Until the horrific terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 there was arguably no date more infamous in post-World War II America than that of November 22, 1963. It was on that day nearly 50 years ago that our 35th President, John F. Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in his motorcade through Dallas, Texas.

The imagery and details of that day are unforgettable even for those of us who were born long after it happened: a magic bullet, Jackie's pink suit and matching pillbox hat, the Zapruder film, the book depository, Lee Harvey Oswald, Walter Cronkite choking up, and of course those rumors of a second gunman on the grassy knoll. These elements have pervaded the popular culture through an endless supply of films, documentaries, TV specials, books, and more conspiracy theories than you can shake a stick it, but a new film seeks to tell the full story of that day and the days that followed by giving us a glimpse of the more peripheral characters and the roles they played.

Named after Parkland Memorial Hospital where both President Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald were brought with their gunshot wounds, Parkland enlists a remarkable cast under first time director Peter Landesman to give us the untold story of the day that changed America forever. Naturally, a good chunk of the film takes place in the hospital where doctors (Zac Efron and Colin Hanks) and nurses (Marcia Gay Harden) fight in vain to save the life of the president and then also his assassin. But this is much more than a medical drama. We also spend significant amounts of screentime with Abraham Zapruder (Paul Giamatti) who shot the only known footage of the actual assassination, an FBI agent (Ron Livingston) who was investigating Oswald prior to the shooting, Oswald's mother (Jacki Weaver) and brother (James Badge Dale) living in the aftermath, and members of the Secret Service who are not only coping with the first loss of a president on their watch but getting him back to Washington, DC despite laws requiring that body remain in Texas.

The highlight for me was without a doubt Giamatti as Zapruder. In the film he kind of represents the one "normal guy" witness to the event that we get to meet. He is a man traumatized by what he has seen but is also forced to relive it when it is discovered by a federal agent (Billy Bob Thornton) that he captured the whole thing on film. Knowing instantly that he has become a sort of custodian to a piece of history, we get to see Zapruder very protectively work with the feds to development the film (a new technology at the time) and then agonize over selling it to the press in hopes that it only be used tastefully. It is such a small slice of history but with him being the only character in the film without close, personal ties to either the President or Oswald, he sort of becomes the everyman that we relate to and latch onto most.

On the flip side of that, it is hard to not also get a little bit wrapped up in the family of Oswald as they cope with the news that he probably killed the president in very different ways. Oswald's brother Robert is clearly in shock and embarrassed by the whole thing despite putting up a strong front, while his mother seems to teeter on the edge of sanity by almost being proud of it. The real meat of their story comes out though when we get to witness their funeral for Oswald where only reporters are available to help be pallbearers and move his coffin to the burial site.

Another point of high fascination is the struggle to move the President's body from Parkland Memorial to Air Force One for a flight back to DC. Texas law required a medical examination to take place in the case of a murder which therefore would've forced the President's body to remain behind, but Secret Service agents (led by an ever dreamy Tom Welling) essentially fought their way out of Parkland with the casket and then forcibly shoved it onto Air Force One with a somewhat lack of respect for the dead.

All fascinating historical tidbits asides it's hard to call Parkland anything much more than a mediocre film. Sure, everything is competent enough on a technical level and the actors all turn in believable work in their respective roles (yes, even Efron as a heart surgeon), but the gap here is really on a script and conceptual level. The various pieces don't really come together to make any grand statement and when all is said and done the film kind of forgets about the man at the heart of it all: John F. Kennedy. In dealing with only the minutiae of that day and the days that followed we lose a sense of why this is all still worth talking about in the first place. Who was the man that we lost that day? How did his untimely death change us as a nation? Why are so many still so moved by his loss?

One might argue that these questions have been asked and answered in other formats and other films but I can't help but think that by skipping over them Parkland lost it's chance to have a bigger impact that could have been as memorable as the real event itself. Instead, it is merely a film of anecdotes calling for it's larger narrative.

Grade: B-

Wow.

I'm not going to lie. I'm really tempted to just leave this review as simple as that. Wow.

I had been looking forward to seeing Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity from the moment he started talking about it a few years ago and couldn't wait to see what he would deliver as his followup to the masterful Children of Men from way back in 2006. And even when a movie is great, if I am anticipating something this greatly I can't help but walk away a little bit underwhelmed. But that is very much not the case with Gravity. In fact, it not only met my high expectations but exceeded them by a mile.

There are many aspects of Gravity that are worthy of praise but I think the best place to start is actually its simplicity. Despite boasting some of the most impressive technical feats in movie history and dozens of immensely complicated, long, single-take shots, the real power of the film lies in the simplicity of its story and the strength in which it is delivered. The story begins when rapidly moving barrage of space debris collides with an American mission to repair the Hubble telescope, veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and newbie scientist Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) are sent adrift into space without the protection of a ship or a communication link to Earth. On top of that they have a dwindling air supply, the nearest vessel is not exactly within easy reach, and the speeding debris will be coming back around the Earth in just a short time. In a nutshell this is all about survival. Plain and simple.

We currently live in a culture where people are seemingly not satisfied unless they get a full backstory, lots of exposition, and characters who are more or less antiheroes with questionable moral standing. It's not wrong to enjoy or seek out these things in a film but you're not going to get them in Gravity. With the action starting almost immediately, everything there is to glean about the characters is revealed only through their somewhat brief conversations and more importantly - their actions. There are no flashback scenes revealing childhood trauma. There are no questionable motives of one character turning on the other to survive longer. It is purely a woman and a man trying to get back to Earth against the most aggressive odds imaginable.

But that's not to say that Kowalski and Stone are one dimensional. Far from it. These are two fully realized, endearing, and fascinating human beings thanks in part to a brilliant script from Cuarón (and his son, Jonas) and some truly stunning acting work from Clooney and Bullock. In many ways Clooney gets off easy by being the charming rouge his public persona has already led most people to believe he is but it works because he fits the role like a glove and instantly becomes someone for the audience to latch onto when the shit hits the fan.

Bullock on the other hand, has to do the heavy lifting. And before I say any more I have to be completely honest - I've never been a fan of Sandra Bullock. I find most of her past work unbelievable, cartoonish, borderline obnoxious, and very much undeserving of that Oscar for The Blind Side. I'm sure she's a lovely person but her choices in roles has just never jived with my own personal tastes. And yes, I know I'm in a relatively small minority on this. BUT. In this particular instance Ms. Bullock won me over. Through every moment of this film's brisk 90 minute running time I was with her, rooting for her, and downright feeling for her. I wanted to cheer at her triumphs, cry at her defeats, and ultimately just give her a hug. She is forced to get a lot across with very little dialogue and she pulls it off beautifully. Without this performance the movie could have easily fallen apart but she holds it together masterfully and is deserving of every accolade thrown her way.

But no matter how good the performances are a film about survival in space also requires tip top technical prowess. And although I'm trying to hold back on the hyperbole here its almost impossible to avoid stating that the visual effects and direction of Gravity are among the greatest achievements in cinema history. Cuarón's magically floating camera coupled with the photo realistic space elements is just a wonder to behold. For the first time in a long time I found myself looking at what was on the screen in front of me and thinking, "How did they do this?" It felt like how I felt watching Star Wars and Jurassic Park for the first time as a kid: completely awestruck. But unlike those instances I don't think I ever want to know how they did it here. I want the mystery and majesty of Gravity to stay with me so that when I revisit it (and oh boy will I ever revisit it) I don't only think about seeing shots of Clooney and Bullock hanging from wires in front of a big ass green screen. This is all just too impressive to be sullied with a routine DVD special feature so let's just give them all of the Oscars and leave it at that.

And while I don't usually come on here to shill for higher ticket spending, I think that the only proper way to see this movie is in IMAX 3D. The 3D is easily the best since Avatar and the visual power of seeing it all on that giant screen will be worth every single penny. I promise.

Botomline: If you aren't clenching your fists, gritting your teeth, and nearly in tears by the climax of this thing (with its stunning musical score by Steven Price) I don't even know what's wrong with you. With this film Alfonso Cuarón has cemented his place as one of the greatest directors working today and despite having thousands of words to describe it's effectiveness I only really need one: Masterpiece.

Grade: A

There's a reason this came and went from theaters with barely a whimper - it is the epitome of a movie that feels like a first draft. With the running time split almost evenly between the major decision of rebuilding Japan by either keeping or not keeping the Emperor in power and flashbacks of young Matthew Fox in love with a Japanese woman neither story get its due diligence.
The love story feels like every other war love story we've ever seen (with lovers from opposing sides being torn apart) and is ultimately a distraction from the more interesting political history playing out with the Emperor and General MacArthur (Tommy Lee Jones stands out well).
As I watched I couldn't help but think that Fox's character would be so much more intriguing if the love story was more of a mystery revealed to us slowly by letting us question his loyalty first.
There's definitely fodder here for a good movie. It just needed a lot more shaping to get it right.

Damn. Rewatching this and 'The Wizard of Oz' in the same weekend has really taken me back. In other words I've been an emotional, retrospective wreck.
But anyway...there's not much to say here about 'E.T.' that hasn't been said countless times in the past but the bottom line is that Spielberg nailed it. Say what you will about his directorial style and his manipulation of audience feelings, this is him at his sharpest and if you're not a bit weepy by the end of this thing, you're a much tougher person than I.
Also, if you've ever doubted the talents of John Williams (whats wrong with you?) this is the film to turn those feelings around. Simply one of the most perfectly rendered scores of all time. Magical stuff.

What's my reaction to a dance competition movie following a team coached by Sawyer from 'Lost' you ask? It's mostly this: BWAHAHAHAHAHA

With loads of horrific exposition, hilariously unnecessary reaction shots, and spoon-feeding the audience every little bit of story and character development imaginable, 'Battle of the Year' is hardly impressive filmmaking. That being said, one doesn't go to a 'Fast and the Furious' movie for the drama and you certainly wouldn't go to this for the story. This is all about cute guys dancing and dammit they're really good at it so the movie at least has that going for it.

My biggest regret though is that they never go forward with the cheesy plot twist that you'll expect to happen from the very beginning! Here's hoping Franklyn (with a y!) gets to step up in the sequel...