Directed by: Neil Jordan
Starring: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Nicky Katt, Naveen Andrews, Mary Steenburgen
Rated: R for strong violence, language and some sexuality.
Parental Notes: This is not a film for children or even most preteens. It contains brutality and fairly graphic violence and is emotionally brutal as well.
Films like "The Brave One" cause me to mull over the idea that violence is becoming too prevalent in modern entertainment. Is it good or bad that "The Brave One" presents its violence in gritty, brutal, realistic ways? Is it better to show violence and its aftermath, as this film does, or better to show it in cartoonish, over-the-top format, like most action flicks do? That's a philosophical question best left to full-on film critics rather than your humble film reviewer. What I can tell you is this: "The Brave One" is violent, wrenching, and emotionally resonant. It's not always easy to watch, but it's hard to tear yourself away from.
Erica Bain (Jodie Foster, "Inside Man") has a wonderful life: a fiance she adores, a public radio job she loves, even a friendly dog. All three are torn away to varying degrees in a matter of minutes. While out walking, she and her fiance are grievously beaten by a trio of thugs who steal their dog. As is befitting a scene which is the catalyst for the rest of the film's events, the assault is brutal. Director Neil Jordan ("Breakfast on Pluto") wisely leaves the worst of the beating to our imaginations, assisted by gruesome sound effects and blurry images from the camcorder one of the thugs uses to record their deeds. The horror is lengthened by the following hospital sequence, as images of the EMS technicians removing Erica's clothes and revealing her injuries are inter-cut with snippets of Erica and her fiance making love.
As she heals from her extensive physical injuries, Erica finds she has become someone else. She has trouble leaving her apartment, even to go to the police station and check on her case. She ignores phone calls from her friends and concern from her curmudgeonly neighbor. Her boss tries to get her to take more time off from work, but she wants to work, to keep living. Her radio show morphs from a series of quiet stories about the city into a near-confessional about the nature of fear.
Erica soon buys a gun, and in short order turns into a vigilante. She starts out by taking the opportunities city life presents -- a gunman in a convenience store, thugs on the subway -- but soon she is hunting her prey actively, always with her sights set on the trio of thugs who started it all. Foster portrays the transformation brilliantly, handling both Erica's strength and her grief and vulnerability with equal aplomb. Foster can show more emotion with a quiet face than most actresses can with well-written dialog.
The film's biggest flaw is the ending, which leaves holes and unexplained character changes hanging in the air. It does wrap up Erica's story neatly, but perhaps that's the problem -- it wraps things up a little too neatly for a film which is otherwise focused on the difficult and realistic effects of violence and crime. Perhaps I am expecting too much from a film about revenge, but if "Highlander: The Series" can manage to show vengeance as a not-entirely-good thing, then I think an Oscar-winning-actress' vehicle could too.
Directed by: Ben Garant
Starring: Dan Fogler, George Lopez, Christopher Walken, Maggie Q, James Hong
Rated: PG-13 for crude and sex-related humor, and for language.
Parental Notes: This is a fairly standard PG-13 comedy full of crude humor. Nothing unusually awful by Hollywood standards, but certainly not intellectual fare.
There have been enough sports movies, both of the sincere sort ("Miracle") and the parodic sort ("Dodgeball"), that making a new one is a lot like doing a page out of a familiar paint-by-numbers book. "Balls of Fury" is the latest piece of the type, and while it's a decent page out of the book, it's still a paint-by-numbers. There are few surprises here for anybody who's seen a sports movie before, but those in search of another familiar sports comedy will find this a solid entry in the canon.
Our hero, Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler, "School for Scoundrels"), was once an Olympic-level ping pong player, until a nasty fall killed his shot at the gold. Now a washup doing shows in Vegas, he is recruited by FBI Agent Rodriquez (George Lopez, "Tortilla Heaven") to take out organized crime boss and ping pong fanatic Feng (Christopher Walken, "Hairspray"), who also happens to be the nasty fellow who killed Randy's father. Feng is having a secret ping pong competition, and Rodriquez wants Randy to earn his way in so that the FBI will have a way to get inside Feng's operation. But Randy is rusty, so the duo visit blind Master Wong (James Hong, "Shanghai Kiss"), whose ping pong wisdom is matched only by the beauty and skill of his niece (Maggie Q, "Live Free or Die Hard").
The Wongs teach Randy, even though instructing non-Asians is forbidden in Chinatown, and enable him to improve well enough to be granted an invitation to the tournament. Once inside Feng's, Randy must contend with some of the best ping pong players in the world, including his nemesis Karl Wolfschtagg (Thomas Lennon, "Reno 911"), in a sudden death elimination tournament -- I probably don't have to tell you that "sudden death" means when you lose, you die.
There are some clever bits scattered through the film. Feng's custom-made, electrified ping pong set-up (with a few unique house rules) makes for a villainous touch, and the most feared ping pong player in Chinatown is pretty darn funny. I laughed often enough to not consider the film a waste of my time, and it was fun to see a bunch of folks taking ping pong very, very seriously in one over-the-top scene after another.
But there are also plenty of eyeroll-provoking moments. There are the seemingly-requisite homophobic stereotypes. Master Wong is the butt of plenty of worn-out blind-old-man jokes (though Hong does a surprisingly good job of playing a blind man without resorting to contacts or dark glasses). Maggie is the predictably gorgeous girl who dresses scantily, can defeat our hero in ping pong without breaking a sweat, and (of course) falls for him because the script says so rather than the characters being compatible.
Fogler is a relative newcomer to film, having made his mark in the original cast of "The Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" on Broadway and had a handful of small roles in films like "School for Scoundrels" and "Slippery Slope." He throws himself into the role of Randy Daytona with 100% intensity, which is the only way to make a part like this work. He handles slapstick, verbal, and expressive comedy very well, and it's a pity that this film isn't a better vehicle for him.
Ultimately, "Balls of Fury" is neither awesome nor terrible; it's solidly mediocre. If you're into sports parody films, it's worth seeing and you'll probably enjoy it. If sports parody films aren't your thing, this isn't really worth your time unless you're a fan of middling comedy.
Directed by: Philip G. Atwell
Starring: Jason Statham, Jet Li, Devon Aoki
Rated: R for sequences of strong bloody violence, sexuality/nudity and language.
Parental Notes: This mediocre film is very violent, with nudity and sexuality sprinkled throughout. Not one for the kiddies.
It's never a good sign when movie reviewers don't get offered a sneak preview of a movie before it opens. Well, we didn't get one for "War," and I can see why: the one thing it has going for it is its stellar cast. The more information that potential audience members have about it, the less they're going to want to see it. "War" isn't bad, it's just not as awesome as its starring duo of Jason Statham ("The Transporter") and Jet Li ("Fearless") would suggest.
Statham plays FBI agent Jack Crawford, who is out to avenge his partner's death at the hands of Rogue (Li), an apparently invincible assassin who was once with the CIA. There are plenty of twists and turns as Rogue falls in with first the Yakuza and then the Triads in San Francisco, playing the two gangs off one another for his own mysterious ends. When we finally find out what those ends are, it's a bit of a surprise.
An even bigger surprise, though, is that director Philip G. Atwell (whose previous credits consist mostly of music videos) fails utterly to make the best of brilliant fight choreographer Cory Yuen. His past credits include "The Transporter" films, "Kiss of the Dragon," and "Lethal Weapon 4," and he's a well-known name in martial arts movie circles. Yuen's listed in the credits, but it's hard to tell that he had anything to do with the film. Atwell's cinematography is apparently designed to make us feel caught up in the action rather that stepping back and letting us enjoy the hard work of Yuen and the fighters. As a result, the fight scenes are sufficiently incoherent that it's very difficult to appreciate the skill of those involved.
That's not to say that the fight scenes are terrible. They are workmanlike and decently paced. But when you have Cory Yuen working with stars like Statham and Li, the bar is set a little higher that it would be otherwise. These scenes should have been fantastic, not merely workmanlike. "War" was written and directed by newcomers to the action world, and it shows. Yuen, Statham, and Li may be very talented, but there is only so much they can do when hemmed in by mediocre writing and direction.
Still, those who don't have their sights set too high will probably not be disappointed. There's plenty of action -- car and motorcycle chases, explosions, gunfights, sword fights, gun-versus-sword fights, you name it. There are Yakuza bosses with loads of tattoos, a deadly and beautiful Japanese Yakuza second-in-command (Devon Aoki, "Sin City"), motorcycle-riding Triad gangs, and the requisite gratuitous nudity. There's plenty of intrigue, but it's not so complicated that you'll be confused if you leave for a bit to grab a soda.
"War" fits a niche -- it's solid movie fodder once you've seen all your top picks at the box office but want to pass the time while you enjoy the theater's air conditioning. But it's not nearly as great as it should be, which is disappointing.