Because I missed the past two days of updates, I now present a DOUBLE FEATURE! I plan to do these every now and again when I see two films that I think really compliment each other or attribute to the review of both. We'll see how these go, and everyone likes them, maybe I'll try to do more of them. On with the reviews!
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This movie suffers from directorial influence incredibly
hard. What was filmed could have been a
really cool spy thriller action film, kind of a more interesting Bourne film
starring a real fighter as our lead action star, Gina Carano. And before I get any farther, she is amazing(-ish). The fact that she isn’t Wonder Woman is
criminal. To the world! They even make a TERRIBLE put-down about it
in this film. DC, cast her!! Anyways.
What we got was a first half of a film that built tension
incredibly well and was intriguing with cool characters and a neat mystery, and
a second half that was just a wheezing sigh of meh. Which is frustrating, because I was loving
the ride I was on. It’s like going on
this awesome roller coaster, building up, taking a cool twist and spin here,
climbing up for a big climax, and then it just kind of is a gentle slope down
to the bottom.
This movie is very reminiscent of another Soderbergh film
from a few years earlier, the Girlfriend Experience. That is a movie about an escort with a
pornstar as the lead, Sasha Grey.
These two films could be a Double Feature between just the two of them. They both aren't told linearly; they both are hyper-stylized cinematic-ally (think like
Breaking Bad except it is really noticeable and distracting); they both take a basically non-actress actress and get around lack of acting skill with well used silence and reactions to coax emotion; they both fall emotionally and entertainment-wise flat around the halfway mark. Haywire is better than the Girlfriend
Experience, easily, because other than the climactic fight scene between Carano and Ewan
McGregor - which jump cuts a few dozen times over the span of two minutes - Soderbergh gets out of the way of the action and lets Carano do her thing. And when she does, it is great. But the fight scenes are few and far between
just after the half-way point, and many happen off screen. Because that’s what we as the audience want
in our action film, to not see the action.
Ok, she either just broke a dude's neck ... or broke a stool on a kitchen island. This sounds great!
I cannot recommend this movie, because as a film, it peters
out and becomes a waste of time. And I
hate that. I really wanted to like this
movie, I wanted to have a new star to look for.
Carano showed up in Fast and Furious 6, which I haven’t seen yet, but I
plan to watch just to see how they utilize her.
She is a precious commodity for
Hollywood: an incredibly attractive, incredibly tough, real-deal fighter with
that intangible “it factor” that could really propel her to amazing
heights. I hope that this film, being
her star-vehicle that just kind of petered out and went nowhere because the
director got too heavyhanded and watered down the film, I hope that this film
doesn’t drag down what could be an amazing career in film for her. We’ll see.
Grade: C-
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Surviving the Game is everything an action movie should be
(other than innovative). Except it stars
Ice-T, who is quite possible the worst actor working in film and television. Ok, ok, too bold a claim, and I don't normally like
being completely hyperbolic and negative, but Ice-T really is out of his league
in this film. The movie covers for it
pretty well once the action gets going, but for the first act we have to sit
there with him and his perma-scowl face as he mumbles through lines, wearings a dredlock wig so fake that it makes 8 year-old rastafarian costumes on Halloween look authentic, and just
does not do particularly well.
The movie is not a new premise, and for some people, that
will be an immediate turn off. It is
another in a long list of films that are based on “The Most Dangerous Game” short
story conceit. The thing that makes
those movies different are the characters and way things go. Going into this film, you know Ice-T is going
to get hunted, so they don’t beat around the bush or pretend like he isn’t,
which I appreciate.
The movie did two things incredibly well: great actors
playing great characters as our hunters, filled with the likes of John C.
McGinley, Charles S. Dutton, Gary Busey, F. Murray Abraham, and one of my
favorite actors ever, Rutger Hauer. They
are all well-established characters, with unique traits and great moments to
savor in this film, especially Busey, who delivers just a phenomenal monologue,
known as the Prince Henry Stout monologue.
It is truly an awesome piece of acting.
I don’t normally link videos, but this one is too perfect to not
include.
Pretty quickly, the focus shifts to the hunters instead of
Ice-T, which is a very good idea, and fixes most of the problems with the
film. Though it is particularly
off-putting once the light-skinned Ice-T ends up covered in soot to make him
look like he is in blackface.
This movie is filmed with fun moments, twists and turns that
I could never call before they happened, and a group of great characters. And the only really BAD thing about the film
is Ice-T himself, and the fact that this isn’t a new idea, or even a new take
on an old idea. It is an interesting,
but classic, version of the Most Dangerous Game, but I will definitely watch it
again, and I do recommend to any action fans.
Grade: B+
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