Movie Nation

There’s a fun biker B-movie buried beneath the cliches and coincidences of  “Burn Out.” 

It’s not that the motorcycle chase scenes are all that. Because even though it’s French and some of the stunt folks have credits in Luc Besson films, there’s nothing dazzling in the way the footage is shot and edited. The bit right before the closing credits is the best bike stuff in the picture.

And the plot — baby mama gets in trouble with drug dealers, so aspiring motorcycle racer has to smuggle their drugs for them to settle her debt? Nothing special there.

Silly plot contrivances abound, from artificial time limits on drug deliveries (“Don’t stop for toll plazas. Drive THROUGH them!”) to absurd coincidences (a bike parked just where our hero needs it to escape) and there’s little character development, for all the time our hero spends on the screen.

You just know that “one last job” is going to be the one that goes the most wrong, right? Because you’ve seen a few thrillers in your life.

But the movie has a wet-streets-in-the-dark sheen, a seedy take on French housing projects and the sorts of bars, cafes and tattoo parlors mobsters hand out in.

Gregoire Auger delivers a pulse-pounding electronic score.

And the sheer simplicity of it, no background for our hero, Tony (François Civil of “As Above, So Below”). Just fearful recognition of what he has to do, grim acceptance of doing it.

Leyla, played by Manon Azem, is Tony’s big-haired, full-lipped Julia Roberts-backlit ex. They have a little boy together, and Leyla’s made a couple of bad choices that put them in danger. She’s stashed drugs for one gang, and dated a guy who stole them.

Tony may have grown up knowing drug dealers like the African Moussa (Narcisse Mame), but his old friend reminds him that “You grew up in a nice house, not on the streets, Biker Boy (in French, with English subtitles).” He’s not ready to deal with these villains. And Moussa is little help.

“I can’t stop the Gypsies.”

That’s the dynamic here. Tony must drive for the brutish Jordan (Samuel Juoy) and his older boss Miguel (Olivier Rabourdin). They stuff him into a van, drive him to Rotterdam, Antwerp or wherever. Pop him on a bike with a backpack and demand he show up with their cocaine in two hours time at the drop.

“Work two months and we’re quits.”

The deliveries have little visual pop to them, although the logistics of having henchmen standing by with gas for refueling the Ducati he makes these deliveries with, is an interesting touch. The occasional insert of a shot of the speedometer is the main provider of the sense of speed. A few knee-high views taking curves on the track, a lot of back-mounted camera over-the-shoulder shots.

Tony is trying, at 26, to make a race team. And he’s holding down a day job as a forklift driver in a warehouse store.

The Gypsies? They’re in competition with the Arabs and the Africans.

How IS a boy supposed to keep all this straight? When IS a boy supposed to sleep?

The chases are dull. And “Burn Out” takes entirely too long to get to anything truly suspenseful. The third act does have some righteous tension and stylishly-handled violence.

But man, the corn we have to wade through to get to it.

MPAA Rating: TV-MA, drug content, violence

Cast:  François Civil, Olivier Rabourdin, Manon Azem, Narcisse Mame and Samuel Juoy.

Credits: Directed by Yann Gozlan, script by Yann Gozlan and Guillaume Lemans, based on a novel by Jérémie Guez. A Netflix/Gaumont release.

Running time: 1:41

“A Patient Man” is a cagey tale of loss, grief, guilt and revenge.

It does such a swell job of hiding its secrets I’m loathe to give any of them away. Thrillers that keep you guessing, sometimes correctly, sometimes sending you up a blind alley, are rare.

That’s also why it’s a shame when the picture is let down by a flat performance at its heart, however justified a “poker-faced” turn might be to the actor making that choice.

Improv comic Jonathan Mangum  has the title role. Tom is a buttoned-down guy using a bike and LA’s light rail system to get to work. But he’s not doing it to save money or save the environment. He survived a terrible car wreck, and he has lingering issues from that accident, and not just physical ones like the knee brace he wears.

“Are you afraid to get back in a car?” his shrink (Kelsey Scott) wants to know.

“Something like that, yeah.”

They’re very understanding at work, full of “Sometimes, bad things just happen” platitudes because who can think of anything better to say at a time like this?

He bikes to work. He does his boring job, advising clients in logistics at a consulting firm. He bikes home. He drinks. And the next day, he does it again.

And he tries to “feel better” by telling this all to a therapist.

“Like pills and television, my job makes time pass strangely.”

But he has lots of flashbacks. Odd automotive things trigger him. And he’s asking odd questions of his lawyer/friend (Elaine Loh). He’s curious about the person who ran that stop sign and T-boned his car.

He may say he is just “looking at what is directly in front of me” just to cope, we know there’s more going on. Will he start over, joining a colleague for “Night Rider” group bicycle rides through the city? Has he made a new friend on the train?

Is he falling for his therapist? And does he have a prayer of getting “the big promotion” at work?

Mangum, who got his start with Wayne Brady at Orlando’s famed SAK Comedy Lab, plays this guy so deadpan as to be sleep inducing. Flashes of sarcasm or wit play just as flatly as everything else coming out of his/Tom’s mouth.

As we plumb the unfolding story for clues, catching the fake-name offered here, the “big reveals” about the accident and those involved, we’re hard pressed to connect with the guy or care.

Every choice made about Tom is valid. Great loss is deathly deflating. Finding the will to carry on does not make you the life of the party.

But brother, it’s a movie. You’ve got to give us something, some spark of dark humor, some sinister subtext, SOMEthing.

Veteran TV editor Kevin Ward has cooked up a smart script for his feature directing debut. Too bad he and Mangum couldn’t come up with a more interesting, charismatic approach to the character. Or was he the only bicyclist/actor available in LA?

MPAA Rating: unrated, alcohol abuse, profanity, violent car accident

Cast: Jonathan Mangum, Kelsey Scott, Tate Ellington, Elaine Loh and David Jahn.

Credits: Written and directed by Kevin Ward. A Commuter release.

Running time: 1:33

She looks thrilled.

Should be a canny choice, though. Hottest performer on the charts. Sure, she strikes me as more of a Sheena Easton/ Nancy Sinatra/Adele Bond singer than a Tina Turner/Dame Shirley Bassey one. But time will tell.

Terry Sawchuck?Ever heard of him? You will if you see this coming attraction from a Manly Age, when men played the game on ice without protection, with no more conditioning than a Lucky Strike or two in the penalty box.

Kevin Pollack is the biggest name in this hockey bio-pic. Mark O’Brien has the title role, the goal tender.

Apparently,“Goalie”got a limited release in Canada last year, but is rolling out onto other platforms shortly here in the US.

Can’t get a feel for this Mar. 13 release, even after two trailers. You?

“Kindness of Strangers”is a tale of despair and lifelines, homelessness and hope, and maybe romance — in New York City, no less.

Zoe Kazan, Andrea Riseborough, Bill Nighy, Caleb Landry Jones, Jay Baruchel and Tahir Raheem star in this February release, written and directed by the filmmaker who gave us “An Education,” Lone Scherfig.

This looks lovely.

Few movies are as instantly-awful as “Expo,” a thriller your average viewer will be too discerning to not switch off mere moments past the credits.

In a world of A, B and C-thrillers, here’s a D-or-worse one — ineptly scripted, badly acted, violent and stupid in the laziest ways.

It’s the sort of picture where the hero (Derek Davenport), a car service driver being questioned about the disappearance of a teenage violinist he’s supposed to have picked up, asks to be either charged or released by the cops.

And the police detective (Michael C. Alvarez) says “You’re free to go” followed by “We’re not DONE here.” Which is it, Skippy?

A once-homeless and traumatized veteran tries to hold a job and keep his high-maintenance younger sister (Amelia Haberman) happy, which this child kidnapping for the purpose of sex-trafficking is about to interrupt.  She was the reason he was late picking up the girl who was grabbed to be auctioned off on “The Dark Web” by a geezer confident enough of his anonymity that he appears on camera to advertise his wares.

There’s nothing for it but for the PTSD vet to hit the gym, collect his gear, go out there and find the missing girl and clear his name.

He’ll hit up his old Army buddies, some of whom are into drugs, pimping, etc., and find out where in suburban Phoenix this child is being held.

His girlfriend (Shepsut Wilson) gives him his bullet-proof vest, and says “Be careful.”

Writer-director Joseph Mbah appears to be ignorant of combat protocols, legal and police procedures, and that’s just the stuff on the surface. What he doesn’t know about PTSD, child trafficking and the rest suggest he is the worst possible choice to make a movie about ANY of these subjects.

The present day scenes aren’t as bad as the combat flashbacks (Shooting a wounded comrade to keep him from being captured?). But none of this is worth a damn. None of it.

MPAA Rating: TV-MA, graphic violence and lots of it, child sex trafficking subject matter

Cast:  Derek Davenport, Amelia Haberman, Shepsut Wilson

Credits: Written and directed by Joseph Mbah. A Green Apple/Netflix release.

Running time: 1:20

A Marvel marvel starring two guys named Jared!

Oscar winner Jared Leto plays another Spider-Man foe, in the “Venom” vein.

Michael Keaton and J.K. Simmons are also in the cast of this July release.

Michael Jai White starred as Spawn, the first black comic book superhero to hit the big screen, played Mike Tyson on TV and has co-starred with Christian Bale, Steven Segal and Tyler Perry.

But it took “Black Dynamite,” a “madcap brilliant” (Entertainment Weekly) spoof of 1970s blaxploitation action films to earn him the best reviews of his career. He co-wrote the film and stars as the title character — a “righteous brother” out to fight “The Man” and clean up the ghetto. The film is showing at The Enzian this weekend and is due out on DVD Feb. 16.

We caught up with White, 42, as he finished up a commercial for Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I get Married, Too,” which he also stars in.

Question: You obviously know a little bit about blaxploitation films. Do you have favorites?

White: “The Mack” (1973) is dramatically superior to most so-called ‘blaxploitation’ films. And well, “Avenging Disco Godfather” (1979), that title says it all — that this is real seat-of-your-pants filmmaking. I love that ‘I’m-o MAKE me a film’ attitude they had. It was an incredible time. Black folks who weren’t represented positively in the media at all, making movies, playing the hero.

Q: That genre label, ‘blaxploitation,’ has lost some of its sting since the ’70s, hasn’t it?

White: I call them ‘urban action films.’ ‘Blaxploitation’ sticks in black people’s memories. Some are still sensitive to it, if they’re not just over it. And one thing about black folks, once they’re done with some trend or other, they’re DONE with it. You go to a B.B. King or Public Enemy concert, you see nothing but white people. Black folks are DONE with that stuff (blues). White people are the ones into ’70s-style blaxploitation now.

Q: You’ve got the screen presence to be a new Fred “The Hammer” Williamson or Richard Roundtree (“Shaft”). Ever feel you were born too late?

White: These people had style, charisma, they kicked [behind] and they got the women. Where’s our Jim Browns, Billy Dee Williams today? Denzel is the new Sidney Poitier. We need a new Fred Williamson. I grew up identifying with those guys. I wanted to be Charles Bronson AND Jim Brown.

Q: Who is The Man, to you?

White: That super-rich, powerful elite who are fighting what The People want. But back in the day, the screenwriters of these genre films thought of The Man as this mustache-twisting super-villain. I remember, as a child, hearing uncles and aunts, who LOVED this idea that The Man was up to this or that, keeping us down. ‘How would you know, Uncle? You drive a BUS!’

“The Hard Way” is a C-grade action pic filmed in Bucharest.

There’s lot of gunplay, a couple of decent brawls, and few pithy one-liners, trash talk mostly, from Michael Jai White (the once and always “Black Dynamite”).

“Let me hip you to a few things,” he says as John Payne, New York nightclub owner, sizing up the two menacing goombahs who’ve stormed in to demand he sell the place for a song “for sentimental reasons.”

“I’m gonna bust your jaw,” for starters. His busboy nephew may impressed at the floors Uncle John mops with these two goons. Not “ex-special ops, Afghanistan, street-fighter” John.

“Fighting is the violent exchange of physical blows,” he cracks. “Not much of a fight when you’re the only one landing all the blows!”

The nonsensical plot sends John to deliver some pain in Bucharest after the death of his undercover agent brother, Cody. He’s got to catch up with old colleagues, including the heavy (brawler/actor Randy Couture) who runs whatever US agency has spies there, his late brother’s inconspicuous partner Mason (Luke Goss) who drives a “Bullitt” Mustang (in Bucharest) to blend in, and dancers-might-be-hookers played by Madalina Anea and Andreea Diac.

It’s a bad movie that didn’t earn a real release — and since all too often — Michael Jai White’s pictures don’t get reviewed, it’s more valuable as an excuse to ponder whya funny, capable action star like Whiteisn’t a bigger deal than he is.

Quick (low) paydays like this should be beneath him. But look at his credits.Too many movies and TV guest shots, not enough star vehicles.

Michael Jai White’s better than this. He should be getting better offers, should be a household name. Hollywood let the man down.

MPAA Rating: TV-MA, graphic violence, gunplay, profanity

Cast: Michael Jai White, Luke Goss, Randy Couture, Madalina Anea, George Remes, Andreea Diac

Credits: Directed by Keoni Waxman, script by Thomas J. Churchill, Keoni Waxman. A Hollywood Media Bridge/Netflix release.

Running time: 1:34