Gemini Man

First Hit: Entertaining story, but it was the special effects of a young Henry Brogan (a young Will Smith) that was the star.

Ang Lee spent time and money using CGI to make Henry (Will Smith) have a Junior, and it worked.

Brogan is the most perfect and lethal sniper the US Government has ever had. To prove the point, we see him in the first scenes preparing to kill a man moving on a train traveling at 248 kilometers per hour (154 mph) while lying on a hillside some 200 meters (~650 ft) away from the tracks. He nails it.

But Brogan is done with killing after he’s shot more than seventy people. He’s tired, 51-years-old and all the deaths are eating away at him. At one point, he says, “I can’t even look at myself in the mirror.”

However, the powers that be, including CIA director Janet Lassiter (Linda Emond), want Brogan dead, and the funny thing is that the reason for this is poorly explained and developed in this story. This was the weakest part of the plot, but if you buy their explanation, it works well enough to enjoy the rest of the film.

Arriving back home after the initial assassination scene, ready to enter retirement, he heads to the harbor where he has a boat. Going to pay for gas, he finds a new person named Danny Zakarweski (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) in the dock shed. She gives him a story that the previous guy retired and that she’s studying marine biology at the nearby University of Georgia.

Taking his boat to meet with a secret contact, he finds a directional bug under the dashboard. Arriving back at the dock, he storms into the shed where Danny is seated and accuses her of being an agent operative for the government. She denies and denies his allegations. Apologizing he asks her out to eat as a way to make up for his rudeness and accusations. When he meets her for dinner, she shows her his research proving she’s an agent.

This scene gives the audience supporting information that Brogan is smart and knows what he’s doing, not only with a rifle, but he’s made it this far because he’s smart. Secondly, being found out implicates Danny in a larger scheme, and now she must support Brogan because she becomes an assassination target as well.

He awakes when assassins come to his home. He takes care of them as only an assassin would and rushes to Danny’s house to tell her she’s surly a target for assassination now and to go with him.

This is the setup. Lassiter is under threat by Clay Verris (Clive Owen), who owns a gun for hire company called Gemini. Verris is holding information that will ruin Lassiter’s career. If Lassiter cannot finish the job by getting rid of Brogan, his team will. Her ego won’t let him take over yet. She wants to prove she can finish the job.

After multiple failures by Lassiter’s team, Verris uses his squad of assassins, including a 23-year-old-clone version of Brogan, to kill Brogan, Zakarweski, and Brogan’s close pilot friend Baron (Benedict Wong).

The rest of the film is about the battle between the clone and Brogan, along with understanding why a clone of Brogan was created.

The action was excellent, although at times it seemed as if the fight scenes were too long. The realism of the younger clone put together by the CGI team was terrific. I loved having Danny as part of the plot because her rationality and the way she added to the story grounded the film.

Smith was strong as Brogan, the supreme assassin and weapon of the United States. He outwardly carried enough of the internal pain of his upbringing to make his character seem real and whole. Winstead was excellent as the agent sent to track Brogan and ends up partnering with him as he gets to the root of the issue at hand. Owen is outstanding and always makes a great evil foil. His voice and attitude are perfect as the antagonist. Emond was good as the CIA director trying to clean up the mess she’s created by losing so many men to Brogan’s skills. Wong was the perfect long-time associate to Brogan. They had great chemistry together. David Benioff and Billy Ray wrote an entertaining screenplay. Lee knows how to create action, and he does here as well. I think they might have gotten more impact by shortened the fighting scenes as they felt long. He didn’t settle for less with the CGI of the Will Smith (Brogan) clone. It was amazingly done it seemed like Brogan was fighting a real person.

Overall: Entertaining enough and at the end with Brogan is telling his clone about his prowess it felt typical good time Will Smith.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Overall:  Visually entertaining, poignant message and fun to watch.

The “setup” I thought was a bit weak when there’s an explanation as to how and why this very large spaceship/planet/thingy named Alpha become home to species from a thousand planets. However, getting past this we are introduced to Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Sergeant Laureline (Cara Delevingne) who work for the government of Alpha. Therefore, the best interests of the government, not any particular species is their focus.

The film also documents, at the beginning, the destruction of planet Mul, which was occupied by highly evolved and functioning humanoids that focused on giving back what it receives.

The Defense Minister (Herbie Handcock) instructs Valerian and Laureline to guard Commander Arun Filitt (Clive Owen) because the Commander warns that the ship has an expanding radioactive bubble in the middle of the ship and they cannot figure out what it is or why it's there . Unfortunately for the film, Filitt acts in such a way that he gives it away that he’s implicated in this radioactive bubble. This could be because of the way the character was written or because Owen often plays this type of double crossing character.

Valerian and Laureline are also sent to find the “converter” which replicates items it ingests. It is a survivor from the planet Mul and really belongs to the remaining humanoids as part of their way of life. They also find a pearl which was used by the Mul members to feed the converter and then the planet itself.

Filitt is then abducted and Valerian must search the ship to find him discovers that the “radioactive” menace in the core of the ship is not what they think it is. As they figure out what really happened to Mul and why Filitt is implicated, Laureline convinces Valerian to give the converter and pearl to the rightful owners, allowing them to restart their nirvanic race. It is hard for the major to break his dutiful role and use love as the answer.

DeHann was good and embodied the youthful character required to make this film work. Delevingne was, to me, the star of the film. Her wide-eyed soulful intelligence worked and made the film complete. Owen was, and is always, good as a self-righteous villain. Rihanna was very strong as Bubble. Ethan Hawke was wonderful as Jolly the Pimp. Hancock was OK in a pivotal but distant role. Luc Beeson wrote the screenplay as well as directed this film. It was a visual extravaganza and this made it worth watching.

Overall:  The film’s visuals,  Delevingne and DeHann are what kept me watching this film with interest.

Killer Elite

First Hit: Some action between long bouts of boredom based on a poorly written script.

Not all films based on a true story play well on screen or are interesting. I would have like to think this one would have been good if the story had been told well.

The actors are all good actors. Jason Statham (here as Danny - perfect name as the all-around good guy) and Clive Owen (here as Spike – good name for the party spoiler) both are proven and capable of being great action actors. With Statham being one of the more capable physical action actors right now. His soft voice, intense look and great coordination keep him on the forefront of action films.

Owen is very capable as a physical action actor but his overriding hook is his intelligence and commanding voice. In this film his intelligent nature was left on the back porch leaving him to come off as out of character with both himself and the story.

Robert De Niro (here as Hunter – perfect name for older assassin) has a history of being very good as a dramatic actor and good enough as an action hero. Here he plays the older wiser assassin who has wife and kids he cares about.

Unfortunately we only hear about his family at the end of the film, why? I don’t know. It seemed to be thrown in to make a point but it was lost on me. Early on in the film, Danny decides to get out of the killing business because he almost kills a young girl in a hit he is doing with Hunter. Then he gets drawn back in to save his friend Hunter from being killed by a powerful Arab, but to do so he must kill three people.

This is where Spike comes in because he doesn’t want these killings to happen. Poor plot construction, and at times very poor execution. I dislike the experience of sitting in a film wondering how much longer it will be until it is over. This was one of those films.

Statham is solid but his character isn’t quite fleshed out and there is nothing to know why he took the job of assassin. De Niro is really a bit old for parts like this even though he is supposed to be the role of wisdom. I don’t think it was wise for him to take this part. Owen came off as more blindly stupid (yes, his character took a bullet in one eye) in this role than he can actually muster. He’s naturally an intelligent person and playing stupid is not up his alley. Gary McKendry wrote this poorly constructed script from a novel by Ranulph Fiennes which is supposed to be based on some truth. Gary McKendry directed this and it failed to be a cohesive smart action film.

Overall: Barely worth watching on DVD some lazy Sunday evening after a long baseball game.

The Boys are Back

First Hit: Mildly interesting and a bit disjointed, I struggled to understand why this film was made because it didn’t seem to have a point.

Clive Owen is wonderful to watch even in this somewhat pointless film. Since seeing him in The Croupier he’s been someone who I've loved to watch and can dynamically bring something to a character if given the chance.

In this movie Clive plays Joe Warr a sports reporter who spends weeks away from home, arrives with presents for his son Artie whom he calls “sweetheart” (played by Nicholas McAnulty), and loving adoration for his wife Katy (played by Laura Fraser).

She collapses one evening and dies soon afterwards. Joe decides, for some reason, to bring up Artie in an unstructured way, meaning he lets the home become a mess with dirty dishes lying around for weeks at a time and basically supports the kid doing whatever he wants. Some of these decisions seem to be made from guilt for not being around more and other times the decisions look like they come from not knowing what to do.

Neither of these are invalid but there isn't much learning going on here. Whenever he does try to discipline Artie he apologizes afterward. The act of apologising happens a lot throughout this film and I'm not always sure why. 

Joe’s older son Harry (played by George McKay) who lives in England decides to come live with him and Artie which brings a new dimension of apologies and dynamics. Upon Harry’s arrival there is bonding between the boys and eventually, towards the films end, a healing between Joe and his older son.

Owen was at his charming best when interacting with Emma Booth playing the parent of one of Artie’s school mates. Scott Hicks directed this film and given the material it was adequate. I’m not sure why this film needed to be made as I didn’t get the point; unless it was to remind the audience that there is more than one way to raise children. But I knew that already.

Overall: This film was mildly amusing, not all that thoughtful, and more like something to watch on video if you’ve got nothing better to do.

The International

First Hit: As far as thrillers go this was pretty good and it kept my interest throughout.

Clive Owen has the right kind of look, feel and intensity to carry off the character of Louis Salinger a government inspector hot on the trail of the members of the IBBC Bank. He was once foiled in his investigation a few years earlier when he was working for Scotland Yard and because it hurt his integrity, he’s on a mission and won’t give up until he gets the bank.

The bank, in this timely film, has its hands in everything and, according to the senior officers, is always a few steps from making tons of money from people’s suffering or suffering huge losses by these decisions. This bank, in particular, is involved with financing guns and weapons.

However, what the film does well is talk about that it isn’t the financing that makes the bank money it is the power, control, and influence they gain in owning the debt nations create to gain these weapons. This timely film touches and reflects on the absurd financial crisis our banks are experiencing.

The banks created debt and their choices were so bad that their strategy failed which resulted in their failing us.

The director was clear with his intent and made this film about the characters and not as much about the action. Although the big shoot out at the Guggenheim museum was a major scene, it didn’t out weight either the characters or the overall aim of the film. Naomi Watts was good as Eleanor Whitman, as Louis’ boss and as a New York based DA working with Interpol to make a case against the bank.

Overall: A very good thriller that kept a wonderful pace, didn’t over complicate the story and provided information as to how some banks might operate.