Sin City: A Dame To Kill For

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For - Dirs. Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller (2014)

"Sin City is where you go in with your eyes open or you don't come out at all."

You have to hand it to Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller for their dogged determination in sequelizing Sin City. Nine years later, the much-anticipated Sin City: A Dame to Kill For finally arrived in theaters to a tepid response. The movie came just shy of pulling in $40 million worldwide, a fraction of the $158 million earned by its predecessor. Perhaps, too much time has passed.

The original Sin City stood head and shoulders above other Hollywood releases with its hyper-stylized representation of film noir, stark black and white accentuated by splashes of color. Rodriguez also changed the way we thought of adapting comic books by slavishly remaining faithful to Miller's artwork. Pages from the comics were kept on set to utilize as storyboards. Now the look of Sin City isn't as fresh with perfume commercials appropriating the visuals. Miller certainly didn't help matters with his abysmal attempt at a feature film version of Will Eisner's Spirit. As for Rodriguez, Grindhouse was a fun experiment that deserved a larger audience, but Shorts, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, and Machete Kills didn't set the world on fire.

A Dame to Kill For begins with "Just Another Saturday Night," in which the nigh-invulnerable bruiser Marv (Mickey Rourke) tries to piece together a hazy evening that involved frat boys lighting hobos on fire.

The best and most substantial story is "A Dame to Kill For" starring Dwight McCarthy (Josh Brolin), a man trying to put his violent past behind him. Everything falls apart when he is reunited with former lover Ava Lord (Eva Green). Against his better judgment, Dwight agrees to save Ava from an abusive marriage with the wealthy Damian Lord (Marton Csokas). Of course, Dwight should have known better than to believe anything coming from those luscious lips.

The second Sin City also features two original stories. In "The Long Bad Night," a cocky gambler named Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) enters into a high stakes poker game against the powerful Senator Roark (Powers Boothe) and might lose more than just his money. Finally, there's "Nancy's Last Dance," which continues the story from "The Yellow Bastard." Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) is still haunted by the death of her protector John Hartigan (Bruce Willis), who sacrificed his life to protect her from the grasp of Sen. Roark. Now, Nancy is a little unhinged and prepares nearly every waking moment to seek revenge against the untouchable politico.

If you enjoyed the style over substance approach of the first movie, then you'll probably dig A Dame to Kill For since you get more of the same. Rodriguez and Miller seamlessly blend live-action with computer animation in a dynamic fashion to craft the world of Sin City. There's some great imagery here, such as deadly little Miho firing a bow & arrow against a full moon or Roark surrounded by stacks of poker chips that resemble skyscrapers. After a while, it gets tiring, especially when the stories are so repetitive. We get decapitations galore and an endless stream of hard boiled narration. And the women of Sin City wind up being strippers, prostitutes or chopped into pieces by sadistic killers.

The filmmakers try harder this time around to integrate the various stories in the sequel and use the strip club, Kadie's Saloon, as a hub. It doesn't really work nor does it enhance the experience. It can be confusing as well since time means nothing. "Long Bad Night" and "Nancy's Last Dance" take place after the events of the previous picture, but "Dame to Kill For" is a prequel. Keep in mind; these new stories aren't by the Frank Miller who gave us acclaimed runs on Batman and Daredevil. This is the new Frank Miller behind the laughable All-Star Batman & Robin and the atrocious Holy Terror. This is a Frank Miller who thought it would be a fantastic idea for Nancy to disfigure her own face for the sole purpose of getting Marv to help her on a mission of vengeance. Heaven forbid a female character do something on her own.

Marv is a constant in each segment and the big bruiser brought a lot of dark humor in "The Hard Goodbye." However, he's now become a glorified attack dog that they sic on any henchmen in sight. So it makes absolutely no sense why Nancy doesn't just ask him to kill a bunch of dudes for her.

Rosario Dawson as the machine gun toting dominatrix Gail is back along with Jaime King as twin sexpots Goldie and Wendy, and Bruce Willis as the world's most laconic ghost. Dennis Haysbert takes over the role of Manute from the late-Michael Clarke Duncan while Jamie Chung replaces Devon Aoki as the silent assassin Miho. Among the newcomers are Juno Temple, Christopher Lloyd, Ray Liotta, Lady Gaga, Christopher Meloni, Jeremy Piven, and Stacy Keach underneath grotesque make-up that makes him look like a rejected Dick Tracy villain.

None of them hold a candle to Eva Green, who relishes in the role of the femme fatale to end all femme fatales. This is the very definition of sultry and seductive. Green deserves a special award for Best Performances in Unnecessary Frank Miller sequels. She was also the highlight of 300: Rise of an Empire as warrior woman Artemisia. Josh Brolin equates himself well with the gruff and lurid prose as Dwight when he had his old face. It does hurt the tale that Clive Owen was unable to return as Dwight after the reconstructive surgery.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For feels like a quick cash grab that was slapped together, except it came nine years later when the irons have long been cold. It's gratuitously crude and violent without any creative spark.

Rating: ** (*****)

The Equalizer

The Equalizer – Dir. Antoine Fuqua (2014)

It's been well over a decade since director Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington first collaborated on Training Day, a movie that earned the latter an Academy Award for Best Actor. While Washington has been churning out a combination of action and drama, Fuqua's output hasn't been quite as fruitful. He's helmed a couple of arguably decent action flicks (Shooter, Olympus Has Fallen) and some forgettable fare (King Arthur, Brooklyn's Finest). Now, the pair has teamed up for the second time for a film that is most definitely not Training Day.

The Equalizer is based on the 80's television series about Robert McCall (originally played by Edward Woodward), a former CIA agent, who became a freelance troubleshooter for anyone in need. Think of him as a one man A-Team. Washington easily steps into the role with McCall's background much more mysterious this time around. What we do know is that he's retired from his former life and now living in a Spartan, one bedroom Boston apartment. He's the manager at a Home Mart (a Home Depot-esque megastore) and offers kindly advice to those around him. He spends many sleepless nights drinking tea and reading all those novels people tell you to read at a 24hr diner straight out of Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks." There, McCall befriends a young girl named Alina (Chloe Grace Moretz) who is forced to work as a prostitute for particularly nasty Russian gangsters.

McCall quickly dispatches with the villains after Alina is nearly beaten into a coma. Too late does he find out that they weren't lowly pimps, but integral cogs in the east coast arm of the Russian Mafia. The powerful head of the organization, Mr. Pushkin (Vladimir Kulich), sends in his chief enforcer Teddy (Marton Csokas) to clean up the mess. Meanwhile, McCall keeps himself busy dealing with a stick-up man and two dirty cops.

The Equalizer isn't about shattering genre conventions, but wallowing in them in the best possible manner. This is the type of movie where cargo ships and oil tankers explode as Denzel calmly walks away without ever looking back. He dispatches bad guys quickly and efficiently with the fighting style we've seen plenty of times in the Taken and Bourne films. In a nice touch, McCall generally uses whatever is handy to kill his enemies. This is especially spotlighted during the climax inside the Home Mart, which plays out like an R-rated version of Home Alone.

While the action is fun, there's no flair to it. Fuqua's direction is surprisingly pedestrian. Even the sequences where McCall goes into Equalizer-vision, slowing things down and assessing the situation, were done far better by Guy Ritchie in Sherlock Holmes. Only occasionally do the visuals pop, such as when Fuqua references Rear Window in a scene where Teddy claims another victim. The screenplay by Richard Wenk (The Mechanic, The Expendables 2) doesn't grasp the concept of subtext. The novels McCall reads, like The Old Man and the Sea and Don Quixote, serve as obvious commentary for the various acts of The Equalizer.

At 59, Denzel doesn't look his age at all. Along with Liam Neeson, he's got the presence and instant credibility to serve as an action hero. Here, Denzel dials it down and underplays the role to enhance the character's cool demeanor and ordered lifestyle. It's a stark contrast to Marton Csokas playing it as an old school, menacing Bond villain with tattoos of devils across his torso. Melissa Leo and Bill Pullman are a welcome sight as they pop in quickly as McCall's former CIA handlers. There's definitely a Taxi Driver element to the friendship between McCall and Alina, but Chloe Moretz disappears for a majority of the movie when it decides death and destruction are more interesting.

The Equalizer is a perfectly acceptable compliment to similar action movies such as Man on Fire, Taken, and Jack Reacher. The basic elements are enjoyable enough to forget that Fuqua and Denzel do little to transcend clichés.

Rating: *** (*****)

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Dir. Timur Bekmambetov (2012)

Four score and seven ass kickings ago...

It says a lot about our education system when young children aren't taught pivotal moments in history such as when Abraham Lincoln killed all those vampires to end the Civil War or the time Adolf Hitler was gunned down by the guy who directed Hostel.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was conceived by Seth Grahame-Smith, who started a new literary mash-up trend with the hit novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. There, Grahame-Smith re-conceived the Bennett Sisters as a skilled fighting force against the undead. The book was quickly optioned by Lionsgate though it has been mired in development hell. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter made it to the screen first thanks to the involvement of Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov with the relatively unknown Benjamin Walker cast in the title role.

The film begins with Abe as a child witnessing his father protect he and his friend William Johnson from the whip of a vicious plantation owner named Jack Barts (Marton Csokas). It turns out Barts is a vampire and kills Nancy Lincoln (Robin McLeavy) in revenge. As an adult, Lincoln hunts Barts down, but is ill-prepared for his supernatural strength. He is saved from death by Henry Sturgess (Dominic Cooper), a benevolent vampire who makes Lincoln his axe-wielding apprentice. During his training, our 16^th President learns that the vampires have flourished in the South with slaves serving as a veritable smorgasbord. He ultimately decides to use a weapon even more powerful than silver or holy water…politics.

The appeal of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter isn't just seeing Lincoln dismember bloodsucking fiends, but the way in which it weaves fantastical elements with actual historical facts. Some of the most important figures in Lincoln's life are presented in fictionalized fashion. In Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln works in the general store of Joshua Speed (Jimmi Simpson) and is reunited with his childhood buddy William Johnson (Anthony Mackie). Both become his staunchest allies while campaigning and fighting vampires. He also falls in love with future wife, Mary Todd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), despite Sturgess's warnings against personal relationships. Even Jefferson Davis (John Rothman) and Harriet Tubman (Jacqueline Fleming) figure into the narrative. Sadly, Lincoln's famous debates with Stephen Douglas (Alan Tudyk) are given only a fleeting amount of screen time. And it is at this point that the movie starts to die a slow and painfully boring death.

Grahame-Smith may be a talented novelist, but he has yet to display any consistency in his screenwriting endeavors. He impressed Burton enough to get writing duties on Dark Shadows and a possible Beetlejuice sequel. However, Dark Shadows was a box office flop that struggled to adapt a soap opera structure to a feature film. Grahame-Smith has the same problems translating his book. The middle section sags with a distinct lack of action and the overall tone is far too morbid for what should have been a campy cult classic. A few changes to the vampire mythology work well. The vampires' weakness to silver is tied into the 30 pieces of silver paid to Judas. One element that doesn't make a lot of sense is the fact that vampires cannot kill their own kind. It's a flimsy explanation for why Sturgess would take on Lincoln as a pupil when it didn't really need any explanation at all. Perhaps, the biggest problem with the movie is its tacky retconning of the Emancipation Proclamation. You see, President Lincoln didn't free the slaves out of an altruistic belief that all human beings deserve the basic right of freedom. It was to cut off the vampires' food supply.

Bekmambetov is no stranger to directing gothic, over-the-top action films having previously helmed Night Watch and Wanted. The set pieces here are underwhelming with such liberal use of slow motion that Zack Snyder would even scoff. Only two sequences make any impression. One features a Lion King-esque stampede in which Barts throws an entire horse at Lincoln. The final act sees Lincoln and friends battling an army of vampires on board a train racing towards a burning bridge. The visual look of the film leaves much to be desired and likely falls on the shoulders of post-production rather than cinematographer Caleb Deschanel. The colors are de-saturated and there's a murkiness to the night scenes that makes the 3D version an absolutely avoidable.

This isn't the first time Benjamin Walker has portrayed a radical interpretation of a former president. He starred in the Broadway musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which turned Old Hickory into an eyeliner wearing, angst-ridden rock star. Walker is decent enough, but the leaden material saps him of any energy or charisma. Walker bears a strong resemblance to Liam Neeson and, in fact, played a younger version of him in Kinsey. Ironic since Neeson was once attached to star Lincoln in Spielberg's upcoming biopic. In line with Vampire Hunter's ultra-serious tone, the actors play it dour with the exception of Marton Csokas who hams it up as the murderous Jack Barts. The best performance goes to Rufus Sewell as the vampiric progenitor Adam.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter sounded like a wild concept. Then again, so did Snakes on a Plane and Hot Tub Time Machine, projects with a catchy title and that never panned out past their jokey premises.

Rating: ** (*****)

Dream House

Dream House - Dir. Jim Sheridan (2011)

Dream House sure sounded like a dream project. At the helm was Jim Sheridan, the Academy Award nominated director of My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father and In America. The cast had serious star power with Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, and Naomi Watts in the lead roles. Yet, Dream House turned into a complete nightmare. Sheridan clashed frequently with producer James G. Robinson. Their disagreements centered on Sheridan employing an improvisational style that deviated heavily from the script by David Loucka. Response from test screenings was disastrous and extensive reshoots were required. Robinson and Morgan Creek Productions took control and edited the move themselves. A displeased Sheridan attempted to have his name removed from the credits. Dream House was eventually released with very little fanfare. There was no gala premiere, no press screenings, and the actors refused to promote the picture. It seemed the only good thing to come out of the film was the fact that Craig and Weisz fell in love on set and eventually married.

Craig is Will Atenton, a successful book editor in New York, who quits his job to spend more time with his family. He's just bought a new home in a sleepy, snow covered New England town. He hopes to live a quiet life with his wife, Libby (Weisz), and daughters Trish & Dee Dee (Taylor & Claire Geare). But, that doesn't appear to be in the cards. The townsfolk are on edge around Atenton, especially his next-door neighbor Ann Patterson (Watts), who is in a bitter custody dispute with her ex-husband Jack (Marton Csokas). After chasing off a group of goth teenagers partying in his basement, Will learns the previous owners of his happy house were brutally murdered. A man named Peter Ward allegedly killed his wife and daughters and was committed to an insane asylum. As Will digs further into the mystery, he may like what he finds.

It's difficult to discuss the plot of Dream House any further without spoiling everything. That's assuming you haven't seen the trailer, which revealed practically the entire movie. Not that it really matters; the story is so trite and unoriginal that you will see every twist coming. For one thing, Elias Koteas is in the movie. When has Elias Koteas ever been cast in a role where he wasn't a creepy guy?

Despite all the finger pointing, there's plenty of blame to go around. First there's the hacky screenplay by David Loucka, whose most notable credit was as a co-writer on the Whoopi Goldberg comedy, Eddie. It's a safe bet that A-list talent like Craig, Weisz, and Watts signed on to work with Jim Sheridan. However, I don't think his version would have been that much better than the final product.

Dream House seems like the Exorcist prequel all over again. Not surprisingly that was also produced by Morgan Creek. Paul Schrader directed the original picture before the studio hired Renny Harlin was brought on to direct a retooled version. They were both eventually released into theaters and were both critical and financial flops.

Sheridan's cut may have been incrementally better than the theatrical version, but it surely couldn't have been on par with his best work. This isn't the same Sheridan who directed In America. It's the Sheridan who directed Get Rich or Die Tryin.' Sheridan is more than capable of telling personal stories about Irish immigrants, but he's not up to handling slick Hollywood fare.

Dream House might be Daniel Craig's worst performance ever. Perhaps, Craig was less than enthused about returning for reshoots and couldn't be bothered to give it his all. Sort of like Harrison Ford being forced to read the stilted narration for the theatrical cut of Blade Runner.

Dream House consists of so many half-baked contrivances that you'd think it was made by someone who went through M. Night Shyamalan's dumpster. The backstage drama during the production was far more compelling than the actual movie. This is an ineptly made thriller lacking in atmosphere or suspense.

Rating: * (*****)

The Debt

The Debt - Dir. John Madden (2011)

The Debt is a slick Hollywood remake of a little seen Israeli film called Ha-Hov, which was released in 2007. A throwback to the Cold War thrillers of the 1970’s, The Debt follows the lives of three Mossad agents on a secret mission to apprehend a Nazi war criminal.

In 1965, David Peretz (Sam Worthington) and Stephan Gold (Marton Csokas) are deep undercover in East Berlin and tasked by Mossad with finding the fugitive Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen), whose sadistic human experiments earned him infamy as “The Surgeon of Birkenau.” Learning that Vogel has been living in anonymity as a gynecologist, they are joined by Rachel Singer (Jessica Chastain), a young translator on her first field mission. Posing as David’s wife, Singer visits Vogel’s office to capture him, but their plan to spirit him into West Berlin goes awry. Now, the agents are forced to hold up in a rundown flat with their sadistic prisoner.

In 1997, David, Stephan, and Rachel are now played by Ciaran Hinds, Tom Wilkinson, and Helen Mirren. All three are heralded as national heroes, despite the obvious emotional fallout. Rachel is singled out for killing Vogel when he tried to escape custody. Stephan married and divorced Rachel while rising to a high-ranking position within Mossad. David, meanwhile, has been traveling off the grid for years. The trio is supposed to be reunited in honor of the publication of a book about the mission by Rachel’s daughter. The celebration comes to a screeching halt when David finally resurfaces only to commit suicide by stepping in front of a truck.

The narrative progresses between two parallel storylines set in two time periods. The mystery of what really happened on that ill-fated mission slowly unravels piece by piece thanks to the workmanlike direction from John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) and the script by Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and the team of Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman (Stardust, Kick-Ass). The early scenes set in East Berlin are fraught with tension, especially the uneasy moments where Rachel must be examined by a man obviously inspired by real-life Nazi butcher Josef Mengele. The tension rises during a tightly crafted sequence at a train stop where the protagonists attempt to smuggle their prey across the border. When that fails, they are forced to guard Vogel in their flat until a contingency plan is put together. There, Vogel plays mind games with the nervous agents, taunting them and the loved ones they lost in the Holocaust. Exacerbating the already edgy Israelis is the simmering love triangle revolving around Rachel, David, and Stephan. It's obvious a romance would happen with Rachel being the sole woman between two lonely men.

However, The Debt loses its way in the third act with a resolution that stinks of the studio demanding an ending that wraps everything up in a neat, little bow. These final moments lack the power that the rest of the film had.

Rather than utilizing copious amounts of makeup, the filmmakers cast two sets of actors to play the younger and older characters. On the plus side, we don't have to deal with unconvincing putty jobs like the recently released J. Edgar. The drawback is making sure the actors resemble one another. While Jessica Chastain could pass for Helen Mirren, their male counterparts don't match up quite right. Marton Csokas actually looks more like a young Ciaran Hinds than he does a young Tom Wilkinson who could pass for an older Sam Worthington if you squint your eyes just right. Still, each man gives a good performance though the film is largely commanded by Chastain and the ever-regal Mirren. The omnipresent Chastain has broken through this year with acclaimed turns in arthouse titles like The Tree of Life and Take Shelter as well as the highly successful The Help. The Debt features another winning performance from Chastain as the vulnerable Rachel with Mirren adding an extra layer of weariness for her scenes. Jesper Christensen, best known as Mr. White in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, really ups the creepy factor as the movie's sneering and remorseless villain.

The Debt almost feels like a comment on Jewish guilt and self-loathing. While it's doubtful that was anybody's intention, those themes feel like their bubbling underneath the surface. The Debt is a slightly pedestrian, but competently made thriller that stands in the shadow of Steven Spielberg's far superior Munich.

Rating: ** (*****)

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland - Dir. Tim Burton (2010)


”Remember what the dormouse said; ‘Keep your head…keep your head.’”

Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland has been sanitized over the years. Aside from Jan Svankmejer’s Alice, most versions lack the darker and tripper elements of the source material. Ironically, Disney (known for sanitizing many works of literature) decided to return to Carroll’s novels and wisely tapped Tim Burton to steer the ship. Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is part-remake, part-sequel with a script by Disney veteran Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King) that combines elements from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the sequel, Through the Looking Glass.

Years have passed since a young Alice fell down the rabbit hole. Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is now 20, practically a spinster according to her sister. About to be married off to a ridiculous looking ginger named Hamish (Leo Bill), Alice follows the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen) once more and winds up back in Wonderland. However, this is the first time to her. Her original adventures have been reduced to the vaguest memories and a recurring nightmare. Alice is reunited with many of her old friends such as the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), the Caterpillar (Alan Rickman), and the twins Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Matt Lucas).

Wonderland (referred to by its inhabitants as Underland) has fallen under the tyrannical rule of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter). She’s a petite woman with an enlarged head and fetishes for using animals as furniture and decapitations. The encephalitically enchanced Red Queen rules with fear due to her command of the monstrous Jabberwocky (Christopher Lee). Alice must find the mythical Vorpal Sword in order to slay the Jabberwocky and return the kingdom to its rightful monarch, the White Queen (Anne Hathaway).

As you’d expect, Burton has created a visually stunning film using a mixture of live-action, CGI, and motion capture. Burton’s vision of Wonderland is a gorgeous feast for the eyes. The film was shot in 2D then converted to 3D in post. The 3D effects are certainly stronger than those in Clash of the Titans, but the world doesn’t open up the way it does in Coraline. What’s missing from the film is heart. Without any sort of emotional pathos, Alice in Wonderland becomes an empty exercise in excess.

Burton has turned Carroll’s mythos into a superficial tale of girl power. As a result, Alice dips into the familiar conventions of fantasy epics like Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia. There’s a prophecy that must be fulfilled and Alice dons a suit of armor and clashes swords with the Red Queen’s army on a chess-themed battlefield. All of which feels out of place.

The performances are somewhat uneven. As Alice, Mia Wasikowska gives a strong showing even while her more fantastical cast mates attempt to steal every scene. In his seventh film with Burton, Depp creates yet another in a long line of eccentric characters. His Mad Hatter is a schizo speaking with a dandy lisp one moment and a deep Braveheart-style Scottish accent in another. Britsh comedian Stephen Fry gets some of the film’s best moments as the voice of an erudite Chesire Cat. Burton’s paramour Helena Bonham Carter makes for an excellent villain playing the Red Queen as an ill-tempered brat. This is in stark contrast to Anne Hathaway as the flighty White Queen. Gleaming in pure white, she’s an ultra-heightened rendition of the Disney Princess archetype.

An A-list cast and dazzling effects make Alice in Wonderland a worthwhile effort undone by a third act lacking in gravitas.

Rating: ** ½