In Transit

I recently made my way to, and then across, the Iberian Peninsula. While the eleven travel days in the middle were my primary objective, the travel to and fro gave me some time to pick from an excellent assortment of in-flight fare. Here, then, is an accounting of how I used my time. These aren’t full reviews, just quick impressions.

Taken B
The Doc has already written a review that I’d mainly echo. The action, wants it starts, comes quick and deadly. Liam Neeson is better than I expected in the straight-forward fight scenes. The action sequences are expertly shot with minimal reliance on the slap-dash camera movements to give the impression of speed and violence that have dominated the genre of late. It’s nice to see a mindless action film turn the light on the human traffic trade.


Frost/Nixon B+
Previously reviewed here. Ron Howard shows his limitations as well as his strengths in this retelling of talk show host/party boy Frost’s decision to take on, and take down, Richard Nixon just months after his resignation. Through a series of four, 90 minute interviews set-up to allow Nixon to defend his legacy, Frost is initially pummeled before winning in the final interview by giving Nixon the opportunity to say exactly what he wanted to say all along—that he was above the law. Indubitably Howard hoped we’ll see parallels between Nixon and Bush administration, but he wussed out if he was trying to make that point, and, without it, the film has an “interesting, but so what?” air hanging about. That said, the acting is all first rate and the build-up of suspense for the final interview is well-done, if borrowing heavily from 1992’s A Few Good Men, with Nixon in the role Nicholson made famous.

Pride and Glory B-
While it sports a solid cast (Ed Norton, Colin Ferrell, Jon Voight, Noah Emmerich), this is another retread of the family police drama, with a dad that faithfully walked the beat and sons that have wound up on both sides of the law (in this case, the bad son is son-in-law Ferrell). Norton and Ferrell both turn in solid performances, with Voight and Emmerich doing fine, but there’s absolutely nothing here that hasn’t already been done better on NYPD Blue. Oops, I'd forgotten, but Lawyer reviewed this in the theatre.

Valkyrie B
Again, Doc has already been here. I fell asleep during the second half, but I’ve subsequently Redbox’ed it. This one is better than feared if not particularly memorable. Cruise’s character seems awfully brazen in this retelling and a tad too self-aggrandizing. Still, the story is a fascinating one. I was aware that a number of Hitler’s general’s were hung by piano wire after a failed coup, but I knew nothing of the particulars. There’s nothing compelling about the acting, remarkable considering the pedigree of some of the players but the film is never less than interesting, either. Unfortunately, the buzz on the film and Tom Cruise killed this six months before it dropped.

Killshot
I watched half of this, then turned it off for Frost/Nixon, but not before noting 1) how surprisingly unwatchable Joseph Gordon-Levitt was (loved him in The Lookout), 2) Rosario Dawson was WASTED, as was Diane Lane, 3) Mickey Rourke was doing his best, and 4) Rourke’s character would have aerated Gordon-Levitt’s cranium two minutes after he entered the real estate office. Still, the biggest problem, As Doc’s review points out, is that there’s no one here to care about or root for.