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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Tim Riley
‘GLADIATORS II’ Rated R
English filmmaker Ridley Scott, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II two decades ago, also goes by the honorific “Sir Ridley Scott” conferred upon him in recognition of his contribution to the arts, joining other entertainment icons like Sean Connery, Elton John and Mick Jagger.
Aside from a slew of other honors, Ridley Scott has distinguished himself for an eclectic style in film genres from science-fiction like “Blade Runner” and “Alien” to historical dramas such as last year’s “Napoleon.”
His resume encompasses a lot more than that, including directing the road trip crime drama “Thelma & Louise,” for which he was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Director, an honor also bestowed for his directing of “Black Hawk Down.”
Arguably, no bigger success came for the director than his work in the 2000 swords-and-sandals epic “Gladiator,” which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and his second award nomination for directing.
Now more than two decades later, Scott returns to directing “Gladiator II,” a sequel to the story of Russell Crowe’s Maximus, a Roman general who runs afoul of Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) and ends up enslaved to be a captive combatant.
Reviewing the quasi-historical story of Maximus’ quest for revenge against Commodus for the murder of his family and Marcus Aurelius (a historical figure of the time) would take up too much space here.
While the original film was set in 180 AD, “Gladiator II” appears to be only a couple of decades in the future where a prime character in the form of Lucius (Paul Mescal) turns out to be a heroic warrior against the Roman Empire in the name of strength and honor.
Amazing battle scenes on land and sea find the Romans led by General Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) storming the fortress in Numidia where Lucius’s beloved wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen), a warrior in her own right, is killed by Acacius during a bloody siege.
On the losing end of battle, Lucius becomes a slave under the custody of Denzel Washington’s Macrinus, a former slave himself who became a Roman businessman who has amassed enormous wealth thanks to his acumen and brutal ambition.
Macrinus has a stable of gladiators, and he sees in Lucius a natural-born leader and great fighter, which he finds useful in many ways to make himself more powerful than he already is. He relies on his vicious trainer Vigo (Lior Raz) to run his stable with an iron hand.
The Roman Empire is under the control of truly mad twin emperors Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) and Geta (Joseph Quinn), both self-indulgent and unserious, with the former obsessed with a pet monkey perched on his shoulder.
Returning from battle a bit weary, Acacius is reunited with his partner Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, reprising her role from the original), and he’s less than thrilled with the tyrannical rule of the twin emperors who are bent on further conquest of distant lands.
The people of Rome expect the gladiator combat at the Colosseum to deliver thrills that keep them distracted from everyday troubles. They are ready to cheer for bloody carnage in any form.
The hero turns out to be Lucius whose maiden foray at the Colosseum, alongside other warriors, is fending off an attack by a pack of ferocious baboons, much to the delight of bloodthirsty spectators.
What Lucius thinks about, as he channels his rage and which pleases the crowd at the Colosseum, is how he’s going to eventually get to his mortal foe Acacius. Part of the problem may be complicated by the presence of Lucilla for reasons that may be surprising.
Like many sequels of blockbuster success stories, “Gladiator II” has the unenviable task of trying to top the original film which went on to become an iconic cultural touchstone for fans around the world.
The world of the Roman Empire and the unforgettable characters of “Gladiator” were so brilliantly crafted. Attempting to go for a grander scale was necessary, and certain aspects of the powerful battle scenes and the gripping action in the arena of the Colosseum deliver.
What appears lacking is the emotional core of the original film that involves the tragedy of a warrior bent on revenge that mirrors a basic theme repeated in the sequel.
Paul Mescal’s Lucius, though solidly physical in the role of reluctant gladiator, was given a challenging task of bringing the same gravitas and charisma to a warrior that Russell Crowe’s Maximus conveyed with visceral single-minded pursuit.
Arguably, Denzel Washington steals the show as a cunning manipulator who has achieved his station in the gilded milieu of the Roman power center, interacting with Roman senators and the emperor twins.
In the end, “Gladiator II,” playing loose with history, comes close enough to achieving its grandiose ambition of a grand spectacle of choreographed battles and gladiatorial combat such that not capturing the original film’s emotional intimacy can be overlooked.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Join the Lake County Theatre Co. for an evening filled with festive fun, laughter and all the warm-hearted holiday spirit you love about “A Christmas Carol.”
Bring your friends and family to enjoy Scrooge’s journey from “Bah, humbug” to “Merry Christmas!” in an intimate setting that feels just like home.
This production features amazing local actors playing all your favorite Christmas Carol characters in addition to live Foley artists creating the sound effects.
Three incredible musicians from the Lake County Symphony will join them as well, providing beautiful (and sometimes spooky) musical interludes and transitions.
Catch the production in Lower Lake and in Lakeport.
First, they will be performing at the historic Weaver Auditorium, right above the schoolhouse and museum in Lower Lake, at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 30.
Next up, they will finish up their performance at the Soper Reese in Lakeport at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 1.
If you can’t make it to the in-person performances, tune in and catch them on the radio.
Listen to “A Christmas Carol” as a live radio play at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7.
Whether you tune in to the radio broadcast or join us in person, this production is a perfect way to celebrate the season and support local theater. Share in the joy, lessons, and warmth of “A Christmas Carol” — a story that reminds us all of the power of compassion and community.
To learn more, visit www.LCTC.us. Tickets are by donation only; pay what you can.
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- Written by: Tim Riley
“RED ONE” RATED PG-13
What exactly is the holiday cheer to be found in “Red One,” a picture that has action and comedy along with a heavy dose of surreal fantasy which seems a lot more like science-fiction drama than a celebration of the Christmas spirit?
Well-known actors take center stage with Dwayne Johnson displaying qualities befitting his physical persona of “The Rock” and Chris Evans shedding his Captain America image for that of a scoundrel with a skewed moral compass.
The titular character for “Red One” is J.K. Simmons’ Santa Claus, or known to his family and friends as Nick, who has the code name “Red One” for his security detail, and we thought only U.S. presidents had code names bestowed by the Secret Service.
We first see Chris Evans’ Jack O’Malley as a delinquent youth acting like a shakedown artist. In adulthood, Jack is a deadbeat dad completely lacking in scruples when stealing other people’s lattes and newspapers before retreating to his job of hacking computers and being a tracker for hire.
With Christmas Eve around the corner, the North Pole comes under attack by evil forces connected to the Christmas witch Gryla (Kiernan Shipka), who wants to punish all the allegedly naughty people in the world and not just children.
The first step in Gryla’s misguided plan is the abduction of Santa Claus to be imprisoned in a fortified snow globe, so that Nick won’t be able to fulfill his yuletide mission of delivering presents.
Operating under the underground moniker “The Wolf,” Jack is surprised as anyone that Santa’s head of security, Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson), has noticed his apparently inadvertent disclosure of the location of Santa’s domain to the bad guys.
Considering that the unattached Jack is estranged not only from his son and the boy’s mother, one can easily figure that a reconciliation with his offspring, Dylan (Wesley Kimmel), is in the offing since this is a Christmas movie after all.
But first, Jack reluctantly joins Callum in an odd couple buddy team in the hunt for Santa, facing off against an assortment of otherworldly henchmen, including Santa’s estranged brother Krampus (Kristofer Hivju) who looks like a cross between a Viking warrior and a horned space demon.
One of Callum’s neat tricks is a shape-shifting ability to respond to physical attacks, as well as turning toy cars into real ones for chase scenes and action figures into fighting machines.
The banter, such as it is, between stoic Callum and sardonic Jack is pretty much the comedic element here. “Red One” offers enough diversion to be enjoyably watchable for the most part and that may be enough.
‘ABSOLUTION’ RATED R
Ever since the 2008 action thriller “Taken” about a former CIA operative tracking down Albanian human traffickers for kidnapping his daughter in Paris, Liam Neeson has burnished his career with ongoing films in the same action genre.
Never mind that Neeson is now in the eighth decade of his life, he appears not to be slowing down in taking roles where a certain amount of mayhem and rough physical activity remains obligatory.
Unlike his usual good guy on a virtuous mission, Neeson’s character, only fittingly known as Thug, is an aging gangster who attempts to reconnect with his estranged children to rectify his personal failings.
Thug’s desire for absolution has much to do with a terminal illness with the incapacitating neurological malady of CTE, which usually afflicts athletes suffering too many concussions. Too many blows to the head apparently have happened to Thug, a former boxer.
Even though Thug is fading mentally and physically, he’s still capable of responding to deadly threats with his own lethality. The mystery centers on who wants to eliminate Thug before irreversible brain damage takes its deadly toll.
Having worked for crime boss Charlie Conner (Ron Perlman) for decades, Thug is tasked with providing tutelage to Conner’s lunkhead son Kyle (Daniel Diemer) to learn the ropes to eventually to take over his father’s criminal enterprise.
Meanwhile, Thug would like to repair what might be a lifetime of anguish for his alienated daughter Daisy (Frankie Shaw), who really wants nothing to do with her father, even though her young son Dre (Terrence Pulliam) appears curious about the mysterious grandfather.
Reconnecting with family is not helped when Thug can’t remember the name of his deceased son or where he’s buried. Perhaps he should have family information on the notebook used to keep track of things.
Don’t expect this film to be a non-stop action picture. It’s about an hour into the story before Thug even throws a punch, and while violence is toned down, the killer instinct of an aging criminal still emerges when the occasion arises.
The pace of “Absolution” is probably not exactly what fans of a righteous avengers usually played in action films by Liam Neeson would expect. As such, it’s a bit of slog with intermittent action, and you might as well wait until it ends up on a streaming service sooner than later.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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- Written by: Debra Fredrickson
LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lake County Symphony will present its Fall Concert at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 24, at Lakeport’s Soper Reese Theatre, with composers from the Romantic Era.
There will be music by Franz Schubert, Gioacchino Rossini, Jules Massenet and Leo Delibes, as well as a violin solo performance by symphony member Francine Passa.
Conductor/Musical Director John Parkinson opens the program with Gioacchino Rossini’s “La Gazza Ladra Overture,” popularly known as “The Thieving Magpie,” an opera that is best known for its use of snare drums in the overture, opening the piece in an energetic and memorable way and evoking the image of the opera's main subject: a devilishly clever, thieving magpie.
Rossini (1792-1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas. He also wrote many other songs, including chamber music, piano pieces and sacred music.
He was very popular at a young age and set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from full-scale composition while still in his 30s, at the height of his popularity.
Next the symphony will play “Cortege De Bacchus” by Leo Delibes (1836-1891) from his “Sylvia” ballet suite. Delibes is best known for his operas/operettas and ballets and was the first to craft a full-length ballet score. He composed operas and vaudevilles for several years before collaborating with Ludwig (Leon) Minkus on his first ballet composition, “La Source,” achieving public recognition for this in 1866.
His later works “Coppelia” and “Sylvia” were considered key works in the development of modern ballet, in which the music had much greater importance than it had previously. His work was admired by “Swan Lake” composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; others, like American author Carl Van Vechten, saw Delibes’ contribution to ballet music as “revolutionary.”
“Overture in C Minor for String Quintet” by Franz Schubert (1797-1828) is the next selection. Composed in 1811 when he was 14, it was Schubert’s earliest chamber work.
The final selection in the first half of the program is a solo performance by violinist/symphony member Francine Passa, accompanied by the orchestra. She will play the beautiful and familiar “Meditation” from the opera, “Thais,” by Jules Massenet (1842-1912).
A French composer of the Romantic Era, Massenet composed oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, piano pieces, songs and other incidental music, but quickly became best known for his operas, writing more than 30 of them. Massenet had a good sense of the theater and of what would succeed with the Parisian public, and produced a series of successes that made him the leading composer of opera in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Following intermission, the orchestra plays Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B minor "Unfinished," a composition he started in 1822 but left with only two movements — though he lived for another six years.
This symphony is sometimes called the first Romantic symphony due to having many of the characteristics of Romantic era music. These include its orchestration and specific instrumental choices that are predictive of the later Romantic movement.
Music aficionados say Schubert's music neatly bridges the Classical and Romantic periods through its use of “lovely melodies, inventive scoring, and nature imagery, wedded to traditional classical forms while at the same time expanding them.”
Conductor Parkinson finishes the program with another Schubert piece: Overture in the Italian Style No. 2 in C Major, D. 591. In 1817, in response to the Italian craze sweeping Vienna, the 20-yr old Schubert wrote two “Overtures in the Italian Style.”
The second of these, “D. 591” is thought to best capture the essence of Gioacchino Rossini, who was hugely popular at the time.
Franz Schubert died at age 31, but left behind a vast collection of compositions, including more than 600 vocal works, seven complete symphonies, operas, and a large body of piano and chamber music.
While Schubert did not receive much public recognition while he was alive, today he is considered one of the greatest composers in the history of Western Classical music.
His music has appeared in several films, including Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” (1940), Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon” (1975), Woody Allen’s “Crimes and Misdemeanors” (1989), and Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” (2011). His music continues to be widely performed.
Tickets for the 2 p.m. Fall Concert are $25 for general seating or $30 for premium seating and may be purchased on the Soper Reese website: https://www.soperreesetheatre.com.
LCSA members receive a $5 discount. Tickets are also available at the Soper Reese box office at 275 S. Main Street on the day of the concert. Please arrive 30 minutes prior to the show when buying tickets at the door.
The 11 a.m. dress rehearsal performance is just $5 for adults and free for those under the age of 18. Due to the popularity of this discounted performance, please arrive early to ensure a seat.