All About
the Time
Machine
by Ed Owens

For movie lovers not obsessed with all things Oscar, March is a difficult time. It actually starts in February, with the endless discussions on what got nominated, what should have been nominated, and what has the best chances of winning...at least until the following week when most will change their predictions based on the latest "buzz." Movies that get nominated will often reappear in theaters (or appear for the first time if you live in a cultural vacuum like I do) in an attempt to garner more attention.

So where's the difficult part?

Other than the potential influx of Oscar-worthy films, late February and early March is essentially a cinematic wasteland, a dumping ground in which studios unload their lesser films. These are generally the weaker entries in a studio's catalogue, films that wouldn't stand a chance if released at the same time as the merciless blockbusters of the summer season or the cutthroat holiday films of year's end.

So what is a movie lover to do?

The late Pauline Kael once said, "Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash we have very little reason to be interested in them." Heartened by those words of wisdom, I set out to sift through the rubble currently available at the local multiplex in the hopes of finding something to tide me over.

The plot of Ice Cube's latest, All About the Benjamins, is thinner than the titular currency with which both leads are obsessed. Bucum Jackson (Cube) is a bounty hunter who teams up with repeat offender Reggie (Mike Epps) to recover $20 million in stolen diamonds and a winning lottery ticket worth $60 million. Of course, standing between them and untold riches is the typical bevy of euro-trash baddies, led by Irishman Robert Williamson (Tommy Flanagan).

But All About the Benjamins is less about reinventing the genre than in showcasing the chemistry of its two leads. The film lives or dies on the interactions of Cube and Epps, and for much of its 90-plus minute running time, it works remarkably well. Cube's ferocity works as a great foil for Epps' manic protestations. The physical and verbal jousting of the two men provides most (if not all) of the film's momentum, propelling it forward briskly enough to cover many of its faults.

Both men are ably supported by the women in their lives - Gina (Eva Mendes), Reggie's long-suffering girlfriend, and Pam (Valerie Rae Miller), Bucum's able-bodied assistant. Both are portrayed as smarter and more grounded than either of their male counterparts, though both are essentially relegated to supporting status.

When Reggie and Bucum stop talking, however, the film grinds to a halt, and, unfortunately, they stop talking too often. The film's many action scenes are little more than strung-together clichés given the most lackluster treatment. Director Kevin Bray chooses to paint by numbers rather than try anything different, and the result is action scenes that barely breathe, much less show much of a pulse.

Epps and Cube are great together, but even their chemistry can't quite overcome the limits of the material. All About the Benjamins is hardly great trash, but more chat/less splat would have certainly made it a better film.

Whereas All About the Benjamins at least has the charisma of its leads, Gore Verbinski and Simon Wells' The Time Machine literally has nothing. Guy Pearce plays Alexander Hartdegen, an eighteenth century professor who develops the time machine after his fiancée is killed in a mugging turned bad (this is one of many unnecessary additions to the original story, thrown in, I suppose, to explain the contraption's genesis). While searching for answers to questions arising from her death, Alex moves further and further into the future until he eventually discovers a time where human beings have evolved in two different directions, the cliff-dwelling Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks.

One of the problems with the film is that it doesn't get to the Eloi/Morlock story until halfway through the film. The first 45 minutes are little more than a series of barely related F/X setpieces that hobble the films attempts to find a pace while completely destroying any attempts to actually build to something (one of the film's central sequences - scenes of New York City being pummeled by pieces of the moon after it breaks apart - was gutted post-September 11th...the scene that remains feels like it's been truncated and, at barely five minutes in length, should probably have just been removed altogether). As Hartdegen goes further and further into the future, the film more and more blatantly goes nowhere.

Another problem, and perhaps the film's biggest, is that any of the socio-cultural criticism inherent in the original novel and, to a lesser degree, the George Pal film of 1960, has been completely stripped away. The Eloi and Morlocks have been significantly reimagined, to borrow from Tim Burton, effectively removing the larger resonance they once had. Add to this the fact that the ostensible climax is established, developed, and resolved in a ten minute span devoid of even the loosest definition of tension, and you're left with a film that seems to have no sense of where it's going and no clue as to how to get there.

The result of the film's choppy pacing and lack of development is an utterly forgettable experience - most of it will have passed before you've even cleared the auditorium. But whether it tries to do too much or doesn't try to do enough, The Time Machine ultimately doesn't do anything.

So far, March is still a wasteland, being a movie lover is still difficult, and Kael's "great trash" is proving more elusive than it seemed at first. At least her quote gives me reason to hope.

©2002 Ed Owens
CineScene