A FILM REVIEW OF "BULLET TO THE HEAD" (2013)

Watching the Sylvester Stallone shoot’em up “Bullet to the Head” (**** OUT OF ****) felt like a blast from the past.  This polished but predictable anthology of action movie clichés contains several R-rated, close-quarters, combat scenes with sufficient amounts of blood splatter and gore; some high-octane, fireball explosions; lots of snappy tough guy banter; and surprising displays of frontal female nudity.  Half the scenes reminded me of producer Joel Silver’s explosive, slam-bang, white-knuckled, testosterone-laden tales, such as “Conspiracy Theory,” “Exit Wounds, “Swordfish,” and his “Lethal Weapon” franchise.  Indeed, Silver serves as one of the producers, and “Bullet to the Head” adheres to his formula.  Meanwhile, action auteur Walter Hill drew the other half from his hardboiled melodramas.  For the record, Hill helmed the two “48 Hrs” flicks with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, “Extreme Prejudice” with Nick Nolte, “Last Man Standing” with Bruce Willis, and “Red Heat” co-starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Belushi.  Although “The Messenger” scenarist Alessandro Camon adapted the Alexis Nolent graphic novel "Du plomb dans la tête,” “Bullet to the Head” looks like “48 Hrs” and/or “Red Heat” clone.  Mind you, “Bullet to the Head” is Hill’s first theatrical release since his gritty 2002 prison melodrama “Undisputed” with Ving Rhames and Wesley Snipes.  During his absence from the big screen, Hill helmed the premiere episode of HBO’s “Deadwood,” and then the television mini-series western “Broken Trail” (2006) costarring Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church.”  In many respects, this action-packed, largely straightforward, odd couple buddy picture compares favorably with earlier, exceptional Stallone sagas like “Assassins,” “The Specialist,” and “Demolition Man.”  Most definitely, it surpasses “Tango and Cash” and “Stop, Or My Mom Will Shoot.”

Cast as a seasoned hit-man in the Crescent City, Sylvester Stallone tangles with a mysterious cabal of Big Easy investors who have the New Orleans Police Department on their payroll.  Director Walter Hill has juggled the occupations of the protagonists from his earlier buddy picture epics.  The cop was always the lead in the combo in the “48 Hrs” movies and “Red Heat.”  This time around, world-weary, career criminal James “Bobo” Bonomo (Sylvester Stallone of “Rocky”) is the lead, while saintly, Washington, D.C. Detective Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang of “Fast & Furious”) behaves rather naively and relies too much on his cell phone.  Ironically, the two men want to exact vengeance for the deaths of their former partners.  They agree to form an uneasy alliance, but Kwon’s conscience prompts him to constrain Bonomo. These two don’t immediately run into each other. When the plot unfolds, Bonomo and his partner Louis Blanchard (Jon Seda of “Bad Boys 2”) masquerade as cops to snuff a cocaine-snorting thug, Hank Greely (Holt McCallany of “Fight Club”), in a motel room.  Bonomo spots a tattooed prostitute cowering in the shower, but he lets her live.  This amoral murderer draws the line at shooting women.  When he is behind the wheel on the road, he swerves to avoid stray cats in front of him.  “It’s bad luck,” he assures Louis.  These two show up at a crowded bar where they are supposed to pick up the balance of their loot for the shooting.  Before either realizes they have been double-crossed, another assassin, Keegan (Jason Momoa of “Conan”), stabs poor Louis repeatedly to death in front of everybody.  He wields a small blade to hack both of Louis’ lungs so nobody in the noisy bar knows a murder has occurred.  Keegan isn’t quite as lucky with Bonomo.  Now, Bonomo wants payback.  Our hero crosses paths with a hard-nosed, Washington, D.C. police detective who is visiting New Orleans.  As it turns out, Hank Greely was his former partner in Washington.  Kwon wants the people who ordered Hank’s demise.  Sure, neither Bonomo nor Kwon have much use for each other initially, but they kind of grow on one other as they survive back-to-back fracases. 

Hill stages some gripping shoot-out scenes that genre fans will savor, and you get to see Silver's trademark Ka-Boom explosions!  Hill never lets the narrative bog down in aimless chatter or an over elaborate plot.  Stallone’s character provides deadpan narration throughout the pyrotechnics so you never take anything seriously in “Bullet to the Head.”  “Bullet to the Head” is not unlike a Tarantino thriller.  Camon and Hill wrap up everything, but leave room for a sequel since the hero’s daughter and the D.C. cop are dating.  At 66 years of age, Sylvester Stallone appears as fit as a fiddle.  This is the kind of movie where guys shed shirts and clash muscles.  He channels a little bit of “Rocky” in his tongue-in-cheek performance.  The ax fight between beefy, muscle-bound Jason Momoa and Stallone has been carefully edited to present both to maximum advantage.  You know Stallone is going to triumph, but Momoa doesn’t make it look easy.  Momoa makes a lusty villain.  No less villainous is Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as a crippled, African investor has no qualms about murder.  Christian Slater appears briefly as a smarmy swindler with a flash drive around his neck that boasts the goods of everybody.  The interrogation scene is pretty amusing.  Clocking in at a lean, mean, 97 minutes, “Bullet to the Head” doesn’t wear out its welcome.  You don’t even have to wait around to see what’s after the end credits so you can clear out early.  Were it not for the pedigree talent involved, “Bullet to the Head” would qualify at best as a three-star rather than a four-star movie.  If you still like Stallone, you'll love "Bullet to the Head" because it is worth shelling out the bucks to watch this Spartan saga.

FILM REVIEW OF ''LIMITLESS'' (2011)

Scientists have been assuring us for years that we use only about 10 to 20 per cent of our brain. What if you could mobilize more than 80 per cent of your mind to solve your problems? Would you be happier? More productive? "The Illusionist" director Neil Burger and "Mrs. Doubtfire" scenarist Leslie Dixon explore this 'what if' premise in witty but speculative saga "Limitless" (***1/2 out of ****), based on Irish novelist Alan Glynn's 2001 techno-thriller "The Dark Fields." Some of the details have changed during the transition from page to screen, but the imaginative plot remains reasonably intact. When an aspiring novelist afflicted with writer's block resorts to an experimental opiate—kind of like Adderall--that enables him to not only finish his novel ahead of time but also emerge as a savant of sorts, he discovers addiction may be the least of his woes. This out-of-the- ordinary futuristic murder mystery about a slacker who learns that the sky is no longer the limit generates considerable charisma throughout its nimble 104 minutes because leading man Bradley Cooper makes the hero sympathetic despite his sardonic personality. A couple of movies about men who acquired higher brain power through either pharmaceuticals or surgery have been made, including "The Lawnmower Man" (1992) with Pierce Brosnan and "Charly" (1968) with Cliff Robertson. In both of these movies, the protagonists were mentally challenged, but the "Limitless" leading man isn’t handicapped. Instead, he is a hopeless procrastinator who lacks the ability to focus his energy and efforts to complete tasks in a timely manner. The odyssey that our hero embarks on puts "Limitless" in the same offbeat category as the Brad Pitt & Edward Norton movie "Fight Club" with its innovation use of computer generated imagery. Burger uses the CGI here primarily to reflect the paranoid-inducing impact of the drug, but he doesn't flaunt it to the extremes of most contemporary melodramas.

“Limitless” opens with our protagonist dramatically poised on the ledge of his ultra-high-rise Manhattan apartment as he contemplates performing a header into the street hundreds of feet below. A group of Neanderthal thugs are trying to break down the door to his super-secure apartment because he has something that they want. They are prepared to kill him without a qualm and he can do nothing to stop them. Eddie Mora (Bradley Cooper of “The Hangover”) takes a jaundiced view of his predicament and then he explains how he wound up in this tight spot as “Limitless” shifts gears into flashback mode. In the beginning, Eddie was an author who landed a book contract. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to conjure up a single sentence. No matter how long he stares at his computer, he cannot get his creative juices to flow. Eddie’s girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish of “Sucker Punch”) decides that she would be better off without him and they split. Not only does she get a better job, but also she has grown tired of footing their bills. Our unhappy protagonist is wandering the streets when he runs into his former brother-in-law, Vernon (Johnny Whitworth of “Empire Records”), and they grab a drink at a bar. Vernon tells Eddie that he is no longer a small potatoes drug dealer. Indeed, he works for a pharmaceutical firm that has developed an $800-a-pop miracle pill called NZT-84. Vernon adds that the drug is on the verge of receiving FDA approval.

Initially, Eddie is leery of Vernon’s hype, but he decides to try it. Presto! Eddie polishes off his book, and his prose blows his editor’s mind. Eddie asks Vernon for some more, but somebody kills him before our hero can get the pills. Nevertheless, Eddie finds Vernon’s stash, borrows thousands from a Russian mobster, Gennady (Andrew Howard of “Revolver”) and parlays it into an overnight fortune. Eddie’s exploits bring him to the attention of a legendary Wall Street tycoon, Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro of “Goodfellas”), and our hero helps him acquire even more millions. Eddie even wins back Lindy, but he cannot get the Russian off his back. The Russian gets a taste of the drug and wants more. Moreover, another mysterious man is tailing Eddie everywhere, and this ruffian doesn’t mind wielding a knife to get what he wants. Suddenly, everything good that happened to Eddie turns really bad. At one point, he collapses in Lindy’s office and explains what has happened to him. Eddie has exhausted his stash of NZT and he needs Lindy to get him some more from a stash in her apartment in a sea shell. Lindy agrees and then realizes that the knife-wielding man is following her. When she tries to stall him with the help of two husky guys in Central Park, the knife man stabs them both. Frantically, Lindy calls Eddie on her cell phone from a hiding place as the knife man scours the terrain to find her. Eddie instructs her to take a pill. Despite deep misgivings, Lindy gobbles one and experiences the sharp high and outsmarts her dangerous assailant by leading him down to a ice-skating ring and using the blade on a skating shoe to slash him and then flee.

"Limitless" describes the exciting arc that Eddie traverses in his journey from ‘nobody’ status to ‘somebody’ status. Typically, this kind of materialistic movie degenerates into a heavy-handed Faustian morality play. In other words, the hero experiences a meteoric rise, only to suffer the consequences of a tragic downfall. The downfall occurs because he relinquishes his power to control his destiny. Meaning, at some point, he sells out for the short term and pays for it with his life in the long term. John Travolta made a similar movie, "Phenomenon" (1996), where he manifested mental powers beyond anything he had experienced. The toll that these powers exacted ended up killing him. He was no more irresponsible than the "Limitless" hero. Nevertheless, Hollywood rules dictated that the Travolta character had to perish. The people who made "Limitless" don't subscribe to this mentality. Bradley Cooper's heroic character fares much better that the John Travolta character. Although our hero boasts mental powers beyond anything that anybody else has, Eddie refuses to abuse his gift and "Limitless" allows him to reap the rewards. Indeed, he winds up enjoying the last laugh on villainous Robert De Niro. Mind you, this represents De Niro’s best work since “The Score” in 2001. Happily, Burger and Dixon use Eddie’s rambling voice-over commentary to deliver lots of humor, a technique that only Martin Scorsese usually gets away with in his mafia movies. Burger stages a bravura subway fight scene and intercuts it with footage of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee. Altogether, "Limitless" qualifies as an incredibly original film about our prescriptive, self-medicating society that goes where most Hollywood movies don’t dare!

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE NEGOTIATOR" (1998)

Summer movies usually lack the sophistication and subtlety of "Set It Off" director F. Gary Gray's "The Negotiator," (*** out of ****)a taut, suspenseful, white-knuckled police thriller that pits "Pulp Fiction's" Samuel L. Jackson against "The Usual Suspects'" Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey. Incredibly, the brain and brawn in Kevin Fox & James DeMonaco's screenplay is evenly matched so that "The Negotiator" scores solidly as an above-average, good cops versus bad cops account of law and order. Nobody in "The Negotiator" does anything that the average human couldn't survive without the services of an agile stunt double. You won't find the kind of outlandish heroics here that occur ostentatiously enough in the "Die Hard" franchise. Indeed, "The Negotiator" stands out as one of the summer's more down-to-earth entries. Actual characters find themselves in plausible situations where they must compete in a deadly contest of wits and wills. Dialogue does matter in "The Negotiator." Nevertheless, despite its onslaught of pyrotechnics at appropriate intervals, "The Negotiator" manages to thrill and entertain without venturing too far out on a limb.

"The Negotiator" focuses on police corruption among a tightly knit coterie of Chicago's finest. Really helpful is the fact that "The Negotiator" originated from an authentic case involving the St. Louis Police. Co-scripted by Fox and DeMonaco (who wrote the Robin Williams fantasy "Jack"), this tense actioneer deals with a falsely accused cop. "The Negotiator" belongs to the police genre where the hero-in-blue must take the law into his own hands to prove his innocence. While "The Negotiator" staunchly adheres to the crime formula, with its shoot-outs constantly interrupting the plot to enliven it, the film boasts enough star charisma and surprises to boost it far above the standard-issue police thriller. Moreover, "The Negotiator" features a line-up of well-versed thespians.

Ace hostage negotiator Danny Roman (Samuel L. Jackson) wakes up one morning and finds himself charged not only with embezzling police pension funds but also for murdering Nathan Roenick (an unbilled Paul Guilfoyle of "Primary Colors") his long-time partner. The filmmakers deserve praise for getting the story off to an early start. Gray and his scenarists provide some informative dialogue about police negotiations and their methods. The lecture on eye language and lying is particularly illuminating and guaranteed to bolster any conversation. Stunned by these accusations, Danny hands in his shield at the request of Chief Al Travis (John Spencer of "The Rock"), his suspicious superior. Once again, Spencer plays a character with villainous shades. Danny's partner's widow curses Danny to his face and Danny's attorney advises his client to cut a deal.

In short, everybody but Danny's newly wed wife, Karen (Regina Taylor of "Lean on Me"), believes that he is guilty as sin. Investigators at Danny's house produce bank accounts of funds invested in off-shore bank accounts. Things look terrible for our hero, but Danny is innocent and we know it. Clearly, someone is trying to frame him. The dramatic tension that fuels "The Negotiator" concerns who is guilty and can Danny survive long enough to prove it. At this point, predictability sets into the Fox & DeMonaco screenplay. All the usual police thriller elements remain intact. No sooner has the heroic cop's pal confided in him about a police conspiracy than he catches lead, and Roman finds himself isolated. Another element of the police movie genre is how a saint like Danny Roman can fall so swiftly.

Refusing to cave in to a neat frame-up, Danny demands to face his accuser, portly Internal Affairs investigator Terrence Niebaum (J.T. Walsh of "Tequila Sunrise"). When a feisty Niebaum repudiates Danny, the outraged Roman takes him hostage, along with Niebaum's secretary, Maggie (Siobahn Fallon of "Krippendorf's Tribe"), and a pasty-faced informer, Rudy (Paul Giamatti of "Saving Private Ryan"), on the 20th floor of the Chicago Internal Affairs Division Headquarters. Chaos erupts. Chief Travis (John Spencer), Commander Adam Beck (David Morse of "The Rock") and Commander Frost (Ron Rifkin of "L.A. Confidential") besiege the building with an army of trigger-happy SWAT cops. David Morse joins the gallery of villains in "The Negotiator." As Commander Beck, Morse joins the gallery of villains in "The Negotiator." He makes quite an impression with is steely eyes and stern manner. Since he has figured out that one or more of his buddies have set him up, Danny demands an outside negotiator.

Enter Lieutenant Chris Sabian (Kevin Spacey), another of Chicago's crack hostage negotiators. Sabian boasts that he has never killed a hostage taker in all his years on the force. Before Sabian confronts Roman, the filmmakers have a little fun with his character. Apparently, Sabian's insubordinate daughter said something that hurt her mother's feelings, and Chris has to talk her out of the bedroom when he receives his call from Travis. The irony (that Sabian cannot get his own wife and daughter to mind him) enriches the storyline when Chris finds himself caught up between Danny and an army of cops that prefer to dispense with questions and shoot first.

At two hours and twenty minutes, "The Negotiator" is a quarter hour too long. Gray could have trimmed twenty minutes without endangering the suspense. Happily, "The Negotiator" gets off to a fast start. The idea of bottling them up in a skyscraper while Danny tries to break Niebaum's resolve qualifies as good stuff. Sadly, the filmmakers come up short. Often the plot stalls out. A big problem with "The Negotiator" is that the filmmakers keep us in the dark about who the villains are. Gray doesn't give up many clues about who they are and deploys some choice red herrings. Basically, we never get to know Danny Roman's friends so that we can guess the identity of his betrayers. Indeed, "The Negotiator" will make you furrow your brows with its plethora of detail. Burn the story about "Shane" into your brain cells if you really want to appreciate the plot. Unquestionably, with "The Negotiator," Gray establishes himself as a helmer of big-action melodramas.

FILM REVIEW OF ''LAKEVIEW TERRACE"

Samuel L. Jackson doesn't know how to give a bad performance, but his choice of movies raises some questions. "Wicker Man" director Neil LeBute's suburban crime thriller "Lakeview Terrace" (* out of ****) qualifies as a predictable, PG-rated melodrama that draws its inspiration from a real-life case of racism where an African-American cop harassed interracial couples in Los Angeles. This disposable,depressing, one-dimensional character study in villainy casts Jackson as a 28-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department who doesn't cotton to his new next door neighbors, a twentysomething interracial couple without a clue. For the record, "Hancock" star Will Smith sank some of his dough into this heavy-handed hokum.

Chris (Patrick Wilson of "Hard Candy") and Lisa Mattson (Kerry Washington of "Ray") have just bought their first house. Chris manages a grocery store and Lisa sits around the house drawing pictures when she isn't forgetting to take her birth control pills. She wants a child to mellow out her racist father Harold Perreau (Ron Glass of "Barney Miller") who didn't approve of her daughter's decision to marry a white bread yuppie. Movies have come a long way since the 1967 classic "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" where Sidney Poitier married a white girl. Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac appeared in the abysmal remake "Guess Who" that reversed everything so that white guy Kutcher could wed black girl Zoe Saldana. Everybody got along in these classic as well as less-than-classic movies. No sooner have Chris and Lisa moved in than they aggravate single-parent cop Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson of "Pulp Fiction") who doesn't take kindly to their liberal-minded antics.

Abel raises teenager daughter Celia (Regine Nehy of "Pride") and young son Marcus (TV actor Jasihon Fisher) without the benefit of a mother. Abel reveals later to Chris that his wife died in a traffic accident under suspicious circumstances that he hasn't quite reconciled himself to three years later. Abel rules his kids like a tyrant. Not only does he correct Celia's slang-ridden grammar at the breakfast table but he also reprimands her for wearing her iPod every waking moment. Similarly, he doesn't cut Marcus any slack. Not surprisingly, both Celia and Marcus are overjoyed when they get a break from dad to spend time with a relative. Meanwhile, Abel explains to his green, Hispanic partner Javier Villareal (Jay Hernandez of the "Hostel" horror flicks) that he moved his family out of the troubled ghettos where he grew up so that they would have a better life. Abel keeps a tight lid on his patrol area, just as most cops in crime movies do, playing criminals off against other to maintain law and order. Abel has an obese white drug dealer Clarence (Keith Loneker of "Leatherheads") under his thumb and protects Clarence because he serves as an informant.

Abel and the Mattson's get off on the wrong foot. Abel welcomes Chris by pulling a fake carjacking while our protagonist sits in his parked car in his own driveway listening to hip-hop music. Afterward, Abel advises Chris that no matter how loud or how long he plays hip-hop it will never made him black. Chris smokes secretly in his car because Lisa won't let him smoke in their house. He aggravates things when he thumps his cigarette butts on Abel's lawn. Abel's blinding security home lights keep the Mattsons from sleeping since they don't have curtains. Chris talks to Abel but gets nowhere. Things really derail because the Mattson's have a backyard swimming pool that Celia and Marcus would die to swim in but Abel doesn't want them hobnobbing with the neighbors. Anyway, the Abel's kids play peeping toms one evening when Chris and Lisa have sex in their swimming pool. Abel objects to this behavior and the incidents intensify. Our heroes awaken to their car alarm, rush down to their garage, and discover the tires on their sedan have been slashed. Abel discusses the situation with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputies who responded to the Mattson's call and a Sheriff's Deputy remarks that they are lucky because they live next door to a cop.

"Lakeview Terrace" shares a lot in common with the paranoid Michael Keaton thriller "Pacific Heights." No matter what our heroes do, Abel beats them to the punch, until his own people—LAPD Internal Affairs—give him the third degree for roughing up a young African-American male, Damon Richards (Jada Pinkett Smith's younger brother Caleeb Pinkett of "Charmed"), who tried to blast Abel with a pump action shotgun during a domestic disturbance at an apartment complex. Internal Affairs investigator Lieutenant Morgada (Eva La Rue of CBS-TV's "C.S.I. Miami") and her colleague warn Abel that they are watching him.

Jackson smolders with rage in this combustible movie because he doesn't approve of a white guy playing house with a black girl. Jackson's performance is about the only thing worth watching because his co-stars barely make an impression as a sympathetic couple that have to contend with his cruel shenanigans. Indeed, the sympathetic couple are pretty boring. Since the bad cop doesn't have a moral leg to stand on, it is just a matter of time until he makes his fatal mistake. In other words, the short-sighted David Loughery and Howard Korder's screenplay boasts few surprises. Loughery's less-than-impressive writing credits include "Money Train" and "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," while Howard Korder has penned the TV movie "Stealing Sinatra" and "The Passion of Ayn Rand." None of their screenplays have amounted to much so it's no surprise that "Lakeview Terrace" is such a woofer. Basically, neither director Neil LeBute nor his scenarists have brought a shred of imagination to a potentially explosive but superficial saga. If you've seen the trailer for "Lakeview Terrace," you've seen more than enough to know that this objectionable opus is worth neither your time nor your money.