Broken City

SUSPENSE / THRILLER

Fractured to the Point of Breaking

★ ★ ★ out of 5 | Movie - DVD - Rental

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Rated: R Violence, some sexual content and pervasive language.
Release Date: January 18, 2013
Runtime: 1 hour 49 minutes

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Director: Allen Hughes
Writers: Brian Tucker
Cast: Mark Walhberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeffrey Wright, Barry Pepper, Alona Tal, Natalie Martinez, Michael Beach, Kyle Chandler

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SYNOPSIS: In a city rife with injustice, ex-cop Billy Taggart seeks redemption and revenge after being double-crossed and then framed by Mayor Nicholas Hostetler.

REVIEW: One half of The Hughes Brother, known for Menace II Society, Dead Presidents, and From Hell, Allen Hughes continues his solo track with a script from newcomer Brian Tucker for the new Mark Walhberg and Russell Crowe political suspense/thriller Broken City. 

Detective Lt. Billy Taggert (Mark Wahlberg, Ted) is found over the body of a young man in a rent-controlled projects. Soon therafter, Taggert is facing a preliminary hearing with murder charges hanging over his head. When the judge rules that there is not enough evidence for a trial, the public outrage forces police chief Carl Fairbanks (Jeffrey Wright, The Ides of March) and NYC Mayor Hostetler (Russell Crowe, Les Miserables) to take Taggert off the force for good. Seven years later, Taggert is a financially struggling private investigator, complete with a snarky assistant Katy Bradshaw (Alona Tal, Kalamity). Just as his luck is running out, Mayor Hostetler - on the eve of the mayoral election against wealthy congressman Jack Valliant (Barry Pepper, True Grit) - calls on Taggert with a job to follow his wife Cathleen (Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rock of Ages) who he suspects is having an affair. But when Taggert delivers the evidence of Cathleen's betrayal, the political fallout goes far beyond the scope of the job, leading to murder, double-cross, and intrigue.

Mark Walhberg does what he does best. He faces his character Billy Taggert with a scowl, a growl, and a constant furrow in his brow. Taggert has a successful quick wit and quicker jabbing hands, even if he struggles as a private dick. With every hero - or with Taggert, an anti-hero - there needs to be a superior antagonist. With Mayor Hostetler, Russell Crowe takes to the character a thinly veiled and practiced charisma that masks a coiled snake. But is he the villain? Sure, he has his concerns about the fidelity and loyalty of his wife, but does he have ulterior motives? Police Chief turned Commissioner Fairbanks detests how Taggert escaped prosecution years earlier and seems to throw it in Taggert's face at every turn. Catheen Hostetler has her own motives but seems harmless enough. It's not until the end of the film when the dust settles that everything becomes crystal clear.

As far as political civil servant suspense thrillers go, Broken City will never break the top tiers in the genre. Going against Serpico, The French Connection, or Walhberg's The Departed, Mark and Russell's new effort falls a little short. Don't get me wrong, Mark Walhberg is a capable hero, stringing together a slew of hits from The Italian Job to The Shooter to The Departed to Ted to The Fighter to Contraband. Mark knows action, and he is an underrated action hero. He has proven that his passion for a project helps the film's success. I think maybe this film was just a paycheck.

With a lot of moving parts, Broken City tries out lay out plenty of political intrigue in this 109 minute movie. Every character is on the take, "owned" by someone due to something held over their heads, filled with too much information that is given away a little too freely, or simply under utilized. Taggert's long time girlfriend Natalie (Natalie Martinez, End of Watch) serves as the pivot point for Taggert's entire world, but seems to disappear as soon as her work is done. Zeta-Jones' Cathleen keeps everything close to her vest until its important for Taggert to have additional information to help move the plot along.Even Jeffrey Wright's Police Commissioner knows more than he's telling. Formulaic, Broken City just doesn't have enough to intrigue the fickle masses. Walhberg takes a beating and strikes out with his fast hands, but he is somewhat fighting with one hand tied behind his back. Only Wright's Fairbanks, Pepper's Valliant, James Ransone's (Sinister) Todd Lancaster, and Kyle Chandler's (Zero Dark Thirty) Paul Andrews bring their A-Game.

Sometimes shot with too soft a lens, sometimes shot with too grainy a lens, Hughes tries to set a tone and visual quality for the film that just doesn't seem to fit or be consistent. Even the musical score, filled with techy noises, is more of a distraction than an enhancement. Couple that with Russell Crowe's amateur New York accent, and one can see where the suspense starts to unravel a bit.

Broken City is a decent effort in the suspense genre. If you like everything Mark Wahlberg does, even this film may not live up to your expectations. Walhberg gets the job done as always, but at what cost?

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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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Argo

Turnaround

★ ★ ★ 1/2 out of 5 buckets | DVD

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Rated: R Language and some violent images

Release Date: October 12, 2012

Runtime: 2 hours 0 minutes

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Director: Ben Affleck
Writers: Chris Terrio, based on an article by Joshuah Bearman
Cast: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Victor Garber, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Scoot McNairy, Rory Cochrane, Christopher Denham, Kerry Bishe, Kyle Chandler, Titus Welliver

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SYNOPSIS: As the Iranian revolution reaches a boiling point, a CIA 'exfiltration' specialist concocts a risky plan to free six Americans who have found shelter at the home of the Canadian ambassador.

REVIEW: Director Ben Affleck, director of The Town and Gone Baby Gone, helms and stars in a factual fiction of the 1980 Iran hostage crisis and a secret CIA-run declassified exfiltration using a fake movie production as cover. Santa Fe Film Festival Luminaria Award winner for Best Short Book of Kings Chris Terrio writes a script based on an article "Escape from Tehran" written by Joshuah Bearman.

In 1980, the Ayatollah Khomeini was failing in health and was given refuse in the United States. As a result, angry protesters started to gather at the United States embassy in Tehran. As the protectors grew in size and fervor, they actually invaded the sovereign soil of the United States and took all of the foreign affairs officers and staff hostage. As the invasion was happening, six of the foreign affairs staff, Bob Anders (Tate Donovan, Wild About Harry), Cora Lijek (Clea DuVall, American Horror Story) Joe Stafford (Scoot McNairy, Killing Them Softly), Lee Schatz (Rory Cochane, A Scanner Darkly), Mark Lijek (Christopher Denham, Shutter Island), and Kathy Stafford (Kerry Bishe, Red State) escaped from the embassy and to the residence of the Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor (Victor Garber, You Again). The CiA and Department of Defense, finding out about the escaped staffers, try to come up with a plan to extract them before the Iranian Revolutionary Guardsmen find them and execute them as spies. The CIAs Jack O'Donnell (Bryan Cranston, Red Tails) and expert ex/fil professional Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck, The Town) take a meting with the Department of Defense to consult on the plans that the DoD had come up with - supply the staffers bicycles and have them ride over 300 miles to the Turkish border. Unwilling to go along with such a ludicris idea, Tony comes up with a almost more far-fetched idea to create a cover that the six staffers are part of a film scouting crew looking at locations in Tehran. Tony must enlist the help of make-up effects professional John Chambers (John Goodman, Trouble With The Curve) and director Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin, The Change-up) to start a production company, option a script, and make the world believe that the film known as Argo would soon be in production. Once all of the mechanics are in place, Tony still has to travel to Tehran, brief each staffer on their cover ID, and try to get them out of the country before the ruse is found out. 

Ben Affleck continues to prove that he has the right stuff as a director with this follow-up to The Town. Way back in the day, when he and Matt Damon came up with, wrote, and won the Academy Award for Good Will Hunting, many saw that achievement as a fluke, farce, or outright lie. Now, when several well-received films as an actor and, now, as a director, Affleck cannot be dismissed as a just a lucky man. Forget Gigli... Affleck's body of work has grown in all of the right ways. Argo starts off with actual storyboards that outline the rise of the Iranian state from its Persian roots. Then we get a brief summary of the political state of the nation up to the morning that the irate citizens climb the fences of the United States embassy perimeter and take over 100 US citizens hostage, demanding the return of their former leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini, for judgement and execution. As the outrage of the protesters grow, the intensity of the film heightens. The sounds, the camera work, the pacing, all suit an atmosphere that breeds uncertainty, worry, and need for self-preservation. Affleck directs the opening sequence with a visual aesthetic close to what the raw footage depicted in 1980 in Tehran. As the crowds grow more restless, the audience can feel that tension, as if on site at the embassy on that day. Throughout the film, the direction, pace, and suspense are certain... even if the fates of the escapees are not.

As an actor, Affleck is center stage, but he is not. He is surrounded by a stellar cast that includes the always versatile Bryan Cranston, Kyle Chandler (Super 8) as Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan, Titus Welliver (Man on a Ledge) as one of the other Embassy employees, the actors and actresses who play the escaped staffers to a physical and emotional tee, and a cast of dozens more who make the film so gripping.

Affleck makes Argo feel like 1980, from the period correct Warner Bros. logo fly-in to a slight washed out grainy visual feel of the cinematography. The backgrounds, cars, feathered hair styles, big mustaches and glasses, actual newscasts - all make make for a perfect set for an imperfect and impossible situation. I am sure that the fact to fiction ratio will not be please everyone, but the production designers, story writers, and set designers should be consideration come Oscar time.

Argo starts off with a bang, and really does not slow down. Sure, there are scenes where there is little action, but the political closed-room discussions between the CIA and Department of Defense add as much tension to the tale as the Iranians storming the United States Embassy. And for much tension as the story conveys, there is also light and humorous moments. With John Goodman and Alan Arkin on board trying to make a fake movie on Affleck's behalf, the sheer audacity of the concept is fodder for a few laughs (while still being dramatic).

Argo tells the tale of a science fiction adventure with heroes, villains, and innocents in jeopardy. Although a script in turnaround, it mirrors on paper the real world international crisis that swept the world's attention in 1980 and 1981. Those who remembered the events know how the crisis ends, for others who were too young and growing up it is a reminder of the political and international turmoil that continues to haunt us to this day.

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Super 8

Super 8 Is Great!

Director: J.J. Abrams

Writers: J.J. Abrams

Stars: Elle Fanning, Amanda Michalka, Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney, Zach Mills, Riley Griffiths, Noah Emmerich, Ron Eldard, Gabriel Basso

SYNOPSIS: In a small Ohio town in 1979, a group of friends set out to shoot and star in a super 8 film movie about zombies. After witnessing a horrific train derailment during one of their shoots, they observe strange events and disappearances, spurring them to investigate the weird phenomenon.

Writer and director J.J. Abrams, the man who helped bring television's Alias, Lost and Fringe to life and revitalized a Star Trek film franchise with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, comes back with the tight-lipped, character-driven, super secretive Super 8. Cast with established familiar faces like Elle Fanning (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Noah Emmerich (Frequency) and Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights), up-and-coming kid stars Ryan Lee (Shorts) and Zach Mills (Changeling), and newcomers like Joel Courtney and Riley Griffiths, Super 8 and Abrams strive to keep the heart of the film on the story, characters and an unseen menace. Super 8 is a film the way Spielberg used to make films in that era.

What do we know going into Super 8? A group of kids are trying to make a super 8 movie and witness a massive train transport derailment during one of their night shoots. We know the military gets to town quickly due to "something" that may have gotten out of one of the train cargo cars. Strange disappearances and happenings abound throughout the small Ohio town - but from who or what? Is the Spielberg and Abrams name and allure of the unknown enough to get people to the theater?

If you like E.T. - The Extraterrestrial and Cloverfield, and grew up enjoying 70s hits like Jaws and 80s hits like The Goonies, then Super 8 is the movie for you. Part sci-fi creature fest, part secretive late "cold war" style government clamp down, part curious kids leaping into harm's way to find out the truth and protect each other, Abrams brings his anamorphic lens flares from the future space of Star Trek to the late 1970s and the small town of Lillian, Ohio, Earth. Joe Courtney's character Joe Lamb is both Elijah Wood and Henry Thomas, rolled into one. The banter of the kids Joe (Courtney), Cary (Ryan Lee), Preston (Zach Mills), Charles (Riley Griffiths), Martin (Gabriel Basso) and, especially, Alice (Elle Fanning) spouts out both realistic and juvenile. Courtney and Fanning are brilliant in their hopefulness and in their secret despairs. Opposite to the hopefulness of the kids are Joe's father Jackson Lamb (Klye Chandler) and Alice's father Louis Dainard (Ron Eldard) who shoulder the aftermath and animosity of an accident at the local steel mill that opens the film, their actions distancing them from their own children.

The pace of Super 8 is slow, but steady. Action highlights parts of each act, with the train derailment that the kids narrowly escape, the discovery of what is vandalizing the town of Lillian, and the pursuit of the Air Force to detain and capture what it is they let get loose. All the while, the children revolve around the center of it all. Even when the story slows, the characters and cinematography push the film forward. Every shot is handled with care, demonstrating Abrams craft with the camera. The gathering at the Lamb household, for instance, during the late winter with Joe sitting on the swing set watching as his father and Mr. Dainard argue is pristine and crisp.

Whatever it is that terrorizes the small Ohio town of Lillian could be akin to the monstrous behemoth of Cloverfield, albeit a distant kin. Similarities abound with pallor and tone, while the differences are striking as well. We catch glimpses and teases of it throughout the first half of the film, but Abrams makes great use of obstacles to obscure what the audience thinks it sees or wants to see. Taking a page from Spielberg's Jaws or Scott's Alien, it is better to imagine the horrors than to reveal it.

When all is said and done, Super 8 is less a movie about things that go bump in the night, sending dogs racing away in all directions and microwaves disappearing from appliance store shelves in the dead of night, and more about letting go of the things that we cannot control, and in the case of the USAF, should not control.

WORTH: Matinee or BluRay