Lone Survivor (2013)

I realized before watching Lone Survivor is that the title itself is a spoiler.  Even without being familiar with the real events this was based on or reading Marcus Luttrell's book about his experience, all you have to do is look at the title to know how it's going to turn out.  It kind of a downer when the title saps some of the suspense of a film.  Imagine if The Sixth Sense had been alternatively titled He's a Ghost?

Lone Survivor is the true story of Operation Red Wings in Afghanistan.  Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg) is part of a four-man Navy Seal team, the remainder played by Ben Foster, Taylor Kitsch and Emile Hirsch, on a mission to capture a Taliban leader.  While staking out the small village where he's hiding, a trio of goat herders, including two boys, happens upon them.  They have to make a difficult choice: let them go and hope they can get to safety before the Taliban finds them, or kill them and complete their mission.  They decide to uphold the rules of engagement and take their chances.  For the record, I voted for killing them, but I'm a murderous, cyborg psychopath.

Of course the Taliban catches up to them, and from there it becomes fight for survival.  A punishing, white-knuckle fight for survival.

Lone Survivor is just brutal at times.  This is not a glamorous film about war.  The amount of bodily abuse these guys take is superhuman.  It helps that the film begins with a montage of SEAL training.  When you see how grueling it is, it's easier to understand how these soldiers can keep going while taking so much punishment.  It's what they were trained for.

Their fight is unrelenting, and it's a little heartbreaking knowing in advance how it's going to turn out. This kind of leads into my only real issue with Lone Survivor.  We don't get to know the individuals very well. Writer/director Peter Berg decided to focus more on the action and overall heroism than any type of character moments. There are a few small details here and there, but we know almost nothing about them otherwise.  In fact, I struggled to recall anyone's name by the end.  We care because they are our soldiers and we want to see them survive, but not because of any emotional investment we have with them.  As the film is a tribute to these soldiers, I would have liked to know more about them personally.

Despite not getting to know the team, there is a clear sense of brotherhood and how much they care about each other.  Team is made up of a very strong cast that makes it a little easier to connect with them.  While Wahlberg is the star, I don't want to single anyone out as it kind of takes away from the sacrifice they collectively made.  It didn't take too long before I stopped seeing them as Marky Mark, Warren Worthington, the kid from The Girl Next Door and Tim Riggins, and just saw them as soldiers.  And of course no military-themed Peter Berg film would be complete without a Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) sighting.

The overall intensity of the action makes it easy to overlook these flaws.  Once the firefight begins, you'll be on the edge of your seat until the conclusion.  With the way the action was shot, there are many moments where you feel immersed in it.  I'm kicking myself for not seeing this in RPX as the sound was fantastic.  There are rattling explosions that made me jump in my seat a few times.  Nothing beats the throaty, metallic sound of the sniper rifle either.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it was an MK 12 (had to look it up).  A better sound system in the theatre would have really made this sing.

Sure, you might come out of it a little, "Rah, rah, USA," but what's wrong with that?  I'm sure that's a little bit of what Peter Berg was going for, but it's not over the top.  I didn't watch Lone Survivor and feel like it was a recruitment film or shoving politics in your face.  It's pretty neutral as far as that goes, and is more about the mission and the the sacrifice of the soldiers.

While Lone Survivor is a brutal war movie, it's also a powerful tribute to the courage and resilience of these soldiers.  If this wasn't based on a true story, it would be easier to watch this as simply a very good action film, but knowing the sacrifice behind it adds a solemn feeling.  Definitely worth a watch though and one of the more realistic films about war I've seen in a while.

4 (out of 5) Death Stars

Closed Circuit (2013)

I was disappointed to find out that Closed Circuit is not the conclusion to the Short Circuit series.  I was really waiting on that.  Oh well...

A bomb goes off in a busy London market.  The police have their suspect and two lawyers, Martin Rose (Eric Bana) and Claudia Simmons-Howe (Rebecca Hall), are brought in to represent him.  Because this is a very high-profile case and there are many classified sources, two different hearings are being held to determine what evidence can be used.  Martin and Claudia are not to contact each other, and Claudia is overseen by an MI5 agent to make sure she handles all the information correctly.  Having no familiarity with British courtroom proceedings, this seemed overly elaborate and confusing.  If that's how it's done over there, then I guess I just have to go with it.

Martin and Claudia continue to investigate and realize they are being spied on.  Eventually, they learn the prime suspect may have actually been an MI5 agent, and the government is willing to do anything to cover this fact up.

As the story continues to escalate and it's clear their lives are in danger, Closed Circuit manages to have no urgency or tension.  Even as Martin and Claudia are being chased and people attempt to kill them, I never felt like they were in any real danger.  It's presented in a very dull and matter-of-fact way.  Director John Crowley might has well have been filming a documentary or something that got shown on the History Channel's off hours.

Another big issue with Closed Circuit is how dry it is.  When introduced to Martin and Claudia, we're explicitly told they had a romantic past.  This had to be told because there's absolutely no chemistry between them.  It's not just them though, everyone in the film felt like a robot: sexless, passionless, and humorless. Johnny 5 had more personality.  It's unfortunate because there were a ton of places where Steven Knight's screenplay could have been punched up to make this funny, or at least human.  I'm not saying it should have been a comedy, but you could have added humor and not lost any of the dramatic/thriller elements.  In fact, it would have made those elements have more impact because there'd be some personality to sink your teeth into, and make you care about what's going on.  Instead the focus is on all the details, and those details just aren't that interesting.

Closed Circuit is well acted though, and Rebecca Hall and Eric Bana give very workman-like performances.  Nobody stands out as weak, and everyone does their jobs, even if it felt like many were just going through the motions.  One standout was Jim Broadbent's performance.  That guy makes everything better, but he couldn't save this.

Finally, just as the film feels like it's picking up and we're getting some answers, it totally fizzles out.  I was left saying to myself, "What even happened?"  What was the film trying to say?  The government is watching you?  That they're willing to do anything to cover up something that will make them look bad?  Is that news to anyone, especially these days?

Closed Circuit is a well-acted thriller that unfortunately contains no real thrills, and is very dry and boring.  The lack of any kind of chemistry or personality makes it hard to care about anything that happens in the film.  I think I would have liked this film if it had actually been about robots.  This is a hard one to recommend, and can only advise you to save it for streaming or cable.

2 (out of 5) Death Stars

Deadfall (2012) - Movie Review

A getaway after a robbery goes wrong.  Oh but wait, there's snow!

After a casino heist, siblings Addison (Eric Bana) and Liza (Olivia Wilde) get into an accident while making their getaway.  Even though they are in the middle of a snowstorm, they decide to split up (always a good idea) and reconnect later.  I've always wondered, why split up, if the goal is to meet up later?  Aren't you increasing the chances that one of you is caught or that something will go wrong?  Anyway, as this is going on, ex-con Jay (Charlie Hunnam) is headed home, but also runs into difficulty along the way.  Paths cross in the movie Deadfall, which could have been renamed Amazing Coincidences.

Yes, amazing coincidences are key in this movie directed by Stephan Ruzowitzky.  This wouldn't have been so bad, if Zack Dean's script wasn't also so cliched and predictable.  It's disappointing because it actually had an interesting beginning, and there are moments here and there where you think it might do something different, but there weren't any twists or surprises.  As a result, there is no suspense at all.  The mistakes made by the characters are so obvious or telegraphed that I had a hard time believing they were capable of robbing a casino in the first place. As the movie opens, Liza is counting a pile of money in the back seat of a car.  They all thought this was a good idea?  To have money out in the open of your getaway car.  Then both the driver and Addison turn around to talk to Liza in the middle of a snow storm, and you can't help but think someone should be keeping there eyes on the road.  WHAM!  A deer hits the windshield and the car flips.  Stuff like this continues throughout the film.

Even the supporting characters had my rolling my eyes.  We're introduced to the local sheriff (Treat Williams), and he was a bad, sexist stereotype.  He refuses to give a female officer an assignment, and you think it's because he's trying to keep her down, but then you find out she's his daughter (Kate Mara).  So then you might think he's being protective, right?  Nope, he continues to berate her throughout the film for being a screw-up (despite her passing an FBI entrance exam), and you get the feeling the real issue is that he wishes he had son instead of a daughter.  It's an awful character that I have a hard time understanding why he was written this way, since it wasn't essential at all to the plot.  Oh, and the kicker is that he ends up shooting his daughter on accident.  Idiot.

It's really not even an issue with the performances, as we're working with a good cast, but it's more how the characters were written.  Addison is initially portrayed as a criminal that appears to have a code, but then his character takes a turn at the end that makes him completely unlikable.  Plus, they appeared to throw in some implied incest angle between the two of them that wasn't fully explored, but just added to the creep factor.  I really like Eric Bana, and I think he tried to do the best with what he was given.  I also liked Olivia Wilde for a change.  Normally she seems to get these smaller roles where she's wasted, but I actually thought she got a chance to act a little and show some charisma that I'm not used to seeing from her.  I didn't mind Charlie Hunnam's performance either, but I found his voice kind of distracting.  I thought it might have been because he was doing an American accent, so I looked it up and sure enough, he's from the UK.

The two people I thought were wasted here were Sissy Spacek and Kris Kristofferson as Jay's parents.  I wished the movie had focused on them and their relationship with Jay more.  They try to setup a overly complex relationship between them, but it all just kind of gets glossed over in favor of the main story.  Jay, a former boxer, was trained by his father, who's also a retired sheriff. They had a falling out after Jay blamed him for only getting the silver medal in the Beijing Olympics. Also, it's never really clear why Jay was in prison.  Something about him throwing a fight, but I'm not sure why he was in prison for that.  Do you see what I mean here about it being needlessly complex?

Speaking of unnecessary, the movie features two sex scenes between the same characters only about five minutes apart.  The first one does something that's kind of a pet peeve of mine in that you have two attractive, fit people having sex with their clothes on.  When you consider that Jay just got out of jail and this is the first action he's gotten in a while, you'd think he would've been tearing clothes off to see a woman naked.  The movie seemed to recognize this mistake, too, as in the second sex scene, they are both nude.  So, why not just edit out the first scene then?  It just kind of struck me as odd.  I'm sure they figured it was a tough sell to convince us these two connected emotionally in just 24 hours, so they just show them having sex again, because sex means they are in love.

Deadfall is a tepid thriller full of cliched characters and a telegraphed ending that provides no impact or satisfaction.  It's a nice looking film and the performances are fine, but the story is all over the place.  This one has 'wait for cable' written all over it.

2 (out of 5) Death Stars