Movie Review: Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Genre: Action Thriller  

Director: J.J. Abrams  
Starring: Tom Cruise, Michelle Monaghan, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Laurence Fishburne, Billy Crudup, Maggie Q, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Keri Russell  
Running Time: 126 minutes  

Synopsis: Impossible Missions Force Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is engaged to Julia (Michelle Monaghan), having retired from field duty and settled into the role of a trainer. But when his former trainee Lindsey (Keri Russell) is captured by elusive international weapons dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Ethan returns to duty with his team to mount a rescue in Berlin. He next attempts to kidnap Davian from a Vatican gala to prevent him from peddling the dangerous "Rabbit's Foot" device, but Ethan's exploits have far-reaching consequences involving IMF Directors Musgrave (Billy Crudup) and Brassel (Laurence Fishburne), with a showdown in Shanghai.

What Works Well: The third installment in the franchise achieves superb polish, director J.J. Abrams finally unlocking the potential of the series. Tight editing, a controlled running time, and a steady stream of highlights deliver perfect measures of suspense (the abduction of Davian from the Vatican), stunts (plentiful, but the high-rise jumps in Shanghai are spectacular), and plain high-intensity action (the bridge ambush). Grit (Lindsey's rescue and aftermath) mixes with romance (Cruise and Monaghan sharing good chemistry). The globe-trotting plot is easy to follow, helped by a cast stacked with quality. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a terrific cold-blooded villain and worthy adversary to Cruise's combination of athleticism and intensity.

What Does Not Work As Well: The "Rabbit's Foot" deserved a better explanation, and the political machinations within the IMF Director ranks are half-baked.

Key Quote:

Lindsey (under fire with Ethan in the middle of a firefight): I'm out. How many rounds you got?

Ethan (checks weapon): Enough.

[rises, fires one shot, and takes out the opponent]

Ethan: Now I'm out.

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Movie Review: Match Point (2005)

Genre: Romantic Crime Drama  

Director: Woody Allen  

Starring: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode, Brian Cox, Penelope Wilton  

Running Time: 124 minutes  

Synopsis: In London, tennis pro Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) befriends his wealthy client Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), leading to a serious romance with Tom's sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer). Meanwhile, Tom's fiancée is Nola (Scarlett Johansson), a struggling American actress. Although Chris is also immediately attracted to Nola, Chloe is his ticket to riches. Chloe's parents (Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton) help Chris launch a successful business career, but he cannot abandon his Nola infatuation, leading to numerous complications.

What Works Well: Woody Allen takes a break from neurosis to reflect on luck, class, justice, and the conflict between stability and lust as contradictory pursuits. Both Chris and Nola are outsiders to the elite Hewett family orbit, but while he is embraced, she is rejected, setting the stage for a divergence in the illicit lovers' destiny. After a deep investment in characters, Allen introduces a couple of delicious crime and punishment twists, adding zest to the final act. The quality cast bubbles with enthusiasm, Emily Mortimer particularly excelling along a romantic arc beset by unforeseen challenges. Sparkling London locations and an opera soundtrack accompany the unpredictable trajectories.

What Does Not Work As Well: One startling turning point is arguably inconsistent with a character's core capabilities, and while the content is rich, the running time could have used a trim.

Conclusion: Love could be life-changing, or just a zero.



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Movie Review: From Paris With Love (2010)

A wild action thriller, From Paris With Love rides the manic energy of an untamed John Travolta performance to several satisfying if brain-free highlights.

In Paris, James Reese (Johnathan Rhys Meyers) is an aid to American Ambassador Bennington (Richard Durden), and also a low-level CIA agent eager to get involved in more elaborate operations. His relationship with French girlfriend Caroline (Kasia Smutniak) is going well, and after James successfully bugs the French Foreign Minister's office, he is rewarded with an assignment to assist new-in-town agent Charlie Wax (Travolta).

The bold and brash Wax utilizes unconventional methods involving plenty of firepower, and arrives in Paris seemingly to disrupt a cocaine supply chain. James finds himself cradling a coke-filled vase in the middle of several free-fire zones as Wax bulldozes his way through the criminal underworld, uncovering a dangerous conspiracy.

Once John Travolta enters From Paris With Love about a third of the way into the movie, director Pierre Morel discover a new gear and the action takes off, never to slow down. The initially serious introduction gives way to levity, the Luc Besson story defaulting to a buddy movie with Meyers playing straight man to Travolta's force of nature. Although the messaging is uneven, the frequent noisy shootouts are well staged and Charlie Wax's larger than life presence easily fills the vacuum created by a script not bothering with any sense of credibility.

The bad guys are poorly defined and the conspiracy barely sketched in, and neither Besson nor Morel appear too sure how the story jumps from large quantities of drugs to terrorists plotting suicide bombings. The sketched plot outline only serves as a hanger for charisma-packed action scenes, mostly featuring Wax taking on and mowing down a large number of baddies as Reese tries to stay out of the way.

Highlights include carnage in a restaurant, a street gang caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and an ascent up a building staircase with frequent falling hazards. By the time the large tank-busting missile launcher comes out to play on the freeway, the ambassador's aid is close to learning that even in Paris, love has no place amongst the big guns.

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Movie Review: The 12th Man (2017)

A World War Two survival story, The 12th Man celebrates a Norwegian hero's evasion of capture in a stirring but overlong adventure.

The year is 1943. When a sabotage mission goes wrong in Nazi-occupied Norway, Jan Baalsrud (Thomas Gullestad) is the only one of 12 commandos to evade capture. But he is alone in the frigid northern regions near Tromso, and has to swim in sub-zero arctic waters to escape. Missing one shoe, he suffers frostbite in the toes of one foot. 

Sturmbannführer Kurt Stage (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is the highest ranking local Nazi official, and insists Baalsrud much be caught. Over many harrowing weeks, a weakened Baalsrud relies on the kindness, ingenuity and courage of Norwegians to remain hidden as he inches his way towards the safety of the Swedish border.

Based on true events recounted in the 2001 book by Tore Haug and Astrid Karlsen Scott, The 12th Man combines physically exhausting survival with the warmth of everyday Norwegians risking their lives to help a fellow countryman. Director Harald Zwart maintains hot intensity in the freezing terrain, but at 135 minutes, the film extends into unnecessarily detailed territory.

The narrative strength is drawn from Baalsrud determination to survive, his escape story spreading through the sparsely populated towns and providing Norway with a much needed local hero at a time of oppression. But several stretches of the film suffer from powerless protagonist syndrome, Baalsrud helpless and on his back as secondary characters do their best to keep him safe and hidden from Nazi search parties.

Thomas Gullestad delivers a physically demanding performance, shivering through scenes of narrow escapes from death with dollops of gangrene-inflicted gore. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is a suitably chilling antagonist as he fills the boots of the ambitious and dogged SS commander Stage.

With scenes of torture, amateur toe amputations, nightmarish hallucinations and physical damage caused by a wild avalanche ride, The 12th Man is sometimes difficult to watch. But legends are created by the brutalities of war, and by the extraordinary heroism of ordinary people.



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Movie Review: Damascus Cover (2017)

A spy thriller set in the Middle East, Damascus Cover is an old-fashioned intelligence game of shadows riddled with distracting inconsistencies.

It's 1989, and the Berlin Wall is tumbling. In that city, Mossad agent Ari Ben-Sion (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) terminates a double-crossing operative feeding information to the Syrians. An Israeli agent in Damascus falls into the hands of Sarraj (Navid Negahban), the Syrian head of Mukhabarat. Fearful that Israel's entire Syrian spy network has been compromised, Mossad boss Miki (John Hurt, in his final role) dispatches Ari to Damascus to extract Angel, the highest ranking covert agent in the city.

In Damascus Ari adopts the identity of German rug dealer Hans Hoffman and cozies up to ex-Nazi-in-hiding Franz Ludin (Jürgen Prochnow), whose housekeeper can help with Angel's extraction. Ari also starts a romance with journalist Kim Johnson (Olivia Thirlby). Syrian military commander General Fouad (Igal Naor) is locked in an internal power struggle with Sarraj, and both men keep close tabs on Ari's movements.

An independent production adapting the book by Howard Kaplan, Damascus Cover dives into the intriguing world of spying and counter-spying in the world's most dangerous neighbourhood. The gimmick-free, human-centred high-tension drama of spies in hostile territory relying on their wits to survive is refreshing, and both the cinematography and locations convey the desired dour mood. But unfortunately too many other elements fall short, compromising the film's quality.

As played by a stiff Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ari Ben-Sion silently screams "I am a Spy!" in every scene. Whether the fault of the actor or director and co-writer Daniel Zelik Berk, Ari's uncomfortable stance, useless narration and unwillingness to blend in erode credibility. Ari's careless bumbling around in Damascus, from romancing a journalist who can expose his identity (they first met in Jerusalem) to clumsily getting caught with Ludin's housekeeper, mark him as far from fit for purpose.

Many other plot points are clunky, including the contrived attempt to humanize Ari by providing him with a bland sob backstory (father died young; child died young). The entire old-Nazis-in-hiding subplot is appended for no useful narrative purpose except perhaps to make the Syrians look bad as ex-Nazi coddlers, and Ari's route to Angel through Ludin's housekeeper is a particularly convoluted mission path.

Of course this being a spy thriller most of the characters are not who they claim to be, and Damascus Cover gets better as more onion layers are peeled. While the exceptionally awkward action climax stumbles as badly as the rest of the film, the denouement is excellent in offering a glimpse into the realpolitik world of puppet masters. Damascus Cover blows its cover early and often, but does leave behind tantalizing shrouds of what could have been.



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Movie Review: August Rush (2007)

A modern day fairy tale, August Rush unabashedly celebrates pure love and the magical powers of music.

In New York City of 1995, Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) is a cellist and Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is the lead singer in an Irish rock band. They meet at a party, it's love at first sight, they spend one night together and then separate. Fate keeps them apart, but Lyla is pregnant. Months later, an accident leaves Layla unconscious, the baby boy is delivered, and her father (William Sadler) hands him to social services. When Layla awakens, she is told that the baby died. Both Layla and Louis are miserable without each other, and abandon their musical dreams.

Eleven years later their son Evan Taylor (Freddie Highmore) drifts away from a boys' shelter where he has spent his life and finds his way to Manhattan. Lyla is a music teacher in Chicago, and Louis is a businessman in San Francisco. Evan has music in his blood, and finds musical inspiration in all the sounds that surround him. He falls in with a group of street musicians controlled and exploited by Maxwell "The Wizard" Wallace (Robin Williams). Evan demonstrates incredible ability with the guitar, and The Wizard starts to imagine the riches that can come his way. He renames the boy August Rush to make him more difficult to find. By now Lyla is frantically looking for Evan thanks to her father's death bed confession, and Louis is desperately searching for Layla.

Directed by Kirsten Sheridan (daughter of Jim), August Rush is a sweet story, unapologetically borrowing elements from Oliver Twist, and bathed in the soft light of eternal optimism. Evan is a child prodigy on par with Mozart in his ability to play and compose music, and just when the time is right Lyla and Louis follow their hearts, then their instincts and finally the music to arrive at the happy ending in Central Park.

As a package, it is almost impossible not to fall in love with the film's simple intentions and trust in pure innocence. This is not a film where common sense or logic need to prevail; rather, this is a place to reflect on the ethereal qualities of music, the silent and mutual attraction of souls destined to be together, and a mother's determined search for the son she never knew. The music score by Mark Mancina and Hans Zimmer adds to the mood of poignant anticipation, while John Mathieson's cinematography makes good use of the New York City locations, with Washington Square particularly prominent.

Lyla, Louis and Evan clearly belong together, and spend the film overcoming obstacles to arrive at the same point in time and place. In true fable fashion all three are pure of heart and filled with nothing but good intentions, and the actors perform accordingly. Freddie Highmore exudes innocent bliss and a spirit naturally intertwined with music. Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers are headstrong, passionate, and tender in their pursuit of the love that slipped through their fingers. Robin Williams makes for a worthy antagonist, channeling his inner Fagin as he heartlessly profits from child labour. Terrence Howard rounds out the cast as a social worker trying to help Evan.

As with all the best fairy tales, August Rush exists in a place where good will triumph over evil, love will survive and thrive, and the human spirit remains positive and optimistic, all set to great music and glowing in artistic light.

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Movie Review: Shelter (2010)

Starting with psychology and ending with horror, Shelter loses its identity quickly and muddles along the wrecks of ideas past. Julianne Moore tries to appear concerned about all the spirited mumbo jumbo, but she is probably just worried about what this mess of a film will do to her career.

Psychologist Cara Harding (Moore) does not believe in split personality disorder. Her father Dr. Harding (Jeffrey DeMunn) is also a psychologist, and he introduces Cara to a new patient (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), who definitely appears to be housing two personalities: the meek, wheelchair bound David, and the more aggressive, fully fit Adam.

Cara is still skeptical, and delves into Adam's background. She uncovers the story of the real David, a teenager confined to a wheelchair after an accident, and later found tortured and killed. Cara believes that Adam takes on the personality of David as an escape from his unsavoury life. But soon enough, the personality of Wes, a dead music band member, also appears within Adam, complicating Cara's life and diagnosis. As she continues to try and understand how Adam came to be so many people at once, Cara stumbles onto an ancient mystery, a community hiding the secret of soul sheltering, and a maniac of an evil-doer who has been hunting down people for centuries.

Shelter does provide a sprinkling of adequate chills, mostly with Cara searching for clues to Adam's origins deep in the inhospitable rural woods and among houses that should be condemned but are occupied by either people or corpses. Moore generates enough magnetism to maintain a vague interest in the proceedings, even as the script detours to the rubbishy neighbourhood of soul collecting and blind old women pulling organs out of patients to cure them of evil. And Jonathan Rhys Meyers does bring a creepy intensity to Adam, a man with plenty to worry about on the inside.

Unfortunately, once Shelter abandons psychology and bumps down the road of gruesome murder most foul wrapped up in pseudo religious dogma and an ancient battle against rampant disease, the script by Michael Cooney just lies down and dies. It should be self evident that switching genres halfway through the movie and then half-baking the fundamental premise is a recipe for deflation, but Cooney falls for every trap in the book of over eager imaginations. Co-directors Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein do little except throw all the old horror camera angles at the screen, and hope that something spooky takes hold.  It never does.

The ending of Shelter cannot come soon enough, as Adam chases after Cara and her daughter Sam in the rural hinterland, the all-conquering, centuries-spanning evil presence reduced to the ignominy of a cheap chase-the-girls-in-the-woods climax. It's a fittingly disappointing resolution to a film that had some ideas, and promptly scattered them into the winds of confusion.

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