Movie Review: Sleeping Dogs (2024)

Genre: Neo-Noir Crime Thriller  

Director: Adam Cooper  

Starring: Russell Crowe, Karen Gillan, Marton Csokas  

Running Time: 112 minutes  

Synopsis: Roy Freeman (Russel Crowe) is a retired cop undergoing experimental treatment for dementia. He is summoned by a death row inmate who claims to have been wrongly convicted for the murder of university professor Dr. Joseph Wieder (Marton Csokas) ten years prior. Despite his frail mental health Roy starts to investigate, catching up with his ex-partner Remis (Tommy Flanagan) and re-examining the case evidence, leading to recently deceased author Richard Finn (Harry Greenwood). His unpublished memoir chronicles a romance with ambitious graduate student Laura Baines (Karen Gillan), who was helping Wieder with his research. Freeman's doggedness to uncover the truth ruffles feathers, with unexpected consequences.

What Works Well: A modern film noir, complete with a femme fatale, naked ambition, murder most foul, multiple overlapping motives, infidelity, the whiff of crooked cops, events from long ago haunting the present, and memory loss fueling doomed quests. Director and co-writer Adam Cooper keeps the plot purring with a steady drip of new revelations, and Russell Crowe wears the exhausted and mentally spent cop with the ease of a classic trench coat.

What Does Not Work As Well: The perspective shifts a couple of times, with a long flashback to the Richard Finn/Laura Baines relationship dislodging Roy from the film's centre. The main twist is not difficult to spot, and once the plot discloses all its secrets, it also loses logical coherence.

Key Quote:

Laura: Must be one of the benefits of your condition. Can't remember the bad times.

Roy: Can't remember the good times either.

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Movie Review: Land Of Bad (2024)

Genre: Action  

Director: William Eubank  

Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Russell Crowe  

Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: A black ops Delta Force unit led by Master Sergeant John 'Sugar' Sweet (Milo Ventimiglia) is dispatched into the Philippines jungles to rescue a captured CIA operative. The Air Force's Sergeant Kinney (Liman Hemsworth) is a late addition and the least experienced member of the team. From Las Vegas, Captain Eddie 'Reaper' Grimm (Russell Crowe) provides remote drone support. Sugar's unit runs into trouble after encountering Abu Sayyaf militants: Kinney has to survive on his own, with Reaper his only means of support.

What Works Well: This gritty military adventure follows the robust traditions of missions-gone-wrong, and is delivered with the expected buckets of sweat, macho bravado, and gung-ho celebrations of combat. Director and co-writer William Eubank inserts bursts of action and moments of quiet tension at regular intervals, and polishes the highlights with rational editing. In between the shooting, sniping, knifing, and hand to hand fights to the death, humanity surfaces in strengthened bonds between the men, especially the continent-spanning connection between Reaper and Kinney. The climax is a manic countdown thrill.

What Does Not Work As Well: The antagonists could have benefited from much sharper definitions. The lack of discipline in Reaper's unit (the men are distracted by a televised basketball game) and their dependence on an ancient wall-mounted phone are questionable plot devices. While Russell Crowe brings plenty of heart to the role of a caring drone operator, his rotund frame no longer fits into a military uniform. 

Conclusion: Home to a brand of good.



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Movie Review: Unhinged (2020)

Genre: Action Thriller

Director: Derrick Borte

Starring: Russell Crowe, Karen Pistorius

Running Time: 93 minutes

Synopsis: Disgruntled and depressed after losing his job and marriage, middle-aged Tom Cooper (Russell Crowe) kills his ex-wife and her new husband and sets their house on fire. Separately, Rachel Flynn (Caren Pistorius) is a harried mother to young teen Kyle (Gabriel Bateman), and going through a divorce of her own. Late to drop off Kyle at school, Rachel honks at Tom at a traffic light, and refuses to apologize. He is triggered into a violent rage, determined to make Rachel's life a living hell.

What Works Well: A mash-up of Falling Down, Duel, and The Hitcher, Unhinged is disturbingly good. Russell Crowe embodies the role with creepy menace, and director Derrick Borte captures a man monster at the end of his rope, ready to unleash his anger on an uncaring society, consequences be damned. Rachel's honk and unapologetic attitude break him loose from any remaining anchors, and the road rage triggered carnage builds impressive momentum. Borte mixes well-staged high energy road chase scenes with more personal violence directed at Rachel's life, with Caren Pistorius excellent as the much-less-than-perfect mom forced to become the ultimate mama bear.

What Does Not Work As Well: The traffic is conveniently gridlocked or free-flowing, according to the whims of the script, and Rachel bounces back from substantive blows delivered by a much bigger brute.

Conclusion: Disconcertingly easy to imagine, Unhinged forcefully exposes cracks threatening civility's foundations.



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Movie Review: The Water Diviner (2014)

A post-war drama, The Water Diviner explores themes of recovery from tragedy and broader cross-cultural understanding. An appropriately somber mood is compromised by too much plot.

In 1919, Australian farmer Joshua Connor (Russell Crowe) is still grieving the death of his three sons in the Gallipoli campaign three years prior. Their bodies were never recovered. When his wife Eliza succumbs to her anguish, Joshua makes the long journey to look for his sons' remains in Turkey. He finds the victorious Allies in control of the country, with Australian Lieutenant Colonel Cyril Hughes (Jai Courtney) leading an excavation of Gallipoli battle sites to recover and identify fallen soldiers. Major Hasan (Yılmaz Erdoğan) of the defeated Turkish army provides reluctant help.

As Joshua searches for the remains of his sons, he tangles with Hasan, who was on the battlefield when the Connor boys died. Joshua also gets involved in the life of widowed innkeeper Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko) and her young son Orhan. Joshua and Hasan move from adversaries to allies, and have to survive skirmishes with the invading Greek army.

The directorial debut of Russell Crowe, The Water Diviner is loosely inspired by real events. The title references Joshua's ability to find water wells in otherwise barren land, a talent that may also translate to locating his fallen sons on a scarred battlefield filled with ghosts. The film's scope is ambitious, almost epic, and combines a father's intimate search with cultural detente. Whether in rural Australia, on the desolate Gallipoli terrain, or within a bustling Istanbul, Andrew Lesnie's cinematography is suitably grand, and portrays Turkey after the Great War as a stunned nation seeking a path to recovery. Efficient flashbacks to grinding trench-to-trench battles are effectively gory but avoid excess.

When the narrative remains focused on healing the wounds of war, The Water Diviner maintains promise. But the script by Andrew Knight and Andrew Anastasios crosses from expansive to cluttered. Joshua's journey is bogged down in the affairs of the widow Ayshe, who is being pressured into marrying her brother-in-law. Whatever the film wants to say about local culture is lost when the evolving friendship between Joshua and Hasan takes centre stage, followed by the re-emergence of a ragtag Turkish militia to counter unexplained Greek aggression. A surrogate father-son bond between Joshua and Orhan also starts and stops more than once, but not before branching off into a dead-on-arrival subquest for Orhan's father.

Crowe eventually remembers the core plot and gathers up the search-for-the-missing-sons story, achieving some moments of true poignancy. But by then the initial dramatic thrust is dissipated and replaced by unnamed Greek enemies, silly narrow escapes involving cricket bats, and an obligatory overture towards romance.

Crowe directs himself in a soulful and restrained performance, and finds a good foil in Yılmaz Erdoğan's patient portrayal of Major Hasan. Olga Kurylenko is competent but predictable as Ayshe, while the underutilized Jai Courtney brightens proceedings. The Water Diviner finds some wells of inspiration, but also digs then abandons too many holes.



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Movie Review: The Next Three Days (2010)

A prison escape thriller, The Next Three Days features an ordinary man hatching an extraordinary plot to save his wife from a life behind bars.

In Pittsburgh, John and Lara Brennan (Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks) are a typical middle class couple raising their young son Luke. John is a community college teacher and Lara is an office worker, but their life is suddenly turned upside down when she is arrested and convicted for murdering her boss, a crime she strenuously denies committing. But with circumstantial evidence stacked against her, all appeals are denied.

In desperation, John consults with prison escape expert Damon Pennington (Liam Neeson), and starts to plan a breakout for Lara. He surveils the prison to identify weak points, attempts to buy forged papers from dangerous underworld types, and sells the house to raise money, all while holding onto his job, caring for Luke as a single parent, and regularly visiting Lara without revealing what he is up to. John's amateurish mistakes threaten his plan and endanger his life, but when he learns Lara will be transferred to another prison, he is forced to act.

Written and directed by Paul Haggis and delivered in a measured flashback structure, The Next Three Days is a remake of the 2008 French movie Pour Elle. This is a well-paced and tense thriller, building excitement around a familiar couple thrust into an existential crisis. The deep connection between husband and wife infuses John's otherwise insane quest with nobility, and the film asks how far an ordinary man will go to save his wife. The answer passes through plenty of bungling and missteps, providing the narrative with a thread of anxious fragility. 

The plot rides on John's everyman attributes as an undoubtedly smart man also indisputably out of his depth, and Russell Crowe admirably sinks into the role. This is Crowe with grim determination, an amateur's fresh set of eyes, some beginner's luck, and little else, starting from a clean slate of inexperience to try and devise an audacious breakout. Haggis wrestles dangerous charm out of his antics, but also pushes too hard in some muddled entanglements with thug-types.

Other less than stellar moments include patchy representations of police work consisting of several undefined detectives running in different directions, and only an abstract recreation of the trigger crime event with no sympathy for the victim.

Elizabeth Banks contributes steel and passion, but fades out for long stretches. The cast also includes Brian Dennehy as John's emotionally distant father and Olivia Wilde as a single mom in John's neighbourhood. With small but pivotal contributions, both will influence the outcome. 

The final third switches gears into the electrifying escape-in-progress, Haggis disclosing just enough about John's plan to confirm all will not go well. Unexpected twists and detours demand on-the-fly improvisation, and as John and Lara attempt to navigate their way out of a difficult maze, The Next Three Days deploys deliciously surprising ploys. An amateur has no clue but also no preconceptions, and the uncertainty delivers manic enjoyment.



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Movie Review: Robin Hood (2010)

A medieval drama and romance, Robin Hood creates an epic backstory for the legendary outlaw.

The year is 1199, and Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) is an archer in the army of Richard The Lionheart (Danny Huston), as England's King fights his way back home from the crusades. But Richard is felled by an arrow at a battle in France, and his weakling brother Prince John (Oscar Isaac) ascends to the throne. Robin impersonates the dead knight Sir Robert Loxley and along with a small group of men they make it back to England.

Meanwhile John is being undermined by his double-crossing friend Godfrey (Mark Strong), who is really working for France's King Philip to weaken England and enable an invasion. In Nottingham Robin meets and falls in love with Marion Loxley (Cate Blanchett), while her father, the elderly and blind Walter (Max von Sydow), helps Robin understand his lineage. 

John's extreme taxation policies and Godfrey's raids on fellow Englishmen push the country towards civil war and serve Philip's agenda. Robin teams up with Lionheart loyalist William Marshal (William Hurt) to try and avert disaster.

Running a luxurious 140 minutes with content to match, Robin Hood is an engrossing drama, mixing historical factoids with plenty of rambunctious fiction. Director Ridley Scott re-teams with his Gladiator star Russell Crowe, and although the results are not quite as spectacular, this is still a finely crafted tale of swords, bows, and arrows, rich with story lines, court intrigue, memorable characters and no shortage of large-scale bone-crunching battles.

The Brian Helgeland screenplay steers well clear of the frivolity, simplistic heroics and light-heartedness associated with previous cinematic Robin Hood versions. This is a mud-splattered and grim outing, levity limited to a couple of brief dialogue exchanges, the merry men pushed well into the background. In search of a wider audience Scott avoids blood and gore visuals, but this adventure would have benefited from more realistic representations of the era's brutality.

Crowe's dour Robin suits the England-in-crisis surroundings. Untethered from any clan, he is haunted by a lost father and too many battles on the way to and from Jerusalem. The supporting cast is brimming with talent, von Sydow, Isaac, Hurt and Strong joined by Matthew Macfadyen as the Sheriff of Nottingham (here a relatively minor character), Léa Seydoux as Isabella (Prince John's ambitious lover) and Eileen Atkins as Eleanor of Aquitaine (his concerned mother).

The narrative weakness resides in Robin's relatively limited influence on events around him. For the most part he is on the edge of the major plot points, first with Richard the Lionheart's army then back in England where John, Godfrey and Marshal are driving the agenda. Even in the quieter moments at the Loxley estate, Robin's surroundings and fate are defined by Walter's wisdom and Marion gradually learning to love him.

Robin's personality does emerge on a few occasions, speaking truth to power (and paying for it) when invited to do so by Lionheart, recognizing the opportunity to impersonate a knight as a ticket home, and then helping Marion's fledgling estate avert starvation by plotting his first steal-from-the-rich escapade. 

Now provided with a pre-banditry history of hostility and hurt, Robin Hood emerges as a more hardened legend.



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Movie Review: 3:10 To Yuma (2007)

A western about two men at the opposite ends of the moral spectrum, 3:10 To Yuma finds the right balance between well-staged action and character-driven discourse.

After serving as a sharpshooter in the Civil War, Dan Evans (Christian Bale) is now a near-bankrupt cattle farmer with a lame leg. He is trying to live his life the right way and look after his wife Alice (Gretchen Mol) and two boys, including teenager William (Logan Lerman). While rounding up cattle one day, Dan stumbles upon charismatic outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) and his gang robbing a rail company payroll stagecoach.

The heist is violent but successful, with Pinkerton agent Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda) the only stagecoach survivor. Ben allows Dan and his sons to walk away. At the nearby small town of Bisbee, Ben dallies with a saloon girl and is arrested, while the rest of his gang, including ruthless second-in-command Charlie Prince (Ben Foster), get away. Dan joins a small team assembled by the Marshal to escort Ben to Contention, where he can be placed on the 3:10 train to Yuma to face justice. Along the way, Ben does all he can to escape, and to psychologically wear down Dan.

A remake of the classic 1957 western, the 2007 version of 3:10 To Yuma is a worthy retelling of the delicate story. Directed by James Mangold, the film does unnecessarily bloat by about 30 minutes to a two hour running time, stretching the narrative limits of what is essentially a two-person character tug-of-war. But otherwise Mangold delivers plenty of well-staged action to punctuate the slowly evolving tension between rancher and outlaw.

While the original had a small-scale and intimate feel, Mangold opens up the film with more outdoor incidents. This works to create additional openings for shoot-outs and attempted escapes, but also strains credibility with convoluted script machinations to reconnect Evans and Wade every time they are separated.

A western primarily exploring two competing attitudes towards carving a frontier livelihood is fully reliant on the central performances, and Mangold is ably assisted by Christian Bale and particularly Russell Crowe in fine form. Bale is steady and intense and finds Evans' trauma as a man who may never gain the respect of his sons. Escorting a dangerous prisoner is a final opportunity to leave a legacy, a dance with the devil filled with danger and temptations.

3:10 To Yuma finds Crowe close to his creative peak, and the actor creates in Ben Wade an irresistible leader, combining smarts with ferocity. Crowe unleashes oodles of confidence within Wade and a quiet contempt for authority and anyone who claims the world is a fair place. And yet Crowe allows subtle hints to seep out suggesting he envies Evans' attempt at a building a domestic life the outlaw will never get to experience.

The dialogue exchanges between the two men are exceptionally well written, teasing out the power stalemate between the meek man carrying the rifle against the prisoner with all the brashness.

The film ends with an admirable if wild climax, one rancher and one crime boss carving out new destinies under a hail of bullets. As westerns go 3:10 To Yuma makes it to the station on time, carrying some excess weight but plenty of flamboyance.

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Movie Review: Boy Erased (2018)

A social drama, Boy Erased exposes the insidious horrors of conversion therapy hiding behind archaic religious dogma.

In the suburban American heartland, teenager Jarred Eamons (Lucas Hedges) is the son of Baptist preacher Marshall (Russell Crowe) and his wife Nancy (Nicole Kidman). Jarred is awakening to his sexuality and is no longer aroused by his long-time girlfriend Chloe (Madelyn Cline). He finally admits to his parents he is gay.

The shocked Marshall turns to church elders for advice, and with Jarred's acquiescence he is admitted to a conversion therapy centre run by Victor Sykes (Joel Edgerton). The group sessions consist of shaming, labelling family members as sinners and generating anger at parents. Jarred is unconvinced by the pressure tactics and starts resenting the sessions, while recalling his first gay sexual experiences with college student Henry (Joe Alwyn) and art aficionado Xavier (Théodore Pellerin).

Based on the true story of Garrard Conley as documented in his book, Boy Erased lifts the cover on the bogus practice of trying to "heal" homosexuals, a pseudoscience not backed by any evidence. Directed by Edgerton, the film is quietly enraging as it explores the vulnerability of teenagers not conforming to societal expectations, and unwilling to rupture bonds with parents.

Jarred's journey provides a sturdy and disquieting punch, as he makes progress towards self-empowerment and breaking away from the thick blanket of darkness imposed by misguided deception.While Sykes and his attendants may stay just on the right side of avoiding outright physical violence, the psychological trauma inflicted on the patients is disturbing in the extreme, designed to undermine self esteem, damage trust in families and surrender to controlling doctrinal fallacies.

At just five minutes under two hours the film is longer than it needs to be, and the majority of the patients going through the therapy with Jarred don't graduate past superficial introductions. But Lucas Hedges maintains a steady presence to pull the story through some of its repetitive scenes. His performance avoids theatrics and finds the fine line between curious victim and courageous protagonist.

Boy Erased is helped immeasurably by characterizing Nancy and Marshall in human terms, as parents who genuinely care but who only know what they have been programmed to know. As Jarred starts to define himself and assert his identity, he forces his family to shift, possibly pointing towards a path of optimism. Nancy will need to confront her acquiescence, and Marshall will search for the common ground between his devout religious beliefs and fatherhood. Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe each get scenes to shine, and contribute to the film's impact.

Boy Erased is what happens when ignorance and fear provide fuel for charlatans to dispense travesties that have no place in modern society.

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Movie Review: Winter's Tale (2014)

A century-spanning fantasy romantic drama, Winter's Tale combines a love story with an eternal battle between good and evil, with plenty of supernatural elements thrown in. Attempting to be profound, the film is a hopeless mess.

In New York of 1916, Peter Lake (Colin Farrell), having survived been set adrift in a small boat by his parents in 1895 after they were rejected as immigrants, attempts to escape a street gang led by the demon Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe). A white horse that can fly helps Peter's getaway, and eventually leads him to the door of the sickly Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay), her rich father Isaac (William Hurt), and younger sister Willa.

Peter and Beverly fall in love, while Pearly pleads with his boss Lucifer (Will Smith) for permission to put a stop to their magical romance. Peter stays one step ahead of Pearly, but the relationship with Beverly suffers, and Peter lands in New York of 2014, where his story will continue.

Based on a book by Mark Helprin adapted and directed by Akiva Goldsman, Winter's Tale may have worked well on the written page, but is an unmitigated disaster on the screen. The film's ambition far exceeds its cinematic abilities, and comes across as fairy tale for children being repackaged as a serious romantic drama for adults, and falling into a vacuum of confused and morose nothingness.

The story demands natural acceptance of flying white horses, demons on the loose but with turf restrictions, Lucifer holding court in New York City, and plenty of romanticized bumf about miracles, destiny and people turning into literal stars. The material may have had a chance to succeed with a whimsical light touch, but Goldsman goes the ultra serious route, delivering a grim, dour and boring two hours.

Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe and Will Smith generally embarrass themselves in roles where anything goes since there are no familiar rules in this world. Farrell's character exists as a baby in 1895 and is still going strong in 2014, but never expresses any emotion other than grim displeasure. Crowe as a demon seems obsessed with Peter but Goldsman does not pause to explain why a petty thief is such a danger to a demon. Smith sits back and reflects on a sidetracked career, the devil reduced to dealing with the machinations of a fledgling romance between a burglar and a frail woman.

Jessica Brown Findlay portrays the tragically sick but otherwise perfect vision of a woman who fulfills every superficial man's dream of beauty and tenderness with no depth of character necessary. Meanwhile, Jennifer Connelly and Eve Marie Saint appear in the latter 2014 chapter, and seem genuinely confused about their roles in the story.

Buckling under its own weight of needless solemnity, Winter's Tale is better left untold.

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Movie Review: L.A. Confidential (1997)

A film noir masterpiece set in Los Angeles of the early 1950s, L.A. Confidential features a convoluted, multi-layered and character-rich story of crime, corruption and conspiracy.

The arrest and imprisonment of crime boss Mickey Cohen creates a vacuum at the top of the Los Angeles underworld. The police department tries to project a clean cut image through the sanitized television show Badge of Honor, but the reality is that the force, under the command of Captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell), is rife with corruption.

Three officers go about their careers with very different attitudes. Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) loves the glamorous life and colludes with scum journalist Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito), who publishes the Hush- Hush tabloid, to stage high profile narcotics arrests. Ambitious Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) has a strong moral compass inherited from his father, a deceased cop, and wants to be promoted to Detective Lieutenant as quickly as possible. Bud White (Russell Crowe) is a hot head, quick to settle disputes with physical violence, but he also may be smarter than he looks. When a jail cell brawl gives the police department a black eye, Exley earns the wrath of his colleagues, and a promotion, by naming names.

Despite Cohen's arrest the department struggles to put a lid on increasing levels of street violence. Cohen's former associates are methodically gunned down, then a bloody multiple murder is committed at the Nite Owl coffee shop, with ex-cop and White's former partner Dick Stensland among the victims, as well as porn starlet Susan Lefferts (Amber Smith). A trio of Negroes is suspected of committing the Nite Owl murders and Exley becomes a hero for bringing them conclusively to justice.

But White pursues the Lefferts angle and uncovers a high-class pornography, prostitution and blackmail ring operated by businessman Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn), who forces his girls to undergo plastic surgery to resemble famous movie stars. White starts a steamy relationship with Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger), the Patchett girl made to look like Veronica Lake. Exley starts to have doubts about the perpetrators behind the Nite Owl case, White starts to feel used by Smith, and Vincennes finally gets disgusted with his own attitude when a gay sting operation goes wrong. The three men still don't like each other but have to start cooperating to uncover what is really going on in the L.A. crime world.

Directed by Curtis Hanson, who co-wrote the the Academy Award winning script with Brian Helgeland, L.A. Confidential oozes style, substance and attitude. The adaptation of the James Ellroy book remains coherent despite the various narrative threads, multiplicity of characters, and various personal and hidden agendas. Curtis and Helgeland expertly weave together a hard-hitting story of uncompromising violence and sex that celebrates unique characters, avoids buddy movie trappings, and maximizes the value out of strong and opposing personalities forced to co-exist.

In focusing almost equally on three protagonist, none of them too likable, L.A. Confidential sets itself apart from most other crime films. Vincennes, Exley and White have quite a few more flaws than redeeming features, and it is fascinating to watch these men evolve, grapple with their own personalities and then overcome their mutual resentment just enough to cooperate, without ever giving up on who they are. Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce were relative unknowns but quickly establish a strong screen presence. Spacey is the perfect fit for the role of Vincennes, the cop possessing a perfect understanding of what Los Angeles is all about: show business and personal promotion first, everything else for sale.

Further adding to the potent mix of masculinity are Dudley Smith as the uncompromising police captain and Pierce Patchett as the shadowy businessman with a side business. Smith and Patchett are power brokers in a city intoxicated by power and sex, and they have long since learned that bending the rules under the veneer of respectability is the way to get things done.

Even minor characters prove to be important. Sleazy narrator Sid Hudgens stages and reports on arrests in equal measure, less interested in the news and much more interested in serving up scandalous headlines and photos. Former police officer Buzz Meeks and the disgraced Dick Stensland leave the force but don't leave the criminal world too far. Tough, big but dim, they both find themselves over their heads as the crime wave intensifies.

Not exactly a femme fatale but more of a willing victim with the irresistible weapon of seductiveness, Lynn Bracken is the one woman in a plot dominated by aggressive men. Kim Basinger is surprisingly effective combining unconstrained sexuality with vulnerability and was rewarded with the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award.

While it is a challenge to keep track of the many characters and plot complexities, the payoff is immense. As the threads come together, the film soars to heights of proficiency, the bodies are uncovered, the conspiracies revealed, the criminals and crime fighters emerge from the shadows and collide in an exhilarating climax.

The cinematography by Dante Spinotti captures a Los Angeles still growing into itself, baking under the sun, selling an image manufactured by the Hollywood dream factory but also consumed by corruption at every level. An evocative, jazz-infused Jerry Goldsmith score perfectly complements the ambiance.

Under the harsh sunshine and in the West Coast heat, L.A. Confidential is dark, moody, and magically compelling.

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Movie Review: The Nice Guys (2016)

A combination of film noir and buddy comedy, The Nice Guys has nice touches of humour and an excellent dynamic between stars Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. Despite a high fun quotient, the film eventually veers towards a manic overload of flying bullets at the expense of more cerebral pursuits.

In Los Angeles of 1977, Jackson Healy (Crowe) is an unlicensed bruiser who intimidates aggressors away from their intended victim. Working on behalf of the elusive Amelia (Margaret Qualley), Healy tangles with incompetent private detective Holland March (Ryan Gosling), who has been asking questions about Amelia. March's client is Mrs. Glenn, the dotty aunt of the recently deceased porn star Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio), and he has been wondering why Amelia showed up at Misty's home shortly after her death.

Healy is confronted by hit men known only as Older Guy (Keith David) and Blue Face (Beau Knapp) who are also looking for Amelia, prompting him to team up with March to try and find her. As the two men bumble through the investigation, Healy boorish and March clueless, March's 13 year old daughter Holly (Angourie Rice) proves to be the most astute detective. It soon becomes apparent that everyone associated with Misty's last porn film project is in mortal danger. Amelia's mother Judith (Kim Basinger), an influential state bureaucrat, hires March and Healy to find her missing daughter before the wild assassin John Boy (Matt Bomer) gets to her.

Directed and co-written by Shane Black, The Nice Guys rides a cool 1970s vibe with a story inspired by the era: the smog choking Los Angeles, collusion among Detroit automakers, pool-side parties filled with debauchery, and the scandalous emergence of porn films into mainstream consciousness all make their way into the script. But the most powerful current running through the film is the crackling spark between Jackson Healy and Holland March, an abrasive partnership that thankfully maintains an edge and never quite descends into friendship.

The insertion of March's young daughter Holly into the middle of a mystery is a brave move. Black does not hesitate to place Holly in harm's way, whether in the company of porn stars or in the path of assassins and a hail of bullets. Thanks to a pitch-perfect performance from Angourie Rice, Holly also gives her dad and his new associate a key link to their humanity in a world gone mad. Holly wants her father to be a better detective and knows which buttons to push to try and get him there. She also wants to believe that Healy can be a better man than he is, and prods him down that path in the disarming manner that only 13 year olds can muster.

The film noir elements are more prominent in the front half of the film, as the early unexplained murder and quick descent into the sordid world of porn productions, second-rate detectives, third-rate hoodlums and a convoluted missing woman mystery evoke the best aspects of the noir style. Black unfortunately moves away from the more clever shadings and tilts towards overkill as the film progresses, and the final third features plenty of wild shoot-outs and mindless action, machine guns and mayhem replacing subtlety and refinement.

Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe establish a personality-based rapport early on, and stick close to the realities of their character. Gosling allows March's occasional spark to come through but otherwise plays to perfection the disinterested, somewhat depressed and not-very-good detective happiest at the bottom of the bottle. Crowe, with his increasing heft beginning to resemble John Goodman proportions, is more animated as Healy and leads with his fists, but he also allows a latent humanity to emerge at key moments. Black hints at downbeat personal histories for both men, allowing Gosling and Crowe to build their characters on the vague wreckage of broken dreams.

The Nice Guys know how to have a good time. They may need to learn to stand each other, but they will also have plenty of groovy adventures along the way.

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Movie Review: Gladiator (2000)

An epic drama set in the glory days of the Roman Empire, Gladiator is a rousing story of one noble warrior's quest for revenge against the evil forces of a corrupt Emperor. Director Ridley Scott reinvigorated the grand historical epic genre, while star Russell Crowe established himself as a charismatically intense hero, comfortable in any epoch.

The Roman Empire, in 180 AD. Ageing Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) is in poor health and reaching the end of his life. His army, under the command of General Maximus (Crowe), crushes the Germanic tribes and the Empire stands unchallenged. Marcus has a power-hungry but weak, unworthy and immoral son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), and a clever daughter Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), who long ago was Maximus' lover. Maximus is a phenomenally skilled warrior and strategist, but longs to return to his farm in Spain, where his wife and son are waiting.

Maximus, preparing to give the battle order: At my signal, unleash hell.

With corruption running rampant through Rome, several Senators, including Gacchus (Derek Jacobi) and Gaius (John Shrapnel), are disillusioned with the Emperor and seek the creation of a Republic. Marcus regrets a life preoccupied with warfare, and decides that the respected and honourable Maximus should succeed him as Emperor to bring political stability and good governance back to the Empire. Before Marcus can publicly announce his decision, Commodus kills him and seizes power and orders the death of Maximum.

Maximus escapes, but his wife and son are brutally killed by Commodus' men. The former general is sold into slavery, eventually becoming the property of Proximo (Oliver Reed), who owns a stable of gladiators in the far reaches of the Empire. Maximus proves himself a popular killing machine, and establishes a reputation among the blood thirsty crowds as "the Spaniard". He also befriends fellow slave gladiators Juba (Djimon Hounsou) and Hagen (Ralf Möller).

In Rome, Commodus struggles to rule, while Lucilla is caught between loyalty to her brother, worry about his intentions towards her young son, and the restless Senators. Commodus tries to improve his popularity by sponsoring 150 days of games, including returning gladiator battles to the Colosseum. Eventually Proximo and his men are invited back to compete, allowing Maximus to return to Rome. He is single-mindedly determined to find his revenge against Commodus, but first has to survive the brutal gladiator battles.

Maximus, revealing his identity: My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Commander of the Armies of the North. General of the Felix Legions. Loyal servant to the true Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife – and I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.

Inspired by actual history but very much a work of fiction, Gladiator offers more than 150 minutes of rollicking action and tumultuous human conflict. The film is unrelenting in offering up awe-inspiring scenes of combat and carnage interspersed with healthy doses of character development driven by themes of loyalty, mistrust, ambition and cold revenge. At its core the film is about a conflict between two men who both insist on having their own way with history, and neither will settle until the other is destroyed.

The battle scenes deliver tense excitement, Scott able to mix close combat with enough strategic perspective to maintain coherence. Whether the death and destruction is unleashed deep in the Germanic forests or the relatively tighter confines of the Colosseum, Scott and cinematographer John Mathieson adopt an often jerky soldier's eye view of battle, with just enough wider shots to provide context. There is plenty of blood, gore and dismemberment to convey ferocity, with individuals who matter frequently placed in harms way to ensure that the danger registers.

But the strength of the film lies ultimately with character depth rather than stacks of corpses. As simple as the story is, it is also undoubtedly compelling. Maximum is as pure and humble as a man as he is merciless as a battle warrior, a loyal soldier who kills Rome's enemies as needed but always yearns to return to the peacefulness of home. Commodus is his antithesis, morally bankrupt, power hungry despite being undeserving, and caring much less about the glory of Rome than personal adulation. Heroes and villains don't come much more white and black than what Gladiator offers, but both men are presented as unyielding and flawed. Maximus allows his quest for revenge to consume him, while Commodus becomes obsessed with the need to publicly usurp and humiliate the popular gladiator once he returns to Rome.

In the wings are two other characters facing moments of truth. Lucilla is forced to navigate the treacherous path where her brother is an unworthy Emperor, her young son is heir apparent and therefore in mortal danger, and her former lover is intent on causing mayhem in the hallways of power. Proximo's story is much more modest: a former gladiator himself, Proximo finds himself in possession of the purest killing machine that can provide him with unlimited riches. But Proximo grows to realize that the Spaniard is destined for a higher purpose, and men like Proximo get to choose their side of history, but don't get to shape the outcome.

Proximo, to Maximus: Then listen to me. Learn from me. I wasn't the best because I killed quickly. I was the best because the crowd loved me. Win the crowd, and you will win your freedom.

Visually, Scott offers a spectacular recreation of Rome in all its glory, including breathtaking views of a reconstructed Colosseum brought back to raucous life. Many scenes feature seemingly thousands of extras, with live actors blended seamlessly with CGI effects. And in one battle, a few angry tigers enter the fray to join in the bloodletting. In the middle of it all, Russell Crowe commands the action with unflappable self-belief, oozing star power with the confidence of a man on a mission he believes to be absolutely righteous. Joaquin Phoenix manages the unenviable task of creating a hateable villain, his Commodus consisting of insidious lies, barely concealed deceit, and soulless betrayal in the pursuit of power.

Oliver Reed and Connie Nielsen offer commendable support in the main secondary roles. Reed passed away partway through filming, and his scenes where completed with the help of doubles and imaginative computer trickery. Djimon Hounsou gets a rather underwritten role as another gladiator in Proximo's stable who befriends Maximus.

Gladiator is a towering achievement, a celebration of the clash between the worst and the best that manhood offers: from pathetic selfish self-aggrandizement to saving the soul of an Empire.

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Movie Review: The Quick And The Dead (1995)

A western with all the style and none of the substance, The Quick And The Dead is filled with clever artistic touches but is also well short when it comes to essential elements like rounded characters and plot depth.

In the small town of Redemption, former outlaw John Herod (Gene Hackman) rules over the population with an iron fist as a self-appointed sheriff, judge and executioner. The Lady (Sharon Stone) rides into town seeking revenge against Herod for an ancient wrong, and registers to participate in an annual quick draw gunfight elimination contest, hoping to give Herod his due. The other entrants include gunslinger Ace Hanlon (Lance Henriksen), bounty hunter Clay Cantrell (Keith David), and The Kid (Leonardo DiCaprio), who claims to be Herod's son. Herod also forces his former partner in crime Cort (Russell Crowe) to join the contest.

Cort has renounced violence and become a priest, but Herod is having none of it, holding Cort in shackles and forcing him to participate in the gunfight series or die. As the contestants are thinned out through successive and increasingly deadly duels, The Kid, The Lady and Cort emerge as the main challengers looking knock Herod off his perch. But beating the old man at his own brutal game will not be easy.

Directed by Sam Raimi and co-produced by Stone, the film is notable for featuring significant pre-stardom roles for DiCaprio and Crowe, both promoted and supported by Stone. In a case of too many ideas all poorly developed, the film tries, with limited success, to be an amalgamation of relevant classic western themes, including revenge, corruption, betrayal, profiteering, redemption and the struggle between religion and the gun.

But Raimi does deliver on all the required aesthetics. The Quick And The Dead looks gorgeous, from Stone's layered clothes to the town's simple layout. The camera angles are often brilliant, the gunfights are filmed with plenty of panache, and the town's clock tower stands witness to all manner of courage and death on the dusty main street. There are plenty of Leonesque touches, from tight close-ups of the eyes to the long dusters used by Herod's men, plus a few special Raimiesque flourishes when it comes to portraying bullet damage.

But The Quick And The Dead is missing almost everything else. The characters are presented in broad brush format, the backstories are rudimentary, the dialogue is a barrage of recycles clichés, and The Lady's revenge motive is borrowed wholesale from Once Upon A Time In The West.

The plot is reduced to a series of successive gunfights, the film falling into the trap of too many punchlines and not enough set-up. Any showdown moment loses its impact when repeated endlessly, and The Quick And The Dead has too many moments when one gunfighter is quick, and the other dead.

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Movie Review: American Gangster (2007)

An epic gangster's tale inspired by real events, American Gangster is a potent mix of low key audaciousness. As told by director Ridley Scott, the story of the rise and fall of drug lord Frank Lucas is quietly absorbing without veering into amplified dramatics.

In Harlem of the late 1960s, elderly local crime boss Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson (Clarence Williams III) dies, leaving his loyal driver and assistant Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) in charge of his fledgling operations. In the meantime, New Jersey police detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) makes himself extremely unpopular by turning in one million dollars worth of crime money that he found in the trunk of a criminal's car. With the police department rife with corruption and officers on the take, Richie's actions mean that he is shunned by fellow officers, while his home life is also falling apart.

Frank is ambitious but prefers to keep a low profile compared to the other flashy criminals trying to fill the vacuum created by Bumpy's demise. Frank spots an opportunity to mass import high quality heroin directly from the jungles of Vietnam on board US military cargo planes, and recruits his extended family, including his brother Huey (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to control the preparation and distribution of the drug under the Blue Magic brand. Frank is soon extremely wealthy and in control of the New York drug market, and marries Puerto Rican beauty queen Eva (Lymari Nadal). The higher quality and lower price of his product cause an addiction epidemic, and also antagonize the established Mafia families represented by Dominic Cattano (Armand Assante).

Richie is invited to lead a specialized anti-drug police unit, and assembles a group of unconventional but effective street-wise police detectives who start to investigate the drug kings of New Jersey and New York. With the impending end of the Vietnam War threatening Frank's supply of drugs, Richie gradually uncovers the remarkable extent of Frank's operations, and starts to look for an informer to bring down the drug empire.

A worthy addition to the collection of grand films about crime as a serious family business, American Gangster has a luxurious scope and monumental stamina. Despite a running length of close to 160 minutes, the film never loses momentum, screenwriter Steve Zaillian keeping two stories moving briskly in parallel, both inspired by exceptional real men but with artistic licence exercised to create a movie event.

Frank's surreptitious rise to the top of the New York drug world is an epic tale of the quiet black American man who out-manoeuvred his competition and dominated the market, peddling misery to the masses while enriching his family. Richie is as remarkable for being the straight cop in a sea of corruption, exorcised for doing his job but finding his calling in the pursuit of drug lords. Scott's challenge is that the two men only meet in the final 20 minutes, and this is handsomely overcome by drawing two trajectories that are clearly destined to come together but that are also robust enough to stand alone.

In a film packed with on-location shooting, Scott recreates Harlem and other New York locations of the late 1960s and early 1970s, a rotting apple where drugs, crime, misery and death flourish in the rampant urban decay. Frank heartlessly takes advantage of the downtrodden within the despair, his obsession with dignity standing in stark contrast with the plague that his neatly packaged heroin unleashes on the residents of his crumbling neighbourhoods.

In support of the excellent Washington and Crowe, American Gangster boasts an impressively deep cast, with small but important roles for Ruby Dee as Frank's mother, Josh Brolin as a corrupt New York City police detective, Cuba Gooding Jr. as a nightclub owner distributing Blue Magic, and Idris Elba as Tango, Frank's rival for control of Harlem after Bumpy's death.

The film is driven by the two main characters and has only one traditional cinematic action scene, a raid on a drug lab. Otherwise the menace of drugs seeping into the pores of society poses a greater threat than any number of chases or shoot-outs. Frank has to eliminate one competitor to make a statement, and he later becomes the subject of a mysterious assassination attempt, but otherwise American Gangster succeeds in creating a depressing canvass where death prevails through the mundane business of addiction rather than combat. As men like Frank Lucas know only too well, controlled, self-administered, and wide-spread violence that is unseen and unheard can be the most damaging - and the most lucrative.

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Movie Review: Broken City (2013)

An attempt to recreate the magic of Chinatown in modern day New York, Broken City serves up some tasty deviousness among the power elite, but the simplistic story of corruption sags under the weight of its own ambition.

New York City cop Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) is acquitted of murdering an accused rapist, but is nevertheless asked to resign from the police force by Mayor Nicholas Hostetler (Russell Crowe). Seven years later, the Mayor is running for re-election and facing a serious challenge from charismatic Councillor Jack Valliant (Barry Pepper). Hostetler hires Taggart, now a private investigator, to confirm that the Mayor's wife Cathleen (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is having an affair. Meanwhile, Hostetler signs a high profile real estate deal for the City to sell a large social housing site to a private development company. The sale will save the City from a mountain of debt, but also places low-income families at risk.

Taggart's home life with girlfriend Natalie (Natalie Martinez) starts to fall apart when he can't handle her burgeoning career as an actress. But with help from his assistant Katy (Alona Tal), Taggart gathers evidence that Cathleen is indeed seeing a man called Paul Andrews (Kyle Chandler), who is closely connected to Valliant's campaign team. But there is lot more going on than a simple affair. Soon there are bodies in the street, serious allegations of corruption, and just when Taggart thinks that he has collected all the pieces of an ugly puzzle, his past comes back to haunt him.

The secret at the heart of Broken City is lame, a signature on a paper that must be a matter of public record, and that would never require any secretive skulking around to uncover. The Brian Tucker script also suffers from a tough to believe amount of violence unleashed by politicians in the immediate run-up to an election, the streets of New York suddenly turning into killing grounds as guns-for-hire do the dirty work for the corrupt men in suits.

These are unfortunate weaknesses at the film's core, because otherwise Broken City offers decent entertainment, delivered at a brisk pace by director Allen Hughes (working this time without his brother Albert). Stylishly filmed and benefiting from a strong cast, Broken City explores the familiar territory of corrupt land deals and a private investigator stumbling onto secrets much darker than what he was hired for. But the film also stays away from some tempting, often overused Chinatown derivatives. That Broken City avoids the topics of incest, rape and old men manipulating events from distant mansions is a welcome sign of self-control.

Russell Crowe and Mark Wahlberg are always engaging, and here they do not disappoint, although equally they do not set the screen on fire. Wahlberg, who also co-produced, has the larger role, and gives Taggart the sad energy of a man knocked out of the orbit of his natural life despite ridding the City of an acknowledged if unconvicted menace. Crowe is edgier and flashier, but also more predictable, his take on Mayor Nicholas Hostetler filled with the smugness of politicians who believe that laws apply only to other people. Catherine Zeta-Jones gets third billing, but relatively very few minutes on the screen.

Broken City promises more than the story can deliver, and although the film is not broken, it is regrettably bent a bit.

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The Movies Of Russell Crowe

All movies starring Russell Crowe and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

The Quick And The Dead (1995)

L.A. Confidential (1997)

Gladiator (2000)

Proof Of Life (2000)

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Cinderella Man (2005)

3:10 To Yuma (2007)

American Gangster (2007)

Body Of Lies (2008)

State Of Play (2009)

Robin Hood (2010)

The Next Three Days (2010)

Les Misérables (2012)

Broken City (2013)

Winter's Tale (2014)

The Water Diviner (2014)

The Nice Guys (2016)

Boy Erased (2018)

Unhinged (2020)

Land Of Bad (2024)

Sleeping Dogs (2024)

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The Movie Star Index is here.