows that the best franchise is Godzilla and he loves action movies and comedies. He has not been nominated for any awards except some boring insurance awards which has no applicability to movies (with the possible exceptions of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and John Cassavettes’ Big Trouble). He is part of a team that won the 1980 SUNY Albany Trivia content by correctly guessing the question, “Who played the president of Klopstockia in Million Dollar Legs?” So he has that going for him, which is nice.
Contact Mike at moviemike3@yahoo.com and mike.fried@yahoo.com.
