FILM REVIEW OF ''LUCY" (2014)

You'll love "Lucy."  French filmmaker Luc Besson, who helmed "Le Femme Nikita," "Angel-A," and "Colombiana," takes the feminist-oriented action thriller genre to the next level.  This outlandish but entertaining hokum chronicles the mutation of a defenseless damsel-in-distress into an invincible dame with heretofore unimagined mental powers.  Our provocative protagonist comes to rely more on her brains than her biology.  Comparably, "Lucy" reminded me a little of the 2004 foreign movie "Maria Full of Grace."  Columbian drug traffickers planted cocaine in the stomach of a teenage girl in "Maria Full of Grace" and used her to smuggle their smack into the United States. Happily, this savvy babe turned the tables on her captors!  Similarly, our heroine in "Lucy" finds a pouch of exotic synthetic drugs sew into her tummy and given a plane ticket for America.  The last thing that her savage, cold-blooded captors are prepared for is her improbable reprisal.  Lucy turns the tables on them in ways that not even she could have thought before she encountered these merciless hooligans.  Indeed, actress Scarlett Johansson would be the whole show if Morgan Freeman weren't lecturing in cutaway shots as a prestigious physician, Professor Samuel Norman, whose ranks as the foremost expert on gray matter.  When Professor Norman isn't delivering lectures to enthralled audiences about the percentage of use that humans derive from their noodles, Besson treats us to illuminating Animal Planet excerpts of jungle animals that punctuate the running battle Lucy carries on with the heavily-armed Asian drug smugglers.  Korean actor Choi Min-shik, who starred in director Chan-wook Park's first version of the revenge thriller "Oldboy" (2003), makes a memorable villain named Mr. Jang.  You will love to hate Mr. Jang.  Furthermore, Mr. Jang's immaculately tailored henchmen are as homicidal as he is until he meets our feminist heroine after she experiences a massive change in her attitude.  Interestingly enough, before she made "Lucy," Scarlett Johansson appeared in "Under the Skin," a 2013 sci-fi thriller about an alien who masquerades as a human to prey on lonely men in Scotland.  For the record, Besson had cast Angelina Jolie as Lucy, but Jolie had to drop out, so Johansson stepped into the role.

The first time we see Lucy (Scarlett Johansson of "The Avengers"), she is arguing with her scummy boyfriend, Richard (Pilou Asbæk of "The Whistleblower"), clad in a straw cowboy-hat and red sunglasses in front of a fashionable, high-rise motel in Taiwan. Richard is struggling to convince Lucy to deliver a sleek briefcase to a motel guest named Mr. Jang.  Richard insists that he cannot personally hand the briefcase over to Mr. Jang.  He says that he has seen the man too many times.  Lucy refuses to deliver the briefcase.  She asks Richard about the contents of the briefcase.  As it turns out, Richard doesn't have a clue about what is in the briefcase.  Their entire argument sounds like something that Quentin Tarantino's characters argued about in "Pulp Fiction."  Everything in the seminal crime thriller "Pulp Fiction" turned on the mysterious contents of a cryptic briefcase.  Just as Lucy is about to walk away from Richard, this reprobate of a boyfriend handcuffs the brief case to her wrist so she cannot get it off. Eventually, Lucy relents and enters the motel while Richard watches her with great anticipation.  Suffice to say, things go downhill like an avalanche for both Richard and our heroine.  The action sequences in "Lucy" are breathtaking, especially the predictable but exciting car chase through Paris with Lucy at the wheel of a police car.  Besson charts the action according to the percentage of brain power that our heroine is able to harness until fadeout when she concludes her incredible metamorphosis.  During this haywire ride, Parisian detective Pierre Del Rio (Amr Waked of “Syriana”) sees things that he never thought possible.

Initially, "Lucy" unfolds as a standard-issue, dark-themed, revenge thriller in the vein of something notorious horror maestro Eli Roth of "Hostel" fame would perpetrate.  About half-way through its lean, mean 90 minutes, this nimble Universal Pictures release changes our protagonist from a Shanghaied schoolgirl into a pistol-packing mother who doesn't need a guy to save her bacon.  She becomes the equivalent of Liam Neeson in the "Taken" thrillers and then she even surpasses him!  She doesn't even have to rely on guns.  Earlier, the fiendish villains rounded up not only poor Lucy but also three other guys and sewed a kilo pouch of strange blue crystals called CPH4 into their intestines. Basically, CPH4 amounts to the equivalent of stuff that pregnant moms produce to cultivate their fetuses.  Somebody utters ominously enough about the substance: ""For a baby, it packs the power of an atomic bomb."" Our ingenious heroine manages to escape the clutches of the bad guys, and she alerts the authorities about herself as well as the other mules.  Unfortunately, the police are in no way prepared for the commitment that the criminals have for their product.  They will kill anybody who comes between them and their junk.  As the bullets fly, the bodies whether innocent bystanders or gunmen stack up in piles.  These villains are armed with more than just fully automatic weapons. Before the dust settles, however, Besson's crime thriller transforms into a mind-boggling science fiction actioneer reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey."  Literally, the heroine becomes the equivalent of the monolith in the Kubrick film.  Indeed, the ending is a mind blower in itself, but you may feel cheated by this ending.  In another sense, the ending of “Lucy” is reminiscent too of the wrap up to “Star Trek: the Motion Picture,” where a female android mated with a human to take mankind farther into the future than humanity had ever gone!  Nevertheless, nothing that you have seen this summer will prepare you for “Lucy” and its supercharged little saga.

A FILM REVIEW OF "TROY" (2004)

"Das Boot" director Wolfgang Petersen shuns the gods in "Troy" (*** OUT OF ****) but doesn't suffer the consequences. This loose, long-winded adaptation of Homer's spear-and-sandal classic "The Iliad," about the legendary siege of the eponymous city and the hard-bodied combatants, who clashed swords, conjures up not only spectacle on a grand scale but also delivers charisma on an even grander scale. Traditionally, when we think about the Trojan War, we think about the adulterous Helen, who started it all when she cuckolded husband Menelaus and skipped Sparta with youthful Paris. After all, Helen's claim to fame rests on her comely features that reportedly launched a thousand ships. On the other hand, this revisionist, 21st century rendition spends more time admiring the abs of its heroes rather than the eyes of its anorectic heroines. Consequently, "Troy" ogles Achilles more often than Helen, and for good reason, too. Not since John Travolta buffed up for Sylvester Stallone’s abysmal "Staying Alive" (1983) has an actor so conscientiously dedicated himself to a muscular makeover.  Reportedly, Pitt spent six months building up his body.  Ironically, he pulled his Achilles tendon during the production.  Meanwhile, the producers make sure Brad bares his body early and often to display his magnificently sculptured biceps and six-pack.  This is not Brad Pitt as we are accustomed to seeing him.  He has a signature lunge as Achilles when he delivers the death blow with his sword that he repeats at intervals against his opponents that is visually striking.

 

Meanwhile, Petersen and scenarist David Benioff omits scenes of the Greek deities who would have divulged too much and ruined the suspense and tension in this mortals-only account of events.  A blond, bluffed-up Brad Pitt portrays Achilles as a pugnacious prima Donna.  He thumbs his nose at Agamemnon and lives for the moment in combat when he can attain his dream of immortality.  Compelling plotting and memorable dialogue bolsters this lengthy, but satisfying 162-minute, epic rehash of history's most celebrated ancient war. Nevertheless, despite its marathon length, skillful storytelling, and its secular, down-to-earth, reimagination of Homer, "Troy" has more going for it than the sum of its shortcomings. An impressive cast, including screen veterans Peter O'Toole and Brian Cox, Nigel Phelp's astonishing production values, the seamless integration of computer-generated effects with live action footage and several superbly staged combat sequences that have no equal in ancient actioneers offset whatever flaws in this $175-million plus, English language extravaganza.

The larger-than-life action opens in 1200 B.C.  King Agamemnon (Brian Cox of "The Glimmer Man") leads his army out to confront Triopas (Julian Glover of "For Your Eyes Only") on the field of battle. Agamemnon is an avaricious, warmongering opportunist. Triopas suggests Agamemnon and he avoid needless bloodshed by pitting the best of their best against each other.  This amusing prologue shows the womanizing Achilles as the greatest warrior of his day, a "Rambo" of antiquity, who can whip any adversary.  In his first, on-screen scrap, Achilles takes down an imposing Goliath-like opponent who makes our protagonist appear puny by comparison.  Size counts for little, because the smaller Achilles displays his agility in slaying his adversary with a single blow!  "Perfect Storm" director Petersen choreographs the action sequences with considerable flair and imagination, thanks in part to veteran James Bond stuntman Simon Crane.

The hand-to-hand combat appears not only believable, but also the actors wield their swords, shields, and spears with credible ferocity.  Later battles qualify as more than just aimless mob warfare with splendidly clad extras roughhousing it with their counterparts. Watch the way Achilles and his mercenaries cover themselves with their shields to repulse wave after wave of arrows.  The participants wield their armor with as much savvy as their swords and spears.  Meantime, the dialogue scenes that intersperse the gritty action are just as memorable. The theme of immortality pervades this fine example of an ancient world epic.  Ultimately, anytime Hollywood handles ancient history, the dialogue possesses an ersatz quality, but the lines here are insightful.

Indeed, Homer’s classic “The Illiad” inspired this illicit romance that prompted this war. Anybody who survived the 1960s should remember the classic Greek sagas such as "Jason and the Argonauts" (1963) and "Clash of the Titans" (1981). Every action on Earth generated corresponding action in the realm of the gods with Zeus lording it over his supernatural peers. "Troy" ignores the gods but doesn’t rank as a lesser effort for this neglect, though one can imagine how many more millions of dollars and minutes of time inclusion of the gods might have required. Generally, scenes with the gods serve to clarify terrestrial conflicts and clue us in on what we might have missed on Earth.

One of the shortcomings lies in the source material and its lack of explanation.  For example, audiences not familiar with Trojan mythology might have a difficult time understanding why an arrow through Achilles' ankle would prove so fatal. Petersen and Benioff scale down the action to mortals-only, and "Troy" looks as close to what could have happened if it happened. The beachhead landing (lensed in Mexico) emerges as the ancient equivalent of the sixth of June, D-Day landings in Normandy in World War II, with an armada of oar-driven ships crowding the sea from horizon to horizon.  You finally get to see the famous Trojan horse in the final 45 minutes.  Ace lenser Roger Pratt gives "Troy" a big-screen magnitude with his awesome long shots of virtually anything beyond arm's reach. When the opposing armies march against each other on the level lands in front of Troy, the spectacle is breathtaking in its scale.

Although Petersen and Benioff have tampered with the venerable plot, the action is worth-watching from fade-in to fade-out.  Achilles emerges as more of a villain, but Hector (Eric Bana of "Hulk") looks like a wrongly slain hero. Paris and Helen emerge as the least effectual lovers in a long time.  Naturally,  Orlando Bloom wields a bow and arrow.  Altogether, "Troy" ranks as a joy to watch!

 

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE TOURIST'' (2010)

Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp make a great looking couple in German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s crime thriller “The Tourist,” an elegant but anemic homage to Alfred Hitchcock movies about strangers who meet on a train and fall in love. Everything about the PG-13 rated “Tourist” (** out of ***) looks great, too. “Dead Poets Society” lenser John Seale makes every shot of our well-coiffed heroine in control and our debonair hero in jeopardy around scenic Venice appear absolutely stunning. Aside from one scene where a man is strangled under rather unbelievable circumstances, the violence qualifies as standard-issue combat with nothing that particularly distinguishes it from ten-thousand other lackluster thrillers. In other words, the violence never escalates into the blood, gore, and more variety with blasted-off body parts or exotic forms of mayhem. Meantime, Donnersmarck and scenarists Christopher McQuarrie of “The Usual Suspects” and Julian Fellowes of “Vanity Fair” have contrived what amounts to a predictable potboiler about mistaken identities. The formulaic screenplay, sketchy characters, and absence of anything masquerading as momentum undercut this inert picture-postcard exercise in suspense. Not surprisingly, the filmmakers try to be clever with a surprise ending that may pull the rug out from under some audiences while others won’t be hoodwinked by this sloppy trick. Aside from Seale‘s sensational cinematography, “The Tourist” boasts a top-notch cast that features Paul Bettany, Rufus Sewell, Timothy Dalton, and Steven Berkoff. The lack of substance in the storyline ultimately diminishes this fine looking film.

Madison Community College mathematics instructor Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp of “The Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise) is on a European holiday when he encounters the hopelessly beautiful Elise Clifton-Ward (Angelina Jolie of “Salt”) while on a Parisian train bound for Venice. They strike up an acquaintance that turns into a quirky one-sided romantic romp that takes up the better part of the action. Mind you, “The Tourist” qualifies as a lightweight, romantic comedy with one abrasive scene. No, Frank’s dark magnetism has nothing to do with Elise’s decision to approach him on the train. She is a mysterious dame herself who has been under constant surveillance by the authorities in England and France. French authorities, particularly the Financial Crimes Division, struggle to be inconspicuous as they follow her around in a van decked out with all the latest surveillance technology. They arrest anybody that she talks to that may fit the description of a criminal who has stolen over $744 million. Moreover, they stay in constant contact with Scotland Yard, specifically Inspector John Acheson (Paul Bettany of “Legion”), who has been trying to catch Elise with a notorious Englishman, an international fugitive named Alexander Pearce. They arrest a bicycle courier when he delivers a message to Elisa at a café and then later release him because he isn’t Pearce.

Pearce, it seems, appropriated his millions from the most malevolent gangster in Europe, Reginald Shaw (Steven Berkoff of “Beverly Hills Cop”), who doesn’t so much kill his adversaries as annihilate them and their families. He boasts at one point that he killed both anybody who made love to his wife before he met her as well as everybody afterward. Essentially, Shaw resembles Keyser Söze, the no-holds-barred Turkish criminal mastermind from Christopher Macquarie’s “The Usual Suspects” script.

When the French authorities send Acheson a photograph of the latest Pearce suspect, a corrupt Scotland Yard administrative assistant leaks word to Shaw about Pearce. Of course, Frank Tupelo isn’t Pearce. Indeed, Elisa strikes up an affair of sorts with Tupelo because the real Pearce asked her to find somebody that approximated his height and weight to mislead the authorities into thinking that he was Pearce. Before long, the clueless Frank Tupelo finds himself dodging bullets from Shaw’s trigger-happy Eastern Bloc gunmen. Later, Tupelo winds up handcuffed to a boat trying to escape more of Shaw’s incompetent henchmen. Shaw displays little patience for their ineptitude. He strangles one with a tailor’s measuring tape in front of the tailor as well as his own men. The villainous Shaw ranks as the toughest and least likeable character in “The Tourist.”

Acheson’s boss at Scotland Yard, Chief Inspector Jones (Timothy Dalton of “The Living Daylights”) has spent $8 million trying to track down the elusive Pearce. Now, Jones wants to waste no more time or money on the fugitive. Nevertheless, against Jones’ orders, Acheson decides to stick with the case and Elisa turns herself in to help him. The showdown in Venice with a Scotland Yard sniper team proving their enviable expertise with telescopic rifles is about as good as “The Tourist” gets before it pulls its switcheroo ploy. As clever as it appears initially, this reversal lacks credibility. At the same time, the international fugitive proves his love for the heroine and Jones walks away gratified, even though Acheson doesn’t believe a word of it!

Angelina Jolie plays a seductress who can wear an off-the-shoulder gown and pick a lock with ease. For the record, she wears 12 dresses in “The Tourist.” She is at her most elegant and cavorts about in fashionable apparel and high heels. Johnny Depp is at his most vulnerable in a role that provides him with little in the way of mystery. He wears his whiskers with style and smokes an ingenious looking device masquerading as a cigarette. This mechanical cigarette resembles an actual filter-tipped cigarette except it delivers only nicotine and water vapor so user appears to be smoking. The glow on the end is furnished courtesy of an LED. Keep your eyes on that cigarette if you want to enjoy this sly but shallow film. The British supporting cast, including former James Bond Timothy Dalton and Paul Bettany, make the police look good. The most interesting but least seen character is another Englishman (Rufus Sewell of “Dark City”) who skulks at the periphery. Sophomore Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s directing is flawless, but the same cannot be said of the thin screenplay. For the record, “The Tourist” is a remake of the French thriller “Anthony Zimmer” (2005) that toplined Sophie Marceau and Yvan Attal. Unfortunately, looks alone don’t give “The Tourist” what it needs to be either invigorating or mystifying. Ultimately, “The Tourist” is a sight that isn’t worth seeing.

FILM REVIEW OF ''FROM PARIS WITH LOVE" (2010)

This disposable but stylish contemporary action thriller set in exotic Paris, France, casts John Travolta as a 1980’s type trigger-happy, quick-witted, jive-talking secret agent for the U.S. Government who shoots first and asks questions later. Travolta looks ultra-cool with his noggin neatly shaved like Blofield, the iconic villain from the James Bond franchise, and he handles firearms of every variety with the skill of Wild Bill Hickok in a shooting gallery. Travolta has not capped this many bad guys since he made the John Woo thriller "Broken Arrow" in 1996. Mind you, Travolta was the bad guy in “Broken Arrow,” while he plays the front and center hero in this explosive Lionsgate release. Unfortunately, "From Paris with Love" surpasses neither "Broken Arrow" nor the other shoot’em up saga he made with John Woo entitled "Face/Off." Furthermore, "From Paris With Love" (*** out of ****) does not top "Swordfish" for sheer audacity. Nevertheless, this nimble 95-minute buddy picture qualifies as a good beer and pizza picture. After you watch “From Paris With Love,” you can talk about how cheesy but cool it was over beer and pizza.

"Taken" director Pierre Morel rarely takes pit stops for garrulous dialogue interludes in this adrenaline-laced, serio-comic, big, dumb actioneer about terrorists. The chief problem with “From Paris with Love” is the absence of an intimidating villain who tries to triumph over the heroes. Indeed, the villain is crafty, but the hero’s apprentice has little difficulty removing the villain as a threat at fade-0ut. The next problem is the heroes save the day, but the day seems inconsequential when it consists of anonymous diplomats at a U.S./African Aid Summit in Paris with no important world leaders exposing themselves as targets. Despite these shortcomings, Travolta hams everything up with exhilarating abandon. He looks like he had a blast playing a hopelessly over-the-top hero who has a Steven Seagal knack for triumphing over multiple villains at close quarters. Watch the way that our hero dispatches a gang of street hooligans with his bare hands. The message of this fast-paced, but predictable bullet-riddled melodrama is that you cannot reason with terrorists. Don’t talk to a terrorist. Blast the idiot! The outlandish Travolta protagonist spends the entire time trying to hammer this strategy into the head of his new, inexperienced partner. Basically, “From Paris With Love” resembles those vintage westerns where the old gunfighter teaches the new gunfighter just enough to survive. Travolta indoctrinates his naïve apprentice in the secrets of being a secret agent with a license to kill.

As “From Paris With Love” opens, an efficient, well-dressed Embassy Assistant to the American Ambassador, James Reese (Jonathan Rhys Meyers of "The Tudors"), carries out several low-profile assignments on the cuff for U.S. Intelligence. Reese swaps out license plates on a car in an underground garage and later plants a bug a high-ranking French diplomat’s office. When the gum he chews doesn’t keep the bug stuck in place under a table, Reese lingers a moment after everybody else has left to staple the micro-sized listening device to the furniture. “From Paris with Love” chronicles Reese’s journey-of-hardship from an errand boy to a top gun. Apparently, pleased with his performance, U.S. Intel summons Reese ‘on short notice’ and promise to make him an agency spook if he can cut some red tape at French customs so a bearded, bald-headed operative, Charlie Wax (John Travolta of “Old Dogs”), can enter the country. Moments before he meets Charlie, Reese became engaged to his girlfriend Caroline (Kasia Smutniak of "Radio West"), who likes to turn up in the strangest places. Since Reese is constantly on the run, Caroline gives him her father’s ring and proposes marriage. The catch is that he cannot remove the ring. Once Reese turns Wax loose, “From Paris with Love” never wanes.

Our heroes visit a Chinese restaurant where a large stash of cocaine is concealed in the attic, but the holes that Charlie puts into the ceiling cannot rival all the holes that he puts into the staff that charge him wielding submachine guns. A running sight gag for a while is that Reese has to tote around a vase filled with a large amount of white powder that Charlie discovered after he blew those holes in the ceiling of the Chinese restaurant. Our heroes blast their way into the underworld of narcotics smugglers and later terrorists who prefer to blast themselves to their Kingdom Come after they have wiped out everybody around them. One terrorist who refuses to face justice takes a gun and blows himself away. “From Paris With Love” boasts two singular scenes. The first follows Reese as he ascends a spiral staircase after Wax has scrambled up it. The corpses of Wax’s adversaries that Wax shot plunge down the spiral stairs. Some tumble past Reese as he climbs the stairs. You only see the falling bodies, not the bloody bullet holes that turned them into Unidentified Falling Objects. Later, intrepid Charlie pursues a villain trying to escape across the rooftops of Paris, and Charles’ method of pursuit is unusual. Mind you, nobody should try to duplicate it.

Based on a story by Luc Besson of "The Transporter" trilogy, "From Paris With Love" unfolds as a formulaic, non-stop, high-octane actioneer with explosions, gunfire, and corpses galore. "Shadow Conspiracy" scenarist Adi Hasak piles on one preposterous incident after another as Chinese cocaine smugglers and Arabic terrorist suicide bombers collaborate in a fantasy that could only have been cooked up in the Bush White House to slaughter government officials at an African trade mission. Wow, if only terrorists were as foolhardy as they are depicted in “From Paris With Love,” the war on terror would be a picnic. Anybody who enjoys this kind of violent nonsense will figure out what the three surprises are that ensue at intervals. One surprise is purely visceral, while another is telegraphed earlier. Above all, Morel orchestrates the gunfights with flair, and Paris looks as scenic as ever.