It must have been someone’s idea of a joke to cast Eric Bana as Bruce Banner - aka "The Hulk" - just because the last names sound so much alike (say Bana Banner fast three times each way - first with that short a after B, then with the long a - it works both ways). That such a thought could entertainment me while sitting through "The Hulk"s two hours plus of sci-fi angst doesn’t say much for the movie. Still, if you were to ask me if this latest adaptation of one of comic book giant Stan Lee’s creations were like the proverbial glass of water - half full or half empty - I would have to say a little more than half full. The best parts owing to Bana as Banner either way you say it. His brooding presence coupled with Ang Lee’s journeyman directing are the saving graces floating in a sea of special effects overkill. As impressive as these effects are - from a technological standpoint - they do not enhance the story in a meaningful way.

And the story is…

Bruce Banner is a scientist working on some top secret gene altering experiments that go haywire. Some nasty gamma rays alter latent abnormal genes that start a feeding frenzy on his anger. Voila! He becomes "The Hulk." The genes, as it turns out, are the product of his father’s experiments some thirty plus years earlier. Dad also committed a crime for which he was tossed in the can. His Boss - Ross - a high ranking Army guy, had Bruce put in a foster home. But the apple never falls far from the tree. Bruce follows in his father’s footsteps and ironically becomes involved in the same type of research that got his father in trouble. Dear old dad shows up at the lab working as a porter in the guise of a wonderfully grizzled Nick Nolte.

Father knows son but son does not know father.

In Dad’s eyes what’s wrong is right and he wants to use Bruce to right the wrongs, real or imagined inflicted on him by Ross. Bruce’s repressed anger - the result of his repressed childhood memories - is unleashed when he turns into the Hulk. To complicate matters, Ross’ daughter, Betty (Jennifer Connelly) - a scientist in her own right - and Bruce are an item and Daddy Ross doesn’t like it. Bruce’s memories flash back to life after his father reveals his identity and professes to have continued his experiments on the sly.

Once all the pieces of Bruce Banner’s puzzled past come together, "The Hulk" turns into a special effects extravaganza that defies description. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but tossing logic to the wind is. And that’s just what the filmmakers do. At first watching "The Hulk" bounce around the desert in quantum leaps while destroying a couple of tank and chopper squadrons was acceptable within limits. It followed a certifiable logic - The Hulk is mad. Period. But enough is enough. Once the point is made that he’s indestructible in his enraged state, the death and destruction go on forever. To make matters worse, Sam Elliot’s over the top performance as Ross only exacerbates the failure of the screenplay to come to terms with the one thing that can return Bruce Banner to normal, his love for Betty. The story is really about how Banner must learn to control his rage and love doth sooth the savage beats. The father/son conflict plays out well until the end when the screenwriters and Lee push the envelope and really push "The Hulk" over the top. I am not familiar with the comic book version of The Hulk, so I don’t know if liberties were taken with the spirit of the original - not to mention the TV series with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno as his Dr. Jekyl-like Hulk. It seems to me that . the way they turned the image of Nick Nolte into a special effect is reminiscent of the Alien consciousness assuming control at the end of "Five Million Years to Earth" (1968) while the concept of using electrical energy like a steroid for mass destruction can be found in the low budget "Kronos" (1957).

I think Ang Lee could have trimmed the fat and concentrated more on the character development he’s famous for in movies like "Sense and Sensibility" and "Ice Storm." Even his special effect martial arts spectacular, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," didn’t lose sight of the motivations that drove his creations. If the special effects don’t deliver the goods, the actors do. Besides Nick Nolte, and Jennifer Connelly, Josh Lucas ("Sweet Home Alabama") is more than credible as the bad guy who wants to control and exploit Banner’s aberration and turn him into a weapon of mass destruction. There are some nice set pieces with the Hulk fighting genetically altered monstrous canines like King Kong thrashing dinosaurs, and later escaping the Government’s secret underground lab but they are not enough to create the classic the filmmakers hoped for.

Copyright 2003

"Black Hawk Down" (2001) - Director Ridley Scott’s gut wrenching adaptation of the best seller is a blow by blow account of one of the worst military blunders in U.S. history. At the very beginning of the movie Eric Bana appears as Hoot, the cool headed Ranger with the shades who acts as the eyes and ears on the ground for the overhead choppers, while tracking the movements of the warlord Mohammed Aidid in the middle of his lair, the city of Mogadishu in Somalia.

"Chopper" (2000) - (Australian) Bana gives a star making performance as Mark ’Chopper’ Read whose only childhood dream was to be a badass criminal. In prison for murder, he got his wish and more while trying to make a name for himself by becoming a media darling and turning his life. He became one of Australia’s best selling authors with a book on his life. "Chopper" was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival and had a limited release in 2001 in the states.

"The Deep End" (2001) - Josh is not in the movie that long but his presence is felt throughout the story as when he reappears in a video used to blackmail a woman who disposes of his body when she thinks her son killed him. Tilda Swinton plays the mother.