Posts Tagged ‘action films’

While Sherlock Holmes: A game of Shadows won’t be my favourite film of the year (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is still the lead contender for that) it’s one of my favourite action films of the year.

One critic I saw pretty much said it was more of the same as Sherlock Holmes from 2010 as though that was almost a bad thing.  I’d say it’s a very smart move.  Its equal parts modern panto, action film and Sherlock Holmes redefined.  On a grander scale than Sherlock Holmes but without going to far over the top.

Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law keep the repartee going and both carry the action brilliantly too.  It appears such an effortless relationship that it gives space for the Moriarty / Holmes dynamic that drives the film’s plot.

Moriarty is delicious – a truly worthy performance to complement Robert Downey Jr as a villain to equal Holmes.  He’s not at all a moustache twirler but a subtle and balanced villain.  Stephen Fry’s Mycroft Holmes is used sparingly but brilliantly especially his nude scene.   He could probably carry a Quite Interesting film all of his own.

Rachel McAdams, Noomi Rapace, Paul Anderson, Kelly Reilly, Geraldine James, Eddie Marsan and every other character down to extras playing minor villains, street life and gypsies do a great job of supporting the core cast while in many cases bringing characters only briefly on-screen to life as more than punch bags for the leads.

The sound track is excellent and uses a fiddle to add pace.  There is just enough steam punk without going too far over the top.  The visuals are excellent and the use of camera focus on expansive visual effects shots of historic cities to draw the eye is beautifully used.  The slow motion style from the first film is reused to great effect in the action sequences.

Foreshadows wonderfully used.  Too often films foreshadow one thing with a lingering shot. This one plays with it wonderfully by layering foreshadowing with the obvious foreshadowing of some elements to distract from other foreshadowing more subtly set up for later.

The climatic chess game is a cliché setting up to a twist on Holmes working out a fight before it happens.

Twice they don’t show us the body.  The first time we hear her fall and Moriarty tells us Irene Adler is dead but all we see is a slightly bloody handkerchief.  When Holmes sniffs it could he have detected something that will be revealed in a sequel?   And of course there is the other  body we don’t see.

The only bad thing I could say about Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is that the title is a bit of a cliché.  I mean A Game of Shadows?  Try harder.  Sorry just kidding

So overall I really enjoyed this in fact I can’t think of anything bad to say about Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.  Great fun.

I’m not sure what film some of the people who had reviewed Colombiana had been to see but it’s not the same one I went to.  Colombiana is not a classic film but its been given some really harsh reviews that often seem to amount to it not being Leon.

Colombiana is the latest Luc Besson action film and this time he’s gone back to some of the themes that made him famous with Nikita and Leon – assassins and revenge.   That makes it hard to review without referring the earlier film.  Leon had three truly memorable characters: Leon (Jean Reno), Mathilda (Natalie Portman) and Stansfield (Gary Oldman).  Colombiana has Cataleya (Zoe Saldana) and a variety of less developed supporting characters.

Personally I’d like to have seen more made of one of:

• Danny Delanay (Michael Varta) and his relationship with Cataleya
• FBI Special Agent Ross (Lennie James) and his teams pursuit of Catelyna
• Emilio Restrepo (Cliff Curtis) and Catelyna family
• The bad guys/CIA played by Jordi Mollà, Beto Benites and Callum Blue

These were all sketched in and developing any of two of those could have elevated the story.  However doing so would either require changing the pacing by losing a set piece or increasing the length of the film by 15 to 30 minutes.

What it lacks in deep characterisation of villains and allies it makes up for by putting its central character on screen and action.  The opening chase scene in Columbia and the assassination in the police station are memorable and the third is clever.

The climactic encounter with the villains is the weakest of the set pieces but it remains coherent compared to the confused mess that was The Expendables ending.  The fight scene was reminiscent of those found in the Bourne films especially the later, Paul Greengrass, directed offerings with their handheld, in the fight style.

Another thing in its favour is a sense of humour closer to the quips of a good Bond film that is more effective than the forced comedy littered through many modern action films.

So yes, this isn’t Leon or a classic, but if you can get past that while Colombiana is a fun Luc Besson action movie.

Salt the Spoiler Free one line review: Salt is a good action film but slightly generic and not quite as good as I’d hoped for but certainly better than a lot I’ve seen.

My spoiler filled longer thoughts on Salt follow this picture…

Salt isn’t a bad action film and I don’t think it suffered from the much hyped switch from Cruise to Jolie.  Given I like a lot of Cruise’s work and not a lot of Jolie’s (Wanted being an example of a film that disappointed) was a pleasant surprise.

Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor were both good in their supporting roles but this was no Borne style thriller where we see the action from both the side of the hunter and the hunted.  I can’t think of any other characters who really even stick in my mind: Vassily Orlov and Mike Krause were included just enough to serve their respective function as spymaster and husband/provider of spider venom.  The focus was heavily on Salt throughout.

It doesn’t seem entirely sure if it wants to be Bond, Borne or a generic action film.  It didn’t have its own definitive style but few films achieve that – the Borne trilogy probably being the most recent action films to do that.  It had the directing style of Phillip Noyce’s earlier work on Tom Clancy inspired films with a bit of the Borne style mixed in.  Thankfully they made the film without resorting to gratuitous slowmo / fastmo camera action that have been so in vogue in recent years.

There were some good action sequences.  The chase on the roads where Salt jumps from vehicle roof to vehicle roof sticks in my mind.  The assassination attempt, the boat sequence and her escape from the police convoy less so.  The effects didn’t gratuitously distract – Salt jumping down the elevator shaft was a bit of an obvious effects shot but it wasn’t as distracting as the Face running along a crane arm as it crashes to the docks in the A-Team last week.

The plot reminded me of a description from a book written in the ‘80s of how Spetsnaz and KGB forces would open a war with the West by mounting attacks on America.  This version was lower key and someone had had to do some work to cope with the change from the cold war to a friendlier Russia.  There wasn’t as much of the which characters are traitors as I’d expected from the trailers and Salts disguise wasn’t the full face latex mask much beloved of Mission Impossible since the 60’s.

I found myself wondering at one point how many alternate reality’s there are where the only changes are the holders of positions like the President of the United States or other officials.  This alternate reality had new US President, Vice President and Prime Minister of Russia.  Given the number of officials poisoned, blow up or shot it almost needed a special disclaimer at the end…

No animals or government officials were harmed in the making of this motion picture

I also had to wonder – what if the Secret Service took him to the helicopter and Airforce 1 rather than the static defence of a bunker?  There didn’t seem to be much of a plan B for that happening…

Overall Salt is a good action film but slightly generic and not quite as good as I’d hoped for but certainly better than a lot I’ve seen.

Half my brain liked The Losers the other half isn’t so sure.  First the good things…

The comedy – it wasn’t always timed perfectly – but there was plenty of humour and it was drawn from the characters.

The action was solid and sometimes creative.  The way The Losers could be casual when going up against what appeared to be tough opposition made a change from the oh to0 serious, walk slowly away from explosions without looking back school of action hero.  The moment when Clay and Roque take a moment to enjoy an explosion was really refreshing.  Thats when Clay and Roque really work – not when they’re banging heads.

Jensen, the tech guy, wasn’t just there as a comedy element.  He might not have been able to handle himself as much as some of the other characters but he wasn’t helpless or tied to a keyboard.  He gets some good moments, especially in the sequence where he breaks into the office building.

Jason Patric’s villain seems more self-aware of his villany than any bad guy since Benedict in Last Action Hero.  He had something of an old school Bond villain about him but with a twist of Tarantino.

The minor things…

Don’t Stop Believing is a nice song.  I like it.  I don’t own it but I like it.  It’s a shame they couldn’t pick a song that’s not been done to death of late for such a prominent role in the soundtrack.  With a different song the film could have been setting a trend rather than following where others have been.

The styling was a bit in your face and a bit too obvious.  Tropical Thunder has done for this school of action film what Monty Python’s Holy Grail did for coconuts as hoof beats.  Thats a shame because if it had a bit more of its own visual language it could have been really great.  I’ve not read the original comics.  It’s a shame because the comic book imagery used at the start and end hints at a visual language that could have played a bigger part in the film without going down the 300 / Sin City route.

Idris Elba:  I like Idris Elba.  I thought he was good in Ultraviolet and excellent in The Wire.  Unfortunately since then he seems to be taking roles that involve him chewing the scenery as much as possible.  That could be good.  He can clearly act.  “Stringer” Bell in The Wire had more range and greater subtlety than either his current part as Luther on the BBC or Roque and that is a shame.

The plot isn’t full of wholes [note: that should be full of holes - normally I'd change it but I love that turn of phrase] but it doesn’t feel entirely developed or possibly not fully explained.  It’s there more as a vehicle for the action.  I’ll live with that – its true of plenty of action films and many have plots with bigger holes.

Now the bad thing…

The film didn’t allow me to invest in the characters destinies. I didn’t care enough about them.  When they got shot I should have cared.  When one of them goes bad I should have cared.  I didn’t.  That was the films major flaw for me.  Die Hard is a good action film – it’s a great action film because I care what happens to John McClane.  The same is true of Lethal Weapon and lots of other action films.  There were things written in to make us like the characters in The Losers: the heroes rescue the children at the start and suffer for it, Jensen’s niece, Pooch’s pregnant wife and Clay’s problems with women.  Everyone except Roque had something (and maybe what he needed was something to give him some depth).  However it felt like the film maker begrudged having to use those humanising elements for anything other than comedy value.  They might have been better off without the clutter and going for the anonymous ’60s style Mission Impossible agents defined by their relationships with each other.

Overall…

The Losers is a good, silly action film that I feel could have been an awful lot better had the style been a bit fresher and if I we’d been given a reason to care more about the characters.  Maybe I’m analysing the film too much in the hope that there would be something else if I scratched the surface.