Escape Plan: A breakout surprise

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><b><i>Escape Plan</i> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span><b>(2013) • <a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/summit/escapeplan/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">View trailer</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><b> </b><br /><b>Three stars. Rating: R, for violence and profanity</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>By <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12885694730612878577" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">Derrick Bang</a></b></span></b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes it pays to approach a film with diminished expectations.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the comic book nonsense of both <i>Expendables</i> flicks, not to mention January’s distastefully trashy <i>Bullet to the Head</i>, I held out little hope for Sylvester Stallone’s recent return to the big screen.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMAkmhfJbz28S0oYX61HPw_gGB0BsrKhW7J25QDpa7wf4ZHy1JYFUSQ9Cdol3V_kPCo3MHOekPIi1OCQQ7qdHJZbVeQXh5TBOUOZ-iG6oKKH5rFKKopOxFAeOv4Dz7fsgCIVpN9B_rz6Q/s1600/Escape+Plan+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMAkmhfJbz28S0oYX61HPw_gGB0BsrKhW7J25QDpa7wf4ZHy1JYFUSQ9Cdol3V_kPCo3MHOekPIi1OCQQ7qdHJZbVeQXh5TBOUOZ-iG6oKKH5rFKKopOxFAeOv4Dz7fsgCIVpN9B_rz6Q/s400/Escape+Plan+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Although trapped in a maximum-security prison that offers little hope for any sort of<br />escape plan, Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone, left) and Emil Rottmayer (Arnold<br />Schwarzenegger) have a few ideas ... all of them highly dangerous, of course, and<br />with little chance of success. But it's not like they have anything else to do...</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And although Arnold Schwarzenegger cleverly parodied his advancing age in <i>The Last Stand</i>, also released in January, box-office disinterest made that little action flick’s title seem prophetic, with respect to <i>his</i> career. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I therefore haven’t been surprised by the disinterest in <i>Escape Plan</i>, which arrives in theaters today after a rather lackluster publicity campaign.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which just goes to show the folly of jumping to conclusions. Swedish-born director Mikael Håfström has uncorked a tidy little thriller, which gets much of its juice from a clever script by Miles Chapman and Jason Keller. The premise is intriguing, the execution is engaging — if occasionally burdened by exploitation flick clichés — and, yes, Stallone and Schwarzenegger acquit themselves honorably.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Indeed, they’re perfectly cast in this twisty prison saga, which seems to have been shaped with their strengths — and acting limitations — in mind. Håfström allows them to do what they do best, and they do it well; the result certainly won’t be more than a footnote in cinema history, but it’s a reasonably entertaining way to spend a night at the movies.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ray Breslin (Stallone) has a most unusual career: He’s a structural engineer who specializes in prison design, or — more precisely — the weaknesses of such institutions. As the “field agent” half of the Los Angeles-based security firm Breslin-Clark, he allows himself to be incarcerated into various prisons as an apparent felon, in order to escape and thus expose design and (more frequently) staffing weaknesses.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although ostensibly on his own, Breslin always is monitored by his operational partners: handler Abigail Ross (Amy Ryan) and genius hacker Hush (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson). Partner Lester Clark (Vincent D’Onofrio) acts as the company “face,” securing the assignments and managing the tidy sums that Breslin charges for his talents.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Following the completion of yet another routine assignment, Breslin is offered a tantalizing challenge by CIA operative Jessica Miller (Caitriona Balfe). Wanting to remove the political stink left by a decade’s worth of nasty headlines concerning Guantanamo Bay and extraordinary rendition, shadowy U.S. black-ops agencies have collaborated to construct a top-secret über-prison at an undisclosed location, well away from prying media eyes. The goal is to <i>keep</i> its dangerous occupants locked up, no matter how clever — or desperate — they might be.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That’s where Breslin comes in: If he can’t break out, then All Concerned will be satisfied that their “detention center” lives up to its promise.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><br /> <div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unfortunately, things don’t go quite as planned ... which comes as no surprise to us viewers, of course. Breslin’s tracking chip is savagely removed; he’s beaten by guards; and his attempted use of the fail-safe “evacuation code” draws nothing but an amused grin from warden Willard Hobbes (Jim Caviezel).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Breslin has been dumped into this high-tech facility on purpose, and all his “keys” have been thrown away. But why?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before he begins to suss out possible answers, Breslin is surprised by the helpful and downright friendly behavior of fellow prisoner Emil Rottmayer (Schwarzenegger). But while Rottmayer apparently can protect Breslin from the other inmates, that doesn’t help with the bigger picture; the situation seems hopeless.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chapman and Keller’s scenario is a riff on every classic heist thriller, all of which follow the same pattern: First set up “foolproof” security measures, showing us every intricate detail, and then grant our heroes the means to exploit subtle flaws in order to defeat said measures.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, so, Breslin faces his own impossible challenge. Cameras are everywhere; prisoners are electronically tracked by concealed bar codes in their clothing; individual cell walls are transparent, affording no privacy; all cells are built well above floor level; all guards wear dark masks, to conceal their identities and thus prevent any means of cozying up to a given individual; and so forth.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The prison is a genius set by production designer Barry Chusid, whose various genre credits include <i>The Day After Tomorrow</i>, <i>2012</i> and the fan-beloved <i>Serenity</i>. His work here is damn impressive: worthy of the volcano lair that Ken Adam built for <i>You Only Live Twice</i>, which was a jaw-dropping milestone back in 1967.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of this film’s key mysteries concerns the prison’s actual location, and the answer to that question is a genuine surprise, which further enhances the story’s “impossible mission” tension.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Håfström’s most important contribution is his insistence that this material be played straight; our heroes don’t drop jokey one-liners, and there’s no sense that whatever follows will be good-ol’-boy child’s play (as with both <i>Expendables</i> entries). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Granted, it’s an eyebrow-raiser to accept that Stallone is a genius engineer, scientist, metallurgist and even astronavigator, not to mention his ability to MacGyver a helpful gadget from rather sketchy raw materials. But Stallone always has been good with grim resolve, and that turns out to be Breslin’s primary emotion; the script even offers a good reason for this attitude.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Schwarzenegger actually comes off better, displaying levels of presence and charisma that hearken back to his glory days. If we’re not allowed to understand Rottmayer’s motivations — his eager cooperation seems <i>so</i> suspicious — at least ol’ Arnie successfully sells the congeniality that goes with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, yes, thanks to cinematographer Brendan Galvin’s tight close-ups — and the fact that most of this prison’s “worst of the worst” felons are played by bit players and stuntmen who are shorter than our stars — the inevitable mano-a-mano beat-downs are persuasively choreographed ... and much more credible than, say, Stallone’s laughably overmatched fracas with the younger, larger and far tougher Jason Momoa, in the aforementioned <i>Bullet to the Head</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All this said, both Stallone and Schwarzenegger nonetheless have an acting range that extends no further than A to B, which allows Caviezel to steal the show. His subtlety is marvelous, particularly the half-smile that surfaces every time one of Hobbes’ “boys” misbehaves. Caviezel is the coolest villain I’ve seen in awhile, and his vile behavior here might upset folks who’ve grown fond of his kinder and gentler self on TV’s <i>Person of Interest</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The similarly talented Sam Neill also makes the most of his small part as Kyrie, the prison doctor: an inherently good man who begins to wonder if he has accepted the wrong assignment. Veteran tough guy Vinnie Jones is appropriately nasty as Hobbes’ thuggish lieutenant, Drake.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Its virtues notwithstanding, Chapman and Keller’s script doesn’t always stand up to close scrutiny, starting with the biggest elephant in the room: It’s difficult to believe that so much money would be spent to “bury” mega-baddies in such a facility, lost to public view for all time, when it would be easier and cheaper to kill them. (Either way, nobody would know, right?)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also was disappointed by the fact that Abigail and Hush, despite their mounting concern and much-ballyhooed investigative and computer skills, remain on the sidelines. Indeed, they play no part whatsoever in the climactic third act, which is simply wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Editor Elliot Greenberg keeps things going at a good clip, efficiently concealing the slightly too-long running time of 116 minutes. Composer Alex Heffes’ overbearing score, on the other hand, is painfully clumsy, badly placed and often irritating.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the most part, though, this is an entertaining action flick that builds to a highly satisfying conclusion. I guess Stallone and Schwarzenegger <i>do</i>have some big-screen life left in them.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><!--EndFragment-->

2013 action Amy Ryan Arnold Schwarzenegger Faran Tahir Jim Caviezel Sam Neill Sylvester Stallone Vincent D'Onofrio Vinnie Jones Escape Plan: A breakout surprise

Escape Plan   (2013) •  View trailer   Three stars. Rating: R, for violence and profanity By  Derrick Bang Sometimes it pays to ...

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Riddick: Back to basics

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><i>Riddick</i> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>(2013) • <a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/riddick/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">View trailer</a></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b> </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Three stars. Rating: R, for strong violence, profanity, sexual candor and occasional nudity</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>By <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12885694730612878577" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">Derrick Bang</a> </b></span></b></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Richard B. Riddick is the Timex watch of action antiheroes: No matter how bone-crunching the licking, he keeps on ticking.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqdSmAONAe6tFLfUT2Jg-gBybnFZtF1yMWV0zCFERSV6zTXFY7P4eFoJvzkbqxJF6h9zu5GR9PCSKIqjM8pcq2uXik1wNmqBwl4Tf_5k1i8gQVJLkOBOs9r-35PP0oXi5AGQTZYwEPCbc/s1600/Riddick+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqdSmAONAe6tFLfUT2Jg-gBybnFZtF1yMWV0zCFERSV6zTXFY7P4eFoJvzkbqxJF6h9zu5GR9PCSKIqjM8pcq2uXik1wNmqBwl4Tf_5k1i8gQVJLkOBOs9r-35PP0oXi5AGQTZYwEPCbc/s400/Riddick+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Armed with no more than a large bone club, Riddick (Vin Diesel) attempts to survive<br />his encounter with a particularly large "mud demon." This creature is between him and<br />access to a safer part of this wayward planet, so Riddick is determined to win this<br />little skirmish. Rest assured, though: This won't be the last he sees of mud demons.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You’ve got to admire a guy who can survive a fall of several hundred feet (perhaps even more) while getting buried beneath a massive rock avalanche ... with no more than some cuts, bruises and a leg fracture that he sets himself, by jamming metal pins into the surrounding muscle.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Granted, this character’s otherwise cartoonish invulnerability is made almost palatable by Vin Diesel’s growling, glowering performance; one can imagine Riddick is fueled by ’tude alone. Bottle the stuff, and he’d made a fortune selling it to up-and-coming action hero wannabes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Diesel follows in the well-stomped footsteps of earlier strong, monosyllabic types played by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger; like them, Diesel has made a virtue of his limited acting range. He’s a dour teddy bear on steroids: an apparent bad guy — introduced, back in 2000’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pitch Black</i>, as a “notorious convict” — who nonetheless respects honor, reluctantly protects the weak and disenfranchised, and turns into a coldly efficient predator only when dealing with Those Who Deserve It.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even when chained and (apparently) helpless, Riddick can issue threats with a layer of menace that Diesel sells quite persuasively.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like I said, you gotta admire the guy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Riddick has become an intriguing franchise for Diesel and writer/director David Twohy. Following <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pitch Black</i> — which Twohy scripted from a story by Jim and Ken Wheat — they re-teamed for 2004’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Chronicles of Riddick</i> and, that same year, an animated short called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark Fury</i> (Diesel voicing his character, Twohy supplying the story). But <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chronicles</i>was an overblown box-office bomb, its complicated narrative adding far too much extraneous <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">stuff</i> to the first film’s plain-vanilla, survive-the-threat template.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No surprise, then, that Twohy has gone back to basics with this new film, which sports the appropriately simple title of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Riddick</i>. Wisely dumping the second film’s Egyptian-esque, Necromonger intrigue that felt swiped from 1994’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stargate</i>, Twohy gives us the same basic, one-against-impossible-odds story that made <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pitch Black</i> such a nifty little B-thriller.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Indeed, at times the echoes of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pitch Black</i> are so loud, that this “new” film almost could be considered a remake.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once again stuck on a godforsaken little planet in the middle of celestial nowhere, Riddick calls on his impressive survival skills to endure. How he winds up on this sun-scorched world is detailed in a needlessly obtuse and frankly stupid flashback: some clumsy exposition that Twohy attempts to improve with Diesel’s off-camera narration (a device employed only during these early scenes).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Twohy’s subsequent story divides neatly into three distinct chapters, the first an all but dialogueless depiction of Riddick’s efforts to master his barren surroundings. This act is compelling in a Robinson Crusoe-esque manner, with Riddick slowly gauging the relative degree of danger presented by the planet’s primary predators: a nasty little winged carrion feeder, easily kept at bay; a jackal-like canine, definitely hazardous in hunting packs; and a truly wicked, razor-tailed “mud demon” confined to pools in darkened caves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The latter has a nasty two-pronged attack, with both poisonous fangs and its slashing tail.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Twohy put some thought into this barren world’s ecology, and he deserves credit for the effort.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having built himself back up to fighting strength — a process that takes months, based on the canine companion that he trains from puppyhood (another nice touch) — Riddick ventures further afield and finds an unstaffed mercenary resource station. He activates the interior emergency beacon, allowing it to scan him, knowing full well that bounty-hungry mercenaries will arrive quickly, eager to catch him for the reward.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Riddick’s plan works: Cue Act II, and the arrival of a ship filled with lethal killers led by a machete-wielding sadist named Santana (Jordi Mollà). His gang is followed, in short order, by a second craft captained by Boss Johns (Matt Nable) and his kick-ass second-in-command, a Nordic sniper named Dahl (Katee Sackhoff).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Followers of Riddick’s earlier escapades will recognize the name Johns, and indeed Boss turns out to be the father of William Johns, the weasel bounty hunter played by Cole Hauser, who met a well-deserved end back in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pitch Black</i>. Boss Johns now has serious issues with Riddick, but Santana isn’t about to let anybody else horn in on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">his</i>action.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The two rival merc groups therefore establish an uneasy alliance, with Boss Johns and his group politely waiting for the moment when Santana <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">asks</i> for help ... a moment that Johns knows will arrive, because Riddick is far more resourceful than Santana appreciates.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This middle portion is Twohy’s strongest act, with the seemingly omniscient Riddick — helped by his four-legged “pet” — playing on group paranoia and tweaking the mercs at every turn. By far the most suspenseful scene involves Santana and a booby-trapped storage locker that Riddick might have tampered with: a deliciously harrowing interlude that Twohy and editor Tracy Adams milk for maximum tension.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Loyalties and alliances shift again with the arrival of Act III, when all hell breaks loose. Thanks to a massive, region-wide rainstorm that churns the arid desert sand into puddles and rivulets, the fearsome mud demons are granted wide-ranging mobility the moment night falls: a serious problem for everybody except Riddick, thanks to his spooky, night-vision-enhanced eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, just that quickly, we’re re-playing the final act from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pitch Black</i>. Not necessarily a bad thing, but — if this film revives the franchise — I hope Twohy comes up with something more original next time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mollà is appropriately vicious as Santana, the sort of cheerful sadist who probably tossed kittens into a microwave when he was a kid. We get his measure early on, when he kills a female captive for sport (Keri Lynn Hilson, in an eyeblink role); right then, as Riddick watches this act through Diesel’s hardened gaze, we know that Santana isn’t destined to die of old age.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nable overacts atrociously as Boss Johns, emoting toward the back balcony with a saliva-sputtering fury that works against his introduction as an ultra-cool mercenary. Former WWE world champion and mixed martial-arts grappler Dave Bautista is much more persuasively powerful as Diaz, the guy who keeps Santana’s crew in line.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nolan Gerard Funk has a weird supporting role as Luna, the youngest member of Santana’s crew, whose Bible-spouting piety is a plot affectation that feels and sounds like it wandered in from some other film. We sympathize with Luna because of his youth, and suspect that he’s probably a decent fellow at heart, but that makes his presence even stranger; I cannot imagine somebody like Santana putting up with this young man’s behavior, even if he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i>regarded as a “lucky charm.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All of which brings us to Sackhoff, who as Dahl — a name chosen specifically for its sound-alike term of ridicule — gets to be even more of a bad-ass than she was as Starbuck, during five seasons of television’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Battlestar Galactica </i>... which means she busts heads, cusses like a sailor and bares her chest (the latter quite pointlessly, I’m obliged to mention). Sackhoff obviously has a great time with the role, particularly each time Dahl makes an example of Santana, and the actress is buff enough to make her smackdowns reasonably credible.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But this is Diesel’s show, and he holds our attention quite effectively, bringing these proceedings more dramatic heft than they deserve. There’s no denying Diesel’s presence, and his aura of latent menace; on top of that, it’s a hoot to watch him outfox and out-think all these tough-talking thugs (the balance of whom don’t get enough screen time to be distinguished from each another).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Graeme Revell delivers a serviceable score: all mood, without any noticeably defining themes. Cinematographer David Eggby conveys this planet’s grim surroundings, at times granting us a sense of the shimmering heat, and he also has fun depicting what Riddick “sees” through his unusual eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At 119 minutes, though, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Riddick</i> wears out its welcome; Twohy takes much too long to build to the climax, which then lingers past the point of diminishing returns. I’m also dismayed by his reliance on the gory deaths that fans have made <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">de rigueur</i> in this post-<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Saw</i> era; has it really become necessary to sink to such slaughterhouse excess?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that, ultimately, is the major problem with this newest chronicle of Riddick: Despite all of Diesel’s droll sneaking around and predatory skill, nothing in this film delivers the emotional wallop we got at the end of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pitch Black</i>. Twohy may know how to direct Riddick’s action-packed adventures, but we need a stronger writer at the keyboard.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One who can give our stoic antihero some fully fleshed adversaries, rather than the two-dimensional cartoons populating this flick.</span></span><!--EndFragment-->

2013 action Bokeem Woodbine Dave Bautista Jordi Mollà Katee Sackhoff Matt Nable Nolan Gerard Funk Sci-Fi Sequel Series Vin Diesel Riddick: Back to basics

Riddick   (2013) •  View trailer   Three stars. Rating: R, for strong violence, profanity, sexual candor and occasional nudity By  Derrick B...

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Elysium: District 10?

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><i>Elysium</i> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>(2013) • <a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/elysium/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">View trailer</a></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b> </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>3.5 stars. Rating: R, for profanity, gore and strong bloody violence</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>By <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12885694730612878577" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">Derrick Bang</a></b></span></b></span></span></span><br /><br /> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Based on the evidence thus far, filmmaker Neill Blomkamp has only one story to tell.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Elysium</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> feels much like his previous film, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2009/08/district-9-enthusiastic-10.html">District 9</a></i>, writ larger: another saga of oppressed “aliens” seeking a way to rebel against their cruel and privileged overlords. The setting and opposing teams have changed slightly, and Blomkamp clearly has a bigger budget this time at bat, but the key plot points are essentially the same; even the hardware and weaponry look familiar.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6cn8Ok9CVI7HtLVOOe37VNtYP6oUKS-u6M5XChLzu0jhsHbsMU6YKb6RvOuwISWmRHu4Mz58v3XiXFQK3mhoGNI2ghh7wI8-XuHcFQMW96HFaAl7OtZwOOus6Haf2lC1jGHAay5u1UqM/s1600/Elysium+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6cn8Ok9CVI7HtLVOOe37VNtYP6oUKS-u6M5XChLzu0jhsHbsMU6YKb6RvOuwISWmRHu4Mz58v3XiXFQK3mhoGNI2ghh7wI8-XuHcFQMW96HFaAl7OtZwOOus6Haf2lC1jGHAay5u1UqM/s400/Elysium+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">His impulsive plans having failed yet again, Max (Matt Damon) finds himself trapped on<br />a medical table, while the coldly arrogant Delacourt (Jodie Foster) orders some<br />purloined computer data stripped from his brain ... not at all bothered by the fact that<br />this process will kill him.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That said, political oppression has been a big-screen sci-fi staple going all the way back to 1927’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Metropolis</i>, and it often produces great drama. So we can forgive Blomkamp the familiarity ... this time. (He would be wise, however, to move in a different direction henceforth.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The South African-born filmmaker has a solid eye and ear for social strife — no surprise, given his homeland — which contributed, in great part, to the narrative power of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">District 9</i>. Now embraced by the seductive lure of Hollywood, Blomkamp has turned his disapproving eye on the United States, and its dysfunctional immigration policy; the results aren’t likely to be embraced by red staters.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The year is 2154, and the entire Earth has become an environmental wasteland, ruined by industrial excess, land mismanagement, resource depletion and various other unchecked global horrors we currently practice, with no eye toward future consequences. Every country, in turn, has become part of a planetwide ghetto, the 99 percent left to scrabble and squabble among themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But not entirely. Movement and behavior are monitored by android peacekeepers that employ computer-chip tracking to maintain a veritable police state bereft of basic human decency. And humor: Just as it isn’t smart, in our here and now, to crack wise when stopped by a traffic cop, it is sheer folly to act smug with one of these gun-toting “law officers.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">George Orwell’s influence weighs heavily, and his vision has come to pass: Big Brother really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> watching, and doing so from a massive orbiting space station dubbed Elysium, where the very wealthy have fled in order to enjoy a life of pleasure and privilege among lush gardens and sparkling architecture. Automated med-bays can repair, reconstruct or eradicate anything, from broken bones to cancer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blomkamp knows his science-fiction, Elysium being a verdant cross between the domed forests of 1972’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Silent Running</i>, and the technological wonders of Larry Niven’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ringworld</i>novels.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><br /> <div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Travel takes place between Elysium and the surface, but only under carefully monitored conditions, and only involving the elite. One such individual is John Carlyle (William Fichtner), who supervises a massive industrial plant in the Spanish-speaking wasteland of greater Los Angeles. His employees include Max (Matt Damon), an orphan who grew up tough, flirted with car theft and other minor crimes, and now is trying to stay out of prison.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Desperate civilians, many of them ill and injured, routinely attempt to reach Elysium’s life-restoring embrace in shuttles stolen by Spider (Wagner Moura), a revolutionary-cum-human trafficker who knows Max from back in the day. It’s a perilous trip, particularly since Elysium’s Secretary of Defense — Jodie Foster, as Delacourt — deals with such incursions by blasting the shuttles out of the sky.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Any allusion to desperate Mexican migrants attempting to crash American borders is, of course, completely intentional.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Max has two staunch friends, although both relationships are compromised. Julio (Diego Luna) is a buddy from Max’s larcenous past, the life he’s trying to leave behind. Frey (Alice Braga) is the girl who left Max behind; although inseparable as children, she grew up to become a nurse — a respected occupation, even in these harsh surroundings — and Max simply wasn’t part of that career path.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One horrific industrial accident later, everything changes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now having nothing to lose, Max must — simply <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">must</i> — get to Elysium. He allows Spider’s men to bolt him into a strengthening exo-skeleton, complete with a computer port wired directly into his brain: necessary in order to clone an Earthbound Elysium official’s all-important ID and tracking data. Indignant fury prompts Max to choose Carlyle as his target, little knowing that the industrial magnate and Delacourt have their own sinister plans for Elysium’s future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Max gets far, far more than he bargained for, and suddenly is fleeing for his life: not only from every peacekeeping android in the city, but also from Kruger (Sharlto Copley), the psychopathic mercenary Delacourt has hired clandestinely, to do her Earthbound dirty work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Copley will be remembered as the hapless protagonist of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">District 9</i>: the low-level office wonk suddenly beset by dangers he scarcely comprehended. That’s the role Damon plays here, his Max trying to survive from one moment to the next, and having absolutely no idea how to improve his chances, or deal with revelations beyond his understanding.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s a solid heroic archetype, and Damon plays it well, making Max an essentially noble blue-collar type turned reluctant warrior. He’s certainly no superhero, even when outfitted with the exo-skeleton; he remains vulnerable, and we feel every trauma inflicted upon his increasingly scarred body.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Foster’s Delacourt is a chill piece of work: refined and elegant in the public eye — goodness, she even speaks <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">French</i> — and coldly ruthless behind the scenes. She’s every bit as evil as the feral Kruger; the only difference is that she can “pass” for gracious, when necessary, whereas he’s a berserker monster. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To my knowledge, Foster hasn’t played any outright villains until now; she does so here with considerable panache, every inch a conniving, soulless Lucrezia Borgia. She’s well-matched by Copley, whose Kruger is the stuff of nightmares: a sarcastic maniac who taunts his victims to their deaths, his heavy Afrikaner accent somehow making him even scarier.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fichtner is equally lethal, but in the calm, unruffled manner of a Gestapo general blandly sending another trainload of Jews into the ovens; human life simply has no value in Carlyle’s eyes. Luna, alternatively, deftly makes Julio the best of all possible loyal comrades.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Braga is every inch the woman worth fighting for, particularly when Frey is revealed to have a young daughter (Emma Tremblay) who is dying of leukemia.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the other end of the acting spectrum, Moura badly overplays the excitable Spider, making him more of a cartoon than a plausible character. Granted, Copley’s Kruger is a similar exaggeration, but we accept that in a heinous villain. It’s harder to get a bead on Spider, whose emotions swing as wildly as his motives ... and, let’s just say, he’s got impressive hacking skills.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blomkamp and his editors — Julian Clarke and Lee Smith — move the story along at an impressive clip; this is a fast-paced 109 minutes, which helps build tension and excitement. But those who remember <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">District 9</i> definitely will experience <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">déjà vu</i>: in the broader sense, in terms of how the first act progresses to the second, and then the third; and also with respect to details such as Max’s exo-skeleton and the body-shattering weapons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, as with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">District 9</i>, the action here is very, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">very</i> gory.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Production designer Philip Ivey does superlative work in contrasting Elysium’s pampered “haves” with the have-nots left on Earth. Establishing shots in Mexico’s poorest communities echo the Johannesburg slums of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">District 9</i>, whereas Vancouver’s lush suburbs double for Elysium. Special-effects coordinator Cameron Waldbauer does wonders with Elysium’s massive, wheel-shaped interior: a realized architectural miracle on par with the imaginative vistas within <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2010/07/inception-bad-dream.html">Inception</a></i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would like to know, however, how Elysium retains its essential atmosphere, since visiting ships simply “slip inside” the wheel, with no need for airlocks or similar details.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ultimately, Blomkamp’s scripted reach badly exceeds his grasp; he builds to a fairy-tale climax that’s simply absurd, raising far too many fresh questions that can’t possibly be answered. In that respect, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">District 9</i> was tighter, better plotted and more satisfying, its resolution completely reasonable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So while <i>Elysium</i> certainly doesn’t represent a sophomore slump, I hope Blomkamp has gotten this particular socio-political harangue out of his system, and can move on to something fresher next time.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><!--EndFragment-->

2013 action Alice Braga Diego Luna Emma Tremblay Jodie Foster Matt Damon Neill Blomkamp Sci-Fi Sharlto Copley Wagner Moura William Fichtner Elysium: District 10?

Elysium   (2013) •  View trailer   3.5 stars. Rating: R, for profanity, gore and strong bloody violence By  Derrick Bang Based o...

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2 Guns: 2 droll 2 be taken seriously

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><i>2 Guns</i> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>(2013) • <a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/2guns/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">View trailer</a></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b> </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>3.5 stars. Rating: R, for violence, profanity and brief nudity</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>By <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12885694730612878577" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">Derrick Bang</a> • </b></span>Originally published in <i><a href="http://www.davisenterprise.com/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">The Davis Enterprise</a></i>, 8.2.13</b></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This summer could be subtitled The Revenge of the Comic Book.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Or, perhaps, yet another reminder that imitation isn’t always the sincerest form of flattery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkA3LFk2Io1tzKM3lLj7F03LQ21jXcQbMcCH5T6fmH8Ll0vO7AsoQFEBiEK-TZawQFyIri6AbTxXtiQkOQJ9mLsNNlcLRSpV6p43OIfSiUlm57fOnlcmXjbBaq3P7L_r6Nen6dHCSfR-c/s1600/2+Guns+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkA3LFk2Io1tzKM3lLj7F03LQ21jXcQbMcCH5T6fmH8Ll0vO7AsoQFEBiEK-TZawQFyIri6AbTxXtiQkOQJ9mLsNNlcLRSpV6p43OIfSiUlm57fOnlcmXjbBaq3P7L_r6Nen6dHCSfR-c/s400/2+Guns+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Bobby (Denzel Washington, left) and Stig (Mark Wahlberg) eye each other warily,<br />navigating serious trust issues, while they wonder what to do with the drug kingpin<br />they've trapped in the trunk of their vehicle. As it turns out, that guy's gonna be the<br />least of their worries...</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t refer merely to obvious candidates such as <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2013/05/iron-man-3-ol-shell-head-triumphs-again.html">Iron Man 3</a></i>, <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-wolverine-claws-for-delight.html">Wolverine</a></i> or <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2013/06/man-of-steel-dull-as-iron.html">Man of Steel</a></i>. <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2013/07/red-2-twice-goofiness.html">RED 2</a></i> and <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2013/07/ripd-doa.html">R.I.P.D.</a></i> also are based on graphic novels, and the latter demonstrates the folly of believing that folks will queue up simply because something IS a big-screen adaptation of such a property.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Clever ideas are a great start, but they’re no substitute for a sharp screenplay that understands the need to <i>sustain</i> our involvement for the next few hours. Many of today’s one-shot graphic novels suffer from the same malady that infects numerous movies: a slick one-sentence concept that doesn’t know where to go from Page 3.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happily, <i>2 Guns</i> — derived from Steven Grant’s five-issue miniseries of the same title — rises above that level of mediocrity. Blake Masters’ screenplay is quite witty, and stars Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg get plenty of mileage from their snarky frenemy dynamic. If the core plot doesn’t always stand up to scrutiny, that probably wasn’t high on director Baltasar Kormákur’s goals anyway; he obviously set out to make a pleasurable popcorn flick, with enjoyable results. He achieves a tone that evokes pleasant memories of 1987’s <i>Lethal Weapon</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As was true with <i>RED 2</i>, we’re not that bothered by whatever propels our central characters, as long as they keep entertaining us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, credit where due, this film’s twisty first act definitely keeps us guessing. If my next few paragraphs seem unduly vague or misleading, blame a desire to preserve at least some of the early surprises.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We meet Bobby Trench (Washington) and Michael “Stig” Stigman (Wahlberg) as they case the Tres Cruces Savings & Loan from a diner across the street in a small Texas border town. Their goal seems decidedly larcenous, but they can’t <i>really</i> be bad guys, because they flirt so coyly with the waitress, and because they’re our stars, fercryinoutloud.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One flashback later, it appears that Stig and Bobby are trying to set up Papi Greco (Edward James Olmos), a drug kingpin who does his dirty work in Mexico, while leading what seems an ordinary life as husband and father in an upscale Texas community. At least, it <i>seems</i> like this is what’s going down, but the edges quickly get fuzzy; far too many additional players pop up at the fringes of this undercover sting ... if indeed that’s the game in the first place.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><br /> <div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Frustrated by an unconsummated drug deal that would have concluded the case, Stig and Bobby invade the aforementioned Savings & Loan, where they believe Papi Greco has stashed $3 million in a safe deposit box. One quick escape later, our astonished buddies realize they've snatched somewhere north of $40 million: a crazy amount of money that rings all sorts of alarm bells.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, in the blink of an eye, our heroes are targeted by not just one, nor two, but <i>four</i> sets of adversaries: Papi Greco’s goons; DEA agents led by Jessup (Robert John Burke) and Deb (Paula Patton), the latter having “serious history” with Bobby; U.S. Navy investigators led by Quince (James Marsden); and a seriously nasty group of guys fronted by the psychopathic Earl (Bill Paxton).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With so many gun-toting thugs on their tail — some of them wearing crisp Navy uniforms — Bobby and Stig begin to wonder if they can even trust each other. This rising paranoia adds plenty of amusing edge to their banter, which grows increasingly wary as each becomes more reluctant to turn his back during a firefight.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kormákur and Masters keep us guessing for quite some time; even when some alliances appear to be resolved, others remain uncertain. The result is a combustible brew that is fueled, throughout, by the well-timed quips traded by Washington and Wahlberg.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Washington remains a fascinating presence in every respect, down to the most innocuous moments; he moves like a panther and adds engaging body language to a simple walk across a room. His tough-guy blankness melts into mocking challenge or amused disbelief, as a scene demands; his guileless sincerity brings more credibility to this nonsense than you’d believe possible.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Point being: Unlike many actors, who would sleepwalk through such fluff, Washington <i>always</i> brings his A-game. And we admire him for it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Washington’s acutely focused Bobby contrasts nicely with Wahlberg’s amiable, language-mangling Stig. Wahlberg plays a guy who looks and acts dumber than he is: a misleading attitude that grants him an advantage more than once. Stig also is chatterbox, his relentless patter yet another means of distracting those around him. Trouble is, Bobby’s never sure if HE’S one of the people Stig intends to distract.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Paxton is memorably chilling as the über-nasty Earl, the sort of smiling, bland-faced killer that movies of this stripe love to serve up. Earl’s affectation involves forcing captured rivals to endure a few rounds of Russian roulette: a gimmick that comes with a speech that hearkens back to Clint Eastwood’s “I know what you’re thinking” monologue, in <i>Dirty Harry</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Marsden proves equally lethal, in a spit-and-polish manner, as Quince; Fred Ward makes the most of his brief appearance as a Navy admiral with a rather distressing means of “settling” some of the issues at hand. Olmos is quite persuasive as the sort of very bad fellow who knows that he never needs to raise his voice, because he’s the most powerful — and deadly — guy in the room.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Patton, so aggressively capable in 2011’s <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2011/12/mission-impossible-ghost-protocol.html">Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol</a></i>, does well with one of this story’s most complex roles. At first she seems little more than exploitative eye-candy, but Deb proves to have hidden depths.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The action dances from one side of the border to the other, and back again. Some of the plot sidebars are needlessly contrived, most notably a pointless detour while Bobby and Stig join a group of Papi Greco’s coyotes, as they herd some illegal immigrants into the United States. This seems a rather blatant — and gratuitous — political statement on Masters’ part.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kormákur burst on the scene with 2000’s <i>101 Reykjavík</i>, made in his native Iceland; more recently, he worked with Wahlberg on last year’s <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2012/01/contraband-slick-smarmy-and-suspenseful.html">Contraband</a></i>, a slick but otherwise average crime thriller. Although Kormákur has a gift for well-staged mayhem, he occasionally succumbs to irritating “artistic” tendencies, such as the aforementioned flashbacks that interfere with the flow of this film's first act.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Editor Michael Tronick cuts deftly but not intrusively, and keeps the pace lively; cinematographer Oliver Wood adds some grit with occasionally grainy film stock, but wisely doesn’t overuse the effect. I’m also grateful for the fact that, copious gunfire notwithstanding, the results are neither gory nor particularly bloody ... unless, that is, we include the chickens.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An unrelated factoid I can't resist sharing: This routine action thriller boasts a jaw-dropping 12 producers — or perhaps 24, depending on who’s counting — which begs the obvious question: What the heck did they all <i>do</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That notwithstanding, <i>2 Guns</i> is ideal summer entertainment: easy on the eyes and brain, with plenty of empty calories to keep us engaged for 109 minutes.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><!--EndFragment-->

2013 action Bill Paxton Denzel Washington Edward James Olmos Fred Ward James Marsden Mark Wahlberg Paul Patton 2 Guns: 2 droll 2 be taken seriously

2 Guns   (2013) •  View trailer   3.5 stars. Rating: R, for violence, profanity and brief nudity By  Derrick Bang  •  Originally published i...

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The Wolverine: Claws for delight

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><i>The Wolverine</i> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>(2013) • <a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox/thewolverine/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">View trailer</a></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b> </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>3.5 stars. Rating: PG-13, for intense sci-fi action, mild sensuality and fleeting profanity</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>By <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12885694730612878577" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">Derrick Bang</a> • </b></span>Originally published in <i><a href="http://www.davisenterprise.com/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">The Davis Enterprise</a></i>, 7.26.13</b></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve never understood why critics sharpened their claws so gleefully while savaging 2009’s <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2009/05/wolverine-feral-fun.html">X-Men Origins: Wolverine</a></i>. Few bona-fide actors have inhabited a superhero role with the panache Hugh Jackman brings to this Canadian-born berserker, and that earlier solo adventure was just fine, in my book.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGkWl7OKW822i2UkgU6fTgOpkvY2uRRu2Owp4GSv12ErN7UKjI6HzXFeRM4G8MVJ56tS8BkDTKm7onx6lvLvllgulrEyGihXcUlbdA3s7oJa7ydm0JB7pdSG2jU7Q5dQY5Z0xWFpuT_88/s1600/Wolverine+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGkWl7OKW822i2UkgU6fTgOpkvY2uRRu2Owp4GSv12ErN7UKjI6HzXFeRM4G8MVJ56tS8BkDTKm7onx6lvLvllgulrEyGihXcUlbdA3s7oJa7ydm0JB7pdSG2jU7Q5dQY5Z0xWFpuT_88/s400/Wolverine+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Logan (Hugh Jackman) finds himself helplessly manacled, his claws unable to extend,<br />as the sinister Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova) reveals that this imprisonment is<br />merely one element of her horrible plans. Still to appear: the dread Silver Samurai.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sure, it lacked the wit and overall snap of <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2012/05/avengers-well-assembled.html">The Avengers</a></i>, but that’s true of most big-screen superhero epics. The more important observation is that <i>X-Men Origins: Wolverine</i> was far, far better than, say, <i>Daredevil</i> or either <i>Fantastic Four</i> bomb.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, for the purposes of our discussion, Jackman’s newly released sequel. <i>The Wolverine</i>, is better still.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Writers Christopher McQuarrie, Mark Bomback and Scott Frank focus on the key element of Wolverine’s character: that he’s a modern <i>ronin</i>, a samurai without a lord or master to serve. This definition applies to the X-Men mythos in both comic books and big-screen adaptations, where Wolverine may or may not consider himself part of the team at any given moment, depending on recent events.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Building further on that core, McQuarrie & Co. have constructed a narrative from several of the X-Men/Wolverine comic book story arcs that found our clawed protagonist in Japan, a country that understands and practices the same warrior’s code of honor by which he lives. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perhaps the surprise success of the big-screen adaptation of <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2010/04/kick-ass-quite-kick.html">Kick-Ass</a></i> had something to do with this, thanks to that saga’s flamboyant, sword-wielding character of Hit Girl; perhaps it’s mere coincidence. Whatever the reason, we finally get live-action embodiments of Mariko Yashida and Yukio — characters co-created in the Marvel Comics universe by writer Chris Claremont and artists John Byrne and Frank Miller — and brought to excellent life by Tao Okamoto and Rila Fukushima, respectively (although costume designer Isis Mussenden shouldn’t have based the latter’s look <i>quite</i> so heavily from the aforementioned Hit Girl).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Angst-ridden journeys of the soul always make good sagas, and this one’s no exception. The core plot doesn’t always hold together — the barrage of double- and triple-crosses makes it rather difficult to separate some of the good guys from the bad guys — but the destination isn’t nearly as important as the trip itself.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One other caveat: McQuarrie, Bomback and Frank assume that viewers either know the Marvel universe or have seen all previous X-Men films, which I regard as mildly presumptuous. For the benefit of newbies, then, a few key facts left unexplained: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Logan (Wolverine) is essentially immortal, thanks to a scientific process that laced his bones with the indestructible metal allow adamantium, and a “healing factor” that quickly repairs all wounds. He’s also much older than one would expect, and doesn’t show his age. Finally, he’s currently consumed with guilt and grief over having been forced to kill X-Men teammate Jean Grey, when she “went evil” as Dark Phoenix (that crisis depicted in 2006’s <i>X-Men: The Last Stand</i>).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><br /> <div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This new solo adventure finds Logan brooding in an unspecified Canadian wilderness, surfacing to deal some payback to thrill-seeking hunters. That’s long enough to be noticed by Yukio, a feisty, sword-wielding samurai bodyguard. She has been sent to find Logan, and request that he accompany her back to Japan, where an old friend — Lord Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi), a wealthy industrialist — wishes to say goodbye before he dies.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We’re granted Yashida’s back-story via a series of brief flashbacks that occasionally interrupt the core story, and we gradually learn that Logan saved the young Japanese soldier from certain death when American forces dropped its second atomic bomb on Nagasaki during World War II. A grateful Yashida tried to present his ceremonial sword to Logan at that point, but the latter gently refused, promising to collect it at some unspecified time in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That time appears to have arrived, and honor demands that Logan grant his long-ago comrade’s dying wish.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Logan and Yukio arrive at Yashida’s heavily guarded estate at a tempestuous time. The elderly industrialist hovers at death’s door, despite the best efforts of his doctor (Svetlana Khodchenkova), a sinister-looking, green-eyed blonde. Logan is equally curious about Yashida’s granddaughter, Mariko, who seems to have serious issues with her curt and condescending father, Shingen (acclaimed stage and film star Hiroyuki Sanada).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Business intrigue fills the air, with Yashida’s imminent death necessitating the transfer of his corporate empire to ... somebody. This instability has prompted threats from local Yakuza thugs, under the control of ... somebody. Then there’s the mysterious Kenuichio Harada (Will Yun Lee), a master archer and member of the Black Hand, a cadre of ninja warriors tasked with protecting House Yashida. Harada, in turn, answers to ... somebody.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ordinarily, these disparate elements would ring Wolverine’s heightened alarm bells, but he’s further distracted by an offer from the dying Lord Yashida, who claims — after years of medical research — to have discovered a way to remove Logan’s invulnerability, thus allowing him to live a normal life, and then die gracefully. Logan, beset by constant nightmares involving Jean Grey (Famke Janssen, returning to her role), finds the offer tempting. Perhaps.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But then all hell breaks loose, with Yakuza goons, Black Hand warriors, Yashida’s bodyguards and other persons unspecified shooting, slicing and dicing each other. Mariko appears to be the primary target, and so Logan takes her under his wing as they flee across Japan. Along the way, he discovers — to his horror — that his healing factor doesn’t seem to work any more. He’s being <i>hurt</i> ... and with Mariko to protect from massive enemy forces, this sudden weakness couldn’t have come at a worse time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On top of which — and this really isn’t a spoiler, since her cover is blown pretty quickly — Yashida’s doctor turns out to be Viper, an über-deadly supervillain with a ghastly snake’s tongue and a rather novel method of dispersing venom.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although these numerous elements allow director James Mangold to stage plenty of slickly choreographed action scenes — none better than a crazed, hell-for-leather skirmish atop the cars of a speeding bullet train — he also ratchets back to allow Logan plenty of time for soul-searching, along with time for the developing bond with Mariko.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Indeed, this film resonates — lingers as more than a flashy series of battle scenes — because of Logan’s deftly crafted relationships with Mariko and Yukio. Okamoto lends gentleness, dignity and unexpected flashes of defiant spirit to her complex portrayal of Mariko, who transcends the superficial characters generally found in such films. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m reminded of the way both Akiko Wakabayashi and Mie Hama similarly humanized the otherwise cartoonish elements of 1967’s <i>You Only Live Twice</i>, along the way encouraging more heartfelt emotion from Sean Connery’s James Bond, than that film probably deserved. The same is true here; Okamoto is a well-conceived and sensitively played heroine-in-peril, who in true Shakespearean fashion must contend with a family not known for its finer instincts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Logan’s growing bond with Yukio, on the other hand, is purely professional: the mutual admiration of professional assassins. Fukushima is equal parts sparkle and sass as this jokey, black-garbed killer with day-glo purple cellophane tresses, and the actress knows how to employ her mocking smile before dispatching another goon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Khodchenkova is deliciously, shiveringly scary as Viper, clearly up to no good from the moment we meet her. Sanada is properly imperious as Mariko’s father, while Brian Tee is memorably smarmy as Noburo Mori, a jerk businessman betrothed to Mariko.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The blank-faced Lee, alas, doesn’t make much of an impression as Harada.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Production designer François Audouy has a field day with the various Japanese locales, from the soothing calm of a small fishing community, to the palatial surrounds of Lord Yashida’s home, and the mountain-hugging opulence of the third-act Big Bad Villains’ lair. Mangold and editor Michael McCusker pace their film well, so that it doesn’t flag at 126 minutes, and cinematographer Ross Emery grants both painterly beauty and big-city bustle to these disparate settings within the Land of the Rising Sun.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the other hand, the after-the-fact (i.e. fake) 3D effects add nothing to the film, so save your money.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All told, this is a solid superhero entry: a stylish romp with a welcome undertone of character pathos. And it clearly sets up events for next year’s <i>X-Men: Days of Future Past</i>, so be sure to linger in your seats until <i>all</i> the credits are done.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><!--EndFragment-->

2013 action Famke Janssen fantasy Hiroyuki Sanada Hugh Jackman Rila Fukushima Sequel Series superhero Svetlana Khodchenkova Tao Okamoto Will Yun Lee x-men The Wolverine: Claws for delight

The Wolverine   (2013) •  View trailer   3.5 stars. Rating: PG-13, for intense sci-fi action, mild sensuality and fleeting profanity By  Der...

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