Film Review: A MAN APART (2003)

Director: F. Gary Gray
Writers: Christian Gudegast & Paul Scheuring
Running time: 109 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 18

Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama
UK Release date: 4^th April 2003

Watched on Sky+ Wednesday 11^th January 2012.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is maybe not one of the films I would have chosen; however, on recommendation (you know who you are) I decided to give it a chance. There’s nothing earth shattering about it I’m afraid, just another run of the mill Action/Adventure with plenty of plot twists and an enormous body count. The Mexican drug cartels are the bad guys this time and a rough-tough DEA agent and his partner are the good guys. I’ll tell you what I thought after this brief summary.

A group of DEA agents have been allowed into Mexico to participate in the arrest of one of the drug cartel’s top men, Memo Lucero. Amongst the agents are Sean Vetter and his partner, Demetrius Hicks. The take down goes well and Lucero ends up in a US jail. At this point a character named ‘Diablo’ makes himself known; taking over parts of Lucero’s operation and killing his people. Eventually the ‘Diablo’ cartel turns their attention to Sean; attacks his house and kills his wife. Seeking revenge, Sean visits Lucero in jail; he cannot initially help him, but when his own wife is killed, things change. Can Sean and Demetrius track down who is behind ‘Diablo’? To do so they will have to sometimes stray outside the law! I won’t say any more or the Spoiler Police (DEA division) will have my badge (again).

Quite well made though I did find the action scenes a little confusing at times. Decent performances all round, although I felt nobody was really stretched; and so honourable mentions go to; Vin Diesel as Sean Vetter, Larenz Tate as Demetrius Hicks, Timothy Olyphant, woefully underused, as Hollywood Jack and Geno Silva as Memo Lucero.

Many films have been made on this subject before and there have been many films of this genre. The hard thing to do is to make a film of this type that doesn’t fall into cliché. Unfortunately this one does, and it suffers for it. A much better film of this type (IMO) would be Tony Scott’s ‘Man on Fire’ (2004). I guess I can sum it up by saying ‘it does what it says on the tin’, this film is what it is and, although a little too cliché for my liking, is still worth a look if this is your kind of thing.

My score: 5.9/10.

IMDb Score: 5.8/10 (based on 19,342 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0266465/

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 11/100 (based on 130 reviews counted at the time of going to press).
Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 40/100 (based on 82,184 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/man_apart/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
Sean: They call us down here. They take away our weapons? They expect us to go into a building full of drunken cartel gunmen unarmed? I mean, that isn't fun.
Ty Frost: You're not gettin' paid to have fun. Good luck, gentlemen.

Sean: I like this car.
Hollywood Jack: Hey, nice truck.
Sean: Thanks.
Hollywood Jack: In fact, I was thinking about trading this one in for, like, seven of those.

Sean: Ah... Let me get your license and registration, please.
Hollywood Jack: May I um... ask what I did?
Sean: Yeah, your mud flaps. You got no mud flaps on this.
Hollywood Jack: It's a fuckin' Porsche.
Sean: Well you won't have to worry about it when you trade it in for the truck.

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Official Site: http://www.newline.com/properties/manaparta.html
Trailer:

Film Review: HITMAN (2007)

Director: Xavier Gens
Running time: 89 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Action/Thriller
UK Release date: 30th November 2007

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 25th June 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I have seen this film before, but it’s one of those films that isn’t exactly memorable whilst at the same time it’s not exactly rubbish either. It’s kind of hard to explain really, but I think it’s a lot better than some ‘scores’ you’ll see on the internet might suggest. It’s based on a video game and as such, like many others of its type, it suffers from trying to be too much like the game. I thought it was actually quite good in patches, it just failed to deliver at the crucial moments. Here’s a brief summary before I give you more of my thoughts.

Our Hitman, Agent 47, was brought up from an early age to be a Hitman. He is hired to assassinate a Russian politician, Mikhail Belicoff, and he carries out his instructions to the letter. Imagine his surprise when the same politician appears live on TV the very next day. Add to this the fact that he is being pursued by an Interpol Officer, Mike Whittier and the Russian Secret police are also getting involved. He discovers the politician has a lover, Nika Boronina, who he kidnaps, hoping to get more information from her. He finds himself drawn to her in ways he’s not used to. A hit is put out on Agent 47 and people from his own employers, ‘The Organization’ are now also after him. It’s time to strike back and this is where I leave it. I don’t want to find a mysterious bald man sitting in my armchair when I get home one stormy evening.

As I said at the beginning, this film suffers from trying to be a little too much like a video game. There is quite an over-complicated plot that really doesn’t have a strong narrative which doesn’t help matters. Performance wise, I thought Timothy Olyphant did a decent job as Agent 47, he certainly had the look. Dougray Scott was adequate without really breaking a sweat as Mike Whittier and Olga Kurylenko did a decent job as Nika Boronina. Also worthy of note were; Robert Knepper, sporting a natty Russian accent, as Yuri Marklov, Ulrich Thomsen as Mikhail Belicoff, Henry Ian Cusick as his brother, Udre Belicoff and Michael Offei as Jenkins.

Unfortunately this film did have a bit of the look and feel of a ‘Jason Bourne’ film… and we have already seen at least one of those. The fight scenes were all very well done and there were some spectacular explosions to keep the kids happy (that’s a joke by the way). An over-complicated plot didn’t help matters, but at the end of the day I did find it entertaining, if not very memorable (and I’ve seen it twice!). Over all, recommended, but for just one viewing.

My Score: 5.7/10

LINKS:
(RT=Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0465494/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hitman/
Trailer:

Film Review: THE CRAZIES (2010)

Director: Breck Eisner
Running time: 98 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi/Thriller
UK release date 26th February 2010

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 13th February 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is based on a 1973 film of the same name, now, for the record, I haven’t seen the original so you’ll get no comparisons here. Although rather formulaic, it’s still a pretty enjoyable, if scary and at times gory film. There’s more from me later, but here’s a brief summary first (summary haters please stop acting crazy while I write the next paragraph).

It’s a typical day in a small town in Iowa, there is a baseball game going on and the town sheriff, David Dutten, is there with his deputy, Russell Clank. When a local man wanders onto the pitch carrying a shotgun, Dutten is left with no option but to shoot him. Thinking he was drunk, he goes about his day but feels there’s something odd about it. The next day he discovers the man was sober. More and more incidents begin to happen around the town and Dutten decides to take his wife, Judy, the town doctor, and leave. There’s a problem though, the army have now arrived in biohazard suits and are rounding the townspeople up… I’ll leave it here, that should be intrigue enough.

This is a very well made film; you can tell it had a decent budget. The effects and the stunts are all very well done and the cinematography is pretty decent too. I thought Timothy Olyphant played the part of the Sheriff very well, but it’s a part that seems to fit him pretty well. Radha Mitchell has a good scream (in places) as his wife Judy and I thought Joe Anderson was also pretty good as Russell Clank (although it’s a very comedy name).

I said at the beginning that I found this one pretty formulaic, what I mean is that it follows a similar pattern to several other films I’ve seen in the past. I’d like to name a couple but I’m getting accused of giving out spoilers… At the end of the day, it’s a pretty solid film with a few scares and some gory moments. A little predictable but perfectly watchable… Recommended.

My score: 6.5/10

LINKS:
(RT = Rotten Tomatoes)
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0455407/
RT Page: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1205380-crazies/
Official Site: http://www.thecrazies-movie.com/#/home
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3255239705/