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I've always found "magic" to be pretty cool. I think most people like it as well. Whether you actually believe in magic or just appreciate the intricate trickery involved, the performance put on by a magician is generally admired. Those who don't enjoy what magicians do are often bothered by the fact that they can't pull off the tricks themselves or even explain how they're done. This is what makes Now You See Me such an enjoyable film to watch. Not only do we get to see elaborate tricks performed, we're shown how they were done. And these aren't just card tricks or sleight of hand; these tricks are performed on a grand scale. I'm talking about robbing a bank in front of a crowd of thousands. The movie begins with four separate magicians being brought together to combine their skills for a magic show unlike anyone's ever seen. Jesse Eisenberg is the showman with great hands who kind of leads the group. The others include a mentalist (Woody Harrelson), an escape artist (Isla Fisher), and a master pickpocket who can also pick any lock (Dave Franco). The four of them make an all-star team of illusionists. When they perform their first show in Las Vegas, they appear to rob a bank in front of the spectators' very eyes. The audience is wowed, but word gets of this to the FBI. The magicians can't really be prosecuted though because the performance seems too impossible. To convict them of a crime would then mean that the FBI is saying magic is real. They'd look like fools and the press would be all over them. But this doesn't stop the main agent on the case from following their every move. The "four horsemen" as they're called continue to do shows. What also impresses the crowd is that these great magicians aren't keeping the money for themselves. They take the money and distribute it directly to the audience. (What a way to make fans.) With the addition of actors like Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, it's an ensemble cast where everyone has an important role. Jesse Eisenberg brings the same cocky confidence he brought to his role in The Social Network which fits perfectly here as the leader of the show. After all, there's never been a good magician who didn't seem sure of himself. The movie moves quickly and there's never a dull moment. There's a great twist in the film that you probably won't see coming either. Altogether, Now You See Me makes for a very entertaining thrill-ride that sets itself apart from the rest. It opens on May 31.
Jack Reacher is based on the character from a popular series of books by Lee Child. There are 17 books in total. The character is 6’5” tall and weighs between 210 and 250 pounds. Playing Jack Reacher in this film is Tom Cruise who stands at 5’7”. Loyal readers had a problem with the casting at first, but if anyone knows how to play a character like this it’s Tom Cruise. We’ve seen him kick ass in movies like Mission: Impossible and he’s the kind of guy who always incorporates intelligence into the action. He’s best at playing trained, highly skilled experts at their craft and that’s exactly what Reacher is. What’s different about this character is that he avoids using standard day-to-day devices that everyone else uses. He has no phone. He doesn’t own a car. He pays for everything in cash. This is why he’s impossible to find. He’s a ghost, living completely off the grid. As the film demonstrates, he can’t be found unless he wants to be. So when a former army sniper who he used to work with is accused of killing 5 random people, Reacher shows up to investigate. He not only has military skills, he has the analytical skills of a detective as well. It’s his intellect that makes Jack Reacher such an interesting character and keeps this from being a standard action movie. It rises above others in that we get to see the main character help solve many problems while also beating up the bad guys in a fun way. This guy is smarter than James Bond. There’s a pretty authentic-looking car chase which seems grittier than most as well. And as usual, Cruise did all his own stunt driving. None of the other actors stand out too much, though that could because of Cruise’s dominant screen presence. Of course he gets all the cool one-liners and the entertaining fight scenes. It’s a bit unfortunate that the last 20 minutes or so delve into a more typical action-movie climax which takes away from what’s ultimately a smart thriller (films like District 9 and Avatar are guilty of this too). But the mystery involving the sniper does come to a satisfying conclusion. All in all, this is probably the best Tom Cruise film in at least the past 5 years.
Now that I'm back home from Hong Kong and Yangshuo in Gungxi Province, Mainland China, I've repopulated my Netflix queue, and Elite Squad arrived today. Released in 2007, b Elite Squad /b , or as it was called in Brazil, b Tropa de Elite /b , is about the Rio slums or favelas, and an elite squad of police called BOPE, whose mission is not so much law enforcement as it is the eradication of the drug lords that rule the favelas. br br br br This is not a film for the sensitive or the faint hearted. From the extreme fire-fights in the streets of the favelas, to the brutal interrogation methods employed by the BOPE officers, to the downright excessive boot camp training of the BOPE candidates in which it is a good year if three out the 25 make the cut - the intensity level of this film starts at strong, and soon goes through the roof with hardly any down time at all. br br The main character is Captain Nascimento played by b Wagner Moura /b . He's married, with a kid on the way, and he is one mean-ass cop. He's doing his best and his wife wants him out of BOPE and into a less demanding and less dangerous line of work. Unfortunately, his line of work is more dangerous than almost any other because by the time BOPE is called in - things have already spun out of control. br br He's got two guys who are already cops but they're trying to get into BOPE. Neto is played by b Caio Junqueiro /b , has been assigned to supervise the motor pool after a disastrous night on the streets when his quick trigger finger got another cop or two killed by the drug crew. Only the motor pool is out of funds. One car is cannibalized so another might run, and headquarters hasn't any money for him. So he has to steal a payoff to get some cash to fix the cars. You won't believe who the money that he intercepts is intended for. br br Matias played by b Andre Ramiro /b is a cop and is also trying to become a lawyer. He joins a group of students in a favela, and his girl friend Maria ( b Fernanda Machado /b )is living in the same neighborhood as one of the most brutal of the drug lords, Baiano played by b Fabio Lago /b . He hasn't told her that he is also a cop. Once the secret is out - people will start dying - and in ways almost too brutal to describe. br br Both Neto and Matias make the cut for entrance into BOPE. So there's your set up. Three cops and a drug lord and his minions of street retailers of drugs, look-outs, and the gunmen that back them up. Directed by b Jose Padilha /b , the film is dense, claustrophobic, as well as noisy. There's a lot of action at night, and the dialogues overlap, plus there is a grainy effect at night. Those things along with the jittery hand-held cameras that are utilized during the raids and ensuing fire-fights make the film a bit of work for the viewer. br br But the payoff comes in the tension, the pressure, and the excitement. While some of the police were corrupt and in the pockets of Baiano and his ilk, and the residents of the favelas were living in an area where desperation and danger lurked around every corner created there by poverty, the murderous drug business, and the firefights with the BOPE. Director Padilha has left the beauty of the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches out of the film. We will see Sugar Loaf Mountain only so very briefly, and we don't see Christ the Redeemer standing tall above Rio from his perch atop Corcovado at all. The film isn't about Rio's highlights - instead it about the places where visitors are unlikely, or rather shouldn't go to. br br There was a bit of controversy about this film. Many people felt that the BOPE tactics were as criminal as the activities of those who were their targets. Others said that the film sort of made those BOPE officers heroic while Nascimento was just as good at killing as Baiano and that was hardly heroic. You'll have to see the film yourself in order to decide what is the right answer to that question. br
Do you recognize this city? To be honest, I could not ID this place from this photo. But this particular skyline appears quite often in this film, like a leit-motif, only it is a visual note rather than a recurring melodic phrase. It is called the symbol of the New South Africa. It is Johannesburg. But this film, Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema is not about the glamour and the glitter of glass and steel that began as an idea and ended as a landmark buildings in a city striving for success in the post-apartheid era. Actually this film is more like Martin Scorcese 's gritty Mean Streets or Brian DePalma 's over-the-top Scarface . What we will see is the rise of the gangster named Lucky Kunene [koo-nen-ay] played first as a teenager by Jafta Mamabolo . He is the gun-toting young hoodlum on the title card. He is seduced into a life of crime because of poverty and the Svengali like local crime boss in Soweto called Nazareth, and played chillingly by Jeffrey Zekele . Starting with simple snatch and grabs to car-jacking, young Lucky and his boyhood pal Zakes, are seduced by the easy money and the excitement. He tells his mother he is employed in the automotive industry (delivering cars). But the crimes escalate into bank robberies and then armed robbery in a scene that actually visually referenced Michael Mann 's Heat as the inspiration. But when this scene escalated (the armored car's personnel were shot and killed), the boys were terrified. So they packed up and left the township and headed for Jo'berg. The film fast forwards to 10 years later. Lucky (now played by Rapulana Seiphomo ) and Zakes own and operate a single mini-van taxi business. But life is not good. They incur the wrath of other taxi and cab companies by doing business in sectors controlled by the taxi fleets. Free-lance cabs like theirs are stealing business from the big outfits. So Zakes is chased, shot at, and is nearly killed. They live in squalor. Their apartment complex is infested with drugs pushers, drug users, criminals, and prostitutes. People are barely eking out a living, so they can't afford better housing. The land-lords couldn't care less about the conditions - as the rental revenues keep coming in - the living conditions get worse. So Lucky decides to form a better business plan - The Hillbrow People's Housing Trust. It is a simple plan. Win the trust of the tenants by promising to clean up the crime, and fix the buildings. Tell them their rent is cut in half, and they will now pay the rent directly to the Housing Trust. Withhold the rent from the building owners. When the revenue stream dries up - the building owners sell the buildings at huge losses. The buyer? The Hillbrow Peoples Housing Trust. Of course this is a get rich quick scheme for Lucky and Zakes. And it works. But the gangsters of the area aren't happy. Neither are the drug kingpins, nor the police. So we watch a story we've all seen before, the rise of a criminal, but in a new to most of us place - Jo'burg. Directed by Ralph Ziman , this is a worthwhile film. The colors are vibrant, the music pulsating, and there's plenty of action. The film is based on the story of Lucky Kunene, a real life underworld figure in the 1990's. The Jerusalema reference is that Hillbrow was to be a New Jerusalem, a place of hope rather than deperation, a place that would rise instead of a place that would sink. The film has some slow spots, and it also has some white knuckle tension. There's a romance of course - between Kunene and a young Jewish woman, Leah Friedlander, played by Shelly Meskin . Of course there's also the evil white Afrikaner cop, Detective Swart, who you can't help but detest on sight. The other notable figure is the drug-kingpin. He's brought his drug poison to Jo'burg from Nigerian. So when Lucky threatens him, " You've poisoned your own people, now you want to poison the people in this country. I won't let it happen !", you just know there's going to be war. Ziman has imported or co-opted plenty of familiar peole and situations. Despite that fact, the film does manage to tell this oft-told tale in a way that holds your interest. While the screenplay isn't hackneyed, you will find it predictable. But the freshness of the actors, the location shooting, and the music make the film better than the sum of its parts.
"Tell Billie for me. Bye, Bye Blackbird..." So ended gangster John Dillinger' s life. According to Special Agent Winstone, Dillinger uttered those words with his dying breaths and asked the agent who shot him (one of a several FBI agents who had a hand in gunning him down) to pass them on to Billie Frechette . The fact that this, the closing scene of the Michael Mann film, Public Enemies (2009), was totally fictional shouldn't bother you as a viewer, After all, that was an elegant tear that fell from Billie's eye. Billie, of course, was portrayed by Marion Cotillard . Mann has fashioned a gangster film wrapped inside of a love story. Here, the gangster is neither demonized or glamorized. For certain, Johnny Depp 's Dillinger is not a heroic character. He may be mythic in the sense that in real life, Dillinger took on the G-Men, when the country was in dire shape. But that is different than heroic. The Michael Mann / Johnny Depp take on Dillinger was that he was fearless. He didn't fear confrontation with the FBI. Nor did he expect to be turned down by Cotillard's Billie, which she did at first. When Billie protested that she wasn't going to run off with a man she barely knew, Dillinger laid out all his cards as well as a brief summary of his life so far ... I was raised on a farm in Moooresville, Indiana. My mama ran out on us when I was three, my daddy beat the hell out of me cause he didn't know no better way to raise me. I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars, whiskey, and you... what else you need to know? So Dillinger and friends robbed banks, just like Bonnie and Clyde . In fact, a question comes to mind. Did Mann pay homage to that film? I think he did. Dillinger died in hail of bullets, and he fell in slow motion. I think Mann was acknowledging Arthur Penn 's visual conception of the Bonnie & Clyde ambush. But Penn romanticiized his characters to a degree, and Mann did not. Yes Public Enemies did a good job with the Frechette/Dillinger romance. Their glorious passion and love was there for all to see. But we never got to know much about Dillinger and Frechette did we? Another view is the Mann reprised his theme of the obsessed hunter and hunted that he brought to the screen in Heat . DeNiro 's Neal McCauley has now been updated, or maybe I should say backdated to Depp's 1934 Dillinger. Vincent Hanna, played by Al Pacino in Heat, has resurfaced as Melvin Purvis , G-Man extraodinaire, played for the most part by Christian Bale in a one-note style. Though Bale looked great in his vested suits, suspenders, overcoats, and fedoras, we learned nothing about him during the film - which was clearly an extended chase, or hunt throughout the film. Purvis was obsessed in bringing down Dillinger. He chafed under the iron grip and protocol as laid out by Hoover and Tolson . When Purvis asked to import some good men from Texas and Oklahoma. Hoover's response was, "I can't hear you..." But Hoover was trying to make a name for himself, and would. The FBI came to life during this period. Somehow Purvis did get the kind of men he wanted. Most notably portrayed by Stephen Lang , as Special Agent Winstone. I can't decide if it was the combination of his gray hair and blue eyes that made it impossible to not notice him. Or maybe it was his steely determination and his utter fierceness which was matched on screen, not by Bale's Purvis but only by Depp's Dillinger. The action was deadly throughout the film, someone always got shot. This was so much the case, that the bank jobs themselves seemed almost an afterthought. While the film was extremely violent, it seemed that most of the violence was displayed on the shooter's side. The rapid-fire machine guns, or Tommy guns as they were called. The muzzle flashes. It was so exciting. The alternatives? Dillinger and cohorts planning a job - or divving up the money. The G-Man setting up their ambushes. The negatives - the over reliance on closeups. Sometimes I felt I was watching Cary Grant on Mt. Rushmore clamboring over those stony presidential faces in Hitchcock 's North By Northwest . Only most of the time it was Bale's stonefaced Purvis. The lack of depth to the main characters. The fact that quite often we didn't get an introduction to the latest member's of either Purvis squad or Dillinger's gang. In short it was hard to follow. Michael Mann's Public Enemies was 'okay' to quote my brother. 'But it wasn't as good as Bonnie and Clyde' he said. The Penn film preceded Public Enemies by 42 years. In fact, Mann's flick wasn't as good as Public Enemy No. 1 - the French gangster flick directed by Jean-Francoise Richet which I reviewed earlier this year.
The Hangover - Directed by Todd Phillips, starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis - Rated R The Kurgan loves movies about debauchery. The Hangover, despite a slow start, is a downright hilarious comedy that is a welcome change from all the big summer movie fare. This movie doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not. It is an R-rated comedy about a bachelor party gone wrong in Las Vegas. You can imagine the glorification of debauchery that ensues. It all starts with Doug (Justin Bartha of National Treasure fame) getting fitted for a tux with his off-balance future brother-in-law, Alan (Zach Galifianakis in what is sure to be a breakout role). Doug and Allan then head off to pick up schoolteacher buddy Phil (the hilarious Bradley Cooper) and dentist pal Stu (Ed Helms). The four head off to Vegas for a drunken, but well intentioned bachelor party. So you have to wade through the expository stuff, like how Stu is afraid to stand up to his controlling girlfriend, Allan could be a problem if he drinks too much, and Phil can’t wait to get out of school and forget he has a job or a family, so you can get to the best part: the morning after the party. That’s when the guys lose the groom. This turns the film into a funny detective film. Phil, the assumed leader of the trio, even takes down notes as they try to backtrack their steps from the night before. The detective aspect is what sets this film apart. I found it hilarious as the guys bribed witnesses and questioned bystanders to try and figure out such mysteries as why they have a tiger and a baby in their hotel room and why they came back to the hotel in a stolen police car. I don’t want to go into any more details than I have already since parts of this film (such as the taser scene) lost their luster for me since I had seen the preview so many times. But this is not one of those movies where every funny scene is in the previews, though one or two of the funniest moments are in the preview. There are consistent laughs throughout the film and the story is actually interesting, which is a bit rare for a comedy of this nature. Of course the jokes are only as funny as the people telling them and this cast handles them all well. I must reiterate how funny Galifianakis is in this. This is a comedian who knows how to sacrifice his body for comedy. His jutting gut and bushy beard make him a funny sight, and it helps that he can act as well. Ed Helms, he of the prominent missing tooth, makes full use of his sight gag by regularly giving a big toothy smile which makes the gap blatantly obvious in each scene. He looks so unaware of the missing tooth that the joke never got old for me. Bradley Cooper is the one holding it all together and he has a certain charisma that really gets the audience rooting for these guys to find their lost friend. I need to say something about the makeup department for this film as well. I normally don’t pay attention to this type of thing (unless it’s a zombie movie), but they did an amazing job in roughing these guys up. Just by looking at the three of them when they wake up in the trashed hotel suite you can tell that they have had a very long night. It adds to the hilarity of the film when you can just look at a character’s face and chuckle a bit. The makeup is not the only sense of style in this film, though. Director Todd Phillips (Old School) manages to squeeze in a few of his trademarks: the band from Old School that performed the curse-laden version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” makes an appearance, the song choice is dead on and very funny at times, and the director himself makes his obligatory mustachioed cameo. Phillips also manages to throw in a few amusing references to other Vegas-based films like Casino and Swingers. Aside from those slight examples of style, this is your basic raunchy comedy, but it doesn’t make apologies for that. Instead it embraces it, and that’s what makes The Hangover so funny.
Jaccques Mesrine: One day they'll shoot me to death, and it will completely make sense. Natural. After all, for someone who was in prison with maximum security, there are no rules. Like me, I live without rules... That's our man Jacques. Yes, that image just above is the last shot of the movie. Jacques was probably killed by the barrage fired at him in the ambush by four men with automatic weapons, but in case he was still alive, another cop came running up along side the driver's side of the car, and put one into his left temple from distance of less than a foot away. Of course, this film began with the gathered crowd of the curious onlookers and bystanders, the uniformed cops, the plain clothes anti-Mesrine squad, and a horde of press photographers and media types watching as Jacques Mesrine sat in the driver's seat extremely dead, his body riddled with wounds. In short, Mesrine had just been executed with prejudice, without having undergone a trial and conviction. This Public Enemy No. 1 was gone ... forever. The beauty of the film wasn't just the choreography of this execution. In many ways that part was very similar to the way Bonnie and Clyde were dispatched in their film made 41 years earlier. But we knew it was coming since the opening images of Mesrine: Killer Instinct (Part 1) . Director Jean-Francoise Richet actually put 252 minutes of Mesrine into the two films, so I must say that to have invested more than four hours into watching both films, knowing full well how it would end , is really a tribute to the film-makers skills. Even more so, we must comment that Vincent Cassel will never top his performance in this role. This was a performance of a lifetime for this actor. His dominating dance-master in Black Swan was merely brilliant. Whereas Mesrine will go down as Cassel's signature screen role. And Mesrine was a real person. The director wrote a pre-opening text message to the audience which read in translation as: All films are part fiction. No film can create the complexity of a human life, where each has its own point of view. I guess Richet was telling us that even though Mesrine wrote an autobiography, even though he went out of his way to court the press, or give interviews, that some of the film had to be fabricated. Either way, it was a tremendous movie with or without taking verisimilitude into consideration. Mesrine (pronounced Meh-reen) was larger than life. He would rob a bank, then race across the street and rob another bank despite not having planned to do so. He was a master of disguises. He once entered a small town's police station posing as a Parisian cop and asked to see the duty roster so he could get a handle on the size of the local police force. Mesrine and his partner played by Mathieu Almaric kidnapped an elderly French millionaire by posing as detectives. They told him that they wanted 10 million francs as a ransom figure. The old man, played by Georges Wilson , laughed in their faces. He said, Go ahead and shoot me now. I'm 82 years old and I'm not giving you that much money. So negotiations began, in fact even an installment plan was discussed. This was not only funny but was also unexpected and so very original. But Mesrine got caught up in the whole business of being a celebrity. His criminal activities were staged not only to steal money, but to enhance his reputation. Unfortunately, Mesrine lost his own way. He threated the French Republic by saying he would bring in the Red Brigades from Italy, he'd join the German Baader-Meinhof gang, or he'd train with Palestinians. He saw himself as a Revolutionary who would refresh France by tearing down the system. Starting with the banks. But his reality was that he was a gangster not a revolutionary. What did he do with the money he stole - he pumped it right back into the economy by buying expensive cars, jewelry for his woman, and he partied all the time when he wasn't on the run. He was the ultimate consumer living out his dreams with a huge thirst for all things expensive. We don't feel saddened as we watched his execution. He was a brave man, but he was also a brutal killer. He wasn't heroic, instead we watched because he horrified us. My recommendation is that Richet did a marvelous job in the way directed both this one and the Part one which I reviewed here on this website. While Mesrine never attained legendary status here in the States as a criminal, this film may raise Cassel's performance and Mesrine himself into the stuff film legends are made of.
Matthew McConaughey shouldn’t play anything except lawyers. It seems to be the only role he’s really good at. His career reached a high point in the late 90’s when he was playing lawyers in both A Time to Kill and Amistad . Those movies helped him become a rising star. But for the last decade, he has become most known for starring in silly romantic comedies. So it’s nice to see him going back to the type of role he excelled at in the past. In The Lincoln Lawyer , he plays Mick Haller, a lawyer who uses the backseat of his Lincoln Town Car as sort of a mobile office. This is because he doesn’t have much money, which makes it all the more strange that a high-profile client seeks his help. That client is Louis Roulet, played by Ryan Phillippe . Roulet is a playboy real estate agent who’s been accused of assaulting a prostitute. He claims to be innocent but Mick isn’t quite sure what to believe at first, including why he’s been sought out to defend him. It’s good money though so he’s happy to take the case. There hasn’t been a great legal thriller in quite a while, especially since the time when it seemed like every John Grisham novel was being turned into a film (such as the aforementioned A Time to Kill). The Lincoln Lawyer is based on a book by another popular author, Michael Connelly , who specializes in crime thrillers. The material makes for a very interesting film which is filled with surprises. There’s a great supporting cast to help things out as well including Marisa Tomei and William H. Macy . Ryan Phillippe, an actor who still hasn’t quite found that break-out role that he should’ve by now, does a good job at playing the character that you’re not sure what to make of. For half of the movie you really don’t know whether he’s been set up or if he’s just smart enough to pull off the violent crime. He’s got kind of a baby face that can make his real motives a bit ambiguous. Mick makes for an interesting character too in that he’s not the most professional lawyer. He works closely with a very nonchalant hippie investigator in addition to making deals with the local biker gang. He also seems to be drinking about every other 5 minutes of the film. Yet, he clearly gets his work done and never comes off as a slacker or the typical heartless lawyer we often see depicted in other films. In fact, he seems to mature throughout the film, even feeling sorry for how he’s handled certain cases in the past. This is an entertaining movie and a return to form for Matthew McConaughey who seemed to be letting his carefree surfer-dude lifestyle take over his choice in film roles. Since most of those films were not very well received, hopefully he’ll learn a valuable lesson from this one: keep your shirt on.
Moments into the film Mesrine: Killer Instinct , we meet Jacques Mesrine played by Vincent Cassel. He's a Corporal in the French Army fighting in Algeria. He is part of a team interrogating an Algerian POW. Mesrine was ordered by his platoon sergeant to kill the wife of the POW being interrogated. The POW had been beaten and tortured to get him to reveal the locations of his associates. When he still refused to give up anything, the French tried to get him to cave by threatening to kill his wife right in front of him. However, Mesrine shot and killed the prisoner at point blank range instead. This was his first kill, and it establishes a few things - he was capable of killing, and he was resistant to figures of authority. This scene also established that Director Jean-Francoise Richet was not going to soften the violence . After the war, Mesrine returned to France, and was urged by his parents to accept a dull factory job that they had arranged for him. instead of rejoining the French society as a productive citizen, he took up a life of crime. Working with a friend, they robbed at gun-point, or broke into houses, as well as whored and partied to their heart's content. Simply, they were a two man crime wave. Then they came to the attention of the local crime boss, Guido, played by grossly heavy Gerard Depardieu who looks like he is has put on a 100 pounds since Jean de Florret (1986), and soon after, they joined his crew. Soon their crimes escalate. Mesrine seems capable of brutality of every stripe. Eventually a botched bank heist lands him in jail. When he gets out, he goes straight for a while, but when economic conditions change, he is laid off. Lest you think this article is biography of a bad guy, I'll clear the air - this is a film review but the screenplay was an adaption of Mesrine's autobiography. Mesrine: Killer Instinct is actually Part One of a two part film. Part Two isn't available in the US yet. As directed by Richet, this bio-film can be compared to Michael Mann's Public Enemy Number One that starred Johnny Depp . Eventually Mesrine would come to be called France's Public Enemy No. 1. In the film, French newspaper headlines knick-named Mesrine and his female associate as the French Bonnie & Clyde. Arthur Penn's Bonnie & Clyde (1968) ended when the bank robbing duo was ambushed and shot to death. Mesrine begins with a similar ambush and Mesrine's story is then told through flashbacks. Though quite episodic which sort of leaves wide gaps in character development, Mesrine: Killer Instinct is almost a non-stop thrill ride. As the intensity of the crimes builds and builds, as viewers, we are stunned by it, yet attracted to Cassel's Mesrine at the same time. Director Richet has both created a criminals on the run thriller as well as a soft condemnation of the media who dutifully reports on the activities of Mesrine. He's fearless, a master of disguises, and jails couldn't seem to hold him. He becomes a folk hero, no - a legend, even as he runs amok in France, Spain, Canada, and even the United States. But that is to the unseen French public. Personally, I hadn't heard of this guy until the film. So 'legend' might be a bit more localized than intended. You will be amazed when you see the chase through Arizona's Monument Valley with Mesrine and his moll being pursued by a half dozen cop cars. Just as you will be shocked when Mesrine and Guido take down a French-Arab pimp and give him the same fate as Joe Pesci's Nicky Santoro in the 1995 Scorsese film, Casino . The Mesrine character is anything but likeable. Cassel plays him with flair and cool, as well as providing us with a certain dread. This guy is so monstrous, yet you can't take your eyes off him. You might even begin to think - can a film be too violent? Even as he is brutalized in the Quebec, Canada prison, your sympathetic feelings for him are decidedly not particularly deep. I think this is a worthy film to see and think about, but I'm not positive that this will be a lasting or memorable endeavor, especially since this is only the 1st half. Having said that, I will tell you that, I fully intend to see Part Two. If you liked Cassel's intensity (Attack it! Attack it!) in Black Swan , you'll love him as Mesrine. Available from Netflix. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Ku-B5Gkws
Today was one of those Saturday afternoons with an open couple of hours to kill. I was in the mood for a light movie. Having seen Black Swan back in December, then having watched Natalie Portman walk off with the Oscar for Best Performance by a Female - she was in my thoughts. So I consulted her filmography, running down the list until I had come to The Professional . Portman had appeared in that film about hired assassins back in 1994. She was only a kid in 1994, and her costars were Jean Reno and Gary Oldman. After Black Swan, I wasn't about to watch her as a kid. I had just recently watched and reviewed Rain Fall , a contemporary thriller set in Japan, and Oldman had been in that one too. So after a little bit more research I found Wasabi . This was a French film shot mostly in Japan and it played in the theaters in 2001. In this one, Jean Reno played a Parisian detective who had all of Dirty Harry's style and none of Inspector Clouseau's pratfalls. But despite that pedigree, this was mostly - a comedy. Sure, such genre tags as Action, Drama, Crime, and Thriller were attached to Wasabi according to the IMDB. But trust me - this one was played for laughs. Reno plays Hubert Fiorentini, a cop who would punch you out first to get your attention, then, he'd ask you his questions. But as expected, his rough house techniques frequently got him in trouble with the suits - otherwise known as his bosses. After his latest dust up in a disco, he's been commanded to visit his victim, the chief of police's son, in the hospital, apologize, then go somewhere - as in anywhere - on vacation. Back in the day, say 19 or 20 years ago (there's a running joke in the film about that 19 vs 20), he was working as part of a French Intelligence team in Tokyo. He met a local Japanese girl, Miko Kobayashi. One thing led to another, they married, and shortly after that, Miko vanished - never to be seen again. Flash forward to the present. Hubert gets a phone call just as his vacation/suspension begins from a Tokyo lawyer (who speaks perfect French). It turns out that Miko has just died. She's left a will. Hubert has been named as the sole beneficiary and executor. Hubert has to drop everything and be in Tokyo at once, as the cremation will occur post-haste. Off he goes - and after less than five minutes in Japan, he punches out the Japanese Passport Control officer. But that was just to establish, once more, that he throws a mean right hand. Next, in the lawyers office, Hubert receives a box of items, including the access to a bank account, and something else that was too big to fit in the box - his 19 year old daughter that he never knew he had, played by a super cute Ryoko Hirosue . She's got red hair, and she dresses in clothes so colorful that they're scary. What's more - she speaks blue streak French. Make that - she speaks Francais faster than a speeding shinkansen bullet train. Hubert has to baby sit her just for the next two days until she becomes 20 years of age - and legal in Japan. Want another surprise? Miko left a pile of money. A truckload of money. No make that a mountain of money. The daughter can't get at the money until she's legal. Only how Miko was able to salt away that kind of money is a big mystery. Enter the Yakuza. It appears that they think they have a claim on this money and they'll do anything, up to and including maiming or killing (which is a hell of lot more annoying and dangerous than if they rang your doorbell and then sprinted off) to get it. Off we go - shopping, chases, fights, shootouts, even a bowl of wasabi which Hubert samples the way you and I might dip our finger into a bowl of cake frosting. Written by Luc Besson , and directed by Gerard Krawczyk , this is a comedy of a dad (papa) and a daughter who are also being hunted by the Yakuza. People fly across the room when punched, Yakuza goons are tossed aside like brushing crumbs off your lap, and the bullets really do fly. But it is all so tongue in cheek. You can't mistake the action as being on the same planet as realistic. But it is good fun. As the film started I felt a need for some popcorn. Only I had none. No matter. The film itself was light, airy, tasty, and just as much fun as a bowl of popcorn. Voila!
In the 1970's and 1980's Werner Herzog filmmaking was simply kamikaze especially the films he shoot with his long time friend/enemy Klaus Kinski. He never attained the virtuosity and inspiration of this period. Meanwhile, his films still have this raw filmmaking energy that only Herzog can bring into a film. Without a doubt he his a real author, and he gave the opportunity to the overrated Nic Cage to give one of his best performance ever. Being a remake of Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant (a film I haven't seen yet), Herzog's film is set in a different location and in another time. I won't make comparisons or parallels between the two films because: first, I haven't seen the oiginal material and second, it would be boring to do so. Herzog always had this realistic approach to cinematography and he even shoot scenes in a very naturalistic animal documentary style. The opening sequence with the snake in the water is somptuous and intriguiying, because the viewer asks himself how low the film will go? A lot like Herzog's Nosferatu with the opening with the skulls that makes a grim atmosphere. The snake in the water represents how the Lieutenant will go "bad", how evil will touch him and make an unerasable mark on him. Later in the film there are other sequences with animals/reptiles. The two iguanas and the two crocodiles. They signify how this world of excess will disintegrate society. Each insert of them is shot in a very unique way and it makes a weird pause in the telling of the story. It seems like if we were the only ones to see them like it if was an hallucination of the main character. Another important topic and main issue of the film is the drug sellings that leads to the murderers and the drug abuses by the Lieutenant himself. The paths are crossed and the milieux of Police and Drug are so closed that we feel that these worlds are parallel to each other. This is a denounciation of how Drugs destroy the better and the worse of humans. The Lieutenant that will execute his mission, the football player, the prostitute, etc. It touches every character of the movie and it makes a statement that it represents everything that's wrong in this country. The conclusion of the film is beyond cinema itself, there are no happy endings in drug addiction and even success can't erase it completely. Herzog's latest offering is a great achievement, while throwing a very conventionnal police plot it advances a real antihero that even with his worst he can get to his goal. Just for the cinematography the film is worth the look. Herzog didn't offers an effort as strong as his Aguirre or his Fitzcarraldo but he offers an honest and well directed film.
This indie film about a teenager who lost the girl he loves to her tragic death reminds us of the best film noirs of the 1940's. Everything sounds like the film noir genre: the use of low camera angles, the twisted plot, the stereotyped characters and the broken and beaten down hero "à la" Humphrey Bogart. But what struck you the most is Joseph-Gordon Levitt's presence as the protagonist: Brendan. His nuanced performance holds the whole movie together. Jo-Go has this weird "nerdy" look of an improvised private receiving multiple beatings and investing on the death of his former lover: Emily or should I say the femme fatale of the film... She is the kind of woman/girl a man can't lost all his marks. Brendan will try to understand and elucidate what happened to Emily and what led her to death. He'll have to frequent dark characters like Tug and The Pin. Did I mentioned this? All this film noir settings is situated in the lives of High School teens. It's without a doubt an interesting approach to the High School world and to the film noir genre. But somehow, it lacks of reality in its coherence. It's probably over serious in its use of the noir genre. It makes the references look like if the genre is a farce. However, Rian Johnson the writer/director of Brick wasn't afraid to insert some really funny humoristic moments. His direction is interesting and it keeps the true spirit of the Film Noir codes (see The Maltese Falcon , The Big Sleep ). I don't know exactly why but this treatment reminded me of a David Lynch film of the 1980's and 1990's. I'd like to see Johnson's other success Brothers Bloom which I heard some praises about lately. But now I'd like to know what you all think of Brick ?
This is quite a good film that opened internationally on January 7th. As the story begins, it is 1999. An aspiring model actress, Jessica Lal , is working as a bartender/waitress at a private party in one of Delhi's most fashionable and trendy clubs, She is shot at point blank range for refusing to serve a customer a drink after the bar had closed. There were multiple eye witnesses to the shooting. The victim died en-route to the hospital. The shooter was the son of a MLA or a Member of the Legislative Assembly which is akin to our House of Representatives. The police begin to collect evidence, and soon enough they have their man. They are also bribed to not beat a confession out of him. Only the Delhi courts have an extreme backlog. By the time the trial begins, six years later, the ballistic evidence has been tampered with, the eye witnesses have been intimidated or bought off or both. The rest of the club's patrons who might have seen the gunmen leaving the club, all swore they weren't sure, or that they hadn't seen anything, or that they had already left the club at that time. In short, the entire case went down the tubes. Case dismissed. The shooter walked free. The Delhi newspapers and the Indian national media outlets screamed in huge headlines: No One Killed Jessica! The two main characters of this film, were the victim's sister Sabrina played by Vidya Balan , and a tough minded TV news anchor Meera Gaity played by Rani Mukherjee . Not only was Vidya dismayed at the result, but her mother passed away shortly after the trial concluded, and her father then suffered a stroke. The rest of the country was shocked and outraged at the miscarriage of justice. But India may have been used to such things as police on the take, corrupt politicians, influence peddling, and the intimidation of judges, prosecutors, jury members, and witnesses. Enter Meera Gaity, who had originally stated years back that she had no interest in doing a story on this case because it was an open and shut. Everyone knew he was guilty. He'd be convicted, and that would be that. Only he walked away free. So together, Sabrina and Meera joined forces, mobilized public opinion, ran a sting operation, and agitated the powers that be. Slowly, sort of like what Howard Beale did for the people in the film Network, 40 years earlier, people got angry about the way justice had been tossed out the window. Eventually after their new and important evidence and facts had been brought to the desk of the President of India, orders were issued that a new trial be convened. Open and shut. Guilty as charged. Do not pass go, go directly to jail for life. And so it goes. While these events were right off the front page of every newspaper and news magazine in India, this film took plenty of cinematic license. The film has a placard at its beginning that says the film is hybrid - a combination of fact and fiction. However, Jessica Lal, the victim, was all too real, and though it took more time and energy and effort than anyone thought given that the victim was shot directly in front on numerous witnesses - justice was ultimately served. As for the film, Director Raj Kumar Gupta did a decent job. The film has some terrific visuals, the pace is lively, and the film is dominated by the two lead actresses. The problem is the film's structure. The run up from the introduction of the characters, Jessica, Sabrina, Meera, and the killer to the end of the 1st trial was fast paced, involving, exciting, and brilliant. But the first trial was given short shrift and served as a coda between the first half of the film, and the second half of the film. Codas are usually add-ons at the end. In my view the trial was executed too quickly and far too one sided. It was as if the prosecution had no chance at all. Which may have been the case. Objection after objection made by the prosecutor were over-ruled. That may have been the reality. But cinematically, it fell flat. In a climatic court scene, you do need some drama as well as tension. Close-ups of a lawyer getting in the face of a sweating witness alone is not enough. The second half of the film suffered from a lack of suspense in one sense, and from another perspective - the sense of real time seemed off. Despite that we knew what was coming, it just didn't carry enough cinematic impact despite the overwhelmingly positive result. As for the two leads; first let's look at Vidya Balan as Sabrina, the sister of the murdered girl. This was the far more difficult role. Sabrina was a plain jane - so Balan had to dress down, wear eye glasses, abandon make-up and jewelry, and wear her hair in the most simplest of ways - just pulled back off her face. She also had to play the role of a woman whose family has been nearly destroyed. She's been so beaten down and disappointed by the system, to the point that when Meera first approaches her, she has neither the strength, the conviction, or even the desire to go through this all over again. It was simply a fabulous portrayal by Balan. She touched your heart in almost every moment she was on the screen On the other hand - Rani Mukherjee's portrayal of the foul mouthed, smoking, swearing, cussing, and being generally overbearing to her crew at the television station, or her housemaid, was far easier. She also had some laugh out loud lines that made you as the audience look at her in awe. What a dame! For example - after covering the Indo-Pakistan War of 1999, with live-on-the-scene reporting from the front lines at Kargil, Meera is on a flight back to Delhi. A male passenger tries to chat her up. He recognizes her from the TV - he wants to be able to tell his friends that he had been with a beautiful TV war correspondent. So he tells her how exciting the war is - like watching an action film - with huge weapons, tanks, rockets, airplanes, bunkers ... Meera cuts him off, being able to recognize him as being on the make. She tells him ... [and you also saw] the bodies of our soldiers. I am sure you enjoyed that as well. He tries to back pedal, "I mean..." She cuts him off once more, "If you had been there, you'd be shitting bricks" When he says, "Excuse me. What did you say?", she repeats it again, this time loud enough for people sitting six rows away in either direction to hear. Later in the film, she and her boy friend arrive home after a night out. They start to fool around. They are on the bed and things are getting passionate. The phone rings. It is Meera's producer. He needs her to come in at once - as there's some new developments in the case. Meera jumps up from the bed. "Sorry, I've got to go in". The boy friend is plenty heated up. He says, How can you go now, and leave me like this? What shall I do now? Meera says, "Fly solo ..." and is out the door. She gets to use most all of the cinematic sinful words, including the f-word multiple times. She is extremely passionate about everything she does. And there's nothing she won't do to get her way. When her producer seems totally against re-opening the coverage on the Jessica Lal case, Meera chases him down the car-park, and hops up to sit on the hood of his car. She asks him to let her cover the story again. "N.O." he says. "F.O." as in fuck-off she says. When he doesn't reply, she says, "Justice has been denied. You can live with it. I cannot." As written, Rani's role is all fire and brimstone - she tosses about every swear and cuss word in the book. You'd think she was a US Marine D.I. barking at his new recruits, or maybe a Master Chief aboard a sea going vessel telling a salty story. It wasn't that Rani didn't perform well - actually she was brilliant - but the role was so one dimensional that it didn't require as much grading or skill to pull it off. It was the easier role...but Rani was still mesmerizing in it. Though the film was structurally flawed, and Rani Mukherjee's role was kind of one dimensional, I still thought the film was entertaining, well made, and definitely worth seeing. As the words show up on the screen of the film's trailer - Two women - slap the system - on the face. To me, for a country that is the world's largest democracy - that was an irresistible lure to watch this film.
I did a piece about Japanese actress Kyoko Hasegawa back in August of 2009. That's when I became aware of the film Rain Fall . This is a political conspiracy and a thriller combined, and the setting is in Tokyo. Kippei Shiina stars in the role of John Rain, an America with a Japanese father. He's an ex-CIA covert operative, a trainer of US Navy Seals, and an assassin. In short, he's one bad dude that you won't want to mess with. Gary Oldman stars as the head of the CIA's Tokyo office. He chews up the scenery in an over-the-top performance. Oldman's character, William Holtzer, is mostly office-bound where he commands his men from a state-of-the-electronic-arts war room. When he's not barking orders like 'Take the shot, TAKE THE SHOT! , he's cussing up a storm or bemoaning ( Jesus Christ !) yet another missed opportunity. The gorgeous Kyoko Hasegawa is on hand portraying the daughter of a Japanese whistle-blower. It will be Rain's job to protect her. Also on hand are a few Japanese police detectives, and the Yakuza. The detective is a wise and savvy veteran who gets a good handle on the case, but he can't prove squat. The Yakuza are a shadowy presence. We will see the head guy a few times, but will meet some of his street soldiers on more than a few occasions. The film was written and directed by Max Mannix . This was just his second time at directing a film. Names with two X's are pretty rare; Xerxes , anyone? The story is about a Japanese minister of public works who has discovered and been compiling a dossier of evidence about some of his fellow ministers in public works who have been getting rich through corruption - as in the construction of bridges to nowhere, unnecessary roads, and the kickbacks involved to the ministers who signed off on these useless projects. He, Kawamura, wants to give this data to a reporter. In short - go public. Meanwhile the CIA and the Yakuza want to get their hands on this info, so that they can become the puppet master with the Japanese government being the puppet, by means of blackmail. Meaning that threatening to embarrass the Japanese government is something that our government was more than willing to do. We aren't particularly clear as the film begins about what Rain's role is, or how he is involved. But something happens to Kawamura, the whistle blower, and now everyone we know in the film is desperate to get their hands on a memory stick that contains all the data that Kawamura had. That's about all you need to get you started. The film has all the ingredients of being an excellent thriller set in Japan. Only it never reaches the level of excellent as a whole. Some scenes, and some of the performers are superb - however, the film lacks a cohesiveness. Too many questions and too many plot holes. In short, it is less than the sum of its parts. Shiina who plays Rain has the right looks. He doesn't miss a thing, he's Bond and Bourne, and he is the perfect example of lethal. But his character doesn't have a lot of depth to him. He lacks Bond's wit, and while he does try and show a sensitive side ala Bourne, it comes off as unnecessary, and only adds time to the film. He is what his dossier says he is, but we need to know more in order to root for him. Only we don't get it. Kyoko Hasegawa looks beautiful but she has mostly night scenes and wears dark clothes. First she must be fearful, and then once the circumstances get amped up, and she realizes that she really is in danger, she comes around to understand what Rain tells her is all too true. That leaves us with just two interesting characters - The Japanese police detective Ishikura played by Akira Emoto . He's not stylish, his hair is more gray than not. It is fun to watch him at work as he pieces together the truth and is more right than he knows or can prove. Oldman snarls, curses and barks at everyone. He too is fun, but sadly we all know that as written, he is the most paper-thin of all the characters in the film. He probably has the most lines, but he sleeps on a couch in his office, or is at work. We see him in the Tokyo streets only once. Beyond that we know nothing else. His role will mirror that of Joan Allen from the Bourne films, only where Allen's Pamela Landy could be fierce but was mostly contained - when she was angry we'd see it on her face or expressions, whereas Oldman's Holtzer is always angry, and it is all outward and external meaning we hear it rather than seeing it on his face. Okay, so I am laying the blame on the script. Since Director Mannix is also the author of the screenplay, he's going to have to be the one to take the hit. There's action but not enough, and of what we do get was done so quickly or in a low light situation, that you can't see enough of it to appreciate it. I am of the belief that this is always a signal that the director didn't want to work too hard on the action sequences. Since it is available as DVD rental from Netflix, I'll recommend it, but I am doing so with reservations. It runs 110 minutes, and is forgettable. See it for Oldman, Shiina, and Hasegawa, but Mannix borrowed heavily from the style and look of Bourne. The film is based on the Barry Eisler novels with John Rain as the title subject, but based on this film, I don't see a Rain franchise in the cards.
The Sicilian Girl (2009) was directed by Marco Amenta . The stars are Veronica D'Agostin o as Rita, the Sicilian Girl of the title, and Gerard Jugnot as the Judge/Prosecutor who takes up Rita's case. What was her case? The film is taken from the real life story of a Rita Atria, whose father was shot and murdered on the orders of a rival Mafia chieftan in a small Sicilian town. The real life Rita swore revenge, but was dissuaded by her older brother who counseled her to be patient and to wait. Years pass. The brother also falls victim in another assassination. It is to this background, that 7 years later, the now grown Rita decides to seek revenge via justice, so she seeks out a Palermo Judge/Prosecutor she long ago admired for his guts. The film trakes us through the Rita's early years to her days in witness protection and then, the trial. This is a powerful story. The Sicilian traditions about honor and revenge, and the overriding element called omerta (code of silence) that not only protects the population to a degree but also enslaves society to the few powerful men who are protected by this silence. Since no one will dare to speak against them, they do as they please. Criminal activities like extortion and racketeering, drugs, gambling, and prostitution keep these Mafia families awash in money. Even Rita's mother maintained the omerta. She valued this even above her own family. When confronted by Rita, the mother's explanation was, "He'd come home with the blood and the brains of his target who he killed at close range on his clothes. What could I do." Yes, it is a powerful story. Society held captive. People living in fear of retribution if they spoke out. When Rita's father is murdered right in front of her, and she calls for help from anyone, she hears only the closing of shutters, the slamming of doors. No one would dare to help her. No one would get involved. No one would come to offer support. She was only a small girl and her father had just been murderedright in front of her. The film itself is absorbing, engrossing, and we too are held captive by it. Veronica D'Agostino is superb as this fearless woman, who dared to challenge the Mafia. We admire her spirit and yet we are saddened by her own blindness to her own family's connections to the Mafia. Eventually Rita will comprehend the realities the truths which she knew but kept submerged, and will take a stand. The movie is worth seeing, and you will be haunted by the parochial horrors of that local life, as in living under the Mafia's thumb. But you will notice the film's flaws as well. The script has gaps. The other characters, besides Rita and the Judge, are thinly drawn and and not well developed. The look and texture of the film is dark and brooding. This is a film that you will watch but afterwards you won't be savoring the splendid visual moments. Because they're few and far between. But you will definitely remember the story.
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