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SHORT TAKES

© Sean Gallagher

This article is basically a group of mini-reviews of films. There's no common theme linking them, except that for whatever reason, I wasn't able to write a longer review of each movie.

HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER was the movie that put director John McNaughton on the map, and like HENRY & JUNE, was a film that got in major trouble with the MPAA (it was actually shot in 1986, but not released till 1990). It's inspired by the true story of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, who bragged about killing lots of people. In this movie, Henry (Michael Rooker, in his breakout performance) is portrayed as someone who seems normal in most ways, except he gets a charge out of killing people. That makes the film creepy without ever going over-the-top, and therefore all the more unsettling. However, there are also some gratuitous parts, like when Henry and his friend Otis (Tom Towles) photograph killing a family. And while Rooker is spot-on as Henry, Towles and Tracy Arnold (playing Otis' sister, who unwittingly brings out Henry's more human tendencies) are somewhat awkward and often unconvincing. Still, this is one of those movies that can't be easily dismissed.

MEMPHIS BELLE is the name of a documentary by William Wyler in 1944 about a B-17 bomber whose crew was the only one to fly 25 missions. It's also the name of this fictional film by director Michael Caton-Jones. The film takes a look at the crew's 25th mission - the bombing of Dresden - and how the crew, led by Captain Dearborn (Matthew Modine) tries to cope not only with the mission, but also the distraction of Lt. Col. Derringer (John Lithgow), a PR officer covering the mission for Life magazine. The problem is, there's nothing here you haven't seen in countless other war movies, or countless movies for that matter. It doesn't help that every actor Caton-Jones cast seems to have been chosen just for their looks, and told not to act, which means normally idiosyncratic actors like Modine and Eric Stolz have nowhere to go. The battle scenes are well done, however.

MEN DON'T LEAVE is a remake of the French film LA VIE CONTINUE. Jessica Lange plays Beth, a content housewife whose world is shattered when her husband John (Tom Mason), who owns a construction company, is killed in an accident on-site. So she packs up her sons Chris (Chris O'Donnell) and Matt (Charlie Korsmo) and takes them to Baltimore. There, she eventually gets a job at a deli, and gets involved with Charles (Arliss Howard), a single dad musician. Meanwhile, Chris, who opposed the move, gets involved with Jody (Joan Cusack), an older woman and nurse who lives down the hall, and Matt gets involved in a complex theft ring run by Winston (Kevin Corrigan) so he can raise enough money for them to move back home. This is a loopy plot, and director Paul Brickman (RISKY BUSINESS) can't really do much with it, especially near the end. There are some good parts to it; Kathy Bates is quite good as Lange's caustic boss, Korsmo avoids the "Cute Kid" syndrome with a believable performance, and if Howard's character is a little too good to be true, he's at least compelling. And Lange does what she can. But ultimately, this deserves to be left behind.