Man On A Ledge

On The Edge

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Rated: PG-13  Violence and brief strong language
Release Date: January 27, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 42 min

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Director: Asger Leth

Writers: Pablo F. Fenjves
Cast: Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, Anthony Mackie, Edward Burns, Ed Harris

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SYNOPSIS: Ex-cop turned escaped con stands on the ledge of a Manhattan hotel claiming his innocence for the crime he was imprisoned. But while a police psychologist tries to talk him off the ledge, his stunt may only be a distraction for a bigger crime.

REVIEW: Asger Leth, director of the documentary Ghosts of Cité Soleil, takes a stab at the mainstream with Sam Worthington (Avatar) and Ed Harris (Appaloosa) with a high stepping suspense thriller from TV movie writer Pablo F. Fenjves (Trophy Wife). Can both writer and director make a successful flick without slipping off the edge? Let's find out.

Cop Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington, The Debt) on a moonlight assignment for real estate mogul David Englander (Ed Harris, National Treasure: Book of Secrets) is accused of stealing Englander's 40 million dollar diamond and sentenced to twenty five years in prison. Even with help from his former partner Mike Ackerman (Anthony Mackie, Real Steel), Nick has run out of appeals. But when his father passes away, he is given opportunity to attend the funeral and takes the opportunity to make a daring break from the guards. Cassidy makes his way to the 21st floor of the Roosevelt Hotel on 45th Street and Madison Avenue, eats a large meal, and steps out onto the building's ledge to wait for the police and media to arrive. Asking specifically for Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks, The Next Three Days) as the negotiator, Cassidy strings the cops and the gathering crowd along while a more calculated plan is set into motion.

From the trailers you might get the idea that Man on a Ledge is similar to Colin Ferrell's Phone Booth, focused on a solitary man in a limited venue trying to affect change. But where Ferrell's film was a psychological thriller where he was placed in stationary peril - a phone booth - at the whim of a calculating psychopathic killer, Sam Worthington becomes the Man on a Ledge by his own volition to clear his name of the crimes he was accused and convicted of. The tension is still present as Nick Cassidy puts his life in jeopardy with the soles of his shoes hanging off the stone ledge.

Part police drama, part heist film, Man on a Ledge breaks up the singular story of Nick Cassidy with flashbacks from his time in prison and his escape from confinement. Also in the mix are Nick's brother Joey (Jamie Bell, The Eagle) and his sassy girlfriend Angie (Genesis Rodriguez). Lydia Mercer, fresh off a failed jumper save of a rookie cop, must face a disapproving squad, fellow negotiator Jack Dougherty (Edward Burns, 27 Dresses) and commander Dante Marcus (Titus Welliver, The Town) as she attempts to bring Cassidy in from the edge. David Englander rules with a iron real estate fist as he deals with zoning committees, investment meetings, and men looking to jump off a building accused of stealing the diamond he so prized. Lastly, a opportunistic reporter Suzie Morales (Kyra Sedgwick, Gamer) distills the play-by-play of the neck-craning events to all who will watch.

Worthington is committed to the role, muttering up enough piercing stares, slipping gasps, and furrowed-brow scowls to work throughout the film. Banks' performance is serviceable, but she just doesn't click with Worthington as well as she does with Edward Burns. Bell and Rodriguez, on the other hand, work and play well together as Joey and Angie argue and weave their way through Nick's master plan. Ed Harris is a worthy adversary as the mogul Englander but doesn't get nearly enough screen time to be effective.

Man on a Ledge aspires to be a lofty suspenseful action drama. The elements are all in place, whether suspended by nylon ropes, perched on the edge of the wind against the side of a building, or smashing gift watches against the wall behind the presenter's head. The problem with an aspiration of a film is that sometimes you lose your footing and tumble over the edge. i look forward, instead, to Sam Worthington Wrath of the Titans. 

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WORTH: Rental

The Adventures of Tintin - Secrets of the Unicorn

Journey Into Mystery

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Rated: PG Adventure action violence, some drunkenness and brief smoking
Release Date: December 21, 2011
Runtime: 1 hr 47 min

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Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, based on the comic book series by Herge
Cast: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Daniel Mays, Toby Jones

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SYNOPSIS: Young journalist Tintin and his trusted dog Snowy stumble upon a intriguing story of lost treasure, danger, and a drunken sea captain named Haddock when he unwittingly finds a clue hidden in a model man of war ship.

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REVIEW: Director Steven Spielberg returns with his second film of the season with an adaptation of the Adventures of Tintin, one of the most popular European comics of the last century. In print since 1929, the Belgian comic strip eventually was collected into dozens of graphic collections, a magazine, and previously adapted for film, radio, TV and theater. Created originally by Belgian artist Hergé, Spielberg's version is deftly written by Steven Moffat (Doctor Who), Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), Joe Cornish (Attack the Block).

Young Belgian journalist Tintin (Jamie Bell, The Eagle) and his trusty terrier Snowy stumble upon adventure when he buys a model sailing ship at a outside market. Tintin finds out that there are more parties interested in the model ship than he bargained for after his apartment is ransacked and the model ship stolen. Running against the henchmen of a determined man named Sakharine (Daniel Craig, Quantum of Solace), Tintin and Snowy find themselves teaming up with a drunken sea captain Haddock (Andy Serkis, Lord of the Rings) to chase down Sakharine in a race to uncover and decipher the clues that could lead them to a sunken man of war ship and possible treasure of Haddock's ancestor Sir Francis.

The Adventures of Tintin encapsulates and touches on plot points from three of the twenty four collected works of the comic series. Using elements from "The Crab with the Golden Claws", "The Secret of the Unicorn", and "Red Rackham's Treasure", the highly detailed animated film is a swashbuckling adventure with mystery and exotic locales. Several of the original recurring characters turn up, including the aforementioned Haddock, and a pair of bumbling look-alike detectives named Thomson (Nick Frost, Attack the Block) and Thompson (Simon Pegg, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol), adding slap-stick and humor.

Spielberg borrows much of the film's settings from the experiences he cultivated from films like his Raiders of the Lost Ark. Warm in tone, each landscape is cast in high detail and laid out in epic proportions. When Haddock, in a sobering moment of clarity, regals Tintin with a remembered tale from his ancestor sea captain Sir Francis, the dunes of North Africa seamlessly turn to tidal waves carrying the original Man of War ship named The Unicorn and the pirate incursion that followed. Also like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tintin is plunged into a grand dangerous chase through the street of a Moroccan port village after a hawk, followed by henchman, raging rapids, and a military tank. But neither of these seem to compare to the climatic sparking dock duel at the end of the film.

Accounting for the fact that the film is an animation, Spielberg walks a double edged cutlass with both ultra realism and comic caricatures. While the backdrops and props border on the tangible and Tintin looks like he may step out of the screen like Jeff Daniels in The Purple Rose of Cairo, secondary characters and absurd action sometimes detract from the magic of the movie's escapism. When a military tank following Tintin carries an entire building on its shell from its foundation to the sea, it cuts into the superb action that Tintin manages up to that point.

Unfamiliar with the graphic exploits of the young journalist named Tintin before this film, I can see why the comics have been so popular during the majority of the twentieth century. Filled with mystery that would shame the Hardy Boys, and period action that would impress even Dr. Jones himself, The Adventures of Tintin has appeal for both children and adults. Let's hope that Tintin's journeys can continue. 

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WORTH: Matinee and DVD

The Eagle

Never Say Never

[Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland]

image from screenrant.com

RANT: The theatre lobby was filled with the elderly and the young, one going to see the Metropolitan Opera in HD, the other to see the new Justin Bieber movie, Never Say Never. When I spoke to the concession attendant if she had Bieber Fever, she exclaimed that the young girls were coming out of the presentation in tears! Never Say Never is the the YouTube generation's answer to A Hard Day's Night.

SYNOPSIS: In 140 AD, a young centurion assumes command of an outpost in Roman-occupied Britain, desperate to regain his family's honor after the disappearance of the Ninth Legion and its eagle standard, led by his father, in Northern Britain 20 years earlier.

The Eagle is based on the Rosemary Sutcliff novel, The Eagle of the Ninth. Directed by Kevin MacDonald from a screenplay by Jeremy Brock, The Eagle s a depiction of one roman soldier's struggle to face uncertain dishonor due to his father's legacy of disappearing with the Ninth Legion and its eagle standard 20 years previous.

The movie plays like a cross between Deniro's The Mission and Kostner's Dances With Wolves, with Crowe's Gladiator sprinkled for flavoring. In the beginning, we join Marcus Aquila (Channing Tatum) as he boats upriver to the Roman outpost in the Southern Britain outlands. Upon taking command of the garrison and its soldiers, Aquila quickly sheds the legacy of his father by returning the outpost to shape, heading off a midnight attack by the local tribes and demonstrating conspicuous valor while rescuing his patrol from the hands of the local tribe. The first act sequences are quicker paced, providing story, character set-up, conflict and action.

The second act slows down considerably with the introduction of Esca (Jamie Bell), the slave saved by Aquila from the arena and tasked to be a servant to Aquila during his recovery from the outpost battles. As Aquila and Esca ride into the unknown north beyond the Hadrian Wall chasing rumors that the Ninth Legion's eagle standard has been rediscovered, little is gained on film, except the grandeur of the Scottish Highlands on celluloid. Some discoveries are made to point the duo ever closer to Aquila's goal, leading to a slowly building close filled with betrayals and possible redemption.

One of the obvious issues of the film from the beginning for me was that there was no bother to provide even the slightest accent to any of the Roman characters. Almost all had fine American pitch and tone. Only when we encounter the Scottish tribes are we treated to anything that requires a close watch or subtitles. At least we get to enjoy Jamie Bell's brogue once Esca is introduced. And the ending rides into the credits like a strange homage to a buddy cop flick.

I am a fan of historic period actioners. Learning about the Hadrian Wall was cool. And every time I see Channing Tatum, I am reminded of Josh Hartnett - is it just me? Regardless of any of the positive takeaways from The Eagle, it is probably best to let it land on DVD.

Worth: Netflix

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