A Most Wanted Man Makes Me Miss Philip Seymour Hoffman

When it comes to spy thrillers, John le Carre knows what he’s doing.  His enormously popular series The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been made into two film trilogies and a successful British TV series.  Fewer people noticed another film adapted from one of his novels which came out last year after the death of its lead actor.  A Most Wanted Man starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Defoe, and Robin Wright details covert anti-terrorism operations in post 9/11 Hamburg, Germany.  Hoffman plays covert agent Gunther Bachmann who heads a small, government run, technically illegal group of operatives whose mission is to locate, contact, and turn lower to mid-level individuals with ties to terrorist organizations operating inside Germany.  Specializing in Islamic terrorism, Bachmann has been spending years trying to ensnare a local millionaire philanthropist named Dr. Abdullah whom he suspects has been funneling legal money through his legitimate charities to Al Qaeda.  After the recent arrival of Issa Karpov, an Islamic Chechen national with ties to Russia, Bachmann sees an opportunity to not only entrap Abdullah, but perhaps use him to gain access to the real threat; the terrorist leaders he is funneling money to.  That is if the local German authorities and CIA reps don’t get to him first.  While the film has its exciting moments, its strength is in its subtleties.  The characters are all attempting to stay hidden from the authorities and while Bachmann is trying to secure Abdullah as an asset, he is also trying to look out for Karpov who is seemingly innocent and caught up in this mess because of his Russian mafia connected father.  The dialogue and cinematography reflect the espionage in that everything feels subtle, quiet, and in the shadows – just where Bachmann’s team operates.  Performances by Rachel McAdams and Philip Seymour Hoffman are stunning and while Defoe’s portrayal of the banker is good, it takes a backseat to the other stellar performances.  In the end, your adrenaline is rushing and your hope is high for the success of an operation which has taken years to put together and is so near completion.  All the chess pieces are necessary and in play as the finale approaches and it is one that leaves you both wide eyed and confused whilst leaving you to exhale as the credits roll. 

Kingsman: The Secret Service Was Surprisingly Great

When I first saw the preview for Kingsman: The Secret Service I had 0 desire to see it.  First off, it appeared to be a kid’s movie.  Secondly, it seemed like it would be full of awkward, cringe inducing one liners, something I absolutely despise.  However, after a friend recommended it to me I figured I’d give it a go and I was pleasantly surprised.  The movie was fantastic.  First off, it was rated R so any aspect of “kid movie” went out the window after copious amounts of the F word and the superfluously violent fight scenes.  Add that to that Samuel L. Jackson as the flamboyant billionaire super villain with a lisp, alongside the always suave James Bond-esque Colin Firth as head agent Galahad and you’ve got the formula for a great movie. 

Beginning with a failed mission in the Middle East in which an agent in training sacrifices himself for his compatriots including Firth, we find the man had a young son at home.  Galahad returns and offers the boy a Kingsman medal with a number and tells him if he ever needs anything to call the number and give the code word.  Years later, the young man nicknamed Eggsy finds himself in some trouble and calls the number.  Gallahad reaches out and informs him of the Kingsman, a private secret agency tasked with saving the world from its threats free of the influence of world governments.  Eggsy begins his training alongside other candidates to replace the recently deceased Lancelot who was killed on a recent mission investigating billionaire Richmond Valentine (Jackson).  As Valentine’s plot becomes clear, a conspiracy begins to unravel as Eggsy must use his training to help the Kingsman take down Valentine.

The film was beyond entertaining and surprisingly thought out.  We get enough background on the history of the Kingsman to appreciate the organization and answer our questions (i.e. who are they, where did they come from, what’s their deal?)  The action sequences are wonderfully choreographed and when combined with a veritable smorgasbord of weapons and gadgets make for some intensely awesome fight scenes.  The training of the new agents is also fantastic as the young men and women are put into death defying situations in which they must react in real time adding an adrenaline inducing excitement to each task.  The humor is perfect as well.  Subtle enough to not be too in your face and cliché but over the top at just the right times; Samuel L. Jackson is superb.  Overall, the film was immensely entertaining and something I would most certainly watch again.  It felt like a mash up of James Bond, Harry Potter, and Kill Bill with sup

er cool spy gadgets and copious amounts of obscenities.  What could be better than that?

As Above So Below Has Surprisingly Original Story

I’ve been on a total horror movie kick lately but as is the case with your average 90 minute fright flick, they are typically easily forgettable.  That being said, I was actually excited to see John Erick Dowdle’s As Above So Below strictly on the basis that its concept was unique.  The movie focuses on amateur alchemist Scarlett Marlowe as she continues the work of her deceased father scouring the globe for clues to the location of the mythical Philosophers Stone.  After obtaining a key whilst searching in Iran, she is led to the catacombs beneath Paris.  Along with a cameraman named Benji and her former lover George, the three ask around and find a guide who will take them beneath the city into the maze of tunnels that make up Paris’ underground.  I didn’t know what to expect when watching in that I wasn’t sure what exactly the “horror” element would be.  I wasn’t sure if the danger would be the tunnels themselves or some sort of supernatural/creature type threat.  In the end, it was kind of a combination which was both good and bad.  I enjoyed it because it kept you guessing.  You weren’t ever quite sure why you were freaked out, you just knew that you were inching closer to the edge of your seat (something any decent horror movie should induce).  The converse is that it can be confusing at times as you struggle to find out what exactly it is you should be afraid of.  After becoming trapped underground, the team is eventually confronted with the choice to either wait for rescue or go through a tunnel which their guide Papillon says is the gate to hell.  Which do you think they choose?  I enjoyed the story of the search for the alchemist’s stone and thought it was a unique way to approach the idea of doing a horror movie centered on the Paris catacombs.  The location is so iconic that the obvious route to go is either A: a group of students get lost and die of B: a group of students get lost and uncover an ancient group of subterranean creatures hungry for human flesh.  As such it was nice to see the film go a different route.  The acting, while subpar is fresh in that the actors are relatively unknown adding to the “found footage” style immensely.  Found footage films almost never work with mainstream actors because duh, you know who you’re watching!  In the end, of the 15+ horror films I’ve watching in the last month, As Above So Below stands out for its original storytelling and surprising ending but I won’t go in to that, you’ll have to watch for yourself.

Lucy is Neither Science Fiction or Memorable

When I first saw the trailer for Lucy starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman I wasn’t too intrigued.  It seemed to be an interesting concept but one that would surely fall into the forgettable, 90 minute Hollywood “sci-fi” film category with films like Apollo 18 and Chronicle.  Then I found out it was directed by Luc Besson, the visionary directory who gave the world The Professional one of the greatest films of all time in this bloggers book.  I had to give it a try.  Going in with an open mind, I was surprised to find the film accelerate from 0-60 in no time at all.  After a random and unexplained opening scene the viewer is dropped right into the middle of a nefarious drug smuggling operation controlled by an unnamed organization of Asian mobsters.  Not what you were expecting right? Me neither.  Scarlett Johansson’s character Lucy is put in a situation in which she ends up ingesting a new mysterious drug she is supposed to be transporting.  Naturally, this has significant side effects including allowing her to, drumroll…..use 100% of her brain capacity as seen in the trailers.  Morgan Freeman’s random scientist character has almost no significant role whatsoever and serves as more of a narrator.  Someone who is describing what’s happening in a way that allows the viewer to kind of understand what’s transpiring.  The film felt very chaotic.  Jumping from one thing to the next in a series of violent random outbursts as Lucy attempts to secure more of the drug that is fueling her existential evolution while also trying to take down the mobsters who put her in this situation.  While certain moments were exciting, nothing jumped out as particularly memorable and to call the film science fiction is one hell of a stretch.  More focus on the science and less on the car chases would have worked to the films advantage but as I expected, the end product tries to be more of a Hollywood action flick than a thought provoking sci-fi film.  Mr. Besson, what were you thinking?? I should have gone with my initial instinct instead of sitting through a 93 minute cross between Taken and Limitless.  Thanks but no thanks.