White House Down

ACTION/ADVENTURE

Second Term

7.0 out of 10 | Rental

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Rated: PG-13 Some language, a brief sexual image, sequences of intense action violence, and intense gunfire and explosions
Release Date: June 28, 2013
Runtime: 2 hours 17 minutes

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Director: Roland Emmerich
Writers: James Vanderbilt
Cast: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Richard Jenkins, Joey King, James Woods, Jimmi Simpson, Nicolas Wright

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SYNOPSIS:  While on a tour of the White House with his young daughter, a Capitol policeman springs into action to save his child and protect the president from a heavily armed group of paramilitary invaders.

REVIEW: Director Roland Emmerich is known for his summer tentpole disaster films, including 2012 and Independence Day. He returns with another turn at the wheel with more mundane fare than aliens and the end of the world. James Vanderbilt (The Amazing Spider-Man) writes a story about terrorists against the White House and the President.

John Cale (Channing Tatum, This is the End) is a Capitol policeman assigned to a protective detail for the Speaker of the House Raphelson (Richard Jenkins, Jack Reacher), back from serving three tours in Afghanistan and trying to get back into his politically inclined daughter's good graces. When John takes his daughter Emily (Joey King, Oz the Great and Powerful) to the White House for a job interview for the presidential secret service protective detail and afterward for a White House tour, John realizes that he has just walked him and his daughter into a terrorist ambush against President Sawyer (Jamie Foxx, Django Unchained). Torn between protecting the daughter he loves and the presidency he respects, John must make hard choices to discover if he has what it takes.

Armageddon and Deep Impact, The Prestige and The Illusionist, and countless other film pairs that share the same concept from separate studios forced to duke it out in the same film season, White House Down will take its place with the earlier released Olympus Has Fallen. The question is which one is the better film?

While Roland Emmerich has a string of successful summer disaster blockbusters under his belt, Gerard Butler's Olympus Has Fallen seems to be the Armageddon to White House Down's Deep Impact. In comparison, while White House Down has all the slick and signature look of Emmerich's films, and that Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx make a decent comedy pair, the story falls a little flat when it comes to full-on action. The fight choreography and gunfights… Olympus Has Fallen sweeps the board against what Tatum and Foxx have to offer. Both filmss have a child in jeopardy, Olympus... has the President's son and White House... has Cale's daughter in trouble. The villains in each could be a draw in terms of their dastardly motivation. Olympus Has Fallen only had Eckhart and Butler as the main acting draws. White House Down boasts James Wood, Jamie Foxx, Channing Tatum, Maggie Gyllenhall, Richard Jenkins and a few other notable actors. White House Down is the more comedic of the two… although lacking against Olympus Has Fallen's straight on hard-core action with a little dose of snarky rapport.

If these movies came out in different seasons or different years they would be judged on their own merits. Since Olympus Has Fallen came out first its review is based on its own merits, while the second in line White House Down is forced to live in the shadow of a first born twin. The Channing Tatum character is just trying to get into a job that his daughter will respect, while Gerard Butler's character was a top notch Secret Service agent who lost everything trying to keep his head above water.

Enough comparisons! White House down is a decent story of lesser value than Emmerich's Independence Day or 2012, but less epic and less well put together. Was Emmerich rushed to get this flick out quick? We may never know!

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The Great Gatsby

DRAMA, ROMANCE

Old Sport

9.0 out of 10 | MOVIE, DVD

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Rated: PG-13 Some violent images, sexual content, smoking, partying and brief language
Release Date: May 10, 2013
Runtime: 2 hours 22 minutes

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Director: Baz Luhrmann
Writers: Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce, based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joel Edgerton, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, Elizabeth Debicki

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SYNOPSIS:  A Midwestern war veteran finds himself drawn to the past and lifestyle of his millionaire neighbor.

REVIEW: Baz Luhrmann, famed screenwriter/director of Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, and Strictly Ballroom, returns to feature films in a big way after a string of short films. Re-teaming with longtime writing partner Craig Pearce, they adapt the frequently remade story written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire, Brothers) stares out the windows of a sanitarium, morbidly unhappy with his life. When the doctor tries to coax out of him a memory of a better part of his life, Nick reminisces about a man he once met that was filled with hope and vigor. That idealistic young man was named Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained). Carraway describes Gatsby as being of the new wealth, meeting him in the summer of 1922 on Long Island, New York. Throwing more than lavish parties at his home for the greater populace, Gatsby holds a mystery close to his vest that Carraway wonders about. Carraway rents the smallish cottage next to the Gatsby estate where both of them are able to look across the bay at Carraway's cousin Daisy Buchanan's (Carey Mulligan, Drive) house. Spending most of his time trying to become a decent stock and bond broker on Wall Street Carraway soon finds himself swept up with the extravagant parties that Gatsby throws. Where did this man named Gatsby come from? What are his motivations? What are the mysteries behind the man who some say is a relative of the German Kaiser, an assassin, or a secret agent? And what is his fixation on the lovely Daisy Buchanan, wife of old money heir Tom (Joel Edgerton, Zero Dark Thirty)

Writer/director Baz Luhrmann, known for his inventive interpretation of Romeo + Juliet, takes on one of America's most treasured pieces of literature. Robert Redford and Alan Ladd have made their mark in versions of The Great Gatsby. Luhrmann uses his unique style of directing to weave an original tapestry of his own. Using the backdrops of the heady days of the early 1920s Luhrmann creates the gorgeous locales of Long Island and New York City, adding in wonderful costumes, and all the glamour and glitz that the Roaring 20s provided.

The cast is spectacular, spectacular! Although DiCaprio's Gatsby doesn't appear right on away in the story he does steal the show as the title character. With every slick back of his hair, every reference to his friends as 'Old Boy', and every glance or glare speaking volumes more than the elegant Fitzgerald dialogue, DiCaprio proves again why he is an A-lister. Joel Edgerton holds his own as he Errol Flynn-esque Tom Buchanan who Gatsby battles against for a specific treasure that he owns. Edgerton is both imposing and charismatic as a heir of old money. Tobey Maguire is the perfect choice of the young man Carraway trying to make his way to world caught between these two titans of wealth. The female cast is equal to the task as objects of affection and of objectification by these men and their boys club. Isla Fisher (Rise of the Guardians) is Myrtle Wilson, a kept conquest of Tom Buchanan who knows how to party to excess. Carey Mulligan, a busy young actress, sparkles with innocence and a secret knowledge of how the world works as the object of affection, Daisy. And rounding of the main cast is Elizabeth Debicki as the golf starlet Jordan Baker, poised and postured as if made of porcelain. 

As one who was never forced to read 'The Great Gatsby' in high school literature class I was able to go into the viewing of this film with complete innocence. Like Nick Carraway I was wide-eyed with wonder at the decadence and debauchery that came with money. I could go on about The Great Gatsby as a literary allegory for the 20s and the gateway to the Great Depression of the 30s, but I am more impressed with what I enjoy onscreen. From the cinematic spectacle of it all, to the musical score and use modern rap, pop, and R and B, to an incredible cast roaring with the 20s, The Great Gatsby enthralls with mystery, misdirection, lost romance, and the excess that preceded a depression that proved greater than Gatsby could ever become.

Old money or new money, it doesn't matter. No matter what social and economic circles we travel, there is always drama that exceeds our great expectations. The Great Gatsby is one of the best dramatic and visually appealing films so far this year.

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Zero Dark Thirty

Manhunt

★ ★ ★ ★ out of 5 buckets | Matinee or DVD

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Rated: R Brutal disturbing images, strong violence and language.
Release Date: December 19, 2012 (expands January 11, 2013)
Runtime: 2 hours 37 minutes

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Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Writers: Mark Boal
Cast: Jason Clarke, Jessica Chastain, Kyle Chandler, Harold Perrineau, Fredric Lehre, Edgar Ramirez, James Gandolfini, Joel Edgerton, Chris Prat, Frank Grillo, Mark Strong

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SYNOPSIS: A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 in May, 2011.

REVIEW: Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar for Best Picture for her film The Hurt Locker.  Before that she had big with successes with Point Break, Near Dark, and Strange Days. Returning to the deserts of the Middle East, she reteams with The Hurt Locker scribe Mark Boal to tell the tale of the biggest manhunt of the 20th century.

Maya (Jessica Chastain, Lawless), a CIA field analyst, is sent to Pakistan two years after the attacks on the World Trade Center towers on September 11th, 2001. Taking part in the brutal interrogations of middle eastern detainees with ties to Alcaida and other terrorists groups, Maya uncovers a network of couriers who may lead to Osama bin Laden. After several years and several other successful bombings around the globe, Maya has to fight the war to capture Osama bin Laden on several fronts, including against a change complexion of terrorism, a United States government with a changing policy concerning interrogations and detainees, and a ticking clock against more pain and death.

Zero Dark Thirty is Kathryn Bigelow's second film to take place in the conflicts of the Middle East. From Jeremy Renner's turn as a bomb disposal expert in the hateful sands of the region to the long pursuit of the terrorist Osama bin Laden, Bigelow's captures the tireless persistence of American patriots who fight for the freedoms of their homeland at a cost that may be too lofty to truly commiserate.

Bigelow opens the film with complete darkness and the iconic date of "September 11th, 2001". All that is heard is various recordings from officials, air traffic controllers, 911 operators, and workers in the World Trade towers. As American society was plunged into a pessimistic darkness, Bigelow hurls us two years later where a young CIA agent recruited straight out of high school and into a CIA Black Site where seasoned agent Dan (Jason Clarke, Lawless) interrogates a money man with ties to the 9/11 attacks. We do not stay anywhere too long, as the hunt for Osama bin Laden and twenty of the top leaders of the Alcaida terror network. Maya is the fulcrum - with agents, detainees, soldiers, technicians, analysts, and terrorists changing around her over the years she struggled and sacrificed in her pursuit for bringing bin Laden to justice.

Jessica Chastain starts off her career as Maya as a tough, but new recruit assigned to overseeing CIA Black Site interrogations. As the years go on, Chastain hardens her character into a woman with a singular diamond point focus against the man who is a ghost in the Middle Eastern sands. As the pressure to find bin Laden grows, Maya butts heads and egos against her station chief Joseph Bradley (Kyle Chandler, Argo) for more resources, mourns for the loss of interrogative freedom along with Dan, and constantly struggles against the slow grind of political red tape against supervisor George (Mark Strong, Green Lantern) and the CIA Director (James Gandolfini, Killing Them Softly). Will the government move on intel that in less than 100%? Even the Seal Team 6 members, although well trained, are skeptical of the mission parameters. Squadron Team Leader Patrick (Joel Edgerton, The Odd Life of Timothy Green) and DEVGRU Justin (Chris Pratt, Moneyball) follow orders on the instincts of a woman who may be the singularly most knowledgeable person on who and where Osama bin Laden is.

Coming in at 157 minutes, you can feel the emotional toll that the ten years have on main character Maya in the story. The pace is slow and even, plodding along with the teams and analysts as they miss opportunities to capture key personal with knowledge of bin Laden's network. They unravel around the edges as terrorist cells continue to plot and carry out their destructive missions. As the end nears, the tension rises in the CIA bunkers in Langley, Virginia and in the Pakistan darkness. But the actual incursion by Seal Team 6 on the bin Laden compound seems too real world slow and methodical to work as the climatic ending on the big screen.

Bigelow and Boal use Chastain's Maya as an amalgam of a public suffering immense loss of its innocence, as well as the sometimes quiet, sometimes volatile outrage and frustration of American agencies trying to achieve a measure of closure against a single man whose orders and decisions changed the cultural outlook of a nation. The film pulls back the curtain of what America had to become in order to get this dirty job done, showing the raw methods necessary and rawer nerves that result.

Zero Dark Thirty is a hard and objective look at a decade-long hunt for one man. The men in the employ of the terrorists are not made monsters unnecessarily. In the same light, America is not left with virtuous clean hands either. We know how it ends, but we may know what it took to get there.

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Lawless

The Good Fight

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Rated: R  Some sexuality/nudity, language and strong bloody violence
Release Date: August 29, 2012
Runtime:  1 hour 55 minutes

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Director: John Hillcoat
Writers: Nick Cave, from the novel by Matt Bondurant
Cast:  Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Dane DeHaan, Gary Oldman

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SYNOPSIS:  In 1931 Depression-era Prohibition Franklin County, three bootlegging brothers' business is threatened by a new special deputy targeting moonshining operations in the hills of Virginia.

REVIEW: Director John Hillcoat, known for the bleak apocalyptic Cormac McCarthy adaptation The Road, return with another adaptation from multi-talented Nick Cave (The Proposition) based on the novel 'The Wettest County in the World' by Matt Bondurant. Looking at Depression moonshining based on the actual lives of three real-life brothers should make for fine drama. 

In 1931 Franklin County, Virginia, three brothers make their living distilling 'White Lightning' moonshine in the rural foothills. Led by Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy, The Dark Knight Rises), a man who cheated and overcame death in both the Great War and a bout of fever that took the lives of both of the brothers' parents, he remains a quiet but stern businessman of the local alcohol trade. Older bear of a brother Howard (Jason Clarke, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) like the product a little too much but is devoted to his brethren. Younger brother and runt of the litter Jack (Shia Lebeouf, Transformers: Dark of the Moon) looks to follow in his brother's footsteps but lacks the stature and intestinal fortitude to do what sometimes must be done. Operating without problems from the local constables, the Bondurant brothers suddenly find themselves up against sterner authorities in the guise of special deputy Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce, Lockout) who looks to shut down all of the stills operating in the back wood Virginia hillside. Unwilling to back down, the Bondurant clan continue to distill the illegal alcohol while the other moonshiners are bought out or run out. While Forrest deals with keeping what he has, Jack starts running his own part of the business and making enough money to buy fancy cars and clothes, and try to woe the beautiful daughter of a town minister named Bertha (Jessica Chastain, The Help).

What could have been just another drawn out early 20th Century period drama, turns into a gripping character-driven tale of loyalty, power, and love. With great performances by Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, and the rest of the cast, plus a phenomenal story from Nick Cave from the Matt Bondurant, Lawless will entertain and enthrall.

At the end of the second decade of the Twentieth Century, the United States government decides that the ills of the country were due to the evils of alcoholic spirits, passing the Amendment to the Constitution for Prohibition. As the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression tore through the country, those with the strength of character and convictions were able to remain or become successful in spite, and because, of the decisions of the government. Bootlegging and moonshining became the cornerstone of prosperity for both those who produced the spirits and those who sold them, and survival for those who consumed them.

Taking place in the the hills of Virginia, the opening shot pans over the luscious orange, red, and golds tree tops of the forests of the commonwealth. An old Ford truck rumbles down a single lane dirt road and Shia LeBeouf's character Jack sits behind the wheel of the old jalopy filled with White Lightning. In voice-over, Jack describes his brothers and the business they share. As they travel through the county, selling crates of mason jars filled with moonshine to both the locals and the local constables, we get a glimpse that maybe selling moonshine during Prohibition is not as illegal and detrimental to the country's morals as it was supposed to be. The cinematography is sweeping and gorgeous, adding a beauty to a story that at times is bloody and hard.

The performances are exceptional. Tom Hardy's Forrest Bondurant is both eloquent and quiet, saying more with a clenched-jaw stare and a 'hmmm' than long monologues. Shia's Jack, the center of the story in some regard, shows he carry himself with characters other than talking robots. Guy Pearce, as the special deputy Charlie Rakes appointed by the Commonwealth of Virginia, presents his character as a Chicago operative who fancies the finer things in life, has a perchance for wearing gloves, and has no problem getting his hands dirty. Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska bring a softness and maturnal climate to the brother's, Jessica as the minister's daughter that Jack tries to woe and Mia as the displaced Chicago showgirl who just wants to find a more quiet life. Dane Dehaan stumbles through life as the Bondurant Brothers' mechanic and gimpy boy Cricket with a heart of gold. And Gary Oldman cameos as the crime boss Floyd Banner, both friend and foe to the back-woods bootleggers.

Lawless is a fine period drama, corner stoned by superior performances by everyone on the cast, strong stark visuals, and a solid story. Violent and beautiful, Lawless entertains and enthralls. The brothers may be outlaws, but their loyalty to each other is beyond the rules.

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WORTH:  Matinee or DVD