Oh, Sean… you can soapbox your political views all you like, but if you're going to produce and star-in films like The Gunman then you can't expect to have your judgement taken too seriously. As much as this movie would like to assure its audience that it's an intelligent, political conspiracy thriller, it quickly becomes apparent that it's just a Liam Neeson film*1 with A-levels…
The Gunmanis a competently assembled film, doesn't spoon-feed the audience too much and has some beautifully tense set-pieces. It also features some fantastic melee-choreography and enough 'wet-kills' to justify that 15 Certificate. So it's a bit of a shame really that the film doesn't bring enough to the party to set it apart from the other guests. Beginning with Penn as 'security contractor' Jim Terrier carrying out an assassination in the Democratic Republic of Congo*2, we then jump forward eight years as he reconnects with his former acquaintances in a bid to find out who's trying to permanently silence him. Yeah, you can pretty much guess the rest from there.
Despite Penn's contractually-assured shirtless scenes, he's really a bit too old to be starting in this genre. All that's missing from this performance is a comedic gripe about his bad hip. I expect more from Penn as an actor somehow, even though I don't particularly like him. This becomes part of the problem too; Sean Penn has the raw charisma to lead the film, but not the charm to be likeable while he's doing it. And if you can't like Jim Terrier, it's going to be an uncomfortable two hours. A fairly heavyweight cast surrounds him, pulling their weight with a laboured script, including Javier 'Skyfall' Bardem and Mark 'Wolf Hall' Rylance going full-pantomime (with the latter growling away like a pissed-up British Batman).
While it's never less than watchable, The Gunman is also never more than passable, and feels far longer than it's 115 minutes. It's also very considerate that Jim's Incredibly Fragile Brain Trauma™ is diagnosed in the first act then lies dormant throughout the bullet-ridden second one until the plot requires its resurgence at the film's climax. Although the best part for me was a script is so switched-on that at one point it has a rowdy skinhead start a fight in a pub in the East End of London, then mid-way through shout "call the fucking pigs!". A phrase which, for his character, sits on the real-life-probability-chart just behind "I really like crochet!". Although the hardened-reality of this film also has the characters engaging in a conversation between bursts of an un-silenced firefight indoors. I'm imagining the "military advisors" listed in the credits had the day off for the Spanish villa scene?
Say what you like about Penn's politics, but you've got to love his taste in Hawaiian shirts. They're certainly more colourful than his performance in The Gunman, anyway…
Probably not, to be honest.
Netflix / telly.
Not in the cases of the cast members whose work I'm familiar with, no.
I'd be very surprised if it did.
Not particularly.
Of course there bloody isn't. What do you think this is, some two-bit action flick? …oh.
The Gunman features a 'you-get-what-you-pay-for' performance from Ray Winstone, who starred in 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' opposite the Corellian smuggler himself, Harrison Ford.
*1 Oh, and as with Run All Night, the trailers for The Gunman included Cinderella, Minions and The Moomins. Who the fuck do Studio Canal think is watching a 15-rated film of Sean Penn shooting people in the face for two hours??
*2Where, it has to be said, not one person is shown to be drinking Um Bongo. Hollywood lies, yet again.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
The studio representative slouched to one side of the screen, his nightvision camera in-hand and his considerable stomach straining to be free of a work-shirt bought when he was two sizes slimmer. A Cineworld staff member stood in front of him, to his right. "Welcome to our second Secret Unimited Screening," he struggled over the audience chatter and in-screen muzak which hadn't been turned down for his announcement. "You've already been asked to turn your mobile phones off, and we ask that you keep them off for the duration of the film. The gentleman with me represents the makers of the film, and will be monitoring tonight's screening for any illegal recording…" (a large percentage of patrons had immediately turned their phones back on once they'd got to their seats. Either the security-rep couldn't see the glowing faces, or he just didn't care.) "I should also tell you that the film you're seeing tonight is an unfinished version, and won't be in cinemas until next month." (as it was the 25th of the month, the audience successfully hid their surprise at this exclusivity.)
After three trailers and another uneasy nail in the coffin of Kevin Bacon's credibility, the BBFC card lit up the faces of the audience… The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, it read. The audience groaned, audibly. No, seriously. Not everyone, but enough that it was a thing. A lot of the folks here had probably seen the five minute promo that ran before Thor: The Dark World, where Ben Stiller sits in a hotel room, feigning awkwardness in introducing his latest movie, whilst also giving off vibes of genuine awkwardness. It's like Stiller doesn't quite know what slot it should fit into, so he tries to cover all the bases in the time he's allotted, and the end result feels like it's all over the place, ambitiously spinning more plates than it can hope to maintain.
Sadly, that promo is a spot-on representation of the film I saw tonight. Walter Mitty features some stunning photography, and it's clear than a lot of heart has gone into making it, yet that doesn't quite translate to the screen the way you know Stiller wanted it to. It's quite often smile-inducing, either through humour or charm, but the film is never different enough to escape the box it's urging us all to break out of. The escapist daydreams which the Mitty character is famous for disappear after the first act*1, leaving a film which feels a little like a cross between a midlife crisis and a hipster re-imagining of Lord Of The Rings. I honestly believe that "skateboard past an Icelandic volcano" was the deal-breaker from day one with this project. Ben is affable enough to carry his part off, as is his just-out-of-reach romantic foil, Wiig. But everyone other than Walter is presented in strictly one-dimensional terms, which is fine as the story's being told from Mitty's point-of-view, but Walter himself seems largely pencilled-in and aimless, rounding out his own story by luck, rather than judgement.
Films don't have to fit into just one slot, but audiences do expect them to, rightly or wrongly. The biggest problem is that The Secret Life of Walter Mitty doesn't really fit into any. I can't even call it a noble failure, as it's better than that; more of a beautifully photographed mess. For a film trying so hard to be inspirational, there's a distinct lack of sincerity.
Ben Stiller tries to show us his heart, but gets distracted more than his re-imagined Walter, and ends up presenting nothing more than a whimsical rom-com; which is light on both the rom and the com. The depth of field is often breathtaking, but the depth of character leaves a lot to be desired…
Pretty much.
Not as much as I'd have liked.
For me, not even close.
Iceland looks nice, big. Then again, Iceland always looks nice. You don't need Ben Stiller belting around on a skateboard to show it off..
No.
Maybe with Stiller's commentary.
There's a Wilhelm in the Cineworld extended preview, when he's the ice-explorer by the drinks machine (not in that trailer above, though), but it wasn't in the cut of the film we saw. I can't actually remember the last time I heard the scream in the trailer when it wasn't in the film itself, but I'm sure it'll be in the version you see..
Why is there a photo and sculpted-bust tribute to Peter Sellers in the same shot? Stiller has credited 'Being There' as an influence in this project, but did I miss an equal and/or bigger reference to… well, someone linked with Walter Mitty? This may be indicative of a larger problem, I think...
*1 SPOILERY THINGS: Unless I'm missing something big and the whole Greenland/Icelandic adventure thing was a daydream. But I stayed until the end of the credits and there was no suggestion of that, just the Happy Hollywood Ending™. I know the whole snow leopard thing was a massive metaphor, but the film also suggests that it's actually happening as well.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Gangster Squad Cert: 15 / 113 mins / Dir. Ruben Fleischer
So good, I watched it twice.
Giving Gangster Squad a second-pass, I've figured out what was bugging me about Gosling's performance. He seems to be aiming for a quippy, post-Tarantino delivery, but the script isn't sassy enough to support that.
Everyone else plays their lines straight, and Gosling sticks out like a sore thumb as a result. It's a shame, and stops this really good film from being really great.
…ish.
Yes.
Yes.
…DVD.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes!*1
*1 Again, I could have sworn that during the jailbreak sequence, there's a low-level Wilhelm™ inserted..
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Gangster Squad Cert: 15 / 113 mins / Dir. Ruben Fleischer
A brooding score, glistening sets and some slick, stylised camerawork stop Gangster Squad feeling too much like a period piece, although Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone look so out of place in 1949 it's amazing.
But despite featuring some of the most clichéd dialogue I've ever heard, I had enormous fun. Engaging characters and sporadic bursts of gleeful violence compensate for the tropes nicely.
Gangster Squad revels in its body-count.
…ish.
Yes.
Yes.
…DVD.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes!*1
*1 Pretty damned sure I heard one during the jailbreak sequence.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
