The planet Krypton is facing total annihilation. Before that happens, though, a desperate and anguished couple slip their newborn son, naked and wriggling, into a small spacecraft and send him soaring off to a new world a universe away. They rocket him to a planet called Earth. On that blue orb bathed by its yellow sun, their baby is taken in by a Kansas farm couple with the last name of Kent.
Sound familiar?
Of course it does. It's the origin story of one Clark Kent—a boy from another world who's destined to gain superhuman powers and do miraculous things.
In this version of the comic-book-to-big-screen tale, though, Clark's human parents earnestly worry about what could happen to their beloved son if someone found out about him. They're sure that even in their middle America hometown of Smallville—a tiny little town filled with large hearts—people wouldn't fully accept having a superpowered alien in their midst. And so they warn their boy to keep his many abilities hidden.
That's not so easy to do, of course, when you're a kid who can see through people's skin or hear a pin drop on the other side of town. And it's not so simple when you're a hormones-raging teen who can bend steel with his bare hands and shoot lasers from his eyes.
So by the time Clark grows into a young man, he's feeling pretty lost, pretty confused and pretty alone. He wanders the land, taking odd jobs and trying to keep himself invisible.
But he just can't keep himself from being helpful.
When things go wrong and people get hurt, he can't help but brave a fire to save someone, or stand as an unmovable wall between the innocent and their tormentors. He can't resist the idea of being the guy who aids the needy, no matter how wise his parents warnings may be.
"It's the most realistic movie I've made," director Zack Snyder (who helmed Watchmen, 300 and Dawn of the Dead) recently told the L.A. Times. "There's no tongue in anyone's cheek. I'm not apologizing for Superman in any way. I'm saying, 'Superman is a thing that must be taken seriously and embraced and understood.'"
Indeed, his version of the now 75-year-old superhero story is straightforward and earnest. It's an honest-to-goodness sci-fi opera that reflects both the classic roots and the modern comic book sensibilities of its well-known superhero legend.
That's not to say there aren't a few threads to pick at on this well-woven supersuit. A death dealt by Superman's own hand, for instance, is a choice that flies in the face of the hero's canon. It's a seemingly unavoidable consequence that leaves the superguy in anguish, but one that purists will hate, nonetheless, and that more casual fans will likely find a bit disquieting. And while we're on the subject of death, there's the hard-core action flick side of things to consider:
Man of Steel certainly doesn't skimp when it comes to all things flying faster than speeding bullets. Its pace is quick, and its CGI spectacle is impressive. The sheer destruction wreaked upon Metropolis alone—with brawling supers and alien spacecraft bulldozing skyscrapers into dust while earthling multitudes scamper and run and, surely, perish by the thousands in the rubble—out-whiz-bangs even Marvel's The Avengers. (And that's not entirely a compliment.)
But then we come to what Snyder calls Superman's "inherent goodness." The director says, "If you really think about it, you still want him to be right and to make the right choices and to do the right thing. I think that we all hope for that in ourselves, and I think that's what always has made him a very interesting character. He's a Christ-like figure. There's no two ways about it."
Different generations parent differently. That's the crux of the conflict in Parental Guidance,
a sweet, funny story about what happens when old-school Grandpa and
Grandma show up to take care of three coddled-and-sheltered kiddos so
that new-school mom and dad can head out of town.
Alice and Phil
are the epitome of the contradiction that is parenting in the 21st
century. On one hand, they're so engrossed in their never-ending,
boundary-blurring jobs (he's a high-tech inventor, she's a website
designer for ESPN) that they argue over who needs to put down the
smartphone to tend to their three children's basic needs—like, say,
making them breakfast.
But that list of basic needs is
longer than it's ever been. It includes making sure 12-year-old Harper
gets violin practice done so she can ace an audition to get into a
prestigious prep school that will qualify her for Julliard which is the
launching pad for a spot in the Berlin Philharmonic. It includes taking
middle child Turner, an oft-bullied stutterer, to speech therapy, where
he's not actually required to speak, lest the demand inflict more
damage on his psyche. And it includes making conversation with Carl, an
invisible kangaroo who is the companion of Barker, a wild, willful
terror who never goes anywhere without Carl—and woe to anyone who acts
as if the kangaroo isn't there.
And then there are the
restrictions. No sugar. No MSG. No dairy. No gluten. No real eggs in the
kids' "eggless" salad sandwiches. No real meat in their "soysages." No
outs or keeping score at Pee Wee baseball (lest anyone feel bad). No hot
dogs at the games (lest anyone get cancer). No coloring inside the lines (lest anyone's imagination be impaired). No raising of voices when angry.
For
Alice and Phil, then, parenting represents an endlessly demanding task,
lest their precious flowers experience any damage, any disappointment,
any discouragement that might prevent them from reaching full,
magnificent bloom.
That's not how Alice herself was raised, of course. No, Alice's parents—the other
grandparents, the ones who are only called in when utterly, absolutely
necessary, and probably not even then—raised her a bit … differently.
Artie
Decker is the longtime announcer for the Fresno Grizzlies, a minor
league baseball team. For 35 years, his career took him this way and
that, with wife Diane and Alice always in tow, always playing second
fiddle to Dad's vocational dreams. As for Diane, well, she lands
somewhere between "free spirit" and "loose cannon" on the discipline
spectrum.
But when Phil gets unexpectedly invited to a
conference where he might receive an award for his high-tech "R Life"
smart-house invention, Artie and Diane are the only ones who can take
care of the kids on short notice.
What was that about parental guidance, again?
Positive Elements
Alice and Phil want the best for their children. So do
their grandparents. The rub? These two pairs of adults have vastly
different ideas of what that looks like.
Alice and Phil's
approach majors in eliminating risk and tending to their children's
every need. That, however, has resulted in three very demanding kiddos
who always have to have things exactly their way.
Artie and Diane, in contrast, prize a more fluid, free-form life experience. And that results in chaos occasionally.
Lessons can be learned by watching both approaches.
At
first their grandparents prove disorienting to the kids. But we see
them begin to adapt, even having a few breakthrough moments, such as
experiencing the joy of playing a messy, old-fashioned game of Kick the
Can.
Alice is deeply fearful of her parents undermining the work
she and Phil have done. And, truth be told, she has some reason to feel
that way. But in the end she realizes that her parents' influence has
been a positive one. Along the way, she and her father also (in a
poignant way) mend years of damage that his self-absorbed ways have
unintentionally inflicted. And she comes to grip with the reality that
her overwrought approach to everything in her children's lives might not be the best way to do things after all.
For
his part, Artie is forced to do some growing and stretching too. Diane
confronts her husband about his selfishness, and Artie admits that he's
made some mistakes. Those admissions pave the way for a renewal of his
relationship with Alice.
Diane also encourages her daughter to spend as much time working on her marriage as she does tending to her children.
Sexual Content
We see Phil and Alice in bed. (She's wearing
conservative pajamas bottoms and a spaghetti strap top.) They flirt and
kiss. And it's suggested that "romance" is on the menu when these two
overworked parents have a chance to get away. Diane later tells her
daughter it doesn't matter that her bag was on another flight because,
"I don't think [Phil] wants you in clothes."
Diane wears some
cleavage-baring outfits. She brags about how she used to wear tight
dresses to get jobs as a TV weather woman. When Alice wants to get
Harper a conservative dress for her violin audition, Grandma picks out a
sleeveless cocktail number instead. Diane pushes the tweenage Harper
further into her budding relationship with a boy, helping her get
dressed in a slinky getup and putting on makeup to go to a party at his
house.
When Artie talks about licking his wounds after being fired, Diane suggestively says, "I'll
lick your wounds." Trying to get Barker out of his car seat, Artie
jokes, "This is harder than one of your grandma's bras." He says of a
skateboarding move called the melon grab, "My cousin got arrested for
melon grabbing on the subway." At a Fresno Grizzlies game, we see two
couples kiss. Speaking about the Facebook practice of "poking," a man
tells Artie, "I wouldn't want to poke you."
Diane and several of her friends do a pole dancing exercise routine.
Violent Content
Artie counsels Turner to confront a bully named Ivan. He
does, and the result is black eyes for both boys. (Their fight isn't
shown.) Ivan also hits Artie in the crotch with a baseball bat. The pain
causes Grandpa to vomit on the boy. Artie falls about six feet to the
floor from an auditorium balcony. Playing Kick the Can, Artie accidently
clocks Diane in the face, giving her a bloody nose.
Barker's
imaginary kangaroo Carl eventually runs away into a street and gets hit
by a car. Barker narrates what he sees at the imaginary scene of the
accident, saying the animal's head has been cut off.
Crude or Profane Language
One to three uses each of "freaking" and "gosh."
Disparaging comments include "stupid." Grandpa tells his grandkids they
can call him Artie, and Barker responds, "Can I call you Fartie?" The name sticks.
Drug and Alcohol Content
Phil and Alice are shown drinking beer and wine on
vacation. After a confrontation between Alice and Harper, Mom is shown
with a glass of wine. A hard morning getting kids to school prompts
Artie to say, "It's 9:00 a.m. I need a martini."
Diane
not-so-helpfully tells her granddaughter that one night she got "bombed"
before a big TV audition. Harper responds, "So you're saying I should
drink?"
Newsreel footage of an old baseball game shows a man smoking a cigar.
Other Negative Elements
Artie lies to his wife. And no matter what you might
think about Alice and Phil's rules, there's no excuse for her parents to
defy them so flagrantly.
In a misguided attempt to connect with Turner, Artie decides to watch the horror movie Saw
with him (despite the film's content warning—which we see as
well—alluding to strong graphic violence, nudity and language). They
don't watch much before turning it off with shocked expressions on their
faces. Grandpa repeatedly pays Barker cash to get him to do what he
wants him to do (such as not wearing high heels).
One
goofy gag revolves around a water pistol, Artie's pants and Diane trying
to dry his crotch area. Artie refuses to take Barker to the bathroom
during an X Games announcing audition. The boy then urinates (we see the
stream) on the skateboarding half pipe, causing skating legend Tony
Hawk to wipe out. Another bathroom snicker has Artie singing to Barker
in a public restroom. Apparently it's the only way the boy can overcome
his constipation. And so the song begins, "Come out, come out, Mr.
Doodoo," and goes on from there. The joke amps up a notch when other men
in the restroom can't see Artie's feet and wonder what's happening.
There's talk about toilet paper preferences and a scene in which Artie
runs out of the paper.
At a Grizzlies game, Artie comments meanly
about a man's choice of bride as images of the pair getting engaged
flash across the big screen. He treats Turner's speech therapist rudely.
Diane does the same to Harper's demanding violin teacher.
While
being patted down at an airport, Artie tells a TSA agent, "What are you
looking for, sailor? I'll help you out." Then he turns his head and
coughs.
Conclusion
Plugged In knows a thing or two about parental guidance. Our
publication actually started out with that phrase as its moniker. So it
was with some anticipation that I settled in to watch what Hollywood
might do with the concept. Turns out, Walden Media's Parental Guidance
delivers a story that pulls off sweet and sentimental without being
cloying or annoying. Billy Crystal and Bette Midler are believable and
(mostly) likeable as grandparents who split the difference between
reckless zaniness and old-fashioned horse sense when it comes to raising
kids.
But given that title, it seems especially appropriate
for me to point out content that parents might want to be aware of, such
as a fairly long list of mild toilet humor gags, endless repetitions of
Fartie, and some sly sexual innuendo. Not so sly are the pole dancing exercises and Grandpa showing Saw to a kid.
Thankfully, it's a negative-elements list that's certainly much shorter than what I'd have to compile while watching virtually any
sitcom on primetime TV these days. Not deafening applause, I know. But
it is still praise. And I'll end with another morsel of it: Parental Guidance
clearly illustrates the value of family and the importance of
intergenerational wisdom when it comes to bringing up kids in 21st
century.
The year is 2077, and Earth has seen better days.
A few decades back, an alien force attacked the planet. And while the
good guys (that'd be us) apparently won, the aftermath is pretty grisly.
The moon's been crushed, and terra firma has been torn apart by both
natural catastrophe and nuclear fallout. It seems as though civilization
has decided to pack it all in, board up the place and move out.
Jack
and Victoria are, essentially, part of the planet's cleanup crew. As
massive machines syphon up precious water (which is converted into fuel,
we're told, for a trip to Saturn's moon Titan), the two work to protect
the machines from the remnants of the opposition—known colloquially as
"scavs." Fearsome, orb-like drones do most of the actual defending, mind
you. But they can be a bit cantankerous, and it's Jack's job to keep
the things up and running. Victoria, meanwhile, serves as a
communications conduit between Jack and their bosses who are already
holed up on a massive spaceship.
It's not particularly glamorous
work. In fact, it can be downright depressing, given the dilapidated
state of the surroundings. Victoria's ready to join the rest on the
spaceship and be on her way to Titan. But Jack, he still has some
affection left for 'ol Mother Earth. In fact, he's found some pockets of
the place that seem downright homey—beautiful, even.
Plus, he's having some weird dreams.
Jack
dreams of a world before the war. Of a city untouched by holocaust. Of a
building—the Empire State Building—towering over a teeming antwork of
bustle. Of a woman he's never known but still seems so familiar. So
vibrant. So loving. So alive.
He's not supposed to be having
dreams like this. His employers even erased his memory before he took
the job to make sure of it. He's a cog—a drone himself, of sorts. He's
got a job to do, and Jack, despite his odd emotions, is determined to do
it.
Then one day a vessel crashes to the ground—an old, prewar
vehicle of some sort. Jack sees it fall and, over Victoria's
protestations, goes to investigate. There, in the wreckage, he sees
capsules holding humans—men and women in deep sleep. And through one of
the windows, he sees the woman, literally, of his dreams.
The discovery jolts Jack with a host of questions: Who is she? Do I know her? Does she know me?
And why do the drones seem so eager to blow her to bits?
Positive Elements
Oblivion's major characters all have good intentions. Everyone wants to do the right thing, as they see it. (What's right
sometimes turns out to be horribly wrong, but that's largely beyond
these folks' control or even knowledge.) Victoria wants to do a good job
and in so doing get herself and Jack to Titan in one piece. The scavs,
we learn, just want to survive (and we can't really quibble with them
for that). The strange woman—Julia's her name—wants to uncover the truth
of this unfamiliar world in which she's found herself.
Jack is
as well-intentioned as anyone. He wants, simply, to help humanity
survive. And because he keeps that strategic goal always in mind, it
allows him to switch his tactical objectives when necessary and become
the hero humanity needs him to be.
In the end, Jack and others
show a willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice for a greater good.
And we see that with courage and perseverance, life can go on in even
the most trying of circumstances. We also get a good look at the power
of love between a man and his wife ... a power and a pull that extend
beyond even unfathomable obstacles.
Spiritual Content
Jack is a book lover, and every now and then he'll pick
up an old tome in his travels. The line from one such work, Lays of Ancient Rome
by Thomas Macaulay, features a stanza that holds particular spiritual
resonance for Jack (and serves to emphasize his sacrificial heroism):
And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his Gods?
Later, Jack quotes the lines to a fearsome alien entity. It retorts, "I created you, Jack. I am your god." (Jack does not take kindly to that bit of presumption.)
[Spoiler Warning]
Jack is a clone who retains memories of his original template. Now, the
very presence of a clone can be deemed spiritually torturous, and how
it's dealt with here could spark a good deal of thought and discussion.
And the filmmakers seem to anticipate such discussion—probing the
concepts of what it means to be human, to be a person. Is it a matter of
simple biology? Or is there more involved? The movie ultimately
suggests there's more, though it does not necessarily follow a Christian
worldview. "If we have souls," we hear Jack say, "they're made out of
the love we share, undimmed by time, unbound by death."
Sexual Content
Jack is romantically involved with Victoria. They share a
bed and shower (we see her from the back and side, revealing part of
her breast). It's implied that they have sex in a private pool after
Victoria disrobes and dives in. (She's in shadow as she sheds her dress,
but she's seen fully from behind; her nude body is more illuminated
under the water.) She then pulls a clothed Jack into the water; he takes
off his shirt while swimming, and the two kiss and twine underneath the
surface.
In the complexities of Oblivion, Jack is, in a
way, married to Julia. We see them kiss and hug, and by way of a child
born later, it's suggested that the two also have sex. (She leads him
out of the frame, and the next morning they wake up in the same bed.)
We see naked adults floating in artificial "wombs."
Violent Content
Most of the violence is either perpetrated by or
directed at the mechanized drones. Several people are blasted by
them—zapped right out of the movie, as it were. (We don't see dead
bodies, and there is very little blood or gore.) One man is knocked into
a wall by a careening drone, but recovers in time to shoot it.
Jack
deals with several nonlethal but painful encounters. He engages in a
firefight with scavs in which he's nearly dragged into a gaping crevasse
and suffers what must be at least a 20-foot drop. He's hit in the head
with a rifle butt, leaving his face bloody and a lingering cut on his
nose. A melee involves kicks and punches and an incapacitating choke
hold.
It looks like Julia is about to be executed, with a gun
put to her head. And in another scene she's shot in the stomach. (We see
her bloody shirt and a blood-covered hand that was on the wound.) She's
healed with an effective-but-painful surgical tool. (We hear her
screams.)
Drones are demolished. Stuff blows up. People die in a nuclear blast. There's talk of starving to death.
Crude or Profane Language
One f-word and five or six s-words. Milder exclamations
include "b‑‑ch," "h‑‑‑" and "p‑‑‑ed." God's name is misused four or five
times, often with "d‑‑n."
Drug and Alcohol Content
Somebody smokes a big ol' cigar. Others use or brandish
futuristic syringes with drugs in them. Jack and Julia recount the
dreams they had for their married life, including how they'd "fight and
maybe drink too much."
Other Negative Elements
Julia vomits up "breathing fluid."
Conclusion
"Everybody dies," Jack tells an adversary. "The thing is to die well."
Oblivion is a clever sci-fi thriller designed to show us that there are things worth living and
dying for. That while we may feel insignificant at times—just one of
several billion people crawling around on Planet Earth—we can still live
lives full of meaning and purpose.
Oblivion also
reminds me of some of the flimsy films I used to watch and enjoy in my
teens and early 20s. It's meant to be a fun popcorn muncher, and (never
you mind what I just wrote in the last paragraph) its philosophical
ponderings are as much window dressing as anything.
That's never
license to check your brain at the box office, of course. In fact, it
could be argued that the question of Jack's and Victoria's discernment
skills—related to whom they're listening to and taking orders from—might
be the movie's central source of tension. It's a concept that makes me
think about why we write these Plugged In reviews to begin
with. Because there's much to discern here—not in the sense of rejecting
or accepting out of hand, but weighing carefully and thoughtfully.
Oblivion's
violence isn't extreme, but it is pervasive. Its sensuality isn't
obscene, but certainly it's impossible to ignore. Its worldview is both
strangely affirming and subtly corrosive. And that puts this flick in
something of a broad no-man's-land when it comes to thoughtful
moviegoing, perhaps a bit like Earth circa 2077. This isn't a bad film, really—and yet it's more of a war zone than you might think.
It's been said that clothes make the man.
Sure, God may care what's on the inside, but the world is different. What we wear becomes social shorthand, a way to discern and judge and often misjudge the people we meet. An oil-stained shirt and pair of overalls tells us something. An Armani suit says something else. An emblazoned T-shirt might trigger a chuckle or a school suspension. We cover ourselves in cotton and cashmere and designer labels, and there's a danger that we can lose ourselves underneath it all.
For years, Tony Stark has been defined by his suit—not a cotton or wool or silk number, but a blend made from exotic metals and embedded computers and super-powerful mini-engines. Sure, he may still be a genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist underneath it all. And yet, strip the iron from Iron Man and you have, merely, a man.
Stark is feeling all too mortal these days. He can't sleep. He's subject to debilitating panic attacks. His Avengers-sponsored sojourn to New York left the man a shell of his former self—funny, given that the man's self-made shell has embodied him for so long.
But evil cares little about Tony's lingering psychoses. Whenever Iron Man strikes down one threat, another rises to take its place, and this time it's embodied in the Mandarin. Bedazzled in rings and cloaked in mystery, this bin Laden-style leader hijacks America's airwaves and promises to shower death and terror on the nation's people.
And when one of his attacks injures Tony's longtime bodyguard, Tony's had enough. A furious Stark calls out the Mandarin in the media, inviting the terrorist to stop by for a taste of terminal justice. The Mandarin does—by proxy. Helicopters blow apart Stark's Malibu mansion, burying the billionaire's high-tech toys in rubble or ocean. And while Iron Man still lives, his metallic shell has been rocked to its core, energy sapped, defenses breeched, computerized brain useless.
Tony Stark is a superhero emperor without clothes, a genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist without a supersuit. He lives, yes. But without his metallic cocoon, is he still a hero? Can he still save the world?
Positive Elements
Tony Stark is at times stripped of his iron in Iron Man 3. And that allows for this bit of positivity: We see that the suits are mere tools. Because Tony's forced to go without his armor, we better see his less digitized attributes. His brains. His ingenuity. His relentless drive.
The underlying message—that even the best technology is only as good as the people using it—is timely. There are moments when many of us can turn to the latest manmade invention as a savior of sorts, be it a new weapon or medical advance or smartphone. And yet we see here that they, like Iron Man's suits, are merely tools that can be used for whatever ends we choose.
Of course we see plenty of traditional superheroism as well. Iron Man saves loads of people during this cinematic adventure. But he, in turn, is saved … by girlfriend Pepper, by Col. Rhodes, by a kid he meets in Tennessee. So the point is again driven home that we can all be heroic. We can all do good work even if we don't have a superpowered jumpsuit.
We also hear ruminations on the nature of evil—a force that's pretty sneaky here. "We make our own demons," Tony says—demons often born of our own moral compromises and mistakes. And as such, Iron Man 3 offers two distinct morals: We need to be careful in what we do and how we act toward other people. We must try to avoid those moral compromises because they'll likely corrupt us in the end. But the movie insists that we can also overcome our mistakes if we have the courage and determination to do so.
Spiritual Content
There's little overt spirituality here. But Tony and others make several glancing religious references. As mentioned, Tony classifies evildoers and crises as "demons." When he and Rhodes face off against a cadre of evildoers, Tony says, "It's Christmas. Take 'em to church." He says that the Mandarin speaks like a "Baptist preacher." We see crosses at a memorial.
Tony visits the scene of a disaster with a kid named Harley. The bomb blast was so hot it vaporized the victims and left their shadows on the surrounding walls. So, why five shadows when six people died, one being the bomber? The shadows indicate that the victims were accepted into heaven, Harley tells Tony (recounting a local legend). The fact that the bomber had no shadow means he went to hell. (Tony is skeptical.)
We hear references that our bodies and minds are essentially machines and computers "destined" for an upgrade.
Though the Mandarin is not apparently motivated by religion, the images we see of him will remind many of Middle Eastern terrorists typically inspired by radical Islam.
Sexual Content
Tony and Pepper are now officially an item, and the two live together. We see them kiss and share a bed. We hear Pepper invite Tony to take a shower with her.
We're also witness to a flashback to 1999 and Tony's womanizing past. He goes up to a hotel room with a promising female scientist; she wants to show him her research, but he's far more interested in her. They trade sexual innuendo before falling into bed together. (The next morning Tony's gone.) Credits include clips of previous Iron Man movies showing Tony with several scantily clad beauties.
Lots of women strut about in bikinis and other skin-baring tops. We see Pepper in her sports bra. (Tony asks why she doesn't dress like that around the house.) Other women wear just bras and panties. A man is in the company of two women, both of whom wear negligees and share his bed. Various sexual and anatomical allusions are made.
Violent Content
After Pepper kills a bad guy (for what would seem like the 14th time), she turns, horrified, to Tony. "That was really violent!" she says.
And she's right. In fact, the whole movie is really violent. And while we certainly come to expect a level of chaos and carnage in these sorts of superflicks (I've yet to hear of a superhero film based on the exploits of the Avenging Pacifist), this one comes with more of an edge than you might expect.
The first act of terrorism we witness takes place in Hollywood's Chinese Theatre, filled with innocent tourists who are (mostly) utterly vaporized. (We see Tony's bodyguard lying on the ground, his face severely gouged.) The scene might make some moviegoers think of the Boston Marathon bombings, and indeed, the Mandarin makes it a point of pride to hit America in the fashion of a terrorist—striking out at civilian targets and gloating over the results. He talks about how his men attacked a Middle Eastern church filled with the spouses and children of American military personnel, comparing it to the 1864 Sand Creek, Colo., massacre (when American troops killed Native American women and children while the braves were away).
But even discounting moments of uncomfortable real-world parallels, some of the scenes here are still downright disturbing. The evildoers don't make use of mere suicide bombers, but people who actually explode—heating up from the inside out until they pop like kiln-heated sausages. There is very little gore, but the people in the throes of this transformation are obviously in horrible pain, and we see the heat radiate from their skin, eyeballs and mouths. We see veins and bones outlined by the literal light from within.
You can probably guess from all this that the body count is pretty high, what with the innocent civilians destroyed by the Mandarin's men and the scads of evildoers laid low by Tony, Rhodes and their phalanx of armor-plated suits. People are bashed and smashed and crashed. They get hit with fists and feet and bullets and jet-like weapons and flying metallic gloves and grand pianos. They're burned or superheated or submerged in water or thrown into walls or plunged into massive fires or flung from aircraft.
We see someone's mangled body hanging lifelessly from telephone wires. Another person has an arm sliced off. An attacker is choked with a pair of handcuffs before her neck burns through the metal. It's suggested that someone takes a bullet to the head live on television. We see images of war and violence on TV. A man is strung up above an immolating pool of oil.
Tony painfully injects sensors into his arms. He crashes in his suit. His suit crashes into him.
We hear how someone contemplated suicide.
Crude or Profane Language
One s-word. Four or five uses each of "a‑‑," "d‑‑n" and "h‑‑‑." We also hear "p‑‑‑ed" twice and that same number of "bloody." There's one use of "b‑‑ch," one of "p‑‑‑y" and one of "d--k." There are more than a dozen misuses of God's name (once paired with "d‑‑n").
Drug and Alcohol Content
A villain admits to having substance abuse problems before his evil employees found him. Tony asks if they helped him get off the stuff. No, the villain says. "They offered me more." We see him drink beer. Others down wine and champagne. Tony lounges in a huge wine cellar.
Other Negative Elements
Tony makes light of Harley's father leaving the family. A super-smelly bathroom serves as the setting for a joke or groan or two.
Conclusion
The original 2008 Iron Man was, arguably, the film that truly launched our current era of supercharged summer superhero blockbusters. Yes, Spider-Man was a huge hit in 2002 and Batman and Superman had success well before then. But until Robert Downey Jr. slid into his CGI suit and helped its makers collect an unexpected $318 million domestically, the true potential of the multiplex superhero had not been fully appreciated.
But I'll argue that it was the story, not the CGI, that propelled Iron Man to such heights. There was narrative power behind all the splashy special effects—an almost spiritual spotlight of sorts that tracked a shallow, shortsighted man on a journey of penance and redemption.
And that makes Iron Man 3 a bit of a disappointment.
Oh, it's splashy and exciting and filled with Downey's roguish charm. There were certainly moments of heroism, bravery and sacrifice. And perhaps the spectacle alone will make this, for some, the favorite of the three.
And yet there's a promise unfulfilled here, particularly if this is (as is rumored) Downey's last turn in the Iron Man suit. All the movie's high wire hijinks betray, in a way, the promise of the trailer—which suggests this Iron Man flick might have the weight of the first, or the depth found in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. I had hoped to be inspired. Instead, I was merely entertained.
Iron Man 3 is what you've come to expect from a standard superhero movie, then. It's chock-full of glossy graphics. It boasts frivolous (kiss kiss) sensuality and mounds of discomforting (bang bang) violence. It's somewhat ironic, I suppose: A movie that forces Tony Stark out of his suit is itself unwilling to take the same chance, cocooning itself in piles of popcorn when it could've showed us its soul.
More
Monday, 11 March 2013
AFTER EARTH MOVIE REVIEW
Shyamalan’s project takes place one thousand years after humanity has
evacuated Earth, as a legendary warrior (Will Smith) and his
inexperienced son (Jaden Smith) crash-land on the planet surface –
forcing the latter to prove himself and seek help for his injured
father, by exploring a mysterious world populated by lifeforms which
have evolved to protect themselves from the human race. After Earth marks the first occasion where Shyamalan did not
direct his own script; he instead used an original screenplay written
by Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli) and subsequently revised by Oscar-winner Stephen Gaghan (Traffic, Candy Store). In addition to The Smiths (the former Fresh Prince and son, not the band), the cast includes Zoë Kravitz (X-Men: First Class), Oscar-nominee Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) and Isabelle Fuhrman (The Hunger Games).
This second After Earth preview expands on the previous teaser
by diving further into the father-son relationship, which serves as the
core of Shyamalan’s sci-fi flick – on both the surface and a deeper
thematic level, in keeping with the filmmaker’s traditional approach of
using popcorn movies to explore heady philosophical ideas (to a fault,
in his recent efforts). So far, though, Shyamalan seems to have brought
his storytelling A-game to the table.
Meanwhile, the film’s vision of a
long-abandoned Earth populated by creatures and flora stand apart as
something evocative and relatively unique, even given certain
similarities to recent sci-fi fare like Avatar. Could this indeed be the director’s long awaited return to form, after films like The Happening and The Last Airbender? Personally, I hope so, but I’m not willing to lay down money on that bet just yet.
——
After Earth opens in U.S. theaters on June 7th, 2013.
PHANTOM MOVIE REVIEW
The first superhero ever, created by Lee Falk in 1936, gets another shot
at movie stardom 60 years after achieving fame in comics and serials.
Billy Zane stars as Kit Walker, who discovers that he's the 21st in a
line of purple-clad African superheroes known as "The Phantom" or, to
superstitious Bengalla Island natives, "the Ghost Who Walks." When he's
not fighting the evil Singh Brotherhood with his faithful wolf Devil and
white horse Hero, the Phantom lives in the hidden Skull Cave. Kit
discovers that Xander
Drax (Treat Williams), a slimy industrialist, is plotting to take over
the world by uniting the three long lost magical Skulls of Touganda. So
he travels to New York, where he finds allies in crusading newspaper
publisher Dave (Bill Smitrovich) and his niece, Diana (Kristy Swanson),
who's also Kit's ex-girlfriend. Kit and Diana tackle Drax's forces,
including the conflicted Sala (Catherine Zeta-Jones), in a quest for the
Skulls that brings both sides back to Bengalla for a showdown. The
Phantom's mixture of elaborate stunts with liberal doses of
tongue-in-cheek humor was characteristic of screenwriter Jeffrey Boam,
whose previous films included Innerspace (1987) and Indiana Jones and
the Last Crusade 1989
Wednesday, 27 February 2013
‘Movie 43′ Review
107
0
Movie 43combines
the talent of many comedy writers and directors – along with the star
power of over a dozen famous actors – to create a comedic anthology in
the vein of Kentucky Fried Movie.
Framed by the story of a faded star (Dennis Quaid) trying to pitch
his crazy film ideas to a put-upon studio executive (Greg Kinnear), we
are dragged into a world of bizarre, gross, wildly inappropriate (and
sometimes hilarious) tales, which feature strange combinations of
celebrities engaging in some very naughty behavior. [NOTE:
There are different cuts of the film being released in different markets
(US, UK) and apparently this overarching storyline differs depending on
which version you see.]
Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman in ‘Movie 43′
A woman’s (Kate Winslet) blind date with a
successful millionaire (Hugh Jackman) comes with a raunchy catch; Two
suburban parents (real-life couple Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts) try
to create the traumas of high school for their home-schooled son (Jeremy
Allen White); A man (Chris Pratt) tries to summon the… “gusto” to
fulfill his girlfriend’s (Anna Faris) gross erotic request; A grocery
clerk (Kieran Culkin) has a dirty verbal sparring session with his
jilted ex-lover (Emma Stone); A CEO (Richard Gere) listens to the
concerns of one of his executives (Kate Bosworth) over the hazardous
nature of the company’s sex doll-styled iPod; Boy Wonder Robin (Justin
Long) tries out speed-dating, only to be c-blocked by his buddy, Batman
(Jason Sudeikis).
We learn the true heart beating inside of society’s most infuriating
and abused machines; An adolescent girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) hits
puberty in the most awkward way possible; A commercial puts competing
brands of tampons to an aquatic test; A guy (Seann William Scott) gives
his buddy (Johnny Knoxville) the birthday surprise of a violent,
foul-mouthed leprechaun (Gerard Butler); Two people on a blind date
(Halle Berry and Stephen Merchant) take a game of ‘Truth or Dare’ way
too far; A black coach (Terrence Howard) tries to inspire his team to
overcome the racial prejudice facing them on the basketball court; And a
woman (Elizabeth Banks) competes with a conniving cartoon cat for her
boyfriend’s (Josh Duhamel) affection. Welcome to the madness of Movie 43.
Terrence Howard in ‘Movie 43′
The film boasts an eclectic lineup of directors, including Bob Odenkirk (Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad); Rusty Cundieff (Fear of a Black Hat, Chapelle’s Show); Griffin Dunne (Practical Magic, Fierce People); Steve Carr (Next Friday, Paul Blart: Mall Cop); Steven Brill (Little Nicky, Without a Paddle); Brett Ratner (Rush Hour); James Gunn (Super); and even Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games)
directing a segment. Acting as ringmaster of this circus (and directing
several segments) is Peter Farrelly, one half of the brother duo
responsible for comedy classics like Dumb & Dumber and There’s Something About Mary, as well as more recent (and not so classic) films like Hall Pass and Three Stooges.
Like any movie anthology, Movie 43‘s segments are hit or
miss. Some segments will have you busting a rib from laughter (“The
Catch”), while others will leave you cold (“Middleschool Date”). Most of
the segments will shock and (slightly) appall even the most hardcore
raunch-com fans – especially when that offensive or gross behavior is
being done by some of the most famous or respected thespians in the biz
(why they all agreed to do this, only God knows). Aside from the cast
mentioned above, we get cameo appearances from many other famous types
(too many to name here), who also go for broke in terms of making the
most absurd and raunchy comedy that can be squeezed inside of an “R”
Rating.
Halle Berry in ‘Movie 43′
In terms of writing, the film offers a mix of mostly newcomers and a
few established talents – who all seem most concerned with seeing just
how much gunk they can scrape out of the bottom of the proverbial
barrel. To call Movie 43 “low-brow” would be a tremendous
understatement; without spoiling anything, it’ll take about five minutes
for any viewer to realize that whatever intellect or decency they
brought along with them should’ve been checked at the door. From sex
jokes to anatomical gross-outs to downright offensive or uncomfortable
situational humor – this film throws everything at the wall
(poop, pee, blood and everything in between) and hopes the stain sticks.
If that’s the sort of comedy experience you’re looking for, many
portions of this film will be a blast for you. Movie 43 definitely leads with its best parts, and aside
from a few exceptions, the longer the movie is on, the less effective it
is. Some of the actor pairings are just awkward or strange (Halle Berry
and Stephen Merchant???), while some of the segments are just dumb and
unfunny (again, “Middleschool Date”). By the end, the movie has
exhausted so many avenues of inappropriate humor that when a mid-credits
segment kicks in for one last go, it’s mostly just beating (then
urinating on) a dead horse. Still, in the era of comedies that try to
balance raunch with smarts and/or sentimentality, Movie 43 is an easy joke-a-minute buffet for the lowliest part of the human brain.
Leslie Bibb, Justin Long and Jason Sudeikis in ‘Movie 43′
This movie could never hope to achieve anything above the very low
bar it sets for itself – but it certainly comes pretty close to
maintaining that low standard throughout. Definitely not a cult-classic
like Kentucky Fried Movie (and I imagine a fair number of the
actors in the cast wouldn’t cry if this film was overlooked), but it
will make for a fun rental down the line.
Movie theater worthy? Only if you’re riding a sick buzz and want
something gross to giggle at along with your equally demented friends.
Which is to say: there is a place and circumstance for a movie like this
– just leave grandma and/or grandpa at home, lest they have a heart
attack
- See more at: http://screenrant.com/movie-43-reviews/#sthash.zX5YvDpc.dpuf
0
Movie 43combines
the talent of many comedy writers and directors – along with the star
power of over a dozen famous actors – to create a comedic anthology in
the vein of Kentucky Fried Movie.
Framed by the story of a faded star (Dennis Quaid) trying to pitch
his crazy film ideas to a put-upon studio executive (Greg Kinnear), we
are dragged into a world of bizarre, gross, wildly inappropriate (and
sometimes hilarious) tales, which feature strange combinations of
celebrities engaging in some very naughty behavior. [NOTE:
There are different cuts of the film being released in different markets
(US, UK) and apparently this overarching storyline differs depending on
which version you see.]
Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman in ‘Movie 43′
A woman’s (Kate Winslet) blind date with a
successful millionaire (Hugh Jackman) comes with a raunchy catch; Two
suburban parents (real-life couple Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts) try
to create the traumas of high school for their home-schooled son (Jeremy
Allen White); A man (Chris Pratt) tries to summon the… “gusto” to
fulfill his girlfriend’s (Anna Faris) gross erotic request; A grocery
clerk (Kieran Culkin) has a dirty verbal sparring session with his
jilted ex-lover (Emma Stone); A CEO (Richard Gere) listens to the
concerns of one of his executives (Kate Bosworth) over the hazardous
nature of the company’s sex doll-styled iPod; Boy Wonder Robin (Justin
Long) tries out speed-dating, only to be c-blocked by his buddy, Batman
(Jason Sudeikis).
We learn the true heart beating inside of society’s most infuriating
and abused machines; An adolescent girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) hits
puberty in the most awkward way possible; A commercial puts competing
brands of tampons to an aquatic test; A guy (Seann William Scott) gives
his buddy (Johnny Knoxville) the birthday surprise of a violent,
foul-mouthed leprechaun (Gerard Butler); Two people on a blind date
(Halle Berry and Stephen Merchant) take a game of ‘Truth or Dare’ way
too far; A black coach (Terrence Howard) tries to inspire his team to
overcome the racial prejudice facing them on the basketball court; And a
woman (Elizabeth Banks) competes with a conniving cartoon cat for her
boyfriend’s (Josh Duhamel) affection. Welcome to the madness of Movie 43.
Terrence Howard in ‘Movie 43′
The film boasts an eclectic lineup of directors, including Bob Odenkirk (Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad); Rusty Cundieff (Fear of a Black Hat, Chapelle’s Show); Griffin Dunne (Practical Magic, Fierce People); Steve Carr (Next Friday, Paul Blart: Mall Cop); Steven Brill (Little Nicky, Without a Paddle); Brett Ratner (Rush Hour); James Gunn (Super); and even Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games)
directing a segment. Acting as ringmaster of this circus (and directing
several segments) is Peter Farrelly, one half of the brother duo
responsible for comedy classics like Dumb & Dumber and There’s Something About Mary, as well as more recent (and not so classic) films like Hall Pass and Three Stooges.
Like any movie anthology, Movie 43‘s segments are hit or
miss. Some segments will have you busting a rib from laughter (“The
Catch”), while others will leave you cold (“Middleschool Date”). Most of
the segments will shock and (slightly) appall even the most hardcore
raunch-com fans – especially when that offensive or gross behavior is
being done by some of the most famous or respected thespians in the biz
(why they all agreed to do this, only God knows). Aside from the cast
mentioned above, we get cameo appearances from many other famous types
(too many to name here), who also go for broke in terms of making the
most absurd and raunchy comedy that can be squeezed inside of an “R”
Rating.
Halle Berry in ‘Movie 43′
In terms of writing, the film offers a mix of mostly newcomers and a
few established talents – who all seem most concerned with seeing just
how much gunk they can scrape out of the bottom of the proverbial
barrel. To call Movie 43 “low-brow” would be a tremendous
understatement; without spoiling anything, it’ll take about five minutes
for any viewer to realize that whatever intellect or decency they
brought along with them should’ve been checked at the door. From sex
jokes to anatomical gross-outs to downright offensive or uncomfortable
situational humor – this film throws everything at the wall
(poop, pee, blood and everything in between) and hopes the stain sticks.
If that’s the sort of comedy experience you’re looking for, many
portions of this film will be a blast for you. Movie 43 definitely leads with its best parts, and aside
from a few exceptions, the longer the movie is on, the less effective it
is. Some of the actor pairings are just awkward or strange (Halle Berry
and Stephen Merchant???), while some of the segments are just dumb and
unfunny (again, “Middleschool Date”). By the end, the movie has
exhausted so many avenues of inappropriate humor that when a mid-credits
segment kicks in for one last go, it’s mostly just beating (then
urinating on) a dead horse. Still, in the era of comedies that try to
balance raunch with smarts and/or sentimentality, Movie 43 is an easy joke-a-minute buffet for the lowliest part of the human brain.
Leslie Bibb, Justin Long and Jason Sudeikis in ‘Movie 43′
This movie could never hope to achieve anything above the very low
bar it sets for itself – but it certainly comes pretty close to
maintaining that low standard throughout. Definitely not a cult-classic
like Kentucky Fried Movie (and I imagine a fair number of the
actors in the cast wouldn’t cry if this film was overlooked), but it
will make for a fun rental down the line.
Movie theater worthy? Only if you’re riding a sick buzz and want
something gross to giggle at along with your equally demented friends.
Which is to say: there is a place and circumstance for a movie like this
– just leave grandma and/or grandpa at home, lest they have a heart
attack.
- See more at: http://screenrant.com/movie-43-reviews/#sthash.zX5YvDpc.dpufs
s
Monday, 25 February 2013
‘Gangster Squad’ Review
44
3
The trailers for Gangster Squadproudly tout stylized noir crime drama grounded in a ”based on a true story” plot setup – promising an unrelenting tale of L.A. cops and mobsters. However, anyone familiar with the source material, Gangster Squad: Covert Cops, the Mob, and the Battle for Los Angeles from
journalist Paul Lieberman, will likely remember a comparatively subdued
chronicle of events (albeit with flashy and exciting language). As a
result, there’s a significant contrast between the “real” story (even
though Lieberman included his own elaborations) and the one depicted
onscreen – as actual events and people have been exaggerated to fit
Hollywood gangster movie tropes.
Still, an amplified tale of the Gangster Squad has the potential to be a great mobster drama – alongside similar offerings like The Untouchables, The Departed and LA Confidential. Does director Ruben Fleischer successfully balance that “true” story intrigue with impactful onscreen drama and entertaining characters for a great (albeit embellished) movie experience?
Fleischer is best known for the flashy and tongue-in-cheek dramedy Zombieland, so it’s not surprising that Gangster Squad
is a hyper-stylized take on the gangster genre. The movie utilizes a
mix of fictional and real-life characters, and marries slow-motion gun
fights, exploding cars, and neck-snapping fisticuffs with a very
grounded and serious moral tale about men of power and the horrors of
heroism. The combination lands Gangster Squad in an awkward
grey area: a number of charming performances and memorable one-liners
make the film engaging, but plot holes and shortsighted character
actions leave an underwhelming overall impression. Worst of all, the
focus on style-over-substance impairs nearly all of the intended
opportunities for genuine emotional connection or striking ideas about Gangster Squad
morality – as if Fleischer put too much energy into nodding to noir
genre staples without also offering any fresh or unique ideas.
Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Chief Parker (Nick Nolte) enlist the ‘Gangster Squad’
Lieberman’s Tales from the Gangster Squad first appeared in the LA Times
back in 2008 as a seven-part series chronicling a band of eight covert
law enforcement agents attempting to free Los Angeles from the clutches
of organized crime during the 1940s and 1950s. Fleischer’s film tightens
that activity window as Police Chief Bill Parker recruits former war
veteran and no-nonsense cop Sergeant John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) for a
last ditch, no-holds-barred effort to destroy a criminal network built
by mobster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). O’Mara, with the assistance of his
wife Connie O’Mara (Mireille Enos), selects five other do-gooder cops to
join his team – Captain Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), Sergeant Jerry
Wooters (Ryan Gosling), Detective Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi),
Detective Navidad Ramirez (Michael Peña), and Detective Max Kennard
(Robert Patrick) - each man possessing a skill set and personal reason
for joining the fight against Cohen.
The story provides a very straightforward series of developments and
moves competently from point to point. Gunfights and criminal encounters
dot from one iconic Los Angeles locale to the next, and the modern CGI
visuals provide a striking retro look at the city. A beautiful set-piece
in a Chinatown-like setting replaces the infamous “Theater Shooting”
scene that was scrapped after the Aurora, CO theater tragedy – and, in
spite of the delay, still successfully conveys the magnitude and
recklessness of Cohen’s reign of terror.
The film version of Cohen depicts a ruthless monster that only cares
about expanding his influence and power by any means necessary, and Penn
presents an enjoyable and believable interpretation of the mobster (who
was no saint in real life, either). Some moviegoers may be distracted
from time to time by Penn’s prosthetic make-up, but in this world of
flashy neon sets and numerous fedora hat-tips, a stiff-faced villain is
right at home. The performance won’t set a new standard for layered
mobster characters, but Cohen is a cruel touchstone for the story at
hand – one that helps highlight interesting shades of moral ambiguity in
members of the Gangster Squad.
Sean Penn as the notorious Mickey Cohen in ‘Gangster Squad’
Sergeant O’Mara often resorts to illegal tactics and questionable
extremes in his campaign against Cohen, and while the fallout is fun to
watch (with a capable performance from Brolin), the character is easily
one of the least compelling in the film. In fact, much of O’Mara’s
success is the result of sheer luck or well-timed intervention – not
“unyielding” police work through self-determination (an idea the film
revisits on several occasions). The “fight fire with fire” subtext is
certainly a worthwhile idea, but instead of a nuanced character journey,
Fleischer delivers an onscreen player who sees the world in black and
white, ignoring insight from the very men he assembled, and rarely
“earns” his wins.
Fortunately, a batch of supporting characters help elevate the film
with some genuinely memorable entries – especially Gosling’s Sergeant
Jerry Wooters. Wooters is a much more successful attempt at expressing
the muddled morality of post-War 1940′s Los Angeles, and Gosling is
amusing to watch as the charming but disillusioned agent. Instead of a
rash force of nature, Wooters is well-equipped to understand (as well as
reflect) how Los Angeles became so entrenched in mob rule. For that
reason, it’s fun to see the character (through a nuanced interpretation
from Gosling) navigate and combat Cohen’s savage tyranny.
In addition to the leads, Mackie, Ribisi, Patrick and Peña all get
decent (albeit thin) screen time, each with their moment to shine in
roles that mostly riff on typical police squad tropes. Emma Stone is a
stand-out as Grace Faraday, the woman tasked with making Cohen more
“learned.” The role once again pairs the actress with Gosling (after Crazy, Stupid, Love.) and her Zombieland director, but Stone brings plenty of new material to the character, instead of simply falling into a familiar retread.
Grace Faraday (Emma Stone) and Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) in ‘Gangster Squad’
In the end, Gangster Squad features all of the core staples
that make a great mobster movie. Yet, in spite of solid performances,
beautiful sets, and memorable lines of dialogue, the final film isn’t a
ground-breaking sum of its respective parts. Any worthwhile impact is
weighed down by a tongue-in-cheek style that undercuts the strength of
those “based on a true story” roots. As a result, the movie
relies on underdeveloped ideas and familiar cliches, without a new or
unique ingredient to help the experience compete against far superior
crime drama entries.
At face value, Gangster Squad is a crowd-pleasing tale of
police officers and brutal criminals, but under the surface, there’s
bungled characterization, goofy attempts to tie the fictional narrative
into “real life,” and downright underwhelming moments of style over
substance. Filmgoers will likely enjoy Gangster Squad, but it falls short of being another “classic” mob movie.
If you’re still on the fence about Gangster Squad, check out the trailer below:
‘Snitch’ Review
26
1
Snitch, the latest film from ex-stuntman turned director Ric Roman Waugh (Felon),
follows a desperate father who will stop at nothing to free his
innocent son from prison following a drug bust. On the surface, the film
intersperses character drama with understated action set pieces but
Waugh also spends a significant amount of the run time addressing
federal drug laws that entrap first offenders and dole out extra-lengthy
sentences.
Following a draft by Revolutionary Road screenwriter, Justin Haythe (who also penned The Lone Ranger), Waugh rewrote the Snitch script
and then cast Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for the film’s lead. Known for
testosterone-heavy action flicks (along with campy kid-friendly
adventures), Johnson’s presence might cause moviegoers to assume that Snitch places
action before character; however, Waugh delivers a much more subtle
film – which is to the movie’s overall credit but might come as a
disappointment to fans that were hoping to see an over-the-top thriller.
For the most part, Snitch is successful in its ambitions.
There are a few explosions and intense gun fights but, overall, the
movie is focused on drama and social criticism. The majority of the plot
exists in a moral grey area – allowing a unique look at character
tropes that audiences will have seen time and time again on screen: the
naive father in over his head, an ex-con trying to do right by his
family, and a tough-as-nails Federal Prosecutor who priorities politics
over people. In spite of some familiar elements, the moment to moment
interactions in Snitch are intriguing enough for viewers to
invest in (and believe) the core storyline of a man that sacrifices his
safety (as well as the safety of others) in order to protect his family.
Rafi Gavron as Jason Collins in ‘Snitch’
Snitch makes liberal use of “based on true events”
branding, as the events are almost entirely fictional – with only the
actual laws serving as the basis for the film. When suburban teenager,
Jason (Rafi Gavron), makes a naive but life-changing mistake and gets
arrested on charges of attempted narcotics sales, his father, John
Matthews (Dwayne Johnson), makes a desperate plea with federal
prosecutor, Joanne Keeghan (Susan Sarandon). In exchange for reducing
his son’s sentence, John offers to go undercover and lead the police to
actual drug dealers. The only problem? John doesn’t know any drug
dealers and – after a failed solo-attempt – he turns to one of his
employees, Daniel (Jon Bernthal), an ex-con attempting to get his life
together, for an introduction into the world of narcotic sales.
Despite a headlining role for Johnson, the federal drug laws are the
real star of the film, with nearly every single character and situation
built around the core set-up. Of course, not every family will be able
to go undercover for a federal narcotics task force and, despite the
spotlight that Waugh places on imperfect drug enforcement laws, the film
fails to present any real-life answers. Instead, Waugh presents a
series of interesting interactions that arbitrarily dance from
on-the-nose social commentary to a more ambiguous moral plane that
allows for viewers to make up their own minds. As a result, the plot
follows a relatively standard progression with few surprises but
absorbing subject matter and characters (as well as subsequent drama)
are enough to keep things engaging even when the backdrop starts to look
familiar.
Johnson’s portrayal of John Matthews is admirable – with a tenderness
and subtlety that might surprise film fans who are less familiar with
the actors full breadth of work. That said, Johnson’s larger-than-life
physical presence can be a distraction in certain scenes – especially
when the movie routinely asks viewers to accept that Matthews isn’t
capable of defending himself at all. To counteract Johnson’s size,
Matthews is a mix of likable recklessness and relatable apprehension;
however, at times, the performance breaks down and audiences will see
the actor pushing an intentionally weak persona – instead of relying on
delicate nuance.
Dwayne Johnson and Michael Kenneth Williams in ‘Snitch’
This isn’t to say that Johnson can only step into macho tough guy roles but, in Snitch,
there is a noticeable disconnect between characterization and onscreen
depiction that will definitely test suspension of disbelief on occasion.
It’s calculated risk/reward casting because the script doesn’t benefit
from a muscle-bound action star, and Waugh’s choice to cast Johnson can
be distracting, but the actor’s performance is solid and a major credit
to the success of the movie.
The supporting cast is full of familiar faces (and characters) that
don’t stray too far from convention but serve the main storyline with
respectable competence. Jon Bernthal, known best for his role as Shane
on AMC’s The Walking Dead,
is a standout with an understated but powerful performance as Daniel
that outshines a number of the more accomplished veterans in the cast.
Barry Pepper offers another engaging turn, this time as drug task force
leader Agent Cooper – easily one of the more interesting additions in
the film. Conversely, Susan Sarandon and Benjamin Bratt are only
provided with cliche one-note characters that primarily act as
exposition machines – with few rewarding overtones.
As indicated before, Johnson’s appearance in Snitch will
lead many moviegoers to assume that the film is action fare – and those
viewers will likely walk away underwhelmed. Despite a few brief
gunfights and one over-the-top car chase, the film’s primary tension
comes from low-key moments that teeter on real life danger – where one
minor slip of the tongue could mean the difference between life or death
for Matthews and his family. In fact, some of the greatest scenes of
tension in Snitch are the result of nothing happening – and the fear that unresolved danger leaves in its wake.
Jon Bernthal as Daniel James in ‘Snitch’
Snitch has lofty ambitions – moving quickly between
on-the-nose commentary, captivating interpersonal drama, and brief
scenes of competent action. Waugh does not successfully payoff every
element introduced in the movie – leaving a lot of overarching themes
and moral questions dangling in the air. Still, scene to scene Snitch
is a smart drama that uses solid performances and an emotional story to
cast light on controversial subject matter. It’s not the action movie
that some viewers might have been expecting but that’s not a bad thing –
since it delivers a surprisingly immersive character drama instead.
If you’re still on the fence about Snitch, check out the trailer below:
