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.

Moneyball

First Hit: Pitt’s performance is good but overall the film drags at times.

I like, or more accurately use to like, baseball when I was younger. I wanted to be the left fielder for the LA Dodgers. I remember when the Dodgers and SF Giants moved to the west coast. LA played in the coliseum where they strung a huge tall net in left field to centerfield because the distance from home plate to the stands was only 250 feet.

Anyway, like many boys I dreamed of playing for my favorite team. Playing as a youngster through my early teens, I was very good, not great. I always hit in the mid 300's, occasionally with power; I could run ("I had wheels"); I could catch, throw (with speed and strength but occasionally not accurately) and was always one of the first chosen when pickup games were played. I really liked the game.

Baseball is one of the few games where more time is spent with its players standing either on the field or in the dugout waiting with heighten awareness for something to happen. When it does happen, they have to react accurately, quickly, and with forethought. The moments between action and non-action require baseball players to be mentally awake and alert.

It isn’t always easy. Just watch any team of 8 – 10 year olds play; hands on hips, occasionally a mitt on a head, or just standing and looking around.

This film is the same way in that there were moments of heightened activity and other times of just time going by. I thought the story was very interesting, the characters good and some of the acting very good.

Brad Pitt was very good in capturing the frustration and struggles of Billy Beane the General Manager of the Oakland A’s, who could not control how much money was available to put a good team together. Philip Seymour Hoffman did an excellent job of being “old school” baseball Manager Art Howe by telling Beane (Pitt’s character) that the GM knew nothing about how to play players. Jonah Hill was OK as Peter Brand the statistical genius behind rating players, which has now transformed baseball. Kerris Dorsey was the one who really stood out as Casey Beane, Billy’s daughter. Dorsey was incredibly realistic in her acting and the scene of her singing part of a song in a music store was beyond sublime. Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin wrote a good screen play based on the Michael Lewis book “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game”. Bennett Miller directed this often interesting and sometime slow film.

Overall: Worth watching if you are a baseball fan.

Warrior

First Hit: Even with its ring violence, this is a great film.

UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) is the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotional organization.

I’ve watched a few of the television bouts and for the most part they are very difficult to watch. People get hurt. People are in the ring to hurt the other person. Although it isn’t particularly my cup of tea, it doesn’t mean it cannot be used as a background for a good film.

Paddy Condon (played by Nick Nolte) is a retired old drunk with a penchant for listening to Moby Dick on cassette recorder. He’s got 1,000 days of sobriety when his youngest son Tommy (played by Tom Hardy) shows up at his doorstep. The relationship is filled with sadness and hate. Tommy is silent, brooding, and is a soft spoken volcano.

His oldest son Brendan (played by Joel Edgerton) is married but he and his wife Tess (played by Jennifer Morrison) are barely making a living. Brendan is a physics high school teacher and also fights in parking lot MMA fights. He needs the extra money or he will lose his home because of the medical expenses incurred by his daughter.

The brothers haven’t spoken for almost 15 years and there is animosity between both brothers and their father. Their life as kids in the same house with Paddy, their mom was hell.

To make some money and gain some pride, they both enter a single elimination UFC bout of the top 16 MMA fighters. Both brothers are in it to win.

What made this film work is that the characters were well defined, they had difficult and compelling stories, and the acting was superb.

Nolte is perfect as the sober father who really hopes to be forgiven for his past indiscretions. Hardy is amazing as the brooding, pent up volcano, younger son. Edgerton is very dynamic and wonderful as the somewhat wiser older brother who will do anything to keep his family in their home. Morrison is both sexy and beautiful while being supportive and loving as Brendan’s wife.  Gavin O’Connor and Anthony Tambakis wrote a wonderful and strong screenplay. O’Connor did a fantastic job directing this story and using MMA fighting as a backdrop.

Overall: This is a very good film with strong performances.

Drive

First Hit:  A perfect role for Ryan Gosling and a very good film.

When an actor fits the role and it's within their wheelhouse, then add an interesting story, it is a pleasure to drop into the story and let it go.

Drive does this because the film is perfect for Gosling who plays the “Driver”. There are times when a character needs to have a historic storyline to make his character believable. However great acting, as delivered in this particular role, doesn't require this type of development to make the character and film work. In Drive we have the later. 

Driver is a mechanic at a small garage run by Shannon (played by Bryan Cranston). Driver also works as a Hollywood film stunt driver, and does odd driving jobs for robberies. He runs into a neighbor woman named Irene (played by Carey Mulligan) who has a young son. He is immediately attracted to Irene and her boy. The chemistry between them is obvious. There are lots of moments of silence between them, but they say so much.

Irene is married to a Standard (played by Oscar Isaac) who is in prison and when he gets out he owes money to the mob that protected him while he was in prison. For payback, the mob asks him to do a job and he solicits Driver to help him.

The job goes bad and the local mob is now after the money that Driver is holding. Driver wants to give the money back to protect Irene but Bernie (played by Albert Brooks) and Nino (played by Ron Perlman) want everyone eliminated that know about this blown job.

Gosling is perfect as the quiet, private, intelligent and remotely caring Driver. This is a grand performance because he says so very little but provides so much information. Mulligan in a role that matches her age is wonderful. Her ability to play off of the quiet Driver is amazing. Cranston is very good as they guy beholding to too many people and continues to have “bad luck”. Isaac has the right look and feel of the guy scared and tough at the same time. Brooks is the surprise here. He’s great as the local mob ringleader with a dark heart. The defining moment is when he kills Shannon in a caring, subtle, and decisive way. Perlman is just right for this off-handed second in command guy who at “59” continues to screw things up. Hossein Amini wrote a very good screen play including when to have silence in a character’s role. Nicolas Winding Refn directed this with a great feel for LA and the type of characters which reside there.

Overall: I fully enjoyed this film but I would have like just a little more driving.

Contagion

First Hit: Interesting, scary, overcomplicated stories and created questions of realism.

What would happen if a new disease came to this world that had a high R 0 factor (R Naught). Although it was explained as a primary part of the film, it wasn’t reinforced enough throughout the film for me to understand the some of the dialogue they used later.

From what I understood a high R Naught means that for every one person who dies multiple more will die. Anyway this was just one of the confusing things in this film. Then I kept having questions while the celluloid rolled. If they created a contagious area, sealed it off a whole city, who would man the electric power stations? Who controls all the other social utilities if the city (Chicago) is dying from a disease?

And although the film-makers showed a society degenerating by having people breaking into banks, grocery stores, and pharmacies; I kept wondering who’s running the electrical grid. Anyway, outside of the problems in this film because it compromised the way society would breakdown with this disease, it did bring up great questions about what would happen if a devastating disease struck the world.

Beth (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) is ground zero for this disease (we discover this at the end of the film). She stops on her way home and has a quickie with an ex-boyfriend (why was this important?), comes home to her husband Mitch (played by Matt Damon), who ends up being immune to the disease but her son isn’t and both the son and wife die.

The film includes the involvement of the WHO and a bunch of other agencies which lets us know that this is important and out of control. The way the WHO and the US Government methodically find a cure and plan how to immunize a lot of people was interesting, but overall this film tried to make drama in too many places which dissipated the energy of the film. I would have rather stayed with just a few of the people and not try to give us so much about so many.

One of the opening scenes when they cut Beth’s scull open to analyze her death, I found myself cringing but ready for a film that would be more focused, it fell off the table and became a different film from there.

Paltrow has a small but critical part because she is ground zero. Damon was good as the caring father. Marion Cotillard as Dr. Orantes was very good and probably did the best acting in this film. Jude Law was very good at playing a blogger named Alan Krumwiede as someone who was skeptical of the government’s action on the disease but he was worse in his lying to his public. Laurence Fishburne was OK as Dr. Cheever and I really thought the story was overplayed when he gave his wife a heads up to leave Chicago. There were lots of other actors but this film didn’t require it and in fact dissipated its energy. Scott Z. Burns wrote the script and made it too complicated by adding lots of strong parts. Steven Soderbergh directed this film and, to me, it needed simplification in some areas to create a more powerful effect.

Overall: This was a good film but too many stories with big time actors dissipated the strength of the idea.