THE CHALLENGER DISASTER

Professor Feynman (William Hurt) confronts a general

THE CHALLENGER DISASTER (2013 telefilm). Director: James Hawes.

If you're expecting to learn anything about the people who died when the Challenger exploded in 1986, be forewarned that most of their names aren't even mentioned. Instead this TV movie relates how Professor Richard Feynman (William Hurt of The Village), a physicist, was called in to sit on a panel investigating possible reasons for the disaster. Things are complicated by bureaucracy, the missile's "crazy engineering," as Feynman puts it, and the fact that NASA seems to be in conflict with the Air Force. Is it possible the former was warned not to launch the challenger missile in temperatures below 53 degrees, and did so anyway? A man named Macdonald (Robert Hobbs) comes forward to offer compelling and damaging evidence, and then disappears. Feynman, who is dealing with serious cancer issues of his own, cuts through the red tape and cover-up at a televised press conference (some of which is shown at the very end of the movie). Hurt's portrayal of the professor is perhaps overly rumpled and fussy in an attempt to add a little flavoring, but he basically gives a solid performance. Brian Dennehy [The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone] is fine as the head of the commission, as is Hobbs as Macdonald, and Bruce Greenwood [Nowhere Man] as General Kutyna.

Verdict: Small-scale but effective. ***.

BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD

BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD  (2010). Director: Brandon Vietti.

Years ago, after the original Robin, Dick Grayson, became an adult and changed his name to Nightwing, DC Comics decided to give Batman/Bruce Wayne a new boy partner in the person of one Jason Todd, who became the new Robin. Only a year or two after introducing the character, the powers-that-be at DC completely changed his origin, in effect creating an entirely different character who never caught on with fans. These same fans also preferred the darker version of Batman, who worked best alone, so Jason Todd was killed off in an effective story arc called "A Death in the Family." Decades later Batman discovered that Jason was alive, but he had become a grim crusader -- Red Hood -- who had no problem murdering his opponents, and even tried to kill Batman. The whole story is told in this entertaining animated feature which features excellent voice performances from Bruce Greenwood as Batman and John Di Maggio as the Joker. Neil Patrick Harris, Jensen Ackles, and Jason Isaacs are also swell as, respectively, Nightwing, Jason Todd, and Bat-opponent Ra's Al Ghul. With fluid animation and a surprisingly moving wind-up, this is actually better than the live-action Batman movies, including Tim Burton's Batman and The Dark Night.

Verdict: One of the most interesting Batman stories ever. ***1/2.

STAR TREK (2009)

STAR TREK (2009). Director: J. J. Abrams.

This theatrical reboot of the Star Trek series with new actors playing the original roles of Spock, Kirk, Bones etc. lands with a thud and is unlikely to lead into a successful franchise [although a sequel has, unfortunately, been announced for 2012]. It's not the fault of the actors, but a script that is dull, not nearly enough action, and revisionings of some of the characters -- Kirk for instance -- that makes them a little unlikable. The main villain is Nero (Eric Bama), a Romulan who saw his world destroyed in a future time period, and came back in time -- along with Spock -- determined to destroy all the planets of the Federation. [He succeeds in decimating Vulcan, while the backward time jump has created a kind of alternate universe.] The old Spock is again played by Leonard Nimoy, while his younger self is well-enacted by Zachary Quinto, a villain on the TV show Heroes. Chris Pine is okay as Kirk, while Karl Urban and Simon Pegg, respectively, do competent impersonations of DeKelley and Doohan as Dr. McCoy and "Scotty." Some of the actors are so young -- Anton Yelchin as a "cute" Chekov, for instance -- that at times this seems like a Hollywood High School production of Star Trek. Ben Cross plays Spock's father and Bruce Greenwood of Nowhere Man is Captain Pike. Zoe Saldana of Avatar is cast as Lt. Uhura, but she has little to do aside from smooching more than once with this sexier version of Spock. The "alternate reality" storyline is confusing, the pace drags, and ultimately this Star Trek is boring and unmemorable.

Verdict: Paging Shatner, Nimoy and company! **.

NOWHERE MAN

NOWHERE MAN 1995 TV series. Created by Lawrence Hertzog. 

Thomas Veil (Bruce Greenwood) goes out to dinner with his wife Alyson (Megan Gallagher) when his entire life changes in a moment. Coming back from the rest room he looks for Alyson, and is told by the manager that neither she nor he were even dining there, and that he's never seen them before. Alyson is back home -- but when he knocks on the door she claims that she doesn't know who he is. He can't get access to his bank accounts as his entire identity seems to be erased bit by bit. No one at the gallery where his photographs were exhibited remembers who he is. And so on and so on. It apparently all has to do with a controversial photo of a hanging that he took some years before. Or does it? In any case, Veil winds up in a nuthouse temporarily. 

This ultra-paranoiac suspense thriller lasted for one season and 25 episodes, and it did have an ending [albeit one that was somewhat unsatisfying.] But it was also creepy, extremely well-acted, well-written, and consistently intriguing and entertaining. Some episodes would come along and make you realize that what you suspected or thought you knew wasn't true at all. Most of the episodes -- despite the somewhat "fantastic" premise, were reasonably logical, although at least one story about a pirate TV show is so completely illogical, indeed impossible, that it's almost surrealistic. This mistake wasn't repeated for the most part. 

The best episodes were: "Paradise On Your Door Step," where Thomas winds up in The Prisoner-like town of New Phoenix; and "Forever Jung," where aging women who have been made young again -- including Alyson -- are turned into operators for whatever sinister organization is behind everything. [This episode probably influenced the later Alias.] Other memorable episodes had Thomas working as a janitor in a boy's school; encountering a computer nerd who never leaves his house; going back into the nuthouse to discover that one of the former patients is now a doctor; meeting a man (Dean Jones), who claims to be his father; traveling to a small town in the midst of a UFO craze; apparently waking up from a coma to discover everything is back to normal -- or so he thinks; and meeting an FBI man and discovering the aforementioned controversial photo was doctored and taken not in Nicaragua but in Washington D.C. 

Out of 25 episodes only two were mediocre, and only one -- Tom mixes it up with street gangs and the homeless -- was terrible. Generally the scripts for the series were of a high order, with strong characterizations even of the supporting roles and a generous amount of sensitivity. Whatever its flaws, Nowhere Man was compulsively watchable, and was one of the most memorable TV shows of the 90's. Bruce Greenwood's performance as Veil was superb, and there were fine guest performances from such actors as Ted Levine, Richard Kind, Carrie Ann Moss, Rafael Sbarge and others. Good eerie music helped tremendously as well. 

Verdict: Nowhere Man may have ultimately gone nowhere, but it was a hell of a fun ride while it lasted. ***1/2.

CAPOTE

CAPOTE (2005). Director: Bennett Miller.

If you're looking for a biography of Truman Capote, look elsewhere. Although this does offer some insight into the writer -- but not much -- it focuses primarily on how he came to write the book for which he is most famous: In Cold Blood. If there is a problem with the movie -- among many -- it's that it seems to cut away from certain sequences just as they start to get interesting. Capote asks murderer Perry Smith (Clifton Collins Jr.) what his first impression of him is, but we never hear the answer (one can imagine!). Except for a brief bit when the subject of whether or not Capote has fallen in love with Smith (a real possibility) comes up, Dan Futterman's somewhat superficial script never really deals with his subject's sexuality, and indeed avoids delving into Capote's questionable objectivity and other matters. Oscar-winning Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a terrific performance, however, and for the most part the rest of the cast is excellent. The film can't avoid a dated quality, however. When In Cold Blood came out it was before the current obsession with and knowledge of serial killers and sociopaths, so Capote's attempt to humanize and sympathize with the callous cretins who slaughtered an entire family fall flat. In fact, the image that stays in the mind isn't of Perry Smith being hanged, but teenage Nancy Clutter being shot by him. The terrified girl's eyes are open; she's awake and knows what's about to happen to her. She undoubtedly heard the shots that took the lives of the rest of the family. And we're supposed to feel sorry for Smith? Bruce Greenwood is cast in the thankless role of Capote's friend Jack Dunphy. The character is so undefined as to be pointless. Catherine Keener is fine as Harper To Kill a Mockingbird Lee. Beautifully photographed by Adam Kimmel.

Verdict: Not at all what it could have been. **1/2.

BELOW

BELOW (2002). Director: David Twohy.

Mildly strange occurrences on a submarine during World War 2 lead some of the more suggestible members of the crew to believe that the sub is haunted. It turns out that they're right, but the audience may find it hard to believe as most of the film seems to be over before director Twohy adds some genuine spookiness to the atmosphere. [There is one – and only one -- great scene in the movie. A crew member looks into a mirror and turns this way and that, but his reflection is always half a second or so out of sync. Later on he turns around, turning his back on his reflection, but his reflection remains facing forward.] It turns out that a terrible mistake has been made by some of the officers, who have murdered their captain as part of a cover up. This picture could have been a masterpiece – the script, effects, and (most of the) acting are creditable – but Twohy's direction is so poor and indifferent that he virtually robs every important sequence of its potential dramatic power. Bruce Greenwood offers a fairly one-dimensional portrait of the murderous Brice, but Cary Elwes-lookalike Matt Davis is better as an ensign who slowly discovers the details of his heinous deeds. Olivia Williams makes little impression as a nurse off a Red Cross vessel that was mistakenly bombed.

Verdict: Insubstantial as a ghost. *1/2.