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Screaming Streaming Hires THE COURIER (2012)

Posted in 2013, Action Movies, Crime Films, Gangsters!, Killers, Michael Arruda Reviews, Screaming Streaming with tags Crime drama, Hany ABu-Assad, Hostages, jeffrey dean morgan, Screaming Streaming, The Courier on February 22, 2013 by knifefighter

SCREAMING STREAMING!
Streaming Video Movie Review: THE COURIER (2012)
By Michael Arruda

I decided to check out the action thriller THE COURIER (2012), now available on streaming video, because it starred Jeffrey Dean Morgan, an actor whose performances I’ve enjoyed of late in such films as WATCHMEN (2009) and THE POSSESSION (2012).

Well, the first thing I’ll tell you right now is I enjoyed Morgan much better in WATCHMEN and THE POSSESSION than in THE COURIER. Sadly, his performance in this one is uninspiring. And that’s just the beginning of what’s wrong with this clinker.

The movie starts off well. In fact, its best scene and most memorable image might be its opening one. It opens at an abandoned (or, at the very least, closed) amusement park, with two thugs holding a woman hostage at the top of a roller coaster track. The Courier (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) races through the park to reach her, climbing all the way to the top of the tracks to hand deliver the package of money to the thugs for her release. He makes it in time, but not before the kidnappers push her off the top track, but the Courier leaps to her rescue (I guess he doesn’t get paid unless the victim is returned safely) and somehow, miraculously, manages to grab onto the line tied to her and pull her to safety.

No, this Courier doesn’t work for UPS. He’s self-employed, a man hired to find people and to deliver ransom packages. Nice job. You wouldn’t think he’d be all that busy, though. How many ransom packages need to be delivered on a regular basis?

But, because he’s the best there is (of course), the Courier is sought out by a man (Til Schweiger), who forces him to find a mysterious person named Evil Sivle. If not, this man and the people he works for will kill the daughter and grandchild of the Courier’s best friend, Stitch (Mark Margolis).

The Courier searches New Orleans for Evil Sivle with the help of a young woman Anna (Josie Ho), a friend of Stitch’s, who it seems Stitch would like to set up romantically with the Courier. Nice matchmaker. Why don’t the two of you go to New Orleans on the trail of a bloodthirsty killer and go out for a couple of drinks afterwards, it might be the start of a beautiful relationship.

It seems, however, according to the information that the Courier uncovers, that Evil Sivle is dead, but that doesn’t stop a guy named Maxwell (Mickey Rourke) from trying to kill the Courier. Why? It’s all part of the mystery, I guess.

The Courier is eventually captured and tortured by a pair of married assassins, Mr. Capo (Miguel Ferrer) and Mrs. Capo (Lili Taylor). But being the best there is, the Courier escapes from their clutches to continue his quest to find Evil Sivle.

To confuse matters even more, it turns out that the man who forced the Courier to take this job is really an FBI agent. It seems the FBI are the ones who want Evil Sivle found. Why? I wish I could tell you.

In the end, the Courier proves he’s the best by finding the reclusive Evil Sivle, whose identity is revealed in one of the more ridiculous plot twists I’ve seen in a long time.

Hands down, the biggest problem I have with THE COURIER is its story stinks. It plays like a movie that started with a clever concept—a courier who gets involved with a seedy underworld full of undesirables—but couldn’t come up with a decent storyline that made any sense. And that’s the bottom line with this one, folks. It doesn’t make sense.

The Courier is forced to take this job, and it’s questionable why he would accept the job when the threat— we’ll abduct your best friend’s daughter and her child—hasn’t even happened yet. I just didn’t buy the plot point that a guy like the Courier would simply roll over and do what these guys wanted. He would have fought back. He accepts their terms way too easily.

Then there’s Evil Sivle. Nice name, but just who the hell is he? Why is he so sought after? The film never really makes its case that this guy is a legendary villain, someone the FBI would kill for just to find.

Other characters aren’t fleshed out either. The FBI agent who coerces the Courier in the first place disappears half way through the film. And Maxwell, played by Mickey Rourke in a wasted role, shows up so fleetingly that his presence in the movie is nothing more than an afterthought.

And the final plot twist is embarrassingly bad. Screenwriters Pete Dris and Brannon Coombs should have gone back to the shop with this one for a long time before calling it a final product.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, so memorable as the Comedian in WATCHMEN doesn’t impress here as the Courier. Perhaps for his next role he’ll consider a character whose name doesn’t begin with “the.” His performance as the Courier simply lacks the necessary intensity needed for the character. I didn’t really buy him in this role. He seemed too clunky to be the efficient swift-footed Courier.

Mickey Rourke is on screen so briefly as Maxwell I almost forgot he was in the movie. I did enjoy Miguel Ferrer and Lili Taylor as Mr. and Mrs. Capo, the torture couple, but they’re not in the movie much either. The other actor who stood out was Mark Margolis as Stitch. Margolis has been in a lot of movies and TV shows and always adds a sense of realism to the proceedings. His Stitch was a convincing guy in a movie full of unconvincing characters and plot points.

THE COURIER does have some interesting ideas and some curious characters, but they’re never developed to any degree of satisfaction.

Director Hany Abu-Assad seems to have handled this one with an eye on something else. It’s as if he were driving while texting or something. The action scenes, fight scenes, shoot- out scenes, all seemed rushed. None of it comes off as convincing because there isn’t much attention given to detail here. In fact, there’s something rushed about this whole production, including the script. Perhaps they were trying to make a same-day delivery.

Anyway, THE COURIER is a disappointing thriller that is too muddled to be effective. It’s about as intense as a trip to the post office.

It gets one knife.

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Michael Arruda gives THE COURIER ~ one knife!

DEADFALL (2012)

Posted in 2012, Action Movies, Cop Movies, Crime Films, Fugitives with tags Charlie Hunnam, Crime drama, Deadfall, Eric Bana, Olivia Wilde on December 11, 2012 by knifefighter

DEADFALL (2012)
Movie Review by L.L. Soares

The new heist thriller, DEADFALL, is currently playing in limited release in cities throughout America, and going in, I was wondering why it didn’t have a wider release.

In it, Eric Bana is a guy named Addison. And as the movie begins, Addison is in a getaway car with his partner and his sister, Liza (Olivia Wilde) in the back seat. Liza is counting the money they got from a bank heist they just pulled off, when they have a car accident, flipping them off the road and into the snowy embankment below.

Addison’s partner, the driver, is killed immediately, but he is able to get out. As he’s struggling to free his sister, who is strapped in with her seatbelt, a cop shows up to investigate. Addison is afraid the man will arrest them, so he shoots him in cold blood. Addison and Liza then split up the money. He tells her to go out onto the highway and get a ride. He’ll plod on through the snowy woods, and they’ll get in touch later on, when he calls her on his cell phone. Then they’ll get across the Canadian border together.

But the thing is, it’s winter: the temperature is dropping below freezing, and there’s a blizzard on its way.

Liza finds someone to pick her up right away, an ex-con named Jay (Charlie Hunnam) who is on his way to his parents’ house for Thanksgiving dinner. He’s an ex-boxer who got involved in some shady business with the mob to get a shot at a title bout. Or something like that. Not only was he in prison, but he has been estranged from his father (Kris Kristofferson) for years. So it’s probably going to be an uncomfortable holiday. Oh, and Jay is also on the run from the cops after he clobbered his former manager and left him for dead.

Meanwhile, the local cops are on Addison’s trail. Led by Sheriff Becker (Treat Williams, who plays the role as a real ball-buster), the squad includes his daughter, Hanna (Kate Mara) who wants to join the FBI, and just passed the exam, but she’s been paying her dues on the local police force in the meantime, being treated like crap by her dad, who clearly wanted a son.

Hanna is friends with Jay’s parents, and they invited her to Thanksgiving dinner, since her only family is her ogre of a father. And of course, Jay’s parents’ house is in the same direction Addison is headed, as he evades police and racks up more bodies. And Jay and Liza are headed there as well, leading to a great big scene where all of the main characters are sitting around the table, preparing to eat the goose that Daddy shot.

The cast is pretty good here. I’ve liked Bana since the Australian prison movie, CHOPPER (2000), where he played the vicious killer, Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read. You might also remember him as the first Bruce Banner in a feature film, playing the role in Ang Lee’s HULK (2003), before Edward Norton or Mark Ruffalo got to take turns with the role. He was also very good in Steven Spielberg’s MUNICH (2005). And he’s good here, and believable as a cold-blooded killer, even if his accent is a bit uneven at times.

Olivia Wild is good here as well, as Liza. You might recognize her from movies like TURISTAS (2006), TRON: LEGACY (2010) and, more recently, COWBOYS & ALIENS (2011) and THE CHANGE-UP (also 2011). She’s sexy and vulnerable and often effective here as well.

Charlie Hunnam as Jay is also really good here. He’s best known as playing Jax on the FX biker series, THE SONS OF ANARCHY.

Another highlight is Sissy Spacek as Jay’s mom. She’s tough and smart and one of the better characters in the film. Kris Kristofferson, an actor I’ve always admired, is pretty much stuck in a thankless role here as a bitter, stoic old man. There’s not much for him to do except sit around brooding.

Kate Mara is good as Hanna, and I almost thought they were going for a kind of younger version of Frances McDormand’s character from the Coen Brothers’ FARGO (1996), except without the Minnesota accent, but the truth is, Hanna isn’t as developed as she could be. We know her father treats her awful. We know she’s a good person. That’s about it. And Treat Williams is pretty much one-note as her sheriff father, but it’s not like he has a lot to work with, either. He does what he can with an underwritten role.

So how is DEADFALL? Well, despite the solid cast I mentioned, it’s sadly not very compelling. Along with the bland title, it’s also got a pretty generic script. We’ve seen this kind of thing before, many times, and done better. Fugitive-on-the-run movies are a dime a dozen, and DEADFALL doesn’t do a whole helluva lot to stand out among the rest. And suddenly I realized why this movie is in limited release. Because, despite the talented people involved, it’s not all that memorable.

Director Stefan Ruzowitzky does a serviceable job. He previously directed the German films ANATOMY (2000) and THE COUNTERFEITERS (2007), but it’s hard to determine how talented he is based on DEADFALL, since screenwriter Zach Dean’s cliché-ridden script leaves a lot to be desired. Despite good performances, there’s nothing all that original about these characters, or the plot. And frankly, I was a little bored at times, especially in the middle. Not a good sign for an action/heist movie. The big finale at Jay’s parents house is good, but not good enough to make DEADFALL something special.

I give DEADFALL, two and a half knives. Wait for it to come to Netflix or cable. It’s not horrible, but it’s also not worth the price of a movie ticket.

LL Soares gives DEADFALL~ two and a half knives

THE TOWN

Posted in 2010, Action Movies, Crime Films, John Harvey Reviews with tags bank robbers, Ben Affleck, Charlestown, Chuck Hogan, Crime drama, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall, Titus Welliver on September 27, 2010 by knifefighter

THE TOWN Offers Cliché Buoyed By Great Acting and Good Action
Review by John Harvey

I’m putting THE TOWN down as one of the ten good-to-great movies that Ben Affleck needs to make before I’ll forgive him for SUM OF ALL FEARS (2002). Marking his second effort as a director (the first being GONE BABY GONE (2007)), Affleck now brings us a gritty crime drama set in blue-collar Charlestown, Mass.

Affleck also takes a leading role in this film as Doug MacRay, the brains behind a proficient and prolific gang of bank robbers doing the bidding of the local Irish mob boss, Fergus ‘Fergie’ Colm (Pete Postlethwaite). Backing him up on these jobs is James “Jem” Coughlin (Jeremy Renner stealing every scene he’s in) and two additional thugs who hardly matter except to fill out the gang (Slaine and Owen Burke).

Affleck’s Doug is matched to Claire (Rebecca Hall), a bank manager who is taken hostage in the film’s opening bank robbery thrill ride, and then released unharmed. He subsequently seeks her out to make sure she doesn’t know anything that can identify them, and falls for her while never revealing that his gang traumatized her. What follows is the story of Doug struggling to reconcile the love of his life with his criminal career.

There’s not a lot here that we haven’t seen before. Sweet, doe-eyed Claire, who loves to garden and work with underprivileged children, represents the life that Doug wants but can’t have because of the gravitational forces of his upbringing. Doug is the sensitive yet street-tough hoodlum who wants and deserves a different life. Predictably, Doug decides to do that ‘one last job’ and then escape with Claire.

Of course, it’s never that simple. The FBI, led by agents Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm) and Dino Ciampa (Titus Welliver), are closing in on the gang, quickly and ruthlessly. It doesn’t help that his closest friend and partner-in-crime, Jem, is a career criminal who is addicted to robbery and violence. Jem knows he can never leave Charlestown, and strongly believes that Doug should follow suit.

What saves THE TOWN from the mixed morass of crime drama tropes is the acting and writing. Ranging from the cameos (including Postlethwaite and Chris Cooper playing Doug’s jail-bound father) to the major roles, there isn’t a single bad performance in this film.

Affleck, whose acting ability varies wildly, settles into this role with a natural grace. Perhaps it helps that he wrote the script (along with Peter Craig and Aaron Stockard), which was adapted from Chuck Hogan’s novel, PRINCE OF THIEVES (2004). Renner’s performance is spot-on and riveting every moment that he’s on screen. That said, now that he’s played an intense sociopath in both this film and THE HURT LOCKER (2008), he may want to look at other kinds of characters in future projects. Rebecca Hall’s Claire, while performed well, comes off a little flat. This isn’t her fault so much as the fact that she’s been given the role of damsel-in-distress within a male-dominated crime movie.

It’s also worth noting that Boston, and specifically Charlestown, could be credited as another leading actor in this film. Affleck (who is from Cambridge, Mass.) did a great job of capturing Boston’s look and feel. He also used the city’s winding, narrow streets to great advantage during some exciting chase and action scenes. For Boston natives, you can breathe a sigh of relief regarding the often-overdone local accents. In THE TOWN, they get the accents right.

While THE TOWN has several suspenseful action sequences, it would be wrong to categorize it solely as an action film, or even a thriller. It’s a rare kind of film (in the same vein as THE DEPARTED (2006) and HEAT (1995)), in that it certainly is a genre flick, but it’s written for adults who like some substance with their flash. THE TOWN also goes another step toward proving that GONE BABY GONE was not a fluke. When it comes to directing, Affleck has some chops.

Directed by: Ben Affleck
Written by: Peter Craig, Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard|
Starring: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner
Rating: R
Run Time: 2hr 3min‎‎

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Archive for Crime drama

Screaming Streaming Hires THE COURIER (2012)

DEADFALL (2012)

THE TOWN

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