FILM REVIEW OF ''THE 15:17 TO PARIS" (2018)

The terrorist thriller “The 15:17 to Paris” (*** OUT OF ****) recreates the chaos aboard the Amsterdam-to-Paris train on 21 August 2015, when three American tourists foiled an armed and dangerous fanatic from killing more 500 unsuspecting passengers.  Anybody else but director Clint Eastwood would have turned this ruckus into the equivalent of “Saving Private Ryan” on rails.  Instead, the director of “American Sniper” and “Sully” has adopted an entirely different tactic.  Not only has he cast the ‘real-life heroes’ who saved the day as themselves, but he has also lensed it with a documentary like realism to underline the credibility of the incident.  Indeed, those ‘real-life heroes’ (Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler, and Spencer Stone) play themselves.  Mind you, none of them will take home Oscars, but casting them gives “The 15:17 to Paris” a verisimilitude that would be sorely missing.  Furthermore, the American-born Frenchman Mark Moogalian, who initially disarmed Ayoub El-Khazzani before the terrorist plugged him in the back, played himself, too!  Critics have argued that 87-year old Eastwood has wrought a routine, perhaps even a tedious tale that spends too much time leading up to the headline heroics.  They have complained the casting the ‘real-life heroes’ deprives the film of the gravitas that seasoned actors might have generated with their charisma. 

Too many critics have scorned the brilliant simplicity of Eastwood’s approach and misunderstood his commentary about heroism that has little to do with ersatz Hollywood heroics.  Ironically, despite their training, these tourists—two of whom are servicemen—were average nobodies.  The audacity and bravery that they displayed during a moment of crisis when everything could have gone horribly wrong makes them doubly heroic.  Eastwood seems to be saying that being at the right place at the right time under the right conditions can make anybody into a hero.  Spencer Stone stands out among the three because everything that prepared him for this date with destiny is shown from the time that he was a juvenile waging paintball war games with his buddies.  Eastwood and first-time scenarist Dorothy Blyskal do a splendid job of foreshadowing the action, the only flaw is their decision to treat Ayoub El-Khazzani as a flat, one-dimensional terrorist without a backstory.  Nevertheless, the filmmakers haven’t vilified him as a Satanic architect of malevolence and the scourge of humanity.  Presumably, had “The 15:17 to Paris” been more of a melodramatic exercise in fire and fury like “Saving Private Ryan” on a train, the film might have garnered the filmmakers’ greater accolades.

“The 15:17 to Paris” occurs in flashbacks interspersed with glimpses of ISIS extremist Ayoub El-Khazzani boarding the train, suiting up in a restroom, and then embarking on a murderous shooting spree.  Meantime, Eastwood and Blyskal show how the two white kids—Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos—crossed paths with African-American student Anthony Sadler at their local Christian High School in Sacramento, California.  Sadler was leaving the office of Principal Michael Akers (Thomas Lennon of “Night at the Museum”) for disciplinary reasons.  No sooner had they met Sadler than Akers warned them to avoid him because he constituted a bad influence.  Alek and Spencer were facing disciplinary action themselves for loitering at their lockers after the bell had rung.  A hall monitor demanded to see their hall passes and then sent them to Akers.  Not long after their initial encounter with Sadler, Alek and Spencer find themselves in trouble again with Akers.  Spencer and Alek would forge lifelong friendship with Sadler out of the crucible of school disobedience.  Ostensibly, the plot focuses primarily on Spencer after Alex leaves Sacramento to live with his estranged father in Oregon.  The action jumps ahead after they graduate from high school.  Eventually, Spencer sets out to join the ranks of the U.S. Air Force’s elite Para-Rescue. Unfortunately, Spencer’s lack of depth perception disqualifies him.  He has no better luck with the Air Force’s SERE (survival, evasion, resistance, and escape) Program.  Similarly, he fares no better training to be an EMT.  Meantime, taciturn Alek has joined the Oregon National Guard.  He serves in Afghanistan, finds it rather monotonous, and compares himself to a mall cop.  Alek’s scenes make “The 15:17 to Paris” look like a companion piece to Eastwood’s exemplary combat epic “American Sniper” (2014) about real-life Navy S.E.A.L. shooter Chris Kyle. Eventually, the three guys reunite and head off on a backpacking trip of European capitals.  Impatient audiences may grow restless with this laid-back hike that takes our heroes from Venice, Italy, to Germany, Amsterdam, and then Paris.  At one point, while they are sightseeing in Venice, Spencer confides in Sadler, “You ever just feel like life is just pushing us towards something?”  What you don’t notice is the sly way that Clint Eastwood has set audiences up for what ensues on the train.  Spencer subdued the lone gunman not only because he had mastered jiu-jitsu, but he also saved wounded Frenchman Mark Moogalian’s life because of his training as an EMT.  Eastwood deliberately gives the scenes from the lives of our heroes a casual nonchalance before he plunges them into the actual fracas aboard the train. 

As actors, Stone, Sadler, and Skarlatos leave something to be desired, but they don’t bump into each other or blow their lines.  Since they aren’t professionals, they seem self-conscious about their body language and dialogue.  No, this isn’t the first time Hollywood has resorted to real McCoys.  World War II hero Audie Murphy reenacted his Medal of Honor exploits in “To Hell and Back” in 1955.  Sports celebrities have portrayed themselves, such as Bronx bomber Babe Ruth in “The Pride of the Yankees” (1942) as well as African-American ballplayer Jackie Robinson in “The Jackie Robinson Story” (1950). Real-life Marine Staff Sergeant Lee Emery became a popular character actor after he appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket.”  Likewise, genuine Navy SEALS portrayed themselves in “Act of Valor” (2012).  Altogether, Eastwood stages a gripping reenactment of the autobiographical events depicted in Jeffrey E. Stern’s 2016 factual bestseller “The 15:17 to Paris.”

FILM REVIEW OF ''POINT BREAK" (2015)

Sometimes, the best thing a remake can do is remind you how inspired the original was.  Kathryn Bigelow’s rambunctious FBI procedural crime thriller “Point Break” (1991) followed a rookie G-man as he investigated a dauntless quartet of bank robbers on a crime spree that sported latex masks of past presidents.  Zesty dialogue, dynamic performances, striking surfing footage, and slam-bang shoot-outs propelled this invigorating film through its formula.  “Invincible” director Ericson Core, who started out as a cinematographer on actioneers like “The Fast and the Furious,” “Daredevil,” and “Payback,” has helmed a remake every bit as adrenaline-laced as Bigelow’s vintage venture.  Indeed, Core and veteran second unit director Mic Rodgers have staged stupendous stunts galore that are ten-times more electrifying than those Bigelow came up for in her tense Los Angeles based beach saga.  Comparatively, Core and “Law Abiding Citizen” scenarist Kurt Wimmer have shown the good sense to expand their remake beyond the confines of Los Angeles and set it in a larger-than-life, international arena.  Furthermore, the feisty villains in the remake hail from different countries just as their audacious felonies occur in picturesque parts of Italy, Germany, Hawaii, Switzerland, Venezuela, and French Polynesia.  If you cannot getaway to these exotic locales, “Point Break” (**1/2 OUT OF ****) is the closest thing you’ll get beyond an atmospheric National Geographic documentary.  The second best thing that this remake does is deliver realistic, death-defying, style stunts that will have you cringing in fear or clutching the armrests of your seat with white-knuckled fists.  

Extreme sports junkie Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey of “The November Man”) and his best friend, Jeff (Max Thieriot of “Jumper”), have embarked on a freestyle motocross in the rugged Arizona desert.  They straddle their dirt bikes with reckless but nimble abandon along the spine of a treacherous mosaic of knolls while a helicopter shoots video of their suicidal shenanigans.  The montage of these daredevils careening toward the end of the spine and then leaping their bikes like Evel Knievel across a gap to skid to a stop atop a towering monolith of rock the size of a small helipad is harrowing.  Unfortunately, Jeff skids too far, cannot recover, and plunges to his death from the mountain-top.  Jeff’s demise thoroughly devastates Johnny.  Johnny quits, goes back to school, and then graduates from law school.  Seven years later, our hero enters the FBI and finishes the obstacle course at Quantico as if it were a picnic.  Nevertheless, Johnny’s boss, Instructor Hall (Delroy Lindo of “Malcolm X”), isn’t sure Utah will fit in as an FBI agent after he completes probationary period. 

Meanwhile, an eccentric gang of thieves that has been ripping off millions from companies around the globe with ties to American conglomerates has the Bureau stymied.  This intrepid quartet storms the tenth floor of an African diamond company with their bikes and clean sweeps a fortune in jewels.  Afterward, they launch their bikes from the tenth floor and deploy parachutes as they descend.  These fearless Robin Hood robbers surprise the unsuspecting poverty-stricken natives of Mumbai and shower them with a million dollars worth of diamonds.  Later, these thieves raid a cargo plane in flight and release two giant pallets of paper currency in the skies above Mexico.  A blizzard of paper descends onto more unsuspecting but ecstatic natives.  The FBI is hopelessly baffled by both robberies.  Johnny Utah barges into Hall’s office and argues that the felons are extreme athletes.  According to our hero, these criminals are trying to complete a gauntlet of ‘Ordeals’ set up by an environmentalist-guru, Ozaki Ono, who died before he could finish them himself.  As it turns out, the ring leader of the gang, Bodhi (Édgar Ramírez of “The Bourne Ultimatum”), was the man who was with Ono when Ono died.  Roach (Clemens Schick of “Casino Royale”), Chowder (Tobias Santelmann of “Hercules”), and Grommet (Matias Varela of “Easy Money”) are in cahoots with Bodhi.  Hall sends Utah to scrutinize these guys with veteran FBI agent Pappas (Ray Winstone of “The Gunman”) supervising him.  

Johnny manages to infiltrate the gang after he nearly drowns during a surfing accident.  The same thing happened to the Keanu Reeves character in the original.  Instead of the gang’s moll saving his life, Bodhi rescues him.  Our rookie FBI agent is clearly impressed by Bodhi and classifies him as a Zen warrior in search of Nirvana.  Predictably, Utah’s sympathetic attitude puts him at odds with his cynical superiors.  Our protagonist accompanies Bodhi’ bunch on an ‘Ordeal’ where they don flying suits and glide through a craggy mountain pass as if they were acrobatic squirrels on aerial maneuvers.  The camaraderie between heroic Luke Bracey and villainous Édgar Ramírez isn’t as compelling as it was between Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze in Bigelow’s earlier film.  Bodhi surprises Utah because he isn’t interested in keeping the loot as much as giving it to the less fortunate.  Utah struggles to convince the Bureau that Bodhi and his cronies consider themselves crusaders rather than criminals.  Furthermore, they indulge in their insane antics to see when they will reach ‘point break’ where their fear will make them cowards.

Altogether, the new “Point Break” is only half as good as its superior predecessor.  The chief problem is that Core bogs the story down in the eight ‘Ordeals’ that Bodhi and his crew must perform.  Literally, the stunts overshadow the story!  Unfortunately, the movie degenerates into a surfeit of sensational looking Guinness Book of World Records stunts.  Core sacrifices any sense of narrative cohesion because he repeatedly puts the plot on pause to indulge in the aerobatics.  Eventually, the new “Point Break” reaches its own point break, and you find yourself wishing that the filmmakers would stop delaying the inevitable finale.  The last bank heist delivers a genuine surprise as our hero imperils himself to capture the villain, but by then “Point Break” has worn out its welcome.  Although it doesn’t surpass the original “Point Break,” this energetic remake will keep you poised on the edge of your seat.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE WORDS" (2012)

 "TRON: Legacy" writers Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal have written and directed their first film together about the controversial issue of plagiarism. "The Words" (** OUT OF ****) qualifies as an initially provocative but ultimately anti-climatic melodrama about purloined prose. This loquacious, 96-minute, PG-13-rated film shuns physical action so it shares little in common with the traditional end-of-the-summer blockbusters. You won't find any careening car chases, white-knuckled fistfights, and sensational shoot-outs in this contemplative morality play. The first half of "The Words" is deliciously audacious, but Klugman and Sternthal undercut everything  afterward with a devastating revelation. The main characters that Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Irons incarnate aren't real people! Instead, Cooper and Irons embody nobody characters in a story that another character has created. After this stunning surprise, "The Words" unravels as a second-rate story-within-a-story. Basically, this is a soap opera about another soap opera with losers who have struggled against formidable odds to fail miserably. Mind you, the tragic characters that Cooper and Irons portray are sympathetic in several respects. Nevertheless, the resolution to their conflict lacks dramatic impact. After our protagonist admits that he has appropriated another man's words, nothing happens that truly tops his confession that he ripped off another man’s verbiage. Ironically, the real author never receives credit because too many other people would suffer undue hardship. Meantime, the actual author who created these woebegone characters—played by Dennis Quaid--emerges as far less complicated than his own characters. Had Klugman and Sternthal jettisoned the framing device of a narrator, this could have been a better film.  The problem that the two filmmakers never deal with satisfactorily is the overwhelming inertia of their narrative.  This is a very dull movie about characters that don’t have a shred of charisma. "The Words" boasts solid performances by an attractive cast featuring John Hannah, Olivia Wilde, J.K. Simmons, Ron Rifkin, Michael McKean, Zoë Saldana, and Liz Stauber.

Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper of “The A-Team”) dreams about writing the great American novel.  The problem is that he is living on next to nothing in New York City and his genius had taken him nowhere. Rory persuades his reluctant father (J.K. Simmons of “Contraband”) to foot his bills while he forges his literature.  This movie should have been released on Father’s Day, because Simmons plays a father who is worth his salt. Eventually, Rory is called into an agent’s office. The agent commends him for writing a wonderful novel, but he describes Rory’s book as too “interior.” Rory decides to take a job at a publishing house where he supervises the distribution of mail and manuscripts to agents.  One day Rory pulls out a frayed leather satchel that his wife, Dora (Zoë Saldana of “Avatar”), brought for him from a Parisian antique shop after they had visited Ernst Hemingway’s apartment.  Years later, Rory discovers an anonymous manuscript on yellowed typing paper in a concealed compartment of the satchel.  He reads it and admires what he peruses.  

 Essentially, the novel is a melodramatic tearjerker set in Europe about an American soldier (Ben Barnes of “Dorian Gray”) and a French waitress Celia (Nora Arnezeder of “Safe House”) who fall in love near the end of World War II.  The man who penned it was living in Paris, and he entrusted the manuscript to his girlfriend.  Unfortunately, she left it accidentally behind in a storage compartment aboard her seat on the train.  The author never recovered his manuscript until he read the story published under Rory’s name.  Naturally, Rory is floored by this revelation.  Consider Rory’s defense.  He read the novel and felt that if he could transcribe it to his computer that he might catch the magic of the author’s prose so that it might improve his own writing.  Rory doesn’t change so much as a single mark of punctuation.  He hands it to an agent at the publishing house, Joseph Cutler (Zeljko Ivanek of “The Bourne Legacy”), and Cutler loves it.  The novel proves to be a sensational bestseller.  One day while he is spending time alone in Central Park, Rory meets the elderly gentleman who wrote the manuscript.  Imagine Rory’s shock at being busted for plagiarism. The old man (Jeremy Irons of “Die Hard with a Vengeance”) tells Rory everything that he remembers about his story.  The shock sets in, and Rory finds himself trapped in a minefield of moral repercussions. Rory is no villain, and he is fully prepared to expose himself for the plagiarist that he is, but everybody advises him against making any foolish decisions that may jeopardize his career!  During all this rigmarole, Rory and Dora squabble because she feels that he has not been truthful to her.

After the third act, “The Words” coasts gently without surprise to its lackluster finale.  The last part of the action concerns bestselling author, Clay Hammond (Dennis Quaid of “Footloose”), once he concludes his public appearance where he read selections from his novel “The Words” about Rory’s plight.  Clay’s agent Richard Ford (John Hannah of “Four Weddings and the Funeral”) introduces him to a Columbia graduate school, Daniella (Olivia Wilde of “Cowboys and Aliens”), who wants to interview him.  She demands to know more than Ford has shared with anybody about Rory’s fate.  By this time, fatigue has set in and “The Words” concludes feebly with neither striking insights nor spiraling revelations.