Tag Archives: Ocean

MUTINY – Review

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Yes, it’s the last gasp of the Summer movie season, so let’s end it with a bang. And a boom. And a stab. And a roundhouse kick to the head. As you may have guessed, here’s one last action thriller before those cold-weather awards contenders begin to arrive at the multiplex. The star of this new movie is carrying on the action superstar era probably begun in the 1980s by Stallone and Schwarzenegger. They spawned a “cottage industry” of the genre, taken over by Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, and Jean-Claude Van Damme, along with the Asian imports, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. So who’s been toiling away with modest-budgeted “flyin’ fists” flicks? Why, it’s that Brit-born Jason Statham, who is indeed “back in action”, this time on the high seas (minus MEG) in MUTINY.

The story begins with a brief “fast forward”, then backtracks to introduce Cole Reed (Statham), a former London “bobby” who is now the head of security for a billionaire shipping magnate, Mr, Campallo (Ramon Tikaram). On this night, he’s off to celebrate the sale of his shipping company, BK, at a party for his retirement in Bangkok. The champagne is flowing at the swanky ballroom, but Cole’s “radar” is “up” after spotting some shady guests. Before the party ends, he drives his boss home. But they never make their destination. Near the docks, they’re ambushed. Cole does his best, but the army of killers takes out his boss and old friend. Reed recognizes several policemen mixed with the assassins. Naturally, the news reports that he’s the prime suspect in the murder. But Cole lifts the ID of one of the fallen bad guys and discovers that he’s a BK ship worker. Meanwhile, a former sailor named Angie (Annabelle Wallis) is called in to work as security on the BK cargo ship, the Artemis. As she prepares to cut short her shore leave (and reunion with her daughter), Reed hatches a plan to find out who is behind the fatal attack. Using the dead man’s ID, he boards the Artemis, captained by the imposing Madsen (Roland Moller). As Cole sneaks around the shipping containers, he discovers some startling “contraband”: sick, scared stowaways. Can he thwart these human traffickers while unlocking the conspiracy behind his pal’s murder, and eventually clear his name? Despite an unexpected ally, this is no “pleasure cruise”.

Much like his stoic fighting machine men of so many previous films, Statham isn’t flexing his dramatic “chops” on this one. Cole could easily be THE BEEKEEPER (sequel’s on its way) or A WORKING MAN seeking SHELTER. We get a sense of his grief over a past family tragedy before he gets down to “business”. That stoic stare is still fearsome, even as he tries to quickly make a plan to merely survive the night. He’s still a compelling screen presence, though I’d love to see him skewer this role as he did deftly in SPY. He’s got a great rapport with his co-star, Ms. Wallis, who has her own complicated backstory (single mother challenges), while she conveys a similar strength in battle. Moller has his own scary stare as the surly ship’s captain who might be up to the challenge of going “mano y mano” with this skilled stowaway. Kudos also to Adrian Lester as the military man who may just be our heroes’ best hope and salvation.

The masterminds behind the nautical mayhem are director Jean-Francois Richet and screenwriters J.P. Davis and Lindsey Michel. That last duo provides the barest of backstory before giving action fans just what they want. Ditto for Richet, who helms several great encounters on deck with the vast ocean as a backdrop, while all navigating the tight space below deck. The Artemis is a labyrinth with maze-like hallways where the baddies must be taken down with little room for flailing limbs. But there are plenty of corners for the heroes and foes to use. Of course, Statham displays his fightin’ feet and fists, though he also uses any tools at hand for some especially gruesome maiming ( that R-rating is so earned). At a taut 95 minutes, the dramatic ‘fat’ is at a minimum, with the tension kicking in after Cole boards the ship (speaking of 80s and 90s thrillers, I was getting lots of UNDER SIEGE vibes), Aside from the ocean setting, there’s not much variation on the Statham formula, but his many fans will certainly be enthralled and entertained during this MUTINY.

2.5 Out of 4

MUTINY is now playing in theatres everywhere

THE LONELIEST WHALE: THE SEARCH FOR 52 – Review

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A shot from the documentary THE LONELIEST WHALE: THE SEARCH FOR 52. Courtesy of Bleecker Street

A whale, apparently the only one of its kind, wandering the Pacific and persistently calling with no answer, is the subject of Joshua Zeman’s documentary THE LONELIEST WHALE: THE SEARCH FOR 52, or more precisely, a search for the whale no one had ever seen. That search of the seas aboard a ship named Truth is the framing devise, but director Zeman also examines at the human response to the whale’s plight, anthropomorphized reaction reflecting at a time when people were talking about social media and loneliness, as well as a brief exploration of humankind’s history with whales. Aboard a ship named Truth It adds up to a mix of sea-going adventure,

In 2004, the New Times posted an article about a whale that struck a chord with many people. “For many years, a whale had been cruising the Pacific from central California to the Aleutians, calling out with a voice unlike any other whale’s, and getting no response,” Andrew Revkin wrote in his New York Times article. The story was based on a scientific research article, “Twelve Years of Tracking 52-Hz Whale Calls From a Unique Source in the North Pacific,” in which Dr. William Watkins and other scientists detailed their 12-year study of the whale as it roamed the Pacific Ocean. The sound was first picked up in 1989 by a naval surveillance sound array, a unique repeating 52 Hertz sound like no other, just above a tuba’s lowest note but well above the range of other whale calls. Whales are highly social animals who communicate largely through sound, and this seemed to be a single whale, unable to communicate with other whales, perhaps the first of its species – or the last.

By the time filmmaker Josh Zeman heard about the 52 Hertz Whale from scientist Dr. Vint Virga, there were memes, poems, paintings, songs, sculptures, even a play about the loneliest whale. Clearly it had tapped into a deep well of feeling in the era of social media’s physical isolation and virtual connection. The heartbreaking story had quickly spread through social media, the sad story of the loneliest whale and his persistent unanswered calls resonating with so many.

Zeman was hooked, and began to wonder, naively, if he could find the 52 Hertz Whale, known to scientists as Watkin’s Whale or just 52. The documentary THE LONELIEST WHALE: THE SEARCH FOR 52 follows Zeman’s search. offering is a mix of mystery tale and high seas adventure, with a nice science slant, as the director enlists the help of a team of scientists to find 52. While the scientists hunt for the 52 Whale, the documentary serves up details on whale biology, whale songs and whale behavior, the history of underwater sound detection, a musicologist’s look at whale songs, a bit of meditation on the psycho-social meaning of the world wide response to this haunting tale of the lonely whale, and mankind’s long bloody history of whale hunting.

Tracking of the 52 Whale stopped in 2004 with the death of researcher Bill Watkins, and no one knew where the whale was now. Whales are long lived but more than a decade had passed, so no one even knew if the whale was still alive. Zeman approach several scientists about searching for 52, and got the same response: “a needle in a haystack.” Whales may be large but the ocean is vast, and finding a single whale was an impossible task.. Some scientists laughed when Zeman told them what he wanted to do, and when he said, “no, I’m serious,” laughed some more. Still, the idea intrigued some of the scientists, people who love a good puzzle and a challenge.

So Zeman turned the problem the other way. He asked several whale scientists to search their records for the sound of 52 – and gets a hit. The 52 Hertz sound had been recorded just a few years back and, conveniently, off the coast of California. The hunt was on, and it turned into a quest for Zeman, which he described as “Ahab-ian,” referencing obsessed captain of “Moby Dick” but without his bloody intent.

The documentary is packed with marvelous underwater photography, exciting footage of the search at rolling sea, and is filled with the infectious enthusiasm of the scientists Zeman recruited for the quest.

The search teamed Dr. John Hildebrand, a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who specializes in whale sounds, with John Calambokidis, a research biologist and co-founder of Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, Washington, who is an expert in the field work to identify whales. “In terms of a person who actually gets out in the field and does work with large whales, he’s the guy, ” Hildebrand said in the documentary. This scientific whale dream team and director Zeman embarked on a search for 52, starting with the last known location of the California coast, with Hildebrand’s team in tracking whales by sound and Calambokidis and his team chasing them by boat, taking skin samples and tagging them with tracking devices, so they would know when that particular whale would pass by that particular hydrophone singing.

Obviously, there is a lot of adventure in a seagoing quest, for a whale that many have heard but that no one has every seen. The hunt has the feel of adventure tale, and the scientists are all-in on the quest, heightening the documentary’s energy. There is plenty of excitement, gorgeous high seas photography, whale sightings and close encounters. Quest is full of tension and excitement but it does not follow the expected path. While there are startling discoveries but does not lead to a simple resolution.

Zeman mixes the sea-going search footage with wide-ranging background materials, including interviews and archival stills and footage. When not on the sea, the documentary presents a host of experts on whales ans whale song. When the Navy built its Sound Surveillance System ( SOSUS ) in the Cold War early 1950s, they were listening for Russian submarines. “No one knew there was whale sound underwater,” Dr David Rothenberg, musician, professor and author of “Thousand-Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound.” While sailors long were aware of some whale sounds above the surface, no one knew the sounds traveled so far underwater. When a record of the haunting calls of humpback whales was released in 1970, it sparked the “save the whales” movement to end whale hunting, and a fascination with whales and their songs.

THE LONELIEST WHALE: THE SEARCH FOR 52 quest for 52 does not end as neatly as one might wish but what it does uncover is intriguing and raises new questions, in a coda at the film’s end. This is an enjoyable and well-made documentary with a wonderful underwater photography and satisfying scientific ocean adventure, and makes a fine pairing with another science-based whale documentary FATHOM released earlier this summer. Fans of whales, the ocean, or science will enjoy the adventure, for this is a whale of an outing.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars

Warner Bros. Photos Spotlighted In Exhibition At AMPAS

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Warren Beatty, Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe, Brad Pitt, Barbra Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor and the stars of the HARRY POTTER films are but a few of the subjects featured in the 165 photographs that will next grace the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Grand Lobby Gallery. Opening to the public on Thursday, September 16, “Up From the Vault: 85 Years of Treasures from the Warner Bros. Photo Lab” will run through December 12. Admission is free.

The exhibition includes a broad range of photographs, some famous and many extremely rare or unseen – from glamour portraits to set reference stills, from ad art and publicity photos to behind-the-scenes shots and scene stills. New prints of images taken in black-and-white and color, and in nearly every photographic format, from early 4×5 negatives to the latest high-resolution digital photos, will be on view.

“Up From the Vault” will feature some of the most iconic stars of the last nine decades, including Judy Garland, James Cagney, Joan Crawford, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Marlon Brando, Natalie Wood, Vivien Leigh, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Keanu Reeves, Denzel Washington and Heath Ledger. Shots taken on various sets by film legend and aspiring photographer James Dean are also included.

Classic and recent films will be represented, such as “Casablanca,” “Rebel without a Cause,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “Batman Begins,” “Little Caesar,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” “A Star Is Born,” “Mildred Pierce,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Sergeant York,” “Gypsy,” “The Maltese Falcon,” “The Searchers,” “All the President’s Men,” “The Matrix,” “The Exorcist,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Million Dollar Baby.”

Click on thumbnail to enlarge picture.

The Warner Bros. Photo Lab originated in the early days of the studio, circa 1930, and remains the longest continuously operating studio photography department. Its purpose was, and still is, to process the unit photographers’ images into proofs and prints for publicity and advertising. Staffed by printmakers, archivists and digital designers, the Warner Bros. Photo Lab works with millions of original negatives, photographic prints and digital images owned and archived by Warner Bros. Studios, composing what is perhaps the most complete visual record of any studio’s film production and promotional activities that exists.

The exhibition is organized by the Academy in association with guest curators Greg Dyro and Leith Adams.

Also opening on September 16, in the Academy’s Fourth Floor Gallery, is “Ingmar Bergman: Truth and Lies.”

The world premiere exhibition will delve into the career and personal life of the legendary Swedish director. Original scripts, notebooks, film schedules, sketches, posters, photographs and other paper materials will complement items such as set models and costumes. Film projections and specially created montages will allow the visitor to explore the full range of Bergman’s work, from his earliest films to his major international successes. Admission is free.

Presented in collaboration with the Ingmar Bergman Foundation, Svensk Filmindustri, the Swedish Film Institute, the Swedish Institute, Swedish Television and the Royal Dramatic Theatre Stockholm.

The Academy’s galleries are located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills and are open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and weekends, noon to 6 p.m. The galleries will be closed for the Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend (November 25 through 28).

For more on other Academy events, visit their official website Oscars.org as well as their Facebook page here, or see their YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/oscars.