Sicario (2015)

Has anyone been watching Narcos on Netflix lately? If so, Sicario will fit right in with all the talk of cartels and hitmen on that show. Sicario feels like a distant, spiritual sequel to Narcos.

Sicario starts off with a bang, literally, and never lets up on the tension. It's so tense that I realized towards the end that I was actually sweating in my seat a little bit. There's a sense of dread that permeates the film. This is accentuated by the haunting soundtrack. I couldn't help but feel that something awful was going to happen at any moment. In a lot of ways, especially with the body count, it's a horror film. It's scarier than most modern horror films anyway.

It's super dark, complex and plays with moral and legal ambiguity. Sicario toys with you. Until I realized Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners) directed, I thought I was watching a David Fincher movie. He certainly seems on a similar career path as Fincher.

The cinematography is beautiful as well. There are multiple shots where you're just following these guys speed through the border and Juarez, and it's oddly hypnotic. Then, there's some of the best use of heat and night vision I've ever seen in a movie. I don't play a lot of first person shooters, but someone should make a video game out of this if it doesn't already exist.

The cast is great and you'd have a hard time finding better performances from Josh Brolin, Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro. I was hoping for a little more Full Metal Bitch from Blunt, but she plays a little more vulnerable here. Still, she gives a great performance. Del Toro just kills it though. From the moment he shows up on screen, you know there's something up with him. I'd love a sequel just to see what he's up to after the events of Sicario.

Sicario is one of the best movies of the year and one of the most intense movies I've seen in a long time. It really sticks with you, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I can't recommend it highly enough. Put it on the top of your list of things to see in the theater. I can't think of anything wrong with it, so you know that means...

5 (out of 5) Death Stars

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Fresh faced Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is excited to start his first job on Wall Street.  He quickly learns how devastating the stock market can swing when Black Monday hits and finds himself out of a job.  Struggling to find a new gig, he comes across a small operation where he learns you can make a lot more money selling worthless penny stocks to unsuspecting investors.  He founds his firm, Stratton Oakmont, with Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill) and a small group of friends, and quickly grows it into a hugely successful company making millions of dollars.

Stratton Oakmont reminded me of the chop shop firm from Boiler Room, and it turns out both films were inspired by Jordan Belfort, who I didn't realize was a real person until I learned that The Wolf of Wall Street was based off his memoirs.  My only criticism of the story, albeit a small one, is that much of what you see here isn't exactly breaking any new ground.  Besides Boiler Room, plenty of other films have generally portrayed stockbrokers as immoral, prostitute-loving cokeheads, or put their greed on display.  

The difference with The Wolf of Wall Street is all this hedonism is turned up to the max.  These guys spend money and party like nobody you've ever seen.  When Belfort details his drug habits, you wonder how he hasn't dropped dead already.  You know how when you go to a party and ask the host if you need to bring a six pack or bag of chips?  Jordan Belfort would demand you bring a kilo of cocaine, a busload of hookers, or a bowl of Quaaludes.  These are the party favors at a Stratton Oakmont party.  The parties DiCaprio's Gatsby threw don't hold a candle to the excess of a DiCaprio/Belfort party.

These guys were completely out of control, but that was the point Martin Scorsese was trying to make.  It's an unapologetic spotlight on their behavior.  It may shock or disgust you, and none of them appear to any conscience at all.  They don't care that they're ripping people off.  Contrast that with Boiler Room, where Giovanni Ribisi faces a moral dilemma once he realizes what he's doing is wrong, and even tries to make amends.  I'm sorry I keep bringing up Boiler Room, but seriously though, check it out if you haven't yet.

There's no ambiguity here.  It's clear from the opening moments that Belfort and rest of his crew aren't meant to be sympathetic.  They are constantly driven to amass more wealth and upgrade anything they can in their lives, even their wives.  Hell, the early part of this film could have been called "How I Divorced Your Mother", as Belfort's first wife is played by HIMYM's Cristin Milioti.  Although I can't say I blame Belfort when you meet his new wife, Naomi (Margot Robbie).  This is first time I've seen Margot Robbie in anything, but keep an eye out for her in the future.  If anything, she's another name I'm adding to the long list of Australian actresses I want to marry.

There's no redemption for anyone during the film, and I wonder what the real Jordan Belfort has learned from all of this.  The fact that he wrote these stories and didn't paint himself in the best light would make me think he at least feels a little bad about he did.  Despite the deplorable behavior and decadence, The Wolf is still amusing.  Part of you might even wish you could attend one of these parties just for the experience and stories.  It understandable to want a little taste of what they have.  It's also very funny.  There's one Quaalude fueled sequence that's as zany as anything I've seen in a recent comedy.  The dialog in Terence Winter's script is very sharp.  You'll be surprised when you realize that The Wolf of Wall Street is three hours long, as it goes by like a drunken blur.

The performances, of course, are outstanding.  People have wondered for years when Leonardo DiCaprio would get nominated for an Oscar, and I think this is finally his year.  He's had deeper or more dramatic roles, but this is easily his most lively and amusing.  The Wolf is definitely my favorite performance of his.  He'll likely be competing with his co-star, Matthew McConaughey, whose fans may be disappointed to hear he's not in the movie that much.  McConaughey's character establishes the tone for the film though, as well as sets Belfort up with the rules that he eventually adopts as his lifestyle.

I thought Jonah Hill was extremely funny and I would argue this is a better performance than the one he got nominated for in Moneyball.  I wouldn't be surprised to see another supporting nomination for him.  Rob Reiner was a total scene stealer as Belfort's Dad, and he was a welcome sight on the big screen again.  Besides Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, Jon Bernthal, and Jean Dujardin all stand out as part of the supporting cast.  I got a kick out of some of the characters that made up the rest of Belfort's team, and even Jon Favreau has a small role.  There isn't a weak performance in the bunch.

A word of warning, while I've never really taken issue with nudity in a film, The Wolf of Wall Street has more nudity in it than any film I can remember outside of an actual porn.  This also has to be up there with the most amount of f-bombs dropped, as well.  I have to imagine this flirted with an NC-17 rating, and if so, I really want to see the Director's Cut.

The Wolf of Wall Street may not be Martin Scorsese's best film, but it's definitely one of his most humorous and entertaining.  The energy and craziness is intoxicating.  Like many of Scorsese's films, it's one you'll watch and enjoy again and again, but don't expect to ever catch this while channel surfing on some rainy afternoon.

5 (out of 5) Death Stars

Snitch (2013) - Movie Review

Well, at least it's not another The Tooth Fairy...

Don't worry, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's latest movie Snitch isn't some cheesy family movie.  Snitch is actually much closer to what I envisioned for The Rock when he first moved from wrestling to doing movies.  While a little smarter than you might expect, Snitch is far from being a great action film.  In fact, I really can't this a much of an action flick at all.  If you go into this expecting a action packed film filled with car chases and gun play, you're going to be really disappointed.  This is the first of at least four Dwayne Johnson movies coming out this year, so hopefully one of these will hit.  The guy deserves it.

It's another movie based on 'true events', and many of you know how I cringe whenever I see that in the opening credits.  Johnson plays John Matthews, the owner of a construction company.  Matthews' son, Jason (Rafi Gavron), is busted for accepting a box of drugs shipped by his friend.  Unfortunately for Jason, it's a large enough amount that it's considered intent to distribute.  Due to tougher mandatory minimum sentencing, he's going away for 10 years if convicted.  The whole thing is basically a setup to get first time offenders and lower level people to rat out others in up the ladder in exchange for reduced sentencing.  The problem for Jason is that his friend already snitched on him, leaving nobody for him to rat out.  John doesn't want to see his son rot away in prison for what his family believes was just a dumb mistake, so he makes a deal with a local politician (Susan Sarandon) to go undercover and help bring some drug dealers down.

Now, I had to look it up, and I guess you could say the "based on true events" part relates to that there are very strict minimum sentencing laws, even for first time offenders.  The funny thing is that there's actually a scene of The Rock looking this stuff up on Wikipedia.  It's if they're saying, "Don't worry, we actually did our research."  Or maybe they are daring us to look into it ourselves.  I did see that one of the criticisms of the minimum sentencing is that it takes the power away from the judges, not allowing them to issue sentences on a case by case basis.  I thought one of the themes of Snitch was how unfair this all seemed to be.  Jason didn't have any priors, and you can't help but wonder why they throw the book at him, when you can see that he wasn't a drug trafficker.

Sarandon's character (I don't recall her being mentioned by name, but The Rock would say, "It doesn't matter what your name is!") believes in the minimum laws, regardless of the situation.  She sees John's willingness to go undercover as a no risk play for her to get more drug dealers off the street and help her re-election.  Even the law enforcement agent (Barry Pepper) they are working with thinks she may be going too far in risking a citizen's life and family.  You start to wonder who the real bad guy is.  That's where I thought Snitch had a little more going for it than just a simple crime drama.  The issue with the story by Justin Haythe and Ric Roman Waugh (who also directed) was that it only scratches the surface of some of these underlying themes.  The movie could have taken more of a stronger stance or showed more of the behind-the-scenes political motivations, but it's not that deep.

The main problem with Waugh's direction is that he really drags the film out, where if it had gone deeper into some of these themes, you wouldn't have noticed the length as it would have been more compelling overall.  When a movie is this long (almost two hours), you hope there's going to be a good payoff at the end, but that's where Snitch really falls apart.  While the action picks up, it devolves into a big car chase with explosions and cars flipping everywhere.  It doesn't help the Matthews' plan had too many parts with a very small margin for error for it to have possibly worked.  It all ties up a little too neatly.

Plus, and this is one of the same issues I had with Identity Thief, is it normal for law enforcement agents and politicians to sign off on letting private citizens take the law into their own hands or go undercover on their behalf?  You look at John Matthews and he looks like a guy that can handle himself, but that doesn't mean he has the training needed to survive. Aren't they opening themselves up to huge liability if things go wrong?

Another issue I had was the use of too much handheld camera work, even in regular scenes.  There's a simple meeting that happens in the film and the camera just jittery and jumping around all the place for no reason.  I shouldn't get motion sickness watching people talk.

Ever since The Rundown, I've been waiting for Dwayne Johnson to have that hit that puts him up there with the likes of Stallone and Schwarzenegger, but it just hasn't worked out that way yet.  The irony is that he's a better actor than either of them, has just as much charisma, and is infinitely more articulate. I also hear he's a pretty good cook, too.  Johnson stretches a bit out of his comfort zone and gets a chance to show some emotional range here.  It's definitely his most serious work so far. Another thing that stands out about him is, well, how much he stands out.  He really is a beast compared to the average guy. Even when he casually walks around he looks like he can knock down a wall if he's not careful.

The rest of the supporting cast does a good job.  Barry Pepper looks like he's auditioning for a role in Justified, and I think he'd fit in pretty well actually.  Susan Sarandon is always a welcome sight on screen, who automatically adds class and hotness to anything she's in.  Now that Shane is dead on The Walking Dead (spoiler!), Jon Bernthal gets to play an ex-con that introduces The Rock to Omar Little from The Wire (Michael Kenneth Williams).  Bernthal and Williams get a decent amount screen time, but again, it seems like there was more to their characters hinted at by the story, but not delved into enough.

Snitch has a few good things going for it, mainly Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and a smarter than expected setup, but in the end it's undercut by a plodding pace and tonally inconsistent ending.  It's a shame because there was some potential here for it to be a much better film, and a few tweaks here and there would have made this above average.  Snitch is ultimately a very average, and somewhat forgettable, film that will make for a good rental in a few months.

2.5 (out of 5) Death Stars