Month: December 2014

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Lone Survivor

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Lone Survivor is based on actual events described in detail in the book of the same name by the only survivor of a Navy Seal team inserted behind enemy lines: Marcus Luttrell.  Obviously, spoilers will be unavoidable.

Released: January 2014

Director: Peter Berg

Run Time: 121 Minutes

Rated R

Cast:
Mark Wahlberg: Marcus Luttrell
Ben Foster: Matt “Axe” Axelson
Taylor Kitsch: Michael Murphy
Emile Hirsch: Danny Dietz
Eric Bana: Erik Kristensen

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

The United States Special Forces contain some of the best and brightest that our armed forces have to offer.  From the Navy SEALS to Delta Force, these organizations train and house some of the best soldiers on earth.  These guys are sent in when something really needs to get done.  In the summer of 2005,  Operation Red Wings was put into effect to disrupt the activities of the local anti-coalition militia in Afghanistan.  Their main target was a man by the name of Ahmad Shah.  He was the leader of the pro-Taliban forces in the area.  A team of four Navy SEALS were inserted behind enemy lines to scout the area and locate the target.  Unfortunately, their position was compromised and they were ambushed by Shah’s militia.  LT. Michael Murphy, SO2 Matthew Axelson and SO2 Danny Dietz were killed in action in the ensuing firefight.  Only Navy Hospital Corpsman Second Class Marcus Luttrell survived.  16 other special forces soldiers were killed when their helicopter was hit by an RPG.  Lone Survivor is based on the first-hand account of Marcus Luttrell.

I’m going to avoid talking about the story of the film, because it was ripped right from the headlines.  Anything I say about Operation Red Wings is going to pale in comparison to the actual reports of what happened 9 years ago.  As with any film that’s based on real life, you are pretty much going to know the outcome going in.  Lone Survivor is not just a story about Marcus Luttrell, but also about the team he was a part of.  These were guys who were pretty normal folks with not so normal skill sets.  The relationship between these guys is simply put: brotherhood.  They were brothers, not by blood, but by circumstance.  The courage that these soldiers exhibit isn’t just in how they dealt with the firefight, but in their choice of occupation.  The training that Navy SEALS are required to go through is extraordinarily difficult and takes a person of equally extraordinary will-power and physical prowess to succeed.  In fact, at the very beginning of the movie you get to see some of this training.  It’s actual footage of real soldiers training to be SEALS.  The people who make it through this ordeal are changed forever in ways that we, as civilians, can never understand.  Like-wise, the way these guys related to each other and the way they fought together is something that only a person who has been through that hell can grasp.

It’s important in a film like this to show the relationship between the characters, especially during extreme situations.  It gives us a glimpse into a world that is pretty much hidden from the rest of us.  In order for it to work you have to have top-notch talent to really get that relationship right.  You have to understand, these characters were real people, who lived and died fighting as a team.  Mark Wahlberg inhabits the role of Marcus Luttrell, the only survivor.  Wahlberg is a fantastic actor, and he really does a good job here.  Taylor Kitsch surprises me here.  I never really though of Kitsch as that good of an actor, but he comes across as a bad-ass and a leader.  He really gets it right.  I’ve always dug Ben Foster as an actor.  He has a tendency to play some pretty quirky characters, but he always puts his best effort into them.  He disappears into the role like you wouldn’t believe.  Emile Hirsch plays Danny Dietz, the youngest member of the team.  Eric Bana plays LTCD Erik Kristensen.  Bana is reliable as always, and is usually a good choice for a role like this.  To get ready for Lone Survivor, the actors underwent grueling training course.  Not only that, but they also spent time with the families of the soldiers in that team.  They wanted to learn more about the soldiers that they were going to portray, and do their best to show that to audiences.  It’s clear that Lone Survivor was a special project for director Peter Berg, who first read Marcus Luttrell’s book while making Hancock.  It was important for him to really get it right, and I think he did a marvelous job.

This is a war movie, through and through.  The action is visceral and hard-hitting with some very spectacular stunt-work.  It was important for the filmmakers to show that these guys were caught in a no-win situation with no way out.  If they were going down, they were going to take as many of the Taliban with them as they could.  Despite knowing the outcome of the film, you can’t help but wanting these guys to be able to survive and make it home.  The tension throughout the battle is palpable and it has you on the edge of your seat.  Lone Survivor doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to the violence.

Lone Survivor is a story of courage and sacrifice.  These guys put everything on the line to protect our way of life from those who would see it destroyed.  I watched some of the special features on the DVD that I got, and it has interviews with the cast and crew.  It also has interviews with Marcus Luttrell and the family members of the soldiers that were killed in action.  It’s absolutely heart-breaking for the family members who have endured losses, but they also wanted this story told.  Putting that into context with the actual movie, it’s hard to sit through.  It’s emotional and inspirational at the same time.  As civilians, I don’t think that we truly understand what it really takes to defend our nation and the sacrifices that are required.  The ones who do understand are the families of those killed in action and the people who survive.  It is to those who gave their lives for our freedom and those that survived that I dedicate this post.  Marcus Luttrell established the Lone Survivor Foundation in 2010.  The intention was/is to provide the same kind of environment that helped heal Marcus.  More information can be found below.  Out of respect for the men and women who gave everything they had in service to this nation, I won’t give a score to this movie.  It’s a great movie, with excellent performances.  It needs to be seen at least once.  It’s an extraordinary story.  Putting a number to Lone Survivor just doesn’t feel right.

For more information regarding Operation Red Wings, The Lone Survivor Foundation, and Marcus Luttrell:

The Lone Survivor Foundation

Marcus Luttrell

Operation Red Wings: This is a Summary of Action on the operation.  This page is also part of the website made by the United States Navy to commemorate Lt. Michael P. Murphy’s service.  It’s worth taking a look.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(2014)

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Released: August 2014

Director: Jonathan Liebesman

Run Time: 101 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Cast:
Megan Fox: April O’Neil
Will Arnett: Vernon Fenwick
William Fichtner: Eric Sacks
Tohoru Masamune: Shredder

As a kid, I used to spend a lot of time in front of our TV watching cartoons.  During the mid-to-late 80s and early 90s, cartoons were at their best for my generation.  We had Transformers, G.I. JOE, BraveStarr, and Thundercats.  But one of the coolest cartoons featured some of the most unique characters I’ve ever seen in TV show: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  You had awesome characters like Shredder, Krang, Dr. Baxter, and April O’Neil as part of the whole deal, but it’s the turtles you want to watch.  Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello are the titular heroes.  Each character had a unique personality: Leo was the leader, Mikey was the party animal, Donatello was the geek, and Raphael was the rebel.  Their teacher?  A rat named Splinter.  The Ninja Turtles were originally based on comics by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.  The turtles have gone through NUMEROUS incarnations over the past 30 years.  From comics and TV shows to feature-length productions, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a staple of my generation’s childhood.  When I heard that Michael Bay was producing a new Ninja Turtles movie, I almost panicked.  Then I realized he wasn’t actually directing it.

The film opens as reporter April O’Neil is on her way to get an interview for a potential story when she notices a group of thugs are breaking  open cargo containers.  Believing them to be the notorious terrorist organization known as the Foot Clan, she attempts to get closer when she notices a mysterious figure starting to cause havoc and knock the thugs into the water.  Attempting to tell her boss and co-workers about what she saw, her account is met with criticism.  Witnessing people running out of a building, she investigates only to captured by the Foot Clan.  Not one, or two, but FOUR large figures show up and proceed to pummel the living daylights out of the thugs.  Following them up to the roof, April finally gets a good look: Four large talking turtles.  Somewhere else, the leader of the Foot Clan, the Shredder, learns about the turtles and orders them captured.  The story is anything but original.  It just serves moving the film from one action sequence to another.  It’s serviceable.

There are a couple of elephants in the room that I would like to address.  The first issue is with the pre-production of the film.  It was rumored that Michael Bay wanted to have the turtles come from space.  That was apparently one of the first rough drafts of the screenplay.  The backlash to that was extraordinary and forced the filmmakers to wisely reconsider.  People were pissed that their favorite turtles were going to be aliens.  Thankfully, that’s not the case.  The explanation for them is fairly logical if not cliche.  Another issue is the design of not just the turtles, but Splinter as well.  The turtles are much larger than they were in previous films, and they are CG, but each one has very unique look and outfit.  Leonardo has a samurai-style outfit while wielding two katanas.  Donatello sports glasses and electronic equipment with an extendable bo-staff.  Michelangelo wields to nanchukus, while Raphael sports twin sai.  Each one is unique with their own personalities.  Splinter’s design is definitely different, and he’s also CG.  The first two Ninja Turtle movies utilized actual costumes and animatronics courtesy of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.  This was during the early 90s, so CGI wasn’t part of the program yet.  You know what?  The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is probably one of the best action movies of the 90s, and it does so without the use of visual effects, it’s all done in camera.  The next issue was the villain.  It was clear early on that William Fichtner was going to be a bad guy, but nobody was sure if he was actually going to be the Shredder.  He’s not.  They found Tohoru Masamune to play Shredder.  I’m honestly glad that they did.  The Shredder in the previous movies and the comics and shows was Oroku Saki who was a ninja from Japan who became a criminal and founded the Foot Clan.  It was inferred that Splinter and Shredder had a history, which was explored in the original film.  In the new Ninja Turtles, there’s no such history which kind of eliminates the tension between the characters.  The look of The Shredder has remained mostly consistent throughout the years with his iconic helmet and blade-clad outfit.  In this new movie his armor is still retains the familiar look, but it updates it with mechanical blades.  As a result, the character is CG when he’s in uniform.  That leads me to the final elephant: The visual effects.  While this is a live-action film, most of the main characters are CG.  The technology we have today allows for some really incredible visuals, and the way the use it in Ninja Turtles isn’t bad.  In fact, at times it looks almost photo-realistic.  The problem is when there is a lot of action(and there is), it can get pretty jumbled and confusing at times.

The action is surprisingly decent.  Utilizing new animation technology, director Jonathan Liebesman has managed to actually make some pretty awesome action sequences including one that takes place a mountain-side.  It’s pretty thrilling.  What makes it work is the interaction between the turtles.  Each turtle has his own personality and they end up bouncing off each other fairly well.  Mikey can be pretty funny at times, and creepy at others.  Is the movie perfect?  Oh, no.  It is not.  I don’t really like Megan Fox as April O’Neil.  I never liked her as an actress anyway, her performances are wooden and unconvincing.  Although, if they had cast Kristen Stewart, I would have the same complaint.  Will Arnett is kind of forgettable.  Whoopi Goldberg?  Really?  I like Goldberg, I really do, but she really comes across as unlikable.  Was that intended?  I have no idea.  You can also tell that Michael Bay has his fingerprints all over Ninja Turtles, even though he didn’t direct.  It shows with some of the editing and some of the action sequences late in the film.  I understand that CG may have been needed with the new design of the turtles, but some of the sequences look like a cartoon.  I certainly understand people who have a preference for the old costume-style turtles, and I do too.  But people really came out swinging against this movie saying the turtles are ugly and don’t need to be CG.  Of course, you’ve got the crowd that says, “MICHAEL BAY IS RAPING MY CHILDHOOD!”  They said that about the Transformers movies too.  Really?  I’ll be honest, I’m not as familiar with the comics as much as I am with the original TV cartoon and the first four movies.  I’m clearly not as hardcore as some people are, apparently.  I just don’t feel that the new Ninja Turtles is the abomination that many are saying it is.  I don’t think it deserves that kind of hate.  Is it perfect?  No.  Is it better than the original movies?  It’s not better than the first two, but it is a damn sight better than Turtles III.  Honestly, I enjoyed the new movie.  It has a sense of humor and doesn’t take itself seriously.  It’s paced pretty well, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome.  It’s also a visually spectacular film.  It just stumbles at certain points.  At the end of the day, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gets a solid 8/10.  Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!!

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12 Years A Slave

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Released: November 2013

Director: Steve McQueen

Run Time: 134 Minutes

Rated R

Cast:
Chiwetel Ejiofor: Solomon Northup
Benedict Cumberbatch: Ford
Michael Fassbender: Epps
Paul Giamatti: Freeman
Paul Dano: Tibeats
Lupita Nyong’o: Patsey

The United States of America was founded on the promise of liberty.  As a nation of many peoples and cultures, we have risen to extraordinary heights since the nation was founded.  But like many other countries we have stumbled, fallen, and made many mistakes throughout our history.  Some mistakes are small, but the effects of some mistakes still linger to this day.  I’m speaking of slavery.  This was the issue that ripped our country apart.  Brothers, fathers, and sons fought each other in a great Civil War over the right to own slaves.  The country was divided because the southern states believed it was their inalienable right to treat blacks as their own property.  Many people in the north disagreed.  During the mid-1800’s, there were many notable African-Americans who became prominent citizens.  But during this period, many of the freed slaves were kidnapped and sold back into slavery.  Solomon Northup was one such person.  12 Years A Slave is based on Solomon’s first-hand account of the brutality of slavery.  Seeing as this movie is based on a true story, I’m going to warn you of spoilers.  However, if you know your history, this comes as no surprise.

12 Years A Slave begins its story as Solomon Northup sees his family off before being invited to Washington D.C.  He was invited by two men who have heard of Northup’s talents as a violinist.  After dinner, Northup finds himself chained up in an unknown location.  After being beaten by two white slavers, he is sold to a plantation owner, Ford, along with several other slaves.  Being treated relatively well by Ford, Solomon catches the unwanted attention of overseer Tibeats.  Fearing for Solomon’s life, Ford sells Solomon to another plantation owner:  A sadistic man named Epps.  This is a story that gives us an intimate look into one of the darkest chapters in US history.  This is a bleak and very brutal movie.  It’s not easy to sit through, and I’ll explain why a little later.  Directed by Steve McQueen(no relation to the actor), 12 Years A Slave is an extraordinary film about one man’s struggle to survive.  It’s an amazing story.  It’s also heartbreaking because a man was torn from everything that loved and forced into a nasty situation.  Slavery is something that should happen to nobody.  But it did, and it still does.

I’m going to talk about the cast for a bit.  For a movie like 12 Years A Slave, you need actors who can excel at delivering emotion not just through speaking, but also through body language.  12 Years A Slave boasts a phenomenal cast.  Chiwetel Ejiofor headlines as Solomon Northup.  I’ve been keeping my eye on Ejiofor ever since he showed up in the sci-fi film Serenity.  The man’s range as an actor is exceptional.  He doesn’t just speak his lines well, but his body language and facial expressions sell the performance like you wouldn’t believe.  It’s a trait that some of the greatest actors share.  Chiwetel was nominated for an Oscar for his performance and won many other awards for Best Leading Actor.  He becomes Solomon Northup.  Benedict Cumberbatch plays Ford, Solomon’s first owner.  Cumberbatch is another actor that people are really paying attention to.  The character of Ford comes across as sympathetic.  This is a guy that tries to treat his slaves with some dignity, and Cumberbatch knocks it out of the park.  He’s an amazing actor.  Paul Dano plays one of Ford’s overseers.  After his performance in Prisoners, it easy to see why he’s sought after as an actor.  He puts everything into the roles he gets and Tibeats is no exception.  Dano’s great at playing scumbags.  The real surprise of the film is Lupita Nyong’o as Patsey.  12 Years A Slave is Lupita’s first big movie and you would never know that by how she works the screen.  Her character is perhaps in a worse place than Solomon, because she’s the target of Epps….infidelity.  She’s also Epps’ most productive slave.  Her performance is heartbreaking and amazing at the same time.  She’s won so many awards for her work in the film that’s its no surprise that she’s getting major roles in upcoming movies like Star Wars.  She’s not only beautiful, but she plays her character with the maturity of someone like Alfre Woodard who also makes an appearance in the film.  Michael Fassbender’s Epps is the film’s human antagonist.  Fassbender has made a huge name for himself in the X-Men movies and Prometheus.  He knows how to play a bad guy.  Like the other actors I mentioned, Fassbender was nominated for his role.  He just disappears into a role and makes it his own, no matter how despicable the character.

The true villain of 12 Years A Slave is slavery itself.  This was a very brutal and sometimes deadly practice that made people a lot of money.  The slave-owners treated the blacks like they were animals.  They got whipped, beaten and sometimes raped.  A lot of people expressed concern and dismay over Steve McQueen’s use of violence in the film.  I would argue that for a subject like this, you can’t sugarcoat it.  The violence seen in the film is a necessity to get the idea across that slavery was not and is not a fairy tale.  I believe this is an honest approach to the subject.  Slavery is ugly and it’s portrayal in 12 Years A Slave is just as ugly as it needed to be.  This is not an easy film to sit through.  It’s not particularly entertaining.  It’s a glimpse into one of America’s atrocities.  President Abraham Lincoln ran for office on the idea that all men were created equal.  ALL men.  When he tried to push legislation that would abolish slavery, the southern states rebelled.  The resulting Civil War was devastating.  But after successfully passing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln proposed a 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.  The 13th Amendment would permanently abolish slavery.  He managed to get it passed and signed into law.  At the same, the Civil War came to an end.  During that time, Solomon Northup became a very prominent abolitionist and an important figure in The Underground Railroad.  It has been said that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it, and I believe that movies like 12 Years A Slave are important in reminding us that we should never go down certain roads again.

I picked 12 Years A Slave because it’s extremely relevant in regards to racial tension.  Looking at the news today, we’re seeing racial tensions boiling.  It’s sometimes getting violent.  I believe it’s important to remember the racial tensions that this country suffered in the past so we can attempt to eliminate it in the future, because if we don’t,we’ll enter another dark chapter.  That’s not the legacy we need to leave to our children and grandchildren.  If this sounds preachy, it may very well be.  But if history has proven anything, we have the ability to overcome our differences and make a better life for everyone.  Eliminating modern-day slavery and reducing racial tension will help achieve that.  12 Years A Slave may be one of the most important movies in the past 20-30 years.  I highly recommend that you watch it at least once.  I wouldn’t blame you for not watching more than that, but it’s absolutely worth the watch.  Incredible performances and an extraordinarily compelling story help make this movie one of the best I’ve ever seen.  This is easily a 10/10.  Definitely recommended.

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Escape Plan

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Released: October 2013

Director: Mikael Håfström

Run Time: 115 Minutes

Rated R

Cast:
Sylvester Stallone: Ray Breslin
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Rottmayer
Jim Caviezel: Hobbes
Faran Tahir: Javed
Amy Ryan: Abigail
Sam Neill: Dr. Kyrie
Vincent D’Onofrio: Lester Clark
Vinnie Jones: Drake
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson: Hush

There are a lot of movies about prison breaks: Count of Monte Cristo, Escape From Alcatraz, Shutter Island, The Shawshank Redemption and my two personal favorites: The Bridge on the River Kwai and The Great Escape.  These are some of the best films in the genre, and they generally revolve around one plot point….escaping their prison.  In some of these cases, the story revolves around one character who was falsely accused of a crime and plots to escape and get his revenge.  The others involve a group of people who work together to find a way out.  Some of the best prison break sequences are just a small part of the movie and can be very memorable.  The jailbreak in John Woo’s Face/Off with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage is probably one of the best prison breaks I’ve seen in a movie.  Now, take that sequence from Face/Off and throw in Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger and you have Escape Plan.  Obviously there’s a bit more to the film than that, but if I had to sum up, that’s what you would get.

Opening in a prison somewhere in the United States, prisoner Ray Breslin is making his rounds in the prison planning his escape.  Ray Breslin is actually a professional escape artist hired by the US prison system to find flaws in their prisons to keep prisoners from escaping.  Later, he’s offered a job to try and escape a new prison designed to house the world’s worst people.  After he’s agreed to the job, he’s violently abducted and transported to the new prison.  The prison’s warden, Hobbes, is a sadistic individual with an equally vicious right-hand man, Drake.  Meeting another prisoner, Rottmayer, Breslin realizes that he’s in serious trouble and needs to rely on his fellow prisoner to find his way out.  The story isn’t really anything original.  We’ve all seen this kind of film before.  But this is the first time we’ve seen both Stallone and Schwarzenegger in a film together, right?  Wrong.  Schwarzenegger and Stallone first appeared together in The Expendables.  Arnold had a cameo because he still in office at the time, but he had an expanded role in the sequels.  It IS the first time that we’ve seen these two in prison break movie, however.  So how does Escape Plan stack up against the other films I mentioned?  The honest truth is that I wouldn’t even put it in my top 5.

I think part of the problem is even trying to compare this movie to other identical films in the genre.  Escape Plan just isn’t even in the same league as something like The Great Escape.  It wouldn’t be a fair comparison, actually.  This movie treads the same path as some of those other films, but it isn’t nearly as refined.  For instance, the main character surveys his surroundings and tries to pay attention to certain details.  I think another issue with the movie is that the motivations for the characters are convoluted.  Breslin says at one point he does what he does so he can keep dangerous people from breaking out of prisons, but it’s apparent there’s a very personal reason for it.  It’s never truly explained.  As for why Rottmayer is there?  We really have no idea who he is or given a reasonable explanation for his incarceration.  We know that Hobbes is a scumbag but it’s never explained who he works for or why he is the way he is.  The movie leaves a lot of questions unanswered, at least for me.

For once, Stallone and Schwarzenegger are playing human beings.  It’s kind of weird seeing Arnold with a goatee, but it seems to work for him.  I think he needs to wear it more often.  I think Schwarzenegger steals the show in this one, because he gets to ham it up to the nth degree, and it’s hilarious at times.  Escape Plan has some pretty interesting names attached to it.  You’ve got Jim Caviezel, who plays Hobbes.  He’s an interesting actor.  I like him in most of the stuff that I’ve seen him in.  He’s got a knack for playing understated characters or characters that are not over-the-top.  His portrayal of Hobbes IS menacing, but at times it can be a little humorous, but he’s not loud or off-the-wall crazy.  He’s meticulous and deliberate.  We’ve also got Sam Neill who plays the good doctor who got caught up in a serious situation.  Sam Neill has always been a fantastic actor, and seeing him play a character like this is almost unusual.  While he’s not a primary character, he does become important later on, and Neill gives the character a real sense of humanity.  Vincent D’Onofrio plays the head of the company that Stallone’s character works for.  D’Onofrio always gives his characters interesting quirks.  We see early on that Lester Clark may be a bit of an OCD/germaphobe-type person just be some of the stuff that he does.  I wouldn’t be surprised if D’Onofrio improvised some of that stuff on the spot.  The one cast member that I was surprised at was Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.  This isn’t the first time a rapper has jumped from music to acting.  Ice Cube and Ice-T are some of the more well-known actors who used to be musicians.  Ice-T actually wound up being a pretty good actor, so it is possible for a successful transition.  Curtis Jackson doesn’t strike me as bad actor, he really doesn’t.  He plays the “nerd” of the movie so to speak, but he’s not terrible.

With the big action names attached to Escape Plan, you would expect to see a lot of action, right?  Wrong.  This is not that kind of movie.  Yes, it does have action in it, but most of it doesn’t really happen until towards the end of the movie.  Unlike Sabotage, Escape Plan isn’t overly bloody.  It’s definitely violent, but it’s not excessive.  Seeing a movie like this showing that kind of restraint is kind of refreshing, actually.  There’s a number of downsides to this film, some of which I’ve already mentioned.  The one that I didn’t mention was Vinnie Jones.  He always plays the same kind of character: Tough, brooding, swears a lot, and is extremely violent.  He’s good at it, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t seem like he’s got that much range as an actor.  The music in Escape Plan comes across as way too much and too grandiose.   It’s just way over-the-top and doesn’t suit this type of film.  I would have to say that Escape Plan is a pretty middle-of-the-road movie.  It’s not bad, but it’s not terribly good either.  The movie just follows too much in the footsteps of greater films, and doesn’t really do enough to make it unique.  This one is sentenced to 7/10.  It’s not bad enough to get solitary confinement, though.