Month: July 2011

LFM Review: Cowboys & Aliens

By Jason Apuzzo. Cowboys & Aliens is one of those movies that probably looked great on paper – like a development executive’s dream. Take a popular graphic novel that combines two of America’s most durable genres (the Western and sci-fi), cast Indiana Jones and the current James Bond, add the Iron Man director and current It-girl from Tron, plus Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard as producers – and you’ve got a sure-fire hit, right?

Right?

Alas, we all know that movies don’t work exactly that way. There’s actually something rather mysterious about what makes one film work – and a different film made by the same people, even on the same subject, fall flat. It’s a matter of what we usually call ‘chemistry’ or ‘inspiration.’

Cowboys & Aliens is not a bad film. It’s entertaining at times and works reasonably well as light summer entertainment – but it’s the cinematic equivalent of the ‘superteam’ Miami Heat, or the Lakers back when they had a roster that included Kobe, Shaq, Karl Malone and Gary Payton … and lost the title. It’s a film that doesn’t know what it wants to be, so it ends up being almost nothing. Unsatisfying as a Western, and clichéd as sci-fi – insufficient as a star vehicle, and thin as an action film – Cowboys & Aliens is a genre mash-up that never really settles on being any one thing, and left me bored and disinterested as a result.

Reluctant allies, covered in dust.

Although Cowboys boasts two big leads, it’s mostly carried by Daniel Craig as Jake Lonergan – a man who, as the film opens, awakens in the desert in Jason Bourne-like fashion, having lost his memory but not his ability to kick peoples’ teeth in. Although he fights like a UFC mixed martial artist and shoots like Wyatt Earp, Jake can’t remember who he is, or why he has a strangely cauterized wound on his side, or why a bizarre slab of metal is wrapped around his wrist – like some sort of Stone Age Casio watch.

This is where the film makes its first mistake, in the casting of Daniel Craig. It’s time we acknowledge what has become obvious: which is that Craig, for what limited ability he’s shown in playing James Bond – limited, that is, to fight scenes – has neither the charisma, nor the warmth, nor the subtlety of person to really make a compelling, big-time movie star. It’s simply not there. Daniel Craig looks and acts like a rugby player, or maybe a bouncer – the sort of person who isn’t called upon on a regular basis to show vulnerability, or a sense of humor. (Qualities, incidentally, that his co-star Harrison Ford has specialized in over the past 35 years.) Think back to what Bruce Willis or Mel Gibson were like in their prime  – and you’ll realize how dull Craig’s performances are these days. He’s Cowboys’ first and biggest problem.

Eventually Craig heads into the town of ‘Absolution’ (which is probably the sister city of ‘Obvious Metaphor’), one of those typical Western-movie towns in which everyone speaks in parables, and nobody seems to have bathed during the past year. (Was the West really like that? I doubt it.) After a series of brief fistfights and shoot-outs, none of which are especially electrifying, we learn that the town is basically run by cattle baron and former Confederate Army Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (get it? he sells cattle!), played by Harrison Ford at his most grizzled. Ford seems to be channelling John Wayne’s character Thom Dunson from Red River here, as in vengeful fits he rides roughshod over the local sheriff, his men, and most particularly his worthless son. And of everyone involved in this film – and that includes the director, and the film’s eight writers – Ford is the only one who seems at home in this material, like he’s been itching to cut loose in a Western for decades. He’s ornery and authoritative, but always with a cracked smile and a twinkle in his eye. He’s trail boss, father figure and old coot all in one – and he’s good. You’ll be wishing this wasn’t his first Western since the bizarre The Frisco Kid (with Gene Wilder?!) back in 1979. Continue reading LFM Review: Cowboys & Aliens

Invasion Brixton: LFM Reviews Attack the Block

By Joe Bendel. These kids from South London do not have much of a sense of wonder. That’s okay, though, because the aliens they stumble across are not exactly cuddly E.T.’s. A juvie street gang and a marauding pack of aliens take it to each other real good in writer-director John Cornish’s sci-fi invasion mash-up Attack the Block (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Council estates (a.k.a. the projects) are not a fun place to live. Just ask Sam. The over-worked, under-paid nurse is mugged by Moses and his cronies on her way home from work. Much to everyone’s surprise, a crash-landed alien distracts the delinquents, allowing her to give them the slip. After a few tussles with the critter, Moses draws first blood, but there are plenty more on the way from who knows where. Before long, the kids will need the services of a nurse, even if she did finger them to the coppers. It is a reluctant alliance, but screaming balls of alien teeth are a strong motivation.

Some parts of London aren't easy to invade.

As a mere fifteen year-old, Moses is the oldest amongst his mates. Though poised to become a junior drug dealer for High Hatz, the estate’s top dog, he still has limited access to weaponry. Fortunately, they have well developed survival instincts and killer attitude.  Some might see all this as an allegory for the inner city’s ever-repeating cycle of violence, but it is definitely game-on regardless.

Cornish has a great ear for dialogue (when Yankee audiences can discern it), keeping the super cool banter flying fast and furious. Frankly, Block has the sort of the knowing genre edge overly broad spoofs like Black Dynamite sorely lack. Yet the film works rather well as an invading horde movie in its own right, capitalizing on the specifics of the council estate environment, like the notoriously slow elevators and winding hallways, for some cleverly staged thrills.

Sam the nurse is also a refreshing surprise, showing some backbone rather than merely assuming the role of passive victim. Indeed, Jodie Whittaker clearly plays her smart rather than dumb, which helps keep viewers rooted in the story. The young cast also bounces off her rather well in their scenes together, particularly the intense John Boyega, who is Block’s real find as Moses. He convincingly portrays the young tough growing up and coming to terms with his life choices, which is almost as hard to do in character as it is for real.

Wisely, Block largely eschews explicit politics, trusting those inclined to find class-consciousness in the council estate setting will duly find it. What is on the celluloid is an energetic, consistently inventive space alien smack-down. Definitely recommended as a high-end summer roller coaster, Block opens today (7/29) in New York at the AMC Empire and Regal Union Square 14.

Posted on July 29th, 2011 at 9:20am.

Van Damme vs. Adkins: LFM Reviews Assassination Games

By Joe Bendel. In 2010, former Interpol President Jackie Selebi of South Africa was convicted on corruption charges. Two hired killers will learn there is considerably more illegal skullduggery going on at that international law enforcement agency in Ernie Barbarash’s Assassination Games, which opens this today in regions of the country that can get behind a straight forward action beat-down.

Assassins do not often forge friendly rivalries. Taciturn Vincent Brazil does not have friends, period. However, he finds himself working with the highly motivated Roland Flint to take out Eastern European mobster Polo Yakur. Brazil only wants to fulfill the million dollar contract Interpol secretly put on his head. Flint wants revenge for his wife Anna, who suffered severe brain damage at the hands of Yakur and his thugs.

It is not that simple though. Interpol released Yakur from prison to deliberately flush out Flint, their former contract killer of choice, who now knows too much. The international bureaucrats are even willing to team-up with the Euro Jabba the Hutt to take out their former man Flint. Further complicating matters, Brazil’s aborted first attempt claims the life of Yakur’s brother, leaving the gangster somewhat out of sorts. As a result, there will be a lot of double-crossing and revenge taking in AG.

At one point, Flint and Brazil engage in some absolutely brutal hand-to-hand combat, yet walk away unfazed as reluctant partners. Frankly, it is rather cool to see a film like this again. AG is much like the relatively ambitious action B-movies Van Damme made on his way up (who can resist Bloodsport when it pops up on cable?). In fact, Barbarash and cinematographer Phil Parmet give it a legitimately stylish look, nicely exploiting the faded grandeur of their Bucharest locations.

Playing to his strength, the Belgian Van Damme portrays Brazil with ice cold detachment up until the very end. Conversely, British martial arts star Scott Adkins seethes like a madman as Flint, often looking like he could fry an egg on his forehead. Indeed, it is rather a good pairing. For the hardcore fan, Adkins might have more street cred these days – but regardless, the two action stars certainly know how acquit themselves in a fight scene. (They are both rumored to be in the running for the prospective Expendables 2, as well.) Perhaps AG’s coolest turn though comes from Andrew French as Brazil’s suavely duplicitous business agent, Nalbandian. The film is also something of a family affair for Van Damme, with his daughter Bianca Van Varenberg in the thankless role of comatose Anna Flint and his son Kristopher Van Varenberg trying to kill the old man as one of the crooked Interpol henchmen.

If not revolutionary, AG is a super-slick retro-action blast. However, depicting an intergovernmental agency like Interpol in such villainous terms is somewhat bold. Even the upcoming UN peacekeeping drama The Whistleblower largely cops out, shifting its outrage to a fictional Blackwater-like security contractor in a feat of cinematic jujitsu. Of course, AG is really just about beating the snot out of bad guys, which Adkins and Van Damme do quite well. Recommended for nostalgic action movie viewers and Adkins’ fans, AG opens today (7/29) in Miami, Charlotte, the Mall of America, and cities across Texas.

Posted on July 29th, 2011 at 8:56am.

UPDATED: Mid-Summer Invasion Alert! Skies Falling on Cowboys, Battleships & Moscow + Ridley Scott Returns to Outer Space!

From "Cowboys & Aliens."

By Jason Apuzzo. • We’ve been through Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Super 8, Green Lantern and Falling Skies thus far this summer, and our next scheduled alien invasion comes this Friday in the form of Cowboys & Aliens. Although initially skeptical about this project, I’m now looking forward to it – largely because it looks to be more of a Western, truth be told, than a sci-fi project – and I’ve been eager to see Harrison Ford in a Western for decades. In a summer in which we’ve seen aliens demolish the downtowns of several major American cities  – usually in 3D – Cowboys & Aliens looks to offer a more modest type of spectacle, one that’s based on old-fashioned star power and earth-bound heroics rather than visual effects.

Does this mean I’m going to like Cowboys more than Transformers (easily my favorite film of the summer)? Not at all – in fact, I’d say that’s highly unlikely at this point. But I miss the Western genre – its style, values and vision of the American frontier and the people who conquered it – and if it takes an alien menace to re-animate the genre for younger audiences, I’m all for it.

This is all to say that Cowboys & Aliens is currently looking like a film that is only nominally attached to the sci-fi genre, and is leaning heavily on the romance of the Old West for its appeal – and, ironically, this is probably why the film currently isn’t tracking very well, or is at least tracking more like a Western than a major sci-fi tentpole. The film’s director, Jon Favreau, has been taking a decidedly old-school approach to promoting the film, sitting down recently for some very enjoyable conversations with Harrison Ford, and also with the film’s producers Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. Favreau almost comes across like an associate professor in cinema studies during these conversations rather than a hot director with a major film to launch. I’m liking his low-key approach, though, and I hope the film turns out to be good. You’ll get my full report on that Friday!

In the meantime, take a moment to check out this major career retrospective on Cowboys & Aliens’ producer, Steven Spielberg, held at the DGA recently and featuring James Cameron and J.J. Abrams. It’s 90 minutes of Spielberg at his most engaging, talking about his career from its humble beginnings all the way to today.

• The Battleship trailer finally set sail this morning … and I loved it. Imagine a cross between Top Gun and Battle: Los Angeles, with Liam Neeson and Brooklyn Decker thrown in, and you’ve basically got the vibe of this film.

Some of the big guns on display in "Battleship."

Battleship stars Taylor Kitsch (who for obscure reasons has been tapped to carry both this film and Disney’s John Carter next year) as some kind of ‘rebellious’/Maverick-style hot shot Naval officer assigned to serve under Liam Neeson on board a battleship, while conveniently enough being engaged to Neeson’s daughter, Brooklyn Decker, who plays “a physical therapist.” I’ll bet! After a few glamor shots of Ms. Decker providing ‘physical therapy’ to her fiancé on a beach in Hawaii (is this covered under Obamacare?), we then get some beauty passes of Naval ships, etc., then head out to sea where some kind of massive alien flotilla has arrived. We get a pretty good look at the alien ships in this trailer, and the whole thing ends with Neeson ordering all guns to fire on the alien attackers.

The whole thing looks pretty entertaining, very much in the Michael Bay style – romanticizing the military lifestyle and its flashy hardware – and also like it may have something the otherwise commendable Battle: Los Angeles didn’t really have: humor. One thing I wasn’t crazy about, though: Taylor Kitsch looks completely dull in this trailer, as he does in the John Carter trailer (see below). The studios have really got to find some better young male leads these days. (I’m still stewing, btw, over how godawful Garrett Hedlund was in Tron: Legacy.) My suggestion? Outsource. Hire Brits and Aussies exclusively.

Footnote: if you look carefully, the film depicts Neeson leading what appears to be an international naval flotilla – led by America but with the Japanese featured prominently. I like that. I think it’s nice to remember who our actual allies are these days, as opposed to those who are simply our ‘trading partners.’ Hint, hint.

Battleship hits theaters in May of 2012, and I will be there. Here’s the trailer below.

Continue reading UPDATED: Mid-Summer Invasion Alert! Skies Falling on Cowboys, Battleships & Moscow + Ridley Scott Returns to Outer Space!

LFM Review: The American Tragedy of An Honest Man

By Joe Bendel. When acquitted by a Bronx jury of a specious political prosecution, former Secretary of Labor Ray Donovan famously asked “which office do I go to get my reputation back?” Former Pennsylvania State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer understood the sentiment. At least Donovan survived with his life and liberty relatively intact, whereas Dwyer took his own life during a press conference. While the media has always preferred to dwell on those final shocking images, James Dirschberger shines a light on Dwyer’s record of public service and the controversial prosecution that precipitated his suicide in the new documentary, Honest Man: The Life of R. Budd Dwyer (see the trailer), which screens in Los Angeles this Friday.

The media assumed Dwyer’s fateful presser would be their gloat session, where the recently convicted Dwyer would announce his resignation. Instead, they stood by watching as a man shot himself and then ran the video over and over again. Thanks to dubious testimony extracted under a plea bargain agreement, Dwyer had just been convicted of bribery, even though he never received any money from the government witness in question. He had not been sentenced yet, which proved to be the tragically significant impetus for his final act. Once that would occur, his family would lose all his pensions, while stuck with his mounting legal bills.

The refrain frequently heard in Honest Man is if this could happen to Dwyer, it could happen to anyone. There is no question John Torquato intended to bribe Dwyer for a state contract he was already best qualified to win. However, the prosecution conceded no money ever changed hands. Instead, acting U.S. Attorney James West offered the reputedly mobbed-up Torquato and his attorney William Smith a deal if they would establish Dwyer’s intention to accept. Continue reading LFM Review: The American Tragedy of An Honest Man

LFM Reviews Trigun: Badlands Rumble, the Feature Prequel

By Joe Bendel. The steely Wolfwood puts Paul Bettany’s Priest to shame. This bodyguard for hire brandishes an impressive cross-shaped weapon, but still maintains his priestly scruples, at least to an extent. While not exactly his origin story, fans of Yasuhiro Naito’s manga and anime series will at least learn how he first hooked up with his future compatriots in Satoshi Nishimura’s feature prequel, Trigun: Badlands Rumble, which has a special two-day theatrical run this Friday and Saturday in New York.

Trigun’s strange desert world (combining elements of steampunk and spaghetti westerns) is a dangerous environment, but insurance is available. Not surprisingly though, the Bernardelli insurance company is in a rather shaky financial position. As a result, adjusters Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson mostly work to find ways not to pay claims. They have come to Macca City to assess the safety of the gaudy bronze statue the mayor ensured for five billion dollars.

It is hard to imagine anyone stealing the grandly ostentatious thing, but feared outlaw Gasback has targeted it as part of his vengeance against the mayor, a double-crossing former henchman. Gasback also has the protection of his reluctant bodyguard, Wolfwood, whose services he acquired in a moment of life-and-death desperation. Gasback also seems to have the reckless outlaw Vash the Stampede looking out for him, for perversely pacifistic reasons. However, he will have to contend with the mysterious Amelia, a resourceful young woman who seems to hold a bit of a grudge against Gasback.

Considering all the heavy films landing (sometimes face-first) into art-house theaters recently, Badlands comes as a welcome palate cleanser (at least for some of us). For cinema studies types, one can certainly find a host of symbolism in Wolfwood’s axe—especially in the way he carries it. Also quite notable is the borderline socialist resource-scarcity rhetoric Gasback often uses to justify his crimes—sort of like getting held up by Henry George. Of course, he is the villain. Conversely, Stryfe and Thompson would seem to be craven corporate lackeys, but they are clearly meant to be cute and funny in an anime kind of way.

More than anything though, Badlands is about shooting up the joint and blowing stuff up, all of which is badly needed during a stifling summer heat wave. By anime standards, Trigun’s characters are quite well delineated, with the superbad Wolfwood being particularly cinematic. As a prequel, Badlands is by definition only the beginning of the characters’ stories. However, anime newcomers can at least be assured of getting a complete and self-contained storyline. Heartily recommended for its energy (and the thimble of grist for those so inclined to analyze), Trigun: Badlands Rumble screens this Friday (7/29) and Saturday (7/30) at the Big Cinemas Manhattan in both dubbed and subtitled versions.

Posted on July 26th, 2011 at 7:43am.