Robert Redford, who was a trifle too old to have TRULY experienced the ’60s as a young hippy hep cat, is the ex-radical activist who changed his identity, Shia LaBeouf is the reporter who exposes his secret.
And you’ve got Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte and Anna Kendrick, to boot. Probably good, certain to be preachy, “The Company You Keep” opens April 5 in limited release.
Yeah, Happy Valentine’s Day, Mother Russia.
But is it “A Good Day to Die Hard,” a good time to be had by all as Bruce Willis takes his fifth shot at “shootin’ all the scumbags”?
Naaah.
Loud and tedious, “Die Hard 5” is a shaky-cam/Sensuround blast of bullets and bombs, digital explosions and death defying feats of defying death.
Not a decent villain or catchphrase in it, it’s an attempt to CIA-up the New York cop takes-on-the-world’s-terrorists franchise. And it doesn’t work.
Director John Moore (“Behind Enemy Lines”) spends an endless opening filled with no-names speaking Russian and laying out an elaborate scheme to nab/kill or release a rich “political prisoner” (Sebastian Koch). Moore gave his cinematographer a Steadicam and a case of Red Bull, and shot the whole thing with a jittery frame that doesn’t mask how dull the action beats are, and how REALLY dull the chatty father-son bonding scenes in between the action beats are.
John McClane (Bruce Willis) is in Moscow to check up on a son (Jai Courtney of “Spartacus”) who’s in jail. Turns out the estranged son is CIA, and he’s on a mission. And dad, who’s “ON VACATION,” is interfering. Or saving the day, depending on your point of view.
The kid calls the old man by his first name.
“John? Whatever happened to ‘Dad’?”
“Yeah, whatever happened to him?”
They don’t get along.
“Need a hug?”
“We’re not really a hugging family.”
They crash through an epic Moscow traffic jam – which Moore & Co. shoot and edit into a jumble of crushed cars and feeble wisecracks from the villains – “Boy, dis guy iz really gettink on my nerves.”
They get into fights with helicopters. In the middle of the city. Not that local law enforcement notices.
And it’s all in pursuit of some mysterious “file,” which the prisoner they’re trying to slip out of the country has. Or doesn’t.
Vast arsenals turn up, at their convenience. Unlimited supplies of lead are exchanged with legions of evil minions.
“It’s not 1986, you know.”
Which has kind of been a watchword these pay couple of months. With “Red Dawn” remade, badly,and Stallone and Schwarzenegger stinking up cinemas in the weeks leading up to this, you kind of hoped the last ‘80s action star to take his shot could conjure up a little of the old magic.
Bruce, sad to say, doesn’t.
For 25 years, it’s generally been “A Good Day to Die Hard.” But these last two films have neutered the franchise and wrecked any hopes that Bruce as McClane might be Bourne again. The guy can still take a licking – still pull those shards of glass out after every death and physics defying stunt. But the character is weary, and the “I’m on vacation” line is played. McClane needs to trot out “I’m RETIRED” from here on out.
MPAA Rating: R for violence and language
Cast: Bruce Willis, Jai Courtney, Sebastian Koch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Credits: Directed by John Moore, scripted by Skip Woods. A 20th Century Fox release.
Running time: 1:37
The movies based on the novels of Nicholas Sparks always emphasize the simple pleasures. A quiet locale, a leisurely stroll down the beach, a romance that doesn’t begin in a bar and end in bed – that same night.
Those simple pleasures are in the forefront of “Safe Haven,” another sweetly treacly tale from the “beach book” author who gave us “The Notebook,” “Dear John” and “The Last Song.” There’s another beach town – sleepy, bucolic Southport, N.C. – another pair of lovers, each with his (Josh Duhamel) or her (Julianne Hough) “big secrets.” And as they court, the Nebraska-native Sparks serves up more of the homey homilies he’s picked up, studying the South.
The girl, Katie, is on the run from Boston and the locals, especially the handsome widowed shopkeeper Alex, take an interest and try to make her fresh start work out. But Katie’s reading this helpfulness – he gives her an old bike to get to her job at the seafood joint – Yankee wrong.
“If you’re goin’ to live South of the Mason-Dixon line, honey, people GIVE you stuff.”
Katie learns to spear-fish flounder, to cope with critters in the shack she rents in the woods and to accept those unrequested gifts.
About the beach – “Take a lot of pictures. You’ll only regret the ones you didn’t take.”
There’s an overly-nosy/overly friendly neighbor (Cobie Smulders) and a twinkly old uncle (Red West) to prod Alex into approaching the pretty new waitress in town – “Spit it out, get it over with.”
And a couple of cute kids eyeball Katie, one hoping she’ll replace her dead mom, the other fearing that same thing.
Director Lasse Hallestrom (“Once Around,” “Chocolat”) goes to some pains to hide each character’s secrets. The Boston cop (David Lyons) obsessed with tracking down Katie uses more police work than common sense to find her, and we glimpse the late wife’s attic office that Alex rarely visits.
Hallestrom and his screenwriters may be stuck with Sparks’ formula, but they take advantage of the geography, the leads and a couple of homespun supporting players – Robin Mullens is a wonderfully folksy owner of the seaside seafood shack.
The offhandedly charming Duhamel is more seasoned and better at this sort of laid-back slow-burn love than the still-green Hough, who seems too young for somebody with this much baggage. She is never more than adequate. Keira Knightley was originally talked up for the part and that would have made a much more interesting couple.
Smulders (“How I Met Your Mother”) is playing a plot device and nothing more.
It’s a movie for people who nod their heads at the revelation that “Life is full of second chances.” There’s tragedy and heartbreak, in the past and possibly in the future, and a story that involves no heavy lifting – few surprises, and so “safe” that there’s nothing that anybody would consider “edgy.”
From “Message in a Bottle” to “Nights in Rodanthe,” that’s a formula that’s made Sparks rich. But some of us want more from our big screen romances, especially a film released on Valentine’s Day.
How many times have we seen this plot in a Nic Cage thriller?
He’s a veteran crook/cop/government agent/what have you.
And his kid is kidnapped.
Yeah, he’s been doing “Taken” over and over again. Still kicking himself that Liam Neeson landed that one.
Last year’s “Stolen” was one version. “Drive Angry” was the life after death version.
“Tokarev” is the latest incarnation, variation on a theme by Nic.
Spanish director Pablo Cabezas is behind the camera. Me neither.
It really is a transformed movie world, and Tom Cruise is giving in to it. This movie is due out in 2014.
It’s a documentary about hunger in America, discussing possible solutions to this age-old problem made worse by the Great Recession.
Leigh Bardugo’s fantasy novel “Shadow and Bone” is about an imaginary land under siege by darkness — literal darkness — and the flesh-eating monsters who hide in it.
Now, the screenwriter of “K-19: The Widowmaker” and Oliver Stone’s bomb “Alexander” is close to landing the job of making it into a screenplay. Christopher Kyle would be adapting the first book in the “Grisha” trilogy, with a “Harry Potter” producer in charge and giving him notes.
THR is reporting that Seth MacFarlane’s followup to “Ted” is filling up with lovelies — and name actresses. “A Million Ways to Die” has already attracted Oscar winner Charlize Theron to the MacFarlane troupe, and now Amanda Seyfried is in talks to sign up.
“Million Ways” is MacFarlane’s riff on the Old West. He’d play “s farmer who chickens out of a gunfight and sees his girlfriend leave him. When he meets a notorious outlaw’s wife (Theron) who offers to teach him how to shoot, the farmer sees a chance to win back his love.
Seyfried would play the deserting girlfriend.”
Here’s what we know, from the trailer and press notes from the fifth Die Hard movie.
It’s short — in the 95-97 minute range.
The effects, seen here, look heavy on the digital side.
The villain is generic and Eastern European.
The silly additions to the ensemble (Kevin Smith) of the last one seem to be missing.
Director John Moore will try to make us forget “Max Payne.” He’s had good credits — “Behind Enemy Lines,” the remake of “Flight of the Phoenix” — and bad ones.
So, cause for cautious optimism? Even though Sly and Schwarzie have already taught us that the ’80s are over, baby?
You recognize the face, if not the name.
Miriam Colon has been active in film and TV since the 1950s. Being a native of Puerto Rico, that means she’s seen epic changes in the sorts of roles Latin actors are offered in Hollywood and even more dramatic changes in the country where Hollywood does most of its business.
She was in “Scarface” and a couple of John Sayles dramas — “City of Hope” and “Lone Star.” Scores and scores of credits, over the decades.
And she has the title role in the film of Rudolfo Anaya’s Chicano-lit breakthrough, “Bless Me Ultima,” playing an aged Mexican-American medicine woman who inspires fear, suspicion and contempt, even from her own family, which is quick to call on her services when a family member is “cursed” by local witches in 1944 New Mexico.
Questions for Miriam? Comment below.
