Sabotage

Sabotage - Dir. David Ayer (2014)

Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't exactly had the best of luck since making his return to feature films. His starring roles in The Last Stand and Escape Plan didn't light up the box office. In fact, Last Stand seemed to disappear from theaters almost as soon as it arrived. That's a shame because it was a fun, little action movie, which is more than could be said for Sabotage, an ensemble piece from director David Ayer. Ayer has been known for shining a gritty spotlight on law enforcement with films like Training Day, Harsh Times, Street Kings, and End of Watch. This time, he turns his attention from the LAPD to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Arnold stars as John "Breacher" Wharton, a head of an elite team of DEA agents. Wharton became known for bringing down the infamous leader of a Mexican drug cartel. However, in revenge, the cartel had Breacher's wife and son tortured to death. Breacher's team consists of a bunch of foul-mouthed, hard-drinking agents with nicknames that make them sound like G.I. Joes. There's Smoke (Mark Schlegel), Tripod (Kevin Vance), Pyro (Max Martini), Sugar (Terrence Howard), Grinder (Joe Manganiello), Neck (Josh Holloway), Monster (Sam Worthington), and his wife Lizzy (Mireille Enos).

During a raid on a cartel safe house, Breacher and his team steal $10 million and stash it down a sewer pipe. But, when they come back for it, the cash is gone. The unit spends the next several months on the sidelines while under investigation. Just as they are reinstated, someone begins murdering the agents one by one in gruesome manner. Is the cartel looking for revenge or is the killer someone within?

Arnold should be commended for stepping slightly out of his comfort zone. He's not the invincible hero we've seen him play countless times before. There's weariness to his character, one who is burdened by his almost mythical reputation, which could be seen as a meta-comment on his real life. The rippling muscles are gone, but the size and bulk are still there as Arnold resembles a weathered human bulldozer. Breacher is the darkest character Arnold has played and he's in perfect company. None of the protagonists are very sympathetic. In fact, they're all scumbags. They drink, curse, and don't seem to value life. Thus, we're hardly invested in the half-hearted, Agatha Christie murder mystery at the heart of the film.

The screenplay by Ayer and Skip Woods (who brought us Swordfish and A Good Day To Die Hard) seems more preoccupied with gruesome deaths than with creating any compelling characters. We see a man nailed to the ceiling with guts and blood spilled all over the floor, but no logical explanation as to how the killer got from point A to point B. A climactic car chase is nothing short of gratuitous when it turns into a scene from Grand Theft Auto as innocent bystanders are splattered across a windshield. The movie was previously titled Breacher and Ten, but the studio eventually settled on the generic sounding Sabotage, despite there being no examples of actual sabotage in the story.

Actors like Harold Perrineau and Josh Holloway are in so few scenes that you wonder why they bothered to show up at all. Sam Worthington has fallen far from Pandora. Not only is he barely in the movie, he's also barely recognizable with his shaved head and braided goatee. He and co-star Joe Manganiello look like they were trying out for Sons of Anarchy and took a wrong turn. The best performance in Sabotage belongs to Mireille Enos whose Lizzy is a hot mess, drug-addled due to her extensive undercover work. She's the sole woman on the team and plays it fierce as a way to overcompensate amidst the ocean of testosterone. She's hardly a glowing example of a strong female character and neither is Olivia Williams as an FBI agent assigned to the murders. Her character leaps into bed with Breacher in a wholly superfluous scene. Williams is a fine British actress, but her attempts at a Southern drawl yield embarrassing results.

Even the most ardent aficionado of Arnold actioners will have a hard time finding anything redeeming in Sabotage.

Rating: * (*****)

Snitch

Snitch - Dir. Ric Roman Waugh (2013)

With his 6'5 frame, burly physique, and boundless charisma, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was destined to grow too large for WWE rings. He's succeeded where other wrestlers (Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin) couldn't with a willingness to expand beyond the obvious action roles he was born to play. Johnson turns in a rare dramatic performance in Snitch, a movie inspired by a 1999 episode of Frontline that weighed in on the pros and cons of mandatory minimum sentencing for drug dealers.

John Matthews (Johnson) runs a successful construction company and lives in a luxurious McMansion with his second wife (Nadine Velazquez) and daughter. His ex (Melina Kanakaredes) and estranged son, Jason (Rafi Gavron), live with modest means. Jason foolishly accepts a package of ecstasy sent by his best friend, not realizing that it is being tracked by the DEA. Jason's pal has narced on him to get out of serving a mandatory ten years in prison for drug distribution. Jason is given the same deal, except he's not involved in the drug trade whatsoever. He has no one to inform on and no desire to entrap his friends. At the mercy of Joanne Keeghan (Susan Sarandon), an ambitious prosecutor bucking for a congressional seat, John proposes to work undercover to snare high profile dealers to earn his son's freedom. In order to get an introduction into the underworld, he enlists the reluctant aid of an ex-con in his employ named Daniel (Jon Bernthal), a former gangbanger trying hard to go straight.

Snitch is directed by former stuntman Ric Roman Waugh, who co-wrote the script with Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road and the upcoming Lone Ranger). The story strains credibility, especially when John researches drug cartels on Wikipedia than drives to a grimy street corner to chat up a random crook. Even in his deepest desperation, a sharp businessman like John should have known better.  And when John mows down members of a Mexican cartel in his 18-wheeler while wielding a shotgun, you can't help but feel Snitch giving up on its sermonizing.

Johnson equates himself well in his most dramatic role to date. Jon Bernthal, who made his name as Shane on The Walking Dead, is cast as that character's polar opposite. He gives the best performance in the film, which may have been more interesting had he and Johnson switched roles. With his bulging biceps hidden within the sleeves of his thick jacket, Johnson engulfs the frame too often to play the everyman. The supporting cast includes Barry Pepper and his tremendous goatee as the DEA agent handling Jason's case, Benjamin Bratt as a Mexican drug lord known as El Topo, and Michael K. Williams typecast as a creepy drug dealer in the vein of Omar Little.

Snitch is a pedestrian action movie masquerading as a socially conscious drama.

Rating: ** (*****)

Seeking Justice

Seeking Justice - Dir. Roger Donaldson (2012)

Nicolas Cage sure has had his ups and downs over the last several years. It's been a long time since he headlined a film that won widespread critical acclaim (Adaptation?) Cage seems content to star in lowbrow tripe like Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, The Sorcerer's Apprentice or Season of the Witch. The Oscar winning actor can't say no anymore. Not surprising, considering he owes millions in back taxes to the IRS. The poor guy had to sell off extravagances such as an 18^th century castle in England, an island in the Bahamas, and his copy of Action Comics #1. I don't know what's worse, giving up a copy of Superman's first appearance or doing Z-grade direct-to-video schlock like Seeking Justice.

Cage is Will Gerard, a high school teacher trying to enlighten inner city youths about Shakespeare. One night, his wife, Laura (January Jones), is attacked and raped. While waiting at the hospital, Will is approached by the mysterious Simon (Guy Pearce), a member of a clandestine organization meting out their own brand of street justice. Simon offers to deal with his wife's assailant in a manner the police and the courts cannot. All he asks in return is a simple favor to be named later. At first, the favors seem innocuous enough - mail a letter and then observe a woman and her children at the zoo. Next thing you know, Simon orders Will to murder a supposed pedophile. Will and Laura find their lives in danger as they discover just how far reaching and powerful Simon is.

Call Nicolas Cage what you want: a human medical experiment or a living, breathing post-modern expressionist art exhibit, perhaps? Whether it's his bizarre inflections, crazed bug-eyed looks or psychotic twitches, he is entertaining in a unintentional way. There's bad and there's Nicolas Cage bad. Either way, you can hardly accuse him of being boring. Unfortunately, that's exactly what he is in Seeking Justice, boring. Despite returning to the Big Easy, the site of his manic performance in Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans, Cage barely registers as if he were going through the motions until the check clears. Equally robotic is his co-star January Jones, who delivers every line with a blank stare and a monotone demeanor, much like her performances in X-Men First Class or Unknown. It's a wonder how she could be as good as Betty Draper on AMC's Mad Men.

The filmmakers may have done better by replacing Jones with Dexter star Jennifer Carpenter, who says barely a few sentences as Laura's best friend, Trudy. The supporting cast also includes Xander Berkeley as a police detective, Harold Perrineau from Lost as Will's best friend, and IronE Singleton from The Walking Dead as one of Simon's enforcers.

Much like Cage, director Roger Donaldson has had a rollercoaster career. He's been behind the camera of well-received films such as Thirteen Days and The World's Fastest Indian. Yet, he's also directed Species, Dante's Peak, the Alec Baldwin/Kim Basinger remake of The Getaway, and the 80's camp classic Cocktail. Donaldson's last feature was The Bank Job, an excellent heist movie that gave Jason Statham a chance to stretch his acting muscles beyond his usual action pictures. Seeking Justice doesn't do the same for Nicolas Cage and is so forgettable; it doesn't even belong amidst Donaldson's weaker efforts. His direction is leaden with random canted angles thrown in to switch up things.

The screenplay credited to Todd Hickey and Robert Tannen is full of weak contrivances and ludicrous plot twists. The methods of Simon's vigilante organization are needlessly Machiavellian. There's a lot of silly cloak-and-dagger activity such as buying two candy bars from a vending machine as a go signal or using the code-phrase, "The hungry rabbit jumps," which was the movie's original title. This same association employs cops, reporters, and skilled thugs. It doesn't make a lick of sense for them to coerce untrained civilians.

As revenge thrillers go, one can do better: Haywire, Lady Vengeance, and Harry Brown being recent examples. Seeking Justice is a second-rate potboiler that is unworthy of even Nicolas Cage's notoriously feeble standards.

Rating: * (*****)