Bangkok Dangerous

First Hit: This film never became interesting or thrilling.

Nicholas Cage plays Joe, an assassin who is trying to end his career and begin to have a life.

He lives his life on the road killing people for money. He has no family that we know of and he has no friends. One of his rules is that he leaves no trace behind on each of his jobs, therefore all helpers he hires at each site to do deliveries and stuff die as well. The helpers he finds are usually people who won’t be missed or are down and out or are on the fringe of some kind. The film begins with Joe taking a job in Bangkok which includes 4 hits.

Completing these four assassinations he figures he will have enough money to quit and maybe begin to have a different kind of life. Arriving in Bangkok he finds a quiet place to stay and then finds his helper. However, during this trip he starts to have feelings for a mute woman at a pharmacy who helps him with a cut he obtained making one of his hits.

This leads him to have more compassion towards the helper who delivers briefcases filled with money, guns, and hit profiles. He decides to take this helper Kong (played by Shahkrit Yamnarm), and teach him some of the skills of the trade.

This film was very uneven and there were so many things that were unexplained like how did he get two motorcycles. The planning of each hit could have been explained more to provide some suspense and make it thrilling but instead they were loosely tied together leaving the audience to figure it out why this work is highly paid and complicated.

Overall: This was a very uneven film with too many loose holes and was overall very unsatisfactory.

Traitor

First Hit: I liked the subtle tension this film creates as it moves along but, in the end, it wasn’t really satisfying.

Don Cheadle plays Samir Horn a Muslim terrorist who was previously a US Army Special Forces hero. He was traumatized as a boy of 6 when his father, a religious teacher, was blown up in a jeep right in front of his eyes.

The film subtly lays out its hand by giving you a slight hint that Horn is still associated with the government, however watching his actions, one could believe he has become a traitor. Guy Pearce plays FBI agent Roy Clayton who is after Horn because Horn is supplying the terrorists with explosives for suicide bombings.

For Horn to prove his commitment to the Muslim terrorist organization he stages a bombing of a section of a US Embassy by remote control and people are killed although we learn it this wasn’t the plan.

Additionally, Horn is a devout Muslim and during the film he prays often and he expresses the peaceful nature of Islam. It is Horn’s faith that gives you the notion he doesn’t believe in killing. Additional religious ties in the film are provided by Roy whose father and grandfather was a preacher.

This wasn’t a great film but I liked it because it attempts to put Koran in a context that supports a positive belief of Allah. I liked the deep-well intensity that Cheadle brings to Samir and the direct humanness Pearce brings to Roy.

Overall: This was an interesting film about terrorism but somehow the tension it creates isn’t strong enough and the ending isn’t very satisfactory.

88 Minutes

First Hit: I was slightly disappointed in this film and by Pacino’s acting.

The story is about Pacino (playing Dr. Jack Gramm) getting a threat from someone he helped convict through his expertise in forensic psychology. The threats come over his cell phone and the first call indicates he has 88 minutes left to live.

Jack is convinced that the convicted convict is behind the phone calls. The convict is convinced that it was Jack’s testimony that put him in this situation and he wants to get back at Jack by creating questions about Jack’s testimony. If he does than he may get a stay of execution and maybe a new trial.

Pacino plays Jack as pretty cool and even tempered for someone who is being phoned every 10 minutes or so telling him he is about to die. There are additional killings that mimic the imprisoned convict’s killings which bring to question whether they have the right person in jail. Sound confusing, well it gets worse, or more accurately the film gets more convoluted.

Pacino is mediocre in this subdued role. The film has more than enough people giving hints that they might be involved with this masquerade and it creates more than enough suspicion. But it’s all this suspicion and odd looks by people in the film that make it a mess. I like Alicia Witt as Kim his teacher’s aide and Amy Brenneman as his trusted assistant Shelly who does a lion share of the investigation.

Overall: This film is overly convoluted and needed to be more direct and streamlined to make it interesting.

Street Kings

First Hit: I was not only surprised by the acting I really enjoyed the ride.

Confession: Keanu Reeves is not my favorite actor.

However, in this film as Detective Tom Ludlow, Keanu shows his acting experience and maturity by playing a gritty veteran LA cop who finds life hard after the death of his wife. He takes to drinking airplane size bottles of vodka while driving to his next scene.

The set up of his personality comes right at the start of the film in which he wakes up, throws up, buys some mini bottles of Vodka and goes after some guys who are looking to buy some guns. From here the story takes off while ensuring you get a full dose of why he works alone, why he is dangerous, how he continues to stay on the force, and his hair trigger.

Forest Whitaker plays Captain Jack Wander who is steadily rising through the department on the back and collars of Detective Ludlow. He covers for him when needed because the outcomes of the events are only supporting his growth through the department. As you might guess there is someone in the department working against Ludlow and this provides the fuel for this interesting adventure full of twists and turns all of which make sense as you go along for the ride.

Overall: The acting was very good, the script excellent, and the subtle directing wasn’t in the way of a good story.

Funny Games

First Hit: There is nothing funny about this dark descending film.

I’ve never been in a theater where one-fifth of the audience walked out of a film.

Granted, there were only 20 people in the audience to begin with, but 4 people walked out before it finished.

I don’t blame them as this was a dark violent film with little or no redeeming value. I’m not sure why this film was made or if there was an overriding point to the film, but if it was a commentary on the violence in the United States (or the world) it didn’t make this statement very well because on three occasions

Michael Pitt looks straight at the camera and talks to the audience. This alone puts the film in a different category than simple statement about violence.

If it was a commentary that people like me would pay money to see a family brutalized, then I hope people read this review and don’t go. Were there positive aspects of this film? Yes, there were some extended shots that were revealing, exposing real tragedy, and well directed plus there was a momentary bright spot when Naomi Watts shoots one of the perpetrators.

However because his accomplice doesn’t like that his partner got shot, he picks up the television remote control, rewinds the entire scene and then plays it back differently. But these few bright spots don’t make a good film.

The simple story line is two young men, of which we know nothing of their background, go from house to house killing the residents in this upscale lakeside community. Why? We don’t really know except that they are hungry, especially for eggs.

The story primarily focuses on the killing of one family consisting of Naomi Watts, Tim Roth and Devon Gearhart. Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet play the deranged young men who look and feel upscale but set out to find victims, punish them with their games, kill them, and then move on to another family.

Overall: I found virtually no redeeming value to this film and wouldn’t recommend it at any level to anyone.