Review: "The Italian Job" Remake Quite Slick

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 174 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Italian Job (2003)
Running time: 111 minutes (1 hour, 51 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violence and some language
DIRECTOR: F. Gary Gray
WRITERS: Donna Powers and Wayne Powers (based on the 1969 screenplay by Troy Kennedy-Martin)
PRODUCER: Donald De Line
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Wally Pfister (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Richard Francis-Bruce and Christopher Rouse
COMPOSER: John Powell
Black Reel Award winner

ACTION/CRIME with elements of a thriller

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Donald Sutherland, Jason Statham, Seth Green, Mos Def, Franky G, Gawtti, and Shawn Fanning

The subject of this movie review is The Italian Job, a 2003 heist film from director F. Gary Gray. It is a remake of the 1969 film, The Italian Job, which starred Michael Caine and was directed by Peter Collinson.

The current version is quite entertaining, but a bit on the sedate side. Perhaps, the filmmakers mistook a low-key approach and a low wattage use of pyrotechnics as being cerebral. It’s not necessarily slow, but TIJ is an action movie meant for the kind of people who prefer action crime thrillers like Out of Sight and Ronin. Because I really liked those two films, I heartily recommend this one.

Career thief John Bridger (Donald Sutherland) and his protégé Charlie Croker (Mark Wahlberg) plan a successful heist of $35 million in gold in Venice, Italy. One of their crew, the slick and violent Steve (Edward Norton), however betrays them, kills Bridger, and steals the gold. Croker tracks Steve to Los Angeles where he’s living it up. Seeking revenge and the return of the gold, he convinces Bridger’s daughter Stella (Charlize Theron), a legitimate, professional safe cracker, to join him and his crew on a mission against Steve. The team plans to pull of the heist of their lives by creating L.A. largest traffic jam ever.

Director F. Gary Gray (Friday, Set it Off) might not stand head and shoulders above the current large group of technically talented film helmsman, but he has found his niche by producing entertaining and occasionally masterful crime thrillers. As laid back as The Italian Job seems, Gray gives each scene some special twist or essence that kept me watching. I was never bored, and I really enjoyed the film. Maybe Gray playing down loud explosions and kinetic editing is a good thing. He can certainly direct excellent helicopter/car chases, and he makes good use of a diverse cast of character actors, a pretty lead actress, and a solid leading man in Mark Wahlberg.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2004 Black Reel Awards: 1 win: “Film: Best Director” (F. Gary Gray); 2 nominations: “Best Film” (Donald De Line) and “Film: Best Supporting Actor” (Mos Def)

"Be Cool" Never Heats Up

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 33 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux


Be Cool (2005)
Running time: 114 minutes (1 hour, 54 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violence, sensuality, and language including sexual references
DIRECTOR: F. Gary Gray
WRITER: Peter Steinfeld (from the novel by Elmore Leonard)
PRODUCERS: Danny DeVito, David Nicksay, Michael Shamberg, and Stacey Sher
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jeffrey L. Kimball
EDITOR: Sheldon Kahn

CRIME/COMEDY

Starring: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer, André (3000) Benjamin, Steven Tyler, Christina Milian, Harvey Keitel, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Paul Adelstein, Danny DeVito, Robert Pastorelli, James Woods, and Debi Mazar with Joe Perry and Aerosmith, The Black Eye Peas with Sergio Mendes, The RZA, Kobe Bryant, and Seth Green

Be Cool is a 2005 crime comedy and is also a sequel to the 1995 film, Get Shorty. It is adapted from the 1999 novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard.

Ten years after Get Shorty, the sequel, Be Cool, shows up at theatres. Both films are based upon novels by Elmore Leonard, whose books have long been a source of film materials for Hollywood. Be Cool is not as witty and as sharp as Get Shorty, but it certainly tries to be the same blunt comic crime caper that the latter was. It has the characters, the cast, and some truly sidesplitting comedy, but ultimately, a faulty script and clunky directing mar a film that was so close to being a really fine crime comedy.

Chili Palmer (John Travolta), the Miami-based shylock who came to Hollywood and charmed and bullied his way into filmmaking, is now tired of the movie business. He’s interested in music, and when Tommy Athens (James Woods), a friend who owns a record label, is murdered by Russian mobsters before Chili’s eyes, that homicide opens the door for him. Chili meets Linda Moon (Christina Milian), a struggling singer stuck with a wannabe Negro named Raji (Vince Vaughn) for a manager. Chili, in his usual way, relieves Raji of Linda’s contract with him, and becomes her new manager.

Chili makes his next connection with Tommy’s widow, Edie Athens (Uma Thurman), who after some convincing is ready to take on Chili and Linda. However, there is the issue of Linda contract with Raji, and Raji’s partner, Nick Carr (Harvey Keitel) who isn’t crazy about letting go off a potential star. Edie also has another big problem: Tommy owed $300,000 to Sin LaSalle (Cedric Entertainer), a very successful, but violently inclined record producer. Raji, Nick, and Sin all see Chili as their problem; as they angle towards him, he’ll try to make Linda a star, woo Edie, and get his way, always dealing with violence and pressure by his motto, be cool.

There are probably a lot more belly laughs in Be Cool than Get Shorty, and that makes it worth seeing. The cast is littered with star turns and novel and hilarious supporting performances, especially Vaughn as Raji and The Rock as his gay, wannabe actor bodyguard, Elliot Wilhelm. Christina Milian holds her own; she works in this movie because her confidence makes her come across as a fine singer and actress, even if there might be stronger singing voices and better young actresses than her.

Travolta reportedly suggested Uma Thurman as his leading lady for Be Cool because they could recapture their screen chemistry from Pulp Fiction, which restarted Travolta’s career and boosted Ms. Thurman’s, but they don’t. Yes, a rapport and friendliness exist between them, but they are sluggish here. Travolta is Chili Palmer, but he’s on automatic here, older and heavier. Even Thurman looks strained, only managing about half the time to have the perkiness, determination, and raw magnetism that show themselves in her collaborations with Quentin Tarantino.

The lion’s share of the blame from this go to writer Paul Steinfeld and director F. Gary Gray. They never seem to be able to integrate the music business element into this plot (after all it’s about Chili getting in the music business), and the film’s musical numbers (except the Aerosmith/Christina Milian performance) and music videos ring hollow. This is a gangster film with laughs, lots of them, but these hilarious and likeable characters don’t seem to be in music because the music industry isn’t in this film the way the movie business was clearly and strongly a part of Get Shorty. Still, Travolta, Ms. Thurman, and a supporting cast of wacky players make this a crime comedy worth seeing, even if you can’t make it to the theatre.

5 of 10
B-

Review: "A Man Apart" Focus on Revenge (Happy B'day Vin Diesel)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 59 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

A Man Apart (2003)
Running time: 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong graphic violence, language, drug content and sexuality
DIRECTOR: F. Gary Gray
WRITERS: Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring
PRODUCERS: Bob Degus, Vin Diesel, Vincent Newman, Joey Nittolo, and Tucker Tooley
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jack N. Green (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Bob Brown and William Hoy

DRAMA/ACTION with elements of suspense

Starring: Vin Diesel, Larenz Tate, Gino Silva, George Shaperson, Timothy Olyphant, Jacqueline Obradors, and Juan Fernandez

You can hear the sound of the playa haters cackling and giggling about Vin Diesel maybe not being such a big mega box office star after all. XXX (it made a lot of money, but not a lot of lot of money) was something of a disappointment at the box office and A Man Apart didn’t open well. The haters are the same people who were hanging onto Vin’s jockstrap just last year when he was mackin’ on the cover of GQ, among other magazines. Let’s get this straight before we move on; A Man Apart is a good movie.

Diesel is Sean Vetters, a hot shot/thug officer for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). He and his partner, Demetrius Hicks, go way back to the days when they ran the streets as young men. They help take down an ultra-powerful head of a Mexican drug cartel (Gino Silva), but when that drug lord, Memo Lucero, goes down, a new and more vicious leader, known only as “Diablo,” fills the void. At Diablo’s behest, assassins kill Sean’s wife Stacy (Jacqueline Obradors) in a botched attempt on Sean’s life, and Sean becomes a man on a mission of revenge.

The story of a decorated cop who loses his family to murderous criminals and subsequently goes on a rampage for revenge is a venerable movie tradition. Steven Seagal’s career thrived on this plot for a few years. However, a well-worn sub-genre or tired story idea can get new life in the hands of talented people who can make it an interesting film, and that’s what happens here.

Director F. Gary (The Negotiator, Set It Off) Gray has a good touch with mixing drama and hardcore action. He takes a common idea and breathes life into this film. The action is hot, and the drama is pretty effective, even though it’s nothing new and fresh. Gray can take the most pedestrian idea and spin it into something worth watching; it’s a skill he learned during his days directing music videos.

Once again, the camera loves Diesel, and the screen magnifies his machismo. He doesn’t have to dig deep into the character; indeed, the character only goes deep enough to find the anger and passion needed to fuel the drive for revenge. However, Vin finds that gas and takes it to the limit. He has a convincing mad-on to kill some filthy, people killing drug lords, and he flings it at the screen in a spray of testosterone. We don’t get to see his character go deep undercover and force himself to live a lie in order to ensnare the wicked. This is simple; his character is an excuse to show some ass whipping, rapid gunfire, explosions, fistfights, and manly pissing contests.

Gray and Diesel know what they’re doing. The script doesn’t create richly layered characters; these are all law enforcement stereotypes, and Larenz Tate also does a fine job as the voice of reason in his partner’s life, the good guardian angel speaking soothing platitudes to his homey while revenge’s little devil whispers in Sean’s ear, “Go kick some ass!”

I liked this – not great but good. If you miss it in the theatres, you’ll want to see this good old revenge flick. Vin, as the avenging lawman, is just keeping a venerable movie genre alive in the tradition of Charles Bronson and Steven Seagal.

6 of 10
B

--------------------------

Review: "Set It Off" (Happy B'day, Queen Latifah)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 63 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Set It Off (1996)
Running time: 123 minutes (2 hours, 3 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong graphic violence, pervasive language, some sex and drug use
DIRECTOR: F. Gary Gray
WRITERS: Takashi Buford and Kate Lanier; from a story by Takashi Buford
PRODUCERS: Oren Koules and Dale Pollock
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Marc Reshovsky (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: John Carter
Image Award nominee

DRAMA/ACTION/CRIME

Starring: Jada Pinkett, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, Kimberly Elise, Blair Underwood, John C. McGinley, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Ella Joyce, Dr. Dre and Anna Marie Horsford

Set If Off, the second film from music video director F. Gary Gray, was almost the best film ever made about the plight of impoverished African-American women at the turn of the century. Instead, the filmmakers settled on making a film that is a decent drama and a cathartic action movie. Part western and part girl movie, Set If Off resonates with the pain of these female characters although the film only scratches the surface of who the characters are.

After some neighborhood acquaintances of Francesca “Frankie” Sutton’s (Vivica A. Fox) rob the bank where she works and kill a few people, her supervisors at the bank fire her because they find the fact that she knew the culprits disturbing. Her diligence and hard work (only a day prior, she’d counted $240,000 by hand to help one of her bosses) don’t matter one bit. Detective Strode (John C. McGinley), the lead detective in the case, also considers her to be in cahoots with the robbers.

Lida “Stony” Newson (Jada Pinkett) has been plans for her brother Stevie (Chaz Lamar Shepard) to attend UCLA. Stevie is a friend of one of the bank robbers. He visits him after the robbery, and a pack of cowardly, punk cops murders Stevie when they mistake him for the bank robber. Thinking Stevie has a gun, they shoot him down like a dog, only to discover that he was trying to show them that all he had in his jacket was a bottle of champagne a friend had given him for his birthday.

Tired of being on the beating end of the stick, Stony and Frankie join two other downtrodden friends, Cleopatra “Cleo” Sims (Queen Latifah) and Tisean “T.T.” Williams (Kimberly Elise, in a sparkling debut), as bank robbers themselves, to make a little money to get ahead in life and to stick it to the evil, white tyrants who go out of their way to oppress a sister.

This movie could have been so much more than it ended up being, maybe an intense urban drama about what these young women go through and the ends they meet when they finally lash out (perhaps blindly and unwisely) at the world for their pain. However, I will review this movie for what it is. The drama is about average. I caught on to what the story was about; I felt the sisters’ pain. Still, other than Stony, the film mostly relegates the characters to being ciphers, and the script only skims the surface of Stony’s character, for that matter. The filmmakers feel compelled to spend much of the film’s time detailing the intricacies and violence of bank robbery, and they do that quite well. As robbers, the four women are clumsy, but they’re raw and eager. Their crimes are swift and abrupt, and Gray presents it all in a bracing fashion in which the camera lovingly follows the ladies’ every move.

I wanted this film to be more, but, honestly, I really enjoyed what I got. The drama, as mishandled as it was, it still touching and visceral, and the action had me cheering my girls every step of the way. As things fall apart for them, I couldn’t help but feel the emotions and bond they shared, both strong enough to make them sacrifice for one another.

The acting is also quite good. This was a breakthrough role for Queen Latifah, who is full of snarling and barely checked rage; the camera loves her. Ms. Pinkett easily revealed the depth of her talent as a strong dramatic actress, but this performance didn’t earn her lots of new roles, being of the jigaboo persuasion. Ms. Fox’s character barely registers, but that’s the fault of the script. This was a good start for Ms. Elise; her large expressive eyes make her a film natural in her ability to convey feelings.

For all its shortcomings, Set It Off is a very good film, and we need more like it, albeit of a higher quality, that detail the hard lives of poor people and their willingness to fight back when they need to. See this film, and then watch it again.

7 of 10
A-

NOTES:
1997 Image Awards: 3 nominations: “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture” (Jada Pinkett Smith), “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture” (Queen Latifah) and “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” (Blair Underwood)

--------------------

Review: "Law Abiding Citizen" Has a Rage On

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 7 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux


Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
Running time: 108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong bloody brutal violence and torture, a scene of rape, and pervasive language
DIRECTOR: F. Gary Gray
WRITER: Kurt Wimmer
PRODUCER: Gerard Butler, Lucas Foster, Mark Gill, Robert Katz, Alan Siegel, and Kurt Wimmer
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jonathan Sela (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Tariz Anwar

CRIME/SUSPENSE/THRILLER with elements of action and mystery

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Colm Meaney, Bruce McGill, Leslie Bibb, Michael Irby, Gregory Itzin, Regina Hall, Emerald-Angel Young, Christian Stolte, Annie Corley, Richard Portnow, and Viola Davis

In the 1970s, movie studios produced what were called black exploitation, or “Blaxploitation,” films. The films starred predominately black actors and featured subject matter of interest to Black people, such as racism, violence, and crime, although not all Blaxploitation films dealt with those subjects.

I believe that there are also “Whiteploitation” films. I call them that because they are films that exploit the fears of White Americans, especially fears concerning urban crime and violence, particular crime committed against white people by brown people (African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, etc.) and lower class whites (white trash).

The recent film, Law Abiding Citizen, focuses on an assistant district attorney at odds with a criminal mastermind who virtually controls a city from the confines of his prison cell. This could be seen as a white exploitation film, exploiting issues of violent crime and a broken justice system in hopes of tapping into the resentments of its predominately white audience. While Law Abiding Citizen initially deals with these issues, in a somewhat substantive fashion, it eventually morphs into a standard thriller full of violence and largely unfocused rage – again to appeal to the prurient interests of a young male audience.

In the film, Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is traumatized by the brutal murders of his wife and daughter at the hands of two men during a home invasion. Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) is the ambitious, hotshot, young prosecutor, assigned to the case. Nick offers one of the suspects a light sentence in exchange for testifying against his accomplice, but the criminal who gets the plea deal is actually the worse of the two. Rice ignores Shelton’s objections to this deal.

Ten years later, Shelton kills the two men who murdered his wife and child. Thrown into prison, Shelton begins a campaign of vengeance against the entire system. Soon, Nick Rice and the city of Philadelphia are held in a grip of fear, with authorities powerless to halt Shelton’s reign of terror. With police Detective Dunnigan (Colm Meaney) at his side, Nick desperately races against time to stop a deadly adversary who seems always to be one step ahead, even though he’s in prison!

When it was about victims of violent crime and revenge, Law Abiding Citizen had potential. When it became a suspense thriller, it became just another… well, suspense thriller. The film makes some legitimate points about victims of crime and the criminal justice system, which makes it similar to “Whiteploitation” flicks like Death Wish and Sudden Impact. However, at the point when Clyde Shelton goes from righteous vengeance to acts of terrorism against society, the film loses what moral standing it had.

Law Abiding Citizen mixes elements of V for Vendetta (shadowy figure holds city in grip of fear), the Jason Bourne movies (former operative uses special skills for payback), and the Saw franchise (torture and gruesome murder), with a dose Charles Bronson revenge movie. It’s entertaining and quite often it offers the kind of genuine stimulation a good, taut thriller should. But to second Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, I no longer enjoy Gerard Butler’s “mush-mouthed bravura” (and only liked it for a little while). Jamie Foxx gives a good performance, but compared to his best work (Ray, Collateral), his performance here seems like only a dutiful effort to justify the large paycheck he received for this movie.

I also want to give the producers credit for hiring a perfectly capable African-American director and for giving us a satisfying ending.

5 of 10
B-

Friday, February 19, 2010

NOTES: 2010 Image Awards: 2 nominations for motion picture actor (Jamie Foxx) and director (F. Gary Gray)