OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (Rated R)

“Olympus Has Fallen” is not the first thriller in which a valiant Secret Service agent saves the life of the president, and in fact, another in the same genre, “White House Down,” is still to arrive this summer.

With director Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”) at the helm, this hardcore action picture so much has the distinctive feel of a “Die Hard” film that one can easily imagine a younger Bruce Willis as the hero.

Thus, a younger but no less gritty Gerard Butler is just right as ex-Special Forces tough guy Mike Banning, a Secret Service agent on the presidential detail until something goes horribly wrong.

Though Banning made the correct decision during a frightful accident, his failure to follow an order from President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) gets him demoted to a boring desk job at the Treasury Department.

Naturally, Banning wants back into his old job of protecting the president, and his chance to return to action soon comes under the most calamitous circumstance when terrorists take down the White House.

A small group of heavily-armed, carefully trained extremists launch a daring daylight ambush on the White House, overrunning the building and taking the president and key members of his staff hostage inside an impenetrable underground bunker.

Not coincidentally, the violent attack occurs during a state visit by the Prime Minister of South Korea. The terrorists are North Korean and they aim to turn America into an impoverished, malnourished nation much like their own forlorn homeland.

It’s an interesting topical subject, given the saber-rattling going on with North Korea’s recent nuclear threats and with that odious pint-sized creepy tyrant Kim Jong-un using the clueless Dennis Rodman as his propaganda stooge.

The evil mastermind of the dastardly plot is Kang (Rick Yune), a reptilian scumbag who gets a kick out of terrorizing his captives, routinely capping someone in the head just to make a point.

The resourceful Kang, whose identity was tightly concealed, somehow managed to penetrate the highest ranks of the South Korean delegation. Be aware that other traitors are in the midst as well.

The siege of the White House is so incredibly well orchestrated that the brutal onslaught has an air of realism, even if the body count is incredibly high and despite the fact the invaders have unbelievably advanced weaponry and defensive armor.

Nevertheless, even if the attack seems far-fetched, the assault is disturbingly inspired and frightfully alarming for the ease with which the plot is executed.

The North Koreans are coldly efficient as they apparently gun down every agent defending the president and cause more damage to the White House than the British during the War of 1812.

Among the captives in the underground bunker are the tough Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan (Melissa Leo), an admiral and the vice president, who is here nondescript and soon to be forgotten, like Alben W. Barkley or John Nance Garner.

Kang’s mission is to force the United States to retreat from the Korean DMZ and to withdraw the Navy’s 7th Fleet from the Pacific. Oh, and he wants the nuclear launch codes, and to get this, he is willing to torture and kill.

Meanwhile, Banning turns into a one-man assault team, penetrating the White House, which he happens to know very well, to engage in a cat-and-mouse game with Kang’s thugs.

The disgraced Secret Service agent takes delight in taunting Kang, while a bunch of high-ranking government officials, including the Speaker of the House (Morgan Freeman), designated as the acting president, are forced to accept Banning as their eyes and ears on the ground.

But since this action picture is produced by Gerard Butler, we already know that his tough-as-nails action hero is not taking any prisoners and the fight against the enemy is fully engaged.

There’s plenty of suspense sustained throughout the two-hour running time, and yet one can be forgiven for getting anxious for Banning to dish out the expected revenge to the president’s captors.

“Olympus Has Fallen,” bloody, intense and violent, is a nice showcase for Gerard Butler’s action hero skills, and the rest of the talented cast performs just as agreeably.

In many respects, the thriller is formulaic and the action is barely distinguishable from numerous entries in the same genre. Still, there is immense gratification in Agent Banning’s merciless quest to rout the enemy.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

The College of Cardinals, during the recent papal conclave, elected a new Bishop of Rome, also known as the Pope. All signs point to Pope Vincent as a decent servant.

The same cannot be said for Pope Alexander VI (Jeremy Irons), the cunning, manipulative patriarch of the Borgia family who ascends to the highest circles of power within Renaissance-era Rome.

With attention focused on the Vatican, it may be an odd bit of serendipity for the Showtime series “The Borgias” to get released on DVD now, but there you have it.

“The Borgias: The Second Season” finds Alexander enlisting his family to take an oath of revenge on the great noble houses that dared to stand against him, causing his Papacy to face political turmoil once again.

Pope Alexander VI soon realizes that his real problems lie with his children, all of whom are growing up and defying his authority.

Daughter Lucrezia (Holliday Grainger) forges an unlikely alliance to plot to battle Vatican corruption, while sibling rivalry between the sons turns dark and ugly.

It’s not likely there will be intrigue like this in Pope Vincent’s Vatican, but that’s why we have cable channels like Showtime.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – “The Sound of Music” is the familiar tale of a young Austrian woman sent from the abbey to govern the seven children in the villa of Captain von Trapp.  

Maria Rainer von Trapp not only teaches the children to sing, but how to live life joyfully. She also counsels the 16-year-old Liesl to “wait a year or two” to fall in love.

The “world’s most beloved musical,” by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, is presented by the drama club of Clear Lake High School.

“If you see only one live production this year,” says show producer C. Richard Smith, “be sure you catch this outstanding musical production by these very talented kids. They light up the stage and will have you singing, laughing and in tears.”
 
“The Sound of Music” is performed in the Marge Alakszay Center on the Lakeport school campus at 250 Lange St.   

Performances take place at 7 p.m. Friday, March 22, and Saturday, March 23; and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 24.

Tickets cost $15 for reserved seating and $10 for general seating. Children 12 and under are $5.  

Tickets are available through the CLHS office at 707-262-3010 or at the door.

This kite-flying poem caught me right up and sent me flying as soon as Robert Gibb described those dimestore kites furled tighter than umbrellas, a perfect image. Gibb lives in Pennsylvania.

Kites

Come March we’d find them
In the five-and-dimes,
Furled tighter than umbrellas
About their slats, the air

In an undertow above us
Like weather on the maps.
We’d play out lines
Of kite string, tugging against

The bucking sideways flights.
Readied for assembly,
I’d arc the tensed keel of balsa
Into place against the crosspiece,

Feeling the paper snap
Tautly as a sheet, then lift
The almost weightless body
Up to where it hauled me

Trolling into the winds—
Knotted bows like vertebrae
Flashing among fields
Of light. Why ruin it

By recalling the aftermaths?
Kites gone down in tatters,
Kites fraying like flotsam
From the tops of the trees.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2012 by Robert Gibb from his most recent book of poems, Sheet Music, Autumn House Press, 2012. Poem reprinted by permission of Robert Gibb and Autumn House Press. Introduction copyright 2013 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

UKIAH, Calif. – The Mendocino College Theatre Arts Department and Ukiah Civic Light Opera will present “The Music Man” April 12-21 in Mendocino College’s Center Theatre.  

This classic American musical is Meredith Willson’s affectionate tribute to Smalltown, USA of a bygone era.

The beloved show features some of the greatest songs in American musical theatre history, including “76 Trombones,” “Goodnight my Someone” and “The Wells Fargo Wagon.”  

The musical is based on a story by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey, and features a book, music and lyrics by Willson.

This joyous family friendly show will delight audiences of all ages.

“The Music Man” follows fast-talking traveling salesman Harold Hill as he cons the people of River City, Iowa, circa 1912, into buying instruments and uniforms for a boy's band he vows to organize – this despite the fact he doesn't know a trombone from a treble clef.  

His plans to skip town with the cash are foiled when he falls for Marian the librarian, who transforms him into a respectable citizen by curtain's fall.

According to the show’s director, Mendocino College theater professor Reid Edelman, “Producing a major musical such as ‘The Music Man’ is always exciting. It is a joyful opportunity to collaborate with our wonderful dance and music faculty and to involve a large cast of enthusiastic performers.  This is one of the greatest musicals ever written, one that celebrates life, love and the transformative power of music.”

David Strock, a talented local theater artist with dozens of musical and dramatic theatrical credits, plays the central role of Professor Harold Hill.

Veteran local performer, former Miss Mendocino, and real-life local librarian Roseanne Wetzel plays the role of Marian the librarian.

Other performers in principal roles include Ryan Eldredge as Hill’s sidekick Marcellus Washburn, Joyce Boghosian as Marian’s mother Mrs. Paroo and the adorable Marcus Phillips in the role of Marian’s 12-year-old brother Winthrop.  

The town mayor and his wife will be played by Harvey Baumoel and Margo Sellick. Charlie Cowell, a traveling salesman bent on exposing Hill as a fraud is being played by Mendocino College theater student Will Moody. Another college theater major, Andrew Corpuz, plays the important role of Tommy Djilas and is also the production’s dance captain.

Sarah Martin, an experienced dancer with the Mendocino Ballet Co., plays opposite Corpuz as the female dance lead Zaneeta Shinn, the mayor’s daughter. The show also features Dave Peterman, John Ratto, Frank Braverman and Jim Howlett as a delightful barbershop quartet.  

“The Music Man” company includes nine energetic local children, including 10 year old Taylor Bowser in the principal role of Amaryllis.

In all, the radiant and enthusiastic cast includes 40 talented singers, dancers and actors as well as a full orchestra (under the direction of music director and Mendocino College professor Les Pfutzenreuter).

Ukiah High School drama teacher and Mendocino College dance instructor Maria A. Monti is choreographing the extensive dance sequences and Mendocino College music instructor Marilyn Simpson is the production’s vocal director and co-musical director.  

College theater technician Larry L. Lang is designing scenery and lighting, while college costuming instructor Kathy Dingman-Katz is creating the many costumes with the assistance of her costume construction classes.

This show is expected to sell out quickly, so audiences are encouraged to purchase tickets early.  

“The Music Man” opens Friday, April 12, and runs through Sunday, April 21, in the Center Theatre on the Mendocino College campus.  

Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. There also is a performance at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 18.

Tickets are available now at the Mendocino College Bookstore on the college campus, at the Mendocino Book Co. in downtown Ukiah and also online at www.artsmendocino.org .

Prices are $15 for adults and $12 for students, seniors and ASMC cardholders.

For additional information or group sales, please call 707-462-9155.

FORT BRAGG, Calif. – Symphony of the Redwoods will present its spring concert Saturday, April 6, and Sunday, April 7.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. April 6 and 2 p.m. April 7, at Cotton Auditorium, 500 N. Harold St., Fort Bragg.

A reception, celebrating the symphony’s 30 years of music on the Mendocino Coast, follows the April 7 concert at 4 p.m. at the senior center next to the auditorium.

Allan Pollack conducts Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with guest pianist Elena Casanova in the season’s final concert.

The program includes Brahms’ Serenade No. 1, and The Dance of the Buffoons by Rimsky-Korsakov; Allan Pollack conducting.

Tchaikovsky's well-loved Concerto No.1 is a favorite of virtuoso pianists. Casanova brings her wide breadth of musical experience, including her solo performances with the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra and her enthusiasm for her native Cuban music, to this powerful piece.
 
Concert tickets are available at the door or online at www.symphonyoftheredwoods.org .

For more information call 707-964-0898.

OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL (Rated PG)

The director of the “Spider-Man” trilogy and “The Evil Dead,” among other titles in an eclectic resume, turned his sights to a cinematic prequel of L. Frank Baum’s book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”

Sam Raimi also directed his baseball homage, “For Love of the Game,” starring Kevin Costner, and the supernatural thriller, “Drag Me to Hell.” His filmmaking talents are abundant and diverse.

If the grand Broadway musical “Wicked” can become a popular hit, why not tinker with “The Wizard of Oz” legend to be reinvented as the backstory of how the Wizard arrived in the Emerald City?

Raimi’s “Oz the Great and Powerful” is the story of how the wizard came to be the wizard. It’s the tale of a smalltime carnival magician, a charlatan and sly con artist, who arrived in a magical, fantastic world.

Based on an imaginative screenplay by Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire, Raimi’s colorful invention follows Oscar Diggs (James Franco), an amoral circus huckster with dubious ethics.

The setting is the black-and-white world of 1905 Kansas, where Franco’s fast-talking Oscar fools gullible audiences with cheap tricks and low-grade sleight-of-hand, aided by his frantic assistant Frank (Zach Braff).

Oscar also employs his seductive wiles to woo beautiful young women, but his tryst with Annie (Michelle Williams) causes him to stir the wrath of a jealous circus strongman.

Fleeing in a hot air balloon, Oscar is soon caught up in a fierce tornado sweeping the dusty plains, and as a result, he’s whisked away to the Technicolor world of the Land of Oz.

Greeted like a conquering hero, Oscar is assumed to be the great wizard that is eagerly anticipated by the fearful inhabitants of the Land of Oz. For his part, Oscar thinks he’s hit the jackpot of fame and fortune.

Instead of meeting up with the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion, Oscar finds his new companions are the talking winged monkey Finley (voiced by Zach Braff) and China Girl, the porcelain doll, (voiced by Joey King).

His protean charm and evident reputation as a seducer of women is immediately put to the test in the Land of Oz, where no less than three beautiful witches compete for his attention.

Oscar’s first encounter is with the youngest of the trio, a beguiling but emotionally naïve Theodora (Mila Kunis), who bats her big brown eyes ever so seductively that Oscar is quickly smitten by her beauty.

Having doubts about Oscar’s intentions, Theodora’s older sister Evanora (Rachel Weisz) is a schemer who can play both sides of the moral divide with great ease.

At first, Evanora seems convincing as somebody just looking out for the welfare of the Emerald City and its citizens, but shifts into a dark wicked mode when she feels threatened by the roguish stranger.

Then there’s Glinda, the Good Witch (also Michelle Williams), a beautiful creature whose motives, at the outset, are cloaked in mystery.

Oscar is naturally drawn to Glinda because she’s the alter ego to Annie, his love interest that he left behind in Kansas when he made his desperate escape in the hot-air balloon.

The role of Oscar requires James Franco to come across as alternately slimy huckster and sincere savior of an oppressed people. Franco does not appear completely up to the task to play this duality.

This shortcoming is something of a problem for a story that focuses so intently on Oscar’s transformation from selfish con man to the gallant, altruistic Wizard of Oz.
 
A lot of effort was also put into generating suspense about the identity of the Wicked Witch of the West, but the savvy viewer may pick up the telltale signs long before the magical revelation.

In the end, with little surprise, Oscar summons the courage and will to organize a motley bunch of tinkerers, farmers and Munchkins to reclaim Emerald City from the evil machinations of the witches.

The ruby red slippers, iconic songs and even Toto are missing here because the 1939 original version “The Wizard of Oz” is copyrighted intellectual property to which Disney has no claim or legal right to use.

“Oz the Great and Powerful,” facing certain creative and artistic limitations, does the best that it can with the source material that is usable.

At the very least, this Disney version, which uses its 3D to great effect in limited but vital scenes, is a visual spectacle that is satisfying for the family audience.  

“Oz the Great and Powerful,” though not the great film one would have hoped for, is still powerful enough in its wondrous beauty to deliver the goods in a satisfactory manner.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.