The Hustler (1961) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Robert Rossen

Starring:  Paul Newman, Piper Laurie, Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott, Murray Hamilton

"You've got talent, but you're a loser."    That is Bert Gordon's simple explanation as to why Fast Eddie Felson isn't ready for prime time in the world of high-stakes pool hustling.      In the first half-hour of The Hustler, Fast Eddie loses all of his money in a grueling 40-hour match with the legendary Minnesota Fats.      We know in movies like this that Fast Eddie will face Minnesota Fats again, but will he be able to win this time?     

The matches between Minnesota Fats and Fast Eddie are straight-up games matching wits and skill.    How was Minnesota Fats able to withstand Eddie's skill and win the first time?    "Character," Bert says.    "When he took a break, he washed up, cleaned off his hands, and started himself anew."     Those who know how to win in any sport know that there will be setbacks and early deficits to be overcome.     The winners are the ones who can adjust and come back.     The losers often don't know what hit them and can't adjust.     Fast Eddie makes his living in between matches with Fats by hustling in small-time, seedy pool halls where he makes the most of his babyfaced grin.     Of course, there are times he hustles those who aren't so quick to give their money away.    Fast Eddie winds up with broken thumbs in these instances.   

The Hustler is the story of Fast Eddie and his rise from early defeat to victory, but he pays a dear price for it.     The characters, except Fats, are busy hustling each other and playing the angles to gain an advantage.     Living like this is exhausting and dangerous work, but it is what they do best so they do it.      It is both a blessing and a curse that Fast Eddie meets Sarah (Laurie) in a bus station, a lame alcoholic who hangs out at a bus station and claims to go to college two days a week.    She has no job, but has enough money to live in a shabby apartment and drink.    She is lonely, needy, and at first tells Eddie they shouldn't be together.    Maybe she's right.    Fast Eddie is also lonely.    His world is not one that usually allows for intimate contact with others.     Sarah finds she is overmatched when trying to become part of Eddie's world.  

After absorbing the loss to Fats, Eddie is itching for a rematch.   He enters into what is tantamount to a deal with the devil by asking Bert to set up matches for him.     Sarah pleads to come along with Eddie when they travel to Kentucky to take on a rich mark.    Bert sees Sarah as a weakness for Eddie and through not-so-subtle manipulation manages to get her out of the way, although I won't reveal how.    Bert coldly sees this as building Eddie's character, but Eddie has other opinions about it.

Who wins or loses the final showdown between Eddie and Fats isn't material anyway.    The Hustler isn't about who wins but why people win while others lose.     Those used to watching Jackie Gleason in full bombast mode in The Honeymooners and Smokey and the Bandit may be in for a shock when watching him here.     His Minnesota Fats is a quiet man of few words and fewer wasted moves; no longer needing to remind others of his greatness.     He plays to win, not to hustle, and sits by in observant silence as Eddie and Bert have their own final showdown.     He has seen up-and-comers like Eddie try to make a name for themselves at his expense and will see more before he's through.   He has also seen guys like Bert threaten to break people's body parts and their spirits.    Gleason received a deserved Oscar nomination for his work, which depends more on Gleason's screen presence and quiet confidence.

Scott also received an Oscar nomination as the analytical, cold, money-driven Bert Gordon.     He is the type of guy Eddie must get in bed with in order to be a big-time pool player.    Bert does his homework and knows how to manipulate with pointed criticisms.     Scott is at home in this role.    His eyes glow when he discusses the prospects of winning.     He doesn't shoot pool, but he is every bit the hustler Eddie is.    

Paul Newman became a star not just because of his looks, but because he was willing to star in film noir roles which showcase the dark side of human nature.     Fast Eddie is the protagonist, but he is full of flaws and unethical motives.     His relationship with Sarah may likely prosper in another world, but in The Hustler it is doomed from the start.    Sarah represents an alternate route for Eddie, but there is no room for her on Eddie's journey to dingy pool halls and the lure of big bucks.   

Election (1999) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Alexander Payne

Starring:  Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon, Molly Hagan, Chris Klein, Jessica Campbell


If student council played any part in my high school life, I don't recall it.     Maybe our high school had student council elections, but I'm not about to wrack my brain to remember them.    The student council election in Election is taken as seriously as a presidential election, with candidates stumping for votes and engaging in underhanded shenanigans to win.   For type-A personalities like Tracy Flick (Witherspoon), winning the student council presidency at Carver High School has to happen.   Her entire self-esteem depends on it.    Anyone who bakes 450 cupcakes with "Pick Flick" on them isn't going to take the news of a defeat gracefully.

Standing in her way, behind the scenes, is teacher Jim McAllister (Broderick), who at first tolerates Tracy always being the first to raise her hand to answer a question.   But then he grows to loathe her enough to ensure that she doesn't win.     "People like Tracy Flick must be stopped," Jim states in voice over narration.   Why does he detest her?   For one thing, she was involved in an affair with a teacher friend of Jim's teacher friend that cost the friend his job.   Another might be a secret attraction to her.  He might hate himself for thinking of her like that, but that doesn't mean he can stop doing so.  No matter what his reasoning, he feels he must throw a roadblock in Tracy's future.

Election is a black comedy with people trying to maintain a facade of morality and fair play, while hiding secret obsessions and ulterior motives.      The characters are either perpetrators or victims, depending on who you ask.     It is narrated at various times by Jim, Tracy, Paul Metzler (Klein), and his sister Tammy (Campbell).     Paul is a dopey, popular jock recruited by Jim to oppose Tracy for student council president.   Tammy decides to run because Paul unwittingly stole her girlfriend and wants revenge.    Tammy denies being a lesbian.   "I believe in the person, not the gender.  It just so happens that every person I've ever been attracted to is a girl."   Tammy's campaign promise:  If I'm elected student council president, I'll ensure we never have to sit through these assemblies again," which is met with a standing ovation by the students.

Jim is a well-liked teacher, but his personal life is a bit of a mess.    He and his wife are unable to conceive a child.     Sex with his wife has become workmanlike, with her ordering him to "fill me up."   He doesn't find much solace in porn, but he does in Dave's ex-wife Linda, with whom he attempts to have an affair.    That doesn't work out well for him.    He is stood up at the motel room he books for them and a bee stings him in the eyelid causing his eye to look like it went through twelve rounds with Rocky Balboa.

Teachers like Jim have seen students like Tracy come and go.    Each graduating class has two-faced schemers like her that rankle others to their core.   You want to introduce her to Valium.   Jim decides to take a stand against Tracy, who is much more manipulative than her cheerful demeanor would indicate.  He finds he's no match.    All of this is narrated in nostalgic fashion by the characters, as if they are reflecting on a magical time in their lives and they are remembering it with fondness.    Jim especially has a way of looking on the bright side of things, which dissolves quickly when he sees Tracy again long after the election and its aftermath are over.

Writer-director Payne creates a satire that cheerfully skewers high school politics and sexual politics.     Broderick is a million miles removed from Ferris Bueller.    He is a man at war with his desires who makes all the wrong moves when he should've just left well enough alone.  Witherspoon is prim, proper, falsely cheerful, and naturally underhanded.   Winning to her is the only acceptable result in anything she does, so it's almost sad to see her crying when she receives word she may have lost the election.  What will she do with the remaining cupcakes?

Payne further illustrates his gift for subtle comedy in films like Sideways and The Descendants.     He has an understanding of human nature.     He sees that people sometimes just don't get out of their own way and are at the mercy of whatever drives them.     Jim would've been just fine if Tracy Flick never entered his life.    But she did and despite his attempts to defeat her, he finds there is another person just like her lurking right around the corner.  

Rocky Balboa (2006) * * *

Directed by:  Sylvester Stallone

Starring:  Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, Milo Ventimiglia, Antonio Tarver, Geraldine Hughes, Tony Burton, A.J. Benza

I must admit that after Rocky IV and Rocky V, I had little interest in Rocky Balboa, the sixth installment in the Rocky series.   However, I enjoyed it for the most part because it contains some genuinely touching dramatic moments.  It provides a glimpse into the world of Rocky Balboa after his ring years ended.   

Rocky still lives in South Philly.    Adrian has been dead for about a decade due to "woman cancer" as Rocky puts it as only he can.  He owns a small restaurant named after her and he regales customers with stories of his boxing days.  We even see Spider Ricco (the boxer Rocky defeated in the opening brawl of the original film)  hanging around doing odd jobs.  Rocky stills pals around with Paulie (Young), who works again at the meat-packing plant Rocky used for training.  Times get tough for Paulie, who is laid off after many years on the job.  

Rocky's son Robert (Ventimiglia) is a stockbroker who can't escape the fact that people only associate with him because he is Rocky Balboa's son.   He believes, perhaps correctly, that the only reason he is employed is because his bosses are Rocky fans.   Due to this, he maintains a distant, evasive relationship with his father.  Rocky also befriends Marie (Hughes), who was the teenage girl he had a long conversation with in the original film.   ("If you hang out with yo-yos, you get yo-yo friends.")   Marie is all grown up now and they begin a supportive friendship that may one day blossom into love. 

Balboa, despite seeming reasonably happy with his life, decides to reapply for a boxing license.   The 60ish Balboa is awarded the license after an impassioned speech to the boxing commission.  He wants to fight a few local fights because he feels the urge the fight again.  He dubs this as "The Beast", which he explains is something that ex-fighters go through when they spend their whole lives fighting and then try to adjust to life away from the ring.   Rocky is unexpectedly thrown back into the spotlight after an ESPN piece airs stating that Rocky would win a computerized fight with current heavyweight champion Mason "The Line" Dixon (played by real-life fighter Antonio Tarver).  The name Mason "The Line" Dixon doesn't quite hold up when compared to names like Apollo Creed and Clubber Lang.  

Dixon, feeling a mite disrespected, wants to fight Balboa in the ring to prove he can beat him.  Rocky is 60 and has arthritic joints, but Dixon doesn't care.  I was reminded of the dialogue in Coming To America where one character says how Rocky Marciano beat Joe Louis in a fight and another responds, "Joe Louis was 78 years old when they fought."  Dixon doesn't seem to realize that the computer was gauging Balboa in his prime, but oh never mind.

Rocky Balboa, like every other Rocky film, is geared towards the fight at the end.  The fight, of course, is competitive and goes the 12-round distance.   Rocky getting pummeled in one round would be a realistic ending most likely, but not the one Rocky fans are looking for, so the fight is choreographed to have Rocky stand a puncher's chance of beating the champion who is 30 years his junior.

The movie works better when it explores Rocky's life as he tries to move on from the ring.  This may be the first Rocky film in which Paulie isn't tipsy in every scene he's in, so the two actually have meaningful conversations and we see what is at the heart of their friendship.   I also enjoyed the payoff of Robert's issues, which involve a heart-to-heart with his father.   Dixon's manager L.C. Luko (Benza) isn't a slick villain like George Washington Duke in Rocky V.    He just wants to promote a fight because that's how he earns his living and he sees an angle which will earn his client money and respect.   

I won't say who wins the fight.  It's immaterial to what makes Rocky Balboa a fitting ending to the series.  Instead, its strengths lie in seeing some life breathed into characters that had become stale over the course of the previous five films.  I see no need for Stallone to proceed with a seventh installment.  The last thing we need is Rocky battling in the ring looking like Burgess Meredith. 

Notes on a Scandal (2006) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Richard Eyre

Starring:  Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Bill Nighy, Andrew Simpson

Barbara Covett is an elderly schoolteacher who suffers from acute loneliness.     She writes of this in her diary, which is filled with entries depicting her contempt for her students and her desire to find someone to spend her days with other than her sickly cat.     She is the type of teacher students pray they don't get, mostly because she comes across as a stern, aloof taskmaster who takes little time relating to them.     Her job has become routine until tall blonde Sheba Hart begins working at the school.     Sheba's arrival inflames her desires.    They become friends.    Sheba sees Barbara as a kindly mentor while Barbara sees Sheba as a potential mate.     

Their relationship is at the heart of Notes On A Scandal, which becomes very complicated when the married Sheba begins an ill-advised affair with a 15-year old student.      Barbara discovers the affair and grows jealous, using the affair as a way of keeping Sheba close to her while acting as a confidant to her friend.     Barbara isn't at all interested in the boy's well-being or even Sheba's necessarily.     Based on her diary entries, which we hear in cold voiceover narration by Dench, she disapproves of Sheba's family, which consists of a husband about 20 years her senior and a child with Down Syndrome.     She sees them as "bohemian".   She may even see Sheba in that light.     Barbara is clearly infatuated, but doesn't seem to like her very much.    She doesn't seem to like anyone that much, but she's lonely enough that anyone who is kind to her will become her obsession.

The introduction of 15-year old Stephen Connolly (Simpson), a gifted art student who clearly has a crush on Sheba.     She's flattered by the attention and growing tired of her husband, which is a recipe for disaster when she and the teen begin an affair.     Once Barbara discovers the affair, she works a confession out of Sheba and vows to stay quiet.     Her belief is that her relationship with Sheba will grow closer and more intimate because they are now bonded by this secret.      This delusion is shattered when Sheba is unable to comfort her after her cat dies due to family commitments.     What happens next is a mixture of revenge, spite, and jealousy on Barbara's part, which I will not reveal.  

Notes on a Scandal is thankfully not the type of film where Barbara comes after Sheba or her family with a knife and all of the issues are sidestepped in favor of a slasher ending.      There are complications in all of the relationships involved and the movie deals with them in brutally honest fashion.    It does not pretend that either Barbara or Sheba are sympathetic people, although we shake our head as Sheba travels down a road that could only lead to catastrophe.     How does she justify her behavior?   How does Barbara feel she is behaving as a loving, caring friend when her plan to win Sheba involves tacit emotional blackmail?     Does she even acknowledge her homosexuality?  

Notes on a Scandal takes very tricky subject matter and makes it fascinating.    Dench and Blanchett both play amoral characters we can't stop watching even though they're rather despicable people.     That's a credit to both actress' considerable skills.     There's no one we can really sympathize with.    Even the boy comes off as a bit of a manipulator himself.      The person who attracts the most sympathy is Richard, but his relationship with Sheba began when he was a college professor and she was his student.    Perhaps Sheba thinks this gives her some justification for her actions.     In recent years, Bill Nighy has come on the scene as among the most dependable of British character actors and his work here is no exception.   

The movie is like a train wreck that we know is going to happen and can't stop, but yet we can't look away from it either.     The damage these people cause each other is substantial.    Each is a victim in his/her own way.   Except for Barbara, who walks between raindrops and manages somehow to leave the wreckage behind to continue to look for someone to spend her empty days with.     The next woman is in for some trouble.  

Prisoners (2013) * *

Directed by:  Denis Villenueve

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Terrance Howard, Viola Davis, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano, Maria Bello

Prisoners is a gloomy film about the disappearance of two young girls in a rural Pennsylvania town.   When I say gloomy, I'm not just talking about the tone.  There is not one day of sunshine.    Its characters are made to walk around in drenching rainstorms and snow. I hope there was plenty of coffee, blankets, and hot chocolate on set. 

It's also a film in which the parents of the disappeared act as maniacal and unsympathetic as the alleged kidnappers.  There isn't one scene in which the adults discuss the issue or express their emotions in healthy ways.    Prisoners would be a wet dream for all of those macho people who claim something to the effect of, "If anyone touched my kid, I would beat him to within an inch of his life," or something equally disturbing.  Guys like Keller Dover (Jackman) would be their patron saint. 

Prisoners doesn't wait long to go the glum route.   The very opening shot is a voiceover of a man saying an Our Father followed by a fatal shooting of a deer.   The voice is Keller's, the shooter is his son, and as they ride along the highway with the deer carcass in the truck bed, Keller expresses how proud he is of his son.    This Keller is a piece of work.    He is an independent contractor and gun lover, which fits into his future schedule perfectly, and he fills his basement with stockpiles of supplies in case the apocalypse comes or something.   He either scowls or growls when he isn't screaming.   I sense if his daughter wasn't kidnapped, he would've found some other dangerous way to release his hostility.

It's Thanksgiving Day.   Keller's family visits with his friend Franklin's (Howard) family.  Keller's daughter and Franklin's daughter are kidnapped seemingly from an upstairs bedroom.   A suspicious old RV that was seen in their neighborhood is soon tracked down by the cop assigned to the case, Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal), who spends his Thanksgiving alone in a Chinese restaurant.    The driver, Alex Jones (Dano), is arrested and despite no physical evidence, Keller is convinced he is the kidnapper.    Jones wears glasses, can barely comprehend questions, speaks in a high-pitched squeal, and appears to be guilty, which of course means that he may not be.     Because there is no evidence, Alex is not charged in the girls' disappearance and is set free.     An outraged Keller follows him home and then kidnaps him as he's walking his dog.

What happens next to Alex is ugly and gruesome.  Keller, with rather reluctant help from Franklin, takes Alex to an abandoned apartment complex left to him by his late father and beats the holy hell out of him.   For days, he brutalizes Alex until his face resembles the meat Rocky Balboa pounded on.   He then conducts further elaborate means of torturing Alex.   Keller says he is trying to extract information, but to me he is simply behaving like the violent sadist that he is.   At this point, Prisoners takes a wrong turn.

Because Keller is so brutal, it becomes difficult to root for him.   It is difficult to root for any of the adults here.  Franklin expresses his reluctance through weak pronouncements like, "This is just wrong," but he decides to help Keller anyway.   Keller's wife spends her days heavily medicated lying in bed.     The issue here is that Keller and company have now committed the same crimes they accuse Alex of.    Many viewers will probably agree with Keller and even cheer him on.   Others may look on dismay.     We can understand Keller's desperation even if we don't agree with his tactics.   The fact that Keller prays before he beats on Alex some more means that he's an OK guy underneath it all, right?     Not so much.   

The pity is that I found myself disliking Prisoners but I wasn't disinterested.  Loki's investigation takes several twists and turns, but the underlying desire to find the girls keeps him going.  There is inherent suspense in such a story and Prisoners is no different.  Considering how overwritten Loki's character is, it's to Gyllenhaal's credit that he is able to keep up with all of his issues.  He is lonely, has facial tics, and has been run ragged by the search.  Plus, he has to deal with Keller screaming at him whenever the two find themselves in the same room together.  At least Loki wasn't dealing with personal demons as well, which is standard in many police procedurals.  

Jackman tries hard to keep up with all of his character's issues also and his character has plenty of them, including a sudden recurrence of alcoholism.  It isn't fair to weigh a character down with that much baggage, but Jackman still maintains his considerable screen presence and does what he can with such an unsympathetic character.   Aside from one scene in which she tries to coax information out of Alex through calm means, Viola Davis' Nancy has little to do except watch from the sidelines.   The same could be said for Grace (Bello).     It's a shame more wasn't done with Franklin, who hints at being a voice of reason, but he goes disappointingly goes along with the crowd.     It would've been interesting to see an internal conflict grow between the two sets of parents because of their disagreement over Alex's treatment, but it is sidestepped.  

Ultimately, Prisoners is weighed down under its own gloom.   It lays it on so thick that the movie never recovers. There have been plenty of strong movies made about parents dealing with kidnapped children, especially 1983's Without A Trace, which gave us a mother who tries to hold her life together as the prospect of finding her missing child grows dimmer.   The people in Prisoners don't seem capable of that.    

Tootsie (1982) * * * *

Directed by: Sydney Pollack

Starring:  Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Bill Murray, Charles Durning, Dabney Coleman, Doris Belack, Sydney Pollack

Actor Michael Dorsey has a long talk with his agent who tells him flat out that he won't be hired by anyone in New York or Hollywood.     Dorsey (Hoffman) has a history of antagonism with directors and other actors.     "You have one of the worst reputations in this town," his agent George Fields (Pollack-who also directed) tells him candidly.    "I can't even put you up for a commercial.   You played a tomato for 30 seconds.    They went a half-day over schedule because you wouldn't sit down,"    Resourceful and desperate, Dorsey decides to audition for a soap opera (remember those?) as Dorothy Michaels, a middle-aged frump with a slight Southern accent.     He wins the part and begins his life anew as a working actress, which is not without its complications.

Tootsie is an engaging, intelligent comedy about a pain-in-the-ass actor who discovers his better side while pretending to be a woman.     He encounters male chauvinism, sexual harassment, and two men smitten with him (as her), one of whom happens to be his co-star's father.     The co-star, Julie Nichols (Lange in her Oscar-winning role), becomes Michael's love interest, but he can't act on it because she knows him as Dorothy.    They become close friends, mostly because Julie admires how Dorothy stands up to her boyfriend (and the soap opera's director) Ron Carlisle (Coleman).   Ron is a sexist pig who calls women "sweetie" and "toots" and isn't shy about having affairs with other actresses on set.     Dorothy drives him nuts by constantly making up lines and refusing to be treated like dirt.   

It's funny how I refer to Dorothy as practically another character in Tootsie.    Hoffman so convincingly creates Dorothy that I forgot at times that he was a man pretending to be her.    Further complicating matters is his friendship with Sandy (Garr), a neurotic would-be actress who auditioned for the part that Michael (as Dorothy) won.    They are friends who slept together one time and Michael spends the rest of the movie dodging in order to preserve his deception.     Also in the mix is Michael's roommate Jeff (Murray), a playwright who goes along with the deception, but comments, "It is just for the money, right?"

The movie mixes up farce, romance, and the harsh world of acting in just the right amounts.     It never becomes silly nor overly sentimental.      Michael loves Julie, but also doesn't want to break her heart by revealing that her best friend is really a man.     George notices the difference in Michael, "Since when do you care about what other people feel?"     As a struggling actor who once quit a play because he is asked to walk to center stage so his character could die there, he has no issue with arguing with anyone who interrupts his vision of his role.     As a woman, he begins to see what a putz he was behaving like as a man.      We see him fend off the advances of a lascivious co-star and proposed to by Julie's father, and we really begin to feel for the guy.     Tootsie is a film that after 30-plus years still maintains a warmth that we don't see much in comedies anymore.  

A Room with a View (1986) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  James Ivory

Starring:  Helena Bonham-Carter, Julian Sands, Daniel Day-Lewis, Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, Judi Dench, Simon Callow

A Room with a View does us a service by introducing the actors and the characters they play during the opening credits.    It helps us to keep things straight, which sometimes can be a task in movies based on Victorian-era novels.    There are many characters and situations to keep abreast of here, but A Room with a View is more passionate and romantic than other Merchant-Ivory productions like Howard's End and The Remains Of The Day.     Or at the very least it expresses them more.     A Room with a View is more about love and emotions than the British class system.      Lucy Honeychurch (Bonham-Carter) isn't conflicted because she's in love with a poor young man while engaged to a richer one.     She is conflicted because she has never been honest about her emotions with anyone, including herself.  

The film opens in Florence, where Lucy is vacationing with her chaperone Charlotte (Smith).     Her room at her hotel doesn't have a good view, which is remedied by kindly Mr. Emerson (Elliott), who offers to switch rooms with Lucy.    Mr. Emerson is accompanied by his son George (Sands), who falls in love at first sight with Lucy, culminating in a impromptu kiss between the two in a barley field a short time later.    George is an impetous romantic who believes Lucy is his intended.     "Something has passed between us," he tells her.     Lucy may or may not agree.     Her inner conflict is brought to the surface when she plays Beethoven on the piano.      A character observes that she plays with passion, but doesn't live her life that way.   

Lucy returns to England and becomes engaged to Cecil Vyse (Day-Lewis), who is rich but rather bland.      He prefers to read aloud to Lucy rather than kiss her; apparently he's in love with the sound of his own voice.    With his slicked back hair, glasses, and moustache, Cecil looks like he could play a silent-movie villain.     Lucy seems to like him well enough despite his aloofness, but there are no sparks between them.    He is the safe, financially secure choice for Lucy, who still won't take a leap of faith even after George kisses her a second time near Vyse's tennis court.

Daniel Day-Lewis has gone on to a career that has netted him three Best Actor Oscars.    This was one of his early film roles, but he nails it as a prig with very little awareness of what makes his fiancee tick.     Naturally, his character exists to be dumped by Lucy.   The other extraordinary character is Mr. Emerson, played by Denhom Elliott in a scene-stealing performance.     Unbound by adherence to societal norms, he is an unabashed romantic who believes in following his heart to happiness.    He instills this in his son and proudly defends it.     He is seen as uncouth by Lucy, Charlotte, and the others, but only because they are shocked by (and perhaps envy) his free spirit.      He has a pivotal heart-to-heart with Lucy near the end which provides a satisfying conclusion.      Only Mr. Emerson could provide the correct advice and observations that Lucy needed to hear at that moment.      Afterwards, we see a huge smile on Lucy's face and we understand that she finally follows her heart and feels good about it.

Movies like this aren't for everyone.    Some may find them excessively talky.    Others may simply give up trying to follow who does what to whom.     Me?     I enjoy films like this.    I enjoy watching characters that speak a lot, but manage to subtly avoid speaking honestly about more important things.     You have to pay attention to catch what's going on.    Sometimes, movies about repressed or unrequited love can be more exhiliarating and passionate than straight-up romantic dramas where everyone easily expresses each feeling they have.     Many people don't always know how to verbalize their emotions or even understand them.      That holds true for early 1900's England as much as 2010's everyplace else. 

The Family (2013) * 1/2

Directed by:  Luc Besson

Starring:  Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones, Dianna Agron, John D'Leo

The Family tells the story of a mobster and his family relocated to Normandy, France as members of the FBI Witness Relocation Program.     The mobster, Giovanni Monzone (DeNiro), turned state's evidence against a Brooklyn mob boss and is now hiding out with his family as Fred Blake in the small French town where they stand out like a sore thumb.     Those expecting a light, funny comedy like My Blue Heaven (1990), which covered similar ground, are in for a rude awakening.     The Family is a bloody film that's packaged as a comedy, but plods along like it has lead weights strapped to its ankles.   

Why do the Monzones stand out like a sore thumb?   Not only are they the only Americans residing there, but they have a habit of solving their issues by beating people up or blowing things up, much to the chagrin of their FBI agent handler Stansfield (Jones), who spends the whole movie looking chagrined.     The fact that the Monzones/Blakes don't speak French isn't a concern, since all of the locals helpfully speak English.     Not once do they encounter someone who doesn't understand a word they say, which could've resulted into something with comic possibilities.      Would it surprise anyone that a rude French character criticizes American culture?  

The Monzones manage to briefly avoid detection by the mobsters searching for them.    They apparently used to live in the Riviera and the hitmen can't find them since they moved.     Their location is discovered in the most absurd way I've seen in many a moon.     I won't reveal it for the sake of avoiding revealing spoilers, but it's one of those plot developments that happen only in movies.       The Monzone children go to school, where the daughter Belle (Agron) falls in love with a college-bound teaching assistant and son Warren (D'Leo) causes trouble at school by becoming a school crime boss.     Mother Maggie (Pfeiffer) spends her days seeing what few sights are in Normandy and attending church, but also sets fire to the local grocery store when she overhears nasty remarks about her by the store owner.    

There are numerous instances in which the Monzones tackle rude behavior and disrespect by whacking people upside the head with tennis rackets, fists, blowing up something, or in the case of a scheming plumber who won't fix the brown water coming out of the faucet, breaking nearly every bone in his body with a baseball bat.    How is this funny?    It would be a lot more interesting to see the Monzones handle rudeness with no-nonsense Brooklyn street smarts instead of resorting to beatings, but this film doesn't seem to know how to do that.    

Giovanni spends his day typing his memoirs on a manual typewriter, which explains some of the back story involved.    He writes as more of a therapeutic tool for himself, but this is frowned upon by Stansfield, who doesn't like how he is depicted by Giovanni.     Tommy Lee Jones is among the most intelligent and interesting actors working, but he spends all of The Family with the same forlorn expression.     He doesn't seem to want to be there and puts as little energy as possible into his performance.     DeNiro and Pfeiffer do their best, but are at the service of a one-note, one-joke movie.    DeNiro has played so many mobsters in his career that it has been said young mobsters learn how to act by watching his movies.     They should avoid watching this one.     The movie does perk up when Agron is on screen.    She is a natural beauty and the camera loves her.    She also may be the only character without a dour look on her face. 

Things conclude with a loud, violent shootout in the same vein as Luc Besson's own The Professional (1994).    The hitmen arrive in Normandy armed for what looks like another D-Day invasion.     They kill everyone in police headquarters, but aren't there cops walking the beat or driving in patrol cars that notice houses blowing up or hear gunfire?    The teens get in on the action too and are able to shoot the baddies with pinpoint accuracy.     My assumption is that these kids probably never held a gun before, but they shoot better than the professionals.   

When I'm watching a bad film, I tend to think of better ones that may have covered the same ground.   My Blue Heaven, with Steve Martin as a mobster relocated to a small suburban town, worked as a breezy comedy with plenty of laughs.     I also thought of Sidney Lumet's Running On Empty (1988), in which a family is on the run from the feds.     It took the time to consider that life on the run is hell on all of the family members, especially the oldest son who wants a life of his own.
The Family wants to be funny and violent at the same time.     It achieves half of its goal, but not necessarily the more entertaining half.  



 

 




  

Jaws (1975) * * * *

Directed by:  Steven Spielberg

Starring:  Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton

The fact that the shark in Jaws is unseen for the first hour happened by accident, but also greatly increased the film's effectiveness.    The story goes that the mechanical shark built for the movie kept malfunctioning and needed constant repair during the first weeks of shooting, so Steven Spielberg needed to convey the shark's presence through underwater camera angles and other creative means.     Jaws morphs from quasi-slasher film to a suspenseful thriller and a classic is born.   Is the story true?  Depends on the source, but it doesn't matter.   

Jaws centers its action around Amity Island, a New England beach resort where a great white shark begins feasting on swimmers.    The initial attack is on a young woman who is torn to shreds.    When her remains are washed ashore, the coroner initially rules her death was caused by a shark, but then changes it to boating accident at the behest of  Mayor Larry Vaughn (Hamilton).   Vaughn's desire to keep the shark attack quiet is financially-driven; believing correctly vacationers will stay away from Amity if word of a deadly shark attack became known.    

The town is policed by Chief Martin Brody (Scheider), a former New York cop who took the Amity job as a change of scenery, but is afraid of going in the water and even more afraid of sharks.   He wants the beaches closed until the shark can be killed.   Vaughn wants them open, even after a second attack results in the death of a young boy.   Brody hires oceanographer Matt Hooper (Dreyfuss) to assist him in his efforts to rid Amity of the shark.   Hooper is fascinated by sharks, but knows all too well how deadly they are.   ("A shark is an eating machine.  All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks and that's it.")    When local fishermen catch what they think is the shark responsible for the recent deaths, Hooper cuts the fish open to reveal indeed the great white is still out there.  ("You have a hell of a fish out there, with a mouth about this big.")

A third attack on local youngsters forces Vaughn to hire another local fisherman, the mysterious, eccentric Quint (Shaw), to kill the shark.    Brody and Hooper accompany Quint on the boat, although he doesn't really want their assistance.     Quint is a survivor of the deadly shark attacks which occurred during World War II when the USS Indianapolis sank from a torpedo strike.     Quint and Hooper are both able, in their own terms, to convey the destructive nature of sharks to viewers, which lends more suspense even when the shark isn't present.    Quint, however, is on a mad, obsessive quest to hunt the shark, much like Captain Ahab was with Moby Dick.   

Brody represents the average Jaws viewer which fears sharks based on stories and myths, but never had to come face to face with one like Quint or Hooper have.   Seeing how large the shark is up close, he says, "You're going to need a bigger boat."   A bigger boat likely wouldn't have helped, especially since killing the shark proves to be a bigger task than initially expected.     

Reportedly, Shaw and Dreyfuss didn't get along during the filming of Jaws, which adds an extra layer of authenticity to their onscreen conflict.     Quint is a salt-of-the-earth fisherman who doubts Hooper's abilities, since he comes from a rich family and owns all of his own shark-tracking equipment.    Is Brody exorcising his fear of the water by going on the journey to kill the shark?    Hooper jabs at Brody with the remark: "It doesn't make much sense for a guy who's afraid of water to live on an island."   

Jaws is full of suspense, but also nice character touches which makes its people unique.     Chief Brody is a family man who gets more than he bargained for when he encounters not only the shark, but local politicians who want the beaches to stay open at all costs.    "We depend on summer dollars for our very lives,"  Mayor Vaughn none-too-subtly explains to Brody.    The local police force consists of just him and a goofy deputy (Jeffrey Kramer).   Before the shark came along, the biggest issue they had to deal with was local martial arts students performing karate chops on some poor guy's fence.   As played by Scheider, Brody is smart and resourceful, but may be a little out of his depth when dealing with the "eating machine."   Shaw's Quint is clearly off his rocker and gains the attention of people during a meeting by scratching his fingernails on a blackboard.    Behind Quint's eyes is an obsessive lunacy which fuels him.   Dreyfuss exudes intelligence, a sense of humor, and an even greater awe of the power of his quarry.    He provides Hooper with the typical exuberance he brought to later films such as The Goodbye Girl and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.

Jaws inspired three lesser sequels and a bunch of rip-offs.   (Anyone remember Piranha and Up From The Depths?)    This was the first of many blockbusters Spielberg has given us.     Jaws shows us a director with a gift for powerful storytelling and technical expertise.    He would show us a lot more in the coming years, proving to be the most financially successful director in movie history.     Jaws could've been a simple, B-movie gorefest.   Spielberg did all the right things to make it special.   

Rush Hour (1998) * * *

Directed by:  Brett Ratner

Starring:  Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Elizabeth Pena, Phillip Baker Hall

Rush Hour takes an old formula and shakes it up with new energy, much like 48 Hrs. or Lethal Weapon did.   The idea of pairing two mismatched police officers is as old as talkies themselves, but if it's done right it can still seem fresh.    Rarely has there been a mismatched pair quite like Carter (Tucker) and Lee (Chan).

The plot is simply an excuse to bring the two together and allow them to mesh after a rocky start.    The Hong Kong ambassador's daughter is kidnapped in Los Angeles.   The FBI gets involved and prefers to handle the situation.   The ambassador reaches out to Inspector Lee and asks him to come to Los Angeles and assist in rescuing his daughter.   Once the FBI learns of this, they requisition LAPD Detective Carter to pick Lee up at the airport and keep him away from the scene.  Carter is a motormouth who likes to do things his way, which gets him in trouble with his superiors.   He also dreams of working for the FBI, but resents what he calls a "shit assignment".  

Carter's initial meeting with Lee at the airport leads Carter to assume wrongfully that Lee doesn't speak English.   "DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE WORDS THAT ARE COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH?", he shouts at Lee, presuming that shouting will somehow allow Lee to understand him better.    Lee plays along for his own amusement and tries to escape through the streets of Hollywood.   This chase allows for Chan to perform his famed stunts, which he does himself sometimes to his own detriment.     The outtakes of Chan's Rumble In The Bronx show Chan being carted off the set after breaking his leg, but I don't think any such injuries occurred here.  

Rush Hour fails or succeeds based on the chemistry of its stars.   Chan and Tucker easily work together and are a study in opposites.   Lee is a quiet man of action.   Carter loves to hear himself talk (as Lee points out early and often), but he is confident without being arrogant.    The Carter character could've gone horribly wrong, but in Tucker's hands he's likable and finds the right comic touches.   Chan, the more experienced of the two, doesn't become exasperated by Carter's mouth like a Roger Murtuagh would have, but instead finds a way to accept him and rescue the little girl at the same time using his superior martial arts skills.

Rush Hour is nothing new in the story department.   The outcome is predictable and we know the two opposites will become friends, but I liked how Chan and Tucker worked well together and overcame the limits of the film's formula.  

Blue Jasmine (2013) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Woody Allen

Starring:  Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Sally Hawkins, Bobby Cannavalle, Andrew Dice Clay, Louis CK, Peter Saarsgard, Michael Stuhlbarg

There are many reasons to pity Jasmine and there are plenty of reasons not to.    Her wealthy life fell apart once her husband Hal was sent to jail on numerous fraud convictions (a la Bernie Madoff).     She is forced to move in with her sister in a tiny apartment in San Francisco.    She finds she's not cut out for much when she attempts to find a job.    When she does, it's with a lecherous dentist who apparently isn't familiar with sexual harassment.     She also begins talking to people about her life, but she also may be talking to herself a la Blanche Dubois from A Streetcar Named Desire.  Things are a mess for her and through flashbacks we gradually begin to see how her life got that way. 

Blue Jasmine is proof that Woody Allen is the most creative writer/director in motion picture history.    Films like Annie Hall, Bullets Over Broadway, Match Point, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Sleeper, and the faux-documentary Zelig showcase Allen's diversity.    All made by Allen and all totally different films.      At 78, Allen is still producing some of the most original work this side of the Sundance Film Festival.     Blue Jasmine is original because it doesn't arrive at a payoff which neatly tidies up everything.   Instead, we see a woman slipping slowly into madness and perhaps by the end, she will be engulfed by it.

As the film opens, Jasmine (Blanchett) is flying to San Francisco to live with her sister Ginger (Hawkins), who is poor, thanks in part to a bad business deal between her ex-husband Augie (Clay) and Hal.   Jasmine still has champagne tastes with a beer budget, as reflected by her first class ticket and numerous pieces of expensive luggage.   She dreads living with her sister, especially when flashbacks reveal living in a mansion in aloof bliss with her slickster husband.     She claims she knows nothing about her husband's illicit dealings or extramarital affairs, even though they are apparent to everyone else.   Maybe she doesn't want to know about them.

We gradually see Jasmine's perfect world in New York crumbling as Hal's business and extramarital affairs come to light.    Left alone without resources or wherewithal, she becomes a desperate woman who eventually is committed after having a nervous breakdown in the middle of the street.     We sympathize with Blanchett even as she clings to an air of high-fallutin' superiority in her lunch meeting with Ginger's auto mechanic fiancee Chick (Cannavalle), who in a different movie could be Stanley Kowalski to her Blanche Dubois.   They mesh like oil and water, although the results aren't as tragic.   

Another actress may have tried to make Jasmine too sympathetic, with a "whoa is me" vibe permeating the performance.     Jasmine is complicated, but we respond to her because she is now in a situation that wasn't feasible in her sheltered, secure life with Hal.     She is slowly clinging to reality and may be unable to come to terms with the fact that her situation is her own doing.     One rash response to bad news may have triggered her emotional downfall.     Maybe only Blanchett could've pulled off such a tricky balancing act, but she does indeed and never fails to be engrossing.   

Baldwin plays Hal as a charming snake-oil salesman who could sell ice to Eskimos.    But beneath the exterior is a fortune built on a house of cards that could, and does, come tumbling down at a moment's notice.    Jasmine attempts to rebuild her life when she hooks up with Andrew (Sarsgaard), a rich widower with political aspirations.     She doesn't bother to tell him of her past, which blows up in her face during a chance encounter with Augie, whose life and marriage were ruined by Hal's deception.  

Allen's film is more or less a drama, although it's not ponderous nor heavy-handed.     It's a portrait of a woman who once had it all and now has little.     We witness her gradual descent into insanity and we can't look away.     We've heard the stories about the damage the Bernie Madoffs of the world did to those he swindled.    We now see the damage he likely did to his family.    

Oblivion (2013) * 1/2

Directed by:  Joseph Kosinski

Starring:  Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough, Melissa Leo

I can imagine the pitch meeting for Oblivion.    "It's Independence Day meets Total Recall."    Oblivion is such a confusing mess that I was waiting for Morgan Freeman to show up just so he could explain everything to us as only he can.     Guess what?   He does, but he was no help either.    Neither was Tom Cruise, who narrates the film as convincingly as possible, but soon there is the business of cloning and memory erasings injected and all hope for a decent sci-fi thriller is lost.  

The biggest sin Oblivion commits is that it is a bore.    We know there is more to the story than what Jack Harper (Cruise) tells us, but we're not awaiting the revelation with much eagerness.     When the plot surprises are revealed, we aren't much surprised.     It's as if the aliens (who after all perpetrated all of this) watched numerous sci-fi movies and stole all of their cliches to plot Earth's doom.      Aliens travel thousands of light years to get here only to strip Earth of its resources and brainwash surviving Earthlings into helping them.      If they were so smart, they would fix their issues at home so they wouldn't have to go so far out of their way to obtain precious resources.     

The opening of the film fills us in on what happened up to that point.   Years earlier, an invasion by "scavs" happened which resulted in the destruction of the moon and most of life on Earth obliterated.     Jack Harper is a technician whose mission is to fix various machines down on Earth.    The machines are used allegedly by surviving humans who are trying to soak up whatever resources are left so they could all ship out to Titan, one of Saturn's moons.     Jack and his assistant/lover Viktoria (Riseborough) work for someone named Sally (Leo), who speaks in a Southern drawl and acts as tech support for Jack, I think.     Jack and Viktoria have some pretty nice digs.    They live in a glass house high above the clouds, complete with running water, pools, and all of the latest gadgets.     If I were them, I'd rather live there than travel all the way to Saturn.    Where does all that water come from anyway?    Are there miles-long pipes that service the home?     

Jack flies around in a small ship that looks a lot like a penis and testicles.    Viktoria and Jack are supposed to be a team, but Jack does the lion's share of the work.   Viktoria's job seems to be to report Jack's whereabouts to Sally and then say "Jack?" over the radio about 20 times per mission.     She also hangs around the nice pad while Jack gets to fly around the rough terrain and avoid scav attacks, or what he thinks are scav attacks, by machines that look like flying R2D2s.    Meanwhile, he is haunted by memories of a young woman he apparently knew in New York before the war, although he says this is impossible since he was born long after the war started and ended.      Of course, Nothing Is At It Seems, so we know the entire plot will be revealed to us bit by agonizing bit.     The mystery woman shows up on Earth in a pod that looks similar to Spock's coffin in Star Trek II:  The Wrath Of Khan, revealing herself to be...

By now, the questions outnumber the answers in a lugubrious plot.     If the aliens, or scavs, or whatever, can destroy the moon and build such technologically advanced equipment, then why do they need humans to do their dirty work?     Why go through all the trouble of brainwashing and cloning?     Why would the aliens allow Jack to bring back the pod to their home station?    Can't the aliens make equipment that can't be disabled with bullets?    I could go on, but why belabor the point?    The actors try mightily, but I'm not entirely sure they can make sense of anything.     The film works as inefficiently as the aliens do.     It's long, tedious, and we reach the point of not caring long, long before it's finally over. 

American Gigolo (1980) * * *

Directed by:  Paul Schrader

Starring:  Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton, Hector Elizondo, Nina Van Allandt, Bill Duke

"I like when we kiss and touch.   Because when we make love, that's when you go to work," states Michelle (Hutton), an underloved senator's wife to Julian (Gere), a Beverly Hills gigolo with whom she has fallen in love.    In a sense, she's right.    She knows how he earns his living, yet she can't resist him.    But when is he actually making love to her and not just having sex like he does with countless other women who pay for his services?     His job requires him to be different things for different people, but who is the real Julian?  

I reflect on The Wedding Date (2005), the pleasant romantic comedy in which a woman hires a male escort to accompany her to a wedding to make her ex jealous.     Women swoon over him and the woman asks, "How does it feel to be paid just for being you?"   The man responds, "Who says I'm being me?"   Indeed.    Julian is one who floats around the edges of high society.    He drives around in a new Mercedes, lives in a posh apartment, and has a country club membership, but his profession is hardly a secret.     How could it be when he is seen in the company of women who are twice his age?    He is not a part of the society he craves to be a part of, although he is well-off.    His profession has its price.    He is lonely for love of his own, which he may find in Michelle.     He has fancy art and the latest stereo equipment (for 1980 anyway), but the possessions don't bring him joy.

Julian is also being investigated for the murder of one of his female clients.    The detective on the case (Elizondo) believes he is guilty, but Julian senses he is being framed.     He has made many enemies and his former pimp Leon (Duke) tells him, "You have stepped on too many toes."     Aside from Michelle, he has found few people willing to provide him with an alibi.    The women he services are rich and like their privacy, two things which work against him as he tries to determine who framed him and why.     Assuming that someone even did.  

Strangely, the Julian & Michelle relationship is the least interesting aspect of the movie.     Gere is a natural for the role and this is the genesis for many of his later roles playing seemingly superficial, selfish people who ultimately are redeemed.     He is slick and sleek, fitting perfectly into the role of a lonely gigolo.     Hutton is also good here as a woman who learns to love a seemingly unlovable man, but it seems their relationship occurs because the screenplay requires it to.     There are some sex scenes and some tender, heartfelt scenes, but nothing too moving.    

What is more interesting about American Gigolo is the look into the life of a man who is paid for his body and to provide something to women that they lack.    "One woman hadn't had an orgasm in 10 years.    It took me three hours to get her off, but when I did, I felt like I was a part of something."
Perhaps being a prostitute provides something for Julian as well.     Usually, a cop procedural would be ungainly in a film like this, but it provides suspense.     We see Julian's once idyllic world crashing down around him.     He is paid by women to save them from their lives for at least a few hours.    Who will be there to save him?  

Pain and Gain (2013) * * *

Directed by:  Michael Bay

Starring:  Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Tony Shalhoub, Ed Harris, Rebel Wilson, Michael Rispoli

The true events of Pain and Gain took place over an eight-month period between October 1994 and June 1995, when Daniel Lugo (Wahlberg) and his associates were arrested for murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, and almost every felony one can think of.      When you consider how horribly wrong everything goes with their plan to kidnap a rich sleazeball and swindle him out of his assets, it's amazing they stayed at large as long as they did.    

If there were ever a group of lunkheads not cut out for a life of crime, it's the trio of Daniel, Paul (Johnson), a born-again Christian ex-con who blows his share of the gains on coke, and Adrian (Mackie), a gym rat rendered impotent by steroid abuse.     Daniel is a personal trainer at a Miami gym that mostly services beautiful women and rich clients who spill their secrets to their trainers.     One of his clients is the sleazy Victor Kershaw (Shalhoub), who boasts of his numerous assets in offshore back accounts.     This gets Daniel thinking of his ridiculous scheme to kidnap Kershaw and force him to sign over all of his assets to he and his accomplices.     Then, he will stage Kershaw's death to make it look like a drunk driving accident.    Only Kershaw survives that, as well as being set on fire, and being run over by a van.     Kershaw, blindfolded, also knows one of his kidnappers is Daniel because of his unique cologne.    

Daniel is a greedy opportunist looking to live the American Dream, which in his eyes is a large Miami mansion and a sporty car.    He once tried to obtain the dream as a fraudulent real estate salesman who wound up serving a jail stint.    After listening to a snarky motivational speaker (Ken Jeong), he is convinced he is destined for better things.     He should've listened harder or at least more.    His choice of conspirators leaves a lot to be desired too.    Paul is frequently conflicted due to his religious beliefs about his involvement in the crime.     He then snorts away his share, forcing the bunch to try and rip off a sleazy porn king (Rispoli) with disastrous results.     Adrian blows his share on a house and a wedding, while realizing he may need penile surgery.     If he had waited a year, he would've discovered Viagra.     Daniel believes in himself and his friends believe he is a genius, which is the worst thing for all of these guys.  

Wahlberg plays Daniel with cockiness and bravado (along with a dose of delusion), convinced that his plan will work even in the face of overwhelming evidence that it won't.     When someone is unexpectedly killed, he says he "needs a pump" and starts curling dumbbells while a victim lies dead on the floor.      Johnson brings easy authority to his roles, although this time there are inner conflicts which weigh on him.     He is the closest thing to a moral center between the three kidnappers, but he goes against his better nature too often.      Also in the mix is Ed Harris as a recently retired private eye lured out of retirement by Kershaw.     It doesn't take him long to begin tailing Lugo and his crew, providing incriminating photos to Kershaw and the police.  

Pain and Gain reminds me plenty of Fargo in terms of tone and story.    The criminals in Fargo were amateurs who thought of themselves as pros.    They were in way over their heads, as are the guys in Pain and Gain.    Pain and Gain correctly sees the events with dark humor.     One shakes his head in bewilderment as the situation spirals quickly out of control.     The guys make things worse when faced with unexpected developments.      Adrian cleans up a bloody mess by cutting out 48 squares of  blood-spattered carpet and dumping them in the trash, believing his wife won't notice all of the holes when she gets home.     They rent a chainsaw to cut up body parts and have no clue how to actually use it.     It is returned to Home Depot with hair stuck to the blades.  

Director Bay has made hay off of loud, big-budgeted action films like The Rock, Armageddon, and the Transformers series.     Pain and Gain is a more humorous film.    It manages a workable tone for grim material.    Things aren't blowing up every five minutes and numbing our senses with relentless action.     Lugo and Adrian were convicted of various felonies, including murder, and sentenced to death.     Paul received a lighter sentence and was happy to have it.     Maybe jail was better for him than life on the outside anyway.      Through all of it, and even on death row, Daniel is convinced of better times ahead.     There are instances where confidence gives way to delusion.     Daniel is living proof. 

Bullet To The Head (2013) * 1/2

Directed by:  Walter Hill

Starring:  Sylvester Stallone, Christian Slater, Jason Momoa, Sung Kang

Since when did real estate deals become such a nasty business?    I think back to Broken City, released earlier in 2013, in which all kinds of backstabbing, death, and shenanigans were done in the name of a land deal.    Now comes Bullet To The Head, with more death and mayhem done to protect the future building of condos in an impoverished section of New Orleans.      If developing condos causes this many headaches, the villains should just as soon seek other means of getting rich.

Sylvester Stallone, pushing 70, plays Jimmy, a career criminal/hitman who, along with his partner (Jon Seda), kill a coke-addicted ex-cop/informant who has information which would be bad for the aforementioned condo deal.     They are set up to die themselves when they head to a local bar to await payment.    The man sent to kill them (Momoa) is a giant musclehead who stabs the partner to death, but Jimmy is able to fend off in a fistfight.     This is one of several sequences in the film in which Stallone is able to fight, shoot, drive, and perform stunts like he did 25 years ago.

The Last Stand, another film released in early 2013, was Arnold Schwarzenegger's first action film in many years.     It worked because it didn't ignore that Schwarzenegger is himself pushing 70 and not the action star he used to be.     Sylvester Stallone doesn't want to admit that he's an older man in a young man's game.    He has spent much of past decade in action films, including reviving Rocky and Rambo.    Rocky, aged roughly 60, beats the snot out of a heavyweight champion who is at least 30 years younger than he is.     Is Stallone so ego-driven that he can't accept his age or kid himself about it?    Other than complaining about the overuse of Google and cell phones, the movie makes little reference to his age.   

Because of this, the action sequences become ludicrous.     Stallone even has one scene at a bathhouse where he beats up a younger guy and does so shirtless to show off his physique.     The tattoos he has look hilariously painted on.     The steroids used to create the body would get him a yearlong suspension from playing professional baseball.     He doesn't huff, puff, or even bleed it seems.    

Oh and he is teamed with a younger cop named Taylor Kwan (Kang), who is forever calling into headquarters asking about information on whomever they're tracking.     Luckily, it seems headquarters knows exactly where their quarries are at all times.     Headquarters may as well tell us where Jimmy Hoffa's body is located while they're at it.    

Bullet To The Head is by its very nature silly, but it's by rote and not much fun.    Stallone also serves as narrator, trying his best to channel his inner Cobra/Rambo with a tough guy voice.    He wants to be Hard Boiled.     But he's deadly serious when the movie could use some lightening up.     There is plenty of blood and bullets, and a villain who walks around with a cane.    Walter Hill is an accomplished action film director, but where is the goofy fun of The Last Stand when you need it?