Directed by: Xavier Gens
Starring: Timothy Olyphaunt, Olga Kurylenko, Dougray Scott, Ulrich Thomsen
Rated: R for strong, bloody violence, language and some sexuality and nudity
Parental Notes: This is a fairly standard action movie -- high on body count, low on graphic gore. There's a fair amount of sexual tension in places and several shots of the female lead wearing a g-string and nothing else, but no graphic sex.
Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphaunt, "Live Free or Die Hard") is a deadly assassin with a flawless record: over 100 kills in countries all over the world. "Hitman" is the kind of movie where that sort of career is possible for a man who almost never wears a disguise and has a barcode tattooed on the back of his shaven head. But it's okay -- this isn't a movie about plausible events, it's a joyride through a ridiculous plot as we follow our antihero through schemes and assassinations and international espionage. "Hitman" is the latest movie-based-on-a-video-game-franchise to hit theaters and it is a solid entry in that genre. With the exception of one moment, it is fairly unorigional -- but it is also not gratuitously terrible.
It all starts with a mission: Agent 47 is hired to take out the popular, moderate Russian President Bellicoff (Ulrich Thomsen, "Kingdom of Heaven"). He does so, with charicteristic precision, only to see the man giving a speech live the next day. 47 is then ordered to take out a witness to the shooting, the lovely Nika (Olga Kurylenko, "The Serpent"). She's never seen him before, which tips 47 off that all is not right in the underworld. He abducts her instead of killing her, and soon the pair are on the run from Agency assassins, the Russian secret service, and Interpol.
The rest of the film is largely about how clever 47 is and how many rounds of gunfire director Xavier Gens ("Fronteirs") can fit into any given scene. There are some well-crafted fight scenes (including one four-way, all-Agency throwdown involving eight short swords), lots of neat gadgets, and a smattering of dark humor. There are a few precision hits and one massive firefight in which a room full of men with machine guns serve largely as target practice for the hitman.
There's also 47's response to Nika's attempts to seduce him, the one bit of the film that caught me by surprise and genuinely made me grin. Good stuff. Kurylenko does her best with a script that has her alternately a femme fetale and a helpless waif. Olyphaunt turns in a performance that's better than is necessary, making 47 interesting enough that I wished we'd gotten a closer look at his character. But "Hitman" isn't a movie about character, it's a movie about gunfights and blowing things up.
There isn't much else to say about this kind of movie. "Hitman" is fun while you're watching it if you're looking for an action movie of this sort, but the script and acting are not particularly gifted and it's a lot like watching some fairly talented dancers go through a familiar routine without much passion.
Directed by: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney
Rated: R for a scene of strong graphic sexuality, nudity, violence, drug use and language.
Parental Notes: This movie definitely deserves its R rating and is not suitable for youngsters.
"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" is a film about bad people doing bad things and the chain of catastrophic events that follows. It's a grand crime melodrama which is difficult to describe without ruining its well-crafted surprises. I am a firm believer that a good movie isn't ruined by spoilers, but this film's surprises are so well-crafted, I won't spoil them for you.
Philip Seymour Hoffman ("Capote") and Ethan Hawke ("Fast Food Nation") star as brothers Andy and Hank. They both need money, but for different reasons. Andy has a high paying job, but he also has a serious drug habit and a wife with expensive tastes. Hank is way behind on child support payments to his angry ex-wife (Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone") and doesn't want to tell his daughter that he can't even afford to pay for her class trip to see "The Lion King."
Andy is the smart, amoral one, and he's the one who comes up with the plan: the two of them can solve all their problems by robbing a mom-and-pop jewelry store out in the suburbs. The plan looks foolproof on paper, but Hank lacks Andy's steel resolve and that will be the pair's downfall.
Hoffman's Andy has so much repressed rage smouldering underneath his determinedly relaxed exterior that when he finally does lose control, it's with an air of inevitability. The film's opening sequence, a passionate sex scene in a Rio hotel, lets us see Andy's passion and desire to make his wife Gina (Marisa Tomei, "Wild Hogs") happy before we watch him devolve into a violent criminal. Hoffman's performance is subtly shaded, made up of vocal inflections and hints of facial expression, and it is a joy to watch.
Hawke is equally phenomenal as spineless Hank, the baby of the family. He's susceptible to his brother's manipulations as well as to his own lack of inner strength. He loves people -- his daughter, his parents, even his brother -- but doesn't have the guts to behave admirably toward them. Hawke shows us Hank's good heart under his incompetent exterior and makes the man almost likeable.
The deeper into the film we get, the more obvious it becomes how two such different men grew out of the same family. Their parents, Charles (Albert Finney, "The Bourne Ultimatum") and Nanette (Rosemary Harris, "Spider-Man 3"), are kind and gentle on the surface, but as the film goes on that surface is peeled away and we get to see what lies beneath.
"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" is not for everyone. It's a quiet, character-driven film punctuated by loud, sudden violence. Three years after his Lifetime Achievement award, Sidney Lumet still has it.
Directed by: David Dobkin
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Vince Vaughn, Kevin Spacey, Rachel Weisz
Rated: PG for mild language and some rude humor.
Parental Notes: This is a fair PG film. If you're overly concerned about vulgar humor, you might want to keep your youngsters away, but that's about it.
There is a scene in "Fred Claus" which really works. Fred Claus (Vince Vaughn, "Into the Wild") goes to a meeting of Siblings Anonymous, and finds himself sharing the room with Roger Clinton, Stephen Baldwin, and Frank Stallone (all playing themselves). His attempts to explain that he feels hopelessly overshadowed by his younger brother -- Santa Claus (Paul Giamatti, "The Illusionist") -- don't go over very well. That moment shines with the kind of sarcastic, biting humor that could have redeemed the film in larger quantities. Instead, "Fred Claus" is a PG-rated film from the creators of "The Wedding Crashers," and it feels very, very reined in. Instead of a "Bad Santa"-esque take on the holiday, we have a film packed with holiday and romantic cliches until it bloats like Giamatti's oddly-proportioned fatsuit.
The story is very straightforward: hundreds of years ago, selfless and sweet Nick Claus was made a saint, and (somehow) this means that he and his immediate family are all immortal. Cut to the present day, where his older brother, Fred, has turned from a sweet kid trying to be the best older brother in the world into a snarky repo man who is down on his luck and despises his family, especially his overly-beloved younger brother. Fred wants to borrow $50,000 from his brother so he can open a betting parlor across the street from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Santa says sure, but he has to come up to the North Pole and earn the money.
Meanwhile, hardharted efficiency expert Clyde Northcutt (Kevin Spacey, "Superman Returns") has been sent by "the Board" to look over Santa's operation. Santa's been losing money and if he doesn't turn things around, Clyde will shut him down the way he's already shut down the Easter Bunny. The timing couldn't be worse, what with Fred underfoot causing trouble.
Except for the aforementioned Siblings Anonymous scene, most of the humor is fairly straightforward. There's slapstick, situational, and romantic jokes liberally scattered through the film. They're workmanlike and may give you a chuckle, but they're not quoteworthy and probably won't stick with you for more than a minute or two.
One high point of the film is Kevin Spacey's performance. He brings all his considerable talent to bear on the role, in spite of Clyde being little more than a plot device. The scenes with him have a lot more sparkle than the rest of the film.
Overall, "Fred Claus" is solidly mediocre. It's neither brilliant nor terrible. If you're looking for a comfortable, standard holiday comedy, it should hit the spot nicely. It has that "if you believe in Santa, it will all turn out all right" magic going on. But if you're sick of familiar cliches (such as "acting like a stalker will win over the girl of your dreams" or "scroogey guy is redeemed by the power of Christmas") then you should probably stay away.