Movie Review - The Apostate (1999)

This is a forgettable flick despite the formidable talents of Dennis Hopper and Richard Grieco. They know how to swim but how can they save the Titanic?

Nothing works in this movie. Story, effects, characters… it's all hackneyed, stereotypical, Devil-Meets-the-Church type of artificial conflict.

It is hard to place a finger on any one particular aspect of this film that does not work because there are so many things that do not work in tandem.

Even the music is weird -- an amalgamation of spooky Gregorian chants, some electronic scratchings and base riffs emulating heart-beats, mixed with some "Clarinet Blues" from the Balkans, etc. It's all over the place, like the plot line.

But worst of all, both Hopper and Grieco are seriously miscast. Especially watching Hopper is like watching an actor playing an actor playing a role. It is that self-conscious a performance; that on the surface and contrived. He is almost checking out his watch to see if it is time to go home.

Hopper is certainly no Hannibal Lecter in this particular film. His outbursts that were supposed to reveal some serious evil end up as the whining and protestations of a an artist bored out of his skull so he ends up butchering good looking young people right and left. All of course covered with a thin patina of "metaphysical angst" directed at Mother Mary, Jesus Himself and the Rest of The Universe.

Opposite him is the Grieco character, an artist priest… You can tell the kind of real talent Grieco has (fantastic diction, for example) but thanks to wrong directing, he ends up with an over-the-top performance that is painful to watch.

The bad guy Hopper has butchered up Grieco's male prostitute brother. So the Grieco character makes it his business to find the left-handed artist madman. It takes a frustrated artist to find another who loves to paint with blood.

I'll just stop there since I actually do not want you to commit the error of renting this DVD and watch it. Don't.

A total disappointment. 1 out of 10.

Go rent the "Exorcist" if you want to really see some scary merchandise that pits the Catholic Church against Evil. Or the "Silence of the Lambs" if you enjoy the shock of facing some truly demented and twisted characters. But not this. This is just boring.

Where Are All The Good Movies?

The sound of soda being sipped, the smell of fresh popcorn in the air, the scream or laugh the whole room has burst into, the actor saying the line he'll be remembered for his entire career and a while after it – simply put, the movies. Though we've always been fascinated by going to our local multiplex or movie theater, are we getting the same chills and thrills, twists and turns as our parents were, not 20 years ago?

I'm not sure if this is an all-out phenomenon, but I'm sure there are some people that can to me when I say the movie industry has reached a standstill concerning interesting new products. Over the years we've seen actors get shrunk, cars come to life, we've explored new corners of the galaxy and the world of women as seen through a man's eyes, so can anything still surprise us? The answer is yes, but producers are unwilling to search for our new desire, to experiment, to take a gamble and see what happens. Most things we see in movies today are inspired from other, much older movies and filtered through the director's eyes. Is this actually a Hollywood conspiracy? Do they wait long enough to suspect people have forgotten the original and then do a cheap remake? Honestly, I don't think this is the care, but it can't be far from it. They must believe the original was a flop because of the poor special effects, but the truth is, the story was its downfall.

In contrast to the previous category, another type of movies does boast an original story, but using concepts from older ones. In this category we have zombie movies, most monster movies and hey, let's admit it, even some action movies (Avp for example). Although this isn't always a bad idea (Avp again, which I found fairly satisfying), the basic concept behind the character they "borrowed" from other movies changes slightly with each new adaptation. Most directors in this category prefer to inspire themselves from the most recent production involving the myth they want to use, so their idea will stray even more from the original than the previous one has. It is sometimes nice to see a myth evolve, but enough is enough!

I will admit that making a movie isn't all too easy and coming up with an original idea is becoming increasingly difficult, but the fact remains: if it's already been done, you will never get full credit for your work. Sadly, this is what happens with most "new" productions, because they found their stories on older ones. This is why more and more people exit the movie theaters disappointed, having hoped for something better. Or maybe it isn't the movies that are changing….maybe we're just getting harder and harder to please…

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The Real American Idol

It was obvious Jimmy McNeal was nervous as he took the stage. He announced to the three American Idol judges he was going to sing "Cupid," a 1961 classic written and recorded by Sam Cooke. As McNeal began to sing, the trio of judges displayed distinctly unique reactions. Randy Jackson stared intently in an attempt to gauge the 23-year-old Texan's talent. Paula Abdul swayed from side to side, her body language expressing approval of McNeal's performance. Only Simon Cowell seemed to notice the fact that McNeal was singing "Another Saturday Night," Sam Cooke's smash hit from1963! Cowell's face was perplexed, but he didn't interrupt. Instead, he allowed the young singer to make the smooth transition from "Another Saturday Night" into "Cupid," and by end of the two-song tribute to Cooke, the AI judges were unanimous in their decision--Jimmy McNeal was headed to Hollywood on the last Golden Ticket of Season 6.

McNeal represents one of the many aspiring singers who recognize the timeless value of Sam Cooke's music. Akron Watson's performance of Cooke's legendary "A Change Is Gonna Come" earlier in the competition helped him advance to the next round, but Watson was asked to leave the show for reasons still unclear. In Season 4, Randy Jackson called David Brown's rendition of "A Change Is Gonna Come" 'the best he's seen' in the four years of the show, and Gedeon McKinney gave a memorable performance of the song in Season 5.

But it was Taylor Hicks who took the crown in Season 5, impressing AI's judges by singing "A Change Is Gonna Come" in his audition and Cooke's "You Send Me" on a night when the theme was "Songs from the Great American Songbook." When Taylor finished You Send Me, Paula Abdul told him "Sam would be proud of you!" Rod Stewart admitted "No one sings this song like Sam Cooke--nobody--but he did a great version."

So why all the fuss about an entertainer who died over 40 years ago and whose Pop career only lasted only eight years? Perhaps Jerry Wexler, Atlantic Records' super-producer to Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles, sums it up best:

"Sam was the best singer who ever lived, no contest. When I listen to him, I still can't believe the things that he did…everything about him was perfection. A perfect case."

Ray Charles himself testified that Sam Cooke "never hit a wrong note."

The son of a Baptist preacher, Sam Cooke was raised in the church. By early 1951, less than three years after his high school graduation, Cooke found himself lead singer of the top gospel group at the time--The Soul Stirrers. His smooth tenor voice dripped honey, and his shows attracted young female fans by the dozens. Cooke was the country's biggest name in Gospel, but he ignored potential ostracism from his fan base and made the transition to popular music in 1956. He gained national prominence with the 1957 release of "You Send Me," an innovative song that combined his gospel roots with a smooth, R&B flavor. The world called the new sound "Soul."

For the next seven years Sam Cooke wrote, arranged, produced, and recorded hit songs not just for himself, but for the artists on the record labels he founded. At the peak of his popularity, his life was tragically cut short under still-mysterious circumstances on December 11, 1964.

What he left behind was a laundry list of soulful, chart-topping hits--most written by Cooke himself--and the world's desire to find another artist of his caliber. American Idol contestants are aware that "holding their own" against a Sam Cooke classic is almost a guarantee to advance to higher rounds. It seems Cooke has set the bar so high that Rod Stewart's comment "No one sings this song like Sam Cooke…but he did a great version" is not an insult, but is indeed the ultimate complement.