"Cop Out"
Richard's Review: 2 1/2 stars
It is a generally accepted fact that the law of diminishing returns applies to movie sequels. The further away you get from the source the weaker the film. Now, of course "Cop Out," the new buddy cop movie from Kevin Smith, isn't a sequel. It only feels like one. One with the number 3 or 4 in the title. It is, more correctly stated, an homage to the buddy cop movies of the 1980s like "48 Hrs." and "Lethal Weapon." But it begs the question: When does a movie stop being an homage and start being simply a rehash?
Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan play Jimmy and Paul, veteran NYPD cops. They are the typical wildcard movie cops who cause as much carnage as they prevent. After a drug bust gone wrong they are both suspended for thirty days without pay. The without pay part is a tough pill to swallow for Jimmy, whose daughter is about to be married. To come up with $48,000 he needs to foot the bill for her ceremony he decides to sell his prized possession -- a rare, mint condition baseball card. When it is stolen before he is able to sell it he and Paul begin their own investigation, which leads them to an obnoxious drugged out thief (Seann William Scott) and a violent drug lord named after a Louisiana sandwich, Poh Boy (Guillermo Díaz).
"Cop Out" is Kevin Smith's first studio film and marks the first time in fifteen years that indie overlords Harvey and Bob Weinstein haven't been calling the shots. Not that it seems to have made much difference. Smith's trademarked vulgar humor is firmly in place -- although in smaller doses than usual and without the sweet edge that Judd Apatow brings to this type of comedy -- so fans of bodily function jokes will not be disappointed. No, all the marks of classic Smith are here and the only real difference between "Cop Out" and Smith's low budget work is the addition of more crane shots, bigger stars and higher production value. The only thing missing is a cameo from Silent Bob… and the action and laughs you'd expect from this kind of comedy.
Smith, it must be said, isn't an action director. His ham fisted way with the climatic shootout scenes (that's not a spoiler, you HAD to know this would end up in a shootout) is clumsy and sucks the fun out of the film's latter moments. Worse, it's not nearly funny enough. Smith seems to find the characters much funnier than they actually are, allowing scene after scene to drag on past their breaking point.
There are some laughs, mostly courtesy of Morgan, who, although he is essentially playing his "30 Rock" character, brings an unhinged energy to every scene he's in.
His unpredictability, however, is the only unpredictable thing about the movie. It rehashes (there's that word again) every cliché from the buddy cop genre, including stereotyped bad guys who make Tony Montana look subdued.
According to answers.com the meaning of cop out is "a failure to fulfill a commitment or responsibility," and I can't help but think that the movie's title squares with this definition. Kevin Smith may have been committed to the project, but he failed to fulfill the responsibility of making a good movie.
"The Crazies"
Richard's Review: 2 1/2 stars
Welcome to Ogden Marsh, Iowa, population 1260, the friendliest place on earth. Friendliest place, that is, until a mysterious virus rips through town turning the quaint townsfolk into homicidal maniacs. A remake of George A. Romero's 1973 movie of the same name, "The Crazies" is a classic tale of "us" versus "them", with an extra "them" thrown in for good measure.
The town is picture perfect, the kind of Norman Rockwell community where the first baseball game of the year is a big event that attracts everyone in town. The season opener, however, turns into a nightmare when Rory, a local farmer, wanders onto the field with a shotgun, a blank expression and bad intentions. Gunned down by town sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) Rory is just the first victim of the upcoming hillbilly holocaust caused by a government biochemical weapon in the town's water supply. Soon, after several strange murders and a block on all landlines, internet and cell phones in town Dutton uses his Holmesian powers of deduction to determine that "something's really wrong." Think of it as "28 Days Later" without the English accents.
"The Crazies" is a dark little movie, and I don't just mean subject wise. It's dark as though it was shot through a long sooty chimney. The murky darkness is meant to build atmosphere, and by and large it works. Director Breck Eisner creates tension, using darkness and shadows, only occasionally showing the gory stuff and even when the screen does go red, the chills are low-fi. Probably just as well, I don't think we need close-ups of Ben, the former high school principal, now a thoroughly koo-koo bananas crazy killer repeatedly stabbing people with a pitchfork.
Blood drips and there are lotsa squibs but this is more about tension and Romero's original intention -- setting up a comparison between the mania created by the virus and the martial law actions of the government when they try to contain the outbreak. It's Dutton versus the crazies and the government versus everybody and that dynamic is the most interesting part of the movie.
The horror doesn't hold up particularly well. This is one of those "everyone we know is dead" movies. A story where the hero husband says to his wife, "You wait here and don't go anywhere," while proceeding to leave her vulnerable and open to attack. She, of course responds, "Stop pretending everything is going to be OK!" It's the clichéd dialogue of every couples-in-peril movie and could use a facelift.
"The Crazies" isn't as off-the-wall crazy as the title would suggest. It gets the tone right -- the atmosphere and tension are well done -- but could have used a script that expanded on the government's role in the epidemic and went a little lighter on some of the clichés and added some depth to the theme of the collapse of social order.
"The Messenger"
Richard's Review: 4 stars
Taking its lead from "The Hurt Locker," another Iraq war film that isn't about the war as much as it is about the effect of war on the individual, "The Messenger" focuses on two very different soldiers doing one very difficult job.
With only three months left on his tour of duty Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) is stateside after being wounded in Iraq. A bum leg and an eye injury sustained in combat will keep him on U.S. soil, but his new assignment takes as much guts as staring down the enemy in battle. Paired with Capt. Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson) he becomes half of a causality notification team, the messengers who deliver the bad news to the families of fallen soldiers.
"The Messenger" is first and foremost a human drama about how people deal with anguish and a war movie second. In fact there are no battle scenes but the emotional violence is just as jarring as the explosions in "The Hurt Locker" or the wild gunplay of "The Kingdom."
This is the least violent war movie ever. It's a study of various kinds of grief from rage to acceptance to denial. More interestingly it examines the toll delivering the bad news takes on Montgomery and Stone. "There's no such thing as a satisfied customer" in their business says Stone.
Stone, with his ever present toothpick, is pure military, obsessed with protocol—in his world next of kin are referred to as NOK and he has a strict set of rules he will not deviate from. Harrelson gives him an unpredictable edge, filling him with the tics of an unstated and probably troubled history.
It's a commanding performance that suggests that Woody Harrelson is one of the best and most underrated actors working today. I don't know what happened on his six year hiatus from the screen but he emerged on the other end of it a better actor. He can be charming, funny, dramatic, but most of all, believable whether he's playing a disturbed man who thinks he's a superhero ("Defendor") or the leader of the "Angels of Death Squadron" in a serious drama.
Playing opposite him is Ben Foster, an actor who up until now I have always associated with by-the-numbers psycho roles in "Alpha Dog," "3:10 to Yuma" and "30 Days of Darkness." I wrote him off as a slightly more kinetic Bruce Dern type, all bulging eyes and volatile energy, but his performance here is a revelation that should help him escape the typecasting hell he been trapped in. Foster brings a tortured vibe of someone who has just come back from a hellish situation but his character deepens when he begins to look beyond the NOKs as simply being part of the protocol of his job and recognizes them as people.
Harrelson and Foster have many great moments together but a wonderfully low key scene in a kitchen between Foster and Samantha Morton, a war widow he falls for, could be taught in film schools. In one long uninterrupted shot it's a marvel of understated acting that carefully uses words and, more importantly, silences to portray their delicate, complicated relationship.
Outside of the three leads "The Messenger" is filled to bursting with good performances -- look for a powerful cameo by Steve Buscemi and good work from Jena Malone -- and only occasionally dips into melodrama. A monologue about the smell of "rage and fear" should perhaps have been rethought, but more often than not it is pitch perfect.
