In 1979, hundreds of student activists stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran, due to outrage over the fact that the United States was coddling their deposed, murderous dictator. They took hostage the embassy's staff, save for a handful of staff who managed, in the chaos, to sneak out the back door and take refuge at the Canadian Ambassador's house. Director Ben Affleck's Argo is the dramatization of the remarkable true story behind the effort to rescue these individuals from what was, at the time, the most hostile territory on earth, for American citizens.
Having found out about the six escapees from the embassy, the U.S. government works overtime trying to figure out how to get them out of Iran, with their schemes ranging from having the six pose as teachers to the harebrained idea of having them ride bicycles out of the country. When the government brings aboard Tony Mendez (Affleck, in a wonderfully understated performance) an exfiltration expert from the Central Intelligence Agency, on board, he is initially as stumped as everyone else in the room, but when a phone conversation with his ten-year-old son later that night prompts Mendez to switch onto a science fiction movie Mendez seizes upon a scheme which, as the cliche goes, is so crazy it might actually work: Mendez would go to Iran and have the six Americans pose as a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a science fiction film in the vein of Star Wars in Iran.
The ruse requires that an actual production be staged, and for this purpose Mendez recruits Oscar-winning makeup artist John Chambers (John Goodman) who has used his skill with prosthetics many times in the past to help Mendez in his operations, who in turn recruits over-the-hill Hollywood producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin), and together, the three of them acquire a forgotten script titled "Argo" and then create a great deal of hype for a production that doesn't actually exist. Mendez's scheme, described as "the best bad idea" among all of the stinkers concocted by the government to rescue the embassy staffers, gets the green light from the C.I.A. and he travels to Iran with six fake passports in the hope of making it work. In the meantime, the revolutionary government is closing in on the six escapees, with sweatshop kids piecing together shredded documents, determining the identities of who actually worked in the embassy.
Mendez meets up with the six refugees at the Canadian ambassador's house, and apart from the chaos just outside the walls of the house he must also grapple with their collective fear at what could happen to them if the escape plan goes south. The clock is ticking.
Atmosphere and period authenticity are everything in this handsomely-crafted thriller, and Affleck and crew crank both of them up to 11 as early as the opening billboard, which features the Warner Brothers logo used in the 1970s as opposed to the current one. It's not the first time such a technique has been used in a period film but it is extremely effective here, especially when followed with a judiciously-edited and narrated sequence of historical events that led to that fateful day in 1979 and an extremely grainy texture that strongly contrasts with the slick digital imagery of most contemporary films.
I purposely avoided reading any historical accounts on what has been dubbed as "the Canadian Caper" before watching the movie because, quite simply, I didn't want to know if all the embassy workers made it out all right, and to my mind it was a good call as it allowed me to live very much in the moment that Affleck, his cast and crew captured. What followed was some genuine, nail-biting tension.
For all of his skill in weaving dramatic tension, though, Affleck's real narrative coup in this film, was juxtaposing the tension in Iran with the glitz of tinseltown; as reel and real Hollywood veterans, Goodman and Arkin clearly enjoy sniping at the hypocrisy of the entertainment world and its hype machine, and they are an absolute delight to watch, particularly Arkin as his Lester Siegel outfoxes a representative of the Writers' Guild of America trying to hustle him for a better offer for the previously ignored "Argo" script. Siegel also has the distinction of coining what is likely to be the film's most quoted phrase: "Argo f**k yourself." The surprisingly rich streak of humor that permeates the film sets this film apart from standard, dead-serious spy fare.
Much as I'd love to hail this film as perfect, though, there are a couple of somewhat "Hollywood" touches (ironically enough) throughout and towards the climax of the movie which felt a little bit jarring. The climactic parts I will not discuss so as not to spoil anything, but throughout the film I couldn't help but notice the shifty-eyed Iranian sitting behind desks skimming through reassembled photographs of the embassy staff, and I was particularly struck by the wild-eyed revolutionary army soldier constantly yelling at the characters during a pivotal scene. These weren't exactly mustache-twirling villains but something about their depiction kind of yelled Hollywood cliche, in contrast to the portrayal of the militants at other points in the film which did a far better job of conveying the Iranian's palpable and arguably justifiable rage against the U.S. In a movie which, for the most part, quite effectively captured the real-life plight of a handful of scared Americans, these caricatures, who feature prominently throughout the film, seemed a tad out of place and do not do its overall credibility too many favors.
All told, though, I think Affleck and crew can definitely hold their heads up high, having woven an utterly compelling if sometimes flawed storytelling tapestry. This is flaws notwithstanding, easily one of the best spy-thrillers I've seen in a while.
4.5/5
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Not so Taken: A Review of Taken 2
In 2009, the film Taken proved to be a surprise hit at the box-office, drawing in audiences with its simple premise of a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative Bryan Mills, played by Liam Neeson, ripping up Paris in search of his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace), who has been kidnapped by a human trafficking ring run by a bunch of Albanians.
Using Hollywood logic, therefore, this was a film that was ripe for a sequel, no matter how thin the plot of the first film was.
The sequel, simply titled Taken 2, picks up where its predecessor left off. At the very beginning of the film, Murad Krasniqi (Rade Serbedzija) the father of the deceased head of the trafficking operation, vows at the very graves of his son and his dead cohorts to exact revenge on Mills and his loved ones.
Mills invites his daughter Kim and his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) to spend some time with him in Istanbul, where he has a brief job providing security for a Sheik, after he learns that Lenore's somewhat rocky marriage to her new husband has taken a turn for the worse, with him having cancelled a planned trip to China.
The Albanians track the Mills family down to Instanbul while they are on their holiday, and pretty much all hell breaks loose as they seek to exact their revenge.
The first film was a reasonably entertaining experience, but not something I thought would support a sequel. Truth be told the only reason I caught the second was that I'm a sucker for films with exotic locations, and in that aspect this film does not disappoint with its sweeping, panoramic shots of what is arguably one of Eastern Europe's most famous cities. Particularly striking for me were the shots of the world-renowned Hagia Sophia.
In almost every other respect, however, the film, for me, was utterly forgettable. The action choreography, from the fist fights to rooftop chases to car chases, all felt like poor copies of action sequences in other, far superior films. I did enjoy the bits of the film showing Mills' craftiness, letting audiences know he's got as much brains as he does brawn. These are the scenes in which he basically talks Kim through the process of locating him and Lenore, though the fact that this involves throwing live grenades around a populated city just so Mills can hear the explosions is more than a little off-putting. Apart from that, there really wasn't anything about this film that made it look like anything other than the cash grab that it is. As an action film, this has been done, and done much, much better.
Some people have talked about how the first film established Neeson as a "thinking man's action hero." Well, all I see in this film is a poor man's Jason Bourne, and that's even AFTER the Bourne franchise itself has been somewhat impoverished by a lackluster spinoff.
1.5/5
Using Hollywood logic, therefore, this was a film that was ripe for a sequel, no matter how thin the plot of the first film was.
The sequel, simply titled Taken 2, picks up where its predecessor left off. At the very beginning of the film, Murad Krasniqi (Rade Serbedzija) the father of the deceased head of the trafficking operation, vows at the very graves of his son and his dead cohorts to exact revenge on Mills and his loved ones.
Mills invites his daughter Kim and his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) to spend some time with him in Istanbul, where he has a brief job providing security for a Sheik, after he learns that Lenore's somewhat rocky marriage to her new husband has taken a turn for the worse, with him having cancelled a planned trip to China.
The Albanians track the Mills family down to Instanbul while they are on their holiday, and pretty much all hell breaks loose as they seek to exact their revenge.
The first film was a reasonably entertaining experience, but not something I thought would support a sequel. Truth be told the only reason I caught the second was that I'm a sucker for films with exotic locations, and in that aspect this film does not disappoint with its sweeping, panoramic shots of what is arguably one of Eastern Europe's most famous cities. Particularly striking for me were the shots of the world-renowned Hagia Sophia.
In almost every other respect, however, the film, for me, was utterly forgettable. The action choreography, from the fist fights to rooftop chases to car chases, all felt like poor copies of action sequences in other, far superior films. I did enjoy the bits of the film showing Mills' craftiness, letting audiences know he's got as much brains as he does brawn. These are the scenes in which he basically talks Kim through the process of locating him and Lenore, though the fact that this involves throwing live grenades around a populated city just so Mills can hear the explosions is more than a little off-putting. Apart from that, there really wasn't anything about this film that made it look like anything other than the cash grab that it is. As an action film, this has been done, and done much, much better.
Some people have talked about how the first film established Neeson as a "thinking man's action hero." Well, all I see in this film is a poor man's Jason Bourne, and that's even AFTER the Bourne franchise itself has been somewhat impoverished by a lackluster spinoff.
1.5/5
Hotel Transylvania
The idea of monsters being more afraid of people than people are of monsters has already been done in Pixar's 2001 Monsters, Inc., but Sony Pictures Animation revisits the concept with Hotel Transylvania, and the results, while a little mixed, are still reasonably pleasant. This is the studio's first fully-animated film since 2009's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and like that film, it is a pretty rich visual experience.
The titular hotel was created by Count Dracula (Adam Sandler) as a refuge for himself and his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) as well as all other monsters, from the evils of humankind. Dracula is protective of Mavis because her mother, his wife, died when an angry mob of humans torched his castle when she was still a baby. Things go well, with the hotel regularly being visited by guests like Frankenstein (Kevin James), Wayne the Werewolf (Steve Buscemi), their spouses (Fran Drescher and Molly Shannon, respectively), the Mummy (CeeLo Green), and the Invisible Man (David Spade) among many others. Staffed by zombies, witches, and haunted suits of armor, it's a veritable monster paradise. For years, therefore, Dracula is able to keep his friends, and his daughter, close, and therefore shielded from the outside world.
Things go awry for Dracula, however, when Mavis, around the time of her 118th birthday (which makes her a teenager in vampire years) expresses her desire to see the world. Dracula has anticipated this period in her life and has prepared for it; he has an elaborate ruse set up designed to scare Mavis out of her desire to see the outside world. His ruse, involving zombies dressing up as humans and erecting a fake village, works in scaring Mavis back home, but as an unintended consequence, a most unwanted visitor follows the unwitting zombies, several of whom have caught fire, back to the hotel: a human named Jonathan (Andy Samberg).
Dracula, the first to discover Jonathan, is quick to conceal him by disguising him. He is unable to get him out of the hotel for one reason or another, but his real problem begins when Mavis meets the human and is almost instantly attracted to him.
This movie, saddled with narrative cliches and crude humor, is certainly not among the finest animated films I've ever seen, but it had enough going for it, like the interesting visual touch of Genndy Tartakovsky (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory) and some pretty funny visual jokes and one-liners, to keep me and my kids entertained for an hour and a half.
The crew's wonderfully stylized ode to Hollywood's classic monsters is certainly worth looking at, and to their credit Sandler and his "bros," James, Buscemi and Spade, are pretty good at transposing their live-action chemistry to their animated film. It's almost a shame they couldn't find a role for Sandler mainstay Rob Schneider.
The Sandler humor, however, is all too evident in some scenes, and often feels out of place in what is basically a family movie. Not only that, but the movie ends as most of Sandler's live-action films do, with realizations about growing up and an overly maudlin resolution.
The difference between a movie like this and a masterpiece like, say, Finding Nemo is all too evident when Dracula gives a long, schmaltzy speech at the end of the movie about children growing up and his having to accept that, which contrasts quite sharply with with minimalist, but infinitely more effective bit of dialogue from Ellen deGeneres' Dory: "You can't never let anything happen to him. Then nothing would ever happen to him."
Not only that, but there's a pretty fair-sized hole in the film's internal logic, but one which I suspect won't matter much to younger viewers. In any case, I won't spoil it here.
Still, the film definitely has a wonderful sense of whimsy and some truly laugh-out-loud moments, such as the "human attack" on Mavis at the beginning of the film. It's a rather flawed film, but an enjoyable one nonetheless, though I can say that there is nothing about this film that I feel is compelling enough to merit the 3-D premiums, so my advice to the parents taking their kids to see this is to skip the 3-D format altogether.
3/5
The titular hotel was created by Count Dracula (Adam Sandler) as a refuge for himself and his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) as well as all other monsters, from the evils of humankind. Dracula is protective of Mavis because her mother, his wife, died when an angry mob of humans torched his castle when she was still a baby. Things go well, with the hotel regularly being visited by guests like Frankenstein (Kevin James), Wayne the Werewolf (Steve Buscemi), their spouses (Fran Drescher and Molly Shannon, respectively), the Mummy (CeeLo Green), and the Invisible Man (David Spade) among many others. Staffed by zombies, witches, and haunted suits of armor, it's a veritable monster paradise. For years, therefore, Dracula is able to keep his friends, and his daughter, close, and therefore shielded from the outside world.
Things go awry for Dracula, however, when Mavis, around the time of her 118th birthday (which makes her a teenager in vampire years) expresses her desire to see the world. Dracula has anticipated this period in her life and has prepared for it; he has an elaborate ruse set up designed to scare Mavis out of her desire to see the outside world. His ruse, involving zombies dressing up as humans and erecting a fake village, works in scaring Mavis back home, but as an unintended consequence, a most unwanted visitor follows the unwitting zombies, several of whom have caught fire, back to the hotel: a human named Jonathan (Andy Samberg).
Dracula, the first to discover Jonathan, is quick to conceal him by disguising him. He is unable to get him out of the hotel for one reason or another, but his real problem begins when Mavis meets the human and is almost instantly attracted to him.
This movie, saddled with narrative cliches and crude humor, is certainly not among the finest animated films I've ever seen, but it had enough going for it, like the interesting visual touch of Genndy Tartakovsky (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory) and some pretty funny visual jokes and one-liners, to keep me and my kids entertained for an hour and a half.
The crew's wonderfully stylized ode to Hollywood's classic monsters is certainly worth looking at, and to their credit Sandler and his "bros," James, Buscemi and Spade, are pretty good at transposing their live-action chemistry to their animated film. It's almost a shame they couldn't find a role for Sandler mainstay Rob Schneider.
The Sandler humor, however, is all too evident in some scenes, and often feels out of place in what is basically a family movie. Not only that, but the movie ends as most of Sandler's live-action films do, with realizations about growing up and an overly maudlin resolution.
The difference between a movie like this and a masterpiece like, say, Finding Nemo is all too evident when Dracula gives a long, schmaltzy speech at the end of the movie about children growing up and his having to accept that, which contrasts quite sharply with with minimalist, but infinitely more effective bit of dialogue from Ellen deGeneres' Dory: "You can't never let anything happen to him. Then nothing would ever happen to him."
Not only that, but there's a pretty fair-sized hole in the film's internal logic, but one which I suspect won't matter much to younger viewers. In any case, I won't spoil it here.
Still, the film definitely has a wonderful sense of whimsy and some truly laugh-out-loud moments, such as the "human attack" on Mavis at the beginning of the film. It's a rather flawed film, but an enjoyable one nonetheless, though I can say that there is nothing about this film that I feel is compelling enough to merit the 3-D premiums, so my advice to the parents taking their kids to see this is to skip the 3-D format altogether.
3/5
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