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 ''SURVIVOR" (2014)

"Ninja Assassin" director James McTeigue's "Survivor" (***1/2 OUT OF ****) qualifies as a tense, London-based, international-terrorist thriller about a wrongly accused American Foreign Service Officer sought for murdering a colleague, while a lethal assassin pursues her to finish his execution.  Milla Jovovich plays the heroine, but she isn't in full kick butt "Resident Evil" mode, wielding weapons and mixed martial arts. Instead, she is simply exemplary at her job, rides a motorcycle with style, speaks several languages, and knows how to stay one step ahead of her fleet-footed adversaries.  Nevertheless, while this makes her an efficient, no-nonsense protagonist, nothing about her character is terribly interesting. In a splendid example of casting against the grain, former 007 star Pierce Brosnan exudes menace as an evil assassin who refuses to quit. Brosnan's hit-man is nicknamed 'the Watchmaker,' and he is both smart and resourceful.  One of 'the Watchmaker's smartest efforts occurs when he takes a short-cut to catch up with our heroine as she scrambles down a staircase.  The Watchmaker spots a series of lights attached by a cable dangling in the stairway well.  Improbably, he leaps onto it and shoots out the lights as he slides down the cable.  Of course, he doesn't get her, but it is a really cool move of his part. This scene is reminiscent of Matt Damon in "The Bourne Identity" when he used a man's body to drop from several floors in a stairway well to reach the bottom.  A solid supporting cast, with James D'Arcy and Angela Bassett in minor roles, backs up Jovovich and Brosnan.  At the core of this outlandish but briskly-paced thriller is a terrorist's ambitious plan to use the New Year's Eve ceremonies in Times Square as the setting to detonate a bomb.  McTeigue maintains palatable tension throughout this above-average nail-biter despite a minor lapse in credibility that occurs about three-fourths of the way through his 96-minute, PG-13 melodrama.

Passport visa clearance is a hot issue at the American Embassy in London where Kate works, and she has the final say on who gets a passport.  Nonetheless, a fellow Embassy employee, Bill Talbot (Robert Forster of "Jackie Brown"), wants her to lighten up with regard to a physician, Emile Balan (Roger Rees of "The Prestige"), who wants to attend a conference in the U.S.  Warning signs come up that alert Kate Abbott (Milla Jovovich of "The Fifth Element") and she has second thoughts.  During the prologue, two American helicopter pilots are shot down over Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, and the villainous natives let one of the pilots live while they doused the other with gasoline and immolate him. Now, Bill Talbot is struggling to get Kate out of the picture, but the villains have his son, believed dead, in custody and are blackmailing him. Indeed, he is desperate enough that the villains hire a ruthless assassin, Nash (Pierce Brosnan of "Die Another Day") to blow up the Embassy staff, including Abbott, who is attending Bill's birthday party at a fashionable British restaurant. Ironically enough, the Embassy staff are going to be served pressed duck. Our heroine escapes by the skin of her teeth because nobody remembered to bring Bill's birthday present. She leaves the restaurant and enters a shop across the street about the same time that Nash triggers the bomb. Imagine Nash's surprise when he spots Abbott in the street looking battered and worse for the wear from the experience. He whips out an automatic pistol with a silencer attached to it and pursues her.

Naturally, since Kate is the protagonist and the protagonist must survive, Nash's accuracy with his weapon is compromised enough that she escapes.  Later, adhering to protocol, she encounters Bill at a rendezvous safe zone in a public park. Shocked at her presence, Bill pulls out an automatic pistol and tries to kill Kate. The two struggle over Bill’s weapon, and Bill winds up accidentally shooting himself in the stomach. Following all the classic tropes since "North by Northwest," Kate ends up with the pistol in her fist. Moreover, Bill staggers into public view, and sightseers snap photos and lens videos of the dumbstruck Kate several steps behind the mortally wounded Talbot with the pistol conspicuously held in her hand. Of course, she denies her guilt but then takes flight. Now, the video has gone viral, and Kate's superior, Sam Parker (Dylan McDermott of "In the Line of Fire"), is trying to reach her before British authorities with shoot-on-site orders can catch her. Indeed, the troubled U.S. Ambassador, Maureen Crane (Angela Bassett of “Waiting to Exhale”) contacts British security expert Paul Anderson (James D’Arcy) and grants him clearance to kill Abbott. The first half-hour goes by really rapidly despite its formulaic shenanigans, and McTeigue generates an air of urgency as Kate takes it on the lam and Nash resolves to liquidate her. Kate enjoys extraordinary luck eluding the authorities and Nash is the kind of assassin who likes to tie up as many loose ends as possible. Incredibly, she manages to impersonate a tourist and gets back to the United States in time to barely take down Nash. The finale atop a Big Apple skyscraper with Jovovich battling it out with Brosnan will have you on the edge of your seat holding your breath. Not only does "Survivor" live up to its generic title but it also is a terrific little thriller.

FILM REVIEW OF ''AMERICAN SNIPER" (2014)

In his gritty, 132 minute, R-rated, combat biography “American Sniper” (**** OUT OF ****) producer & director Clint Eastwood treats the life of real-life protagonist Chris Kyle with unmistakable reverence.  This tragic but heroic account of the deadliest sharpshooter in U.S. military history is compelling as well as propelling from fade-in to fade-out.  Similarly, “A-Team” actor Bradley Cooper delivers a career best performance as the legendary Texas native who racked up 160 confirmed kills as a sniper during four tours of duty in Iraq.  Cooper packed on nearly 40 pounds so he could impersonate the beefy Kyle, and the actor assured “Men’s Health” magazine that the 6000 calories-per-day diet that he shoveled down constituted a challenge in itself.  According to “People” magazine, real-life Navy SEAL sniper Kevin Lacz, who fought alongside Kyle, taught Cooper how to handle the sophisticated sniper weaponry.  This sober but never simple-minded saga about the Iraqi war doesn’t so much ponder the polemical politics that prompted America’s participation in the fighting as much as its use as a historical setting.  Indeed, Kyle was gung-ho about serving his country after suicide bombers had blasted the Marine barracks to rubble in Beirut in 1983.  Meantime, people who have read Kyle’s 2012 memoir may complain about some of the liberties that Eastwood and “Paranoia” scenarist Jason Hall have taken in their adaptation of the New York Times bestseller.  Nevertheless, Eastwood has fashioned a realistic but patriotic film with a wrinkle or two that has mesmerized domestic audiences. For example, Kyle believed in what he was doing in Iraq while his younger brother abhorred not only the war but also the country. Eastwood celebrates the sacrifices that these citizens made without turning “American Sniper” into a rabble-rousing, Rambo fantasy.

“American Sniper” opens in Iraq with Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) sprawled belly down on a Fallujah roof-top checking potential threats to the Marines on the street below as they rattle one door after another in search of hostiles.  Initially, Kyle spots a military-age, Iraqi native on a balcony. Chatting on a cell phone, he is watching the troops approach him.  This suspicious fellow vanishes from Kyle’s sight.  Moments later, a mother dressed like an angel of death in black emerges onto the street with her son.  The mother hands her son a grenade, and they approach a tank with troops following it.  Just as Kyle is scrutinizing these two civilians through his sniper scope, his spotter warns him that he could land in the military prison at Fort Leavenworth for shooting friendly civilians.  This issue arises more than once in “American Sniper.”  Civilians in combat zones without a good reason created a quandary because our guys couldn’t be sure who was either sympathetic or unfriendly.  Anyway, as Kyle caresses the trigger of his sniper rifle, Eastwood flashbacks to Kyle’s life as a Texas teen shooting his first deer.  Eastwood and Hall furnish us with a montage of Kyle’s life along with his God-fearing father’s philosophy.  We see Kyle rush to the rescue of his younger brother Jeff on the playground at their elementary school as an obese bully beats up Jeff.  At the dinner table, Kyle’s stern father Wayne (Ben Reed of “Scanner Cop”) categorizes humans into three types: predatory wolves, sheep, and sheepdogs.  Brandishing his rolled up belt for emphasis, Wayne warns them that they will neither be predators nor sheep, but instead sheepdogs.  Wayne promises to punish them for anything less.  During his military service, Chris behaves like a sheepdog.  Repeatedly, he risks his life to save his fellow Marines.  Occasionally, “American Sniper” lightens up and lets you laugh with Chris about his romantic conquests both good and bad.

Aside from a protracted flashback sequence early into the action, “American Sniper” adheres to a conventional, straightforward storyline, chronicling the high points of Kyle’s experiences under fire.  Comparatively, director Peter Berg’s “Lone Survivor” (2013), starring Mark Wahlberg, could serve as a companion piece to “American Sniper.”  The big difference is Bradley Cooper’s SEAL team hero displays no compunctions about shooting kids, whereas Mark Wahlberg’s real-life SEAL team hero Marcus Luttrell couldn’t bring himself to kill an innocent goat herder’s son.  Meanwhile, “American Sniper” alternates between our hero’s harrowing battlefield exploits and his home front activities with his wife and family.  Eastwood doesn’t immortalize Chris Kyle as an invincible, larger-than-life, titan. Actually, we watch in horror as Kyle unravels with each tour until he can no longer tolerate the traumatic pressure of combat.  In this respect, “American Sniper” doesn’t pull any punches about the caliber of warfare that our guys had to contend with in Iraq.  Mind you, it isn’t gripping in the same slam-bang sense that “Black Hawk Down” was, but “American Sniper” still qualifies as a tour-de-force, first-rate, action yarn.  I don’t think Bradley Cooper will clinch the Best Actor Oscar, but you will know that Cooper takes his craft seriously.  Aside from Cooper, the only other three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood character is Kyle’s long-suffering wife, Taya (British actress Sienna Miller of “Foxcatcher”), who goes toe-to-toe with him.

Primarily, Eastwood filters everything through Kyle’s perspective, and you don’t witness any of those standard-issue scenes with natty politicians and high-ranking officers arguing about strategy at headquarters.  Eastwood rarely shifts the focus away from either Kyle with his family or Kyle with his buddies.  Of course, Kyle and his buddies form a tightly knit group from their rigorous beachfront SEAL team training to the devastating combat in Iraq. Predictably, warfare dwindles their numbers.  Particularly shattering is Kyle’s loss of his buddy Biggles (Jake McDorman of “Aquamarine”) who survives long enough to die in surgery. The camaraderie between Kyle and Biggles is sometimes hilarious as well as distressing.  Kyle’s younger brother Jeff (Keir O'Donnell of “Wedding Crashers”) drifts into and out of the action.  Jeff accompanies Kyle on the rodeo circuit in Texas and later follows him to the battlefield in Iraq.  Altogether, “American Sniper” ranks as a memorable military actioneer with some salty dialogue.

FILM REVIEW OF "LONE SURVIVOR" (2013)

Mark Wahlberg struggles to stay alive in war-torn Afghanistan throughout "Friday Night Lights" director Peter Berg's "Lone Survivor," (*** OUT OF ****) a heroic but tragic combat chronicle co-starring Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Eric Bana. This gritty, profane, but ill-fated secret mission saga about former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell's battlefield exploits qualifies as an entertaining but predictable saga. Basically, this blood, sweat, and tears, mission-gone-awry movie reminded me of Ridley Scott's grueling warfare spectacle "Black Hawk Down." Scott's actioneer dealt with a disastrous mission in Somalia, back in 1993, when U.S. Rangers were dispatched to snatch two warlords out of a town teeming with heavily armed fanatics. They encountered chaos galore and had to fight for their lives. Comparably smaller in scale, "Lone Survivor" lacks the harrowing intensity of "Black Hawk Down." Our desperate "Lone Survivor" hero endures a nightmare-experience that lesser souls would never have survived. Sadly, his three SEAL team unit members caught none of his breaks. Nevertheless, while watching "Lone Survivor," I didn't feel like I was dodging a firestorm of ordnance as I did when I sat through "Black Hawk Down." Despite its two-hour plus length, "Lone Survivor" never bogs down. Although Berg's combat choreography lacks the visceral quality of "Black Hawk Down," the "Lone Survivor" stunts look and sound very physical. Scenes of soldiers plummeting down the sides of craggy mountains made me flinch. Recently, I fell and shattered by right elbow so every time one of the SEALs struck either a rocky outcropping or a tree, I cringed at the sickening sounds. Specifically, Berg doesn't emphasize the predicament that ricocheting bullets posed. If you read the frank and outspoken Luttrell, whose memoir Berg adapted, the SEAL team member wrote about how ricochets could prove as menacing as the shots themselves. Most of the time, the SEALs find themselves trapped in terrain with scant foliage. Meaning, it was doubly difficult for them to hide not only from the flying lead but also ricochets. Unlike Luttrell, Berg doesn't dwell at length on the fatal mistake and its consequences as much as Luttrell's memoir. Instead, Berg winds up depicting the SEALs as honorable men who refused to take the easy way out of a moral quandary.

"Lone Survivor" covers the three days during Operation Red Wing when an elite four-man unit of Navy SEALs set out to capture Taliban chieftain Ahmad Shah (Yousuf Azami of "Crank") in the rugged Hindu Kush Mountains of the Kunar Province. They want Ahmad because he masterminded the murder of 20 American soldiers. Like the disastrous mission in "Black Hawk Down," the "Lone Survivor" heroes are conducting business-as-usual until everything that can go wrong goes horrendously wrong. Similarly, like "Black Hawk Down," "Lone Survivor" derives its narrative from a factual, eyewitness account. During the opening credits, Berg gives us a glimpse at wannabe Navy SEALs negotiating a gauntlet of an obstacle course. Grainy, documentary-style footage of SEALs enduring the worst that you can imagine outside of combat foreshadows the tenacity of our heroes. They can take a licking and keep on ticking. Afterward, we meet the quartet of warriors and enjoy their easy-going camaraderie. Twenty-nine-year old Texas native Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg of "Ted") is a Hospital Corpsman who has no idea how complicated his life will be on his next mission. Luttrell's friends, Lt. Michael Murphy (Taylor Kitsch of "John Carter"), Gunner's Mate Danny P. Dietz (Emile Hirsch of "Savages"); and Sonar Technician Matthew "Axe" Axelson (Ben Foster of "3:10 to Yuma"), are just as oblivious. Thoughts about home and their loved ones dominate their thoughts. No sooner have they reached their objective than an elderly goat herder and two boys accidentally stumble onto them in the brush. Our heroes capture these Taliban loyalists and take them prisoner. Lieutenant Murphy boils down their options. First, they can execute their hostages. Second, they can leave them tied to trees in the wilderness like snacks for wild animals. Third, they can release them and scrub the mission. Our heroes behave like noble western gunfighters. They decide to turn the shepherd and his sons loose. Luttrell and company believe they can clear out before the enemy show up. Unfortunately, our heroes find themselves suddenly surrounded by an army of Taliban terrorists armed with AK-47 assault rifles with an inexhaustible supply of ammunition. In his memoir, Luttrell compared their predicament to Custer's Last Stand. Afterward, a running gun battle follows with our heroes mowing down terrorists by the dozens. The problem is the Taliban have the SEALs hopelessly outnumbered and our heroes have nowhere to go. Worse, the SEALs have trouble getting a clear signal so they can contact headquarters and summon relief helicopter gunships!

Characterization remains sketchy at best in "Lone Survivor." Indeed, we never gain much insight into the Americans as three dimensional characters. Berg treats the quartet of SEALs as if they were an ensemble so you're not sure initially who is going to buy the farm. No single character lords it over the others in spite of their respective ranks. Not surprisingly, the Americans emerge as sympathetic, but the filmmakers don't demonize the Taliban. Primarily, Berg keeps the villains at arm's length. The Taliban amounts to pugnacious, trigger-happy, dastards. Essentially, they resemble the hordes of Apache Indians in a cavalry western. We know little about them except that they are miserable marksmen, wear too much eye-liner, and live only to slaughter Americans with extreme prejudice. Surprisingly, Berg shuns any geopolitical messages or cultural bias. The sloppy but violent combat sequences will keep you distracted from diatribes from either side. "Lone Survivor" is a good movie, but you won't want to see it more than once.