Red 2

Red 2 - Dir. Dean Parisot (2013)

Still retired, still extremely dangerous.

DC Comics may be owned by Warner Brothers, but a few properties sometime slip through their fingers. Red was a 3-issue mini-series by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner and published by DC imprint Wildstorm. The source material was about a retired CIA agent seeking revenge after his former employers order his death. Summit Entertainment bought the rights, perhaps to diversify their portfolio from the sparkly vampires and YA novel adaptations. Screenwriters Erich and Jon Hoeber turned the original comics into a zippy team-up of A-list actors and they do so again with the sequel, Red 2.

Bruce Willis returns as Frank Moses, a retired operative looking forward to living some semblance of a normal life with his girlfriend, Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker). He's content to shop for frozen shrimp and power washers at Costco, but Sarah yearns for the globe-trotting action she witnessed when they first met. She gets her wish when a document posted on Wikileaks purports the involvement of Frank and Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) in a Cold War operation code-named Nightshade, wherein an experiment nuclear weapon was smuggled into Moscow. Once again, a seedy faction within the CIA wants Frank dead and they've sent their best man, Jack Horton (Neal McDonough), along with Korean assassin Han Cho Bai (Byung-hun Lee) to do the deed. Not to mention the British and the Russians want to get their hands on the device by any means necessary.

Part of the appeal of the Red films is the chance to see A-list actors known for serious fare participating in a lighthearted action movie. Red 2 knows which side its bread is buttered and relies solely on its ensemble. There aren’t many joys in life to match the sight of Helen Mirren wielding a sniper rifle or pouring acid into a bathtub to dispose of a corpse while in ritzy eveningwear. John Malkovich also has fun as the unhinged Marvin Boggs. The ranks are bolstered by veterans Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Edward Bailey, the device’s inventor, who has spent decades locked away in an insane asylum and Catherine Zeta-Jones as a sultry femme fatale. Byung-hun Lee, one of the newer faces to American audiences, gets some great action sequences, including one where he beats up several cops while handcuffed to a glass door. He’s a welcome addition since his co-stars aren’t nearly as nimble.

The script by the Hoebers can hardly muster any sort of surprising twists or substance whatsoever. On the other hand, the picture moves at such a rapid clip that you hardly have the time to lament such things. Title cards utilizing comic book art in Hamner’s style help to remind us that we are watching a cartoon come to life.

Red 2 is absurd and thinly plotted, but it helps that the cast is comprised of actors who can lend weight to such weightless material.

Rating: ** (*****)

The Campaign

The Campaign - Dir. Jay Roach (2012)

"War has rules. Mud wrestling has rules. Politics has no rules."

            -Ross Perot

Will Ferrell comedies are pretty easy to conceive. Simply drop the comedian into an environment like NASCAR or professional ice skating and then let him run loose with his trademark absurdist ravings. And what better place for those lunatic rants than the wacky world of politics.

Ferrell is Cam Brady, the Democratic Congressman for the state of North Carolina. He has run unopposed since his election and is about to enter his fifth term. That all changes when billionaire tycoons, Glen and Wade Motch (John Lithgow & Dan Aykroyd as thinly veiled parodies of the Koch Brothers) take a vested interest in the election as means to bring cheap Chinese labor to the U.S. The Motch Brothers choose Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), the tourism director for the small town of Hammond as their candidate. Huggins is the son of Raymond Huggins (Brian Cox), a bigwig in the Republican Party who has always seen Marty as a constant embarrassment. In steps campaign manager Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott), a shadowy fixer sent in to butch up the effeminate Huggins. His chubby family is kept out of the public eye while his pugs are replaced by more American dogs, a golden retriever and a chocolate lab.

The Campaign was written by Shawn Harwell (HBO's Eastbound and Down) and Chris Henchy (The Other Guys) while Jay Roach handled directorial duties. Roach is best known for directing Austin Powers and Meet the Parents. He's had experience in political comedy as he helmed Recount and Game Change for HBO. The Campaign isn't exactly razor sharp satire and Roach's work here lies somewhere in between. The humor doesn't break any new ground as the film depicts politicians has inept, greedy, and just plain horny.

Ferrell plays it to the hilt as Brady is a concoction of Bill Clinton, John Edwards, and Ferrell's own impression of George W. Bush. He's an unrepentant philanderer spouting pedantic sound bites to rile up the rubes ("America. Jesus. Freedom"). Meanwhile, Galifianakis recycles his portrayal of his mustachioed "brother" Seth as Marty Huggins. Their rivalry begins with trash talking and rises to absurd levels as Brady drunkenly steals a police car and punches a baby in the face. At one point, Brady runs a campaign ad connecting Huggins' facial hair to that of Saddam Hussein and bin Laden.  There's a dinner table scene at the Huggins house that's reminiscent of Talladega Nights. Dylan McDermott and Karen Murayama provide funny supporting performances with the latter as a housekeeper paid extra to speak like a stereotypical mammy.

The Campaign lacks any teeth as the filmmakers try their best to straddle the thin line between red and blue states. They attempt to skewer everyone with gags relying on raunchiness and slapstick. If you want profanity and intelligence in your satire, Armando Iannucci's In the Loop is a better bet. Still, The Campaign is amusing enough and moves at a brisk pace.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

Coriolanus

Coriolanus - Dir. Ralph Fiennes (2011)

Before him, he carries noise and behind him he leaves tears.

Death, that dark spirit, in his nervy arm doth lie

Which, being advanced, declines, and then men die.

Some of Shakespeare's most renowned plays have been adapted many times over and modernized re-imaginings are nothing new. Baz Lurhmann transported Romeo and Juliet to Miami and set their tragic romance to an alternative rock soundtrack. Ian McKellan set his version of Richard III in a 1930's England that resembled Nazi Germany. That particular film is the closest in spirit to Coriolanus, which marks the directorial debut of Ralph Fiennes. This is also the first time Coriolanus, based off the purported life of a real Roman general, has been translated to the big screen.

An opening title placard states that the story is set in a "place called Rome" though it was shot on location in Belgrade. Fiennes is Caius Martius, a leading general in the military charged with the protection of the city. He leads a successful campaign against its enemies, the Volscians, led by Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler). He returns home to the love of his wife, Virgilia (Jessica Chastain) and his fiercely patriotic mother, Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave). The city's leaders heap adoration upon Martius and bestow upon him the honorific title, Coriolanus, after the Volscian city he conquered. His close friend, Menenius (Brian Cox), advises Coriolanus to go into politics. However, his quick temper and open disdain for the common people turn out to be his undoing. Opposing senators Brutus (Paul Jesson) and Sicinius (James Nesbitt) undermine Coriolanus by whipping the masses into a frenzy against him and force the government to banish him. Seeking revenge, he allies himself with Aufidius to lead the Volscian army against the city that spurned him.

It's a testament to Shakespeare that a play written in the 1600's as commentary for the discontent of the government in his era still remains relevant to this day. Fiennes has captured these themes in all their gritty detail. The setting of bombed out buildings will instantly bring to mind the war-torn countries of Serbia, Bosnia, as well as those in the Middle East. An opening protest by the plebeians has echoes of the political unrest in places like Egypt and Libya as well as the Occupy movement. There's an immediacy to these sequences thanks to Fiennes' direction and the cinematography of Barry Ackroyd, who shot United 93, Green Zone, and The Hurt Locker. The screenplay by John Logan (Gladiator) maintains a fine balance between modernity and the florid language of Shakespeare. Logan and Fiennes even manage to incorporate CNN-esque news updates as a Greek chorus.

To no one's surprise, Fiennes is excellent in the title role (which he previously played on stage), infusing a quiet fury to Coriolanus while going big in a theatrical manner when necessary. Gerard Butler is all sound and fury as the antagonistic Aufidius in a similar performance to King Leonidas in 300. It's a treat to watch Fiennes and Butler in a battle of snarling rage. Vanessa Redgrave's Volumnia won't be winning any mother of the year awards. She isn't overtly malevolent, but more of an aristocratic stage mom. She would rather have a dozen dead sons who died defending their country than one who lived a long life in anonymity. The supporting cast also includes the ubiquitous Jessica Chastain, who seemed to appear in practically every film in 2011. Her part is disappointingly brief and not nearly as meaty as her roles in Take Shelter or The Tree of Life.

Make you a sword of me.

There can be a disconnect when you attempt to place the poetic words of Shakespeare into a contemporary setting, especially one involving televisions and cell phones. This isn't the case with Coriolanus. The language of the Bard flows from the tongues of the cast without feeling artificial or hokey. Ralph Fiennes makes a powerful directorial debut that stands as a parable for the hot button issues of today.

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

Red

Red - Dir. Robert Schwentke (2010)

RED: Retired, Extremely Dangerous

For some odd reason, 2010 was the year for movies about crack teams of highly-trained specialists. We had The Losers, The A-Team, and The Expendables. Now, here comes Red, which also fits into the subgenre of 'government operatives hunted down by their employers' along with Salt and Knight and Day.

Red is based on a three issue mini-series by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner that was published by Wildstorm, an imprint of DC Comics. The source material centered on a lone protagonist and was made of darker, more violent stuff. Jon & Eric Hoeber, who also adapted the graphic novel Whiteout, freely interpret the comic into a comedy-driven action romp.

Bruce Willis stars as Frank Moses, a former CIA assassin who has retired into a life of boring routine. He wakes up, eats his breakfast, and wheels out the garbage just like everyone else in his nondescript neighborhood. The sole bright spot of Frank's mundane existence are his flirty chats with Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), the service rep who handles his pension. Like Frank, Sarah is trapped in the rut of your average cubicle dweller. She finds excitement more in the idea of Frank than the man himself.

One day, a hit-squad riddles Frank's house with machine gun fire in the middle of the night. Frank dispatches them with cold-blooded efficiency and rescues Sarah from another team of assassins who have monitored his conversations. Now, Frank must track down his former colleagues to find out who wants him dead. First, there's Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), now residing in a nursing home and suffering from terminal liver cancer. Next is Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich), a conspiracy nut hiding out in the Florida swamps. He was fed a steady diet of LSD as part of a secret mind control experiment. Frank even turns to a former nemesis in Ivan Simanov (Brian Cox), a former Russian operative and one-time lover of the final member of the team, Victoria (Helen Mirren). An ex-MI6 agent, Victoria, now runs a bed and breakfast in Maryland.

The filmmakers didn't skimp on the supporting roles either, snagging an ensemble of talented actors to fill out the movie. Karl Urban plays William Cooper, the CIA agent tasked with capturing Frank and his comrades, with Rebecca Pidgeon as his hard-nosed supervisor and Julian McMahon as the vice-president. Richard Dreyfuss essentially reprises his role of Dick Cheney from Oliver Stone's W. as a crooked industrialist. The 93-year old Ernest Borgnine shows everybody how it's done as a records keeper for the CIA's dirtiest secrets.

Most of the actors play their roles broadly with Malkovich and Dreyfuss being the most over-the-top. You almost wish Dreyfuss had grown a handlebar mustache so you could watch him twirl it with villainous glee. In contrast, Willis is more laid back as the laconic Frank Moses. It's easy to imagine Moses as what John McClane would be like in his sunset years. His role in Red can also be seen as a meta comment on Willis's career as an action hero. At 55, Willis isn't quite ready to hand in his badge and gun, not when there's still ass kicking to do. Morgan Freeman (who could captivate an audience by reading the phone book) doesn't get nearly as much screen time, but makes the most of what little he has. Brian Cox affects a rather iffy Russian accent as a Cold War throwback.

Despite being a testosterone driven film, the best performances in Red belong to Mary-Louise Parker and Dame Helen Mirren. As the underwritten love interest, Parker displays deft comedic timing. Her best scenes are towards the beginning of the movie when she's kidnapped by Frank. Even with her hands bound and her mouth gagged, she manages to bring the funny, acting as the counterpoint to the sleepy eyed Willis. And what can you say about the ultra-classy Mirren? Her Victoria is like a cross between Emma Peel and Martha Stewart. She remains prim and proper as she fires a sniper rifle and throat punches people. How can anyone not delight in seeing Mirren decked out in an evening gown and combat boots while manning a .50 caliber machine gun bigger than she is?

The action is wildly cartoonish. A hand grenade is swatted away like a baseball and blows a henchman into pieces. Shortly afterwards, Malkovich deflects a rocket with a single bullet. It explodes in a massive ball of fire while Malkovich emerges without as much as a singed eyebrow. The film does peter out during a pedestrian and anticlimactic resolution, but rebounds with a hilarious epilogue.

Rating: ***

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Dir. Wes Anderson (2009)


I count myself as a big Wes Anderson fan. Though most folks will immediately list Rushmore as his best film, it’s a distant second, in my opinion, to The Royal Tenenbaums. His debut film, Bottle Rocket, was a funny and touching combination of the slacker film and heist picture. However, Anderson’s unique visual style and storytelling methods grew stale following The Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited. It seemed as if he was just spinning his wheels, revisiting the exact same themes he had already explored. When I learned Anderson was adapting Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, I had hoped he would stretch himself as a filmmaker. A movie based on someone else’s material and done with stop-motion animation seemed like the way to go. I was disappointed after viewing the trailer since Fantastic Mr. Fox looked exactly like every other Wes Anderson film. After catching the actual film, I found my apprehension to be unfounded. He has succeeded beyond expectations in creating one of the most unique and enjoyable movies of the year.

George Clooney provides the voice for Mr. Fox, a charmer who gets his kicks from stealing chickens. He vows to give it up after he and his pregnant wife, Felicity (Meryl Streep), narrowly escape a fox trap. Years pass and Fox now lives in a hole with wife and son, Ash (Jason Schwartzman), and works as a newspaper columnist. He’s lived up to his promise, but feels stifled by what his life has become. Fox moves his family into a tree near the farms of Boggis (Robin Hurlstone), Bunce (Hugo Guinness), and Bean (Michael Gambon), the meanest and nastiest farmers in the valley. Yet, it’s still not enough. In Fox’s own words, he is a “wild animal,” and the call is too much to resist. When Fox robs them of their chickens, smoked meats, and apple cider, the farmers attempt to dig their adversary out of his hole, endangering every animal in the valley.

Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding) step beyond the original story by adding a subplot revolving around family dysfunction and the father-son dynamics which both are so fond of exploring. Ash is insecure about his size and lack of athletic ability. His self-esteem only plummets when cousin Kristofferson (Eric Chase Anderson) comes to stay while his uncle recovers from triple pneumonia. Kristofferson is tall, smart, practices yoga, and a martial arts expert. Everybody flocks to Kristofferson. He has more Fox in him than Ash does leading to a jealous rivalry.

Anderson fills out the rest of the supporting cast with his usual repertoire of players like Bill Murray as Fox’s lawyer Badger, Brian Cox as a news reporter, Willem Dafoe as Bean’s security guard Rat, and Owen Wilson in a cute aside as a coach explaining the Byzantine rules of Whackbat. The director also completes the soundtrack with his always eclectic choices. This time around we get The Beach Boys, The Bobby Fuller Four, Burl Ives, “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” (which opens the picture), and, of course, The Rolling Stones. No David Bowie?

Working in a new medium has reinvigorated Anderson’s idiosyncratic trademarks. Nobody has tried to make an animated film the way Anderson has. Mr. Fox stands head and shoulders above the majority of its cookie cutter peers because it doesn’t look like anything else. Anderson has created a whimsical and timeless world. The puppets were created using actual hair and animal fur giving them a textured feel that can’t be replicated by any software. The cross-section tableaus, the bold yellow chapter headings, the straight-on medium and close-up shots, and the dry quirky humor are on full display in Mr. Fox. In particular, Schwartzman’s deadpan delivery and a running gag where characters cuss by actually saying, “Cuss,” are some of the funniest bits.

2009 should definitely be considered a watershed year for what would be labeled as “family friendly entertainment.” I consider Mr. Fox, Where the Wild Things Are, Coraline, and Up as some of the best films of the year. None of those movies attempt to dumb things down or pander to the audience. They don’t aim for one particular demographic yet appeal to all age groups. Throughout Mr. Fox, there’s an underlying theme about individualism and a subtle commentary about our current economic climate and the trappings of materialism. Kids probably won’t get a lot of that or understand some of the irreverent humor, but there’s more than enough imagination and visual wonder to keep them (and their parents) enthralled.

Rating: *** ½