Movie Nation

Pierce Brosnan’s perfect hair barely budges in the breeze, he fixes his eyes in that narrowed, steely stare and you remember yes, he was a pretty good James Bond.
But he’s not Bond, not at 61. He’s this fellow named Devereaux, and back in the day, when he showed up for an assignment it was like winter had hit. Everything was dead. That’s why they called Devereaux “The November Man.”
Here’s a humorless, muddled, bloody and generally unpleasant thriller about an ex-agent sucked back into The Business because somebody needs his help. Or somebody knows something. Or some protege has gone stone-cold-killer.
That’s one of the problems with this Roger “No Way Out” Donaldson film. It leaves us with no clear sense of who to root for, or what. Is the CIA out to get Devereaux and his lady friend? The Russians? Some rogue amalgam of the two?
About all we’re sure of is that the body count, built on bullets and sharp, bloody blades, piles up — first scene to last.
Devereaux trained Mason, played by Luke Bracey of the last “G.I. Joe” movie. They were fellow agents, experts on “threat analysis,” and how to put a bullet in that threat. Years later, a retired Devereaux is summoned by the old boss (Bill Smitrovich) to fetch a woman out of Russia, an agent who has “a name.” That name could be the downfall of Russia’s next leader.
Things go haywire in fetching the woman and in the movie, as triggers are pulled too quickly and Devereaux shoots all manner of folks, with and without Slavic accents. Mason is after him. Spirited chases through Moscow, guns blazing and tires screeching, give one a whole new appreciation for the place.
Eventually, teacher and pupil and quarry (Olga Kurylenko) and CIA hunters (Will Patton, Caterina Scorsone) and a Russian pony tailed ballerina-turned-assassin (Amila Terzimehic) all wind up in Belgrade, which apparently is where the money men and women decided was cheapest place to film “The November Man.”
This late August cast-off is what one can easily spy as a “producers-on-the-make” movie. It has the obligatory strip-club scene, with lithe and willing nude dancers. It has a spirited, nude sex scene. And in every shot, indoors or out, we see the best looking extras this side of “America’s Next Top Model.” Skinny anonymous women sashay into the frame, making you wonder what promise was made when “I will put you in the movie” crossed someone’s lips.
Those elements don’t do anything for the plot, the action or anything else. But they have a leering “value” to some in the audience and, more likely in the production office.
Through it all, in between Kurylenko’s sexy costume changes and the sometimes visits of Alexa, the unusually flexible killer (Terzimehic) and flat afterthought of a performance by Bracey, Brosnan keeps his cool and delivers his lines as an older if not over the hill James Bond “type.”
“You feel the need for a relationship,” he growls, “get a dog.”
But a few pithy lines, seriously stunt-doubled fights and the odd blast of blood don’t give the story clarity or the characters a compelling reason for us to engage in their dilemma. That makes “November Man” another sad refugee of August, the dumping ground of movies that don’t quite move anybody.

MPAA Rating: R for strong violence including a sexual assault, language, sexuality/nudity and brief drug use
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Olga Kurylenko, Luke Bracey, Bill Smitrovich, Will Patton, Caterina Scorsone
Credits: Directed by Roger Donaldson, screenplay by Michael Finch and Karl Gajdusek based on a novel by Bill Granger.
Running time: 1:48

At long last, what seemed like an Endless Summer is over — at the movies,
anyway.

It’s time to put aside all that comic book reading that we call “research,”
sweep the word “sequel” aside and get serious about movies, because “serious
movie season” is here.

Serious comedies, serious dramas, serious thrillers, serious “true story”
adaptations, these are the movies that will swell the ranks of Oscar contenders
between now and Thanksgiving.

That’s when the holiday season of films rolls out, packed with sequels —
another “Night at the Museum,” another “Hunger Games,” another “Hot Tub Time
Machine” — popcorn pictures, action pics. So we’ll leave “Exodus” and “Into the
Woods” and such for the holidays.

But fall films? They’re a most intriguing lot this year, and here are a few
titles worth anticipating.

Now that Matthew McConaughey’s got his Oscar, it’s time for this ol’boy to
save the world in “Interstellar” (Nov. 7). It’s a Christopher Nolan sci-fi
adventure about explorers sent to find a place humanity can flee to, now that
we’ve ruined the Earth. This has to be more cerebral than the trailers, which
are a tad on the glum side.

“This is Where I leave You” (Sept. 19) brings Tina Fey, Jason Bateman, Adam
Driver, Rose Byrne, Abigail Spencer, Dax Shepard and others together under
matriarch Jane Fonda’s roof after the family patriarch dies. The most promising
Shawn “Night at the Museum” Levy comedy ever.

Foxcatcher” (Nov. 14) is director Bennett Miller’s version of the true story
of an Olympic wrestler allowed to train in a DuPont heir’s house, and the
tragedy that ensued. Channing Tatum wrestles, Steve Carell takes a SERIOUS turn
to the dark side as John DuPont, with Mark Ruffalo, Vanessa Redgrave and Sienna
Miller also in the cast.

“Laggies” (Oct. 24) is worth looking forward to simply because it has Sam
Rockwell as the responsible “adult” forced to deal with his daughter (Chloe
Grace Moretz), who has befriended a commitment-phobic loser (Keira Knightley)
and allowed her to move in.

The trailers to “The Theory of Everything” (Nov. 7) suggest a sugar-coated
take on the great Stephen Hawking’s triumphant/tragic life. But surely the dark
stuff made it into this bio-drama, which stars Eddie Redmayne and Felicity
Jones.

“The Maze Runner” (Sept. 19 ) reminds us that, yeah, there’s another “Hunger
Games” coming. Because there’s always another “Hunger Games” (“Mockingjay, Part
1″, Nov. 21) coming. But this film of the James Dashner novel promises to be a
new variation on the kids fighting for the sci-fi future formula. This time,
they’re dropped into this mysterious game zone, and forced to try and escape…a
Maze!”

The whole “Year of Michael Keaton” thing kind of fizzled when “Need for
Speed” went nowhere. But Alejandro Gonzalez Inaritu’s “Birdman” (Oct. 17) has
him playing a has-been star of superhero films who struggles to revive his
career with a Broadway play. Naomi Watts, Edward Norton and Zach Galifianakis
co-star. It’ll be dark, but will it be funny?

“Book of Life” (Oct. 17), produced by Guillermo del Toro, is a Latin-infused
pre-Halloween “Day of the Dead” romp done in a stop-motion (CGI) style, and is
the best looking and most promising animated film of the fall. But “The
Boxtrolls” (Sept. 26), a tale of a boy raised by trash-collection trolls, is
from producers of “ParaNorman,” so fingers crossed. Disney’s “Big Hero 6” (Nov.
7) is a CGI proximation of anime, a more fanboy-oriented action pic, based on a
comic book.

“Gone Girl” (Oct. 3) is David “Zodiac” Fincher’s new thriller, about a man
(Ben Affleck) whose wife (Rosamund Pike) has been kidnapped, and the media
firestorm that starts to point the finger at him as possibly the perpetrator.

“Fury” (Oct. 17), from David “Training Day” Ayer, is his WWII combat picture
with Brad Pitt playing a grizzled sergeant named Wardaddy leading his tank crew
behind enemy lines. Shia LaBeouf and Logan Lerman compete for Wardaddy’s
attention.

“A Most Violent Year” (Nov. 17) is a period piece from J.C. Chandor (“Margin
Call,” “All is Lost”), a thriller set in hyper-violent “American Hustle” era New
York, with Jessica Chastain, Oscar Isaac and an immigrant (David Oyelowo).

For a complete list of EVERYTHING opening between now and Thanksgiving, go to Comingsoon.net, which has the most thorough release slate on the Web. It’s where I go.

China’s most publicized, and maybe only Indie Film Festival, now in its 11th year, has been shuttered by the authorities. “Independent” is a word that frightens totalitarians, and according to the AP, this is not the first time they’ve gone after this festival. They’ve zeroed in on the organizers and they’re plainly at risk of arrest if they defy the State and try to show films that aren’t Communist Party approved.

With Hollywood tacking towards the Pacific Rim as its next growth market, pandering to China in the occasional big action picture (“Transformers 4”, for instance), ridding itself of overtly Chinese villains in all films, another move like this would give, you’d figure, the industry pause. If it was concerned about anything other than the bottom line, they’d realize how much aiding and abetting a Police State will make the cinema look, in the long haul.

Instead, another generation of Russian villains, oligarchs and megalomaniacs, as well as the usual Jihadists and the like which don’t reflect the True Evil Empire du jour.

The professional box office prognosticators figured the girl-friendly YA novel adaptation “If I Stay” would open well, north of $20 million at least. And that “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” was too far removed from the original film would be lucky to clear $15.

I figured, based on the web traffic to my reviews, that “Sin City” had higher interest than that. Of course, the fact that my review, like most, was lukewarm, may have impacted a weak weaker weakest Friday for the new Robert Rodriguez film. It may not reach $10 million.

That puts it behind an under-performing “If I Stay,” ($18/19 or so) a fading “Ninja Turtles,” and…”Guardians of the Galaxy,” finally back in first after trailing those mutant teen ninjas for a few weeks. “If I Stay,” according to fan tracking, is doing a better job of pleasing its faithful. Not a bad movie, nothing epic either. Maybe $19?

Perhaps it will rally, but “Sin City” looks to lose to the middling faith-based football drama “When the Game Stands Tall,” which has that church-based marketing thing going for it and should sell $10 million worth of tickets. It’s the only new release to actually meet expectations this weekend.

Truthfully, none of the movies opening this weekend is “Let’s Be Cops” or “Into the Storm” awful.

But the tomatometer was most ruthless about “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner’s overambitious dysfunction and drug abuse comedy “Are You Here?” It’s rating there and on metacritic suggest real consensus, which is fair. I was an outlier. I still find Owen Wilson funny, and Weiner loads him, Amy Poehler and Zach Galifianakis with quick, clever lines. But Wilson is in that can-do-no-right stage of his career, and there it is. 6% on the tomatomater, one of those positive reviews being mind.

“Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” is so much like the first film, from a decade ago, that the reviews reflect fatigue with the graphic novel look and Frank Miller gore and sex. It’s recycled. Gorgeous, clever at times, but been there, seen it.

Then there’s a half-decent doomed teen romance weeper, “If I Stay,” the first film in which Chloe Grace Moretz seems to act on shaky ground. Dating? Love? Awkward. At least she got that and the cello playing right. Decent film adaptation of a popular YA novel, in any event. Weak reviews for that one.

The box office predictions are that “If I Stay” will eat “Sin City” for breakfast. Based on web traffic for my reviews of both films, I think “Sin City” has a chance to do much better than the mid-teens Box Office Mojo predicts or low teens that  Box Office Guru says will be taken in by midnight Sunday. “If I Stay” should clear $20, I think “Sin City” will better that.

“When the Game Stands Tall” soft-sells its faith-based message. This true story of a dominant football team whose Catholic private school character is tested by tragedy and its first losses in a decade is saddled to the stone-faced Jim Caviezel, and suffers for it. Not an awful film, just “Friday Night Lite.”

“When the Game Stands Tall” has been marketed to death among the faithful — many giveaway screenings among church and high school football groups. It’s only predicted to make $9 million. It is on a lot of screens and this audience is pretty forgiving. Maybe it’ll do better.

The best movie opening this weekend is in limited release. “To Be Takei” is a pretty thorough look at how George Takei came to be maybe the biggest winner among the “Star Trek” cast when it comes to his influence on the world. Funny, sweet, touching and blunt. Man, Takei really hates that Bill Shatner.

“Madagascar: Island of Lemurs” is a short IMAX 3D film that is flat out stunning to look at. It goes into wider release this weekend. Maybe wait for that one to show up at your local science center unless you’re starved for something to take the kids to this weekend.