Antz scores over prophets of disaster

By Ervell E. Menezes

HOLLYWOOD is back to "disaster films" and doomsday seems to be happening every other day. First it was Independence Day or what the Americans call "ID-4". Then came Deep Impact about a meteorite hitting the earth. Now, it’s Armageddon, the end of all things, as a meteor shower or a rogue comet threatens to wipe out the earth.

An asteroid, the size of Texas, is hurtling towards the earth at 22,000 mph and NASA director Don Truman (Billy Bob Thornton) has only one option- to send up a crew to destroy the asteroid. He enlists the help of Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) — the world’s foremost deep core oil driller — and his roughneck team of drillers to land on the asteroid, drill its surface and drop a nuclear device into its core.

Now, in The Dirty Dozen style, Stamper is asked to pick his team of drilling experts. And an assortment of characters they are, from conmen to near-convicts. But since it is an earth-shaking situation they are forgiven the past and promised much for the future, if there is one. The human element comes across with Stamper’s attachment for his daughter Grace (Liv Tyler) but he does not like the idea of her falling in love with fellow drilling colleague AJ Frost (Ben Affleck). The opening scene with him chasing AJ with a gun and shooting at him is not really funny, though it is meant to be.

Director Michael Bay, who along with producer Jerry Bruckenheimer came out with The Rock, a couple of years ago, seems to have missed out on the timing. Good as the film may be in parts and dazzling though the special effects are, it is a hackneyed subject. To make matters worse, the screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh and JJ Abrams is at best ordinary. The build-up for the event is long-drawn-out and the subsequent action one-dimensional.

If they think that Bruce Willis is the ideal saviour of the world then they might as well give him an Oscar for it (after all he saved the world in Fifth Element didn’t he ? Even if he couldn’t save the film). Not make him repeat the act. That Armageddon is marginally better is some consolation. It’s a case of flogging a long-doomed world. Avoidable.

In that respect The Negotiator is much better even though hostage films are quite common. But here the situation is unusual. What happens when a negotiator himself goes berserk and needs the help of another negotiator ?

Danny Roman (Samuel L Jackson) is a negotiator in the Chicago police department which means his job is to talk potential hostage-takers out of doing what they intend to do. "I know you lie for a living," his wife cajoles him but when he’s framed by the higher-ups in his department for the murder of a friend and charged with embezzlement, the ground almost gives way under him. His friends desert him and for a change the hunter becomes the hunted. He needs the help of a fellow-negotiator.

When it turns out that the other negotiator is Chris Sabian, (played by Kevin Spacey) the viewer is in for a double-dose of excitement. Jackson, after his Pulp Fiction role, is surely making waves. Spacey has had a string of unusual parts starting with The Usual Suspects and continuing with Seven and LA Confidential. There have been many films on the good cop fighting against the corrupt system but this one is special. There may be a bit of Hollywood licence and a wee bit of exaggeration but it is tolerable as it gets to grips with the subject.

Director F. Gary Gray seems to take things in his stride. The pauses are right and action and suspense go hand in hand, with slices of humour providing dramatic relief. It’s 120 minutes of excellent entertainment, a sort of surprise winner.

But the real cute one is Antz an animation film in the best traditions of The Lion King but no, it’s no children’s film, it is purely adult entertainment. It’s about an ant who wants to rise above his worker ant status. Like Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, he wants to be different, "to be his own ant," as the saying goes.

"When you’re a middle child in a family of five million," is how Z-4195 (Woody Allen’s voice and features) introduces himself and its a fine script by Todd Alcott and Chris and Paul Weitz, full of delightful one-liners put across suavely by Z, alias Woody Allen. That Z aspires for the hand of Princess Bala (Sharon Stone) gives the film its romantic angle. That the ants are taken advantage of by General Mandible (Gene Hackman) contributes to the plot. He is the villain who not only seeks Princess Bala’s hand in marriage but also wants to liquidate the colony and remake it in his own image.

There are some diverse characters as cameos like Z’s soldier friend Weaver (Sylvester Stallone) who is the voice of reason. Placards like "Free time is for training" and "Rest once, work twice" give one an insight into the indoctrination in the ant world. What they seek is an Insectopia.

It is a cleverly conceived story and it is equally well executed with music, dancing and off-beat humour that really make for first-rate entertainment. Incidentally, even in the antz world it is the women that wear the pantz, so I guess there’s no harm in taking the wife and kids above 10 or 12 for it.