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: Running With The Devil (2019)

Genre: Crime Thriller  

Director: Jason Cabell  

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Laurence Fishburne, Leslie Bibb, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg  

Running Time: 100 minutes  

Synopsis: A Vancouver-based crime boss (Barry Pepper) complains to his Seattle-based supplier (Nicolas Cage) that recent cocaine shipments have been tampered with. The supplier takes a break from his day job as a cook and embarks on a trip to trace a shipment from a farmer's field in Colombia, through Mexico, and into the United States. The Cook's associate "the Man" (Laurence Fishburne) has slipped from middle-man to addict, contaminating the drugs and aiming to go into business on his own. His sidekick (Adam Goldberg) is picked up by an FBI agent (Leslie Bibb), and she is soon on the trail of the Cook and the Man.

What Works Well: Writer and director Jason Cabell invests in an informational follow-the-dots structure where one drug shipment is the centre of attention. From a farmer in Colombia to various mules and scuzzy middle-men navigating border crossings, the drugs change hands and gain in value, fueling an international industry. Meanwhile, victims of the tainted supply drop dead in the suburbs and alleyways of Seattle and Vancouver. Without stretching, Nicolas Cage and Laurence add a gloss of acting talent.

What Does Not Work As Well: The product is the story, and the people are afterthoughts. The intentional absence of names and the incessant jumping between sub-stories ensure none of the characters register as anything other than designated roles, resulting in dry soullessness. The choppy episodes include some incomprehensible distractions (including a few bewildering ambushes), and a couple of late-in-the-day twists are both implausible and unimpressive.

Key Quote:

The Cook (to his wife): The are some...administrative issues I have to attend to.

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Movie Review: What's Love Got To Do With It (1993)

Genre: Musical Biographical Drama  

Director: Brian Gibson  

Starring: Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne  

Running Time: 118 minutes  

Synopsis: Born in Tennessee, Anna Mae Bullock always loved to sing and perform, but as a child she was abandoned by her mother. In the mid-1950s, a teenaged Anna Mae (Angela Bassett) moves to St. Louis and soon catches the eye of famous singer and songwriter Ike Turner (Laurence Fishburne). She joins his touring group and he gives her the stage name Tina, while their romance evolves into marriage and children. Through the 1960s and 1970s Tina achieves stardom with a string of hit songs, but Ike is beset by jealousy and addictions, and becomes abusive.

What Works Well: An adaptation of Turner's book, this is an against-the-odds biography, elevated by remarkable mid-career turbulence and two stellar performances. Angela Bassett navigates a long arc from a young woman who knows what it means to be abandoned to a star forced to independently re-invent herself, passing through the star-struck, ingenue, and victim stages. Laurence Fishburne captures the raw danger of a talented man suffering from a Svengali complex and multiple demons. Together, they provide the high-revving power behind music performance scenes that capture Turner's energy and naturally forceful on-stage presence.

What Does Not Work As Well: Ike's brilliant but deeply flawed personality merits a more thorough background exploration. The intense focus on the central relationship relegates all others to irrelevance, with none of the secondary characters afforded the opportunity to make a sustained impact.

Conclusion: Glamour on-stage, ferocity backstage.



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Movie Review: Last Flag Flying (2017)

Genre: Dramedy

Director: Richard Linklater

Starring: Steve Carell, Laurence Fishburne, Bryan Cranston

Running Time: 124 minutes

Synopsis: It's 2003, and Larry "Doc" Shepherd (Steve Carell) has just lost his enlisted son, killed in action in the Iraq War. To help with burial arrangements, Larry seeks out two men he served with in Vietnam: hard-drinking Sal (Bryan Cranston) now runs a grubby bar, while Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) is a happily-married reverend. The three men reconnect on a road trip filled with memories, conflicts, humour, and revelations.

What Works Well: An initially simple trip that takes unexpected turns in pursuit of male bonding, the adaptation of Darryl Poniscan's book carries similarities to the author's The Last Detail. Director Richard Linklater celebrates friendship forged in the hell of war and honors the men as damaged servants to suspect causes. Doc (endured a stint in prison), Sal (enslaved to alcohol), and Mueller (saved by religion) all found different escapes from battlefield demons, and their reunion is an often eloquent opportunity to re-examine and question long-ago decisions. 

What Does Not Work As Well: This is a two hour talkfest among the same three characters, and the script (by Linklater and Poniscan) often lacks discipline. Many of the dialogue exchanges offer only padding, with the profanity-fueled diatribes of Bryan Cranston's Sal allowed to dominate. In contrast Steve Carell's introverted Doc is ignored for long stretches despite being the trip's architect. Linklater aims for a narrow landing strip between saluting soldiers and castigating warmongers, resulting in a wobbly final act.

Conclusion: A meandering veterans' journey in the shadows of regret.



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Movie Review: All The Old Knives (2022)

A spy drama, All The Old Knives is a slow burning series of revelations. The multiple flashback structure is suitably complex but shaky plot points remain evident.

In 2012, Flight 127 is hijacked at Vienna airport by Islamist terrorists. The CIA's Vienna station chief Vick Wallinger (Laurence Fishburne) monitors the crisis with his team of agents, including veteran Bill Compton (Jonathan Pryce), field agent Henry Pelham (Chris Pine), and agent Celia Harrison (Thandiwe Newton), who is also Henry's lover. The hijacking ends badly, and Celia immediately breaks up with Henry and leaves the agency.

In 2020, Vick tasks Henry with reopening the Flight 127 file, to investigate allegations by recently captured terrorist leader Ilyas Shishani (Orli Shuka) that a mole in the CIA's Vienna office assisted the hijackers. Suspicions swirl around Celia, who is now married with two children and living in California. Henry first visits the retired Bill in London, then meets Celia at a seaside restaurant in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Over a long meal they probe each other about events surrounding Flight 127, their relationship, and secrets they have both protected for years.

A grim battle of wits unfolding over multiple timelines, All The Old Knives seeks thrills through mental duels. Avoiding action cliches, the narrative settles down to a series of conversations circling crucial secrets. Olen Steinhauer wrote the script based on his own novel, and Janus Metz Pedersen directs with dour intensity. The burden of spying, mixed with a torrid romance and past betrayals, creates a dense foundation for the drama.

While the narrative starts with Henry's perspective, Celia eventually emerges as an equal, and their dinner-and-wine interaction benefits from lingering uncertainty surrounding exactly what happened during the hijacking. The timeline jumps allow gaps to be introduced, paused, and later filled-in, adding a crackling current of tension. But unfortunately, as the puzzle pieces consisting of hidden motives, personal agendas, and clandestine meetings start to form a picture, the overall plot loses a layer of logic.

Although a few other agents are sketched in, the emphasis remains on Henry, Celia, Bill, and to a lesser extent Vick. The list of possible collaborators is therefore short, reducing the impact of the inevitable twists. Within the limits of the material, the two leads avoid the theatricality encouraged by the confined sets. Chris Pine sips his role through Pierce Brosnan's wine glass, while Thandiwe Newton allows Celia's distance from active service to round her edges into more human than spy.

All The Old Knives refreshingly dares to ignore car chases, combat scenes, and shoot-outs. The focus on psychological control, emotional scars, painful compromises, and principles of trust is sometimes over-extended, but always cerebral.



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Movie Review: The Ice Road (2021)

A truckers-in-danger thriller, The Ice Road enjoys some impressive visuals, plenty of rumbling heavy machinery, and wild action, but cannot overcome a plastic script and tired plot.

In northern Manitoba, a devastating explosion at the Katka diamond mine traps 26 men underground. With oxygen running out within 30 hours, a desperate plea is issued for truckers willing to risk delivering heavy rescue equipment on fragile ice roads, a month past the safe season for ground transport.

Truck company owner Jim Goldenrod (Laurence Fishburne) responds to the call and recruits driver Mike McCann (Liam Neeson) and his ace mechanic brother Gurty (Marcus Thomas), a veteran suffering from brain injuries. Cree woman Tantoo (Amber Midthunder) joins them as the third driver of three similarly equipped trucks, while insurance company representative Varnay (Benjamin Walker) tags along. The trip is already precarious, but evil conspiratorial forces are at play.

Co-funded by the Government of Manitoba and mashing no less a classic than The Wages Of Fear with television’s Ice Road Truckers, The Ice Road offers the basis of a good idea but falls well short of delivering the necessary goods. Writer and director Jonathan Hensleigh works from a script several drafts away from a final product. The incomprehensible elements include an illogical nefarious plot at the mine, a timeline that seems to ignore the many hours needed to deploy the necessary heavy equipment, and a bewildering thin-the-herd drama among the trapped miners. Willing but under-powered cast members appear to get one take to spout dull lines of dialogue with understandable befuddlement.

The on-the-ice action is modestly tolerable but driven over-the-top by rampant CGI, while many seemingly difficult hurdles (such as how to recover two massive trucks both tipped onto their sides in the middle of nowhere) are merrily skipped over with no technical explanation necessary. The easy-to-spot villain turns into an indestructible force more powerful than anything mother nature can throw at our protagonists. Here Liam Neeson usually saves the day by dragging whatever material is thrown at him towards respectability, but this time the load is too heavy. While moments between the brothers Mike and Gurty offer some warmth in the frigid surroundings, Neeson is reduced to trying too hard.

Amber Midthunder as Tantoo offers the other tolerable side-story, her character battling racist attitudes and a chequered history with Goldenrod as she persists to save her brother among the trapped men. But despite hints of worthwhile entertainment, The Ice Road falls through the cracks.



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Movie Review: Boyz N The Hood (1991)

A social drama and coming-of-age story, Boyz N The Hood is a stunningly clear-eyed look at the grim realities of the Black inner-city experience.

It's 1984 in Los Angeles, and 10-year-old Tre gets into trouble at school one time too many. His divorced mother Reva (Angela Bassett) transports him to live with his father Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne) in the tough Crenshaw neighbourhood. Furious is a real estate agent and determined to keep Tre out of trouble by being a good male role model. The other neighbourhood kids, including brothers Darren and Ricky, are not so lucky and lack a father figure.

Seven years later, Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is finishing high school, holding a job at the mall, and courting girlfriend Brandi (Nia Long). They are both planning to go to college. Ricky is already a father, but hoping his football skills will secure him a college scholarship. Darren has dropped out of school and is into thuggery as the neighbourhood crack cocaine dealer. Crenshaw is besieged by despair, frequent shootings, brutality, and police interventions. When Darren tangles with a rival gang, the violence escalates.

At 24 years old, John Singleton wrote and directed Boyz N The Hood based on his own experiences and the friends he grew up with in South Central Los Angeles. The first Black cinematic perspective of the treacherous environment where American Black youth are brought up, this is a painfully stark and often harrowing portrayal of a hell on earth. The language is coarse, the behaviour brazen and crass, the attitude towards women abhorrent, and it's all routine for youth coming of age unequipped to even seek a better future.

Young men like Tre, Ricky and Darren emerge from broken homes where parents are more than likely to be addicts. With limited opportunities and resources, they flounder to find their way out of a jungle dominated by violence, guns, drugs and abuse. Singleton underlines the siege mentality with the clatter of police helicopters hovering incessantly overhead, the Crenshaw residents' main interaction with government reduced to officers quick to aim guns at heads and hardware at the entire neighbourhood.

The film does have weaknesses. The opening segment with the kids sometimes slips into television drama mode, a warped mirror of The Cosby Show. The salute to Stand By Me threatens to slip into mimicry. Beyond Tre, Darren and Ricky, the film is littered with young men who remain stock representations. And Cuba Gooding Jr. at 23 struggles to convince as the 17 year old Tre.

While the messaging is preachy, it is also effective in its simplicity. A present and caring father is a starting point to improve the odds. Birth control tames the cycle of instability. Young Black males refraining from knee-jerk reactions to kill each other at the slightest provocation helps. Pursuing school and employment is a good idea. And broader society could contribute by stemming the flow of guns and drugs into neighbourhoods least equipped to survive the resulting carnage.

Singleton does not pretend any outsiders are actively seeking solutions, and in Furious Styles Boyz N The Hood finds the catalyst for a change that can only come from within. The path out of affliction requires uncommon fortitude, but the alternatives are depressingly dire.

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Movie Review: Searching For Bobby Fischer (1993)

A sports drama, Searching For Bobby Fischer explores the clash between adult aspirations of dominance and life's simple pleasures through the story of a chess prodigy.

In New York City, seven year old Josh Waitzkin (Max Pomeranc) demonstrates a natural talent for chess, to the surprise of his parents Fred and Bonnie (Joe Mantegna and Joan Allen). Josh sharpens his skills playing speed chess with the sketchy Washington Square Park locals, where he establishes a friendship with Vinnie (Laurence Fishburne).

Fred hires chess coach Bruce Pandolfini (Ben Kingsley), and Josh starts to dominate tournaments. Bruce believes Josh could be as good as legendary world champion Bobby Fischer, and along with Fred they both get over-invested in the child's success and pressure him into adopting a winning-is-all mentality. But Josh also enjoys baseball, fishing and just being a kid, and seeks a more rounded approach to life, supported by Bonnie.

Based on a true story and Fred Waitzkin's book, Searching For Bobby Fischer is sweet, tender and only sometimes overblown. Writer and director Steve Zaillian ensures the story of a child thrust into a competitive world appeals to children and their parents, and while the simple life lessons for both kid (be yourself) and dad (back off) are none too subtle, the package is undeniably appealing.

The topic is chess, but it could be any sport. Zaillian skips past trying to explain the rules or intricacies of the game (other than Pandolfini obliquely referring to it as "art"), and focusses instead on the pressures imposed on a youngster displaying natural talent and aptitude. Fred gets emotionally wrapped-up in his son's potential, Pandolfini want to make amends for his past failures (only cryptically alluded to), and suddenly what started as fun for young Josh becomes a pressurized cauldron.

In snippets and historical flashbacks Josh narrates the story of eccentric American champion Bobby Fischer, a child prodigy who gate-crashed the heretofore Soviet-dominated chess world of the early 1970s before promptly disappearing. Josh gets saddled with the "next Bobby Fischer" label, both an honour and an unwanted weight on his young shoulders. According to Pandolfini, Fischer and most world champions are singularly dedicated to chess and display arrogance and disdain towards their opponents. Josh acknowledges the strength of his upbringing by recoiling from the cut-throat nastiness seemingly required to reach the top and stay there.

The mass market concessions appear in the portrayals of chess as a slam-down event, players almost always making their moves aggressively and theatrically whacking the timing clocks. James Horner's music score does not help by regularly soaring to extreme saccharine levels. The late introduction of a tournament nemesis sets-up a good if overly contrived climax. 

Zaillian shows restraint by limiting the running time to 110 minutes, and excellent work from the cast helps maintain spry energy levels. Max Pomeranc expresses mature self-awareness to nudge Josh's environment towards rationality, while Joe Mantegna, Ben Kinglsey and Laurence Fishburne are different versions of adults channeling aspirations through their kids. The wonders of genius are luminescent, but as one child demonstrates, the pathways to fulfilment are numerous.



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Movie Review: The Mule (2018)

A drama and character study, The Mule is a simple yet elegant story of an elderly man looking for renewed purpose.

In Illinois, Earl Stone (Clint Eastwood) ran a successful horticulture business, but was a neglectful husband to his now former wife Mary (Dianne Wiest) and an inattentive father to his bitter daughter Iris (Alison Eastwood). Now in his eighties, Earl did not keep up with online commerce and goes bankrupt. Granddaughter Ginny (Taissa Farmiga) maintains a good relationship, and one of her friends connects Earl with a drug cartel in need of reliable transport across state borders.

Earl starts making long drives to deliver bagfuls of narcotics, and establishes a reputation as a dependable and trustworthy mule, attracting the admiration of Mexican cartel boss Laton (Andy Garcia). Earl uses his substantial earnings to help good causes in his community, and to mend fences with his family. But Drug Enforcement Agency agents Bates (Bradley Cooper) and Trevino (Michael Peña) start to close in, with their boss (Laurence Fishburne) desperate for a big bust.

Directed by Eastwood and written by Nick Schenk, The Mule is inspired by a true story. The film is a warts-and-all exploration of a life full of joy and regret, and a remarkable second wind carrying Earl into an ocean of criminal activity. An old man at peace with himself and long past caring about niceties and political correctness, Earl makes for an ideal and nearly undetectable criminal.

Eastwood never judges his protagonist, instead allowing Earl to arrive at his own conclusions. With the curtain about to fall on his life, this is a man who learns almost too late that career success at the expense of a family life in tatters may not have been the best trade off. The same oblivious attitude that led Earl down the wrong path the first time around remains in evidence as he never seems to question the devastating social ills his mule activities are helping unleash.

But at least this time Earl uses his windfall Robin Hood style to rebuild community and recreational centres and help his family members, gradually earning his way back into the life of Mary and Iris. He will again confront a work-versus-family decision point, this time with the threat of a brutal death for defying vicious criminals. But having been around the block once before, Earl is better equipped to recognize the landmarks.   

The film is not without weaknesses. Plot holes abound in the intelligence battle between the cartel and the DEA, and The Mule is another film where the criminals are highly resourceful except when it suits the script. Overall the investigative elements featuring the high profile trio of Bradley Cooper, Michael Peña and Laurence Fishburne are underwritten for the available talent. A couple of key characters, including a Filipino informer and a chief cartel lieutenant, are given prominence then ignored.

Eastwood's directing is an example of eloquent efficiency, the character conflicts created with sharp and short strokes, allowing plenty of time for road trip interludes showcasing Earl's comfort with ruling his domain behind the wheel of his pickup on the open highway. When the time comes for serious conversations, Schenk conjures up memorable exchanges between Earl and Bates at a diner, and then between Earl and Mary, reflecting on second chances.

The Mule is about seizing life's next opportunity at any age, as discovered by the old man absentee. 

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Movie Review: Rudderless (2014)

A drama set in the world of grief and music, Rudderless tackles the seemingly insurmountable difficulties of carrying on with life after a crushing family tragedy.

College student Josh (Miles Heizer) is killed in an on-campus school shooting, sending his father Sam (Billy Crudup), a marketing executive, into a depression. Two years later, Sam has quit his job, moved two hours out of town, is living on a boat and working as a lowly painter. His ex-wife Emily (Felicity Huffman) drops off some of Josh's old items, and Sam stumbles onto song recordings and lyrics that Josh was working on.

He performs one of Josh's songs during open mic night at The Trill tavern, attracting the attention of Quentin (Anton Yelchin), a young man who insists that they team up and perform together. Sam is reluctant but eventually yields, and gradually the band Rudderless is formed, gaining local prominence with the help of music shop owner Del (Laurence Fishburne). Sam helps Quentin mature as a man, but with the reappearance of Josh's old girlfriend Kate Ann (Selena Gomez), the events of the past are about to again rock Sam's life.

The directorial debut of William H. Macy (who also has a small role as the tavern's owner), Rudderless combines music and mourning as it ventures into rarely explored territory. The world of hurt in the shadow of a mass shooting makes for difficult story telling material, but Macy along with screenwriters Jeff Robison and Casey Twenter construct a highly watchable and heartfelt drama.

The songs are of the soulful soft rock white-man-with-a-guitar variety, not nearly as unique as the film makes them out, and the musical performance segments are more numerous and longer than they need to be. Macy finds better traction when the focus is on Sam, and then in the dynamic between Sam and Quentin. Josh's ghost is never far away from Sam's new stripped-down life, much as he wants to avoid it, and his interactions with Quentin and the other young men of the band are built on a rickety foundation of deep hurt.

Without ever showing what happened at the school shooting, the film drops steady hints that no matter how many houses he paints, beers he drinks or songs he sings, Sam will not be able to avoid confronting the past. His own actions inadvertently but finally open the door for recent history to storm in, and it is as painful as Sam knew it would be. The final act hits some, but not all, the high notes it aims at, as this chapter of the grief journey maybe ends too tidily.

Rudderless rides on a majestic Billy Crudup performance as he revisits the musical world that made him Almost Famous. Here his performance is built on active emotional hide and seek, and Crudup perfectly captures a grieving father bottling up a yearning to scream at himself and the world. Anton Yelchin is all about the intensity of youth making something happen out of the haziest opportunity. One of the film's strengths is in only hinting at Quentin's troubled past and present, Sam's help remaining at the superficial level, the damaged ex-father not equipped to re-assume fatherly duties.

Rudderless is about new beginnings setting sail, but only after catching the winds of the past.

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Movie Review: Passengers (2016)

A touching science fiction romance grappling with human-scaled dilemmas, Passengers is both visually gorgeous and deeply satisfying.

In the distant future, the massive spaceship Avalon is traveling in deep space to the Homestead II planet, carrying 5,000 colonists. The journey is supposed to take 120 years with the passengers asleep in hibernation pods. A mishap occurs when the spacecraft strikes an asteroid, and passenger Jim Preston (Chris Pratt), a mechanical engineer, is awakened 90 years early. Unable to reenter hibernation, Jim has the massive craft to himself as he faces the reality of a lonely existence and a lonelier death to come. With the android bartender Arthur (Michael Sheen) as his only companion, he drops into a severe depression.

Jim becomes infatuated with young writer Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), another passenger in deep sleep. Desperate for companionship, he finally makes the difficult decision to wake her up, pretending that it's another mishap. Once she gets over the shock, Aurora and Jim do fall in love, but there is plenty of trouble ahead for the couple and all the passengers on board.

Directed by Morten Tyldum, Passengers is a deep space science fiction adventure focussed on down-to-earth issues. The film soars with a rare beauty, but never loses sight of it central premise, and explores themes of loneliness, depression, and stalking. The script by Jon Spaihts ventures into the fundamental territory of the true purpose of life in the face of death, and what it means to aspire towards lofty goals only to be forced by external factors into essential, wrenching re-orientations.

The film's pervasive theme is about reacting to dreams rudely knocked out of orbit. Jim's planned life is eternally altered by a technical glitch; he can only rage against the machine, an ultimately unsatisfying pursuit. Aurora is awakened by Jim, and will have to first get over the shock of a future death in space; and then confront the truth that another human had intervened in her trajectory and condemned her to a life and death she never imagined. She can rage against another human, but in the abject loneliness of space, to what end?

The film looks magnificent. Rarely has space or a human-imagined space craft looked more beautiful, and the 3D imagery of the Avalon streaking through the void is awe inspiring. The vessel is cavernous, allowing Tyldum to set the action in a variety of internal locations as the universe passes by outside, and a few space walk excursions add to the diverse visual buffet on display.

Passengers does hurtle into a bit of a technical muddle towards its climax. While the emotional build-up is superb and Tyldum hits all the high notes required for the human drama, the scientific parts of the story are jettisoned into deep space. There is a frantic rush to bang things into shape, and it's all a blur of running around, opening hatches, pointing at random items, pulling levers and putting out fires with condescendingly minimalistic explanations.

Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence competently bring the two central characters to life without necessarily setting the planets on fire. They hold their own amidst all the sleek hardware, and Lawrence handles the emotional ups and down forced on Aurora with a growing maturity. Michael Sheen is ridiculously appropriate as an android bartender, while in a late and relatively brief appearance, Laurence Fishburne adds heft as a crew officer.

The story of Jim and Aurora carries echoes of everyday life, where some some events appear bigger than what an individual can comprehend, while others are clearly the work of a human hand but no less impactful. Finding meaning in the here and now is never easy, and Passengers is a lyrical exploration about dealing with what is, despite what may have been.

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Movie Review: Red Heat (1988)

A prototypical buddy cop action movie, Red Heat is all about flying bullets, macho men and attempts at witty one-liners. Some of it works, but most of it doesn't.

In Moscow, Captain Ivan Danko (Arnold Schwarzenegger) tracks down lethal drug trafficker Viktor Rostavili (Ed O'Ross). The criminal escapes and lands in Chicago, where he establishes contact with local thugs and arranges for a major new drug deal. When Viktor is picked up for a minor traffic infraction by Detective Art Ridzik (Jim Belushi), Danko arrives from Moscow to escort the prisoner back to the Soviet Union. Nothing goes as planned, Viktor is soon loose and carnage is unleashed on the streets of Chicago.

Directed and co-written by Walter Hill, who helped invent the buddy cop movie in 48 Hrs., Red Heat is a generic example of the genre and offers an episodic, incomprehensible and generally irrelevant plot that serves no purpose other than moving the action from one set-piece to the next. A good portion of the film has characters speaking in Russian with no subtitles, and once the setting moves to Chicago, Hill's sole preoccupation is to create the opportunity for Danko's next one-liner and Ridzik's next snarky retort as they engage in firefights and running battles with the bad guys using progressively bigger machinery.

The action is of course over the top, the mayhem on a grand scale, as the pursuit of one man converts Chicago into a war zone. In his brief time in Chicago Viktor manages to both get married to dance instructor Catherine Manzetti (Gina Gershon) and antagonize a gang of heavily-armed black thugs, ensuring that Danko and Ridzik have plenty of reasons to pursue suspects and dodge high-calibre bullets. Somewhere in there Hill throws in a MacGuffin in the form of a locker key where a bag full of something important is locked up, triggering plenty of chases, threats and hissing matches.

Schwarzenegger as a straitlaced Soviet cop is more subdued and emotionless than usual, maintaining a fixed expression and monotone delivery of monosyllabic words. Belushi fills the gap with an over-animated take on cynical Chicago cop Ridzik. Peter Boyle and Laurence Fishburne are generally wasted in generic roles as Ridzik's superiors.

Ridzik: Well, tell me something, Captain. If you've got such a fucking paradise over there, how come you're up the same creek as we are with heroin and cocaine?
Danko: Chinese find way. Right after revolution, they round up all drug dealers, all drug addicts, take them to public square, and shoot them in back of head.
Ridzik: Ah, it'd never work here. Fucking politicians wouldn't go for it.
Danko: Shoot them first.

At no time does the film pause to take a breath, explain itself, or attempt to find any character depth, at least not in English. Red Heat tosses in a few good zingers and boasts reasonable production values, but while the temperature is high, there is nothing of substance in the oven.

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Movie Review: Assault On Precinct 13 (2005)

A police-under-siege action thriller, Assault On Precinct 13 tries to find some balance between a hail of bullets and character interaction. But by dumping logic into the Detroit snow, the film achieves guff rather than grit.

Undercover detective Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke) leads his small team into a botched drug sting operation, resulting in the loss of two officers. Eight months later, Roenick is still traumatized, killing time at a desk job and making no progress with psychiatrist Alex Sabian (Maria Bello). It's New Year's Eve, Detroit is smothered by a snow storm, and Roenick, secretary Drea de Matteo (Iris Ferry) and veteran Sergeant Jasper O'Shea (Brian Dennehy) are staffing the otherwise abandoned Precinct 13 for the final time before the station closes for good.

Crime boss Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne) is arrested after killing an undercover police officer, and the snow storm forces his prisoner bus to unexpectedly divert to Precinct 13 for the night. Roenick places the high profile Bishop and a bunch of petty prisoners into the station prison cells, and soon enough Precinct 13 is under armed assault. It's not Bishop's men who are out to free him, but rather rogue cops under the leadership of Captain Marcus Duvall (Gabriel Byrne) who need to silence Bishop and all witnesses before he reveals the depth of corruption in the police ranks. With no help in sight, Roenick has to hunker down for the night and organize a defence, which forces him into an uneasy alliance with Bishop.

A remake of the 1976 John Carpenter film of the same name, Assault On Precinct 13 features no shortage of gruesome action. Bullets to the brain and icicles in the eye are just some of the treats director Jean-François Richet throws at the screen for full splatter effect. On the more cerebral level, there is an honest attempt to give Roenick a backstory, but the narrative is not well served by the very tired premise of the hero hiding in a bottle to escape a bad episode in his life.

The third and final attempt to distinguish the film is the complex relationship between Roenick the honest cop and Bishop the master crime lord, two men from opposite sides of the law forced to work together against a common enemy for just one night. Thanks to fine performances from Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne, the dynamic between the reluctant protector and the supremely confidant target brings a trace of depth to an otherwise rudimentary film.

But any good intentions to deliver a quality thriller are severely undermined by the stupid bad guys syndrome, which ultimately obliterates any promise held by the film. Gabriel Byrne as lead villain Marcus Duvall fails miserably in a lame attempt to convey evil intent. Meanwhile his army of heavily armed and fully equipped murderous men are somehow outsmarted in every confrontation by Roenick and his ragtag group made up of prisoners, one beat cop and a couple of civilians.

There is no escaping the sense that the assault could have been over in about three and half minutes had Duvall brought his full force to bear, as any smart antagonist aiming to murder a group of people in cold blood would have done. Matters are made much worse when the equivalent of a mini-war rages for hours at Precinct 13, and no external force responds to all the gun fire. Detroit may be bad; it's not this lawless, yet.

Inside the besieged building Maria Bello gets a couple of good scenes but then dissolves into victimhood when the shooting starts, while Iris Ferry's take on secretary Drea as an oversexed doll seems to be entirely incongruous. The other prisoners offer roles for John Leguizamo and rapper Ja Rule.

Assault On Precinct 13 ends at daybreak with combatants pursuing each other in a forest shrouded by fog. They can't see each other, and neither can anyone see much point in this unnecessary remake.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: King Of New York (1990)

A stylishly gloomy crime drama, King Of New York layers on the artsy violence but leaves behind any reason to care about its principal characters.

Crime lord Frank White (Christopher Walken) is released from prison and immediately heads back to New York to regain control of his empire. His gang members, led by Jimmy Jump (Laurence Fishburne), pave the way for Frank's return by killing rival gang leaders El Zapa and King Tito, the former in a phone booth outside a high class brothel, the latter in a hotel room.

Frank then applies pressure on Mafia boss Arty Clay and Triad leader Larry Wong, demanding a cut of their business. Clay refuses to cooperate, and Wong attempts to negotiate. Both pay a heavy price for failing to comply with Frank's wishes.With Frank's lawyer Jennifer (Janet Julian) keeping him and his men beyond the reach of the courts, police detectives Bishop (Victor Argo), Gilley (David Caruso) and Flanigan (Wesley Snipes) grow increasingly frustrated. Gilley advocates going outside the law to deal with Frank, adding fuel to the wave of violence sweeping across the city.

An independent production directed by Abel Ferrara with an emphasis on wild action set-pieces, King Of New York packs plenty of intense shoot-outs, chases, and general scenes of carnage and violence into a relatively short 106 minutes of running time. This is a film that transforms New York into a war zone where hundreds of bullet rounds are sprayed around on a nightly basis, as gangsters kill each other with savagery driven by hatred and the imperative need to control the drug trade.

Ferrara delivers all the brutality with an eye on moody and stylish packaging, the action often happening at night, the gangsters largely emotionless as they kill to the beat of rap music and under the toxic influence of drugs, with random gyrating women always within reach.

It's all wildly entertaining but also not even remotely realistic, and as an exercise in sleek crime depiction King Of New York is hampered by an almost complete absence of character introduction or development. Frank White remains an almost robotic blank slate, save for one quite unconvincing late speech about his criminality being less criminal than his rivals. A half-baked sub-plot about Frank channeling funds to an inner-city hospital project holds promise but is underdeveloped.

The secondary characters fare worse, and next to nothing is known about all the other crime bosses and the three police detectives. But Laurence (billed as Larry) Fishburne does get to let loose in a pretty insane depiction of the trigger-happy Jimmy Jump, a man so far gone on the culture of drugs and violence that he is actually enjoying the madness that comes with hurtling towards oblivion.

King Of New York dances to the beat of anarchic artistry, but beyond all the bloodshed the king has few other clothes on.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

The Movies Of Laurence Fishburne

All movies starring Laurence Fishburne and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Death Wish II (1982)

Rumble Fish (1983)

Red Heat (1988)

King Of New York (1990)

Class Action (1991)

Boyz N The Hood (1991)

What's Love Got To Do With It (1993)

Searching For Bobby Fischer (1993)

The Matrix (1999)

Mystic River (2003)

Assault On Precinct 13 (2005)

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

21 (2008)

Contagion (2011)

Rudderless (2014)

Passengers (2016)

Last Flag Flying (2017)

The Mule (2018)

Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019)

Running With The Devil (2019)

The Ice Road (2021)

All The Old Knives (2022)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.