Indiana Jones and the (Mr.) French Connection

By now you’ve seen The Departed, right? It’s so good. And I’m not just talking story; it’s such a fun movie to watch because the dialogue and the acting are so massively entertaining. Do check it out.

One of my favorite performances in the film comes from Ray Winstone, the terrific British actor who plays Mr. French — the loyal right-hand man to psycho crime boss Frank Costigan (Jack Nicholson) — with a gruff, balls-to-the-wall glee.

Mr. Winstone is proving himself to be quite the character actor these days. He was excellent opposite Guy Pearce as Captain Stanley in The Proposition and also appeared in King Arthur and Cold Mountain among many others. Some of you might even remember him from the ahead-of-its-time Robin of Sherwood television series from the mid-1980s, in which he played Will Scarlet. This November he’ll be seen as Beowulf — and Crispin Glover is Grendel! — for director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Romancing the Stone, the Back to the Future trilogy, What Lies Beneath, The Polar Express) from a script co-written by comic book legend Neil Gaiman.

Winstone’s also working on Death of a Ladies’ Man for director John Hillcoat and writer Nick Cave, the creative duo behind The Proposition (which is tough to watch but highly recommended). Excellent.

Sorry for the detour, but I wanted to give some context. Because! The Hollywood Reporter is reporting this morning that Mr. Winstone has joined the cast of next year’s Indiana Jones movie in “a major role.” According to the article, “sources” say that Winstone will be playing Indy’s sidekick. (So apparently they’re trading in Short Round for a grizzly bear.)

Winstone is excellent in every single thing he’s in, so this is very good news indeed. Especially since he’ll be joining the already-cast Cate Blanchett, whose beauty and grace are luminous to the point of being otherworldly. It has also been reported that Shia LaBeouf was/is in negotiations to play Indy’s son in the film. Which would make sense, since he’s starring in two big films — Transformers and Disturbia — produced by Indy IV director Steven Spielberg this summer.

We shall see. And welcome to the wild world of Indiana Jones, Mr. Winstone.

And what about Sean Connery? Will he return as Indy’s father, Dr. Henry Jones? Back in January, Connery told Scotland on Sunday that he would “perhaps” return, adding, “At the moment there’s nothing decided. I haven’t got the script. Everything depends on the script.”

He certainly has it by now. After all, George Lucas said, “We are writing him in whether he wants to do it or not.”

(I hope that doesn’t mean Lucas is planning to make a CGI Connery. Be very afraid.)

The new Indiana Jones adventure — rumored to be called Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods — rolls like a giant boulder into a theater near you on May 22, 2008.

And. It had better have Sallah in it. “Indy! Indy!”

Lawn & Garden Review: Husqvarna 37446

My dad has long had his sights set on the Husqvarna model 37446 walk-behind lawn mower, available right here from the good folks at Sears.

We looked at one Wednesday night, and they had two in stock. Hedging his bets that they’d still have at least one by the weekend, and given that he wasn’t in his truck that night and couldn’t have taken it home anyway, he decided to wait. Unfortunately, the last one sold on Saturday.

However.

Dad called Sears to see if a) a new shipment would be arriving soon or b) the Sears over at the Oxmoor Mall had any in stock. It’s a good thing he called, because the salesman told him that the older gentleman who’d bought the last one brought it back after mowing only half his yard with it. He loved it, but he couldn’t keep up with it.

And so Dad and I bought that sucker on Sunday morning for the nice price of $303.98, a whopping $76 discount off the original price tag of $379.98. (If the old man had mowed his entire yard, I bet we’d have gotten out of there with that mower for $14.95. Oh, well.)

It was too good a bargain to pass up, and well worth every penny. The 37446 has a Briggs & Stratton engine with 190 cc of 8.75-rated torque purring out of its Overheard Valves, or OHVs. What does that mean? It means that when I mowed the patch of grass down by the road, the 37446 had no problem pulling itself (and me) back up the driveway at a clip that was slightly faster than I’d have walked it on my own steam.

Another feature we like is the Key Start. Pump the primer button three times, turn the key and the mower ramps right up to full speed. Pull back on the lever, the mower pulls itself, and all you have to do is walk behind and guide it. The blade cuts a mighty swath of 21 inches and the mower has a removable mulching bag on the back, making it easy to convert to standard side discharge.

Dad’s massive yard will give this moderately-sized monster quite the workout.

The deck is an attractive orange. The engine and the handles are black, with an orange power bar and a blue power lever.

I’m probably not using those terms correctly.

So.

If you need to mow your yard this summer, try out the Husqvarna 37446. Preferably after an old man has mowed half his yard with it and the salesman at Sears is feeling generous.

Movie Review: TMNT

I got the call to review this one for Impact and I’ve got to say that at first I was a little apprehensive. I was never a big Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan; I was more of the Superman, Batman, Spider-Man kind of kid. (Still am.) But it was really, really good for what it was.

I couldn’t talk my usual movie buddy, Melissa, into seeing this one with me, but it didn’t take much to convince her boyfriend, Mike, to tag along. (Thanks again, Mike. I appreciated the company and enjoyed watching the movie with you.)

The Turtles did major business in the 1990s; the previous live-action films — the third and last of which debuted 14 years ago — generated a staggering $256 million in domestic box office alone. That’s not counting international receipts, home video, toys, cartoons, comic books and other tie-ins. And how about those soundtracks, with original rap classics from the likes of MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice? T-U-R-T-L-E power, indeed.

This new, entirely digitally realized installment begins 3,000 years ago, as an ancient warlord marches an unstoppable army across the globe. (Some of the animation here actually looks more realistic than a few of the shots in the CG/human-hybrid 300.) When the warlord’s plan to harness the power unleashed by a rare cosmic alignment goes wrong, his generals are turned to stone and his armies are massacred by 13 inter-dimensional monsters released into our plane of existence. For his part in this, the warlord is cursed with immortality and doomed to live with his guilt forever. But if the cosmic alignment were to happen again, he just might have a chance to make things right. Cue our hop to the present.

With its backstory established, TMNT does something that will put a smile on every adult viewer who ever pretended to be a Turtle as a kid. Rather than building character development as the film progresses, TMNT begins with it. This movie doesn’t throw out the past in a cheap bid to reestablish the Turtles in a watered-down form for a new generation of fans. It builds on what has come before to create a story that will wow both the little kids seeing the Turtles for the first time and the big kids who never stopped loving them.

With their arch-nemesis Shredder long since defeated, Leonardo (voiced by James Arnold Taylor) has been sent away by the Turtles’ master, Splinter (Mako), to hone his skills and learn what it truly means to be a leader. Terrified that he’ll fail both his master and his brothers, Leonardo is afraid to return to his family in New York City. Back home, gadget-minded Donatello (Mitchell Whitfield) is wasting his talents as a call-in computer tech and Michelangelo (Mikey Kelley) — in a hilarious nod to the hard times that befell another team of seemingly washed-up heroes in Ghostbusters II — is performing at birthday parties for children.

Raphael (Nolan North), however, has another method for coping. Frustrated by Leonardo’s extended absence and the fact that evil didn’t just stop and rest when Leo left, he spends his nights terrorizing criminals as a Batman-inspired vigilante called the Night Watcher.

Meanwhile, the Turtles’ human ally April O’Neil (Sarah Michelle Gellar) delivers a rare archaeological find to billionaire industrialist Max Winters (Patrick Stewart) who, as it turns out, is a lot older than he looks. About 3,000 years older, nudge nudge, wink wink. To complicate matters more, Winters has hired the remnants of Shredder’s Foot Clan — reorganized by a fearless female warrior called Karai (Ziyi Zhang) — to help his newly reanimated generals bring down the 13 monsters who are still inflicting unspeakable terrors on humanity. For her part, April is still hoping for a commitment from her longtime boyfriend (part-time vigilante), Casey Jones (Chris Evans). (How old is this guy by now? Like, 40? April is hot. Make the commitment. Whammy.)

Leonardo returns just in time for everything to get ugly. While Donatello and Michelangelo welcome their brother, Raphael is still hurt by what he sees as desertion when they needed him most. Can the Turtles stop fighting each other long enough to finish the job that Winters failed 3,000 years ago? Betrayals on both sides might seal the fate of the entire world, with a smart twist or two thrown in to keep things interesting and unpredictable.

Genre heroes Stewart (Star Trek, X-Men), Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Evans (Fantastic Four) and Zhang (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) aren’t just phoning it in; they go so far into their characters that there are times — even for Stewart — when they sound totally unlike anything they’ve done before. Fans of the late, great Mako will appreciate the gift we’re given by getting to hear his legendary voice one last time. (Who knew a giant rat could be filled with so much wisdom and love? Mako makes you believe it.) The Turtles, too, are voiced by longtime voiceover professionals who give the guys plenty of life and heart.

Animation is top-notch, with exciting, complex fight scenes that take full advantage of the Turtles’ individual weapons and fighting styles. (There’s one confrontation during a downpour of rain that will take your breath away.)

While some of the humor is a bit silly, smaller children will appreciate those moments. But TMNT offers something much more for its viewers both young and old. Big lessons of love and honor and humility are presented in ways that take the story to unexpected places. Writer/director Kevin Munroe and his superb team of animators and voice actors have delivered something truly special for Turtle fans of all ages.