A FILM REVIEW OF "A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD" (2013)

Before I saw “A Good Day to Die Hard,” I remembered “Die Hard 2: Die Harder” as my least favorite film in the Bruce Willis franchise. Now, “Max Payne” director John Moore’s “A Good Day to Die Hard” (** OUT OF ****) has acquired that dubious distinction.  This fast-paced, but formulaic, 98-minute actioneer should have gone the straight to video route.  Nobody would have missed it.  I’ve seen better Bruce Willis epics go the straight to video route.  Although it boasts some sensational, larger-than-life stunts, the fourth “Die Hard” sequel qualifies as a Spartan saga with little to distinguish from its straight t0 video competition.  The film generates little charisma and lacks a strong villain like previous “Die Hards.”  Indeed, it appears that Twentieth Century Fox has inserted the Bruce Willis/John McClane hero into a raw-edged, generic thriller about a tense father and son relationship.  Unlike the first two “Die Hard” movies, the action doesn’t occur at Christmas, and McClane isn’t confined to one setting as he was in the first two “Die Hards.”  “A Good Day to Die Hard” is more like “Die Hard with a Vengeance” and “Live Free or Die Hard” since the hero remains at large.

“A Good Day to Die Hard” takes place almost entirely in Moscow.  The Russian villains are former political allies who are prepared to kill each other.  Chaganin (Sergey Kolesnikov of “Cold Souls”) is a clean-shaven, natty, high-ranking politician with influence galore.  The other is a wealthy bearded dissident, Komarov (Sebastian Koch of “Unknown”), who bides his time in jail playing chess.  Ultimately, one of these villains wants what the villains in “The Expendables 2” wanted: weapons grade uranium.  As Detective Lieutenant John McClane, Bruce Willis returns in fine form to thwart the evil villains.  Sadly, scenarist Skip Woods doesn’t give Willis any clever wisecracks.  Consequently, for lack of anything better to utter, Bruce says, “I’m on vacation,” at intervals.  Ironically, he isn't on vacation.  He does utter his personal motto once when he pulls his biggest stunt to save his son’s life.  He performs feats of derring-do to assist his estranged son.  Basically, Bruce is the whole show.  The only other actor you may recognize is Cole Hauser.  Cast as the expendable CIA partner, Hauser gets caught in the cross-fire.  The remainder of the cast is largely unknown.  Jai Courtney resembles Sam Worthington of “Avatar” fame, but he radiates little of Worthington’s charm.

Our indestructible hero, Detective John McClane, is shooting targets on the NYPD firing range when he learns that his son Junior (Jai Courtney of “Jack Reacher”) has been imprisoned in Russia.  What the elder McClane doesn’t learn until later is John McClane, Jr., works as a spook for the Central Intelligence Agency.  Naturally, McClane flies off for Moscow after an obligatory moment with his daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead of “Live Free or Die Hard”), with whom he remains on good terms.  The last time we saw Lucy, she was struggling with the villains in “Live Free or Die Hard.” Aside from Winstead reprising her role, there is little here to associate with the franchise.  When our heroes get a quiet moment to reminisce, they mumble forgettable dialogue. They are better off blasting away at the opposition or dodging both bullets and explosions.  McClane still has a thing or two that he can teach his son, but their relationship doesn’t advance very far.  They lack camaraderie, and Junior is one of those sons who could die and not be missed.

Everybody is after the elusive Komarov who claims to have an incriminating file on the wicked Chaganin.  You see, Chaganin is campaigning for the position of Defense Minister.  Komarov had a deal with the CIA, specifically Agent John McClane, Jr., before everything went chaotic.  Chaganin will do anything to dispose of Komarov, and he dispatches a gang of gunsels led by Alik (Rasha Bukvic of “Taken”) who hates Americans.  The younger McClane shoots his way into prison and then during a raid on the courthouse, Komarov and he get together.  John confronts them, and Junior puts a pistol in his face.  No, he isn’t happy to see his father.  Meantime, Alik and company are breathing down Junior’s neck.  A demolition-derby automotive chase ensues with some spectacularly orchestrated car crashes.  Junior and Komarov are desperately struggling to elude Alik, while John tags along close behind trying to run interference when he has the chance.  As it turns out, Komarov hasn’t been entirely honest with Junior about the mysterious file he has on Chaganin.  Eventually, we learn that Komarov has a daughter with her own pistol and an attitude.  The Komarovs betray our heroes and grab a helicopter.  They are bound for the sinister ruins of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant when Komarov has stashed the file.

Sadly, the villains in “A Good Day to Die Hard” aren’t memorable.  Nobody here is both as deadly and debonair as Alan Rickman was in the original “Die Hard” or Jeremy Irons in “Die Hard with a Vengeance.”  After father and son reconcile themselves somewhat, the best they can do is dodge more bullets and hope for the best.  At one point, after surviving several close scrapes, McClane scrambles aboard the villains helicopter and commandeers a vehicle stashed inside the chopper.  The villains are about to riddle yet another office building with machine gun fire where Junior is hiding.  Our stalwart hero cranks up the vehicle inside and drives it out of the cargo bay.  This action tilts the helicopter backwards at a precipitous angle so its machine guns miss their intended target.  This destruction of the helicopter qualifies as the best of the fireball explosions in “A Good Day to Die Hard.”

“Swordfish” scenarist Skip Woods doesn’t give us a lot to get attached to in this installment.  The surprises aren’t very surprising, and the filmmakers struggle to do anything that hasn’t been done before, like blowing up the above-mentioned helicopter.  No matter when you see it, “A Good Day to Die Hard” has nothing good about it.

FILM REVIEW OF ''ABOVE THE LAW" (1988)

Steven Seagal looks emaciated in director Andrew Davis’ hard boiled crime thriller “Above the Law,” (*** out of ****) co-starring skull-faced Hollywood heavy Henry Silva as a knife-wielding psycho.  Reportedly, Seagal broke into the film business because one of his students, the highly respected Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz, made it happen. “Above the Law” qualifies as a formulaic law and order epic about narcotics smuggling and an assassination attempt on an incorruptible U.S. Senator.  Most of the action takes place in Chicago with Seagal defeating the loathesome villains with his usual brand of aggressive tenacity.  Seagal uses Aikiko on them when he isn’t swapping lead. The title refers to nobody being immune from justice.  Ironically, Davis emphasizes this point with newsreel footage of U.S. President Richard Nixon quoting Abraham Lincoln on the subject. Remember Nixon was the Republican who resigned in disgrace over the Watergate Scandal.  The Andrew Davis & Steven Seagal screenplay features more autobiographical material about the martial arts star than any of his other epics.  Indeed, “Above the Law” provides a glimpse of Seagal as a youngster with several genuine pictures of the actor.  Composer David Michael Frank betrays the late 1980s origins of “Above the Love” with his cheesy B-movie score.  Nothing surprising occurs as our stalwart hero tackles the villains with a vengeance.  The villains are merciless dastards, but Nico cuts them little slack.  As it turns out, the CIA has ties with organized crime. 

Making his motion picture debut, Seagal casts himself as an Italian-American born in Palermo, Italy, who immigrated to America at age seven.  He saw a martial arts demonstration at a baseball game later on when he was a teenager. Company agent Nelson Fox (Chelcie Ross of “Major League”) initially recruited Nicolo ‘Nico’ Toscani into the CIA. Before the Agency approached him at an Embassy function in Tokyo, Nico had studied and taught martial arts in Japan.  Our naïve protagonist totes an M-16 along the border of Vietnam and Cambodia on assist and observe missions. He witnesses some things that he should haven’t seen.  “Above the Law” gets off to a good start as Nico encounters Colonel Kurt Zagon (Henry Silva of “The Hills Run Red”) as the latter is interrogating a native in the jungle.  Somebody, it seems, has been tampering with Zagon’s opium.  Our hero doesn't understand what any of this has to do with acquiring intelligence about the enemy. Nico and Zagon clash, setting up expectations for a gory finale about an hour later.  

The action shifts years later to contemporary Chicago.  Toscani has a wife Sara (Sharon Stone of “Basic Instinct”), and they have just attended the communion of their first child  Giuliano.  Nico’s pals on the force laugh about him for having more relatives under federal indictment than any other cop in Chicago.  When he isn’t patrolling the streets, Detective Sergeant Tosconi takes care of personal business relating to the disappearance of his attractive young niece.  Seagal’s first cinematic fight takes place in a bar as he is searching for her.  Even the bartender knows what to expect when Nico enters.  “This ain’t nothing but trouble coming in my place tonight,” he observes with dread.  Nico gets a tip from the low-life, Alex (Christopher Peditto), who was getting his niece hopped up on drugs.  Alex doesn't want to go to jail so he babbles about a hooker and a cocaine lawyer setting up a deal.  Nico slaps him around enough until he provides a name.  Nico is the kind of cop who isn’t above breaking the rules.  He eavesdrops via a wiretap on a conversation between a couple of Columbians. He gets wind of a shipment arriving in an engine block at the Fulton Meat Market. Later, at the market, the Feds blow the case for them and Nico chases the villains in their car on foot.  He throws himself in front of their Lincoln and tumbles across the hood and atop the roof.  After they blow some holes in the roof, Nico smashes a passenger window and clamps a hand onto Tony Salvano, one of the lawyers.  This is a reasonably suspenseful scene.  Nico is shown spread-eagle clinging to the roof of the Lincoln while the driver swerves in an effort to dislodge him.  Eventually, the driver obeys his boss and pulls over. Afterward, Nico and his buddy Detective Lukich (Ron Dean of "Code of Silence") take apart the engine block.  Instead of narcotics, they discover several packages of C-4 explosives.  The Feds arrest Tony Salvano, but they let him off the hook because he is a government snitch.

  

After FBI agent Neeley releases Salvano and his driver, they check out St. Mary’s Church where Nico has attended.  While they are in the church, , Father Gennaro (Joe V. Greco) introduces Nico and Jackson to Father Tomasino and his refugees who are hiding in the basement of the church.  The next time Nico shows up for church, a bomb goes off.  The Father delivers a message about knowing the truth.  “Our leaders tell us and talk to us about them and us.  But almighty God talks to us about all mankind as one.  Now, we have an obligation to find out what is the truth.  We need to study.  We need to question.  We need to read and we need to find out what they are doing in our name.  And we must support those brave souls who seek the truth.”  Not long after the sermon, a woman departs the sanctuary.  Nico spots a suspicious sack moments before it explodes and kills Father Gennaro.  Later, Nico discovers that the blast was meant for Father Tomasino.  The blast kills Father Gennaro.  After the explosion, a carload of thugs tries to assault Nico and he shows them his stuff.

Afterward, the Feds come down hard on Nico and persuade the Chicago Police Department to suspend him.  He surrenders his gun and badge.  This doesn’t prevent Nico from carrying out his own investigation.  Nico meets Fox on a skyscraper.  We learn that Zagon has a four thousand acre ranch in Costa Rica.  Zagon wanted Senator Ernst Harrison assassinated because he was going to expose their plans to invade Nicaragua using cocaine money.  As it turns out, Father Tomasino learned about it while in Nicaragua and Zagon fears that he may have told the senator.  Zagon doesn’t want to kill the senator is word has been leaked about it.  Nelson holds Nico at gunpoint about the same time that Zagon and his cronies arrive in an underground garage.  A gunfight erupts and the bartender kills Nelson who slides Nico his gun.  More shots are fired and Salvano is hit.  Nico backs a car into Salvano and runs the car half out of the high rise parking lot so Salvano plunges onto the elevated railway and is electrocuted to death.  Zagon and his thugs pursue Nico in another car.  They run Nico down, pick up him, and prepare to torture him. Nico surprises them, breaks through his restraints, and devastating them.  He kills two with a shotgun and breaks Zagon’s arm when he threatens him with a knife.  Afterward. He snaps Zagon’s neck.  Later, Senator Harrison drops by Nico’s house and thanks him.  Apparently, Nico appears before Congress as “Above the Law” concludes with his testimony.  “Gentlemen, whenever you have a group of individuals who are beyond any investigation who can manipulate the press, judges, members of our Congress, you’re always gonna have within our government those who are above the law.”

FILM REVIEW OF ''SAFE HOUSE" (2012)

Swedish director Daniel Espinosa’s predictable spy versus spy saga “Safe House” (**1/2 out of ****) resembles “The Bourne Identity” in several respects. The chief difference is Denzel Washington doesn’t play an amnesiac “Bourne” again hero. Instead, he is a rogue CIA agent at large who tops Langley’s most wanted list who remembers everything rotten about the Agency. Like the superb“Bourne” thrillers, this nimble actioneer concerns corrupt CIA superiors who want Denzel dead because he has damaging information about them. Mind you, this isn’t the first time the CIA has been depicted as crooked. Watergate era thrillers such as “Three Days of the Condor” and “Scorpio” deployed that plot back in the early 1970s. Of course, the Agency isn’t entirely corrupt, only some powerful individuals at the top. When freshman scribe David Guggenheim isn’t muddling up things with multiple layers of mystery, Espinosa does his best to captivate us with brief, brutal, and breathless combat scenes that rival the “Bourne” franchise. Lenser Oliver Wood enhances this violence with the same jittery camerawork that he used in the three “Bourne” movies. Three-fourths of “Safehouse” bristles with miscreants either shooting to kill or wielding their fists like cudgels. If you get in the way of these dastards, you die! Any movie where Denzel snaps a guy’s neck like celery and abandons his corpse in a toilet stall isn’t designed to market action hero figures. Indeed, nothing about either Denzel or the tenacious thugs blasting away at his heels is frivolous. “The Green Lantern’s” Ryan Reynolds co-stars as a character roughly similar to the one that actor Ethan Hawke played opposite Denzel in “Training Day.” “Safe House” emerges as one of those male mentoring melodramas where an older guy grooms a younger guy for the grimy world of espionage and corruption.

The Central Intelligence Agency has been trying to nab the elusive Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington of “American Gangster”) for nine years since he quit their ranks. When he shows up at a rendezvous with a shifty British Intelligence agent, Frost’s enemies miss him, but obliterate the MI6 man’s skull. A desperate Frost scrambles for the sanctuary of the American Consulate where the authorities immediately take him into custody. Meanwhile, Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is a naive, straight-arrow CIA operative itching for the opportunity to prove his mettle. Instead, Langley has relegated Matt to serve as a glorified custodian for one of their safe houses. Twelve months later Matt is still waiting impatiently for a posting as a field agent. Trouble is he lacks the experience that would make him eligible. Life in Cape Town, South Africa, where Matt is stationed as a ‘housekeeper’ bores him to tears. Despite friendly reassurances from his immediate superior David Barlow (Brendan Gleeson of “The General”), Matt feels like he is stuck in a dead-end assignment. When he isn’t supervising the CIA safe house, Matt cavorts with a gorgeous French gal, Ana (Nora Arnezeder of “Paris 36”), and fills her ears with lies about his work.

After CIA Deputy Director Harlan Whitford (Sam Sheppard of “Black Hawk Down”) learns about Frost’s capture, he transfers the treasonous Frost to Cape Town for safekeeping. Frost’s unexpected arrival at Matt’s safe house catches our hero by surprise. He watches with obvious misgivings as a group of ruthless CIA agents, led by Daniel Kiefer (Robert Patrick of “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”), subject Frost to some grueling water-board torture. As it turns out, Washington didn’t use a stand-in for the torture scenes. Anyway, Kiefer’s men get nowhere with Frost. Suddenly, another gang of gunmen burst in with guns blazing. They aren't in the mood to take prisoners. Things don’t look promising for Matt who is supposed to shield Frost. Frost reminds Matt that the killers want him alive, but they won’t display any charity toward Matt. Impulsively, Matt ushers Front at gun point from the safe house. The two men form an uneasy alliance as they struggle to stay one step ahead of adamant adversaries. Gradually, Matt learns what a CIA agent has to look forward to in his line of work. Frost plays along with Matt as they hide out from the gunmen. Gradually, the renegade agent lulls the rookie into a false sense of security before he catches him off guard. When they venture out into public, Frost alerts the police that Matt is armed and dangerous. The Cape Town cops seize Matt while Frost vanishes into thin air. Not surprisingly, Matt’s superiors in Washington react with rage. Not only does Whitford put Matt’s boss Barlow on a plane to South Africa, but he also has a snooty, suspicious associate, Catherine Linklater (Vera Farmiga of “The Departed”), accompany him. Catherine strongly suspects that Frost has turned Matt. When Matt calls Whitford to explain what happened, Whitford orders him to stand down. Nevertheless, Matt sets out to recapture Frost. Our hero isn’t prepared for what he learns about either Frost or his CIA honchos.

“Safe House” benefits from on-location lensing in Cape Town. Everything appears genuinely gritty and none of it looks familiar. This isn’t the kind of spy thriller that boasts exotic locations, desirable dames, and cool gadgets. Espinosa, Guggenheim, and Washington—who doubles as one of the executive producers—are gunning for realism, and they achieve it. The close quarters combat scenes will have you searching for bruises on yourself. Sadly, the surprises that occur throughout “Safe House” aren’t revelations, and the ending seems straight out of “Three Days of the Condor.” If you’ve seen "Hanna," "Red," "Salt,” "Knight and Day" or “Haywire,” you know what comes next at every turn. “Safe House” isn’t as good as some of Denzel’s earlier films, and he generates little sympathy with his martyred shades-of-gray character. Poor Vera Farmiga plays the most thankless role in the action, while Brendan Gleeson and Sam Sheppard turn in sturdy performances. On the other hand, Ryan Reynolds delivers the strongest performance and emerges as a contender. “Safe House” is best watched as a rental.