Run All Night

Posted on March 12, 2015 at 5:24 pm

Two guys with the understanding of what they have lost and what they have paid to be where they are that only comes with sit opposite each other, drinks on the table between them. They must, at last, reckon with the truth that can no longer be avoided. That would be Ed Harris and Liam Neeson, who must be asking themselves how two such accomplished actors in so many prestige projects got stuck in this dumb bang bang crash bang of a movie that only takes time away from its various dumb shootout scenes for its various dumb talking scenes. We already knew from the use of a mournful soloist singing “Danny Boy” in the trailer — for a movie about Irish guys and crime? How refreshing! — that this was going to be a tired old retread. But it’s a very, very tired old retread.

Harris and Neeson play Sean and Jimmy, two old Irish guys from New York. They are lifetime friends who literally know where the bodies are buried. They have both sinned in order to survive, betraying those closest to them. Both sinned to prevent the greater sin of not being able to care for their families. Now Sean is prosperous and powerful, still paying off most of the local police force to stay out of his way. Jimmy is a burn-out, still under Sean’s protection because of old times. Sean promises Jimmy that at the end they will “cross the line together.”

Both men have grown sons. Sean’s son Danny is a cocky cokehead who is trying to persuade his father to to business with some Albanian drug dealers. Sean says he is now completely legitimate and turns them down. Danny, who clearly has not ever watched “The Godfather,” disagrees with his father in front of the Albanians. He has also already not just taken money from them to make this deal, he has spent it.

Jimmy’s son Michael (Joel Kinnaman) is a law-abiding citizen, who wants nothing to do with his father. He has a beautiful pregnant wife and two adorable daughters, just to ramp up the emotional heft in as obvious a manner as possible. He ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, seeing the wrong things. Danny tries to kill Michael, so Jimmy kills Danny to save Michael’s life.

Sean tells Jimmy that he is going to “come after Michael with everything I got.” Once Michael is dead, he will kill Jimmy, too. So, the rest of the movie is basically just run with a gun stuff.

The shootouts are staged pretty well, but yikes, they cannot stand up under the constant intrusion of a string of you-gotta-be-kidding-me moments. I’m not talking about details like where the endless ammo comes from, or how Michael got to be adept at using a gun. I’m talking about the detour to visit someone in the hospital, or the isn’t-that-convenient discovery of an old photo of trip to the kind of remote location you might send someone to get away from danger with the address helpfully written on the back. And then there’s the way Jimmy snaps back into super-assassin mode despite being severely impaired and near delirium tremens only an hour before. And there’s a weird John Henry vibe when Jimmy has go up against a high-tech hitman with all kinds of nifty laser aiming devices, plus flack gear and bluetooth police channel receiver, and all Jimmy has is a shotgun that might have been left behind by Daniel Boone.

Harris and Neeson look exhausted. It is not because their characters are worn down by all the bad choices they have made or by how much their sons hate them, or because the actors had to work so hard to make any part of this dumb mess watchable. The most the accomplish is making their previous AARP action films like “Taken,” “Man on a Ledge,” and even “Non-Stop” look better by comparison.

Parents should know that this film has very strong and graphic violence, with many characters injured and killed, disturbing and bloody images, fire, drinking, smoking, drug use, drug dealing, car chases and crashes, and very strong language with crude sexual references.

Family discussion: Sean and Jimmy both have regrets about their choices. How do they respond differently? What could Sean have done to prevent what happened to his son?

If you like this, try: “John Wick” and “Taken”

Related Tags:

Action/Adventure Crime

Planes: Fire & Rescue

Posted on July 17, 2014 at 5:59 pm

The visuals are stunning, the details are witty, the 3D effects are splendid, the songs are lively, the voice actors are top-notch, but the storyline feels like an episode of “Thomas the Tank Engine.” That’s when it was still analog and old-school and before it went to animation, but still — especially as the gender politics of this film are uncomfortably old-school as well.

Last year’s Planes added another mode of transportation to the charmingly retro world of Cars. A plucky crop-duster named Dusty (Dane Cook) learned to race and became a champion. As this movie begins, he is an international superstar. But his vintage gearbox has been worn down by the races, and no replacement is available. Dusty is going to have to find something that is as meaningful to him as racing.

When he accidentally starts a fire at Piston Peak National Park, Dusty sees that old Mayday (Hal Holbrook), the fire and rescue truck is not quite up to the task. More important, he is not up to code. The stern Transportation Management Safety Team inspector informs them that they need more capacity if they are going to stay in business. That means some upgrades for Mayday and it also means a second firefighter. Dusty feels responsible. And if he cannot race, he has to find something new to do, to help make up for his mistake. So he agrees to take the training to become a certified fire fighter.

Dusty is welcomed by the team, including the flirtatious Lil Dipper (“Modern Family’s” Julie Bowen), the heavy-lift helicopter Windlifter (Wes Studi), ex-military transport Cabbie (Captain Dale Dye) and The Smokejumpers, a brave collection of all-terrain vehicles who leap out of the planes and parachute down to the fire. But he stern Blade Ranger (Ed Harris), who is in charge of the training facility, is not at all sure Dusty is up to the task.

The action sequences are very well staged and the effects, especially the water and sky images, are truly astonishing. The usual pun-studded, meta humor for the series shows up throughout, from the show business trade news magazine titled “Cariety” to a female vehicle dismissing a lame come-on with a cool, “Pick-up trucks!” The choicest surprise is a videotape with a car-ified version of a classic television series, with that very recognizable series star contributing a character voice. Of course the television show appeared in the late 70’s-early 80’s, so it is likely to be over the heads of today’s children and their parents, too.

The real villain here is the fire, of course, but there is also a comic villain, a pompous administrator voiced by John Michael Higgins. But the movie never works up much interest in him or his schemes, and the post-credits stinger barely stings.

More troubling is the poor treatment of the female characters, despite being called out for that same problem in the first one. At least in the original, the female characters were capable and independent. Poor Bowen is relegated here to a role that recalls the man-chasing stereotypes of television in the 1960’s, often played by Rose Marie or Ann B. Davis. She is constantly trying to tell Dusty that they are on a date and, when he politely says they will be going as a group, dementedly agrees that it is a good thing for her to meet his friends until he reminds her that the firefighting team members are her friends. And a major plot twist occurs when the previously ultra-capable mechanic voiced by Teri Hatcher is casually outdone by a male character. It’s completely unnecessary, it subverts the primary premise of the storyline, and it demeans the female mechanic for no reason. It isn’t Dusty who’s got filings in his gearbox. It’s the script.

Parents should know that this film includes peril, including fire, collapsing bridge, rapids, engine failure, action and some violence (no one irreparably hurt, but a reference to a sad death), and some bathroom humor.

Family discussion: Who in this movie has to decide how to handle it when their plans do not work out? How do you think about your own back-up plans? What does “better than new” mean?

If you like this, try: “Cars” and “Planes”

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3D Animation Fantasy Series/Sequel

Snowpiercer

Posted on July 1, 2014 at 6:00 pm

A French graphic novel by Jacques Lob about a post-apocalyptic train containing all that is left of humanity is now the first English-language film from Korean director Joon-ho Bong (“Mother,” “The Host”), with an international cast that includes Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, Ed Harris, and Tilda Swinton. It is a visually stunning and intellectually ambitious allegory with all of its action and sci-fi imagination in service of provocative commentary.

In an effort to mitigate the damage from climate change, people all over the world shot a chemical into the air that precipitated an overcorrection so extreme that the entire world is covered with snow and ice and is not longer habitable for humans. Seventeen years earlier, the few remaining people were allowed to board a train designed by Mr. Wilford, who still lives in the train’s first car and keeps its engine running. He is considered something like a king or even a god by the train’s passengers, some of whom are 17 or younger and have never known any life off the train.

The train circles the globe once a year, and measures the passage of time by the landmarks it passes. After a brief prologue with snippets of news reports informing us of the environmental catastrophe, we meet the poor, filthy, brutally abused inhabitants of the train’s last car, including Curtis (Chris Evans, almost unrecognizable in a black knit cap and with a haunted expression) and his best friend Edgar (Jamie Bell). They are kept barely alive through doling out of icky looking “protein bars.” And they are kept in control by masked, brutal guards armed with assault weapons. There have been brief attempts at rebellion or escape but all have failed.

Occasionally they are visited by someone from one of the forward cars. Mason (Tilda Swinton, brilliant as a demented apparatchik) has the most terrifying smile of chipper malice since Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge. And there is another woman who appears from time to time to measure the children in the last car and take some of them away with no explanation. They are never seen again. Curtis reveres Gilliam (John Hurt), a disabled old man who encourages Curtis and Edgar to start a real revolution. But one lesson they have learned from the failed attempts is that it cannot work unless they get all the way to the front car and gain control of the engine. That means they will need to break out of the train’s prison the only man who can unlock the doors between the train cars.

The rebels move forward, at devastating cost, surging through a series of train cars, each with stunning revelations about what has become of human society. But nothing can prepare them for the shocks of the final confrontation in the engine car.

If Jonathan Swift was a filmmaker, this would be the movie he’d make — sharp, compelling, challenging. As Curtis crosses doorway after doorway, each opens into another remarkable tableau, a beauty salon, a fish farm, a classroom, a disco. This is a story that is richly imagined and powerfully presented.

Parents should know that this film has apocalyptic themes and images, constant peril and violence with a variety of weapons, disturbing images, many characters injured and killed, constant very strong language, smoking, and drugs and drug addiction.

Family discussion: What elements of the society on the train are similar to cultures in the world today? Does Wilford make good points about what it takes to sustain a community? How does this story explore the way that myths and traditions are developed? What do you think will happen next?

If you like this, try: “Brazil” and “In Time”

Pain & Gain

Posted on April 25, 2013 at 6:00 pm

“Unfortunately, based on a true story,” we are warned as this film opens. In case we forget, or, more likely, in case we assume the usual Hollywood embellishments, we are reminded, when things get really bizarre and really, really, really disturbing, that it is, indeed, still true.

Director Michael Bay is known for big movies with big explosions, big special effects, and big, big budgets, including “Armageddon” and the Transformers series. So “Pain & Gain,” a passion project he planned for seven years with only a $40 million budget, is his version of a quirky little indie. Quirky, it is, and his feeling for the material, the too-bizarre-to-be-fictional story of three body builders who got involved with kidnapping and murder is palpable. Bay’s ability to give the audience the same sense of connection to the story is less effective.

Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg, who will be on screen in Bay’s next blockbuster, the fourth installment of the Transformers series) is a body builder who believes in the American Dream. No, not the dream of freedom and democracy; the dream of getting rich without earning it. With two pumped-up compadres, the just out-of-the-clink born-again Paul Doyle (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) and steroid-injecting Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie), they create a sort of Dumbfellas posse so they can kidnap a prosperous South American immigrant named Victor Kershaw (Tony Shaloub, playing a composite character based in part on Florida businessman Marc Schiller) and torture him until he signs over all of his assets to them. “I’ve watched a lot of movies, Paul,” Lugo says with assurance. “I know what I’m doing.” He figures if they dress up like Ninjas, Kershaw will never know that he is being robbed by the people who spot him at the gym. But after it all goes down, Kershaw immediately, and literally, smells something funny.

The movie is darker than the marketing makes it seem, with very graphic scenes of torture and dismemberment, but it does include some very funny moments as our hapless anti-heroes continually overestimate their own abilities and underestimate those around them. All of the performances are excellent, but Ed Harris steals the film as a former cop-turned detective and Emily Rutherford is a stand-out as his wife, by far the movie’s most appealing character. Bay, with screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (the next “Thor” and two “Captain America” films) and cinematographer Ben Seresin (the upcoming “World War Z”) skillfully evoke the world of protein shakes, motivational platitudes, and a deep wellspring of resentment. “If I believe I deserve it, the universe will serve it,” Lugo says like a mantra. He also talks about eating a “shame sandwich,” and, in his most revealing moment, tells Kershaw, “I don’t just want everything you have. I want you not to have it.”

Bay is less successful in tying all of this to larger themes worthy of its more than two-hour running time. It feels like a very personal story about his own struggles with ambition and dignity, but a struggle he still does not understand well enough to convey in more than superficial terms. Like its main characters, it has a lot of muscle but not much upstairs.

Parents should know that this film is based on a true story of crimes that include kidnapping, torture, murder, dismemberment, fraud, and drug use. The movie also includes crime and law enforcement violence, graphic wounds, very explicit and crude sexual references and situations, nudity, and constant strong language.

Family discussion: More than one character in the movie talks about what being an American means — which do you agree with and why? What took the police so long to realize what was going on? Do you agree with the punishment ordered by the court?

If you like this, try: “Fargo” and “Welcome to Collinwood” and read the story of the real-life case by Pete Collins

Phantom

Posted on February 28, 2013 at 6:00 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for violence
Profanity:	Mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, drinking game, smoking
Violence/ Scariness:	Extended violence, characters injured and killed, suicide
Diversity Issues:	Cultural differences
Date Released to Theaters:	March 1, 2013
Amazon.com ASIN:	B00B635CPI

Submarine movies are immediately gripping because they are powerful microcosms that amplify conflict. A small group of people in very close quarters, highly trained and with an explicit mission are then completely disconnected from the rest of the world. When problems arise, they have to decide what to do with very limited information and no access to authority outside the ship. Great drama, when it works. This time, though, not so much.

Theoretically “inspired by true events” but more like “a massive flight of fantasy and speculation slightly tied to one possible thing that might have happened,” this submarine story begins with a promising twist. American actors play members of the Soviet navy during the Cold War. We might expect Ed Harris, William Fitchtner, and David Duchovny to be the Americans fighting the Soviets. It takes a few moments to get used to the idea that we are rooting for the guys in the striped shirts pushing the buttons with Cyrillic labels, or at least some of them.

Ed Harris plays Demi, a captain with a dark past (yes, we’ll find out what that’s about) who gets unexpected orders to ship out on a secret mission, his last, on a sub that makes the assignment somehow even more meaningful and ironic (yes, we’ll find out that, too). It is the sub’s last mission, too, before it will be sold to the Chinese.

Because it comes up so suddenly, he gets a new crew, along with two passengers operating under some higher authority but not revealing very much about what they are doing. The leader is Bruni (Duchovny), whose arrogance seems to outweigh Demi’s air of resignation.

Demi is still anguished about a mistake made early in his career and the sense that only his father’s high rank and prestige kept him from being discharged dishonorably. When he discovers that Bruni’s plans would put the entire world at risk, he has to become the leader he once dreamed of being.

Writer/director Todd Robinson clearly cares passionately about the material but he often loses track of the narrative. There are many scenes of people racing and chasing down narrow corridors and men staring and analog instrumentation. There are so many shifting power plays that it is difficult to keep track, and the story escalates so preposterously that it is difficult to care.

Parents should know that this is an intense Cold War story that deals with issues of nuclear war and includes extended sequences of peril and violence, with many characters injured and killed.

Family discussion: How should Demi decide which orders to follow? Listen to and discuss the “This American Life” story about the real-life notes provided to British officers in nuclear submarines to be opened in case of catastrophe. What should the note say?

If you like this, try: “Crimson Tide,” “The Hunt for Red October,” and “K-19: The Widowmaker”