ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD (2017)

Rated:  R

STARS: Christopher Plummer, Michelle Williams,  Charlie Plummer, Mark Wahlberg, Romain Duris
DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott
GENRE: Drama/Action-Thriller

I like a good thriller.  Because I know if the film is a little slow in the beginning with background stuff (which All The Money In The World is), it'll pick up later with the action scenes (which All The Money In The World does). So there's your review.

OH...you want more?  Cheeky bugger!!!

It's 1973 and John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer), grandson of the then richest man in the world, J. Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer--no relation), has been kidnapped off the streets of Rome. A ransom of 17 million dollars is being demanded for the teenager's safe return. Only problem is, the old tight-ass doesn't want to fork over one penny, even though it would be a drop in his bucket!  This naturally doesn't set well with Paul's mother, Gail (Michelle Williams), who will spend the entire film trying to save her child's life, with the help of former CIA operative Fletcher Chase (Mark Wahlberg), who has been directed by the elder Getty to figure out another way to rescue the lad without dipping into his precious coffers. Easy for him to say.

I might have been one of the few in the audience who could generate some empathy for the old guy. Few situations are ever black and white. Getty had stated: "I have fourteen grandchildren, and if I pay a penny of ransom, I'll have fourteen kidnapped grandchildren." He had a point. Not to mention that the family and the Italian police thought Paul might be faking his own kidnapping to get funds out of grandpa that he thought he deserved. J. Paul Getty was one of the foremost art collectors in the world, and I think it was what he said about art: that it never disappoints you like people do (he was married and divorced five times) that provided a hint in the direction of explaining the man as being deeper than what showed on the surface, though the movie never quite takes you there.

Christopher Plummer does a sterling (pardon the pun) job of turning J. Paul Getty into the man you love to hate--a turn made even more notable by the fact that it was done on short notice to replace Kevin Pervy...er...I mean Spacey.  Plummer and Michelle Williams--who's always right on the money--are what raise this film above your run-of-the-mill action/thriller.  Along with a collection of Italian thugs so authentic looking you can almost smell the garlic.

Grade:  B

JILL'S TAKE

Whether it's Michael Douglas' portrayal of Gordon Gekko in Wall Street ("Greed is good") or Christopher Plummer's turn in All The Money In the World, audiences love to see how the rich get richer. (And ultimately get screwed.) Although this movie lagged in spots, it held my interest 95% of the time. And I couldn't help musing that the recasting of 84-year-old Christopher Plummer as the tightwad tycoon was a stroke of pure genius. Kudos go out to screenwriter David Scarpa who managed to create a well-rounded portrait of this very complicated, power-driven art connoisseur.

Without giving too much away, I want to share what I felt was a wonderful twist: one of the sleazy kidnappers (played brilliantly by Romain Duris) begins to develop a relationship with his prisoner. At first, he's a typical Italian gangster, ready to do whatever it takes to get the boy's grandfather to pay the ransom. Over time, however, we see his attitude change. I know it's been done before in films but Duris' characterization was truly noteworthy. For you trivia buffs and acting hopefuls, I looked him up on IMDb and discovered the following: "Appealing actor Romain Duris is the exact example of those who arrived in the movie industry by chance, and to stardom without really desiring it. Discovered by a casting director while he was waiting in front of a high school in Paris, he was offered a role." (Some people have all the luck!)

If I were to nitpick about Money, it would be about young Getty's other siblings who appeared briefly and then completely disappeared. I would've like to have seen how they handled this horrific situation. Nothing major, mind you. But you don't introduce a family-in-crisis and then simply delete some of its members for expediency.

Beautiful score by Daniel Pemberton...breath-taking cinematography thanks to Dariusz Wolski. It's a movie well worth seeing.

Grade: B-

 

THE GUNMAN (2015)

Rated: R

STARS: Sean Penn, Javier Bardem, Jasmine Trinca
DIRECTOR: Pierre Morel
GENRE: Action/Thriller

I wanted to like The Gunman, and in the beginning I thought that I might. A great actor in Sean Penn; mesmerizing score from Marco Beltrami; some heady aerial cinematography of exotic locales; and a developing love triangle involving the characters played by Penn, Javier Bardem (speaking of pretty darn good actors), and Jasmine Trinca, who reminds me just a wee bit of Ingrid Bergman. 

But then the movie devolves into your typical Hollywood  BANG BANG SHOOT 'EM UP killfest, designed to show off the impressive results of Sean Penn's gym workouts--so naturally he appears shirtless during much of the action.

Under the cover of working for an NGO in the Congo, ex-special forces operative Jim Terrier (Penn) pulls off an assassination of a government minister, then gets the hell outta Dodge--leaving his girlfriend (Trinca) in the hands of Felix (Bardem), who promises to take good care of her. That he does, and later Terrier finds the two of them married to each other. That's one big bummer, but an even bigger one is the multi-national corporation that hired him to do the hit is now coming after him, because he knows too much. Cue ubiquitous hand-to hand-combat, shootouts, bodies piling up....your usual action/thriller fare intended to numb you to onscreen violence so they can keep selling it to you again and again. What becomes commonplace becomes accepted--and hey, at least it takes you out of your humdrum workaday life, right?.

The trouble with films spawned from novels--in this case The Prone Gunman by Jean-Patrick Manchette--is that they're trying to cram so many plot elements into the allotted time, to remain at least somewhat faithful to the book, that everything moves at warp speed. There's no time to pause and reflect upon what just occurred, or to totally grasp how it all fits into the big picture so you can follow along without feeling like a dumb ass.

 And why are we supposed to root for things to turn out well for a paid assassin?  Because he now works for a real NGO in a Carter-esque attempt at redemption?  In the old days, our movie heroes were clearly good guys. Now we are asked to resonate with sociopaths, a la Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle in American Sniper. As long as they show us they still have a human side lurking in there somewhere, it's okay. But that's a slippery slope. And to feed the conspiracy theorist in us all, you may want to consider how such a mindset might make you more forgiving of things like...oh...American foreign policy, for example. (Just a thought--I usually have ONE every day.)

The silliest thing about The Gunman, though, is the ludicrous fairy tale ending. But hey, don't get me started.

Grade: D +

JILL'S TAKE

Here we go again, agreeing. And Ilike violent films! But this one had too many plots and too little character development. Back when Tony Soprano, a mafia don, had to see a shrink because he was suffering from panic attacks, I thought the concept was brilliant. But now we have Penn's character suffering from head trauma injuries as a result of all his bad guy battles. His symptoms? Headaches, blurred vision, lack of coordination and memory loss. Forcing him to write down names, addresses and stuff your average assassin usually commits to memory. We never know when he's going to fog out which, I suppose, adds to the tension. But it just seemed like a clever device to me – a way for certain classified information to get into the wrong hands.

I like Sean Penn but not in this film. I was more fascinated by how many cigarettes he smoked (and inhaled) than by the number of thugs he obliterated. I read online that he's quit smoking now and his girlfriend Charlize Theron is thrilled about it. Normally, I like to end my reviews with something positive. But The Gunman really doesn't deserve it. Unless, maybe, you think the underbelly of a bullring is a good place to stage the final gunfight.

Grade: D

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (2013)

Rated: PG-13

Stars: Tom Hanks,  Barkhad Abdi
Director:  Paul Greengrass
Genre:  Action / Thriller

Tom Hanks gets upstaged by a young Somalian immigrant with no prior acting experience. Fancy that. Which is not to say that Hanks doesn't do a hell of a job as the skipper of the  Maersk Alabama in Captain Phillips, based on the true story of the U.S. cargo ship hijacked by Somalian pirates in an international incident that made headlines in 2009. It's just that Muse (Barkhad  Abdi)  is so authentically lean, hungry, and monomaniacal as the leader of the four young psychopaths who commandeer the ship, hoping to garner a big ransom payout.  While it's hard to fathom that this is Abdi's  acting debut, I find it less difficult to speculate that he may have some actual pirating experience on his resume! (A prerequisite for getting the part?) 

Captain Phillips is a full-speed-ahead action tour-de-force.  It never pauses to wax philosophical, or poke around much inside the characters' heads--except for a brief moment  near the tension-filled climax when Phillips looks at Muse and tells him there must be something else he could do with his life. 

Teenagers.

It's a gritty and grueling turn for Hanks who, as Captain Richard Phillips,  must try to outwit capricious desperadoes with automatic weapons trained on him as best he can. For the most part, he is up to the challenge. The only stumble is that the Irish accent he is affecting gets totally submerged when he has to shout. The louder he shouts, the more the old familiar Tom Hanks voice that we know and love returns. Not a biggie. You may not even notice it.  But I notice stuff. That's why they pay me the big bucks.  

Going in, I vaguely remembered this incident from four years ago, (a long time for me to try to remember anything) and I didn't recall how it all played out in the end, which I'm certain made this viewing experience more thrilling for me because, as I have stated before, I AM BORED BY HISTORICAL DOCUDRAMAS WHERE I ALREADY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!!! So I would say that if the Maersk Alabama incident is fuzzy in your head as well, you should enjoy Captain Phillips tremendously!

Grade:  A

JILL'S TAKE

If I had to devise an acronymic blurb for CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, it would read: Terrifyingly Exciting Nautical Saga Enthralls! Yes, this film is definitely T-E-N-S-E. I went to see it with two gents who are known to fall asleep during movies, a crime punishable by death in my view. But they didn't snooze in this one. They were both glued to the edge of their seats, eyes wide open, for the entire two hours and thirteen minutes. Tim has already filled you in on the nonfiction plot and the incredible acting job of the lead pirate Barkhad Abdi. As far as memorable villains go, Abdi is right up there with Anthony Hopkins in "Silence Of The Lambs" and Javier Bardem in "No Country For Old Men." His incredible skinniness makes you believe he's the real deal. (I agree with Tim—it's hard to believe this guy hasn't has some actual ship-robbing experience.)

Other reasons that make this film relentlessly tense are Henry Jackman's pounding score and Paul Greengrass' direction, demanding that these richly dark pirates never let up on their hysteria. Of course movies that use any type of closed-in location (ocean liners, submarines, airplanes) have a definite scare-factor advantage. I like to call them "no way out" flicks. And CAPTAIN PHILLIPS in no exception. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Tom Hanks. His controlled strength under duress eventually crumbles and that's when we really get to witness the range of his acting chops. If you're a nail-biter, I'd wear gloves to this one!

GRADE: A

ABDUCTION (2011)

Rated: PG-13

Stars: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Michael Nyqvist, Sigourney Weaver, Alfred Molina

Director: John Singleton

Genre: Action/Thriller

Nathan (Taylor Lautner--Twilight) is a typical high school dude who rides on the hood of a truck with his buddies as the vehicle careens down the road, then comes home drunk from a party the next morning and gets into a boxing match with his dad, who knocks him around relentlessly--though Nathan gets a few licks in himself. Maybe he's not so typical after all.

One day, while working on a school project with his comely classmate and next-door neighbor, Karen, (Lily Collins) Nathan discovers himself on a missing person's website, and begins to question who his "parents" really are, and why a lot of other scary stuff starts to happen. Like why agents from the CIA are after him. And why some Serbian bad guys with thick accents are also hot on his tail. When all hell breaks loose, he must grab Karen and the two of them will run for their lives--discovering along the way that in the world of high-level espionage, there is almost no one you can trust.

What I liked

• Enough plot twists to at least keep you hanging in there

• Taylor Lautner appears to have the right stuff to become an enduring teen heartthrob/action star. Now he needs to work on developing his acting chops.

• The "action" scene between Nathan and Karen on a moving train.

What I didn't like

• Flat, comic book characters

• The same old shoot 'em up, blow 'em up fascination with violence that drives most of the crap out of Hollywood these days

What I can't figure out

• Why Sigourney Weaver is in this movie

• Why they couldn't find a more apropos title than Abduction, which doesn't really fit.

• Why Michael Nyqvist--most notably of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy--is in this movie. He does deliver the most interesting performance, as the key Serbian baddie. (Yeah, he's Swedish. Serbian...Swedish...all the same to us 'MERICANS, right? )

• Why they turn the sound up so damn loud in the theaters! With a BOOM CRASH BLARING ROCK SOUNDTRACK like this, you might need to stick your fingers in your ears at times. Some in this audience may have to choose whether to do that, or to leave their finger in their nose.

In summation

With its two young stars, Abduction is geared toward the teen set, so if you're over twenty and leaning toward this type of flick, save your money and rent 3 Days of the Condor, with Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway--one of the all-time classic espionage thrillers (in my opinion). If you're younger, you just might like this one. The pacing is frenetic and nonstop...just like your attention span.

Grade: C

SALT--2010

(PG-13 theatrical release, unrated director's cut, and unrated extended cut on DVD.)

Stars: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Director: Philip Noyce

Genre: Action/Thriller

Angelina Jolie stars as CIA agent Evelyn Salt, who goes on the run when she is suspected of being a Russian sleeper spy. As if we didn't have enough enemies around the globe these days, Salt dredges up the cold war again--an unintentional (you'd think) spoof of the old James Bond versus the Evil Genius bent on taking over, or destroying the world... whichever comes first.

Agent Salt karate chops her way through scores of big, heavily armed men--half a dozen at a time--as if they are so wimpy they can't take a punch from a 120 pound woman, and just drop to the floor, out cold or dead. (The most blatant kind of patronizing and pandering to the rage-against-men fantasies of the hormonally out of control set!)

Funny...I remember some of those fight scenes in movies like Roadhouse, where dudes are repeatedly getting lambasted in the kisser by 250 POUND GUYS, and they just get back up and keep coming back for more! Weird.

Jolie performs these outrageous stunts--each more humanly impossible than the next-- that a real person would end up as flat-as-a-pancake roadkill if she attempted even one. The movie obviously wants you to take this seriously, otherwise she'd be wearing a mask and a cape. I suppose if you're in the right mood, you can just go with it--willing suspension of disbelief and all that--and I've been slap-happy enough to do that with many films, where it's obvious they're winking at you and asking you to just play along. But there is nothing tongue in cheek here, and to buy into Salt on any kind of serious level, you'd at least need a modicum of believability.

Nearly everything about this film is ridiculous...and naming the main character "Evelyn Salt" should be your first clue.

Grade: D -

Now playing at home: HARRY BROWN (Rated R)

Stars: Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Charlie Creed-Miles, Ben Drew

Director: Daniel Barber

Genre: Action/Thriller

Not far back I wrote that Michael Caine was one of a select group of actors that I would go to watch, even if his movie sucked. I've followed up on that statement by viewing Harry Brown, a film as violent, cynical, and mean as they come.

Caine plays Harry Brown, an elderly widower and ex-marine. When his old compadre Leonard (David Bradley) is slain by young London street thugs, he turns into a British version of Clint Eastwood's vengeful character of Walt in Gran Torino, with a little Dirty Harry mixed in. Harry goes on a vigilante rampage --trying to find the punk who did the deed--blowing away anyone who gets in his way. The once mild-mannered pensioner becomes as cold-blooded as his adversaries, and that's the tragedy of the eye-for-an-eye ethos--it brings everyone down to a sub-human level.

Caine is superb in his portrayal of a man who slowly (and chillingly) morphs from average, look-the-other-way citizen into a calculating and relentless force to be reckoned with, despite his advanced age. The drug-addicted low lifes he's dealing with put the sadistic delinquents from A Clockwork Orange to shame. They rule the streets, as the police are portrayed as lamebrained, wimpy, and ineffective-- the one exception being the talented Emily Mortimer in an understated performance as the police detective who begins to sniff Harry out when the bodies start piling up.

Harry Brown will appeal to the vigilante justice crowd--feeding into the frustration ordinary folks feel about a world seemingly out of control (an erroneous perception fueled by the media).

Technically, the film is well done, but there is no subtlety in its uncompromising message. Dirty Harry did it with more panache, and the old spaghetti westerns did it with more style and imagination.

GRADE: C-

A PERFECT GETAWAY -- Rated R

STARS: Steve Zahn, Milla Jovovich

DIRECTOR: David Twohy

In the great WTF? tradition of The Sixth Sense and Passengers, comes A Perfect Getaway-- a movie that is conning you most of the way through, until you get to where...GOTCHA dumb-ass, nothing is what you think it is! And even though I saw the main plot twist coming a LITTLE ways before it was revealed, I still couldn't help flogging myself with a cat o' nine tails, sobbing, "If only you'd paid more attention in the first few minutes, Sluggo! Anyhoo, I'll bet YOU don't pick up on those SUBTLE clues at the beginning either--and that's what screenwriter/director David Twohy is banking on.

Cliff and Cydney (Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich) are newlyweds honeymooning in Hawaii--hiking to a secluded beach in Kauai to camp overnight. Word reaches them that another couple has been murdered on a different island, and the authorities are looking for a man and a woman as the primary suspects. It's paranoia time when Cliff and Cydney run into a spooky couple trying to hitch a ride--and again when they hook up with Nick, (Timothy Olyphant) an Iraq war vet with a big sheathed knife, and his nude sunbathing girlfriend Gina, (Kiele Sanchez) who used to be a butcher.

Ostensibly, everyone is suspecting everyone, and the suspense builds...until the aforementioned BIG PLOT TWIST. Then, A Perfect Getaway kicks into edge-of-your-seat, action/thriller mode until its conclusion--and enjoyably so I might add. But when it came to evaluating motives, I was left asking WHY? Was I not paying enough attention, or was it that Twohy's script wanted to keep things a little murky? That's where having the DVD is to your advantage-you can view the film again with a more careful eye. (I haven't yet done so--I've had important stuff to do--like SCRATCHING MYSELF and SLEEPING.)

And you might have guessed that A Perfect Getaway, like many of the flicks I see, triggered one of my pet peeves. It's the one about why do the movies and TV sitcoms often team a hot looking woman with a dorky looking guy? (In this case it's Zahn and Jovovich.) As if that's the way it could be in real life, unless the dude is using C-notes to light his cigars. TVs prime example of this is King Of Queens, where super-babe Leah Remini is paired with big meatball Kevin James. In your DREAMS! I think the meatball screenwriters and directors are just indulging their own fantasies.

Another advantage of the DVD is it lets you choose between the theatrical version and the director's cut--which contains added stuff not included in the original version. Opt for the director's cut, unless you want to see LESS of Mila Jovovich and Kiele Sanchez.

GRADE : B